The Race to Marathon

Last spring we bought an asymetrical spinnaker. Rick said it would make downwind cruising easy. I said I thought spinnakers were hard to handle. "Not this," Rick insisted. "When you are cruising, you just set the sail and leave it."
So why was I not surprised, upon leaving Rodriguez Key for Marathon, with our buddy boat Sand Castle, to hear Rick barking orders, "Grind in the spinnaker, let it out. Bring it in. How much is the luff curling?"
"Ummm......"
"Okay. Switch places. I'll handle the spinnaker."
So I steered, but the orders continued. "5 degees to the left. What's the wind speed? What's the wind angle? What's your course?" Followed by frantic grinding in and letting out of our sail. "Okay, NOW what's the boat speed? What's the wind angle?What's the wind speed?" Followed by more frantic grinding in and letting out of the sail.
"But I thought you said when we cruised, you just set the sail and left it?" I commented.
Rick looked at me in disbelief. "It's a race," he said. "There are two boats."
And just across the water sailed our buddy boat, Sand Castle, with Luke standing in the cockpit, one eye on his sail, also frantically letting the spinnaker out and bringing it in.
Rick always said that for the man it is the journey, for the woman it is the destination. When we arrived in Marathon, Rick grinned and said, "Helluva day!" I was exhausted.

South to Key Biscayne

The two day sail from Beaufort to Fort Pierce had plenty of wind, although not always in the right direction. We made our sea rendezvous with buddy boat, Sand Castle, skippered by Luke and Jan Sand. At sunset, we jib sailed and I caught this view of their boat. We arrived in Fort Pierce, refueled, and anchored for the night in a cove south of the Fort Pierce inlet and under the bridge. The second day was to take us to Rodriguez Key. However, we didn't count on 15-20 knot winds on our nose, hitting the full 3.5 force of the Gulf Stream, thunderstorms, and waves slowing us to a crawl after just four hours of great sailing. At the Fort Lauderdale channel at 4 am, we encountered several cruise liners in the process of entering the harbor. The situation had us doing a sudden reversal of course as one behemmoth, accompanied by a pilot boat cut across our bow. We may have had the right of way, but demanding your rights is not always the best plan. After just over 24 hours of slow going, we welcomed this gorgeous sunset near Miami and opted to bail out at Key Biscayne to avoid the 25-30 knot winds scheculed for the next day. As we sit at anchor and feel the blow here in No Name Harbor, we are happy with that decision.