Fort Lauderdale to Newport R.I.
September 10th, 2006
Alan's
Log:
Joan's Log: Well we finally made it through commissioning!
Joan and a crew from Hylas sailed from Fort Lauderdale to Grand Bahama on September 1st while I flew there to officially take delivery of Moonstruck offshore. I then joined Joan and our Hylas crew for the offshore voyage from Grand Bahama to Newport R.I.
We had favorable weather for the entire passage with only a few squalls by way of bad weather. Sunsets were beautiful and we had 5 whale sightings, including a real display by a Humpback that breached a number of times coming completely out of the water before creating a huge splash. On board were Alan, Joan, Sam (at left in the third picture) our Hylas captain and Rick, a future Hylas owner gaining some ocean miles.
We arrived safely in Newport 4 days ago and this is the first time I have been able to sit down without any distractions to read and send email! Well… it took us 6 days of continuous sailing (actually 3 days of motoring, because we had a drop dead due date to get here before they blocked in the piers for the show) to get to Newport. We arrived early Friday morning. It was a good sail; we had good weather most of the way. I have to admit that I was scared at first, it was a freaky thing to be so far out, no sight of land (at times we were 250 miles off-shore) and knowing how much water was underneath us! I had trouble sleeping at first and couldn’t relax. The first few days were unbelievably hot, so we were drinking water constantly and still getting dehydrated. Also we went through several squalls right away, which freaked me out too. I got used to them after awhile and they didn’t scare me as much. I also relaxed after a few days, and enjoyed it. It was an amazing experience and Moonstruck took very good care of us.
The second morning we were out we were visited by about 10 dolphins, they were sooo cute! They swam and played at the bow, we went up there to watch them and the water was so clear we could see them perfectly. They were about 3 feet from us, sometimes they would swim on their sides so they could get a good look at us too. It was an incredible experience to be so close to them, and they seemed so friendly and interested in us too. We had about 5 separate whale sightings!!!! Once while we were having dinner at sunset up in the cockpit a Humpback Whale jumped completely out of the water about 4 times in a row, he was really happy about something! We also saw a huge Wright Whale and her baby, and a Sperm Whale. We also would see whales blow in the distance and then disappear. We did watches around the clock, 3 hours on, 6 hours off. At first I shared mine with Alan, and was able to do them alone towards the end of the cruise. Our crew were great, both pulled their weight and helped make the voyage a success!
Moonstruck is getting some bugs worked out here in Newport, our Satellite phone was never installed, the in-mast furling system gave us lots of problems and our refrigeration went out 3 days into our voyage. Lovely! But hey, life is an adventure now!
Our first sight of land in 6 days, the entrance to Narragansett Bay, home of Newport and the boat show.
Moonstruck flying her new British Virgin Island flag of registry and the quarantine flag, awaiting customs clearance.
Next.....Moonstruck is in the Newport Boat Show and we explore Rhode Island.