This is really a strange post for me to write. Our last “official” sail aboard LAHO as liveaboard cruisers. Weird. But in a good way.
What’s even stranger were the emotions running through Jer and I as we sat in the cockpit soaking up the magnitude of this final leg of our journey. Emotion-packed, bittersweet thoughts to say the least, with the sense of “coming home” stronger than anything you could imagine.
It’s really quite difficult to explain that extraordinary “coming home” feeling we had. It’s an emotion like no other. Excitement, warmth, nostalgia, anticipation, and so much more mixed into one really awesome feeling. And that is precisely what I want to remember from this last leg of our whirlwind journey. One that took us to so many exciting, beautiful places and allowed us to meet so many wonderful people along the way.
It’s feels like just yesterday that I was blogging about our maiden voyage. You know, the crazy one we made from St. Petersburg to Naples where we were surfing 10-foot waves and I was puking my guts out. Now, that trip was one for the record books. Sheesh! But to think we’ve come this far (literally and figuratively) over the past 13 months, and are now officially home in comfy cozy Naples. It’s mind boggling, really.
After weighing our options, we decided to make our final sail another overnight one. And here I was thinking our Gulf Stream Crossing the week prior was our final overnight sail.
An uneventful 110-mile sail brought us from Boot Key Harbor in Marathon, Florida Keys all the way home to beautiful Naples, otherwise known as square one of our 57-week journey.
And boy am I glad this final leg was uneventful seeing as we were once again dodging our way around a crap-trap laced mine field in the Gulf of Mexico. We figured we could make it through the majority of the traps before nightfall and continue sailing through the night to make it to Naples at a reasonable morning hour, instead of anchoring overnight at Shark River and eventually making our way to Naples by the afternoon or evening.
^^Headed back under the seven-mile bridge in Marathon.^^
We also heard it was nearly the end of crab season, and a few folks even told us there shouldn’t be as many crab pots out there since the trappers were bringing them in with season ending. I honestly can’t say I believe ^^that^^ logic after our experience last week. It was certainly another crab trap filled, trap-dodging sail, but the good news is, we didn’t hit any!
The sail was probably the hottest one we’ve had to date. Brutally hot. With zero wind at the beginning. It was so uncomfortable that I literally grabbed one of our portable fans, plugged it in, and sat hugging it in the cockpit. Sad, but true. We eventually got some much-needed wind a little later on, but those first few hours were rough.
We might’ve been lacking in the wind department, but we certainly weren’t missing out in the dolphin department.
Oh my gosh! We must’ve seen a minimum of 50 dolphin! Probably more like 75. It was crazy! Definitely the most dolphin we’ve ever seen on a sail. It’s like they were leading us home. At one point, a pod of four stuck with us for about 45 minutes. My guess is they thought we were some huge injured sea creature at the gruelingly slow pace we were making.
Oliver, of course, loved the dolphin action and ran around like the crazy poodle dolphin whisperer he is. We have lots of awesome video footage that I really need to take some time and piece together (hopefully soon!).
^^Jer capturing the action on video using our little Canon Powershot G12.^^
^^And Oliver having a mini heart attack every time we spotted more dolphin.^^
As usual, Jereme and I took shifts during the night. He had the first few four hours from 10PM to 2AM. And I took the 2AM to 6AM shift. We didn’t luck out with any sort of moon this go round. Totally moonless. Bummer. Unfortunately, with no moon on our last overnight, we had to whip out our trusty spotlight to continuously scan the dark waters ahead and check for crap pots.
Jer’s first shift was still chock full of traps so he was on guard for four hours straight, constantly scanning ahead and altering course as to not run over a trap in the dark. By the time I took the helm, we must’ve cleared the main crab pot area because I never saw a single pot, even though I scanned the water on the regular.
^^Our last sunset at sea was gorgeous!^^
By 8AM, we were motorsailing along the coast of Marco Island, anxious and excited to pull into the Naples City Dock. I’m certain we were also very very exhausted, but you would never have known since the adrenaline was pumping hard through our veins as we sailed the last few miles into Gordons Pass. It was such an odd yet awesome feeling to be in our hometown waters…seeing all of our usual landmarks and knowing we were only a short distance from home.
