TideChaser Followers    Day 10        

November 30, 2014

This morning looks good. Originally this is the day we were supposed to arrive in Southport, NC where TideChaser will be for the next year coming and going to mysterious destinations or basically cleaning her up and repairing the things we now know don’t work. The mysterious destinations sounded much more fun and romantic don’t you think?

Anyway we have looked at weather, nautical miles to home, 434NM and make our final decision to head out of Ft. Lauderdale and go to the Gulf Stream which is a current about 25 or more miles off shore that has a current heading north. This may help push us forward if the winds are not in our favor and help us pick up time we have lost. At noon we go for it. As we pass the cruise ships people on their decks and balconies wave at us. I feel like a celebrity and I wave back. But I realize that we are just a tiny vessel in the ocean where these huge ships sail night and day. We will be sailing night and day too. Always keeping a watch so hopefully they won’t run over us.

It took us awhile to get out here to the Stream, but we couldn’t believe how warm it felt and how calm the seas were. We’ve put the sails up and have only one engine going now. We are moving along at 8.5 -10 knots the guys are really happy about that and figure if we can keep this pace we will be home by Wednesday, December 3^rd. YES!   The depth here today is 215 feet. I pray this weather holds out. It is perfect and now we have no contact with land except through our VFH radio which would only be to another ship within range of us, not land people. So as the guys put on our auto pilot and yell yehaw they crank up the music and get the party boat started.

Supper was breaded chicken strips in the oven on buns, seasoned pinto beans and a fresh salad. I’m getting pretty good at this propane stove and oven. But I’m NO gourmet cook.

Night watches are real important now with all the huge ships that travel this route. Once again we have 2 hours watching and 4 hours of sleep. Tonight was the first beautiful night on the Ocean that we have had this whole trip. As night came I started to worry that things would get bad like in the past days. But thankfully it was just like the day very calm and the moon and stars are out so clearly it was so beautiful. I put my iPod music on and I had fist watch from 10pm-midnight. I may have been losing it , mentally by the end of this day because I sat outside singing Queen and Prince. Hey, ya gotta love Prince. The guys stayed up in the salon watching a movie or something.

Love Juls