Hope your new year is wonderful - peaceful and loving. Well, once again the "best laid plans . . . " adage applied. We left Mayport at 8 AM with the intention of getting to Ft Pierce in late afternoon the next day and having one of their wonderful hamburgers (as opposed their $24 a dozen raw oysters!!! 'Twas not to be. The day started out nice. Light winds and calm seas. Not the best conditions for a sail boat. Still, we were able to raise both sails and make pretty good time. But things deteriorated. A couple of hours into what was supposed to be a 30 hour passage, the wind died and the sails were useless. The sun set and stars were beautiful—the Dippers, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, the Pleiades, Orion.. It was a long night and sunrise was a welcome sight. We were just off of Cape Canaveral and had traveled about 115 nautical miles. Sunrise was beautiful—reds, purples, grays—stunning. After a long, chilly night, it was cheering to behold such a spectacular sunrise. Alas, behind the beauty of the sunrise lay the old mariners’ adage, “red sky in morning . . .” by the time we were passing Vero (just a few miles from our destination) the seas were pretty rough. The waves were coming at us broadside and the boat was tossing from side to side. Peter said, “Well at least when we turn into the inlet channel, the seas will be behind us and things should smooth out. Wishful thinking! When we got to Ft Pierce WOW!!! We were getting tossed and turned, Waves up to the gunwales. Awful awful. And this in the inlet!!!! The captain was having a hard time keeping control of the boat and was concerned we were going to be tossed against the rocks! Then when we got all the way in there were a zillion day marks and I was on number patrol with my little flashlight so we could see what marks we were passing as there is a Y so we had to keep our numbers. Finally arrived and tied up to the fuel doc. AT 12:30 A.M. !!!!!!! 40 hours after leaving Mayport. Somehow, the 30 hour trip had morphed into a 40 hour trip.
But we were safe and sound. So we had a stiff rum and kept mumbling "can't believe it!!!" and hit the hay. We both slept until almost nine!!!!
Our New Year's Eve was nice. We were still tired and ready for bed by 3 pm! So I mixed up a rum punch (using Chrystal Lite Mango!) And we watched one of our favorite movies; Smokey and the Bandit II !!! I'm sure we were in bed before 8 !!
This morning we went to a farmers' market - fantastic! It's right here at the Ft. Pierce city marina. Getting close to noon and the captain is prepping for his "Tuna Ceviche with a Caribbean Twist"
We will leave for Ft. Lauderdale Sunday and arrive Monday (after a hopeful) (17 hrs) .