“Should I be concerned?” heretoafter referenced as “SIBC?” is a healthy way of dealing with the unknown, right?  Well, it’s my strategy so far – let me know if you have some better approaches.  With so much to learn in this transition, I figure I’ll save my freak-out moments for when they are truly warranted.  Until then, SIBC will help me navigate when and what is warranted for a full-blown freak out.  And, as a loyal reader, I’ll let you know when that happens 🙂

Here’s what prompted this SIBC? strategy:

Yesterday morning we planned to leave Ft. Myers Beach headed south but awoke to a lot of wind which prompted a “small craft advisory” with “light chop” off-shore.    Well, we were planning on heading out on a 6-hour passage, off-shore, in our “small craft” – what to do?  Hmmm . . . should we risk it?  Or, in other words, SIBC?

After doing a bit of research, we learned that we aren’t really a small craft (this is, like all things in boating, is debatable) and we weren’t really going “off shore”, just, you know, “off-the-shore” about a mile (you can still see land and into the 1%’s houses – with binoculars ;).

And, the wind?  Well, 15-20 knots is perfect and the occasional 25+ knots “off-shore” wasn’t really something we could expect on the mile off the shore line we were headed on.  So, we decided to go for it.  Afterall, wind is what powers our sailboat (duh!) and (after the appropriate amount of considerations) we both admitted we were being a bit chicken in preparation of our first “sail” on the ocean — SIBC?  Nah, just prepared.

Out in the channel through Ft. Myers Beach there definitely was some chop, some shallow spots (nothing like a trail of mud through 2.9′ to make 4′ feel deep, right? Good thing we draft 18”!).   And, there was the absence of any (not one!) other boats which was cause for another (#2 SBIC? moment) – um, should we be going if no one else was???  After assuring ourselves that it was, a Monday, after all, maybe everyone was at work (not us!) and we could always turn around, right (through the shallows again . . .)?  “Yes, turning around is always* an option” is/was the answer and we pressed on. *always in boating is another matter of great, and justified debate . . .

As we approached the Big Carlos Pass bridge, we were excited to have the (our first!) opportunity to be referred to as a “Captain of Mother Jones” as we stopped traffic and the bridge was raised for us – fun huh?  Yes!  But, of course, when you are past the point of no return going under a bridge with your mast, you do have the “I checked the bridge heights 5 times and we totally fit under, right?” moment (#3 SIBC? moment).

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Once out in the Gulf, we found the perfect wind, 1’waves, a few dolphins and TONS of crab pots (watch out Mother Jones!).  We motored for a while, then raised the jib and voila!, just like that we were sailing!!!  And, it was glorious!  Because the winds did creep up to 25 knots and we figured we’d take our time getting to know Mother Jones, we opted not to raise the main and just enjoyed the quick clip down the coast at an average of about 8 knots – not bad for our first day “out”.

As we approached Gordon Pass at about 3:30pm, we had a choice to make: either continue on to Smokehouse Bay on Little Marco Island (another 2ish hours) or cut in for the night.  Well, given our speed, we opted to head to Marco Island and arrived just as the sun was setting – nice – but in the future we’d love to arrive well before, of course.

After settling in with our nachos, I headed into the pantry to restock the fridge with some brews and discovered that the carpet was wet – and the next thoughts were: “Really? Wet?”, “What kind of wet?”, then “f#, it’s saltwater WET!” followed by a calmer, “D, SIBC???” (#4!).  After some detective work on D’s part, we were relieved to discover that we had a very slow leak from a small hose which intakes from the ocean that simply needed to be tied off.  After ripping up the carpet, relieving a couple bilges of 5 buckets of water (yes 5!, after each I said “that doesn’t look good” and D replied “just keep watching Mildred Pierce, it’ll be fine”), a trip to the hardware store this morning, I think I believe him:  we will be fine.  It seems this “little” leak had been happening for some time (by the damage to some wood under a bilge) but it was so slow, it wouldn’t have been notice-able — until, that is, we went through ocean waves for 6 hours – lucky us!

Water affected areas, hose leak to the right

And, yes, I do mean, lucky us.  It seems none of the SIBC? moments were really anything drastic and after hearing USCG dispatches all day on the radio about a ship on fire next to a sinking ship, we count ourselves lucky that all we have is a $10 problem.