SailMakai

It’s slow going 511 nm in 4.5 days. 36 45 N, 74 57.7W. Yesterday morning we were thrown into the washing machine. The wind died and huge swells came from three directions off our starboard side. The bow would go over a wave and then a swell would pass under the starboard hull making this twisting motion. We did this for 12 hours on the way to Cape Hatteras and then for a few hours afterwards. Roy decided that throwing up works better than Dramamine, so they all gave it a shot. I was also asked the question about when exactly this would end. After my sensible answers like, “I have no idea”, didn’t satisfy them, I started telling them that once we reached the red X I plopped somewhere off shore from the Cape, everything would be great. Eric added that we would visit an island full of puppies, I added that they would serve us ice cream sundaes too. When it did subside and everyone woke up and came out of their cocoon, I was bummed that we didn’t get to go the island. Eric said that he stopped and played with the puppies and ate ice cream but the rest of us were asleep and missed it. Ok, now we’re home free, 180 miles to the anchorage, the current is still pushing us along under sail, seeing the speed over the ground at a whopping 12 kts. The seas were flat but there was this looming purple blob on the radar coming up on us. Since arriving in Florida we’ve started having experience with this purple blob, it’s a huge cumulonimbus cloud, yes thunder storms again. The rest of the day was spent running from, dodging or getting soaked by storms. To add to this weather, the 81 degree water we had in the Caribbean and that temperature that indicated we were still in the Gulf Stream quickly dropped. Within a half hour we saw 81 turn into 77 and then 67. By morning the water temp was 52 degrees. Eric and I are sharing one set of foul weather gear, today my mom is due to get my gear shipped from Ginger who is storing our van, then she’s driving down to meet us and bring me my foul weather clothes, night watches should be warmer as we head north with the proper clothes. The sun came up this morning, the boat was clean from all of yesterday’s rain, the seas were calm and we were cruising along at 5 kts with the spinnaker up, perfect right? Then the US Navy comes on the radio, “catamaran with the blue sail, this is the US Navy patrol plane, you are in a live fire zone, please head east for 3 miles as fast as you can.” Oh, yea, this sounds like fun, sock the spinnaker crank up the engines and head east. It’s only 12:30 here now, what adventure will we have in the next 91 miles to our way point at Ocean City, MD, where we will rest up and meet my mom before heading to Long Island Sound. See our track at: https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=692e518ba8dcd68ba

It’s slow going 318nm in 3 days. 33 20 N, 76 43.5W. The wind is so light we’re barely moving. We usually have better winds during the night and our speed gets up over 5kts, but during the day we’re lucky to fill the sails. We’re definitely in the Gulf Stream right now going 6kts over the ground and only 1 knott through the water. Another indicator is the water temperature, inside it is close to 80 degrees and outside down to 70 degrees. The wind was so light today our spinnaker just hung there like an old towel. Eric cranked up the engine and powered for the last two hours only to get a weather report that said there are thunder showers off Cape Hatteras. So he turned everything off opting to sit here until the storms passes. Right now it feels like we’re at anchor. Today was another lazy day. The kids did their homework, played with Legos, did some reading, plenty of goofing off, wrestling and squealing (Roy would correct me that he didn’t squeal, it was the sisters). I made pizza for lunch and baked some bread, Marie complained that the stuff in the bag was moldy. I just got up from a great nap and now it’s time for night watches. Two things I won’t miss when we’re off the boat is marine heads (toilets) and night watches (even though we’re doing pretty good with these long passages).

