ANOTHER Crossing!

Sunday and Monday, May 1 and 2

Another Crossing, From Marathon to Naples

Linda and Dennis are going to meet us in Clearwater and make the crossing with Sam.  I hate doing the crossings, and hate getting sick while doing it.  So, L & D volunteered to take my place.  Hooray!!!!!

The best day for them is next Saturday, so we decided we needed to get on the road (we were ready to leave Marathon anyway; we’d definitely been there long enough!).

The weather report was a little worrisome, but looked okay on the whole.  The winds were pretty strong (15 to 20 knots), but the seas were supposed to be only one to two feet.  So, we headed out at 11:00.  We timed it so we’d be pulling into Naples just after daybreak (hopefully). 

Overall, the weather was pretty accurate.  It did, however, get rough in the open waters south of the Florida coast.  The wind was very strong, and the seas were three and sometimes four feet.  It was hard steering the boat.  We tried to engage the autopilot, but it didn’t work.  So, once again, we had to wrestle with the wheel for hour after hour.  How disappointing!!!

Finally, we drew west of the Florida coast, where the land blocked the long wind fetch.  Things got much better after that.  As we were passing the Everglades, however, a fierce storm built up over to the west.  There were severe, non-stop lightning bolts blasting through it. 

We tried to outrun it, but that didn’t appear to be working.  So Sam called the Coast Guard and told them our position and situation.  They were great.  They said we should be fine because the storm was traveling west, but they said they would monitor us on channel 22 and make sure we were okay.  As it turned out, they were right and we were okay, although it seemed hit and miss for several hours.

We had a long, miserable night.  Neither of us was able to sleep when we were off watch, and I struggled with seasickness for hours, although I never actually got sick.

Boy was I glad when we finally saw some city lights – I felt like we weren’t out there all alone in the void any more.  Then dawn came and I finally felt like we were going to make it.  The wind and waves settled down, and we were finally able to use the autopilot.  What a relief!

We pulled into Naples Sail and Yacht Club about 8:30, and were so glad to touch dry land.  We were totally exhausted, so after we cleaned up the boat we just napped for most of the day until it was time to go to bed for the night.