Nirvana Is In Florida .. FINALLY!

After reviewing our blog, I realized that my last post was about our solar panel project. Since then, we actually left the dock in Louisiana! Leaving the dock wasn't easy, and realizing that our teak bowsprit was rotten just days before leaving didn't help! We were determined to not let this setback stop us from leaving, and with the help of a friend a new bowsprit was built and installed within a week! The new bowsprit was made by gluing pieces of Mahogany and Ipe wood together and then varnishing. Actually, it wasn't near as easy as it sounds, but that's the basics of it. We are so thankful for our friend's help. Without him, we may have been set back for many more weeks .. thanks Martin! 

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After finishing the bowsprit, we needed to install our new Mantus anchor .. it's a beast!

 After installing the anchor, we tackled a lot of last minute projects. There were so many things that needed to be done at the last minute, like storing our truck at my Dad's place, filling up the jerry cans, hauling our dinghy from storage & getting it inflated and placed on the bow, filling up our boat with groceries, and all sorts of random things. We were exhausted the night before we left, and our heads didn't hit the pillow till around 11pm that night. We didn't even have time to hang out with our dock friends for a farewell drink! But, we were already leaving a few weeks later than anticipated and we weren't pushing back our departure date for even one more day. So, our dock friends watched while they drank for us! 

We got everything done and were up at sunrise the next morning and ready to go.

On November 18th, we finally left the dock and headed East! It was a beautiful day, and it felt so good to FINALLY be headed somewhere new. We'd been waiting for this day a long time! It's weird, because I always planned about writing about the days leading up to this experience, but we were so busy making it happen that I just didn't have the time. Let me just say ... it was so surreal to actually leave the dock, and so exhilarating! Here's a quick video taken just minutes after leaving the dock ...

 We went through the Rigolets bridge, and then began our journey into unfamiliar territory. We entered the Mississippi Sound and stayed in Gulfport, MS the first night. Our first day was fun, with calm seas and blue skies! 

On the second day, we motored to an anchorage in Pascagoula, and on the 3rd day (my birthday) we awoke to a beautiful sunrise and enjoyed the company of dolphin while drinking coffee in our cockpit. I couldn't capture the dolphin, but there were a lot! It was so peaceful, and I couldn't think of a better way to start my birthday!

After we pulled up the anchor, we passed Dauphin Island and crossed Mobile Bay, which was like glass. We had a perfect day, being often escorted by dolphin and as an added bonus ... the "Blue Angels" were practicing overhead! Ken said he ordered them for my birthday .. LOL! That afternoon, we pulled into Lulu's alongside the ICW to celebrate my 53rd birthday, and the fact that we were now in Alabama .. and exactly 10 years ago we bought Nirvana! It was a birthday that will never be forgotten! The first photo below is just after crossing Mobile Bay and entering the canal of the ICW.

The following day, a water pump that we ordered the day before arrived (already dealing with the unexpected) and Ken was able to replace it without any problems. Luckily, the guy working at the marina gave us a ride to the hardware store and to Wal-Mart .. yes, the boating community is great! After two nights at Lulu's "Homeport Marina", we were on our way to Pensacola.

The passage from Lulu's to Pensacola was pretty interesting. It started down the ICW canal, which had a busy highway to our starboard side for a while. The highway was later replaced with beautiful homes along the way, and the area looked very similar to the canals back home. We then entered an area of really cool sand dunes. Once again, we were escorted by dolphin and treated to another "Blue Angels" show! I tried to capture this on my cheap phone, but just couldn't.

When passing the sand dunes, it was a pretty narrow passage. We were glad to have our chart plotter to stay on course! BTW, our "chart plotter" was an app (Aqua Map) on our iPad, and I'll be writing a post dedicated to it soon because it was so cheap and so easy. I swear, it's so much better than our expensive Lowrance and we love it! Below is a pic of it taken just after leaving Lulu's ...

