Let’s just get right to it - this passage was frustrating! Instead of leaving in the morning to catch the wind, I decided it would probably be too light and behind us to sail anyway, so pulled the anchor up at midnight to have about 6 hours of wiggle room on our arrival with heavy winds that forecast to build the day of our arrival. Motored across the bank for about 8 hours until the sun rose on us in the Atlantic. Winds were still light and there was this weird west swell coming from Florida and mixing with the NE swell making a pretty confused and uncomfortable sea state. Once in the stream and the wind came up from the S we were able to sail under code 0 and things started to smooth out. At some point we put up main and jib, got the lines out, and started having a pretty lovely sail. Talon was napping and Janie and I both dozed off as well. I was abruptly awoken by BOTH lines ripping. Double mahi in the boat while a pod of pilot whales came in to watch! Wind died again, back to motoring. Later that night I was able to put out the jib for slow sailing, but with the boost from the stream we still were making time. I was intentionally keeping us going a little slow so we could arrive with an incoming current with building S forecast. Friday sucked. Forecast showed SUPER light and variable winds so I was already anticipating a lot of motoring but at least was expecting it to be flat. What I didn’t anticipate was the wind actually building to 15g18 out of the N while we were still in the thick of the Gulf Stream. It got very unpleasant very fast. Instead of bashing Cloud into pieces continuing into it, I turned her around, put her ass to the wind and swell, and motored gently into the current. The opposing forces put us making about 2kn W. Definitely off course but at least not southbound and at least out of the strongest part of the stream. After about 5 hours of this everything finally relaxed until the wind backed off to almost nothing. The seas settled and we were able to continue, but now we were pushed pretty far out of the stream where we were getting the best speed. Models showed a good southerly building through the night so I took comfort in knowing we’d be sailing again soon. Well, that wind didn’t show and it turned into another night of motoring, and then a morning of motoring too. Turns out we got stuck in a wind hole, with the wind building miles behind us but never catching us. The NAM model actually showed this happening but I was going by the Euro which had served us well in the Bahamas all season! Ironically the wind finally started to show up as we approached the inlet so we got to sail into protected waters and upriver a bit. Janie and I were VERY proud of completing our longest passage together to date, and Talon was AMAZING the entire Time. But we were still feeling let down since a lot of motoring never really makes it feel like a passage. We were bummed to have left the Bahamas and bummed to know we won’t be returning for a couple seasons. BUT that all changed as soon as we got Talon to shore. He LIT UP and was losing his mind, riding his bike along all the sidewalks and going nuts on the big downtown playground. This turned our moods around real fast!

Wind was light and I wanted some time to dive, so we kept the motors on and sped our way up to Shroud from Staniel! Looking forward to our 3rd Floatchella!

Another solid day of sailing as we make our way as far South as possible before our turn back North next week! Made it to Racoon Cay today which is by far our favorite spot in the Raggeds so far!

Sporty one today - the Raggeds are already showing us what makes them more of a challenge than the other Bahamas chains. Our first anchorage at Water Cay had a ton of surge wrapping in and was NOT pleasant. This northern section of the chain just has so much exposure. Wanted to get to a more protected spot asap even with all the wind today, so left for Flamingo Cay early enough to keep an incoming tide for the full 2.5 hour trek. The cuts between cays here are huge, so we were pretty much fully exposed to the wind and swell coming in from the sound for most of the trip. Luckily we were able to keep most of it behind us till the very end where I had a double reefed main and 75% jib, still punching through at 7kn and clocked a 28kn gust! Was pretty happy with how Cloud handled through it all. Janie and Talon stayed cozy inside and we were glad it was a short one!

PB hog!!!

We’re officially in the tropics! First time crossing the Tropic of Cancer and first time in the Raggeds. Tried trolling but after the 3rd barracuda we gave up. Already feels so much more removed from everywhere else we’ve been. Stoked to explore for the next week then head North for Floatchella!!

This has NOT been our season for trolling, but today we broke the curse!

