SAILING VESSEL  AD~ASTRA

I just came off the midnight to 2:00 AM watch. It has been a delightful if uneventful trip so far (if you don’t count the autopilot quitting an hour ago and the statuesque blond in a thong who walked by the South Beach sidewalk café where we were having lunch the day before yesterday).  It is always wonderful to be back on the ocean.  Overnight passages are a special treat.  This one is no exception.  The sunset was beautiful, the temperature delightful.  We had enough wind to sail for much of the day.  The stars are out in force.

We planned to sail from Miami Beach Florida to Melbourne FL and back to attend the Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) annual meeting.  This is a trip of about 165 miles each way. It took us a little under 30 hours to go up and a little over 30 hours to return. We got to attend a day and a half of the meeting before heading back.

We thought we wouldn’t be able to make the trip since the weather forecast called for too much wind and waves for a safe and comfortable passage.  Fortunately that changed at the last minute and we were able to go. 

I was sailing with my good friend Glen.  This was our fourth passage together so I was comfortable we would be a good team.  I like a watch schedule of two hours on and two hours off when sailing double handed.  Any longer than 2 hours and I start to loose concentration.  The disadvantage is that you only get to sleep an hour and a half at a time at most.  Still, I think this schedule works best.

Someone had to be on watch at all times since we traveled in shipping lanes.  We saw several very large ships on the trip.  Small sailboats are very hard for them to see if anyone is actually looking.  It makes much more sense to watch out for them rather than hoping they will avoid you. Getting run over by one of them would ruin you whole day.

Cooking underway is a bit of a challenge.  Although this trip wasn’t particularly rough, the boat was rolling and pitching all the time.  You need to constantly brace yourself when standing or moving about the boat. 

Since we thought until the last minute we would be cruising Biscayne Bay and anchoring at night, we bought meat we planned to grill.  We had salmon, rib steak, and chicken breasts. Grilling while underway is impossible so as sailors everywhere we improvised.  I simply pan seared the salmon and steak with garlic and olive oil.  I cut the chicken breasts up, cooked them in a skillet and added marinara sauce served over pasta. We had rice with the salmon and had the steak for breakfast the last day out.

The first 110 miles we were sailing outside in the Atlantic .  On the way up, we were several miles offshore to catch a boost from the Gulf Stream .  It gave us a 2 mile per hour boost, something good when you only are going 6 miles per hour anyway. On the way back, we hugged the shoreline to avoid being slowed by the same amount.

For the last 50 miles of the trip we motor-sailed up the Inter-coastal Waterway (ICW). There are very few inlets or passages between the open ocean and the ICW.  The closest one to Melbourne was at Ft. Pierce .  The ICW is smooth and flat, unlike the open ocean.  The disadvantage is that isn’t very wide.  You have to constantly watch where you are going to avoid getting out of the channel and running aground.

We followed a small tug into the Ft. Pierce inlet towing a crane on a barge.  Glen heard him say on the radio that he came from Puerto Rico .  He was barely making 4 miles an hour so that must have been a long trip.

Once we turned onto the ICW a pair of dolphins welcomed us.  The sun had just come up, the sky was clear. The temperature was in the mid 60’s.  Life is good. We saw dolphin dozens of times on the trip.  They are beautiful and entertaining creatures.  Like mariners for centuries, we took them as a sign of good luck.

The SSCA is an organization of sailors who live aboard their boats and sail allover the world.  To be a commodore you must have lived aboard for over a year, have crossed a major ocean, and be recommended by three other members.  Many members have sailed around the world, some several times. 

Associate membership (which I have) has no real requirement but most are at least interested in becoming commodores.  The membership has an amazing amount of knowledge about cruising the oceans of the world.

On Friday evening we attended the “Formal” dinner.  That means you put on you clean t-shirt. The irreverent editor/owner of a sailing magazine gave the presentation.  He is 6’ 4” and weights 400#’s.  He has tattoos covering both of his arms, long hair and a beard. He used to own a biker magazine but sold it and sailed around the world. He announced that he has sold his magazine and will take off around the world again. 

He is an unlikely philosopher. Still I find meaning in his words. I like the motto of his magazine.  “Attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure.” His wife added that sometimes it’s just an ordeal.  The pearl I got from this talk was that "It is more important to want what you have than to have what you want.” Words to live by.

We anchored out and took our dinghy to shore.  On the way back from the dinner we saw Bio-luminescence so bright it looked like a blue spotlight was on the dinghy prop and the bow wave was nearly bright enough to read by. Microscopic photo-plankton are sometimes present in such numbers that when they are disturbed the emit light and briefly glow.  This is a truly amazing sight of nature.

On Saturday morning we attended a lecture on cruising in the Eastern Mediterranean . After lunch we watched a high frequency radio demonstration and then attended a lecture on diesel mechanics. Saturday night we attended a barbeque and listened to a Jimmy Buffett sound alike. The food was great, the music pretty good, and the conversation quite informative.

We got up Sunday morning for the return sail. We were able to sail part of the way up.  The wind was so light that we had to motor most of the night on the way up. The wind picked up after we left the ICW on the way back.  We were able to sail the entire way back to Miami . We were able to motor-sail on the ICW.

At night you are constantly scanning the horizon to look for lights from ships and other boats.  When I came on watch at 4:00 AM on the last night Glen pointed out the lights of ships he had been watching.  Then we both saw two redish lights side by side just above the water in the distance.  They looked like two lights on a pair of tall sailboat masts but that is never seen. We both said, “What is that?” Maybe it is a UFO!

I picked up the binoculars and solved the mystery.  A crescent moon facing upwards had just come up. Clouds obscured the lower part leaving the appearance of two lights.  We were both stunned and amazed.  That feeling of awe will serve as a reminder of a wonderful trip.