Day 5 Passage Southbound: Miami Arrival!

November 18
The log today is pretty sparse….we were too busy looking for traffic to write! We hugged the shore (3/4 miles offshore) to try and find the elusive counter current. Every time we have transited from North Palm Beach to Miami we have been trapped with the north flowing river, aka the Gulf Stream, and battled up to a 3 knot current. This trip we were successful and had between 0 knots of current and 2 knots of favorable current. Yay! 

We passed Ft Lauderdale right at sunset and were very busy watching our radar screen through Miami. It’s hard to distinguish boat lights against shore lights, and very tiring. We’d be dead if our entire passage had been like this! 

We anchored in the dark and felt pretty pleased with ourselves for completing the passage without too much suffering. Even though we did have some drama with the engines, it was an easy passage. Other than this last night, neither of us left tired and we handled the night watches much better than in the past. This passage really gave us confidence that we can handle longer passages. We also gained 40 degrees Fahrenheit and 20 minutes of daylight! Exciting times.
Final Passage Sunrise
8:20am Matt up. Cheerios and coffee!
11:33am Just passed The Breakers, Palm Beach. Bieberbird has finally departed the nest. Guess he wanted to visit Palm Beach! Trump’s oversized American flag at Mar-a-Lago in sight.
4:35pm So many boats everywhere; ships and pleasure boaters and crazy fishermen. Oh my! Broad reaching between 5 and 8 kts, approaching Port Everglades Inlet.
Ft Lauderdale sunset
9:15PM. Who knew there were so many boats in Miami, and they’d all be so hard to see at night against the city lights. Thank goodness for radar. 
10:03pm All the M&Ms are gone. Situation dire.
1050pm Arrive at Key Biscayne, anchor in the dark outside No Name Harbor with two other boats. We did it! (When we awoke the next day, we were basically in the channel. Key Biscayne seemed a lot closer in the dark!) 
582 NM total by knotlog
108.5 hours total, 19 hours with motor on
What larks!

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  1. Hopefully Matt put milk on his Cheerios and had the coffee on the side :-) Well done on the passage. Now it's time to restock the M&Ms.

    1. Yes, very astute about Matt's breakfast! Sadly, the M&Ms are a passage only treat, otherwise we wouldn't be able to get into the engine rooms and stare at them. They're also a very pricey snack!

  2. I'm sure the 19 hours under motor felt a lot longer, but those are some impressive stats (especially for those of us who find themselves always beating into the wind, sigh). And the 40 degree increase in temperature doesn't sound too shabby either.

    Stephanie @ SV CAMBRIA

    1. When Matt asked how many hours we ran the engines, I said about 3. So that's what it felt like! Then I went back and counted and it was more than I thought.... I'm very good at blocking out bad times!

    2. Some weather God really smiled on us, because while we did a lot of close reach upwind sailing, we never once ran the engine for any reason other than the wind dying and out speed dropping to depressing lows. And even the upwind bits were comfortable. It was amazing!

  3. The first 2 nights on a passage are always the worst. It sounds like you are ready for longer ones now; such good experience. I"m glad it all went pretty uneventful! And, I am jealous of the weather.

    1. The weather is amazing! I think I might be a snow bird / sun seeker at heart!


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