By Sunday afternoon late, we had anchored at Allen’s. We
planned on this leg being a pretty quick trip but the wind picked up and it was
straight on our nose. Rough trudging most of the way. I also was concerned that
Allen’s would not provide sufficient cover for the North West wind that was
predicted. When we got to the Cay we found a couple of other boats tucked in.
Plenty of room for Gaia and it looked like it was safe enough for one night. We
planned on rocking a bit but nothing too severe. It was still early enough that Patrick and I
jumped in the Kraken and headed out to the cut. With the wind from the West/ North
West, it provided the perfect opportunity for us to explore the ocean side of
the island. Typically, the Easterly winds will not allow safe snorkeling on the
ocean side but this was perfect. With camera in hand, I jumped in. Very nice
reef just outside of the cut. Only issue a massively large barracuda that
seemed quite interested in my video light on my camera. I did a bit of cautious
exploring and then jumped back into the dinghy. Patrick’s turn. I pulled him
behind the dinghy using the Al Hale’s pull along technique. Patrick ended up
doing quite a long trip as a human lure. Only big fish of concern was that
massive barracuda. I pulled him the entire way back to Gaia. Fun! We collected
a few more conch on the way back and I made a great supper of conch fritters
and servache. Yummm!
Monday, we took off to Great Sale Cay. Nice day but again
the wind was directly on our nose most of the trip. Long day. We anchored and
spent the remainder of the day stowing and checking systems for our crossing.
Btw…I was spot on with the guess of how many sail boats would be at anchor in
Great Sale Cay. 4 on the money! I won, I
won, I won…
Tuesday morning saw us up early listening to Chris. We
verified the weather window would be perfect for our crossing. The forecast was
for 10kts of wind and 2ft seas. Quite and calm. We looked at the charts one
last time and planned our departure through the banks starting at 10am. We
planned on being through the shallow part by dark and then out to the deep blue
where we wouldn’t have to worry about running aground. We also planned the legs to arrive back in the
US at Cape Canaveral by 9am ish. As our plan turned out… we were spot on with
the timing. The crossing was super nice. A little more wind than predicted but
that was an added benefit. Perfect night and we caught a fish just as we left
the banks. A Cero… And a couple of others but the barracuda and sharks would
not leave them alone long enough to get them on board. I even lost my “purple lure.”
Captain Scotty will have to help us find another. Btw… my purple lure was the
only thing we caught any fish on the entire trip J.
As we approached the US we caught the smell of a wood fire.
Must have been a forest fire in the everglades. Scared us at first and I jumped
around the boat sniffing to see if there was a fire. Luckily, it was pretty
quickly discernible as coming from somewhere other than Gaia. Disaster averted.
We approached the Cape Canaveral entrance about 8:30am only to be greeted by an
armed Coast Guard Cutter asking us to clear the channel. A large submarine was
on its way out. We promptly obeyed. Pretty cool watching one of those partially
submerged monsters navigate through the channel. Once clear, we headed back to
the channel and the marina. Crossing the bow wave created by that leviathan was
interesting. It seemed small enough but wow was there force involved.
Interesting. We tied Gaia up at the Cape Canaveral dock and went beddy bye…. The
three of us were out cold until about 5pm. We managed to get ourselves up to
say howdy to the Cape regulars. Mike and his crew were still here. Dobbie was
delighted! I said hi to Stacy and Patrick was flitting around the docks as
normal greeting everyone. Back again, almost like nothing had happened. Now on
to our needed maintenance list, insurance investigation, taxes for this year, a
consulting job and the research that would lead us to where we will call home
for a bit. Lots to do.
