Kyle’s dad and step-mom finally got rid of us at the marina where we were essentially living as very close neighbors, so I was surprised that Kyle was able to convince his dad to spend even more quality time with us as crew for our latest offshore adventure!

12.2 – Monday

The last post left off when we were in Fernandina Beach, hoping to fill up with fuel. Unfortunately everything is the area was closed, so we had to head four hours south on the ICW to fill up. We found a free dock, which would have been a great place to meet up with Ken, and then a fuel dock in the St. Johns inlet (Jacksonville, FL) where we could fill our diesel tanks on our way out to sea. The free docks ended up being totally full, which is no surprise since we had some pretty strong winds while at anchor.

In lieu of that, we decided to continue on to the fuel dock and stay at that marina, which would stage us right at the inlet for a convenient start to our next trip. We had a bit of a docking fiasco with strong opposing wind and current, we ended up at their gas dock and stayed there overnight, which meant we had to fill up the diesel tanks jerry can by jerry can. Again. Right before we started that project, Ken arrived. The first thing he brought out to the boat was two cases of Mountain Dew, so I had to ask “Uh, exactly how long are you planning on staying with us?!”

While he and Kyle were ferrying diesel, we were swarmed by a group of cast-net boats – I could smell them before I saw them, they smelled like dead fish! Suddenly these little boats were everywhere, almost right on top of each other, occasionally throwing a net in the water and bringing up a pile of fish. I didn’t get a picture until they’d moved beyond our boat, but they were as close to us as they are to the dock in the photo.

It had already been a long day, but it’s a rare occasion that we’re at a dock and have a vehicle available, so we ran errands – this will probably be our last big stock up before the Bahamas! Back at the boat we unloaded, put things away, made dinner, and checked the weather one last time. Our trip should be about 48 hours, maybe a little faster, so there’s no rush to leave at first light because we don’t want to arrive at our destination in the dark. We need to stay close to shore so we don’t get caught in the Gulf Stream. It will probably be a little chilly, and we’ll have some steep waves the first night, but I’m hoping it’s still a fun trip!

12.3 – Tuesday

We slept in somewhat, and left the dock at 8am in 39°F weather. I thought Florida was supposed to be warm? We motored out the inlet, dodging a couple small cargo ships, then raised the main. It flopped around obnoxiously so we took it down. It was a little after noon when the winds filled in enough to shut down one engine, and then later the second engine, and for the first time since June we were actually sailing!

Temperatures warmed to around 55-60°F, but we were in the wind so it was still chilly. I had all my layers on, and I had to choose between wearing gloves or reading my book. It was a good book, so I put up with cold hands. Sitting in the sun was nice and comfortable though!

The wind was supposed to grow overnight, so we opted to double-reef the main (use only small portion of the mainsail) and roll in half the genoa just before sunset.

Instead of beam winds, we had winds just forward of the beam. The side effect of this deviation in the forecast was that instead of seas just aft of the beam, the waves were right on the beam (coming at us directly from the side). As the waves grew, we ended up with some violent side-to-side motion around 9pm. This had me pretty stressed out, and the waves were supposed to continue to grow until around 5am. The beam seas meant we were taking waves over the side regularly too, and one of the biggest factors to staying warm is staying dry. Ken had brought some waterproof overalls along, and we ended up trading those off to whomever had the helm next.

Despite my stress levels, when I came on shift on midnight, the waves had shifted to slightly behind us and it was a very comfortable ride. The waves did still grow, so it was not a good night for sleeping, but the worst of it was definitely around 9pm.

12.4 – Wednesday

The waves lengthened out and gradually grew smaller all day so we ended up with a fantastic day of sailing, with very consistent beam winds (our best point of sail). I was on shift this morning and saw two dolphins arrive and play around near us. Kyle was inside and Ken was sleeping, so I kept it to myself, but then in the distance I saw a bunch of dark shapes in the water and suddenly we had a large pod of spotted dolphins swimming and surfacing around us! This was worth waking up for, so Kyle and Ken came out to enjoy the show!

I got a wonderful nap in, after no sleep the night before I needed to catch up for another night at sea. When I woke up I asked the guys if anything was going on, and if they caught any fish. I asked mostly as a joke, but Ken had reeled in a Spanish mackerel! They hadn’t been able to identify it because the fish books are on my tablet, and since it seemed to be mostly teeth and bones they tossed it back.

