99

S/V Ellida, our friend John's boat

 

Today was day number 99 since Kintala sailed away from Oak Harbor. It was a fantastic day of sailing. Three boats cleared the Port Everglades inlet, together and on the ebb tide. Turning south head and main sails fluttered into the breeze and engines fell silent. Mother Ocean offered up one to two foot waves to play with the sunlight, her waters glinting a deep turquoise as the boats settled into an easy five knot close reach. And this went on for hours.

Eventually the winds faded as forecast. Our two companion boats took to motor sailing but Deb and I were content to bubble along a while more. It seemed a shame to hurry such a day though, finally, we had to give in as well. It is a long motor from the Miami inlet to dropping the anchor at Belle Island and the sun was getting low in the sky.

A Sunday afternoon on Miami waters is a place of exuberant insanity. Power boats thrashed about as if possessed, throwing giant wakes that bounced back and forth like shock waves on steroids. Kintala just shouldered her way along, occasionally shrugging the largest and steepest of them onto her foredeck. Truth to tell, from the cockpit of our little Tartan the whole scene seemed kind of pointless. Rip snorting around a crowded port when a whole big ocean lay only a mile or so away? Isn't that like flaunting your manhood in a play pen?

Cruise Ship Central

Our two companion boats, S/V Ellida and S/V Dancing with the Wind

The sun is hours set now and Kintala is set for the night, but I'm not sure long we will stay in this spot. The anchorage has been regularly assaulted by speed boats and jet skies ripping between the parked sailboats at full song. So bad was the rocking and rolling that, after a full day on the ocean without a problem, Deb and I had to stay on deck to keep the motion sickness at bay. It is starting to settle down a little now but the current has us laying beam to the wakes being shed by the evening party returning to where ever it is they return to.

Steven Spielberg's 7Seas

Still, we are a bit further south than we were this morning, after one of the best days of sailing either of us can remember. And though Miami has been unimpressive so far, we worked our way through its mad waters choked with boats being driven by the obviously unhinged with nary a hiccup. I'm not sure that would have been the case 99 days ago.