Date: May 15th, 2008
Location: Docked in Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
Coordinates: 26.136849, -80.11947
Weather: Sunny, 95F, wind: not measurable
Sea State: Calm
Last night I decided to sleep on the forward trampoline. I took my pillow and poncho liner up forward and laid down on the trampoline. I laid there for a few minutes watching the clouds pass in front of the moon or looked at the beautiful homes surrounding the cove in which we had anchored. It was very peaceful and I soon fell fast asleep. I slept quite soundly and awoke with the rising of the sun. I now think I was lucky to have lost that coin toss and ending up the vagabond without quarters. Since I was taking the class with my cousin Scot there was never any question about which head to use or where to stow most of my gear. And because I slept in the salon, I would often have nice quite time to write these posts at the table after everyone went to their cabins for the night. After writing my nightly posts, I would go up forward and enjoy the solace and scenery from the comfort of the trampoline. In many ways the lack of a cabin aloud me to enjoy aspects of the boat that the others did not.
After another bagel breakfast (what happened, the first several days we had such good fair for our morning meals) we sat down and graded the ASA Basic Coastal Cruising 103 tests. Everyone passed, I ended up missing 14 questions out of the 125. Having finished the test CJay informed us that if we had failed this test, then we would not be able to take the tests for Bareboat Chartering and Catamaran Cruising. Apparently a high percentage of students fail test 103 and it is uncommon for all four students to pass. I can only imagine how upset some people must get to pay so much money to take this class only to fail and finish the week with the only 101 certification. If you are reading this blog and plan on taking this course, make sure you read and study your books and find a good instructor like CJay.
We prepared the boat for sailing, pulled the hook and having plotted the course, set sail for Fort Lauderdale. Before getting to the open waters of the Atlantic we pulled into a anchorage and swung the compass. Swinging the compass is something you do to find out the deviation of your ships compass. On different headings, you compass will be off by different degrees. By swinging your compass you can graph the deviation and use it to adjust your course while underway.
We finished swinging the compass and continued toward open water. After getting passed the reef we hoisted the mainsail. As we were preparing to hoist the jib, there was a loud bang and the clew of the mainsail went slack. The outhaul sheet had separated. The outhaul is a line that runs thought the boom and tightens the foot or bottom of the sail. You can not sail with the mainsail flapping about in the wind, so we lowered the mainsail, then lowered the boom onto the bimini. We tightened down the boom and then took the first reefing line which also runs though the boom and tied it the clew of the mainsail. The first reefing line was now out outhaul. We re-raised the main and then the boom and then tighten the foot of the main but pulling on the outhaul. Amazingly this only took about 10 minutes.
We then sailed in very light winds to the gulf stream which was just a few miles out to sea. The gulf stream moving north added about 5.5 knots to our speed over ground. The wind was very light. We had to set a tang line to keep the jib open and not collapse. CJay rigged a trolling line hoping to catch some fish for dinner. I think the highest speed we saw on the GPS was 8.5 knots. This means the wind was only adding 3 knots to our speed!
After about an hour of this we heard a zing sound, quickly followed by CJay yelling,”Fish on!” and then “Heave to!” So as CJ fought with his fish, the crew went into action and bought the boat to a stop. Both Scot and I grabbed our camera’s and followed CJay from the stern, forward to the starboard pulpit, and across to the port pulpit where you could see that CJay had hooked a beautiful Dolphin fish. Within a few more moments CJay had landed the fish and quickly went to the stern euro scoop to clean the fish. We jibbed out of the heave to and were back on our way to Fort Lauderdale. Yeah, fresh fish for dinner!
The wind dies several times leaving us becalmed gliding north on the gulf stream at 5.5 knots. After about 3 and half hours we changed course out of the gulf stream and made our way into Port Everglades. After entering Port Everglades and transiting two draw bridges we were back at the dock behind Blue Water Sailing School. The weather had been very pleasant out on the Ocean, although there was not wind, the temperature was probably in the mid 80’s. At dock however it was just plain hot! We washed down the boat and reviewed and took the ASA Bareboat Charter 104 test. This test had a few confusing questions on it but overall a much better test than ASA 103. We graded the test as the dolphin was grilling and again we all passed with scores in the 80 and 90 percent ranges. We got done with dinner about 10:30 p.m. and the fish was delicious.
Scot and I decided not to spend the night on the boat and got room at the Double Tree just up Sunrise Boulevard. After a hot shower it was
time for bed in the nice air conditioned hotel room.
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