It is amusing to go back and read my last blog. It made the passage to Ft. Pierce sound pretty idyllic. The second day of the passage, however, was anything but. The wind picked up to 25-30 knots on the second day and continued throughout the night. This alone would not have been problematic, especially since the wind was coming from astern (behind). However, the northerly blow combined with the easterly gulf stream led to confused seas. Pura Vida was constantly lifted up by four to five foot swells that seemed to come from both the northeast and the east simultaneously. For the most part, she seemed to hold up really well. Even with the occasional pounding of her starboard hull as it fell off the waves, we were convinced that the motion was better than we would have experienced on a monohulled boat. However, our autopilot apparently could not withstand the motion as it was pretty much useless. To make matters worse, given that it was our first trip out, our sails weren’t balanced, and the excessive mainsail kept trying to pull us into the wind. This created quite a challenging task for the helmsman, who was not able to leave the helm even for a minute, and had to literally pull the rudders away from the wind. After several hours of this, the wind seemed to pick up even more, and there were times when it was not possible to pull us back on course after we started heading north into the wind. Thus, we had no choice but to call on one of the iron jibs (the port engine) to help us stay on course.

Those reading this who are experienced sailors are probably wondering why we didn’t reef in the mainsail to correct for the imbalance. Well, Dallas suggested it pretty early on, but at that time, the crew was more interested in speed than comfort. Shortly thereafter, three out of the four of us became seasick! Lesson learned.

To make a long story shorter (for those at the helm, it was in fact a very long night!), we were relieved to reach our destination in Ft. Pierce. Upon taking down the main (at last!) as we approached the channel, we discovered that we had broken a “jumper” (a wire cable that puts bend in the mast), and our mainsail halyard was chafed. It’s a little surprising to have such repairs to make already, but I guess that’s what the shake-down is all about. The more we can learn about and correct while we are still in the U.S., the better.  

Dropping the Main

Indeed, Ft. Pierce has proven to be an ideal place to make repairs and do some final provisioning. For example, we learned that the best rigger in the area lives on a boat in the next marina, so Dallas and Wes dinghied over to him with the broken cable, which he immediately recognized and agreed to repair. Also, we met a colorful character named Doug who took a break from fiberglass work on his custom catamaran to take us to the huge, local marine store where we purchased the remaining dive gear that we needed. Having these tasks taken care of, our biggest issues to deal with at this point are 1) getting a new autopilot (ugh) and 2) determining ways to prevent/remediate seasickness. In terms of the latter, we’ve decided that rather heading straight for Mexico once we leave here, we will probably stop in Key West to give the crew a chance to refresh just in case we don’t have our sea legs yet…it just wouldn’t be possible to sail for a week feeling like that!

Dallas "up the stick" again

Doug's Cat with Outriggers and 32' Beam

I should note that one of the highlights of this landfall has been finding the famous catamaran “Exit Only” in a nearby boatyard. We have followed many of her escapades on www.maxingout.com, and the stories of the comfort of the crew during their circumnavigation were pretty influential in leading to our selection of the Privilege 39.

Exit Only

Since the conditions in the gulf stream are said to be even worse now than when we made landfall (over 30 knot winds with 10 foot seas), we will probably be here for a few days. Meanwhile, today is Wes’ birthday, so hopefully we can leave the boat stuff behind for one night and go celebrate!

Sunset at Riverside Dock