Sailing conditions

Somebody asked how much we were able to sail and how much we had to motor. We started in Palm Beach and went down the intracoastal to Fort Lauderdale. We had to motor that whole route. We then headed offshore down to Miami and into the Keys. Once we turned the corner after Key Biscayne we were able to sail some. The sailing got better the further down the Keys we went. We did do some motor sailing in this area to make better time when the wind slacked. Once we turned the corner to the North in Marathon the sailing really got good. We were able to sail a good bit of the way to Tampa.

Once offshore of Tampa we encountered a decent storm. The boat handled it nicely. We just motored into the waves. Since it is a new boat to me I was not prepared for storm sailing yet. Once the storm subsided after about 5 hours we motored most of the way to Pensacola with some motor sailing thrown in when conditions allowed.

Unfortunately I only had a week off of work so we had to make the fastest time possible otherwise I would have been more of a purist and sailed more. The next long trip will not be on such a schedule!