Our passage from Nassau to Ft. Lauderdale was cake. Light winds and small seas made for a pleasant motor-sailing experience. We crossed the Northeast Providence Channel during the day, sailed over the banks and entered the Gulf Steam overnight, and had our dock lines secured in Dania Beach by 11am the following morning – 26 hours after we cast off from The Atlantis Marina.
Night sailing is one of my favorite parts of cruising. This is one of those things that makes me a total weirdo. I get anxious about docking weeks ahead of time, but put me at the helm alone in the middle of a pitch black ocean and I’m cool. Better than cool, I’m alive. On my 12a-3a watch this time I had two cargo ships pass with about a mile between us. A mile sounds like a safe enough clearance. But let me tell you, at night, when all you can see are tiny lights inching closer, a mile can look uncomfortably close.
Tideye is getting some annual maintenance and a few warranty items knocked out while we are here. Every boat owner has “The List”. It never gets shorter, but does occasionally get things crossed off. It’s time for us to start at the top while hopefully not adding too many things to the bottom in the process.
Her crew is….feeling confused. Was it all a dream? Last week we were cruising the Bahamian out islands. This week we are getting haircuts, making Target runs, and navigating superhighways. It feels like we never left, just popped right back into our stateside routine. Everything is so darn convenient! We can tackle a week’s worth of errands in a day, leaving us plenty of time to throw baseballs, walk to parks and go lizard hunting – Florida is seriously crawling with lizards. It’s a strange pause in our cruising itinerary, hopefully it’ll be a productive one. S/V Tideye is back stateside baby!
