Update on Daughters maiden trip home

[Larry Neese]

A big Thank You to all the fellow sailors and Dads who responded to the topic posted recently!! We made the sail this last week, leaving Key West loaded with provisions and loats of safety gear for the long drive to Ft. Myers Beach (310 miles) the sail was full of adventure, she DID need help, most all who posted were right on, 50% motorsailing it was!
Straight thru it was not, well almost not, we were late getting out of port because of spring break traffic returning the one way rental car. We made Marco Island by sunset and dropped the hook at a great anchorage, set off at dawn with light winds that picked up nicely and then died, being too far out she chose to continue to try and make Moser Channel by dawn from there we are only 4 hours or less from home....the seas were so calm 50nm out that the flying fish were leaving wakes you could see for 100 yards, then the sea breeze started to kick in (we were praying for wind and got alot of it!) the seas in Florida Bay picked up and by midnight we had 20 knot winds and gusts with seas at 4-6 easy we took a pounding in that little boat and she was a trooper, she manned the helm for 6 hours before asking for help, we could see the out islands N of Marathon by light and she made it home by noon, thats one tough boat and skipper, and Dad is proud. Thank You all, and thank you Spot, love that orange thing. Tropical Breezes, Keysskipper

 

[sailaway78]

Glad to hear

Trip made, lessons learned. Thats what it's all about. Tell your daughter congrats from all of us here. Isn't pride a nice thing, when our offspring provide it.

 

[jackhartjr]

Thanks for posting this!
Good job dad and daughter!
Jack

 

[rardiH36]

Dear Keyskipper:

I've noted your thread for a while from the periphery, but hadn't weigh in. But now it's time to say GREAT! What an adventure for your daughter and all of you involved ... in any capacity. The experience will shape in a profoundly positive way for the rest of her life how she interacts with the world and its many challenges.

Two summers ago, when I bought my current (and first) boat, I enrolled myself and my then just-graduated-from-college 21 year old daughter for a Monday-Friday 8:30-5:00Basic Keel Boat and Basic Coastal Cruising course on SF Bay. The wind blowed like #@! all week long. It was a difficult conditions week even for the instructor. My daughter had never sailed before, except being out in calm conditions a few times on her grandpa's day-sailer boat when she was much younger. The first two days of the course, she struggled and was quite upset at the intensity of the conditions and the steep learning curve. But on mid point Wednesday, she began to acclimate. And by Friday she was really enjoying the exhilaration of controlling the boat and taming the wind.

My daughter's sailing experience is certainly less compared to your daughter taking a boat out over open waters on a distance voyage. But I know my daughter is a much more self-confident person because of the sailing experience.

Congrats to you all.

 

[Ross]

Nothing got broke and nobody got hurt! It was a great trip. She learned more on that one passage than she could learn in a summer of daysails in fair weather. Tell her well done.

 

[sailingdog]

Congrats to your daughter... any photos of the trip????

 

[Stu Jackson]

Great story, safe ending, super, and now...

how about some "lessons learned?"

 

[TimCup]

Glad everything worked out-

Your post makes it sound like it was a piece of cake, with just some wind issues, but I'm sure there was more drama than that! Did the autopilot work, or did you guys tiller-steer for 300 plus miles?

it sounds like you were serious about provisioning well, mojito's use fresh mint- you thought of everything!

I'll assume, like the original posting, that sh'e reading along, so, to you young lady, well done. 50 miles offshore in a strange boat? And 24 foot to boot? Gutsy. I'm sure you were beat after that trip.

Would you be kind enough to post and tell us what you thought of the trip? What surprised you the most, any scary times, what you would change, what you learned? Did you take any pics??

cup

 

[rpwillia]

Dang you must be proud! Now if I could ...

just convince my girls that sailing involves more than just putting their bikinis on any laying out on the foredeck I would have it made. Are you adopting that girl out, or maybe renting her to give lessons to mine?

 

[Larry Neese]

Thanks all, she/we did tiller steer the entire way, and yes we ran out of booze, she din not drink! she is still out on the boat now showing off I guess, and it is after 10:00, I am quite proud and yes we do have lots of pics, but I can't figure out how to post or show off my sailboat maybe when she posts a thank you manana she can do it. I think she will make a very good sailor probably better than Dad, she was never into powerboats as a kid she loves to kayak, fish, dive and sail and yes prance around in her bikini at Bahia Honda. Hope to posts pics soon and of the worlk being done to prepare for her trip to Cay Sal, oh that girl.