Two grueling days of putting miles under Happy Day have us resting peacefully in a backwater channel between Marco Island and Naples. The journey here was not peaceful or uneventful however.
Day 1 started well enough except for a very unfortunate case of pink eye and illness Amber picked up and struggled with all day. She struggled through but was essentially bedridden.
We had made it out of the keys, raised sails, and motor/sailed north. The evening brought about an inevitable Florida storm. We prepped early and entered the storm with a double reefed main and a (perhaps not quite enough) double reefed jib. Austin and I had life jacketed and harnessed ourselves.
In the ensuing chaos we lost a batton in the main and our aging jib sang it's last song, splitting horizontally.
Luckily the storm passed relatively quickly and we only had wind to deal with.
Now the race was on to reach our only option for safe harbor, little shark river, before sunset. We pushed hard calculating an arrival of 5 to 10 minutes after sunset. We made it but didn't anticipate three other boats seeking shelter in the same harbor.
Quickly losing light i chose a spot the furthest in and Austin dropped anchor. Not before nearly being carried away by an everglades native, the mosquito. In the span of two minutes, just enough time to drop anchor and set not nearly enough scope, we were bitten 20 to 30 times each.
We had anticipated bugs and already had mosquito netting in place so we dove inside the cabin and slapped each other around a bit.
Once we purged the interior of the boat off all living things, except the 5 of us, we enjoyed a relaxing rest of the night bug free.
Except for Amber who had a raging fever and did not even remember conversation or anything the next morning. Thankfully her fever broke in the middle of the night because the next day was no pleasure cruise either.
I exited the cabin at 6:30 only to be greeted instantly by more flying bloodsucking fiends. I wasted no time, fired up the motor, and we bounced out.
Out of the harbor we were greated with strong 10 to 15 mph winds and 1 to 2 foot waves coming at our broadside. This may have been ok but without a jib and even with a double reefed main the boat was horribly unbalanced. It was not long before the tiller pilot was no longer an option and it was handsteering only.
Handsteering is ok in calm conditions or in bad conditions for short bursts but we didn't arrive in Goodland until 3:30 that afternoon. I was a grumpy guy. It's aggravating to me when the tiller needs so much attention that i can't do anything else. Like pee, or brush my teeth, or check navionics. Amber (who thankfully felt better today) took over steering a couple times but she agreed it was a nightmare trying to keep Happy on course.
Aaliah was not a fan of the waves when the boat would come crashing down or veer off course from a big gust but overall she did very well. After finally getting the nerve to put on her life jacket come into the cockpit she got to enjoy watching out and calling out the big wave set.
Austin spent a good portion laying in the cabin and actully sleeping some too. Lucky...
Finally we arrived in Goodland and everything was right as rain. We pushed through to our current anchorage in rookery bay and tossed the hook. We were all thrilled to have two 13 hour days of solid movement behind us. Tomorrow is a relativly short hop to Fort Myers.
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