Can you outrun a thunderstorm?

No, no you can’t. We tried, in two ways. We tried to get out of Florida before the storms started to worsen and we also tried to avoid a storm4 directly. Both failed. We are still slowly working our way north and out of Florida, but have had to wait for ‘weather windows’ that would allow us to sail without thunderstorms. Which means that we have tried to mostly stick to short day trips that get us into anchor before the storm hits. From Boca Raton we travelled up the ICW to West Palm Beach. It was a very nice, easy sail. We have to motor up the ICW, so we took the opportunity to attach more of our solar panels to our roof as we went along. We also managed to fuel up at a fuel dock along the way (one less jerrycan trip!).

We anchored and of course shortly after the usual evening thunderstorm hit. The anchorage at West Palm Beach was large and deep so we had no fears of riding out the storm. Also, we seem to have finally gotten the hang of anchoring! It has been such a challenge for us. This is partly because we have a very long bridle and had a difficult system for attaching the bridle to the chain that came with the boat. Since the beginning, we have replaced our anchor, with “The Monster”, we have marked out our chain length so we know how much we are letting out, and we now replaced our bridle attachment system. We are using a thick, stiff dyneema rope that loops around the chain and attaches to the bridle with 2 shackles. This new system makes attaching the bridle easier because we do not have to take the bridle off the chair directly, but instead loosen it enough for the chain to pass through the loop. Before it was a large hook that we had to wiggle onto the chain and then tie a tether around the chain to hold the hook on. We are also learning to communicate better with each other during the anchoring. Kevin is in the helm and has to maneuver the boat as Owen lowers the anchor near the bow of the boat making sure that the chain isn’t pulling in the wrong direction and the chain isn’t piling up on itself. I have to attach the bridle and manage the chain in the locker.

The next day we were able to leave anchor as planned and go out of the ICW and back into the open ocean. We travelled to Fort Pierce. That made sure we got into anchor before dark again. There was no wind when we started the passage, so decided to take advantage of the easy travelling/motoring and try to finish putting the solar panels on. We managed to get all but three down before the wind picked up. Then, we put up the gennaker. Unfortunately, the gennaker was up for all of 10 minutes before we realized that we had to turn into the inlet for Fort Pierce! Not much time actually sailing. And unfortunately, as we turned into the inlet, the wind gusted and took one our unattached solar panels right off our boat! So, we lost yet another thing to the sea. Luckily, we have only lost a clothes pin, a pencil and a baseball hat so far. Although, we had weighed down said solar panel with a roll of heavy wire, but that was swept off the boat with the solar panel. Lesson learned, we will will not leave the solar panels unattached and unattended from now on!

We had hoped to leave Fort Pierce the next morning for Saint Augustine or even Charleston, but there were thunderstorms forecasted and we didn’t want to sail into them. So we took the day to do more boat work. We attached the last two remaining solar panels (we willl have to replace the one that went flying later). Kevin also spent the better part of the day (and the next one) putting in our new alternators. They also had new regulators. Kevin was told they would just fall into the same spot but reality was new bolts were needed and the regulators needed to be re-programmed. And to add to the extra work, a new relay was needed. We were hoping to go to shore and get groceries as well, but then a thunderstorms came in. The next day more thunderstorms were forecasted and we still didn’t have milk and bread, so we stuck around for another day. We did manage to get to shore after the storms passed and by then it was sweltering hot again! Norah and I went swimming at the beach, which was lovely and actually warmer than the water in the northern Caribbean had been.

The next day there appeared to be a weather break, so we set off for St. Augustine. We managed to get our sails up too. We could see some storm clouds in the distance, so we started with 2 reefs in the sail. Then, the winds picked up and we took in another reef. The storm passed quite quickly and we let the reef out first to the 2nd reef and then to the 1st. Then, the wind died completely. So 45 mins later, after much running around and winching etc., the sails were put away and we were motoring again. We motored along for a while enjoying being on the open ocean again and we even managed to catch a rocket launch way off in the distance from Cape Canaveral. However, evening and dinner time brought in a big storm. Kevin actually turned us around so that we could try to avoid it or at least go through a part of it that looked less aggressive but storms can shift direction and before you know it, we were right in the thick of it. It was a big thunderstorm and admittedly scared us. The kids did great and we were fine, but we didn’t like being out on the ocean with a 72 foot mast in the middle of a thunderstorm. So, no, you can’t outrun a thunderstorm. Needless to say, we turned to the next inlet the next morning so we could take break, but also because more storms were predicted where we were headed. We ended up in Ponce de Leon Inlet, just south of Daytona Beach.

We also had the added excitement of having our throttle slip on our port engine while motoring along. Luckily this was a quick fix due to a loose bracket.

Ponce de Leon Inlet is a bit of a tough channel to navigate. There are many shoals there and due to some rapidly changing and stronger currents, these shoals can change almost daily. The local Coast Guard changes the location of the navigational buoys as much as they can, but of course you still have to be very careful when coming in. We managed nicely but also chose not to push our luck and anchored at the closest location we were allowed to. It is a very pretty inlet once you get into it and there is tons of wildlife here; including dolphins, pelicans and manatees.

We arrived relatively early in the day, so we had a chance to get out on the dinghy and explore while getting fuel and groceries. There truly were a lot of shoals in this inlet. We almost ran aground when getting fuel north of the inlet entrance (and the pontoon boat behind us did run aground). Then, when we went south to New Smyrna Beach to get food, we did ran aground in a shoal. Owen and I had to get out in shin deep water to push the dinghy along until it got deeper again. It was a fun dinghy ride regardless. Additionally, we saw dolphins playing about 10 meters off our dinghy bow and Kevin even saw a manatee! The town of New Smyrna Beach was quite quaint. We can see why it is so popular a vacation destination. There are lots of small shops and restaurants along a pictureque street heading straight out to a pristine white sand beach. The beach is very popular for surfing too. However, I personally wouldn’t be inclined to go in the waters. . . it is the shark bite capital of the world!

The promised thunderstorm finally rolled in in the late evening and stayed well into the night (see video below). We were happy we stopped for the night because it seemed to be all around us. The next day promised more thunderstorms so we stayed yet another day doing boat work. Kevin managed to get one of our new hot water heaters in! So now, we can have hot showers again. Just in time too, because the nights are finally cooling off a little – at least relative to what they have been up till now.

Today as I write this we are finally saying good-bye to Florida and heading to Charleston, South Carolina. I am excited to see a part of the U.S. that I haven’t seen before.