America Baby!

Wow! More than a month has just flown by since our last post. And what a month it has been! On March 24, we were welcomed with open arms at the Port Canaveral Yacht Club in Florida after the 280 NM crossing from Nassau. After all the crossings and new countries, we were filled with excitement and accomplishment. Making it to the USA has stood out as one of the most visible milestones of our adventure, and now we are here! After motoring between cruise ships, barges, pilots, and cargo ships, the last few miles through the Port of Cape Canaveral, we arrived at the yacht club’s dock. A dozen kind boaters of all kinds were lined up by our slip to help with moorings and to get us up to speed with the local need-to-knows. Ida, Felix, and Jesper made friends with a few of the longer-term boat kids around and were energized by the infusion of some new blood into the tight Frenesi-trio.

The coming four weeks would be packed with adventures along the southeast coast of the US:

We started off already on our first day by heading straight to Kennedy Space Center just after clearing US Customs and Immigration at the Cape Canaveral cruise ship terminal. At 13:48 we could see the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blast out into space to launch some kind of spy satellite into low earth orbit on behalf of the National Reconnaissance Office. 8 minutes later the rocket returned to mother earth to land on KSC Landing Zone 1 after a loud sonic boom when slowing down to subsonic speed after reentry into the atmosphere. We witnessed the show from a viewing area the space center and were overwhelmed by the coolness of it all.

Next up was the highlight of our time in the US. Disney World! Two packed days at Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom were a success, of course. Visits to Miami Beach, Everglades, Rainforest Café, and a huge shopping mall completed this 5-day road trip. Of course, we didn’t miss the mandatory visit to IKEA to replenish our depleted stock of lingonsylt and knäckebröd and to have a decent lunch of köttbullar med brunsås. Linnea did a great job behind the steering wheel for hundreds of miles since Martin lost his driver’s license somewhere on St Barth a few months ago.

After 10 days in Cape Canaveral, we started our cruise along the coasts of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. We strolled the beautiful streets of the oldest city in the USA, St Augustine. We checked out the picturesque upscale town of Amelia Island. We hiked in the national park of Cumberland Island – once the summer residence of the Carnegie family and now a beautiful national park with wild horses and funny Armadillos. Charleston was another highlight with good food in southern hospitality style and a vivid sailing scene with weekend yacht races. Frenesi was moored just next to the huge, now retired museum aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-10) that served in the Pacific during both WWII and the Vietnam War. We spent a full day onboard Yorktown and another battleship, as well as at a Vietnam War museum that was all up for display.

After Charleston, it was time for the last leg along the US east coast to Wrightsville Beach. We were tempted to attempt sailing some stretch of the Atlantic part of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) that runs all the way from Key West to Virginia. It would be a welcome break from the at times challenging Atlantic conditions with frequent thunderstorms, strong winds and currents, and the channels between the Atlantic Ocean and the ICW where seas can be rough. The ICW is supposed to have 65 ft (19.8m) clearance under the large number of fixed bridges that run across the channel. It is also supposed to be at least 2.8 meters deep. In theory, it should be possible to clear the bridges at low tide with our ~20.2 m air draft, and we should be ok with the depth with our 2.0 m draft. However, when researching the idea, it seemed too tight, and the potential consequences of colliding with a bridge were too severe to justify an attempt. Hence, we accepted taking the outside route and working our way north.

Our last leg would be to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. We were excited that our friends Ernest, Evelina, and Emilia were on a visit to US and were planning on meeting us here. It was great to hang out with our friends for a couple of days for nice restaurant visits and swims in pools and the cold Atlantic Ocean. We felt fortunate that they made the effort to jump on last-minute flights and make travel arrangements to come and see us. Thank you!

On the morning of April 18, it was time for Martin to have his birthday celebrated with breakfast, including cake with candles, in bed. The rest of the day was celebrated at sea. After refueling, we thanked America for a great time and set off towards Bermuda. The 700 NM crossing would be our longest to date without additional crew. It can be a challenging crossing with cold fronts moving east from the US east coast and variable conditions. We had come to peace with the fact that we would not be able to get optimal conditions, so we looked for an ok compromise rather than perfect weather. Our plan was initially to leave on the 19th. We engaged a professional weather router, Chris Parker, and his suggestion was to leave earlier rather than later to minimize the upcoming headwind closer to Bermuda. We took his advice, prepared ourselves and the boat as fast as we could, and managed to leave around 10 o’clock on the 18th. The following 5 days offered mostly good and dry conditions, but some rough sailing at times, and the last 48 hours, the wind was from the east and the current setting to the west. In addition, we realized that we have a lot of growth on the hull, so the speed toward Bermuda was painfully slow at times. We started the engine and motored the last 35 hours to St George. Once again, it was a fantastic feeling to sight land and to reach a protected bay with turquoise waters after a long crossing. The reward of reaching a beautiful destination clearly outweighs the hardships of a tough crossing.

Now, we are enjoying the beautiful and remote island of Bermuda. There are many other cruisers around who are waiting for the right time to cross the Atlantic. We are awaiting our friends on OceanCrosser, LinneaX, and Christina, as well as our new crew member, Stein, who will join us on the next passage. It will be great to meet all of them!

All well onboard