As we neared sunset, we had some beautiful smooth sailing, and we’ve been making really good time. The nav tablet showed us arriving at our anchorage around 4-5am, which was much too early. We reefed the main again just before sunset to slow ourselves down to 3-4 kts, and eventually rolled up the genoa as well.

I was on shift that evening when I saw an AIS signal behind us aimed straight at our boat. Nothing on a boat happens fast, so I gave them some time to alter course, but after 20 minutes we were still in their crosshairs. I started to question whether anyone was even at the helm, and if there was no one at the helm, how long would I need to alter our course at our current snail’s pace? I hailed them on the VHF, the captain that answered said he had seen us and would make sure to pass by a mile to our starboard. Okay, but if you saw us, why are you still aimed right at us? They ended up passing us about half a mile to our port side. Eyeroll.

12.5 – Thursday

When I came on shift at 3am, we were traveling parallel to the coast, about 2 miles out, at 3 kt. This is pretty much the same as not moving, I was watching the same buildings on shore for hours. I watched the clock tick off minute by minute, we were standing still, time was standing still. This was definitely the longest shift of the trip. In the dim light of the instruments I saw a spider at the top of the windshield. Finally, some excitement.

This spider was just big enough that I was not willing to leave him be – he had to go. Dressed in about seven layers of clothing, I was basically wearing armor, so I swatted him with my gloved hand and he fell a couple feet before catching himself with his web. I tried to swat again and lost him. I searched everywhere.

So I sat back at the helm, where time was standing still, with nothing to do but think about where this giant spider could have gone. Was he in my boots? How could he have possibly fallen into my boots? WAIT DID SOMETHING JUST WIGGLE IN MY BOOT?! Now I’m sitting at the helm with wet socks and nothing to do but think about where this giant spider could have gone. I never saw him again, but he’s out there somewhere.

Finally, finally, 6am rolled around and Kyle took over. We were about a mile from the inlet and an hour from sunrise. I fell into a deep sleep and was startled awake when Kyle fired up the engines. Ken zombie-walked out of his berth as well, and we took down the main. Kyle entered the inlet with a cruise ship bearing down on us.

They eventually hailed us on the VHF and advised us to move out of their way. I told them we’d hug the left side of the channel as we were about to make a left turn and get out of their path, and they responded that we’d better hurry! Kyle said I should have reminded them that we had the right of way, I’m sure that would have gone over well!

Our anchorage was right inside the inlet so we quickly dropped anchor and collectively passed out. It was awesome having a third person along, especially to space out those night watches, but I still had to get up every three hours and by the end of the second night I was crazy tired.

That afternoon Kyle and Ken jumped in the water for a quick rinse, the water temp was in the mid-80s but that is still too chilly for me.

After we all cleaned up, we hopped in the dinghy to go find a happy hour and food. We’re in West Palm Beach! On shore, preparations were underway for the Christmas tree lighting event, and a concert stage was being set up. Being Florida, the Christmas tree is, of course, made of sand!

We sat down on Clematis St in beautiful weather and enjoyed some drinks and burgers. It was truly gorgeous, I had bare toes and the fresh air was a perfect welcome to southern Florida. Don’t we look warm!?

We would have liked to stay for the festivities, but it’s a two mile dinghy ride through a busy channel full of megayachts, and we aren’t too keen on doing that after dark.

12.6 – Friday

Ken spent one more night aboard, then Kyle dropped him off at the dinghy dock Friday morning. It was awesome having him aboard, we get along really well and he’s very competent and capable! Of course, the only way we could convince him to come is if we promised we wouldn’t tell anyone that he had sailed a boat, so if you read this – shhhhh, it’s just between us!

You may remember from last spring, West Palm Beach (Lake Worth) was our jump-off point for the Bahamas! We may go further south and jump across to the Bimini islands, or we may go from here to West End like we did last April. Either way, we’re going to take a few days off, rest up, catch up on chores, and enjoy some Florida sun! We’ve had a crazy fast trip down the coast, and now that we’ve found the nice weather, we need to take a break.