Nassau, Bahamas to Cape Canaveral, Florida

On Monday, May 22nd, Justin and Uncle Mike started off the day by taking the dingy to shore to pick up beers and ice. I got to do a 40 minute workout while they were gone. We left Nassau mid morning. We had calm waters and 6 to 8 knots of wind. The boat's speed was 4 to 6 knots. We put up the asymmetrical spinnaker at 1:30 pm as we had ideal conditions for it. Justin was super excited as this was our first time using the newly installed bow sprit. The bow sprit and asymmetrical spinnaker should allow us to travel faster in 5 to 20 knots of wind. We divided the day into 6 shifts, each four hours long. I took the 12 am/pm to 4 am/pm shifts; Justin, 4 am/pm to 8 am/pm shifts; and Uncle Mike, 8 am/pm to 12 pm/am shifts. Justin made us Bahama Mamas in the evening, and we had salad and pizza for dinner. We lost the wind around 5:00 pm. So we had to motor for about 5 hours, but we sailed for the rest of the night.

Uncle Mike raising anchor in Nassau Harbour

Downtown Nassau as we head out

Uncle Mike getting his sea legs

Justin getting out the asymmetrical spinnaker

Justin raising the asymmetrical spinnaker with the new bow sprit

Justin might be a little excited

The following morning, Justin discovered that the bow sprit had failed. The hinge had broken completely apart, even though we were using the bow sprit within the proper conditions (we had only seen between 12 and 18 knots of wind during the night). Justin was so disappointed. He pulled down the spiniker immediately. For the rest of the day, we were broad reaching with 12 to 18 knots of wind. The boat was doing 5 to 7 knots, but we were working against a knot of current, which slowed us down to 4 to 6 knots in terms of course over ground. Justin made us bacon and eggs for lunch. It was a beautiful, sunny day. I read some books on sailing, and I did yoga on the bow during the afternoon. Uncle Mike suffered from sea sickness, but he responded well to sea sickness medication. Over the night, our boat speed increased to 7 to 10.5 knots and we had 3 to 4 knots of current on top of that. So with white sails only, we were doing over 13 knots consistently in terms of course over ground. I did a workout on my night shift. The autohelm died at 4:00 am, and Justin hand steered for his shift.

The failed bow sprit after less than 24 hours of operation

Myself taking advantage of the calm waters to get in some yoga on the bow despite the boat heeling over 15 degrees

Myself doing yoga on the bow

On May 24th, we entered the Port Canaveral Canal early in the morning. We saw dolphins playing in the canal. Uncle Mike and I readied the boat for a starboard side docking. We docked at Ocean Club Marina in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 9:00 am.