Oh my…where do I begin. I guess I’ll begin where I left off! I have to first admit that the last couple of months seem a blur and a lot of happenings all mashed in together. So lets begin.In case you haven’t realised, we are back in the land of; loud traffic, your every convenience at your finger tips, way too much indulgence and materialistic everything that we don’t necessarily need! Yes, we are in North America and have finally begun to overcome our shock. My first outing in the grocery store in Marathon, Florida was just a bit overwhelming. I didn’t know what to buy! I wandered the isles in awe of all the “things” I could buy, but did we really need Tostitos Spinach dip in a jar for our chips??? And what kind of chips???…there was only about 100 kinds to choose from, and what? No plantain chips? We bought a quart of cold real milk and chugged it as we left the supermarket, and finally found good cookies. One thing I did noticed was the produce. I said to the Publix man stocking the shelves “what on earth do they do to the green peppers around here?” They were the size of my head, and looked beautiful but once I got them home they were practically tasteless. I’m used to buying green peppers so green that are the size of a small fist from the local farmers that are so jam packed full of flavour you can’t believe it. Don’t even get me started on the pink tomatoes and oh….the colorless yolks in eggs. Organic, here I come.
I must admit that some conveniences are nice. Wings and cheap beer, English speaking everywhere I go (although I do miss my Spanish with strangers), and people everywhere we go are so considerate and accommodating to boaters. We don’t remember much “good” things about Florida, but this time ‘round people have been fantastic, and not just in Florida, but everywhere.
Anyway, enough about that. I believe I left off with quick visits from our families in Mexico. Oh Mexico, how I miss thee. Anyway…after the families left, Mike and I chilled out and continued to enjoy the lovely island of Isla Mujeres with many new friends, many meals at our favourite “ma and pa” restaurant “La Negrita”, and nice warm sunny temperatures, but eventually it was time to get a move on. We monitored the weather and with the “go ahead” from the weather guru we rushed around like mad people to clear customs, get fuel and last minute items before sailing out of the harbour and the Caribbean for our last time. We had a weather window of 15 knots from the SSE (south, southeast) for most of the 300 miles to Dry Tortugas moderating the last 16 hours or so. So, off we went and our first 3 hours were great, then we entered the gulf stream. There was a north opposing swell to the north setting current (of 3 knots) and we had wind from the SE with a pretty good wind chop, so the seas were “confused” as we made our way east. We pushed east so we wouldn’t get pushed too far north by the current, and as the sun set the wind increased to 20-22 knots making the wind chop bigger, but by evening the north swell had diminished a bit making things a little more comfortable. I wasn’t feeling great due to the wishy washyness from the motion of the boat in the confused seas, but Meggie was a freight train averaging 8.5 knots for quite a few hours.
Mike had to do a sail change at 2:00 in the morning as we were overpowered due to a squall that hovered overhead, once that was done, it was smooth sailing all the way to the Dry Tortugas. We actually set our fastest 24 hour run…180 nm. By the time we got into the lee of Cuba, the seas had moderated to a smooth swell and light chop and by morning the wind was light, and by the next evening there wasn’t a breath. By the 3rd morning we had a steady 13 knots on our beam and we had picture perfect sailing all the way to the anchorage at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.
We were in Florida. Yet, it didn’t quite feel like it yet. We lingered in the turquoise waters of the Dry Tortugas for a couple of days and meandered through Fort Jefferson and had a good look at the Cuban refugee rafts that had landed in the Dry Tortugas while we were there, but ignorantly…we didn’t even know until afterwards.
Amazing, if a Cuban raft touches the sand of the U.S. of A. they are welcomed into the country with open arms, but if found on the water….well, it’s a different story. Strange.So from the isolated Dry Tortugas, we had a beautiful sail to the Marquesas Cays where we anchored the night…one more night in isolation before we reached the civilization of Key West, and enjoyed our fresh catch of the day, a nice sized mackerel.
Next day it was Key West where we would wait out a cold front and upon arriving realized there really was no good anchorage for weathering such a thing, but we managed to wiggle Meggie into the protection of an island and waited out the front. We were reintroduced to strong currents and wakes from big power boats, making our stay in Key West anything but pleasant…however the town of Key West is a sweet little town, an old fishing village touched by tourism with beautiful homes and with busy shops and restaurants lining the main street. We were having a bit of a problem with an oil leak from the engine, so we really wanted to get the problem sorted as we knew we had the Erie barge laying ahead of us, and lots of motoring. So as soon as we could, we left Key West and sailed to Marathon, Florida the hub for boaters in the Keys. Unbelievable! 200 sailboats on moorings!!! We took a mooring as we had to pull the engine to fix our problem. So, we got to work. Mike rigged a system to pull the motor off it’s mounts and let it hang until he could have a good look at the oil seals and fix the problem. This meant we had to take the 100lb flywheel of the engine, which along with the starter I sanded down and repainted. Mike found that the transmission bolts were loose about ¼” and obviously needed to be retightened as the oil was just falling out, but he couldn‘t have found the problem unless the engine was lifter. So thankfully that problem was solved. Anyway he tightened the bolts in 2 different spots and we got the engine back together and put in place looking better than it had in months. However, as soon as we pull into the Thornbury harbour, the first thing we want to do is to pull the engine right out of Meggie and do a complete rehaul of the engine and the engine compartment. Mike can’t wait! Seriously.
