Well,

I don't know how the blog never got updated on the trip North..

Peggy and I flew from Titusville, FL up to Ponce Inlet and straight offshore coming in at Southport NC.. something over 400NM.. visited Ocracoke, NC (very pleasant) and from Norfolk did a very pleasant stopover due to peculiar weather in Atlantic CIty, NJ

Since then, it has not been a great summer, no sailing and the boat was hauled early and is on the hard in Mystic for the winter..

Hopefully there will be another cruise South in the future, but who knows?

We are making final preparations for the trip North.. fuel, water and provisioning all done and the engine has had a big hug.

We plan on leaving Friday 24th April and motor to Ponce Inlet then shoot offshore.. heading for Beaufort NC or Southport NC...say 3-5days tops.

There is a ridge forming off the coast of SC and we will see moderate E then light SE winds as we head to the N and W of the high...which "theoretically" is moving slowly SE. This should give a slow but pleasant passage in the stable high pressure conditions with more chance of motoring in calm conditions than of sailing for guts and glory..

Of course, if the H establishes strong and quick then we will be left with swells and no wind...in which case Fernandina beach or Charleston are nice at this time of year I hear!..lol

And so,

I received an email from my friend living in Grenada inviting us down for a couple of weeks, and so why not?... after so many hard months of sailing we needed a vacation!..
We left on the 7th April with hangovers (after celebrating my sisters birthday in new Smyrna Beach) and arrived a bit late in Grenada around 10:30pm, and so after a few beers and some chit chat we fell asleep on the Farr-Fly and at 6am were off.. sailing!.. (some vacation huh).

Dave had his J109 "Pocket Rocket" entered in the Bequia Easter Regatta and a fun time was had by all, despite the rope burns, cuts scrapes and bruises associated with racing.

On the first day we managed a 4th, with a largely novice crew, then on the second day, a "round the island race" we were in 2nd when we had a "bit of technical difficulty" and finished 4th. On the last day we came 2nd, beating a fast boat from Grenada and so generally considered it a decent campaign.

Back in Titusville on 20th and now panicking to get the boat ready to head off by the 25th april..

more later..

Well,

one of the CNG cylinders ran out in Georgetown and with no supplies S or E of FL we decided to make our way back.. Many missed entries later we had a great sail from Nassau to Port Canaveral.. 290nm in 46hrs..with a forecast that held true ( a first for me)..

So arrived at 8:30am, cleared customs & immigration, had one of the best burgers ever at "fishlips" and stayed one night at the swanky marina in Port Canaveral.

We decided to come hang out in Cocoa, run to Ft Pierce to get CNG and then head to Titusville for the w/e to see my sister..

Hopefully we can fill the blanks later!

"Its 6:30??? AM??? Who gets up at this time of the morning???"

The answer - EVERYONE when its time for the captain to listen to the weather on a 38 ft sailboat!

And that was John and Elon's introduction to cruising.

Actually, John (Ian's son) and his friend, Elon, adapted pretty well to life onboard. Once they got use to the early nights (late nights lose their appeal when you then have to negotiate a very small rubber boat through a very large and very dark anchorage full of dimly lit boats to find the one dimly lit boat that you call home), the even earlier mornings (gotta get that weather report), the manually pumped toilet (I have to do WHAT?!) the minimal showers in the cockpit (hey, we have to dinghy that water over from Georgetown in 5 gal jugs), the incredibly white sand beaches, the aqua blue water all around (you should have heard them when they first saw the water, "This is wrong, it's just wrong. The ocean is not suppose to be this color.")

But, all in all, I think they had a good time. They even mastered blowing the conch horn, thanks to Mat and Marty on Runaway! (That's John using the renowned Louie Armstrong method in the picture.) Now, the big question - will they actually make their own horns from those conch shells they took home with them???

Damn..

So many miles (and weeks) ago we left titusville and staged overnight at Port Canaveral... A great spot, only 3/4nm from the inlet.

We left around 6am some Saturday morning and motored down the FL coast in zip winds, arriving near Miami around 11am Sunday...
Peg of course was looking forward to yet another provisioning stop in Miami, (2 days after her last supermarket binge) but Cap'n Cranky, with light E winds in the forecast simply turned left and headed for North Rock, just N of Bimini..

"WHAT"? "WHY"? ... (she said).. Well ya gotta take the gulfstream while it lets you and we rounded Bimini at 8pm and motored into a bit of a chop and E winds to Chub Cay where we arrived noon on Monday...

Docked at the fuel dock.. oil change, fuel fill and checked in so raised our courtesy flag and yippee!..we were there/here.

From Chub we stayed a night behind Frozen Cay in the Berry's (and i caught supper!) then ran to Nassau with 2 impending fronts..

A few Days in Nassau then off to Normans Cay & Compass Cay (for another 2 fronts).. the latter is a great spot.

After a super broad reach voer 7kt average we ran to Great Guana Cay, then the following day braved 6-7ft swell and 20-25kt E winds to make the run to Georgetown... That 3rd reef in the mainsail is a great benefit..keeping the heel to 6.5kt.

So we have been here a week...the first 5 days the wind was howling and little sleep..but the last two days have truly been awesome..

More later!