Grab Bag – Fort Pierce, Florida, 3-29-22

When was the last time you had to get everything together you wanted to own and put it in a backpack so in a moment’s notice, you can save that, and only that?  At some point we must slow down.  We said this back in October, remember?  It is now March and we have yet to do it.  The most incredible part is we made the crossing from the Bahamas to the US…without sinking, which I would not have guessed.   Should unpack my grab bag?  I have faith beyond words in my captain, however a sail drive issue is nothing to mess with. 

The crossing didn’t go like we planned in any other way other than…we made it with the boat above water.  That alone is an accomplishment.  We had listened to the forecast, watched WINDY, analyzed, and even purchased a special forecast based on our special need for this crossing.  We needed an extremely calm forecast to attempt not to unseat the rest of the sail drive and fill that portion of the boat with water.  If we don’t get it, we need to reroute to have an emergency haul out at West End.  The hope is if we cannot cross, we could haul out before we kill the engine or cause real damage like…sink.

Ron was diligently watching the forecast and wasn’t seeing the perfect time that our weather service had told us was coming.  This was on Sunday.  We had expected an email with specific waypoints telling us where to be when to get the best weather possible and when to hit the gulfstream.  Disappointingly, we didn’t get it til midnight on Sunday.  Midnight?  You want sailors to plan at midnight when they expect to leave Monday at dawn?    We already did planning with two other experienced buddy boats by then and based on the timely issues/ we had, decided to go.  The weather service and their expertise played in at the last minute.

At dawn, it was anchors up and we led the way out of the anchorage channel.  Since we were the only cat on our team, we were reporting the depths back to the group.  We knew we would make it regardless of the tides, but our buddy boats had to be more cautious. We were not at high tide and still needed to get going to get to the Fort Pierce inlet at the correct current change (slack tide).  It isn’t all tiki bars and bikinis.  There’s also math involved!  No one said anything about math when we started!  Fun fact…majority of sailors are engineers and pilots.  I now understand this fact completely.  Our captains calculated when the current was changing in Fort Pierce inlet and worked their way back from there to determine when we would leave.  We had a few extra hours and stopped at Sail Cay to nap before continuing.

It was calm on the first portion and getting out on the channel went fine.  I had taken seasick medication, and all was well in the beginning.  I always take meds since the only time I have issues is on passage days.  It was rougher than expected on the way to Sail Cay but we got there at 7:00pm.  We were glad to not only get a few hours sleep but a break from the waves as well.   

Anchors were up again at 10:00pm and at that point we picked up a 4^th buddy boat.  Their buddy boat had turned back and decided, based on the conditions, not to continue.  We started off again and sadly, the weather had not improved, it had only gotten worse.  Neither Ron nor I could sleep it was SO choppy and the waves were hitting so heard on the bridge deck, it had pushed open the cupboards in the lower cabins, his bolt cutters had fallen out of the cabinet, and I swear damaged the floor.  We were beating the heck out of the boat and knew we wouldn’t make it all the way if the weather continued as bad as it was.  We needed a new plan.

We were not that far from West End at this point, only about 5 hours.  If it didn’t get better, we had decided we could not continue.  Our buddy boat discussed waiting until the updated weather forecast before deciding to stop and we agreed.  Once the weather came through it was supposed to significantly improve once we hit the gulfstream, so we pushed on. 

The swell was 6-8 feet and by this time there was a small craft advisory as well.  With our handicap, we could only go around 3 knots.  To hit the Fort Pierce Inlet in time, we needed to be doing a minimum of 5 knots.  Here is where I give a HUGE credit to our buddy boats.  All of them slowed down with us and were also willing to bail with us at the West End if we needed to.  I can’t say enough how rare this is and how grateful we both were to call them our friends.

Our situation improved as we hit the gulfstream and we were able to pick up speed with improved conditions.  We even put out a sail.  This helped our morale, we were able to  do nearly 6-7 knots, and could now make up some time!   The joke with sailors is, “How many times did you sell the boat on the crossing?”  Let’s just say our weather service is to be longer to mentioned in my presence and they could not have gotten the forecast any farther off.  Being a weatherman is the only job where you can be wrong 100% of the time and still have a job.  Huh?

We got to Florida after the horrific crossing, through inlet around 6:30pm Tuesday evening, and dropped anchor.  While I was trying to pick up everything that had fallen and broken during the rough voyage, Ron was checking us back in the country.  It included a short conference call and was remarkably easy.  At least that worked out.   Ron was beyond exhausted, and we quickly crashed and burned!  

It started off pretty.