For the first time in many weeks the wind isn't blowing like stink and the boat isn't rocking like a hobby horse trying to break free of its springs. We are in a slip at Naples City Dock on Crayton Cove, Naples, FL. We got into this slip this morning after an all-night sail up from Marathon. Don't know what the slip dimensions are but it looks like it is about a foot wider than the boat and a foot shorter. Using the bow thruster really helps get into tight places. When backing I actually use it to steer because it can point the stern where I want it to go easier than using a rudder that is confused with water flow and prop walk. Lots of folks don't understand laws of motion. If you want the bow or stern to go one way, sometimes its easier to just move the opposite end the other way.
After a month in Marathon we sadly had to leave. We enjoyed everything about our stay and could easily spend more time there. But, we are on a mission. There are too many places to go and too little time to see them. We really wanted to visit Naples for lots of reasons. This is a really cool town and there are stores here we want to shop before we go to the Bahamas like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's as well as Target, Bed Bath etc. Naples has it all and good restaurants so it is easy to spend time here. Then we are going on to Charlotte Harbor for about a week to visit Jack and Dora Andreas, a classmate from PMC and 2 friends from HHSA Tom McGarry and Cathy Bleakley. Hopefully we can also see Jim Morris in his home turf while we are there.
The sunset views from Harbour Cay Club were spectacular. Almost like what you could see in the tropics. Some of the folks there actually saw the green flash one night.
But we left the slip at 1500 on Saturday 21 Feb and arrived in Naples Gordon Pass just after 0700 on the 22nd. We frequently do night passages just like they do on big cruise ships. On big cruise ships the passengers sleep at sea and the crew drives the boat. On our ship we do it all.
We left Saturday with great weather. Warm sun and a fair breeze in the right direction. As we left there were showers moving in to the Keys which we managed to stay ahead of.
One of the beauties of sailing at sea is that you have the opportunity to see your weather coming and have a chance to prepare. We watched this weather and were convinced it was going behind us as we moved to the North and it did. We didn't have any rain which can really impact a night sail by reducing visibility even farther than it already is in the darkness.
Winds came up nicely behind the beam and later ahead of it as we were able to maintain speed at between 6-7 kts with little chop in winds of 10-15 kts. Our IP 420 slid across the water as if propelled by magic and into the night on autopilot the boat just sailed itself as the sun sank into the sea.
After the sun set we could see the waxing moon that was already passed its zenith but was really bright even though only about 10% of it was visible. Because the moon was not as bright the stars and planets were greatly evident and it made for a beautiful sail.
As the sky got dark into night we could see the lights of the Miami area in the clouds even though it was over a hundred miles away and we could see the lit sky of Marco Island just some 60 miles way. It was reminiscent of being offshore and seeing the glow of cities onshore that were a hundred miles away. It's too bad that the beauty of the sky is crowded out by the light pollution.
But as we do we switched watches and were able to sail most of the night although at one point the wind got down into low single digits and at sometime in the future we may be content to travel at whatever speed but we did have a slip waiting so we motored until the wind came back up. When I came back on watch at 0100 I noticed bigger chop and checked out the wind and we went back to sail right up to the channel at Naples. The sail was the kind where you want to just keep going but we arrived at our destination.
A very beautiful scene in nautical twilight.
Naples straight ahead.
The sun sandwiched between the earth and a cloud at sunrise as we approached Gordon Pass, the entrance to Naples Bay.
So after we arrived and got settled we had out usual Sunday Morning breakfast of pancakes from scratch but today we used a bottle of champagne leftover from our name changing and some OJ left over from the last batch of painkillers and made mimosas to toast our arrival. After that we took naps to make up for some of the sleep lost overnight. We missed a beautiful day but we had a beautiful night at sea and there will be many more beautiful days. Hopefully for us all the weather will be turning better. But, there are no better days than a day on the water.
So we toasted the Gods and hopefully they are satisfied and will smile on us favorably on our voyage as we sail their waters and ride their winds.
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