Hopetown looking hopeful!

Making up for that long ass motor mission!

Another long passage to skip past Georgia and arrive in Florida - the last state before jumping over to the Bahamas! With building swell and wind, timing getting into St Mary’s inlet was critical. We needed to arrive at about midnight or later to have slack or incoming tide. Ideally slack. At this point the swell was forecast to be 5’ at 5 seconds and with a wind against tide situation that would not be fun. We left Beaufort at 6am and had beautiful wind on the beam for the first couple hours in the ocean. As it clocked more behind us, we had to drop the main. Stupidly, I forgot I had 2 fishing lines out and after turning up into the wind and then back on course we ended up with one wrapped in our starboard prop 🤦🏼‍♂️ Luckily the sea state was still relatively calm and I was able to jump in and clear it. From there we had a solid few hours of speedy wing-on-wing before the wind built too much for the code 0. We went down to just jib and one engine on for a while just to keep our timing consistent for the midnight arrival, but eventually we had to start slowing down big time so we cut the motor and started reducing sail periodically. The wind and swell continued to build and eventually I just had a tiny sliver of headsail out and we were still doing 5.5 knots practically bare poles. Thankfully this was allowing for a perfectly timed arrival to the inlet. Just as things were really starting to pick up, we were able to draw an angle between the jetties that kept everything behind us until we were protected. A couple sets lifted us up at a butt-clenching angle but Cloud handled it incredibly well and didn’t get squirrely on us as she surfed down a few faces. Felt very good to get into protected waters and anchor behind Cumberland Island before crossing back over the boarder into Florida at Fernandina beach the next day. Such a lovely little town where we are celebrating Talon’s second birthday today!

We set a record for our longest time under power ever! Not exactly one to be proud of, but we really wanted to keep making progress and were not super stoked on the short term forecast. Took advantage of a period of super light winds to keep trucking South. Pretty uneventful passage except that the front hit at basically the exact moment we had to turn North to follow the deep water into St Helena Sound. Our flat calm sea state turned pretty damn salty in a matter of minutes. We made it safely to Beaufort, SC which is always a must-stop for us on our trip South. We’ve made such good progress so far that we’re stoked to post up here for a few days and catch up on work and boat projects!

With a swell forecast of 4 feet at 6 seconds and lighter winds, I was not banking on a super comfortable passage. I need to have low expectations more often! The waves were at just the right angle and the wind was a little stronger than expected. It was an insanely comfortable and no-maintenance sail. Had the jib out to fight the current through the inlet and shortly after getting our course I swapped it for the code 0 and cut the engines. I didn’t have to make a single adjustment all day besides a couple degrees here and there on our heading! The only bummer was that we had a little bit of a gas leak from our dinghy can on deck, which wafted into our hull and got Janie feeling nauseous. She pretty much never gets seasick (unlike me) but was out of commission all day. Luckily, Talon was awesome and thought it was really funny whenever he would lose his balance from the motion 😂 Surfed our way into Masonboro inlet just in time to drop the hook for sunset!

Insane day!!!

We departed Beaufort, NC in the morning with light winds, which was fine since we had to motor up Adams Creek anyway. The wind finally started to fill in as we entered the Pamlico Sound but the angle sucked. Tried tacking through it but it was too inefficient to get us to the sketchy Ocracoke channel before dark, so cut the motor on again until we could get the angle to sail. Started off with full sail and code 0, then as the wind increased we swapped the code for the jib. The wind kept increasing as forecast but didn’t end up as far behind us as I had anticipated. Got a little greedy with our speed and didn’t reef till the wind really started picking up. I put one in, but then it REALLY started picking up so two minutes later decided on a second. Was a little hectic! Dropped anchor in Silver Lake, Ocracoke. This is special for us since I’m from the Outer Banks and I’ve been coming here my whole life but never under sail! Ocracoke is actually one of my clients and I’ve done a lot of photo/video work for their tourism bureau. Janie and I have wanted to sail here for years and we finally made it happen!