I’m not so exact today, but I think we’ve gone about 1/4 of the way to Assateague Island, 184nm in 38 hours. 30 53 N, 78 22W. It’s really slow going. The wind is so light we’re barely moving. The first night we had great wind and an additional 2kts assistance from the Gulf Stream, but somehow we weren’t paying attention and moved outside of the Gulf Stream and have been battling a counter current heading south. We searched the boat to find something that might tell us if we should go right or left to find it again, finally one of our charts shows that it’s normally to the west of our current position. We have good and bad news. Which do you want first. Ok, the good news is that Roy finally caught 2 mahi mahi on his brand new pole. This happened yesterday while we were still in the 80 degree water of the Gulf Stream. The bad news is that we lost them both. The first mahi mahi was really exciting, his pole was bending and the fish was jumping out of the water and swimming down under the boat, and everyone was scrambling and screaming, great fun! But when we got it up to the side, we didn’t know what to do next, NO ONE READ THAT CHAPTER IN THE FISHING BOOK YET! This is a heck of a time to try to figure this one out. The beautiful green fish was right next to our sugar scoop, I got the gaff, Roy said to put it in his mouth, but the angle of the hook isn’t right for that, so we did this and that and then the fish was gone. Everyone cried, it was miserable. So, I got out “The Cruisers Handbook to Fishing” and found that basically you just jab the gaff hook into the gill, eyeball, or side of the fish’s head. No wonder I was reluctant, but now I know what to do. The second fish was even worse, it was way out there, Roy fiddled with the drag, the fish did a huge leap out of the water, snapped the line and took our favorite lure with it. No fight, no pictures, no joy. With the winds so light yesterday, we went swimming again. It’s very refreshing, but a bit scary. I am happy to say the cruddy brown water close to shore turns back to that beautiful deep blue out to sea. We’re reading Pollyanna this week. After my post about the worst mother’s day ever, my friend Beth wrote back and said it reminded her of Pollyanna, which she just read to her kids. Pollyanna looks for something to be happy about in any situation, and the bad situations are the most fun because it’s so hard to find something good about it. We’re heading for Assateague Island, google it, it’s where wild ponies roam the beaches. My mom is planning to drive down and meet us there. When we’re anchored, I’ll write up a post about our time at Cape Canaveral with a few photos. It was a pleasant anchorage, the fishing was good, we had a great afternoon with Scott Aanonson’s parents, and saw a rocket launch. Pictures to follow in a few days. NEWS FLASH NEWS FLASH NEWS FLASH In the time between when I finished this email and Eric got around to sending it, Roy’s reel started zzzzinnnggggging off the back of the boat. Once again, everyone started screaming FISH ON! Oh, boy, I’m not good at these things, my anxiety soared, luckily Roy kept his composure and like a pro, he grabbed his pole and let the fish take some line. Then slowly reeled it in a bit here and a bit there. Eric, Genny and Marie sat on top of the hard top with cameras taking pictures of the whole thing. Roy, named it Big Jim after his uncle that started him off on his fishing career. We wish you could be here Jim! Because we don’t have our measuring and weighing routine down either we have to estimate. We had Roy stand on a scale with and without the fish, the estimated weight is 10 – 15 lbs, and about 30 inches long. Ok, now that the fillet is over, I have to go get the bbq ready!

I hope everyone had a great day.  Eric keeps reminding me this post should be named “The WORST Mother’s Day EVER”  but I’m trying to look for what could be considered a bright side of the last 24 hours.  First good thing, No one got hurt or sick.

Yesterday we were very happy to leave Fort Lauderdale, the No See Ums we’re so thick that we locked our selves inside and cranked up the air conditioning.  But on the positive side, we did have a hose full of city water to scrub off the construction dirt.  The kids had a blast soaping up the boat and sliding around on the bubbles.  By the time we left everyone and everything was squeaky clean head to toe.  This is a good thing.

Then we untied, not an easy task from this strange slip, stopped to fill up with fuel, and headed down the Intercoastal Waterway to channel and the open ocean.  Adios No See Ums, go feed on someone else for awhile.  This is a good thing! Wow, the ICW was really busy, and the channel was even worse.  Oh, but first Genny lost her hat and we had to do circles in the channel trying to retrieve it.  The main channel out to sea was the sloppiest water we’ve seen in a long time.  Huge power boats were speeding in and out, their wakes created huge waves that threw the contents of our boat around.  Then of course there were the tankers coming and going and their pilot boats zipping around clearing the way.  Right about this time I passed out the Dramamine figuring it was going to be a long sick night.