After running for weeks, we were exhausted when we finally arrived in Pensacola mid-day. We decided to get some rest and dock near Pensacola Beach for a few days. The location was just what we needed! The beach was a short walk away, as well as "Happy Hour" and beautiful sunsets from our cockpit. See that sailboat on the outside dock facing the trawler? That's Nirvana! The very first photo in this post was taken from Nirvana one evening .. we loved the view!

After a few days of exploring the Pensacola Beach area, we moved our boat to a marina along the ICW in Pensacola for the holidays.

You see, we got a late start leaving Louisiana and we didn't beat the cold. Add to that the fact that not only one .. but two of our tenants gave their notice that they were vacating our rentals! For us, it made sense to stay nearby to repair and rent our rentals ourselves instead of paying a small fortune for someone else to do it for us. As much as we want to continue our sailing journey, we don't wanna freeze and we don't want it to cost us thousands of extra dollars when we're on a small budget!

So, we decided to rent a car and take the 3 hour drive back home to visit with family for Thanksgiving. Our daughter and her family were also in town from Colorado! Since Thanksgiving, we got our truck back from my Dad's place and we've been spending time between one of our vacant rentals and our boat in Pensacola. Luckily, our rental has a washer, dryer and refrigerator and the house doesn't require many repairs. We're once again sleeping on an air mattress, which brings back memories of our time in Puerto Rico! 

It's been pretty nice having a "condo" in Pensacola and a house in Louisiana to go back & forth to. In Orange Beach, we went to a fun Christmas parade that threw tons of candy. I liked the candy much better than the beads we get in New Orleans! We've also enjoyed the Christmas lights in downtown Pensacola and Perdido Key, as well as our traditional visit to New Orleans for drinks and tours of some of the well known hotels that are decorated for Christmas. The first photo is the famous Roosevelt Hotel lobby ..

and Fulton Street always has a huge tree and gingerbread display!

This year was our first visit to the Ritz Carlton to see their Christmas display. Their lobby was also beautiful, and they also had a gingerbread display creation of their own!

The best surprise at the Ritz .. free gumbo! It was really good too!

While waiting for warmer weather and our rental to be vacated, we decided to fly to Colorado for Christmas to see our "kids"! We enjoyed a beautiful "White Christmas" and I cried when they dropped us off at the airport. Our lil man will be two years old in less than a month!

We arrived back in Louisiana just in time to celebrate New Year's Eve with friends. Our other rental will be vacant soon, and we're hoping it's not in too bad of shape. The bad thing is that our currently vacant rental hasn't rented yet, but the good thing is that we have a comfortable place to stay during the Winter and while working on our other rental. When life gives us lemons, we make lemonade!

Ken's also picked up a few jobs while in Louisiana .. may as well make money while he can! We'll continue to make the best of our situation and enjoy both Louisiana & Florida. The views from our cockpit in Pensacola are pretty awesome and the sunsets are gorgeous .. I'll get a picture one of these times. Being next to the ICW, we often see dolphin too .. so rare in Louisiana! 

So what's our plans when the weather gets warmer in the Spring? We're not exactly sure. Since our rentals will always need to be dealt with (and a property manager would suck up our budget), we may decide to continue to stay closer to home. There's a ton of exploring to do in the Florida Panhandle, as well as in between there and Louisiana. We'll get it figured out!

Hasta luego .. until then. Mid-Life Cruising!

Sailing to Mexico!

Mexican sunrise from our v-berth hatch!

After a few days in Key West, the time had come to pull up the anchor .. our sailing adventure was about to begin!

It was a surreal feeling leaving the fuel dock from Key West that Saturday morning. As we headed into the waters of the Gulf, we were sent on our way by a school of dolphin playing at the bow of the boat. It was such a cool experience .. nature at its best! We began to settle in the center cockpit of the boat while being mesmerized by the incredible blue waters. Before we knew it, there was no land in sight. We wondered if being on a boat in the waters of the Gulf with no land in sight would be scary, but it wasn't. It was so peaceful! My phone's camera was kinda blurry, but this was the view looking out the stern of the boat ...

