Our longest passage!

Pete and Tina

TLDR; the highlights! - capitalized on the weather window - sailed from weds morning through to Friday mid morning with great winds! - rallied after getting sick overboard - broke two mugs, our Honda battery and our wooden hand hold on the galley - dealt with salty conditions - dolphins dancing at the bow - caught mahi (got off), 2x king mackerel & false albacore - 3 sunsets at sea and 3 sunrises - blanket of stars overhead - worked in the middle of the ocean - pushed ourselves out of comfort zone even more and got some great miles! —— We left west end around 5am hoping to make it to fort pierce along side our buddy boat. It was super tricky getting out of our slip, we nearly hit a catamaran. We ended up doing a 360 inside the little channel😅 but made it through thankfully. Shortly after we got out there our buddy boat was aiming more west toward Port St. Lucie then heading to fort pierce. We kept our course. A bit bumpy with the waves on the beam to start with only our jib out. Once we put up the main and the wind filled in, it got more comfortable. We felt we had a good window to get across the gulf and were feeling excited compared to the last time we had to contend with the stream. We were averaging about 4 knots and our buddy boat motor sailed and flew by us. We didn’t see them the rest of the time. I think that was a blessing for us to keep pushing. Throughout the day I started to really feel seasick. It kicked off after my first work call that was 45 mins. I only was able to periodically work so I took it easy the rest of the day. Once we realized we weren’t making fort pierce in the daylight we decided let’s push onward to st. Augustine for the next day. The wind was the strongest around 10pm til 2 before it died. Waves were 4-6ft and occasionally they’d hit the beam and splash on boat. We had a waxing crescent moon that lit up the water until 1am. Pete took most of the shifts and barely got 2 hours of sleep. I was useless. By next morning, we had more of the same conditions and winds were consistent sustained. We sailed great both days and would reef down during the evenings as the winds were forecasted to pick up. So exciting see our speed hover over 7 knots. We continued to be more indecisive on whether to keep going to st Augustine since we’d arrive at dark or push onward to Charleston or south port. We fell off the gulf and aimed toward st Augustine for about 40 miles until we made our decision to head back and shoot for Charleston. Once we picked back up in the gulf the waves got slightly more aggressive and we were back to the motion but this time making great progress. We knew the wind was likely going to die off sometime Friday afternoon so we pushed on. I felt much better Thursday and was fine to work as normal. Pete was hot on the rod and caught a 2xking mackerel, a false albacore and a mahi that got off. We snacked on the mackerel the rest of the day. I was determined to get on a watch schedule so Pete could get some actual rest. He went down and when I had my first watch got soaked by a wave coming over the cockpit🤣. Sadly, this did soak out Honda battery that we had to dispose of :( I got sick over the boat but rallied on! Pete was able to get some rest and we rotated more consistently. The next morning the swell was beginning to calm down and we had to motor sail until the wind fully died as we moved out of the wind band. We slowly motored the rest of the way about 50 miles. This took us all day and through the night before we saw land around 11:30pm. We dropped the hook at the USS Yorktown after dodging two shipping vessels at 1:30am! Massive shout out to @stephan ilberg who gave us encouragement on our first crossing. Who single handed his journey back and took on multi days by himself. You inspired us to get out of our comfort zone and to trust ourselves. Thank you!!

Boat & Crew

Sweet Rain

Tartan, 34C

Pete Kinsella (Captain)

Partner, Male

Pete and Tina

Owner