Eventually the traffic settled down, we got on course and the wind and the waves were at a perfect angle for a smooth sail.  The Gulf Stream gave us 2 extra knots, we were flying.  This is a good thing!  I went for my nap and got up to take watch at 10 pm.  Eric showed me this huge blob on the Radar that represented the massive lightning storm we saw off on our port side.  He said to keep changing course so it can go by.  Well, just as Eric fell asleep, that storm decided to close in on us no matter where I steered.  ”Wake up, wake up, come see this” is what got him out of bed.  For the next two hours we battled high winds, torrential downpour, and electricity coming out of the sky. Eric is the only one with Foul Weather gear, mine is in the van in NJ waiting for me, so he had to stand out there and get poured on. We had no choice but by using the radar and visuals on the lightning to pick the shortest path through the storm.  Finally, at about midnight we were smooth sailing again.  The water was calm, winds light and the current added to knots to our speed for a total of 7 easy knots.

In the morning, Eric gave me 2 extra hours to sleep.  This is a good thing! Then while he was napping, I waxed parts of the boat’s cabin top, helped Roy get his fishing lines out, and whipped up a great breakfast.  This was going to be a great day.  But something weird was happening with the wind, current and autopilot.  On two occasions, I was up front waxing and all of a sudden the sails started flapping.  We were totally off course, each time I got it fixed.  The last time, Roy started yelling “Fish ON”.  So I was trying to straighten out the boat and Roy discovered it wasn’t a fish but he (actually I) had gotten the line wrapped on the boat.  Once again, “Eric, wake up, wake up, I need help.”  I had to get my mask and go down to unwrap the fishing line from the propeller.  The water off of the Florida coast is nothing like that beautiful blue glass color of the Caribbean.

Next, we were back to sailing along at 7.5 knots.  This is a good thing!  Roy pointed out the numerous jelly fish we were sailing past.  That was scary since I was just in there.  Unlike the clear tentacle free jellys in the Caribbean, these had red tops with tentacles.  I’m not sure, but I think they are cannonball jellyfish.  I didn’t get stung, That’s a good thing!

If all this wasn’t bad enough, we got attacked by several swarms of bugs.  At first there were just a few, then they were all over the place.  HEY we’re at least 10 miles off shore, where did they come from.

For at least 2 hours we hosed them off the boat with a salt water hose, or a brush with a bucket full of suds.  They appeared individually but quickly joined each other for mating.  I called us the Love Boat because this seemed to be their goal.  The situation was so serious that the kids and Topaz locked themselves inside with all the doors and windows closed while Eric and I tried to rinse away the swarms.

I just learned that these bugs are actually flies the locals call Florida Lovebugs.  Yes, how do you know you are in Florida?  Everyone hides from the humidity and bugs inside with the air conditioner running.

We finally made it to Port Canaveral.  Eric was apprehensive about coming here because we have to dodge cruise ships, go through a bascule bridge and a lock.  Everything went smoothly, That’s a good thing!

Finally, we had a great dinner of bbq hot dogs, yellow rice and vegetables.  The kids tried out their new poles and Roy caught two catfish.  That’s a good thing!  The flying bugs are disappearing, I can’t believe how long they’ve been with us, and so far we haven’t noticed any more pests, That’s another good thing!  We plan to stay here through Wednesday’s rocket launch.  Hopefully the wind that’s predicted come out of the North, will turn around and come from the south.

Now the day is over and I’m in my bed.  Thats a very good thing.

I feel like we’ve been here for weeks, but it’s only been 4 days. Chris Spencer, the guy who made and is installing our hard top, took care of us all the way.  We pulled into the channel after 8 days at sea and were lost, but within minutes, Chris made the calls and told us exactly which slip to tie up to.  As soon as we were settled in, we needed to report to Customs and Immigration.  On the islands this was a short bus or dinghy ride for Captain Eric, but in Fort Lauderdale the whole family needed to make their way to the office which was about 8 miles away in an industrial office complex.  Since most of our errands were going to require a car, our first order of business was to call Hertz to come get us.  The kids think this mini van is the same one we drove from Kissimmee to the Miami airport in November, we got a free upgrade and a free GPS in the car, I felt like it was my birthday.