For those that missed my last post .. here's a photo of the Hylas 47 anchored in Mexico. We sailed on this with our friend & owner of the boat, Charlie. It's a beautiful boat, and we loved the way it sailed!

While enjoying the views & conversation in the cockpit, we took turns watching out for crab pots. I swear these things were everywhere for that entire first day! Grabbing one of these pots on the prop was something we wanted to avoid, and luckily we did. Ken found his spot outside of the cockpit to watch for pots ... look how blue that water is!

As night drew near, we settled on 3-hour shifts between the three of us. I drew up the schedule and tried to mentally prepare myself for my first overnight shift later that night. Our friend & owner of the boat, Charlie, eased our minds with his laid back attitude. As night appeared, Ken & I expected to get nervous about not being able to see around us. Surprisingly, neither of us freaked out and we were both more excited about our first night's passage than anything else.

When my 1:00 am shift arrived that Saturday night, I was ready to put what I had learned to the test. Basically, I kept an eye on the AIS for ships in our path and made sure that the auto-pilot was on the proper course. Charlie slept in the cockpit in case I needed to wake him for anything, and Ken also slept in the cockpit for moral support on my first watch. While I wasn't nervous, it was nice to know that I wasn't truly alone.

I passed the time by checking out the ships on the AIS .. most were over 600 feet in length & headed to Cozumel or other areas nearby. It was pretty cool to learn the names of these ships, their length, and their destination. Even more interesting was learning at what time we'd be at our closest point to these floating giants. It was reassuring to know that we weren't on a collision course! It was amazing to see a ship show up miles away on the AIS, then see tiny lights on the horizon. When being in the dark, those lights show up a long ways away. With that in mind, I scanned the horizon about every 20-30 minutes for signs of lights from boats that may not show up on the AIS. The big ships are required to use AIS, but sailboats & smaller boats aren't required to use this. Therefore, a scan over the horizon is a good idea if you wanna make sure you don't hit a boat!

I also spent my 3 hour shift gazing at the incredible light show in the sky! While I've seen my share of starry nights in the country as a child, I swear I'd never seen so many stars in the sky than I did during my night watches. The sky was littered with tiny stars and a crescent moon, which reflected on the dark waters .. it was truly magical. I tried to embrace this time and cement it in my memory. There isn't anything better than simply being one-on-one with nature's beauty.

Before I knew it, my first night shift was over and it was time for Ken to take over. Since it was his first shift, I stayed up with him a while and we both enjoyed the night sky and this memorable time together. We did it! We finally sailed overnight, and we survived!

The following day was beautiful, and we no longer had to watch for crab pots. While sitting in the cockpit, out of the blue (literally) came a school of flying fish! Ken & I had never seen these before, and they were really cool to watch as they flew over the water for about 7-8 seconds. They flew like tiny jets and would brush the waves like a rock skims the water. Then, as suddenly as they appeared, they were gone. We saw this happen a couple of times later that day and the next .. really amazing to see. We also enjoyed another visit from a pod of dolphin. These were tiny little guys, and they swam & played with our bow for at least 15 minutes! Some even jumped as high out of the water as they could, then belly-flopped into the water. They seemed to be having a blast! I couldn't seem to get my short video to post here, but you can find it on our Facebook page here.

When hearing of sailing for 3 days, one may think of hanging out on the bow of the boat, soaking up the sun and taking tons of photos .. at least that's what I imagined. But, the truth is that I love my sleep so a series of 3-hour shifts over three days is exhausting! I didn't pick up my camera much, because I was too lazy. I also was overdue for a shower, which didn't help me get motivated. I decided to just live in the moment, and go with the flow. 

The second night's watch was also uneventful .. and beautiful. While I wasn't able to see the lights of Cuba on our port side, I was able to see the "forbidden" country for over a day on the GPS. It seemed to take forever to pass Cuba, as we were also fighting the current of the Gulf Steam. I daydreamed about taking our own boat to Cuba on the way to Mexico someday.