^^There’s Naples in the foggy distance.^^
^^All the pretty houses on the sail through Gordons Pass.^^
Once we were in the channel, we radioed the Naples City Dock and were greeted by familiar voices who were just as excited to hear us on the radio as we were to announce our arrival! Gosh, we really do love it here! And our friends on the Sweet Liberty tour boat lovingly blew their conch horn for us as we passed by.
We dropped our main sail just outside of the Naples City Dock and slowly motored into our new slip. Our awesome friends, Lisa + Wally along with Wally’s folks Cindy + Bob, were waiting at the end of our slip to surprise us with champagne, balloons, and lots of other fun gifts and goodies! We were honestly shocked to see anyone waiting for us at the dock, but it sure was the best feeling in the world!
^^They even framed our article from Florida Weekly! And gave us the coolest sail bag. How insanely thoughtful.^^
^^You guys rock!!!^^
And after all of that, we were home. Home sweet home.
We spent the rest of that first day back in Naples cleaning up the boat a tiny bit and squaring away our dock lines before Jereme’s mom met us at the dock and drove us back to their home in Naples…and also surprised us with even more fun “welcome home” goodies! We feel very spoiled to say the least. After some long hot showers with unlimited water, we spent our first night in Naples celebrating with our friends and family out on the town before cozying up in a big comfy regular-sized bed for an extra long sleep! …I’m pretty sure we didn’t wake up until noon the next day. Lol.
I have lots of thoughts on our transition back to land life, so hopefully I’ll get those cranked out on the blog soon, but for now we are still enjoying those hot showers, flush toilets, unlimited ice and water, and lots of quality time with all of our amazing friends and family.
PS – Oliver is also loving his unlimited access to a yard. ;))
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
Posted in Boat Life, Sailing Blog, Sailing LoveTags: 2015, Adventure, Bahamas, Caribbean, Cruising, Dolphin, Journey, LAHO, LahoWind, Last Sail, Marathon to Naples, naples city dock, Photos, Sailboat, Sailing Blog, Voyage
Well, we did it. Our very last overnight sail. Our trip was complete with a pod of pilot whales, lots of dolphin, a few close cargo and cruise ships, and our slowest sailing speed to date! Um, that last little tidbit is my least favorite.
Last Friday, we weighed anchor and waved goodbye to Bimini before crossing the Gulf Stream and making the 120-mile trek all the way to Marathon in the Florida Keys. We still have a two-leg trip to make it home to Naples, but it sure feels good to be back in the U.S.A.
^^love love love my new anklet from our friend Laurie at Salt Run Designs^^
We tried, and I mean tried, our hardest to soak up every second of this milestone trip. Because, let’s face it, it got a little tough to savor the monumental experience as we were gruelingly bobbing along at very slow 2 to 2.5 knots for the entire first day. There were a few times I glanced down at our chart plotter on day 1 and sighed when I saw our speed hitting a whopping 0.7 knots. Point seven! I could probably swim home faster. ;)) …We usually average about 4.5 to 5.5 knots to give you an idea of the lag here.
Our slow speed and delayed arrival time (stretching a 24-hour sail into a much longer 34-hour one) was due to the crappy combination of us fighting a strong northerly moving Gulf Stream current as we headed south, and much too calm wind conditions that left our sails luffing here and there for a good chunk of that first day.
^^a final glimpse of that Bahamas water!^^
Thankfully, our wind-less passage was met by a wave-less sea which is a-okay in my book!
If we have to sail slow, I’d definitely prefer to be doing so in pool-like conditions. It was so utterly calm out there in the Gulf Stream that you could have easily jet skied from Miami to Bimini and been there in an hour. You know what the top of a water-bed looks like when you sit on it? Well, that’s basically what the ocean looked like. Teeny tiny swell and no real waves at all!
Regardless of how calm and comfortable it was, Oliver somehow still managed to get sick on this passage. Twice. Poor guy. He hasn’t experienced any real sea sickness since our first Gulf Stream crossing last April, where both he and I were out for the count during the initial 4 or 5 hours. I’m not sure what did him in this time, but he definitely wasn’t feeling so hot.
