So much has happened since I last blogged. I guess you could say reality hit us in the face pretty hard during our attempt to sail from Pensacola to Key West.

Backing up a bit…

…while in Turners, we did receive our mainsail on December 7^th as expected. Very shortly after that we started making our way along the coast. Our first day had us in thick fog that almost caused us to turn back. We pushed on and saw countless dolphins that day as we made our way across Mobile Bay to our anchorage in Ingram. At night fall, with dolphins all around us, we slowly made our way in to our anchorage in the thickest fog we have ever seen! The radar was so helpful at giving us all the information we needed to stay safe. The next day we continued down to Pensacola. By the time we saw our destination come into view we were hammering into 30+ knot winds! The anchorage was wonderfully sheltered which was good as little did we know at that time, it was to be our home for a week. A fierce system out on the Atlantic was pushing very strong winds into the Gulf of Mexico. We had to wait it out. I unfortunately ended up getting so stressed at the idea of not making it to Key West in time to meet Alex on December 23rd.  I should’ve known that one way or another we would make things work out. Today is Christmas Day and we are NOT in Key West but Alex is happily here spending a very special Christmas with us on Starship!

We are currently at Harborage Marina in St. Petersburg, Florida, on the north side of Tampa Bay. We are here for many reasons and Starship did not come into this marina under her own power unfortunately…more on that later.

So in Pensacola, we were with three other boats, Fika, La Fronda and Sol Maria. We all enjoyed time together as we waited out the weather. One evening we all had a beach BBQ and the following morning I led a beach yoga session for a few of us! 

So December 18^th was the big day we were waiting for. After following multiple weather forecast apps we saw what we thought was a good window to make our three day journey to Key West.  We were expecting following winds the first two days at 20 knots gusting to 25 knots.  The third day the wind was to shift from the east and be a bit stronger. Not ideal but still suitable in our opinion. Here’s the thing about weather forcasts…they are rarely bang on. So that first day was lovely…much lighter winds than forecasted and when the breeze filled in, we had beautiful following seas through the night. Very big waves but Starship and her autohelm handled it perfectly! Unfortunatlye by this point, Jason was quite seasick. The next day the winds got higher and shifted from the east earlier than forecasted. Dylan’s stomach then decided it also did not like the conditions. My two guys were very seasick for most of the trip. Things just started to get harder and harder for us. From that first night, there was no way any of us could spend any time below. This meant no real sleep for any of us. The only spot that could work for resting was on the floor in the cockpit and we let Dylan have it most of the time.

The waves! Despite the dodger and bimini, we had many waves break right on us in the cockpit. The wave water got through our rain gear and we were all soaked from that first night for the rest of the trip. Dylan and Jason were not eating anything due to their nausea. Ginger gravol did not help. I was happy to see regular gravol helped Dylan quite a bit but knocked him out pretty good. That obviously was not going to be something Jason could take. I was managing the best I could but I needed him to stay conscious! My stomach was holding strong but I could tell that eating anything was not going to be a good idea. Day two turned into night two and by the time dawn broke on day three we were getting headed and could not point towards Key West. We could point to Cuba but obviously that was not going to work for us.

We made the decision to turn back and do our best to line up for Tampa Bay. We were further off shore than we thought and spent all day and into the night heading into there. By this time we were all starting to really suffer from no sleep, not being able to eat and from being soaked to the bone for so long. The trip had stripped us of all our comforts and essentials. We needed to stop the boat.  We needed rest. Dylan was such a trooper and we are so crazy proud of him! He stayed calm and cooperative through everything. Each time he’d barf, he’d take a sip of water after, sit back and either smile or crack a joke! His incredible resilience those three days meant the world to Jason and I. We were in a very difficult situation now dealing with extreme exhaustion and little did we know that night had more drama to throw at us. At about 10:30 PM we were motor sailing making our approach to go under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.  It’s an amazing structure that sits 175 feet in the air, all lit up in various colours. It was at that point though that we started drastically losing propulsion. We had been having transmission issues for a bit. Jas had suspected it was due to the fact that he could only find synthetic transmission oil while we were on the rivers. We were in a situation where we could not make headway under motor into the wind and waves. I was done. I was beyond done and the exhaustion and the stress of the situation was really affecting me.  I was clearly hearing voices and music that wasn’t there (it was the song Tubthumping by Chumbawamb and I am only now seeing the irony!). We were in a very active shipping channel and had to now dig deep to find the strength and energy to tack into the winds while avoiding freighters in order to line up the perfect tack to get us under the bridge. As you can imagine, the marine traffic radio controller was very interested in what we were doing. We were in regular communication with him as we reassured him that we would be sure to clear the channel when ships were approaching. Once depths inside the bay no longer allowed us to sail, we crossed our fingers and turned the engine on.  We were not far from our marina and hoped so much that we’d be able to make just enough headway to get us there. If not, we thought we’d be able to go backwards as we thought we’d still be able to have momentum in reverse gear.  Jason shifted into reverse as he said to us ‘hold on guys, this ain’t going to be pretty’! I was so disappointed to see our speed over ground remain at zero knots. We were officially dead in the water. Thank goodness, in that moment we were clear of the shipping channel and in about 22 feet of water. We needed to get the anchor down fast in order to avoid drifting into shallows. Our wonderful anchor grabbed the ground hard but we were now anchored in about 3 foot waves and big winds. We did not know if it would hold. By now it was 5 AM. With very tired brains we tried to determine what our best course of action was. The marine traffic controller advised us to call the Coast Guard. We explained our situation to the Coast Guard making sure they know we had a child on board. As we fully expected, they were not going to come tow us to our marina. Knowing we were anchored, they advised us to call a tow service.  They asked us to let them know if our situation changed though before a tow could get to us. I made some pasta and very shortly after inhaling it, Dylan passed out in his berth.

