Stats for April 18, 2019

Origin: Powell Cay

Destination: Angelfish Point

Distance: 9.9 miles

Speed: 7.7 mph

Time on the Move: 1 hour and 18 minutes

We headed for Angelfish Point mid morning because there were some big winds and waves coming along with a cold front the next day. The wind was already building and only supposed to get worse. We were with our buddies The Blessing, so they took this picture of us heading to find a safe anchorage to ride out the front.

After a few hours of whipping around in the wind and playing plenty of games, we decided we had to get off the boat while we could. So, we took to shore.

The next day was a LONG day. The winds were strong all day, though it was mostly sunny out all day. We were just waiting for the squalls to arrive. They ripped through Florida in the afternoon and we scheduled to get to us early in the morning. Of course!! Everything is worse in the dark!

Sure enough, right around 1:30 I felt us swing around the anchor, so I moved to the couch. I was up most of the rest of the night as 3 lines of squalls came through, even messaging with our buddy boat during the night to make sure everything was okay with them.

A little later I woke Mike up because we appeared to be dragging anchor a bit. We both watched it for a while, but I was thankful it would be light in a few more hours. The biggest winds were supposed to hit around 7-8 am.

It turns out that everything quieted down after 7 am or so. The Blessing called to tell us our bridle (extra hook on the anchor line that takes the stress off the windlass and lowers the pivot point of the anchor closer to the water) fell off in the night, but sure enough, it actually broke all to bits. The wind must have been too much for the line and it just shredded. That’s why we suddenly had a little bit more scope to our swing line around 4 am. It was a relief to know we didn’t drag, but surprising to see our bridle in two pieces.

The day seemed to settle down late morning and it was forecasted to continue to settle throughout the day. Mike had his eye on a potential crossing window, though, and we were too far from the US to cross from here, so we needed to get a bit closer to the US. After a grueling couple of hours filled with “go/no-go” discussions, we finally pulled anchor and decided to head west once again in hopes that we could cross back to the US soon.

Thanks for reading all about our adventures and following along!!