The real reason why we’re here in Fort Lauderdale is the appointment we made with Chris Spencer months ago to set Makai up with a hard top over the cockpit.  It’s a real upgrade for the boat to move from the canvas bimini to this fiberglass top.

The kids and I helped remove the old canvas.  Bonjour, Makai is feeling naked with her top off.

Thursday morning the top arrived. They fastened it to a crane that was able to swing it’s arm from the parking lot over to the boat.

Then gently lower it into place.  Chris set up temporary supports and clamped the back to the Targa wing.

Then he and Eric went to work.  Chris filled the old holes, mounted forward supports filled, ground and blended the fiberglass from the top to the wing, and hooked up the wires to power up the built in lighting.

This top won’t leak in a rain storm, we can walk on it for better access to the boom and main sail, or sit on top to enjoy a new view.  We haven’t had time to appreciate it yet, but everyone tells us its a huge upgrade.

Now for shopping.  According to my American Express, we shopped at:  West Marine, Costco, Supercuts, Old Navy, Ross, McDonalds, KMart, Bed Bath and Beyond, Golden Corral, a Pet Store, Michaels, Home Depot, a Soda Fountain Store, Subway, Bass Pro Shop, and Napa Auto Parts.  That’s only my list, Eric has his own list as well.

The girls had been using napkins to make doll clothes.  Ten dollars of multi colored felt squares kept everyone busy for hours.

Roy spent hours at the fishing counter in West Marine having his old poles and reels checked out and selecting new one for his birthday.

Roy also mounted the poles in his room to protect them from the elements on the back rail.  Roy got a heavy trolling rig and a lighter weight casting rig.

Roy and the guy at the fishing counter also collected several lures and even some smelly oil to soak the lure in to attract a hungry fish.  I’m excited!

At Ross I bought a set of flameless candles.  They provide ambiance and a little light without the frustration of blowing out, melted wax all over the place, and remembering to light and blow them out.  At Costco we were happy to stock up on all the regular items, paper and soap products as well as all our favorite fruits.  From Bed Bath and Beyond we got a Sodastream machine.  Do you remember the pictures of the Cokes Eric had stored all over the place.  Well, after lugging 2L bottles by the dozens through the streets of the islands, and finding places for the trash, I decided to try the Sodastream machine.  I also found a fountain drink distributor for Coca Cola syrup because Eric only likes the real thing.  Success, everyone is happy, and I love the plain carbonated water.  The only problem is that the syrup only lasts about 2 months and has an expiration date.  We’ll have to see how that goes.

There is a baby Golden Retriever, his name is Rio, at the marina office.  I took dozens of pictures but most all of them were blurred because the little guy never stopped moving.  Topaz wasn’t impressed, but the kids couldn’t stop squishing, squeezing, and touching the little fuzz ball.

Friday the kids and I decided to check out the Bass Pro Shop.  This place was amazing.  The merchandise was only a small part of the attraction. It was the displays, decorations, aquariums, restaurant and museum that kept us there for 4 hours.  This place was like Disneyland, there was a parking structure, bus drop off locations, a lake with  a beach and watersports lessons.

Roy bought himself a bigger tackle box.

The Fishing Hall of Fame Museum was top notch.

There were rooms that described tackle, game fish habitats, hall of fame records, conservation.

The kids played these virtual reality fishing games.  They caught about 6 different types of fish from the bite to landing it.

Out back is a wetlands nature walk with these tiny frogs, birds, fish, grasses and of course, it wouldn’t be Florida without an……..

Alligator.

Today we have just a few little chores to finish up on before we leave.

How do you know you are in Florida?Everyone stays inside with the air conditioner running to hide from the bugs and humidity.  The first few mornings and evenings we got massacred by no see ums.  They swarmed all over us.  We had to stay inside with the doors and windows closed and a sheet over our heads.  Finally we got it worked out, hooked up to shore power and turned on the air conditioner.