Ok, so that done we left the next day for Miami, a quick overnighter, well sort of. There was some serious squalls from a cold front forecasted for the next morning and we wanted to get in before that so we left early and arrived in Miami at 3 in the morning. We only agreed to arrive in the dark as we had been in the open wide cut before and somewhat knew it. Otherwise…big no no.
We had a uneventful sail, hooking up with the gulf stream to push us along. Mike managed to catch a small mahi mahi (perfect size for us), and after a bit of a nerve racking night entrance hrough the Government Cut, we dropped anchor at 3am and slept like babies, and we did get quite a few nasty squalls the next morning!
While we were in Marathon I booked a flight home. My first flight home in almost 3 years. One of my dearest friends was getting married and I had decided that if we made it to Florida before she was wed, I would fly home (if it was reasonable). I found a return flight from Miami for $220.00USD so booked it. I left the day after we arrived in Miami. My trip home was filled with kids, family, friends, laughter, alcohol, tiredness, hot baths, ice cream, fresh clothesline hung sheets courtesy of Mom, more laughter, lots of food, a wonderful beautiful wedding and lots of hugs.
It’s truly a blur, but a good one. I saw people at the wedding whom I haven’t seen in years, and I got to see all my closest girlfriends in one place at one time which was fantastic. I got to see my niece and nephew whom I’ve missed terribly, and of course my family.
So back on the plane and back to Meggie. We provisioned the boat and left the next day for anywhere north. We landed in Fernandina Beach, Florida just at the Georgia border where we waited out 25 knot winds and then jumped back out again up to Charleston, South Carolina. Our first 330 nm run was pretty uneventful, light to moderate winds with good sailing and then no wind, but we made good time and managed to time the tides right in St. Mary’s inlet where we cruised into the inlet doing 8 knots! I talked to the weather guru as we were heading out the St. Mary’s inlet again to head north and he warned us that we might encounter 30-40 knot squalls on our next run north (destination unknown at this point…hopefully Beaufort, NC). We listened to the WX weather on our VHF radio courtesy of NOAA weather and all day they had been sending weather watches for severe thunderstorms, and before we knew it they were sending out weather warnings for severe thunderstorms with high winds and 2 really severe cells that were parallel on land to where we were on the ocean. I tried to track the cells and figure out if they were going to get us or not or if we could avoid them by going slower. As I listened to the 6pm update they had included the coastal area out 20 nm miles of where we were in their warning, with warnings of tornados on land.
They warned of high winds in excess of 60 knots winds (64 is hurricane force) and all mariners should take cover, turn bilge pumps on, all passengers to get their life jackets on etc…I was freaking. Now the WX weather tends to be a little bit cautious, but as I came up from down below to tell Mike we might encounter some pretty nasty weather he just looked at me and said “yeah, I know” and pointed to the west of us. There was the cloud. Yes, the one in the previous blog picture. Mike took control as I tried to remain calm, which I realized I don’t do very well.
Anyway, he took the big jib down and set our storm sail, put 2 reefs in the main and 1 reef in the mizzen. He said “be ready and when I say turn up into it, do it”. So as the beast approached us and finally lay over top of us and Mike yelled turn. I did so, and he came back and got Meggie into the “hove to” position. Basically “hove-to” gets the boat into a position that she can’t get out of. You use the sails against each other so the boat is confused and sits still. Anyway…we lay hove-to for about 45 minutes as the squall blew 40 knots with gusts to 50 and Meggie did exactly what she was supposed to do…sit there. She healed to the gusts, but never wandered out of her hove-to position. We’ve hove-to before, but never in gusts of 50 knots. So…it was a learning experience and we both feel more comfortable knowing how Meggie reacts to this wind. I was freaked…but soon felt eased as Meggie was great. So after 45 minutes we set sail and continued on our way, but only to Charleston, South Carolina. We didn’t encounter another squall the rest of the trip, but that beast was enough for me to endure.
From Charleston we made our way up the ICW to Oriental, North Carolina where we love, and met with new and old friends as we took a short break from moving. From there we continued on sailing in the Arbemarle sound into the Dismal swamp (where the weather was truly dismal...another cold front, and it was freezing) to Norfolk, where we now sit. We will leave on Friday for the 160nm run to Cape May, NJ where we hope to acquire new crew (Mike’s brother, Martin) for our last ocean voyage of this adventure.
So…that was a bit of a novel eh? People say we don’t sound like Canadians because we don’t say “Eh”.
Ok, well that is the excitement of our lives at the moment. I’m desperately missing clear warm water, warm sand on my feet, wearing my bathing suit and speaking my horrible Spanish, but we’re excited also to return to Canada and get on with it!Pretty soon we’ll be in the Hudson, Erie barge, Lake Erie, Lake Huron and finally Georgian Bay. We still hope to be in Thornbury harbour by the beginning of July…so we will see. So far, so good.
So until next time (probably the last),
Hasta Luego, Eh.
Kylie and Mike