Oh, and hello…we saw WHALES!!!
Towards the end of the first day, I was lounging in the cockpit keeping watch, auto-pilot on, with Jer taking a quick cat nap on the other side of the cockpit when I gazed out towards port and noticed a few dark fins on the horizon. Dolphin, perhaps? My excited screams jolted Jer awake while I quickly grabbed the camera to try and snap a few photos.
As we stood in the cockpit watching the dark fins swim around, we began to realize that what we suspected were dolphin weren’t actually “rolling” like they normally would. They were kinda just floating at the surface, much much longer than normal. As a few of them swam closer to the boat, Jer and I kept questioning…dolphin? No whales? Huge Atlantic dolphin maybe? No, whales?
After a few of the pack swam right next to the boat, we concluded that these guys were much bigger than any dolphin we’re used to seeing, had a totally different shaped head, and were a bit darker than normal too. They must be whales!!! Pilot whales (thank you Google)! The group of about 20 swam around the boat for a few minutes before we headed in opposite directions. And I’ll tell you what, encountering a pod of pilot whales mid-Gulf Stream definitely boosts the energy level like nothing else. :)))
^^See what I mean? Totally different shaped head and overall darker color.^^
^^But almost looks like a dolphin which is why we weren’t sure at first.^^
^^And they were all around the boat. It was crazy!^^
We also ended up seeing the biggest sea turtle I’ve ever seen in my entire life and quite a few friendly dolphin who swam and jumped alongside the boat as we sailed down the coast of the Florida Keys towards Marathon.
^^This little guy flew out of the water and totally surprised us with a three massive jumps!^^
As usual with blue water passages, we encountered a handful of large cargo and cruise ships, along with a heaping handful of other fishing and recreational boats. Since we don’t have AIS or radar, it’s sometimes a bit of a guessing game on the routes of other boaters (especially at night before you can “really” see any navigational lights). Luckily, we only had one or two passings that felt a little too close for comfort, but always safe nonetheless.
^^The closest call on our passage came from this massive container ship. Luckily, he diverted just as we were about to tack.^^
With this trip and our last two overnights in the Bahamas (Norman Island to Nassau and then Nassau to Bimini), I made a point to try and soak in some of what makes sailing (particularly on long overnight passages) so special. Sometimes, it’s cruising along at night and smelling rain an hour before it even hits. Or watching a huge blood moon rise in the quiet of the early morning hours. And the color of the water out there. Blue blue blue. So deep blue it seems unreal. And that sparkling star-filled sky. One of my favorites. I could gaze up a a clear starry night for hours on end. Do I even dare mention the amazing sunsets? Sunsets at sea have consistently been some of our very best!
And since I took a ton of photos on our last three overnight passages, here are some of my favs…
^^Another amazing sunset on our overnight from the Exumas to Nassau.^^
^^More dolphin sightings. This time in the Exumas.^^
^^Always on guard when we see something cool.^^
^^Oliver’s been preferring to hang below deck for the majority of our sails ever since Puerto Rico. But he makes an occasional appearance in the cockpit to say hello.^^
^^Soaking it all in.^^
^^Shift work. My turn.^^
^^And my assistant.^^
^^Oliver’s exit route = through the zippered dodger.^^
^^Our reward after a successful passage.^^
^^And one for Oliver too. Jk, he gets water whenever.^^
^^Almost back to Florida. That’s the Miami skyline and some duddy looking clouds that we luckily missed.^^
^^Back in the land of the free, home of the brave.^^
^^I think Oliver is always the happiest when we arrive. And this time, it’s back in FLORIDA!!!^^
So, we finally made it to Boot Key Harbor in Marathon nearly 34 hours after leaving Bimini. We secured a mooring ball in the infamous city mooring field just before the office closed, launched our dinghy in record-breaking time, had Oliver to shore minutes later, and were enjoying hot showers and cold beers shortly thereafter.