The plan is to leave this afternoon and head for New Smyrna Beach and Ponce De Leon inlet, about 200nm and a day and a half north of here. This is a place we visited by land last November with my mom, and she’s planning to rent there next winter so we’ll visit by boat in the fall.  I’m guessing we’ll stay for just a few days before heading for Maryland or Virginia on one more long passage.  After that we’ll spend most of June and July in Lower New England, NY, CT, MA, RI.

I won’t bore you all with the details of the trip, I think I posted plenty of boring rambling text from the boredom of days at sea.  Here are some pictures we took along the way.

Small diversions created much excitement.  Here we are watching the dolphins that entertained us for about 30 minutes.

Surprisingly all these months we’ve had very few dolphin encounters.  We were impressed with their speed.  Makai was zipping along at 7 kts here and those dolphins were zig zagging in front of us.

The sunsets were beautiful.  When we’re at anchor we often miss the sunset because we’re too busy with dinner or movies.  This passage was heading west and every evening the person on watch just had to do their job and look out ahead.  This is enough to see the sunset every evening.

Poor Marie has several queezy nights.  When she wasn’t feeling well her favourite place to sleep was in the cockpit with her Little Mermaid pillow and fuzzy pink princess blanket.

On one of our calm sailing days, we had a chance to take a dip.  We took turns dragging off the back of the boat.

Roy liked dragging from the end of the rope.  That was to scary for me, it’s hard to hang on to a rope being towed at 3 kts.

Genny is the one who organized this activity, she’s like our cruise director or something.

After their first swim, someone had the bright idea to use soap and scrub some stink off.

Our nights are rigid two hour watches.  Daytime is a loose schedule.  Here Eric is trying out the Little Mermaid pillow and pink fuzzy princess blanket.  He said it was very comfortable.

For most of the trip we rarely saw any other boats.  Throughout the entire trip we only saw 1 or 2 boats smaller than a tanker or cruise ship.

We have an AIS system on board that transmits vessel data to and receives from other ships with this system.  It’s mandatory for the large commercial vessels to have AIS, and many private boats also have it.  This is really handy on night watch, often we see the AIS contact before seeing the ships lights.

Eric decided it was time to rinse off the watermaker’s prefilters.  He does this by tying a line to the filter and dragging it off the back.  Then the kids played with it a bit and figured out how to make it do tricks by turning and twisting the line.

It’s nice to see the ocean litter free, but occasionally something does pop up.  Here’s the fender Roy dragged in.  After cleaning, filling it with air, and trying to fix the leak, it was tossed in the dumpster here in Ft. Lauderdale.

We had Eric’s birthday brownies before night watches began.  Since I tossed the used candles out at the last birthday party, we had to use the sparkler again.  Fireworks are always a big hit.

Here is a Disney cruise ship.  I pictured all these people staying in Disney themed rooms and having dinner with the characters.  I’m not sure what they do on a Disney cruise ship, but Eric said that’s probably as close as we’ll ever get to one.

Topaz is the biggest trooper here.  She had to do her business on the back step which wasn’t always level, or dry.  After days and days, her boredom really started to show.

One of the pieces of data the AIS transmits is the ships speed.  We noticed that the tankers cruised at 12 kts and the cruise ships usually went around 20 kts.

Here’s a shot of the water on a wind free motoring day.  This picture made the surface look way more bumpy that it seemed to be that day.

The Captains quarters are the starboard aft cabin.  The two aft cabins are the most stable places on the boat.  When we have a bumpy night, everyone piles into my bed.  This cabin is also right next to the steering station.  All you have to do is look down the hatch to see what mischief those kids are getting into.

Just as we were approaching the western edge of the Bahamas, our trip log reached 1000nm

Then just as quickly as 1000nm was displayed, the trip meter automatically reset itself back to zero.

Eric thought the port engines vibration was unusual. He looked here and there and then decided to jump in and look below.  Since there was no wind, he could do this easily.

