Our Overnight Sail to Cape Canaveral… Let the boat work begin!

A Week Aboard S/V Sabado: 6/6/2021 – 6/13/2021

Hello! We posted a video this week, did you see it? If not, check it out here, and subscribe so you don’t miss the next one! 🙂

Last Sunday we left Delray Beach and returned home to Sabado in Miami. We spent the day relaxing and recovering from our weekend of too much eating and drinking.

Monday morning we started preparing for our passage to Cape Canaveral. We had a weather window to leave the next day, so we picked up the last of our mail from the marina office, returned our key card, and placed an Instacart order. 

The next morning we got the boat ready and headed out! We had a great sail, with an average of 11kn winds and a SOG of 7.5-8.5kn through midnight, when the wind died to 2kn and we started an engine. 

Luckily, we had the Gulf Stream helping us along, so we cruised at 9-10kn until morning, when we had some spotted dolphins come visit us!! 

What a great way to start the day.

We arrived in Cape Canaveral late Wednesday morning and backed into a rather tricky slip– with a starboard tie (opposite our helm) and opposing wind/currents- we were both relieved once everything was secured. 

This was the first time Ray and I used our headsets, and they were so helpful! We were able to calmly chat with each other about our lines, fenders, and distance from the dock (since Ray couldn’t see much from the helm), it was a game changer! We will definitely be using them again in the future.

We immediately plugged into shore power and turned on every AC unit on the boat- who let us be in Florida in the summer?! ☀️

Exhausted from our overnight passage, we checked in at the marina office, ordered some pizza and went to bed around 6pm.

Thursday morning we went and picked up a rental car. We’ve had several friends and even some strangers who watch our YouTube videos offer to let us borrow cars while we’re here, but knowing how bad we are with sticking to a schedule, we decided it would be best for us to rent our own. We got a nice, big, clunky SUV and stopped by Lowe’s, Home Depot, and West Marine (all our usual spots) on the way home.

Friday morning I woke up sick. Nothing too alarming, just a head cold, but I was miserable. I think it was just from the dramatic change in temperature we had turning our air conditioning on for the first time all year! I’m not used to sleeping in zero humidity. So, I spent the day in bed snuggled up to a box of tissues. Ray ventured out to pick up some medicine for me and some fresh fruit, but his allergies were killing him so we both kind of lounged around all day.

Saturday morning I was feeling exponentially better, so I went for a quick walk to see if sweating a bit would help (it did). Then, we took our first car load of stuff to our storage unit. 

Our goal is to get everything off the boat before we haul out, so we’re slowly either throwing things away or putting them in storage. 

That evening a storm blew through- thunder, rain, lightning, the whole nine yards. Since we’re on an end slip with our port side open to boat traffic, we were keeping a close eye as all the drunk day boaters zoomed past us in an attempt to escape the storm. 

Sure enough, a pontoon boat decided to stop near us to help a small power boat whose engine had died. Both “captains” were noticeably drunk, and the small power boat hit us. Luckily he wasn’t going fast, but we’ll probably need to repair the gel coat. Ray and I ran out in the pouring rain and fended him off, since he didn’t have a single fender on his boat. He was not apologetic in the least, and said the boat he was on wasn’t even his. Meanwhile, the guy driving the pontoon had asked one of the guests he had aboard to secure the line they were trying to use to tow the other boat with because he was “way too drunk to do that”. The guest just hung the looped line on the FRONT CLEAT (how are you planning to tow someone behind you when you’ve tied them to the front of your boat???).

The moral of the story is: have at least one sober person on the boat at all times. Oh, and buy some freaking fenders!! Just because you don’t care about the boat you’re on doesn’t mean the people around you don’t care about theirs. While you’re at it, take some boating classes and check the weather forecast, too. 

Anyway, the storm passed through in an hour or so, and Ray and I went to bed early. 

Today it’s back to being bright and sunny! I woke up to a Starbucks delivery from Ray, and I think our plan is to finish up ordering the supplies we need to complete our long list of boat projects, and maybe clean out a cabinet or two. 

What are you up to today?❤️

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