Sailing Along Florida's Coast "Downhill" in a Norther

Here's a pic taken at Dawn on Saturday, December 22, off Fort Pierce.

 

We were sailing downwind in apparent 25kts, with a tiny main, the staysail, and a handkerchief of a jib, making between 7.5 and 8 knots.

The previous day when we had set off from St Augustine the true wind was NW 30kts +, and that held through Saturday afternoon, so we made great time to anchor in the Keys just north of Channel Five bridge on Sunday at 1700: we were not sure of the name of the bay where we anchored, so we christened it "Baie de Christian Dior."

The next day was Christmas Eve, and at noon we pulled into Harbor Cay Club and a warm welcome from Hayden and Radeen, and Gary and Cathy.

Adventuress Resplendent

Here we are finally getting going on our new blog for our sailing aboard Adventuress, an Island Packet 420, which we have owned for a year now. This photo was taken in the Chesapeake late October 2012, after completing an extensive refit. Note the new canvas - dodger, bimini and a full cockpit enclosure: a beautiful labor of love by Nancy! Also Adventuress is resplendent with her freshly painted raised waterline - the old one was about three inches below the waterline astern.

Someone recently wrote in an email "It's a cruising boat, not a work of art."  We believe, however, that those two concepts are not mutually exclusive. What do you think?

We will be back aboard this week and will be cruising a while, starting from Beaufort South Carolina where she is presently docked, and heading South. As always, we are not sure exactly where we are going, but we do know it will be a fine adventure!

JFK
Lancaster PA
December 9, 2012