Ship’s Log: Beaufort to Port Canaveral

May 21, 2019

Today was the day that we were finally going to go offshore. With the wind prediction in the right direction, but not as strong as we would have hoped, we decided we would skirt the coast down to Florida and then cross over the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. Not ideal, but this plan kept us moving. We left Beaufort around 8:30am and motored out as we ate breakfast. On our way out, we saw dolphins and heard a wind harp on a buoy. Good omens were welcoming us to the sea. What wasn’t welcoming was the feeling of being tossed around after eating honey nut cheerios and milk for breakfast. This turned out to set a “not feeling so great” tone for the rest of the day. Since then we have banned dairy from provisioning list. Trying to calm his stomach, Josh nibbled on some club crackers (which also ended up being a bad idea). Being more buttery than salty, the club crackers enhanced the stomach issues and Josh was the first and only one to get sick overboard. To his credit, he was the only one who had not taken any seasickness medication. With a rough start to the morning, no one was very hungry and snackage continued for the rest of the day and night.

May 22, 2019

Day two turned out to leave a better impression on our souls. Although the waters were pretty choppy, everyone started to feel better throughout the day. We saw some more dolphins and got into the routine of shifts. The routine became eat, sleep, check the charts, repeat.

May 23, 2019

Unfortunately, our wind died on day three. We made the decision to turn on the motor for part of the morning and afternoon to try to gain some ground and prayed that the wind would come back. With some patience, it finally did and we sailed upwind the rest of the day and night. Spirits were looking up and everyone was feeling better. Jack brought out the handline and Josh played around with his sheet to tiller system. Josh’s project was successful, but Jack’s was not. We had set up the reel on the rear pulpit in hopes of catching some fish. Instead, we caught a lot of seaweed. In the middle of the night, we thought we had actually caught something, but as we were reeling it in the line snapped and we lost it in the abyss.

Highlights:

• Space X Launch
  • While Josh and I were on watch, I saw something bright ahead of us. It was too bright and too orange to be a boat. I woke Josh up to get a second opinion. As we both stared, the light started to move upwards and all of a sudden shot across the sky in a blaze of orange light. We jokingly said that it was a UFO sighting and let it rest. Turns out it was the Space X Launch! We would then share this story to the envious sailors we met on the rest of our journey. Who knew there were so many Elon Musk fans?

May 24, 2019

After the excitement of the night before, we woke up to no wind and ended up motoring all day. Our progress was slower than initially anticipated (of course) which changed our plans for the millionth time (are we surprised?). Due to the timing of when we would cross the Gulf Stream and enter the Bahamas, Jack and Marianna decided that it would make more sense for them to hop off sooner in order to make it home. We agreed to drop them off at Port Canaveral where we could also fill up on fuel and water. Although their last night with us wasn’t filled with wind, it was filled with serene waters and a cotton candy sunset.

Highlights:

• Peggy peed! Before leaving Baltimore, we installed pet turf in the cockpit in hopes of training Peggy to pee while underway. Underneath the turf there are two scupper ports that we could use to drain the bucket of water we used to rinse it off. Although Peggy is pretty easy to train, she is getting old and hence, stubborn. There were questionable times of if she had actually done anything. This time we were sure. She took a stance and finally let lose. Only issue was she had not pooped. Poor pups…