March 11th 2015

Day started out good. Sunny and crisp. Crisp for Florida standards. We lost the pin to the code zero sail and it was flapping in the wind. Had to rev the motors and pull it down on deck. We have light down winds so we are rolling around like a cork. I'm sure to lose my breakfast soon. We're out of the Gulf Stream so it's depressing to see only 7 knot progress instead of the 9-10 we've been getting. The boys got the code zero back up and we're finally able to sail again without the motors. Ahh the serenity. Highlights of the day: Cali fell down the companionway stairs, Crew peed on the wall (again), Capri picking her boogers and wiping them all over the couch, code zero braking, Alex cooked lunch AND dinner AND cleaned!! All in all a good day. Oh and we still have ice in the cooler, can't beat that. ETA mouth of the river 5 hours. Then we may have to hove to outside of the river waiting on high tide for a few hours.

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March 10th 2015

Made good time today with averaging 9 knots, love you Gulf Stream. The girls were good, played a lot. Alex our extra crew member on board made a rocking fried rice for dinner and baked chicken for the girls- not that they ate it. I felt queasy all day so wasn't much use. We can feel the temperature slowly dropping but it's not uncomfortable yet, I'm sure we'll feel more of a difference tomorrow. At this rate we should be at the mouth of the river sometime Wednesday night, can't wait. I've got some white chocolate calling my name in the freezer that I haven't had the stomach to eat yet.

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March 9th 2015

He had a late start out of Ft. Lauderdale. Left our after fueling at 3pm. We had fair sailing all night, once in the Gulf Stream we picked up speed to about 9 knots, the wind was coming out of the NE so we were slamming pretty hard at times into the swell. After the night went on the wind direction changed more out of the east and we had a more comfortable sail. A front is forecasted to come through Thursday so we'll have to keep up speed to get to the river mouth in time.

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March 8th 2015

Today we are prepping the boat to leave Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow. It’s going to be a 3 day run to Wilmington NC. I have to activate our phone, make sure our inReach tracker is worker, tidy the boat, put away laundry and pull out all our winter clothes. Between here and North Carolina the temperature is going to drop. Carl is cleaning up the deck from his grinding and painting. All the kids are grumpy with colds, our little man is popping some molars so he’s EXTRA grumpy. Should be a fun day.

March 2nd 2015

What fun. Rolling around in the Gulfstream. We left Nassau yesterday afternoon to catch the wind to Florida. We thought we had timed it good but we found ourselves on the Bank at night. Fun. Pretty bad when you can see the shallow spots via moonlight. Carl carefully navigated the mouth and for a while we had 3' under our keel. We sailed all night on the bank with no swell, it was lovely. Come morning we got off the Bank, the wind died and started to motor sail across the Gulfstream. We're both pretty tired, I did the first watch until 1am and Carl the second until 6am. We are about 4 hours out of Ft. Lauderdale, the boat is a mess, we're tired and hungry. The kids are happy as can be, nothing fazes them. Ahh to be a kid again. To think I could be in the lazy river at Atlantis instead of rolling. I need a beer.

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