Sailing Life Day 1: Crossing the Gulf Stream from Florida Keys to Bimini, Bahamas (First Mate’s Story Version)
Hello mga labs!! We survived our first ever sailing trip together and crossing the Gulf Stream! It took us almost 29 hours because we got stuck in the middle of “sensitive area” in the Strait of Florida! Wave on the right then Wind on the left.. we were topsy-turvy! At some point during midnight, we found salt water inside the boat.. panic but Jonathan was able to handle it in the middle of the sea! haha! Our main sail was ripped/shredded on two of our reefing points because of the wind so we only had our jib sheet sail to use but the wind was really strong at night and I didn’t want Jonathan to run to the front of the boat when the waves were very high! So we decided to use the motor while I was on the helm.. glad our engine stayed strong esp. knowing that the old owner never sailed the boat in the last 5 years! Funny though that we run out of fuel when we were just 10 miles away from Bahamas and we had to stop and drift in the middle of the Strait of Florida. (I hope Captain Jonathan will write our ordeal last night, they said it was a perfect weather window but since it’s our first time sailing on our boat and still newbie with chart plotting we were just on the wrong spot at the wrong time! Haha!)
We’re now safe here in the Bahamas, checked in at the customs, passports stamped in the immigration, got a slip at a nice marina, got my Bahamas simcard (will do live video tomorrow) and now just finished cleaning and cooking Kaledertang Beef! We changed our route last minute which made it better instead of being offline for 3 days! We thought that this journey will take us 35 hours (based on our skills and speed of our sailboat) but really thankful to our mentors (esp Captain Mike Barber to Jonathan) and amazing friends in Boot Key Marina in Florida Keys! I was not seasick as well (learned from my mentor, Carolyn of The Boat Galley). I even had a crazy full of energy because of adrenaline rush and fear (outside my comfort zone)! Haha! I have no sailing crew experience aside from being a passenger 🤣
I thought we’ll not continue and just head back to Florida because it was really rough for us for 9 hours but then we meditated and visualized our dream together! Reminded ourselves that we worked really hard the last 8 months to make this happen! We MADE IT to North Bimini in the BAHAMAS (around 140-150 nautical miles from Marathon, Florida Keys because we made a wrong turn at the beginning!).
REALLY PROUD of my Husband.. Captain Jonathan made sure we will be alright! He did everything to fix our S/V Empress since we bought her in May 2017 and after surviving the Hurricane! Finally, the last 24 hours we proved that all the hard work was worth it, Empress looked after us as we sailed her for the first time with just the two of us (and our cat) as the crew!
I’ll be uploading short video stories on our instagram, @2monkeystravel (follow us) and you’ll see what happened to us during night time! THANK YOU ALL FOR THE PRAYERS! I think nagdasal ata ng tatlong rosary nanay ko! Haha ❤️
More photos tomorrow! Time to celebrate with sangria!! ⛵️👫⛵️
P.S. Captain Ahab was a trooper! He was just with us the whole time while we alternate looking after him! He now has his first ever stamp on his Pet Passport!
P.P.S typed this without checking my grammar or typo! Will edit tomorow! hahahaha 😂🤪
Do you remember when I shared last time on how Jonathan persuaded me to buy our sailboat?
He said he’ll catch me a fish everyday.. we’re still new to sailing and what more on fishing.. but he caught a “fish” yesterday and he said it’s for Captain Ahab because he’s the baby! Hahahaha!
