01/16/2025 ICW Day 16 : Slow mOcean

Janet and I monitor VHF channel 16 while underway. This is the distress and hailing channel, so if someone wants to hail us, they can say “Red Lobster, Red Lobster, Red Lobster, get the heck out of the way!” Luckily, No one has said that yet. The other purpose is to receive emergency warnings from the Coast Guard (such as the one about the sick and beached Humpback Whale just 5 miles North of us). Another warning they released today was about “Mar-a-Lago upcoming security zone”. Normally this would have gone in one ear and out the other… but since Gary Gellin and Nancy Prier mentioned Mar-a-Lago, I now know that this is Donald Trump’s house… and I’m guessing that they are going to prevent people from sailing nearby during the inauguration.

A final, more important use of the VHF: A person can issue a “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday” call, which means “Help me!!” It’s actually from French, “M’aide” (help me) … and we still use that today.

Anyway, because we monitor, we got to Eavesdrop on 1/2 a conversation yesterday. We can only hear the coast guard side because they broadcast with MEGAWATTS, whereas regular people like us have 5 Watts and little antenna.

Even being able to only hear half the conversation, we learned yesterday that a woman called for help because her husband had fallen overboard their white sailing vessel with blue trim named “Logan Gale”. I could tell that she was panicking by the way the coast guard spoke to her (and the fact that they didn’t have her switch to another channel, suggesting that they didn’t think she knew how to operate the radio very well). They were only about 10 miles North of us, and the concept is that boats in the vicinity should come help first if they can get there before the Coast Guard. Nearby, but too far for us to go help in a reasonable amount of time.

The Coast Guard dispatched a boat (they kept reassuring her). Janet and I were worried that this guy might be a goner. He’s overboard and she can’t seem to do anything about it. I started to imagine them as an older couple, even though I could only hear the coast guard. They did confirm everything she said by repeating it-helping us garner details.

Anyway, after about half an hour of updates, they released a “Pom Pom… to cancel the Pom Pom - the captain is now safe on board.” Janet and I cheered them yesterday And we were happy it all worked out.

This morning, as we continued North, guess what the first boat we saw was? The Logan Gale! On board, an older couple who still looked a little frazzled (they seemed to stumble over each other on deck) - but they managed to wave to us as I was telling Janet, “That’s the boat from yesterday!!” The guy looked like he was OK… but neither of them were wearing life jackets.

Speaking of waving, we wave to people who pass us (unless they “wake” us, in which case I retract 3 fingers and my thumb for the wave as Janet sits silently). Anyway today Janet waved at a guy sitting on the porch. He didn’t wave back. That was because he was another one of those life size, realistic statues that people have put in the yards of their vacant vacation homes. We laughed at that one.

Janet continues to be a toughie. I admire her for putting up with some of the challenges of this new style of travel. For one, we risk getting wet at inopportune moments, such as when a boat is in a hurry to get somewhere, and they decide that we happen to have picked the shortest point between their current position and their destination. Another challenge is the lack of places to easily camp. Tonight we had to really search for a beach that would stay dry with the rising tide. She helps to get the boat far enough out of the water - tonight 3 vertices feet up the beach. She also manages the no-see-ums, which thankfully cannot get inside the tent. I will tell you, though, don’t bother buying Permethrin. We soaked the tent with it on day 1, and that doesn’t change anything.

We are considering shipping home the wheeled cart. The boat is just too heavy for us to really get the cart underneath. I had envisioned portaging in the Bahamas across the narrow islands.. but here it seems best to leave the boat in the water, or drag it short distances on the sand.

Made 17 miles good with 24 miles of sailing (tacking all day).