When Ken relieved me of my shift, I went down below to sleep in the v-berth. It was quite a difference sleeping in the v-berth while fighting the Gulf Stream! The sound of the current against the bow of the boat with such force was quite impressive. While it was hard to sleep with such loud (almost violent sounds), I was glad I had gone down below and experienced it.

Our third & final day at sea was a bit "sporty" as Charlie would say. There was a Northerly sweeping around us to our starboard side, and the skies got pretty dark. We encountered a short period of rain that afternoon, but nothing too bad. Of course, it's not so bad when it's not my shift and the guys insist I go downstairs. My arm didn't have to be twisted, and I stayed down below for about 20 minutes until the rain passed.

With the Northerly that day, the waves increased a good bit and we were also fighting the Gulf Stream. That 3rd night, we were in winds up to 25 knots and in what felt like huge waves. We were rolling a good bit, and going down below was a real challenge. I felt like a ball inside of a pinball machine when down there! Luckily, none of us got seasick.

Charlie said that it was probably a good thing we couldn't see the waves .. I have a feeling he was right! We motor-sailed throughout the night, and although we were only moving about 4 knots against the current, we were actually doing about 8 knots. While on my night watch, we seemed to be flying! I pushed back thoughts of the engine dying or hitting something, and instead enjoyed the exhilarating feeling of cutting through the waves. It kinda felt like riding a galloping horse, and while I wouldn't want to be in those conditions on our smaller boat .. I got a thrill out of that boat moving through the waves with such force.

Before Ken's shift was over and the sun rose, Ken was able to see the lights of Isla Mujeres. We've always heard not to enter an unfamiliar port in the dark, and it wasn't our boat, so Ken woke up Charlie. I was already awake, as I couldn't get much sleep rocking around down below. A decision was made to kill some time until the sun rose, then we made our way into the anchorage of Isla Mujeres. You'd think that the three of us would be celebrating the fact that we'd arrived in Isla Mujeres. As I mentioned earlier, we didn't get a lot of sleep and were too tired to do any celebrating. 

It was a cloudy day when we arrived, and after anchoring Charlie raised the yellow quarantine flag to show that we hadn't yet checked into the country. Then, we all crashed!

We didn't leave the boat that day. We ate a good meal of chicken & rice, and kinda just hung out in the cockpit. We had the ferry dock and "downtown" (North) on one side of us ..

and the lagoon on the other side.

The tiny beach nearby turned out to be a really convenient place to dock the dinghy! (I hate my new phone's camera .. sorry for the blurry images)!

The following day we started the "check-in" process to Mexico. This is a rather time-consuming process, but not as complicated as it originally sounds. It took us two days to check in, and we did not pay the $75 to hire an agent. I'll wrote a detailed post about the process soon.

So, we've finally sailed overnight .. and have even done a 3-day passage to a foreign country! We're so glad that we took this opportunity, and had a great experience. We still have a lot to learn, but this gave us a really good idea of what an overnight sail is like, and how to use the latest navigation electronics. We definitely are sold on getting an AIS!

We also learned about anchoring, and staying out of the swing of other boats!  Was that boat dragging?! After Ken & Charlie watched it a while .. yes, it was. A friendly chat with the neighbor and a collision was avoided.

Me and our friend who made all of this possible .. Charlie! We are so grateful to have met him at our marina last year. He was really patient, and put up with us on his boat for two weeks!

This passage has made us motivated to get Nirvana ready for cruising this year! We do know that a 3-day passage to Mexico is not preferred by us on our Catalina 30. Charlie's Hylas 47 handled the waves perfectly, but on our boat that last day & night .. we don't wanna find out. Our boat is a coastal cruiser, not a bluewater boat!

We plan on sailing to Isla ourselves on Nirvana someday, but with stops from Key West to the Dry Tortugas, then Cuba, then Mexico. With these stops, we can watch and wait for the right weather window for our boat .. and visit some beautiful places in the meantime.

Next up .. exploring Isla Mujeres and meeting several other cruisers. Yes, the cruising community is awesome!

Hasta luego .. until then. Mid-Life Cruising!