26. The Crossing

Thursday, January 30 we were underway by 4:00 in the morning. About an hour out we decided to head back. The seas were high and rough - very choppy and extremely uncomfortable. When we got back we sat on deck and watched to sky gradually get lighter and then we went back to bed. About noon we got together with Morris and Elizabeth and decided that we were going to try again the next day, on Friday. Sadie A and Finisterre came in to the anchorage by Miami Yacht Club. We had met Sadie A in Fort Lauderdale at the store Borders. They were both planning to leave Friday morning at 4:00 as well. We made plans to go together. This would be the last window for a crossing for the next week. C-Drifters and Superior Grace had waited in Fort Lauderdale for 21 days for a crossing window. So it would be Friday FOR SURE!


Unfortunately, Viking Angel could not go with us. They urged us to go ahead without them as they had some last minute matters to attend to and they were not sure if they would be able to complete their affairs on Friday. If not, they would have to wait until Monday. The weather for a crossing would not be possible at that time. Fortunately, our friends on Windigo had come into the anchorage on Friday and were planning to cross next week, if possible. Viking Angel would go with them.


At 4:00 in the morning, on Friday, we slowly made our way out Government Cut, Miami. Sadie A led the way with Finisterre and Moya Mreeya following. It was pitch black and approaching ships and boats could be seen only by their lights. A huge cruise ship approached lit up like a Christmas tree. We reminisced how last year we were on such a boat in Miami setting out for our Panama Cruise. We remembered seeing sailboats from the deck of our cruise ship and saying that next year it would be us in a little sailboat like that. The cruise ship even responded to us as “the little sailboat” when we informed him that we would be passing port to port. We were so busy paying attention to the well-lit cruise ship that we almost hit a green marker which seemed to appear out of nowhere directly in front of us. The light was so high that all we saw was the post it was on. Roman steered sharply starboard and missed it by a hair. We were shaking from the close call. That would have been the end of our trip!


We made it out to the Atlantic Ocean and it was choppy but not as bad as it had been the day before.

As the skyline of Miami receded I called home and found out two wonderful pieces of news. First, on Thursday January 30 at 10:33 p.m., our dear daughter-in-law, Nicole, gave birth to a healthy boy (7lb. 5oz.) whom Ev and Nicole decided to call Connor Alexander. Both baby and mother were doing fine. Amazingly they were to go home after 24 hours. They really toss them out early nowadays! So now Roman and I have two grandsons!

Secondly, our dear friend George was out of the hospital and holding his own at home. Our thoughts and prayers are with you, George.

The winds picked up but were “on the nose” so we would be motoring. It became even choppier than Thursday but Jack form Sadie A who had crossed several times before assured us that it would calm down and it did calm down when we reached the Gulf Stream. Unfortunately while we were rolling around in the 8 foot swells for several hours, the latch that held the cupboard closed with all my Corel Ware gave way. (We figured that one of the plates must have hit the latch with such an angle as to cause it to turn slightly, just enough as not to catch). All the dishes and glasses went flying all over the galley floor and splintered in tiny little sharp fragments. I left everything until it calmed down a little to clean everything up. All the glasses (high quality that we purchased at Target), the dinner and the luncheon plates were intact. However I am left with only 3 soup bowls and small plates. We now put a bungee cord around that cupboard whenever we cross an expanse of water.

A strange thing happened when we approached the Gulf Stream. The GPS in all three of our boats ceased to function properly. We went back to the trusty old compass. When the temperature of the water registered well over 80 degrees F., and the current picked up, we knew we were right in the Gulf Stream. After a couple of hours the GPS suddenly came to life again. It was really weird, shades of the Bermuda Triangle but we were nowhere near there. When the GPS started working we realized that we had gone more northeast than we had thought and when we left the Gulf Stream we made our way southeast to Gun Cay. As the weather was good we continued past Gun Cay and anchored in the Great Bahamas Banks just
south of the usual crossing area. We were about 12 hours out of Miami and officially in the Bahamas. We mad it! Except for short breaks, Roman had steered the entire time by himself. We later found out that both boats were on autopilot most of the time. Our autopilot does not seem to work except on very calm waters. We probably need a better one. Something else to put on our list. We were asleep by 7:30.



Our first sunset in the Bahamas!