Our second attempt at leaving Ft Lauderdale with Aquarius was on Thursday, November 14th. The trip was much more succesfull than our first attempt.
We woke up early and made final preparations to sail, removing the 120v power cords, taking our trash off, stowing gear, and topping off the charge on the batteries. This time I was sure to check all the fluids, including the transmission, as well as power up one more time at the dock.
Alan came by to see us off at about 8:00 along with Alicia and Captain Karen Hill. We were very pleasantly surprised when Janet from 'Wings' came by as well, bringing a wonderfull care package for us with candy, canned stew, and gourmet coffe.
Kurt Gahagan came again with the two tugs 'Courageous' at about 9:30 to tow us down the river. I still didn't think the New River with all of the multi million dollar yachts was the best place for me to get a feel for Aquarius' helm. This time we arranged to have him tow us all the way out to the sea bouy. We needed to get Aquarious out of Ft. Lauderdale for less expensive storage, though we weren't sure where. We knew we weren't going back up the New River this time !
Captain Hill rode out on one of the tug boats to see us off, and Alan rode in the other with Captain Gahagan. The trip down the river was uneventfull this time, though we had decided to leave the damaged dinghy behind at Summerfield Boat Works tied up to Alan's boat.
We got our first feel of Aquarius on the open ocean at 10:30 as the tugs took us out of the Port Everglades channel through 3-4' swells. The little tugs were getting tossed around a lot more than we were. They let us go about two miles out and I started the engine. Eugene took the wheel as I struggled to raise sail for the first time at sea. All went well and we were soon sailing a course due N at 8nm, with the gulf stream giving us an extra push.
Both Eugene and I got seasick that first day out, but both of us threw up with smiles on our faces. I tried to get some sleep from 1600-1800, but only rested. Eugene went below and slept well from 1900 to 2230. The winds started to pick up during the evening, gusting to 15nm with 6-7' seas.
We soon found out that we hadn't stowed our gear below as well as we should have, as things flew about in the cabin. The microwave oven went flying, and broke the propane stove on it's way to the cabin floor.
Eugene took the helm at 2330 and I went below to get some sleep. Eugene woke me up again at about 0100 with a yell below of "Captain, the winds are picking up!". I hurriedly donned my harness, coat and life jacket to head up on deck. Winds were gusting to 25nm and the boat was flying along at +10nm. It was time to take down the staysail, and I was volunteered for the job in the dark. I got the sail down and lashed to the rail, barely getting wet, though it was an exciting trip to the bow for the deck work. Aquarius slowed down and rode much easier on the 8' seas. Eugene slept a bit as I rode the weather, 'till I woke him up to relieve me at 0330. He sailed on while I slept.
I woke up at sunrise and found that we were drifting under very light shifting winds, pointing south but drifting north with the gulf stream current. I started the motor and ran it north for about half an hour untill we started catching a light but steady breaze from the east. We raised the staysail back up again before Eugene went below to get his sleep from 0700-1000.
We had a few visitors to the boat during the day. A small bird flew around the boat several times, then landed here and there on the deck. At one point he landed on Eugene's shoe to rest for a while in the cockpit with us. We also had our first visit from a pair of dolphins who were playing in the wake off of our bow.
I went to start the engine at 1400 but found that the batteries were too drained to crank it over. Worse yet, the auxiliary generator had taken a tumble in the cabin from the rough seas the night before and wouldn't start, having leaked oil back through the carb. I tried to fix the generator with no luck. I wasn't real thrilled to sail into the night with no lights and no engine.
At 1500 we called for Tow Boat US to see if they could come give us a jump start. They dispatched a boat from Sebastian and they met us at about 1730, about 3nm off Vero Beach. The seas were too rough for them to raft up and give us a jump start. They passed us a fresh battery and a set of jumper cables, but it wasn't enough to get the engine started for us.
The tow boat Captain asked if we wanted to sail on for Cape Canaveral, but I told him I wasn't comfortable with that. They then asked if we wanted a tow in to Fort Pierce or Cape Canaveral. We decided to have them tow us in to Fort Pierce for a jump start, as we were both dead tired and din't think we'd make it the 50 miles to Cape Canaveral in tow..
It took over three hours to make it to Fort Pierce. They took us to an anchorage on the ICW and then rafted up and gave us a jump start. I went dead to sleep at 2330 while Eugene stayed up on watch a while to see how well we rode on the anchor...
(c)Copyright 2003 by Eugene Kashpureff