It was finally time! We had moved on the boat, competed all the prep work we needed to do, and were ready to start our sailing season on Hope! Our first order of business was to get the boat from Charleston, South Carolina, to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Several months prior to purchasing the boat, Kory had contacted Dedicated Marine in Ft. Lauderdale and arranged for us to get lithium batteries, solar, and a solar gantry installed. You can read more about that project and see the final results here.
This trip from Charleston to Ft. Lauderdale was our first major sail. Thus far, it would be our longest sail (three days and three nights), our first sail in the open ocean, and our first overnight passage. It was a lot to accomplish for such newbies, and we had a lot to do to prepare for this venture. I’ll admit that I was a little scared to do this by ourselves, but I also felt well-prepared and confident that we could do this.
Months prior to getting our boat, we had created checklist for pretty much everything. We had maintenance and service checklists, spare parts checklists, safety and first aid checklists, passage planning checklists, anchoring and mooring checklists, sailing checklists, engine checklists, systems checklists, food and provisioning lists, and many more. We couldn’t have done it all without these. They helped us stay on task, and gave us a sense of confidence that we were doing exactly what we needed to do to be safe and well-prepared. I found a great resource written by experienced sailers who helped me fine-tune my own checklists. If you’re just starting out sailing, I recommend this resource, Checklists for Sailors, Passage Planning, Sailboat Maintenance, Cleaning, Medical and More! It has been such a help for me.
The boat was serviced and maintained. Everything was in working order (at least for now) and we had our provisions and spares stored onboard. It was the passage planning part that was the most challenging for me. We had to find the right weather window to make this three-day passage, and we were pretty inexperienced. Kory is a small aircraft pilot, so he has a great understanding of weather, wind, navigation, instrumentation, speed in knots, visibility, etc., but this was different in many ways. We had to take into account the sea state, tides, currents, wind, waves, charts, shipping lanes, dangers to be avoided, etc. Leaving on this passage wasn’t something we were prepared to do flippantly without ample study, analysis, and counsel.
Kory and I monitored PredictWind and Windy every day to find the right conditions. He also reached out to several experienced sailers to get advice on finding the right weather window, the best route, and optional reroutes should we need to alter our course. After weeks of preparing, planning, and waiting, we found a good weather window with the right sea state for the three day passage (or so we thought). We routed it in Navionics and were prepared to set sail.
Our great friends, the Fahrbach family, stayed with us on the boat the night before we left for Florida. They helped us prepare for the big day and made our last night in Charleston extra special! They have been such a blessing to us! We woke up to a beautiful day with friends, joyful hearts, and calm waters in the Charleston Harbor. We were sad, however, to yet again say our “Love you’s” and “See you laters” to our sweet friends! Here’s a snapshot of our time together.
We completed our work and enjoyed every memory-making moment we could with the Fahrbachs. After a good night’s rest, it was time to cast off. It was the morning of February 10, 2023. Here was our grand send-off and the beginning of our journey on Hope!
At the time of this sail, I hadn’t even considered creating a blog to journal our adventures, so I don’t have a lot of content. And I can’t remember all of the details, but I remember that it was beautiful getting out of Charleston Harbor and entering the Atlantic for the first time. We made good headway our first day and had, for the most part, calm seas and beautiful skies. But by early evening, the wind picked up, the clouds became dark, and the squalls were upon us. I was so grateful to have the full enclosures that protected from the cold wind and rainy conditions.
What most intimidated me about our passage was the night watches, alone. Prior to leaving, we came up with a sleep/watch schedule. I took the first watch from 8-12pm, Kory took the second watch from 12-4am, then I came back on at 4am while Kory went back to sleep for a couple of hours. We was able to nap a bit during the day if needed as well. The next night we did 3-hours shifts and that seemed to work better for me since the less time am by myself on the helm, the better.
We kept the boat on autopilot most of our passage, allowing it to follow our plotted course. So, rather than hand steering, our main job was to keep a close watch for ships passing in the night and any hazards that may be along the route. We watched the charts closely to keep us in the clear.