Now, I haven’t been grocery-shopping at Publix yet or gotten a much-needed mani/pedi, but those little luxuries are in my very near future. :)))
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
Posted in Bahamas, Boat Life, Sailing Blog, Sailing Love, TravelTags: 2015, Bahamas, Bimini to Marathon, Caribbean, Cruising, Gulf Stream Crossing, LahoWind, Sailboat, Sailing Blog
I cannot believe this day is here. This morning, we are weighing anchor to cross the Gulf Stream back to Florida. It kinda feels like we are crossing a finish line of sorts.
This has been a crazy, beautiful, sometimes difficult, but mostly awesome and totally fulfilling adventure for us.
I don’t think I’ve written enough about the magnitude of what we undertook on this sailing journey, mostly because we’ve been trying to live in the moment for the past year or so. But a few recent blog follower emails got me thinking about it all, and one in particular (thank you April!) really summed it up great. …Traveling by sailboat is so very different than any other means of travel. We have put so much thought, preparation, and actual work (blood, sweat, and tears even sometimes) into each and every leg of our journey. Every time we’ve reached a new destination, there has been such an intense sense of accomplishment. It’s hard to explain really. Other sailors get this of course, but I’m not sure if anyone else does. Or do they? Either way, it feels absolutely amazing to know we did it!
^^That water. I will miss you, Bahamas.^^
Now, we are almost home to start a new chapter of our lives. As much as I am trying to hype myself up for everything fabulous that (hopefully) lies ahead for us, let’s be real, I am mostly just trying to convince myself that we will be “okay” once we return to regular landlubber life. It’s nearly impossible to wrap my head around it all.
And since yesterday was our last full day in the Bahamas, we decided to make it last. As in, we’re bringing home as many pretty Bahamian conch shells as I could manage after going slightly overboard conch-picking the massive shell piles in Bimini. ;))
^^Check out our haul!^^
Okay, who am I kidding. We went crazy. We picked as many pretty pink conch shells as our bucket could hold. And scored a few rare ones in the mix! (No hate email please, we didn’t harvest these ourselves.)
^^That’s a small queen helmet conch. She will have a good home back in Naples.^^
^^The other different looking big shell is the king helmet conch. We “picked” two large king helmets and the one small queen.^^
Here’s to hoping that the crossing today is nothing but an easy breezy sail (preferably with no sea sickness for me) and that every time we look at one of these beauties in the future, we will be instantly transported back to “that time we lived on a boat and sailed around the Caribbean.”
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
Posted in Bahamas, Boat Life, Sailing Blog, Sailing Love, TravelTags: 2015, Adventure, Bahamas, Caribbean, Cruising, Journey, LahoWind, Sailboat, Sailing Blog
This is why we oh so love the Bahamas…
And this.
And this.
You get the picture. Pun intended. ;))
Just culling through a few more photos from our time in the beautiful Bahamas, and I couldn’t not post at least a few of my favorites from the past two weeks! I’ll tell ya, as much as other cruisers/bloggers hype the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas are where it’s at people. In my humble opinion at least.
Pristine beaches. Comfortable anchorages. Friendly people. The list goes on and on.
^^This^^ particular slice of paradise just happens to be right around the corner from Cape Santa Maria Beach Resort where we spent a lovely Easter weekend!
While staying at the resort, we would launch the dinghy every day (multiple times a day) and take Oliver to this secluded stretch of white sand and turn him loose to go crazy, poodle style, on this pretty shoreline. I know I’ve said it before, but Oliver seriously acts like a crazed, rabid animal when we find a nice stick to toss around on a sandy beach or, better yet, he finds a starfish or something equally delightful to sniff! He’s nuts!
I think Oliver is really going to miss his daily beach play time when we return to land life in a few days. (Although, let’s be real, having regular access to land will be pretty awesome for him, and not having to clean a sandy poodle post-beach romp will be just as awesome for us.)
