First trip of many to come

March, 2013

And so early in the morning I set off for my first voyage on Dream Odyssey. My first passage would see me travel from Palmetto, south down the west coast of Florida, around the bottom of the Keys, and back up the east coast to Fort Lauderdale.

Sunset - Day 1

It was a cool, crisp morning with hardly a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of breeze about. But seeing as I had about an hour from leaving the marina before hitting open sea I hoped that it might start to pick up as the day went on.

Good Sailing - Day 3

It didn't! Upon getting out of the confines of the harbour waters, taking a turn to port to head south I got all the sails out and then found with the engine switched off found myself doing 3 knots. Not a good average speed, not that I was in a particular hurry, but from what I could tell from the charts there were only few places that seemed suitable to anchor up for the night. The first of which was far enough away that at 3 knots I wouldn't have been arriving until halfway through the night. Being that I had never been along this stretch of water, and I was just getting settled in I didn't want to chance too much coming into an anchorage in complete darkness. And so with the engine back on, I motor sailed for the rest of the day. This was much the same scenario for the next few days until reaching anchorage at Key West at the end of the third day. I did have some friendly dolphins come to play on my bow one of these days, not the first time of course I've had them do this in my travels, but it somehow felt different having them all to myself and being so close.

Anchorage - Day 4

The following morning however was a different story, as I made my way clear of Key West and rounded my southern most point of the journey the wind came in. It was a good south easterly blow, ranging from 10-15 knots early on before reaching 23-28 knots later in the day. And it was great, after a little fooling about initially getting used to things, I was soon making around 9 knots and had a good heel on. It was exhilarating, Dream Odyssey's not exactly a greyhound, but for my liking she was handling just fine. It got to the point that I had to reduce sail area as the wind increased, and still I kept almost the same speed. And as it turned out just as I was reaching my anchorage for that day, the wind all but died off, perfect timing and a good way to end the day relaxing in calm waters.

The fifth and final day of my first trip was once again with only a light breeze. Making my way up the coast passing by Miami, and then to the familiar waters of Fort Lauderdale. I had arranged previously before leaving a dock space up the New River, located at a private house, it's a good quiet spot.

Dock in Fort Lauderdale