As we left St. Augustine, we had a strong ebb running against 5′ ocean rollers, making the inlet a sloppy, slammy mess. The only other boat we saw as we left was a Coast Guard small boat, and they were either doing a training exercise or they followed us idiot sailors out because once they passed the entrance buoy, they turned right back around.
The first few hours of the trip saw extremely light air, but lots of rain squalls all around. We dodged them for most of the afternoon and eventually a breeze filled in, so we raised sail. Shortly after, we got into an intense rain squall, but it didn’t bring much of a wind increase.
There was a rocket launch at Canaveral, so we slowed way down while we tried to make heads or tails of unclear securité broadcasts from the Coast Guard. Between that and needing to go 6 miles farther offshore, it added a few hours to our trip. The launch happened on my off-watch, and of course I tried to stay up to watch it (bad idea). I ended up going below eventually, both missing the launch and failing to sleep (at least Chris got to see it!). Jack was having a hard time reacclimating to rough passages (the inlet didn’t help) and made sure I knew it.
I came on watch at 0330 as the moon was setting. Orion was clear in the sky, and Windara was sailing beautifully. I was still wearing lots of layers, but I could finally feel it warming up. In my first hour of watch, I had some close crossings with cruise ships to deal with, but that was it. The sun rose the soft, muted yellows and oranges of a tropical sunrise, and the water was a stunning turquoise. I talk a lot about the moments at sea that you can’t really describe, and that sunrise was one of them.
Chris said when he came on deck, he was surprised at how unfazed I was –the wind built higher than expected and we had 5-8′ seas with a 5 second period (for those who don’t sail, when the wave height equals or exceeds the number of seconds between waves, it’s pretty uncomfortable). This passage reminded me how wonderful the journey can be, and I felt right at home out there. Windara blasted along at an average of 8 kts with reefed sails and a relatively comfortable motion. We’re now settled on the hook in a very busy Lake Worth, and we’re thrilled to have made our last US port for the season!