We have an excellent, oversized anchor with 250 feet of brand new chain that we always feel very confident with. This felt different though. We have never anchored in conditions like that and our confidence in that anchor holding us dwindled as each wave hit us. Jason, utterly exhausted, pulled out a secondary anchor, let out all of our chain and set the anchor alarm. We will need to call a tow but wanted to talk to our insurance company first so that we followed the procedure correctly (ie. do we need to get multiple quotes first?). We could not do that until the office opened three hours later. We cautiously crawled into the v-berth and closed our eyes. That day was our 27^th wedding anniversary and it certainly was one we will never forget.

The anchor held. As soon as possible in the morning, we talked to our insurance company and lined up a tow to come get us. The tow was fully covered and the service we had was prompt and amazing. By noon we were tied up to our dock. We spent the rest of the day eating, hydrating and sleeping. We connected with Fika, La Fronda and Sol Maria as we all compared stories of our tough passage. The next day we had a lot of work to do getting the boat cleaned up.  It literally looked like a bomb went off down below after the huge waves we endured for so long. That passage was a huge eye opener to us. We were in winds we’ve sailed in many, many times back on Lake Winipeg. The big difference here was the length of time we had to spend in those conditions! There are several things we need to assess now like trying other nausea remedies and sewing panels to attach to our bimini to help deflect waves to keep us dry. There needs to be a way for us to sleep on passage. Becoming fairweather sailors to me seems to be the best option!

So at this point it was was December 22^nd and Alex was to fly into Key West December 24^th. We arranged to rent a car and planned to drive there to retrieve him. In the end, Alex ended up flying into Tampa so that actually worked out nicely. On December 23^rd, Jason, Dylan and I enjoyed going on a last minute Christmas shipping adventure to Clearwater. We had a wonderful time! Up to that point I had not gotten a thing to wrap for under the tree for the boys.  We did not get much but I was happy to return to the boat with a few things for Christmas morning. On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, Alex was on Starship giving me the biggest and most needed hug ever. Remembering that moment has me in tears as I write this. His travels from Sydney, Nova Scotia were very daunting for him unfortunatley. His bag did not leave Sydney on the same flight he did and in the end he spent a sleepless night in the Toronto airport. His bag found him and a nap, shower and beer fixed him right up once we got him onto the boat. Christmas Eve, we had a pork loin roast dinner and enjoyed a fun night just hanging out and listening to Christmas music.  We all delightfully slept in this morning before the coffee was made and the boys started opening their stockings. I loved how happy we all were even though the gifts were small and few.  It didn’t matter and the boys loved the fishing lures, t-shirts and candy they unwrapped together! Another wonderful thing happened today!  With the boat smelling wonderfully of the turkey in the oven, Jas and Alex optimistically tried our ‘fix’ on the transmission. The thought is that the synthetic oil had caused a build up that was not allowing the discs to grab and engage. Doing his research, including sending out a Facebook post, Jas talked to a number of people about our situation. We were reassured that running a mix of oil and mineral spirits through the transmission would clean it out and should resolve the issue. Alex being a Marine Engineer also set my mind at ease.  I just knew that he and Jas would be able to figure it out.  If not, we would need to send the transmission away to be fixed and that would completely set us back. Well, it worked! As I am typing this, Jas and Alex are running the mix through the transmission and shifting us forward and reverse while tied to the dock. Very quickly into the process I could feel that it was working. This is fantastic! We will get off the dock in the next day or so to do a test run.

Oh, I forgot to mention the other damage we incurred! During our passage the rope holding down our anchor on the bow let go and the anchor took chunks out of the gelcoat. The biggest issue there is to repair it in a way that will prevent any moisture from seeping further under the gelcoat. The plan is to do a quick and dirty patch job to seal it for now with plans on adding a silver cover plate onto the bow as soon as we can.

Going forward we are going to be more cautious with weather predictions. That being said, we now see what could be two nice, calm days opening up next weekend!  We could be arriving in Key West just in time for New Year’s Eve!  Alex flies out of Key West on January 5^th. Once I have sadly hugged my guy goodbye, we will be watching for our weather opportunity to sail to the Bahamas.

This Christmas truly has been unbelievable in many ways. As much as we are loving our Starship Christmas with the boys, we are feeling our heartstrings being pulled thinking of family back home in Winnipeg. We have enjoyed a few video visits with both sides of our family. That’s been great, but of course not the same. Still, I am very happy for this incredible and unique Christmas with my three guys!

The turkey is almost done so I’d better get busy with making the mashed potatoes and ‘Aunt Fran’s green bean casserole’!

May you have a wonderful, peaceful Christmas wherever you are. It is truly a gift to me to have all of you reading and following us on our journey.