Back in the U.S.A.!

S/V Pandion moored next to the Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine, Florida.

S/V Pandion successfully made the 90 nautical mile passage across the Gulf Stream, from West End on Grand Bahama Island to Fort Pierce, Florida. Tracking the weather window for this crossing from West End, we left at sunrise and had near perfect sailing sailing conditions for most of the day.

With the Gulf Stream pushing us along, S/V Pandion reached speeds over 10 knots at times. Not bad for a 44-ft long sailing vessel! The faster passage proved helpful as we closed in on the Florida coast near Fort Pierce Inlet, as the late afternoon thunderstorms were building up.

Crossing the Gulf Stream under nearly perfect conditions.

After navigating through the inlet, we contacted U.S Customs by phone and were checked back into the country in short order. Prior to leaving the U.S. for the Bahamas six months ago, we had registered in the Small Vessel Reporting System (SVRS), filing our float plan and meeting with a Customs officer in Fort Myers. Now we were back in the U.S.A.

Our plan is to spend the rest of the hurricane season in Jekyll Island, Georgia, before returning to the Bahamas to continue our adventures there in November/December.

With a 73-ft. tall mast, S/V Pandion cannot pass through most of the Intercoastal Waterway that winds it's way north and south along Florida's east coast, protected by barrier islands. Our only choice is to sail north in the Atlantic Ocean, making passages to tidal inlets along the way. This makes choosing the right weather window, and the timing of each passage, of importance.

Our first 60-mile passage from Fort Pierce to Port Canaveral was a great example. We stayed in Fort Pierce for a few days while we provisioned (amazing to see the huge selection of produce and other items in a grocery store in the U.S., compared to any of the stops we made in the islands) and watched the weather patterns. After tracking the afternoon thunderstorms on radar, we decided to depart Fort Pierce before sunrise, and use our two diesel engines in addition to our sails, to make our next port before the storms arrive.

Our plan worked, but only with minutes to spare. As we closed in on Port Canaveral, we watched our radar as the big cells of thunderstorms rolled east across the Florida peninsula and approached our location. We turned into the gusting winds, dropped our sails, and throttled up our engines to get into the Port Canaveral channel just as the storm front hit.

Florida summer afternoon storms roll in.

We experienced 45 knot wind gusts as S/V Pandion made her way down the big channel, with an audience of cruise ship passengers waving at us from the decks of the big moored ships. Having made reservations at the Ocean Club Marina in advance, the dockmaster was waiting for us as we raced in and secured lines. The driving rains following the gusting wind front hit us within a few minutes of being at the dock.

Radar image of the storms that met us as we arrived at Cape Canaveral.
The blue dot is our location at the marina.

All part of the adventure! Our learning curve on weather and passage making is still ongoing, but we have been able to successfully apply much of what we have learned from our first six months of sailing, and making a few mistakes along the way, to help us stay safe and continue our journey.