May 3, 2008.

We spent more than a week in the beautiful anchorage near Devil Cay. The shelling and spear fishing have been spectacular. The weather forecast had been pointing to a weather window that would enable us to cross back to the states starting on Thursday.

So we decided to hit the water one more time to gather a few fish. We ended up drifting the cut 4 times successfully spearing a fish on each drift. We ended up with 2 nice grouper and 2 good sized triggerfish.


Before we get underway for the states we have 2 chores to take care of. The last time we did an overnight passage in the ocean we found that our bow light wasn’t working. This left me to repair it while underway in the dark. I was not eager to have a repeat performance so I had to check all our navigation lights before we departed. As luck would have it the bow light was again full of corrosion. So after a quick cleaning with some sandpaper the full compliment of ships lighting was once again working.

The next project was a little bigger. The bottom paint that we’ve always used with great success has failed us miserably this year. At least once a month I have to don my snorkel and jump in with scraper and scrub brush in hand to clean the entire bottom one breath at a time.

I was about a quarter of the way done when Tom from Hearts Desire came over and offered me the use of his Hookah system. The Hookah system is a small 12 volt compressor that continuously provides breathing air to a scuba regulator. It comes with 50 feet of hose, so you just plug it in, submerge and take care of the entire job. The Hookah enabled me to do a really good job and I was sure that Veranda would be as fast as she was the day she was launched with fresh bottom paint. There’s definitely a Hookah system in our future.

The weather report had remained pretty consistent for 3 days and Thursday was still a go. During the planning of this passage I figured if we sailed at 5 knots we would need about 17 hours to make it to the eastern edge of the gulf stream. Since we’d like to cross the stream during daylight hours that meant we should be underway by 1100 hours on Thursday. When all was said and done, leaving at 1100 we should arrive at the edge of the stream at around 0500 on Friday then ride the stream to Lake Worth by noon.

The 2 biggest reasons we’ve decided to return to Lake Worth are the accessibility of US Customs and a decent dog groomer. The deal with customs is that if you arrive on a weekday there’s an office within walking distance. But God forbid you arrive on the weekend, in that case you have to go to the airport to clear back into the country. We’ve heard from more than a few people who had to make the airport journey and the cab fare has been consistently around 75 dollars. So a Friday arrival is important to us.

We were a bit anxious to get started so we were up and underway by 1045. The wind had been cranking from the northeast for 2 days but was supposed to diminish a bit and come more from the east as the day went on. The bad thing about that northeast wind was that it had built up a pretty big swell.

This meant that as we traverse the cut we were pretty much gonna be beating into it. The channel to the cut had our beam to the seas as they crashed over the reef which gave us a horrible side to side roll in spite of our reefed mainsail being up. Finally we got to turn towards the cut and found ourselves pounding through one breaker after another. We were only able to make about 3 knots for 15 minutes as we drove through the angry sea.

Finally we could turn a bit to the north which gave us a little better ride. After a half hour we had cleared the reef and were able to turn north-northwest. After rolling out most of the genoa we killed the engine and found ourselves doing 7 1/2 knots. The ride was fairly rough with Veranda climbing over 8 foot seas with the occasional wave breaking across the foredeck.

After about 8 miles we turned another 30 degrees to port. Now the northeast swell was hitting us dead on the beam. It would have been really miserable if there hadn’t been enough wind to keep the sails full and the boat driving through the water. After yet another 8 miles we were able to turn more to the west and this resulted in the wind and seas both coming at us from our starboard quarter. This made the ride a lot more doable as we alternated between surfing the waves and then having some break all around the boat as we sailed out of the foam.

We would end up maintaining this heading for over 60 miles. Because the winds were 16 to 23 knots we were making great time. In fact, too great. If this kept up we’d arrive at the Gulf Stream by 0200.

As night fell we turned on our nav lights and guess what? That’s right the bow light was out. Shit, shit, shit. I went forward and took it apart and everything looked as it should. I got some sandpaper and recleaned everything, to no avail. Shit. Next I got out my multi meter and started checking connections. I found that the wire that is supposed to power the fixture had broken where it came out of the bowrail. Shit. While I was pulling the light bulb out of the fixture we were hit by a larger than average wave and I must have tensed up because I broke the bulb between my thumb and forefinger. I wouldn’t have even noticed except for all the blood. Shit.

I make my way back to the safety of the cockpit while Christy got me a Band-Aid. I couldn’t replace that wire in those conditions so we were pretty much resigned to being unlit for the remainder of the night.

