The inlet to the Cape Canaveral is just south of the cape. We pulled in there in the evening with those dreadful love bugs swarming around us like Pig Pen from the Peanuts cartoons. Our first order of business was to throw a birthday party for Roy. Sniff sniff, my baby is 12, his last year before I have a teenager.
Every day was a celebration in Fort Lauderdale, so his birthday was just a day of appreciation and cupcakes.
Roy filled our days with fishing. He’s getting really good at catch and release. The thrill of the pole bending and pulling in a big one are satisfying enough.
For his birthday Roy got two new poles, one for offshore trolling and one for casting. Genny and Marie also got pink girl poles. Roy did a good job helping the girls with fishing.
Catfish was the name of the game this week. Occasionally he would bring in a fish that would squirt out globs of clumped white stuff along with 3 or 4 yellow marble sized balls. I’ve been googling this trying to figure out what part is eggs. Not having much luck, if anyone has experience with catfish eggs, let me know.
A highlight of our stay was Mark and Sandy Aanonson’s visit. They are the grandparents of our pals from home Scott and Krista, Tyler and Cody. Mark and Sandy were so kind to bring Roy a birthday present, iTunes the perfect kid gift, along with all kinds of goodies.
We were in shock about the disgusting look of the water. It was like floating in coffee, no swimming here. I’m sure it was plenty clean, just muddy. We anchored off this tiny little island called Ski Island, people came on their little power boats all day, Topaz had fun there but the kids preferred Makai. Past this island in the distance is the Space Center museum and rocket launch sites.
On May 15 a rocket was launched with a GPS satellite. We used our computer to follow the countdown, it was very exciting.
Off it went, smoke billowing and the glowing rocket heading for orbit.
After the launch we headed back out through the lock, through the bascule bridge, down the channel and back out to sea. Mr. Bowditch said passing or rounding a cape is called doubling the cape. That night we doubled Cape Canaveral and set a course for Cape Hatteras.
The Gulf Stream was warm, 81 degrees, and the winds were light. For about 4 days we glided north with 2-4 knots of current helping us along. It was really pleasant. The spinnaker was priceless. Occasionally we would use the jib and the main sail, but the slapping of the sails back and forth because the winds were too light to keep the full was miserable, but the spinnaker was quiet and efficient. The movie Wind is a cult classic favorite on Makai. Paying respect to the film, we call our spinnaker the Whomper.
One day out there a little bird joined us. We were about 100 miles off the coast of South Carolina and figured he must have been lost and tired.
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Along the way Roy had his fishing pole at work. One day we got a Mahi Mahi right up to the side of the boat and I didn’t know how to gaff it so it got away, a little while later he got another one on the line and Roy messed with the drag and it got away. Finally, we thought we had learned a few lessons, so the peanut gallery got in position for the show.
Roy fought this fish for about 1/2 hour and finally got it up to the side. Apparently Mahi Mahi travel with their pal and even when one gets hooked, the others stay close by. The water was clear and the fish were bright green with blue fins, it was really cool seeing them all swim around.
Then Roy got it up close and it was my job to gaff it again. I was nervous that I would mess this one up and my anxiety skyrocketed. I didn’t want to let Roy down, so with a quick whack the gaff scooped the Mahi up and it flopped on the back deck. I was sure it would slide off and be in the water again, so I flopped down and sat on it.
The whole ordeal was too much for my nerves, Roy was very professional about the whole thing, he kept his cool, maybe I’ll be fired.
There he is with his prize.
We filleted the fish on the back porch and froze up 3 of 4 portions. The fourth went on the BBQ and within 30 minutes from when it was swimming we were tasting it. Delicious.
All day Sunday we spent doubling the cape. The wind was light off of Cape Hatteras, but the water was confused and miserable. By late afternoon we were out of the washing machine and heading toward the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Here the thunder storms were chasing us and we left the Gulf Stream. The water temperature dropped from 81 degrees to 51 degrees.
We could dodge thunder storms here and one there, but the last one was 10 miles across and it got us. Between us we only had one set of foul weather gear to share.
When the rain was gone and the sun came out Marie put on her yoga clothes, laid out her towel for exercise time.
Roy decided that while yoga was fine, he would tie the towel around his neck and be Yoda.
Now we’re at our anchorage in Maryland. My mom drove over from Buffalo to spend a few days with us. The weather is certainly different from the Caribbean, even Topaz sleeps inside at night. This situation gave the sisters easy access to Topaz and decided she needed to dress up a bit.
