220 miles, 51 hours, 7 pounds of pudding and 1 engine failure later...
All on a few hours of sleep non-the-less. We are back. Failure or success? you might ask. True we ended where we sarted, not 5500 miles away. True we cut the duration by 6 weeks. But I say success. I consider us sailors now, we know the seas, we know the equipment and we know the life. We learned about every lesson that is possible for sailboat cruisers.
Our return: Not to much to say, lots of ocean, very little sleep. We caught a few more fish, mostly baracuda, which seemed to be the only thing we could catch on this trip, but we also hit a school of dolphin (the fish, not the mammal, a.k.a. mahi-mahi) and were able to pull in 3 before we lost them. Good eatin. After the 140 mile first leg we took a few hour stop in Fort Pierce, Florida, then gassed up and went out for another 80 mile leg to the marina we started at. We initially planned on going up to Jacksonville, another 250 miles, but we so tired. On the last leg we finally hit a storm on the water, in the dark. Mostly strong winds, not much rain, about 10 foot seas. It was pretty fun. We started of motor-sailing, running with the jibb out and the motor still going. Unfortunately this changed the angle of the gas in the tank allowing another mass of air to enter our fuel line, thus killing our engine again. However, this time we knew how to fix it and we (alex rather, i watched the storm) had it running in about 30 minutes. After this little ordeal we had an amazing feast for our eyes for a couple hours to follow. In one direction was one of the most voracious lightening storms I have ever seen. Behind us was a spectacular rising orange moon. And streching the entire coast were at least a dozen fireworks shows. The later was the coolest being that we were so far off the coast that the fireworks looked like little explosions on the horizon since much of the time we could only see the top half of the firework explosions. We pulled in to the final channel at about 2:00 am and stealthly snuck up to a fuel dock at a marina and tied down for a few hours to get a little rest. We had to stop there to wait for the draw bridges and lock that we had to go through to resume operation. We finally we got up aout 5:00 and made it to our final tie-down after a brief stop at another marina for breakfast. We caught a ride from Alex's uncle again for the 130 mile-or-so trip to Jacksonville were they dropped me at the airport, which is where I am now. I should be arriving in Atlanta in just enough time to catch the end of a 4th of July party, luggage in hand.
What have we learned: We learned how to sail. We learned how not to sail. We learned how to break and fix diesel engines. We learned how to navigate shallow waters. We learned that sailing isn't as easy as we expected. We learned that getting to the destination can be the hardest part of sailing. We learned that the destination can be the best part of sailing. We learned that the other sailors you meet are among the friendliest and most hospitibal people around. We learned how to live without the comforts of modern society. We learned how to spearfish. I learned how to read again. Alex learned about the philosophies of the Tao (pronounced "dow") and Zen. I learned that I am the Tao without ever knowing it, sortof, and if you want to get in my head, read a book on it. I learned about Special and General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, String Theory, Cosmology, Astrophysics and the history and future of the universe, by reading 3 books on it. We learned that 2 people can't eat 7 pounds of pudding. We learned there are several things we didn't miss about how that we thought we might. We learned that there are many thing about home we do miss.
Final Poker Score: Stupid Alex 27, Me 23... weak
This is Nick, and Alex, signing off. Over and out.
Last Pics:
A happy dead fish.
Me and our buddy Katsia who was really worried when she found out what we were doing.
7 Pounds of pudding.
Pudding Boy.Baracuda Boy.
1 Dolphin (mahi-mahi).
2 Dolphins (mahi-mahi).
Moonart.
Moonart too.
Our return: Not to much to say, lots of ocean, very little sleep. We caught a few more fish, mostly baracuda, which seemed to be the only thing we could catch on this trip, but we also hit a school of dolphin (the fish, not the mammal, a.k.a. mahi-mahi) and were able to pull in 3 before we lost them. Good eatin. After the 140 mile first leg we took a few hour stop in Fort Pierce, Florida, then gassed up and went out for another 80 mile leg to the marina we started at. We initially planned on going up to Jacksonville, another 250 miles, but we so tired. On the last leg we finally hit a storm on the water, in the dark. Mostly strong winds, not much rain, about 10 foot seas. It was pretty fun. We started of motor-sailing, running with the jibb out and the motor still going. Unfortunately this changed the angle of the gas in the tank allowing another mass of air to enter our fuel line, thus killing our engine again. However, this time we knew how to fix it and we (alex rather, i watched the storm) had it running in about 30 minutes. After this little ordeal we had an amazing feast for our eyes for a couple hours to follow. In one direction was one of the most voracious lightening storms I have ever seen. Behind us was a spectacular rising orange moon. And streching the entire coast were at least a dozen fireworks shows. The later was the coolest being that we were so far off the coast that the fireworks looked like little explosions on the horizon since much of the time we could only see the top half of the firework explosions. We pulled in to the final channel at about 2:00 am and stealthly snuck up to a fuel dock at a marina and tied down for a few hours to get a little rest. We had to stop there to wait for the draw bridges and lock that we had to go through to resume operation. We finally we got up aout 5:00 and made it to our final tie-down after a brief stop at another marina for breakfast. We caught a ride from Alex's uncle again for the 130 mile-or-so trip to Jacksonville were they dropped me at the airport, which is where I am now. I should be arriving in Atlanta in just enough time to catch the end of a 4th of July party, luggage in hand.
What have we learned: We learned how to sail. We learned how not to sail. We learned how to break and fix diesel engines. We learned how to navigate shallow waters. We learned that sailing isn't as easy as we expected. We learned that getting to the destination can be the hardest part of sailing. We learned that the destination can be the best part of sailing. We learned that the other sailors you meet are among the friendliest and most hospitibal people around. We learned how to live without the comforts of modern society. We learned how to spearfish. I learned how to read again. Alex learned about the philosophies of the Tao (pronounced "dow") and Zen. I learned that I am the Tao without ever knowing it, sortof, and if you want to get in my head, read a book on it. I learned about Special and General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, String Theory, Cosmology, Astrophysics and the history and future of the universe, by reading 3 books on it. We learned that 2 people can't eat 7 pounds of pudding. We learned there are several things we didn't miss about how that we thought we might. We learned that there are many thing about home we do miss.
Final Poker Score: Stupid Alex 27, Me 23... weak
This is Nick, and Alex, signing off. Over and out.
Last Pics:
A happy dead fish.
Me and our buddy Katsia who was really worried when she found out what we were doing.
7 Pounds of pudding.
Pudding Boy.Baracuda Boy.
1 Dolphin (mahi-mahi).
2 Dolphins (mahi-mahi).
Moonart.
Moonart too.
