Returning home

All good things must come to an end and the time has come to leave The Bahamas. We are heading north, first for a brief stop in Daytona, and then to take the boat north of Florida for hurricane season. And we are leaving just in time. The kids got a first hand experience in what it feels like to be almost at the Tropic of Cancer in June near the summer solstice. It was a living geography lesson. It was hot. And not just hot but the sun and UV radiation was intense. The kids renamed it the Tropic of Skin Cancer. With our schedule we could have stayed another week, but with our bodies sizzling it became an evacuation.

We woke up the morning of departure with a stowaway on board. A pigeon greeted us in the cockpit, would not leave no matter how much we tried to scare it away. I could get it to briefly fly towards land, then it would turn around and land back on the boat. And boy did it make a mess. Kim followed it around with a spray bottle of Parsley Plus because it pooped every 45 seconds. We did not want it on our boat any longer and we did not want to get stuck with it as we were losing sight of land. I can only imagine trying to clear into US Customs with a Bahamian pigeon. Finally just as we were thinking it was going to have to make the trip with us to Florida, Kim tried to catch it to be able to read its ankle bands and all she got was some tail feathers. After an hour on the boat and an entire bottle of Parsley Plus it flew away for good.

We left the Bahamas from Cat Cay just south of Bimini.

There was hardly any wind, we could only motor sail. We came across some ship traffic– cruise ships, container ships. I’m so glad I didn’t come across this guy at night. At night tow boats and barges are not lit up well, and definitely not in proportion to their potential hazard.

The sea was calm and beautiful. Kim threw a line out for us to go swimming and cool off in the afternoon.

Of course, having grown up a child of the 70’s, I had this image in my head.

But the water was clear and violet blue and it was delightful to take a break and cool off.

At one point we were joined by a pod of dolphins swimming in our bow wake.

We took four hour shifts overnight. Most of the other boat traffic we saw was cruise ships, which light up like Christmas trees at night. Ben and I took the midnight to 4 am shift and listened to a Serial podcast–got totally sucked in to where we were surprised when Kim showed up for her shift.

Nothing beats the beauty of the sunrise after sailing all night.

Originally the plan was to cross for 24 hours and go to Fort Pierce, but the Gulf Stream was helping us make great time- going 8-9 knots– so we kept going. It would have been nice to go in through Ponce Inlet to head to Daytona, but the timing was off and it would be nightfall by the time we got there so instead we went to Cape Canaveral. Port Canaveral is the world’s second busiest cruise passenger port, and I had to avoid a parade of cruise ships as they exited the port. Here is a Disney Cruise ship exiting the canal.

In those pictures it looks like a lot of room, but it didn’t feel like a lot of room. It felt like we were going to get crushed and that cruise ship not even know it hit us. I was thinking skinny thoughts, for once wishing we were a monohull, or a canoe. We survived the cruise ship, went through the lock to the river and anchored for the night. After 36 hours we were ready to rest.

We used the CBP Roam app to check back into the United States. It is new and so much easier than having to go to a customs and immigration office. Using the app the customs agent did a video conference. After running around showing my phone to the kids, “Say hi to the customs agent”, he answered with the sweetest words, “You’re all set. Welcome home.”