Finally, after over a week and 1000 nm, we found this tiny piece of island with a lighthouse.  This island is Great Isaac and out in the middle of nowhere. We pulled over to a shallow place near here and rested for four hours waiting until 11pm to make our Gulf Stream crossing.  This set us up for a daylight arrival.

Early the next morning, the Fort Lauderdale skyline greeted us.

From the harbor entrance we traveled south along the ICW for a few miles to the marina.  This area is also shipping port.

Now we’re safely tucked into a marina waiting for a hard fiberglass top for our cockpit to be installed.

It took one week and almost 1 day to complete 1075nm. It was a wild 24 hours. We motored through flat calm water, anchored for 4 hours at the edge of the Bahama Bank. Everyone was excited to see a speck of land with a Lighthouse on it. At 11pm, we headed out into the Gulf Stream. The wind was on the nose, and the water had the motion of a washing machine. In the end, Eric cranked up both engines full blast and we plowed across in 8 hours.

Sorry for the abbreviated email, I’ll put together proper post with photos soon.

We’re 1 week out and 958 nm along, 140 nm in the last 24 hours. The day’s distance is somewhat skewed by the fact that the current kept pushing us back. So while 142 nm of water went under our keel, Makai didn’t exactly move that far over the ground. Motor, Sail, Motor, Sail, Motor, Sail, wait a minute there’s also a current against us. For all of our pushing along at 6.5 kts, we only make 4.5 kts towards our way point. I got out the chart this morning and checked the current arrows on it. Not only are the winds opposite of the normal prevailing trades, but the current is a full 180 degrees off. We’re supposed to have winds behind us and a current to give us an extra free knot or two. The good news is that the barn door is within sight. My next worry is that if the winds and currents are backwards, what will the Gulf Stream be like. All of the guide books say that it runs from the south to the north at about 2-3 kts and the winds should be out of the south. If there is any northern component, they say don’t go into the gulf stream. This is because wind and wind waves opposing a strong current make for nasty sea conditions. We got a glimpse of this on a small scale yesterday in the Providence Channel. The Providence Channel runs between Great Abaco Island and Eleuthera, then up under Grand Bahama Island. This place is like a tanker and cruise ship freeway. With all this traffic, no movies on watch for me. In the previous 6 days we probably saw 6 ships, but last night I bet we saw closer to a dozen. Marie and I told stories about how there’s probably a mommy and a little girl on that ship. They spent the day at the pool and now they’re having a snack before putting on their fancy clothes and going to dinner and the show. Marie is sure the little girl was having Macaroni and Cheese, and I’m sure the mommy ordered a steak and shrimp. I guess after a week, your imagination takes over. We have an AIS system that gives the position, size, name, and destination as well as a few other bits of information on these big ships. Eric said he saw one that was heading south to St. Thomas at the beginning of the week, and just saw it again coming back. Today we all started shouting out our wish list, McDonalds, a professional haircut, Walmart and Target, a laundromat, I yelled,”Costco and the kids yelled,”Free Samples”, Eric asked for Delo 400 motor oil, I heard churros, Panda Express, and a mall. Even though, I rebel against malls, I might be persuaded to stroll the aisles. I think I even heard Topaz barking for grass. The biggest obstacle to this plan will be transportation. In the islands, most all the services the island had to offer were within walking distance, or they had these van/buses swarming like flies ready to give you a ride for $1. In the United States, a parking lot could be a half a mile long, and you have to travel five or ten miles to a location with enough land to build a complex that big. Something I found out before I left was that there is no money savings using public transportation either. It could cost our family of 5 a small fortune taking a bus to McDonalds. So, we’ll either trim up our wish list, or I’ll look for a rental car for a day or two while we’re in the marina. Our plans are all up in the air now. We don’t need to enter Ft. Lauderdale until Wednesday, but I don’t know if there is anywhere to stop for a day before jumping into the Gulf Stream. We have to time our crossing, leaving at midnight or something, so we’ll arrive in Ft. Lauderdale during daylight. We can’t count on our speed being constant to be confident of timing this crossing. I guess all of these questions will be answered by tomorrow.