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
Posted in Bahamas, Boat Life, Sailing Blog, Sailing LoveTags: 2015, Adventure, Bahamas, Beautiful Beaches, Cape Santa Maria Beach Resort, Cruising, LahoWind, Long Island, Photography, Sailing Blog, Starfish, Travel, Vacation
This gorgeous slice of paradise seriously holds a piece of my heart. A nice size piece at that. So much so that I told Jereme we’ve just found our little annual vacation tradition from here on forward. Let’s hope we can make a trip to the Cape a regular occurrence of some sort.
And seriously, how has almost one year passed since we got engaged on this perfect white sand beach? (And yes, I know we need to plan a wedding. Lol. That is coming soon!)
Jereme and I (okay, Oliver too) were so thrilled to have the opportunity to stop at our favorite place in the world on our route back through the Bahamas. And as much as I feel like a broken record for calling Calabash Bay, Long Island our favorite, it just is. #sorrynotsorry
This place is the cat’s meow. The icing on the cake. The whatever-other-clever-names-you-can-think-of. ;)) It’s just perfect.
We rolled into Calabash Bay after a quick stop in Clarence Town (on the other side of Long Island) and quickly dropped anchor before dinghying into our favorite little beachfront resort…Cape Santa Maria Beach Resort & Villas!
We just knew we had to squeeze in a little fake-cation (ya, that’s “fake vacation” since we’ve kinda been on a perma-vacation for the past year) while we were in Long Island. So for three awesome nights, we enjoyed the comfort, beauty, and hospitality of the Cape Santa Maria Beach Resort. And let’s not lie, we mostly took advantage of the endless hot showers, big comfy beds, and air conditioning. Lol.
Oh and free laundry. Gotta love that little perk! ;))
Wanna know what else I love about Cape Santa Maria??? (In no particular order, that is.)
1. Their conch fritters (free during happy hour from 5 to 6PM) are the best I’ve ever tasted. Not joking. The best. (All of the food here is pretty darn great, let’s not lie.)
2. Their beach has the softest, most powdery perfect white sand around. It feels like you are walking on pillow made of flour. Okay, fine, I’m not sure how a pillow would be made of flour but whatever. You get where I’m going with that. The sand is not graining or rough, it’s just the best white sand beach my toes have ever felt! Ever.
3. And speaking of their beach, the water is perfection. Perfect turquoise blue crystal clear bahamian water. With lots of fun sea life like (my favorite) red puffy starfish!
4. Oh my gosh and everyone is super friendly and helpful here. Super duper extra friendly. Cape Santa Maria’s staff might seriously be the friendliest around. For reals. Everyone knows your name (and even remembered that we got engaged here last May!). And what the heck makes us so special? Nothing. But they sure do make you feel pretty darn special and I love that.
5. The specialty frozen drinks. Need I say more? ;)) Hello mango daiquiri!!!
And the list goes on and on, but who has all day to read every awesome little detail about this place? Just know, it’s our favorite!
Sadly, this was probably the last time (for awhile at least) that we will arrive at Cape Santa Maria Beach Resort on our own little sailboat, but I sure do hope we can find our way back to this special place after we’re married and hopefully in the future with kids in tow. :))) We sure do love it here!
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
Posted in Bahamas, Boat Life, Caribbean, Sailing Blog, Sailing Love, TravelTags: 2015, Bahamas, Cape Santa Maria Beach Resort and Villas, Cruising, LahoWind, Long Island, Paradise, Photos, Resorts, Sailing Blog, Travel, Tropical Vacations
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Welcome home guys!!!
Wow how thoughtful!! That is certainly a welcome home indeed. I hope you guys are transitioning well. It’s not a secret that I vicariously live through your photos. Going to go bug the hubs now to move down to the coast 😉
it has been so awesome to follow along with your journey via your blog! thank you for sharing your beautiful photographs and stories with us! i hope that you will continue to blog in this space even though this journey is complete. 🙂
I can’t believe you’re home already!, how bittersweet. I’m so thankful we had the chance to meet up a few times while cruising, and now that we’re also Florida residents for the next few months we’ll definitely have to hook up again. I’ll miss your travel photos, but at least there’s 13 months for me to archive through. 🙂
Congratulations! I will surely miss you sailing blog. Looking to do something similar in the next two years.. Thanks for sharing you magnificent journey!!
Welcome home!
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