Intuition Log – 21 May
Great Sale, Bahamas to Cape Canaveral, Florida
The morning weather forecast called for unsettled weather for the next 1-3 weeks. After carefully considering the weather options, we decided that it was time to give up on a window for getting all the way to North Carolina in one hop. That left plan B, which meant crossing to Florida and then moving up the coast along the ICW with some jumps outside when the weather permitted. A weather window was open for a day or two to get over to Florida, so we secured things aboard and raised the anchor at 0906.

Intuition Sailing Over the Bahama Banks – from s/v Our Turn

Prior to that we had conferred with Grateful Attitudes (a Lagoon 44 Catamaran) and Our Turn (an Island Packet 440) and they also decided to head for Florida leaving a little behind us. We were worried about Paul on Our Turn as he had been sick in the anchorage with flu like symptoms, but he felt good enough to give it a go.
By 0935 we were in the groove, motorsailing past the Great Sale South waypoint doing 7 kts heading across the banks for Matanilla Shoal. By 1145 Grateful Attitudes caught and passed us motorsailing. Our speed over the ground was 6.7 kts with the second reef in the main and our jib out.

s/v Grateful Attitudes

Beth pulled the last four unread books out of our stash for Noah and, by 1322 he was on book three. He enjoyed that so much he re-read some of it aloud to Beth and Brenda in the cockpit on their first watch. After getting Chris Parker’s daily weather email we made the decision to head from Matanilla Shoal to Cape Canaveral. That would get us to a place where we could check in easily and Brenda could get a shuttle to the Orlando airport. It would also allow us to be out of the gulf stream in plenty of time to avoid the predicted 25 kt NE winds. Grateful Attitudes and Our Turn decided to press further North and head for Fernandina Beach as they are both larger and faster vessels.

s/v Our Turn

At 1428 we were accompanied by dolphins for a while. These banks are their spring breeding grounds and we hoped to see some along the way. Also passed a large anchored research type vessel that didnÕt show up on AIS so we donÕt know what they really were. After sailing 52 miles across the banks, we slipped off by Matanilla Shoal at 1740 and watched the depths go from 35 ft to 200 ft and then too deep for our sounder to report. Waves picked up to 5-6 feet, but we were making excellent progress at 7.3 kts through the water and 7.8 over the ground with a favorable current.

Brenda, Beth & Noah on the lookout for dolphins

By 1900 our course diverged with that of Grateful Attitudes and Our Turn. We did agree to talk on the VHF every hour through the night to make sure we were all awake. At 1924 the wind was 17 kts so we turned off the engine and enjoyed the sounds of waves and water. It wasn’t necessary to motor through the night as we would end up getting into Cape Canaveral before dawn.

Sunset at Sea

Brenda and Beth took the first watch after dark. With an apparent wind angle of 150 we had the northeast wind and waves on the stern quarter pushing us right along. Our 17 year old baggy main was reefed to the second reef point while our new 130 jib was reefed down to about 100% as we always like to be a little under canvassed in the dark. By 2200 our speed through the water (S) was 5.7 kts, but we were feeling the effects of the gulf stream as our speed over the ground (SOG) was 7.5 kts.
We lost direct contact with Grateful Attitudes as they were pulling out of range, but Our Turn relayed position information between the three boats. Electrical gremlins were out that night. Grateful Attitudes lost their autopilot and ended up hand steering to Fernandina Beach. Our Turn’s radar was being fluky, so we were radioing them with ship positions from our AIS. We were lucky and our systems stayed working through the crossing.
As midnight approached Our Turn relayed a message from another yacht passing in the night. It was Blaine Parks making a delivery from Charleston to the Abacos. Blaine is another IP owner. He, Janet and their two golden retrievers have had lots of adventures. WeÕre sorry we were only passing in the night, but it was good to hear from him.
My watch was on at midnight and we were close to the center of the gulf stream. Still moving through the water at 5.5 kts, but our SOG was up to 8.2 kts. Brenda stayed in the cockpit to keep me company and we watched the phosphorescence in the water. If you havenÕt ever seen it, it looks like hundreds of underwater fireflies radiating out from the hull where the boat makes a wake.
The bottom came into “view” on the depth sounder about ten minutes before 0100 as it registered 300 feet. By 0200 ours SOG was down to 6.8 as we had our last contact with Our Turn. At 0300 there was just static on the radio and our SOG was down to 5.7 with the winds moderating to 15-17 kts. By 0500 we were definitely out of the stream as our S and SOG were both at 5.3 kts and the depth was now registering 100 feet.
Noah was the only one that got any real sleep overnight, but the rest of us did take turns closing our eyes down below. Beth had rigged the lee cloths on the salon setees so we could sleep without worrying about falling out of bed.

The Cabin Rigged with Lee Cloths
We started the engine at 0612 as we needed to crawl a little further north than our sailing course had allowed to get into Port Canaveral. The engine starting woke Noah. He climbed up into the cockpit at 0700 so he could launch his message in a bottle that he prepared before leaving the Bahamas. The original plan was to launch it in the Gulf Stream, but we werenÕt going to wake him up to do that. The bottle was from the wine Wayne and Janet Estabrooks gave us as a departing gift on our cruise. Noah wrote a note with our email address and sealed it with some candle wax. I hope someone finds it and writes to him.

Noah’s Message in a Bottle
The seas were lumpy as the bottom shoaled on our approach to Port Canaveral. As the launch platforms and vehicle assembly building came into view Noah had a ginger nut cookie as his first food of the day. A minute or two later he was feeding it back to the fishes. Not a good way to have breakfast, but within ten minutes he was fine, telling jokes and ready to have a real breakfast.
0900 found us inside the breakwaters used by the Disney Cruise lines, getting our lines ready for docking. Beth found a flying fish next to one of the cleats confirming what she thought were the sounds of something live on deck overnight.

Cape Marina was recommended in the cruising guide as a good spot to check-in to the USA, so we pulled up to their floating t-dock. Our first assigned dock space was already occupied with a powerboat, so we made a second pass, then tied up on another dock in front of a 1970 Chris Craft power boat bound for Washington, NC. We covered 150 nm in just over a day at 24 hrs and 2 minutes about half of it under sail power alone.

Intuition Docked at Cape Marina

Checking in with customs was a bit confusing as we called the toll-free number and were informed that Cape Canaveral wasn’t a place you could check-in. The marina had provided us with directions to customs and immigration, so I read the officer the address and telephone number. He put me on hold and then came back and said we could check in at the address I’d given him and we should call, hold on a minute, and then he came back with the phone number I’d given him. Once we called the local office, things went smoothly. We all walked the 1.2 miles down to the office, showed our passports, the officer spent some time with his computer, and we were legally back in the USA.

NASA Ship at Port Canaveral

Walking back towards the marina we stopped at “Fish Lips” where the folks on the Chris Craft recommended going to eat. Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs as we had salads and meat that hadn’t been readily available in the Bahamas. It was relaxing to sit on their deck and watch the waterfront without having the table lurch to starboard every eight seconds. Back at the boat we let Noah, the only well rested one of us, watch DVDs while the adults all took naps.
It was a successful crossing as nothing broke and we all made it back safely. We are very grateful to Brenda for taking the time off to come help. She was a great sport and excellent crew. It made the trip more fun and it was fun to see some of it through her eyes.