We’re 6 days out and 818 nm along, 143nm in the last 24 hours. We’re finally getting over the fact that we alternate motoring and sailing. We did have some nice wind yesterday. Then all of a sudden, it began to shift further to the west and knocked us off course. What the heck, we have wind, lets just do some tacking, except that after three more hours we only gained two miles toward our destination. Luckily, the wind died, the engine came back on and we’ve been heading straight toward our destination On watch I alternate between watching movies on my iPhone streamed from the UEBO and listening to John Hunt’s audio bible study, I just finished his teachings on the book of Mark. We’re racing to finish our Community Bible Study on the book of Mark as well. When I get back to Sprint 3G I can get back to listening to Sea Coast Grace’s Sunday services. With all this online church, there’s no excuses to not know what is contained inside the pages of the bible. Doing a study provides better explanations that I could get by reading it sequentially by myself. It’s a stretch trying to find something interesting around here. Yesterday we laid around on the trampoline up front, listened to Charlotte’s web, and did a bit of reading. The islands are about 25nm off the port side, but yesterday we had a fly visit us as well as a giant moth. This morning Roy went out and said, “Land Ho!”, if you squint really hard, you can see a bit of Eluthera. We also saw a Disney Cruise ship go by, Eric told the girls that’s as close to a Disney Cruise ship they would get, so he took their picture. Most all of the day’s homework is finished and the kids are watching Gilligan’s Island waiting for their lunch, yellow rice and meatballs. ARE WE THERE YET!

We’re 5 days out and 675 nm along, 136nm in the last 24 hours. Most of those miles are under power. Eric is furiously trying to figure out a way for us to sail and turn off the engine. Maybe we need to try getting there by the ash breeze. I learned this one from Carry on Mr. Bowditch. Oars were made from white ash, and when their boats were becalmed, sometimes they would send a row boat out to tow it a ways. Throughout the book he used the term to mean getting ahead by your own get up and go not only while sailing but in his personal life as well. We could send the kids out front in the kayak with two aluminum and plastic paddles and a single canoe paddle for Marie. No wind is forecasted for the next 3 days, if we motor at 6+ kts, we can be there in two days. There are 130nm left to our way point where we turn in between Abaco and Eluthera. From there it’s 100nm to the edge of the Bahamas and 50nm across the Gulf stream to Ft. Lauderdale. The wind comes and goes out of nowhere. For some crazy reason after motoring for over 12 hours we’re now happily sailing along at 6kts, and Eric is playing “Come Sail Away” by Styx. Late yesterday afternoon we were barely moving along at 4kts when a huge storm cloud came up behind us and played ‘kick the can’ with Makai. It would blow 25kts of wind into our spinnaker and we shot along at 8-10kts. Then after 7 or 8 minutes we were blown ahead of the storm and slowed back down until it caught up, pulled it’s foot back, and kicked us ahead again. Lots of fun. But that was the beginning of the squalls. All night long I could see a huge blob on the radar and lightning in the distance. The squalls seemed to form at San Salvador Island. Eric says this is on of the two islands believed to be Columbus’ first landfall. Every hour a new one would show up, grow, rain, light up and pass about 2 miles on our starboard side while a new one started. Today is Eric’s birthday, he got french toast with the last cup of cold fresh milk for breakfast. Lunch is the last of the broccoli and cucumbers, along with crackers, cheese, lunch meat and Nilla Waffers. We’re planning burritos on home made tortillas and brownies for dinner. The galley is well stocked. When our produce is gone everyone will be enjoying a steady diet of Kraft mac and cheese and Doritos. This morning Roy spotted a fender to add to our collection. He and Eric spotted some birds standing on it. Roy spent some time scraping and scrubbing to get the growth off it. After that a pod of dolphins came by. Genny said they are wishing Eric happy birthday. Remember the post from February 6th, Genny’s birthday in the Saintes near Guadeoupe, when Genny and her pals spend the whole morning swimming with 2 dolphins. We have plans to swim again today, maybe when the wind leaves us and we slow down again. Hopefully waiting for it to die down will ensure it doesn’t.