Day 19, merging into 20
Once we got offshore enough we realized the wind was enough at our backs, so we hoisted the main. After determining that turning off the engine would only lose us a knot, we did that (and that may have saved our butts…see later) and sailed for hours. We had phone signal for a surprisingly long amount of time and relished it.
I again say “6 hour crossing…pssshhhh”. We left around 1pm and got to the Fort Pierce inlet at 6am the next day.
Night sailing wasn’t that/as dangerous tonight as the moon was almost full, but that led to my disappointment. The moon was so damn bright it was barely better than any random anchorage in the Bahamas. But it did illuminate the waters nicely, so there’s that. The moon evoked a bit of Majora’s Mask creepiness in that it began the night on the horizon behind us, then slowly creeped its way up the sky. Like it was stalking us.
The winds were good enough we let the Autohlem do its thing for the entire time. In the evening I took a nap, then later Shawn, and then much later were so much at the “fuck it” point we both slept for an hour around 1am (this is dangerous and stupid and you shouldn’t do it). To be fair, the worst that could happen is we’d get blown far more north than we expected – we were certainly far enough away that we’d have to both sleep for quite some time before hitting land. But it’s still not a good idea to leave Auto alone, we were just too tired to continue. The rest did wonders for us.
At a certain point the winds calmed too much to sail, so we took the main down and fired up the engine. From there the Atlantic was nice and wonderful, like gentle rolling hills of water.
Around 5am we began to pick up signal. Normally we know about when we’ll get signal based on line-of-sight with the coastline, but a fog rolled in so we didn’t know we were close enough for signal until we had it. After more time we got GLORIOUS HIGH SPEED LTE DATA and I used it to download the CBP app to check in. Had to pay for some stupid tag (fees, fees everywhere) but overall went smooth. It allowed us to check in quickly.
Went through the inlet with no problem and got past the only bascule bridge we’d have to encounter going north. After this we found a nice anchoring point and settled down for a nap. Around noon I awoke, then bugged Shawn awake (don’t want to totally ruin our sleep cycle after all). Switched fuel tanks (our current one would be mostly empty), raised anchor with no fuss and began motoring forward.
Until Bekey started surging again.
Shawn said, “Last time it did this, we didn’t have much time until she shut-“ and then, as if knowing what it was supposed to do, shut off. Restarting didn’t work. We were slowly drifting toward our destination in the middle of the ICW channel. We replaced the fuel filter but no dice.
But as I said, we were slowly drifting TOWARD where we wanted to go! Our hull acts like a sail, in a way, and was catching the wind. We hoisted the jib to at least get out of everyone’s way (there was a powerboat plowing right at us – I worried he wouldn’t move and our day would get a LOT worse), then Shawn hoisted the main. Doing that with the wind directly at your back is a pain, but we couldn’t motor into the wind to make it easy, so Shawn spouted many sailory curses until the sail rose high and proud.
At first, we got 4.5kts which was astounding – faster that the motor alone, actually. Then a while later dropped to 4. Then 3. Then 2. And at that point we realized it was just the current carrying us, and when the tide shifted it’d be going against us. We’d be dead in the water.
TIME FOR THAT BOATUS MEMBERSHIP TO COME IN HANDY! (again)
Called them up, but the closest tow was 45 minutes away (headed south). We did pick up some wind after the call and I think that helped with getting to the tow faster, as we were headed north. We went at an actually incredible 7.5kts for most of the way, then were handed off to another boater who got us into our slip just after sunset. We tied off, hooked up, showered, got some fast food (wonderful cheap food) and then wrote this entry and went to bed.
And so ends our little adventure.
“Good night, Night Vale. Good night.”