We have AIS, which stands for Automatic Identification System. It is used by ships, other boats, and traffic control stations, and allows information on the position of nearby ships and shore stations to be exchanged electronically. When we passed Savannah, Georgia, this was particularly helpful as there were about fifteen large cargo ships anchored outside of the harbor just waiting to get it. We had to alter course a bit to make sure we went between two of the ships. I called Kory out of sleep to help me at the helm station for this task as I didn’t want to make any mistakes. Better safe than sorry. Having experienced that, I am much more comfortable now either altering our course by 10-30 degrees for a short period of time, or putting our autopilot on standby, hand steering the boat, and then reengaging it when we are in the clear. As they say, “practice makes progress.” We had a lot of practice on this passage, and we progressed a lot too, thankfully!
The morning of our second day was raining and the seas were about 4-5 feet high. It was a bit uncomfortable, but seeing daylight somehow made it all okay. Then I was greeted with dolphins swimming and jumping in front of our boat, and that made the long night and rough seas worth it. I was overjoyed and called Kory out of his sleep to enjoy the dolphins with me. What a sight! Too bad the video is not great. I couldn’t go outside the enclosed helm station to get better footage. Look closely in the water near the bow of the boat to see the curious dolphins.
Later that day, the sun came out and we had a great day sailing. It was still a bit chilly, but we were bundled up and cozy up top enjoying our time talking, reading, and listening to music. It was such a nice reprieve from the night before.
The morning of Day 3 was absolutely beautiful. I was able to take Gracie on the trampoline and play around a bit, and I also got to lay in the sun. We even caught a fish. It was a skipjack and we heard they weren’t very good to eat, so we let it go.
Little did we know that this was the calm before another storm. Eek! 😱 The squalls came later that afternoon as we were rounding our way near St. Augustine, Florida. We considered our options, prayed about it, and decided we didn’t want to go through another rainy and rolly night. We made our way to the St. Augustine inlet about two hours before dark and read up on the best way to get through the inlet. It wasn’t easy. The guidebooks say to keep your bow pointed to the cross on the hill and you’ll be in the channel. The visibility was poor, but we made it through the inlet and found a nice place to anchor. It was rolly all night, but much calmer, and we were so glad that we stopped.
Three days and two nights on the open ocean was long enough for our first passage. It was definitely a good shake down cruise. We learned a lot from that passage as well. For starters, we should have paid better attention to the wave heights and currents along our route, and not just the wind and gusts. We were thankful that we had already come up with some optional reroutes, and we were happy to divert to St. Augustine as soon as we felt it was needed.
We got a great night’s sleep in St. Augustine and waited out the stormy weather for two nights and a day before heading south to finish our one day and one night passage to Ft. Lauderdale. It was a beautiful morning heading out the inlet and back into the Atlantic to go south.
The last day of our trip was gorgeous with glassy seas and sunshine. However, the late afternoon and early evening brought back the squalls. The seas picked up to 5-7 feet and we were in unchartered territory through the night. Neither one of us slept. Kory tried to sleep a bit, but he realized I would need a good captain helping me at the helm. The autopilot was working so hard to stay on course and the bridge slap in the hulls down below was intense. It sounded like the boat was falling apart. We know it wasn’t. This is common for catamarans, but it sure was scary. We had waves and a strong current coming directly at us, and we were in an up wave battle. It was extremely uncomfortable, but we took confidence in the fact that these boats are designed for far worse seas than the 5-7 footers we were experiencing head-on. We were counting down the hours nonetheless. Midnight! One o’clock! Two o’clock! Three o’clock! Yeah! We were finally making our way into the Ft. Lauderdale inlet at 3am. Thanks be to God!
We found a wide open anchorage near some beautiful homes, dropped anchor, turned off the engines, and climbed into bed around 4am. By 9am we were ready to head north on the ICW to get to a dock at a private residence where our boat work would be done. Getting on the dock and calming down a bit sounded quite good right after weeks of prep and a brutal last night on the water.
We couldn’t believe we actually made it by ourselves, from Charleston to Ft. Lauderdale, in our new boat. It was quite an accomplishment, by the grace of God! “God is our refuge and strength, an every-present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). We thank Him for the safety He provided. Read more about our time in Florida and our boat projects here!