Fact: One of the great ocean currents of the world, the Gulf Stream flows north and controls the climate of most of the U.S. East Coast, tempers the subarctic waters of Iceland and allows palm trees to grow on England’s Scilly Isles. (fun facts to know and share)
I think I have been so traumatized from the crossing, I have not wanted to write about it. Sorry it has taken me so long to share our experience.
Getting ready to depart was as usual pretty frantic. We had to top of our water and dinghy gas supply, tie everything down and pull the kayak, outboard engine and dinghy out of the water.
All five boats pulled up their anchors and got under the bridge promptly at 5:00 pm. We started making our way out through the channel markers and it quickly became dark. It was so dark. We motored directly into the wind for 4 hours at 2 miles an hour - I was about to lose my mind. We were getting tossed around because we could not put up our sails. We have one of the biggest boats in our little Gulf Stream flotilla, but we are a very heavy boat so 28 ft. boats were passing us. When we finally raised the main sail it took Glenn 30 minutes on top of the deck to pull it up. He was getting tossed all over the boat. Thank God he was tethered to the boat.
We did not get seasick, I really think it was because the boat is so heavy and you don’t get tossed around as much in a center cockpit. The other nice quality of this boat was the fully enclosed dodger, all our other friends got so wet from the waves. We had all the panels down so we did not get drenched. Don’t get me wrong we still had waves that came through under and over the plastic panels. The waves were 10 to 12 feet. They had predicted winds blowing at 10 to 15 out of the southeast, not bad. We had 30-knot winds blowing from the east, so we were sailing into the wind. The only thing that could have made it worst would have been north winds.
We radioed the other 4 boats at the top of every hour. This really helped to make the time pass and made us feel less alone out there. With our sails up we quickly passed the 28ft and 30-foot boats. We stayed in radio range with all but one of the boats. We found out later that they turned around and went back to Marathon. The next afternoon, we finally made it to the entrance of Cat/Gun Cay. It is a very narrow entrance with shallow water on one side and a rock face on the other. The wind was still blowing 30 knots and the current was very strong. The water was breaking on the bank; it looked like the surf in Hawaii. We shot the cut with Crossroads running at full speed to maintain control. Twenty-three hours from our departure we were so relieved to finally be at the Cat Cay Yacht Club. We had always planned to anchor out everywhere we went until we get to South America, where the marinas are really inexpensive. We quickly changed our minds regarding this issue. We paid $100 a night just to be secure at a dock, which did not include shore power or water. At most marinas, some one will come out and catch your dock lines (it is extremely helpful). Not this yacht club, we had to come into a slip and try to tie up on our own. We were soooo exhausted I wanted to cry. We were too tired to cleat a line without giving it a lot of thought. Our friends Don and Kim arrived about 30 minutes after we arrived and we helped them tie up. Don had cracked or bruised ribs from the trip and their sails were torn. Glenn and I ordered dinner and went to bed at 8:00 we slept 12 hours and had a much better attitude the next day.
