The Highs and Lows

For the past few days, we've said good bye to our friends in Fort Lauderdale.  We’ve had a great time with Kev and Judith, now considered among our close friends, who we met on the 2^nd day of this adventure.  We made our final trip to West Marine and bid farewell to our favorite associate, Leslie.  And finally, the night before our departure, Moonshadow had a full deck with “the gang” from the anchorage enjoying a pot luck BBQ. 

Terri on Nighthawk has been battling a back injury complicated with her rheumatoid arthritis and we were excited when she and her husband, Kim, could make it aboard again along with Shalamar, Alex Marie, Lime’N and us.  Sailors have this way of being great cooks and we ate well and drank moderately with everyone planning to begin making passages within the next 24 hours.

 

We were up with the sun and passed with Lime’N under 17^th St. Causeway Bridge and headed out to sea.  We had been waiting for almost a week for decent enough weather to begin our journey back home and we saw a window.  Lime’N headed south toward the Bahamas as we made our turn to the north.

The winds were easterly and blowing 15 knots or so, the seas followed suit and were still complaining about the bad weather just past and gave us some hefty rocking from the east causing us to kick considerably from side to side.  Okay, that’s sailing . . . and, as you would imagine, seasickness is a common conversation over a sunset drink (as well as other favorite topics like marine toilets and full holding tanks . . .

Unfortunately, my choice of remedy (Bonine has been a lifesaver) did not want to do the trick yesterday and I spent most of the day nauseous and otherwise lethargic.   Add to that a fuel leak half way through the morning (Rob can fix anything, and DID) and a water leak (where did THAT hose come from?!) and then the stitches tearing out of our sail bag causing our sail retention system to fall from the mast (you’ve got to be kidding!!!) – and you have what can be a typical sailing experience. 

Enter the afternoon and shifting winds.  The winds could not decide what they were doing and we couldn’t set the sails without them slapping uncontrollably so we had to drop them (now without our retention system in place) with waves now coming from the back quarter of the boat and throwing us from hell to breakfast with every one.  The inlet we wanted to enter had shoaled dangerously and was not safe to pass.  We had to continue another 20 miles and 3 hours until after dark when we finally made our way into Ft. Pierce Inlet with a fierce current throwing us through the cut at 10kts (that’s a LOT for a sailboat, folks!) with a storm approaching.  Good heavens . . . and I’m doing this WHY?!

 

But . . . after navigating the inlet, finding the anchorage and setting the anchor, I fell into a sleep unlike I’ve had for quite some time.   Waking refreshed with the sun and a light sprinkle, a rainbow stretched across the sky to welcome the day.  Another minute later, I got my first decent viewing of a manatee and life was good again. 

Another day begins . . .

 Being that we pulled in to avoid a Nor-easter approaching today, we headed up the ICW (intracoastal waterway) toward our present destination of St. Augustine and rendezvous with Rob’s mom on Tuesday.  Today is calm, peaceful, beautiful and relaxing.  The engine is purring, we’re slowly but surely watching the mile markers pass on the charts and I can even think straight enough to pull out the computer. 

And tomorrow will bring . . . . ?