Cruising

We're sailing to the Abacos.

It all started last fall when we attending a Punta Gorda Sailing Club meeting. The speaker showed drop-dead gorgeous pictures of the Abacos, Bahamas! Sitting next to us were our friends, Diana and Joe. We looked at each other and said, “Let's do it!” Sitting a few rows away were cruising buddies, Maureen and Tom. They also chimed in and before we knew it, we were all going!

Fast forward to Friday, March 14, the Day of Departure! Whew, as we pulled away from the dock, we rechecked our “lists” - did we remember our passports?, did we have all our meds?, what about enough food for Bleu Kitty, our 3-year old Persian sailing cat? As we locked the doors to the house, Joanne remembered that we still had cold food in the refrigerator to load on the boat!

 After strong North winds blowing the day before, the water was lower than normal by 6 inches but rising.  Tom and Maureen decided to head out slowly.  Whoops - first exciting moment! Tom and Maureen in s/v Can't Agree (they couldn't agree on the name of their boat!) ran aground in the Ponce Channel.  Ten minutes later, they were free. Coming along behind them, we bumped once before passing the Ponce Park dock.

Next, a boisterous sail down Charlotte Harbor with an East wind sometimes gusting to 20 knots approached the Channel Five Marker the died and the motor came on. We anchored off of Ding Darling under a beautiful moonlit sky. Our first night aboard we cooked up a wonderful spagetti dinner and collapsed into a sound sleep. 

Up at first light, we motored through the Miserable Mile out to San Carlos Bay before we hoisted the sails. Crab Pots ahead! They come up on you fast when you are not looking and wrap around your prop. We expect many many more in Florida Bay. 

An East wind that clocked to South throughout the morning forced the motor on first for motor sailing and then to motoring. We took a free slip at the Marco Island Yacht Club for the night to enjoy the pool and a shoreside shower. Sunday we move over to Smokehouse Bay a mile or so away to join s/v Can't Agree while we wait for a weather window to move down to Little Shark River or Cape Sable and then down the Florida Yacht Channel to the Keys. 

Our friends in s/v Cavalier, Diana and Joe, sail and motor a lot faster so they elected to go from Fort Myers Beach all the way to Indian Key near the Everglades. Tomorrow they expect to be in Marathon.