Key West to Beaufort - endings and new beginnings… dan

Key west was a little like coming home as we haven’t returned to many of our previous ports of call. Two movies, two pizzas, a tour of the Hemmingway house, two trips to Mallory Square, laundry, provisions, water, and fuel rounded out our actives.

The Hemmingway house was a joy to visit. It’s very well preserved and presented, complete with beautiful gardens and about 50 polydactyl (double pawed) cats that are all decedents of Hemmingway’s original herd.

We visited Mallory Square for the sunset celebration twice. Susan suggested we go early to watch the whole thing unfold; the slow accumulation of performers, vendors, tourists and cops. It started with a vendors & performers meeting. Spots were assigned and the magic began. We spoke to a senior performer (the Great Rondiene) who’s been performing here for decades.

Another evening we took the dink and toured the sunset celebration from the water. A unique and delightful perspective. One guy leaned out over the water and shouted to us; “Welcome to America”. I don’t imagine he could have known how true his jest-full welcome hit home.

Soon it was time to leave on what may be our last passage on Gypsy. Our next destination: Beaufort North Carolina to refit Gypsy and put her on the Market. It’s a tough decision but it would be hard to support both a land life and a cruising yacht at the same time. We’ve learned the economy of reduction and certainly some things are harder to give up than others but that’s when the real value of the reduction practice comes to fruition. Even so this is a bittersweet time for us. The knowledge that “when one door closes, many others open” gives me solace.

We left Key West early Sunday morning and made our way out in a light southeasterly breeze accompanied by a small fleet of fishing, sight seeing and dive boats. The beginning of the passage was marked by light airs and lots of ship traffic. We were only making 2 – 3 nmh until we got into the Gulf Stream with its 2 – 3 nmh push to give us a combined speed of 5 – 6 nmh over the ground toward North Carolina.

The calm of the passage not only allowed us time for reading, countless hands of gin and, surprisingly, it was even calm enough to play dominos. It’s funny how the game of dominos is a lot like life. What one does next is based on what has come before, one thing leading logically to the next. Even so, you often start on one track with a well thought-out strategy; invariably things change and you end up heading in another direction. In the game, once the stones are all played out and the dots are counted up, a winner is decided. In life, it’s not so straight forward. In life, it’s the quality of the dots, not the quantity that really matter.

Those first gentle days of the trip also opened a door into the ocean and allowed me hours of time to gaze into its incredible blueness. The shades of blue varied with the time of day and the sky but it was mostly what I would call a deep electric-ocean-blue. The calmness of the surface allowed me to peer deep down where shafts of sunlight played amongst the deeper shades of blue. The depth of the ocean has been compared to the human soul. Because of its tremendous vastness, I think a better comparison would be made to the soul of our planet and everything that lives upon her; all alive and deeper than we fully fathom.

The first few days of the passage were marked by light winds and afternoon thunderstorms. Fortunately we had positioned ourselves 20-30 miles off the coast in order to take advantage of the Gulf Stream. That distance had the unanticipated advantage of putting us just out of reach of the vicious southern Florida thunderstorms. You can see them depicted in the above photo on our chart plotter. We have XM satellite weather ported into our chart plotter which is a great boon for coastal and near offshore passages but it is mostly useless outside of the USA. We also have AIS (automatic identification system) ported into the plotter. AIS shows all the large ships that are within 20-70 miles of our position. Both those systems were incredibly useful during our trip up the coast of Florida. I thought back to when I was a boy and the only piece of electronic equipment we had on board the yawl I crewed on was a tube driven VHF radio that was often broken. It seems that something primitive and solitary has been lost with the acquisition of all this electronic wizardry and the accompanying information that it imparts. It seems the experience of sailing has been paradoxically diminished at the same time that it has been “enhanced” by modern gadgets.

During a particularly calm period in the middle of the third day I stopped Gypsy long enough for me to go for a quick swim. Besides being refreshing and cleansing it’s strangely thrilling to swim miles from shore in several thousand feet of water. It was a perfect sailing day; winds 8-10 nmh pushed us along under high puffy clouds. After a beautiful sunset the air temperature dropped a bit and I put on long pants for the first time in three months.

Dawn of the fourth day brought stronger winds (15-20 nmh) and the Gulf Stream picked up to 3 nmh. The wind was against the current causing the seas to form steep waves 6’-8’ high giving what we sailors like to call a lively ride. Needless to say any further domino games were out of the question and holding on became the order of the day. The up side of all this it that we were now making 9-10 nmh “over ground” towards our destination. We saw the water temperature steadily drop during the passage. When we left Key West the water had been 86° and by the time we were in the waters off North Carolina it had come all the way down to 74°.

Dawn on the sixth day found us in light air 60 miles out of Beaufort in blue green water the likes of which I’d never seen before. We motored north and when we came into cell phone range I tried to book us a slip in one of the marinas. Unfortunately our arrival happened to coincide with the start of a big sports fishing tournament and all the marinas were full. No worries; we were able to anchor in Taylor Creek, tucked in behind Carrot Island right in front of Beaufort.

After we dropped our anchor and looked around one of the first things we saw was a wild pony grazing on the banks right next to us.

Later we took the dink to explore the area and discovered dozens of wild ponies on Carrot Island just a little south of us.

Wild horses are beautiful and also a fitting metaphor for us at this stage of our lives.