We had a few things going for us. First, we keep a good watch and actively avoid any shipping we come across. Second, our radar is a stud. Third, we also have the well lit Hearts Desire only 200 yards behind us so anything that tries to avoid them will be unknowingly avoiding us as well.

Then in a moment of divine inspiration I realized that we have an extra bow light for the dinghy on board. It’s battery powered, but it’ll do in a pinch. Christy dug it out and put in fresh batteries, I took it forward and use some electrical tape to tape it to the flat surface of one of our spare anchors. Once it was in place I turned it on and viola, we’re visible. I did have to change the batteries twice during the night, but I was happy to do it.

A quick safety disclaimer: Whenever we make any type of passage we run jacklines down both sides of the boat from bow to stern. I can clip my safety harness to the jackline before I leave the cockpit and scamper my way to the bow in relative safety. Yes, I can still scamper, it’s another one of my Scaredshitlessman special powers.

Once we reached the Gulf Stream the winds started to abate. The seas were much smaller but now a bit confused and without the wind to keep the sails full we were rolling and the sails were flopping. We were able to adjust this and trim that, just to stay sane, and the wind picked up a bit so we were able to continue sailing. Finally, with about 10 miles to go we had to roll in the genoa and start the engine and motorsail into the inlet.

The conditions in the inlet were ridiculous. Huge breaking waves and a small breeze at our backs with the tide running hard out to meet us. Normally we would have been pretty freaked out but we were just damned happy to approach an inlet that had channel markers. The rough water was finally over and we were soon anchored just inside on the south side of the inlet.

Our trip covered 153 miles in just under 24 hours. We only had to run the engine for a total of 2 hours of that entire time. Even though it was rougher than we would have liked, it was still a great sail.

Now all we had to do is clear in at Customs and Immigration before the end of the day and we were all set. Before we left the country we applied for and received a decal for the boat from the Department of Homeland Security. We were supposed to call a phone number and read them our decal number, this should have enabled us to clear customs over the phone and would allow us to report to immigration within 24 hours. At least that was our understanding.

I called the number that was on the paperwork that came to us with our decal. The woman said that even after the call we still had to report to customs. I then asked “then what does the decal actually do?”. She replied that the decal just gets the ball rolling. Okay, Buh-bye. I understand that the ball is now rolling but since she never asked me my name or for my decal number, where the hell is it rolling too? So we hopped in the dink and headed into the marina where they charged us 10 bucks for the privilege of tying up to walk over to customs.

At the building that houses Customs and Immigration we received a cordial welcome and breezed through security and the metal detector. I did have a Washington, DC flashback but got through security unscathed.

I approached the glass partition and informed the customs officer that we would like to check back into the country. He asked for my number and as I gave him my decal number he started to have a mini stroke. He went from being indifferent to being a mondo asshole in a flash. He angrily told us we were supposed to call in and get a clearance number before we got off the boat. I told him that we did call and the woman really wasn’t much help. He barked at us “What number did you call?” I told him the one that accompanied our sticker. His reply was that we were supposed to call the 800 number to get a clearance number. Who does he think I am, Kreskin? How was I supposed to know there was an 800 number?

By this time we’d been up for over 30 hours so Christy might have been a tad cranky. With gusto she jumped right into what, up until now, had just been a misunderstanding. She gets to the heart of the matter right away. “If the 800 number is so important why don’t they send that number along with the decal in the first place?” She’s right, and that makes sense, but remember that we’re dealing with the government here. Now the guy was really bitching at us about how if we were in a foreign country we’d be in jail already, how he could have our boat impounded, etc. He did not like Christy one bit and asked her if she expected him to give us permission to break the law….? Whatever…. She muttered something under her breath and I gave her the “eye”. After I managed to pry her off the plexi-glass divider he slid a paper out for me to fill out. It was a pretty mundane form that really doesn’t ask anything. I gave it back to him along with our passports and after ten minutes we were officially back in the United States. Geeez, that guy definitely forgot to take his happy pills that day. We just wished that they would have the same enthusiasm for their jobs when dealing (or not dealing) with the millions of illegal aliens that pour into this country every day, we are freaking US citizens, trying to do the right thing. Question, we did not have to check out of the country, why do we have to check back in? To top it all off when I checked our passports they weren't even stamped. WTH?

As we were leaving I asked him where the Immigration office was and he said that he does all that as well, so we were completely done. It’s a good thing too, because we needed to get back to the boat before the Haitians we smuggled in get into our multiple kilos of cocaine and start playing around with the dirty bomb we’ve been building. He never asked……

As soon as we were back to the boat we once again weighed anchor and motored the 4 miles to a more protected anchorage where we’ll stay until the dogs are more presentable.