One might think that there is a certain sadness associated with the end of such an adventure and yes there is but it’s probably much less than you might be imaging because such an adventure is never really over. It makes such a lasting impression that it’s something that stays with you forever afterwards.

It has truly been an amazing trip. In the past eight months we have traveled well over 5,000 sea miles, enjoyed enumerable exquisite sailing days, an equal number of star filled nights, visited six foreign countries, countless islands and secluded harbors. We left our footprints on beautiful and secluded beaches too numerous to count. We’ve hiked, biked, motor biked, rode horses, taxies, vans and chicken buses to many exotic and interesting places. We’ve watched hundreds of beautiful sunrises, sunsets, moon rises and sets too. I have nothing but gratitude for all the wonderful things we have done and seen on our journey. Even more gratitude that we’ve done it all without any serious injury to ourselves of our vessel.

As this marks the end of our sea born adventures it seems like a logical place to bring this blog to conclusion. It has been a great vehicle for chronicling our travels, processing our experience and sharing that all out. Thanks to all our family, friends and strangers too who have followed our adventures, added your support and comments to this chronicle. I wish you much joy and prosperity in your lives and also the courage to follow your own hearts convictions. May you all be free from suffering, may you be well, may you be at peace and may you all find true joy in your lives.

Om shanti shanti peace….

Mosquito Invasion and more… susan

Witnessing a swarm of honey bees was somewhat like what we experienced when leaving San Pedro, Belize; except we were swarmed by mosquitoes! It was awful! In our preparation for this trip Dan and I had discussed at length with our doctor the pros and cons of taking malaria prophylaxis when in the Central American countries where the CDC indicated it would be prudent. We secured the Chloroquin in the States and when it came time to start taking it we reconsidered and decided to follow our experience up to now, which was: there were no mosquitoes where we were. The wind was light and we couldn’t get away from them. We covered ourselves with insect repellent, light our anti-insect burner and swatted ourselves, and each other, as these invaders looked for a morsel of flesh to puncture. The open companionway invited these critters inside so the screens came up and we needed to “clear the way” if either of us needed to come below. It lasted all day! Countertops looked like battlefields when we at last were able to freely enter “our” home. Trying to take myself out of the situation I saw two large adults tormented by multitudes of tiny mosquitoes. It made me laugh. Hopefully our strategies worked and we didn’t contract malaria in the process.

Except for this unwanted send-off we had a flawless sail for 4½ days. The winds were mild, Dan navigated us along the favorable currents and we did not witness any of the oil spill. This languid type of sail lends itself to reading, gin rummy and introspection. The pursuit of a floating bottle – there was no message, only barnacles galore – prompted us to write our own message in a bottle and release it in the Gulf of Mexico.
Once we reached the Gulf of Mexico we were sometimes in the shipping lane. Our AIS alerts us to the location of these vessels and it also alerts them to us. The information provided by the GPS tells us the vessel’s length, speed and destination as well as their heading and the nearest approach to us. Two times an approaching ship called us on the VHF radio and indicated that we should hold our course and they would alter theirs.
We eat nourishing foods on Gypsy but the options are limited by the ability to find the ingredients in the market and by the ability to store them. The luscious colors of the rainbow that emerged after a light shower reminded me of the gelato shop in Placencia. Rich raspberry, creamy lemon – an active imagination serves me well…

The light shed by the moon glow is much appreciated during the darkness of night. The rhythm of the sunrise and the sunset and the moonrise and the moonset creates a framework to relate to the passage of time as day blends into night. I did notice that the moon gets slighted when the sun is in the sky simultaneously.
Dolphins blessed us with their presence once again. I never tire of their graceful flow through the sea. I find myself calling out to them and welcoming them to come near. Who am I kidding? It is their home; I’m the visitor!
We rarely see birds when we are far off shore so it is “a sign” when birds start to once again be part of our landscape. Land is near! It is daunting to me to think of the pelagic birds that soar continuously far out over the landless seas, returning to a spot of earth only for mating.
We decided that we could come into Key West at night because we had been here before and even though there are some place where there is shallow water, we know where they are. The lights of Key West were several miles in the distance when a vessel approached us on our starboard side and once within “our space” they flashed their lights and identified themselves as U S customs and immigration. After asking a couple of preliminary questions across the waves they told us they needed to board our vessel. Two young gentlemen with guns strapped to their hips stepped across the chasm once their boat positioned herself alongside Gypsy. Our official papers are always in a portable briefcase so providing the necessary paperwork was relatively easy except for the lack of sufficient light. Headlamps work wonders in those situations. One of the first questions asked was if we had stopped anywhere on our way from Belize to Key West. I felt that we were believed but just to be sure the customs officer asked to look at out GPS which showed the path we had sailed to get here. While one official sat with Dan in the cockpit going over our paperwork, I turned lights on down below and made the space accessible for the second official to peer into every nook and cranny looking for any illegal immigrants. It was a friendly visit that even when you are innocent of any wrongdoing it does cause some feelings of trepidation. Even with this inspection we were required to call first and then go to the immigration office first thing the next morning.
As we approached the U S an unexpected excitement came over me. I never fully appreciated all the conveniences and opportunities available to me when I lived here. There are plenty of embarrassments about how our country has behaved in the world but I do feel a newly inspired commitment to exercise my responsibilities as a citizen to make the difference one person makes.