Before we commited spending four weeks together on a small boat, we thought it might be a good idea to see if we could stand each other. Also, each of us wanted to see if the other was capable of making the trip. No better way to find out than to sail together, so we took the boat out for a weekend to see how things would go.
Albatross' home port is Coconut Grove Sailing Club, which is at Dinner Key on Biscane Bay in Coconut Grove (Miami), Florida. I drove down from Cape Canaveral on Friday morning and met Marc at the sailing club. We loaded the boat and set off across the bay for No Name Harbor at Key Biscane. We motored most of the way while I got used to the boat and Marc got used to me, but we managed to sail the last little bit. We anchored in No Name and stayed the night there.
Saturday morning, Marc wanted to test my navigation skills, so I plotted a course for Bimini and we headed out into the Atlantic as if we were actually going to make the trip. A couple miles out Marc declared success for part one of my test and had me navigate us back into the bay. Once through the channel we set a course for Elliot Key to the south. I navigated while Marc took a nap (it must be good to be the Captain!). We sailed right to our marker, then since the tide was on its way out and the channel to the harbor was not clearly marked on our charts, we did a U-turn and headed back north toward home. We arrived at the dock in time for showers before we headed out (on land) for dinner at the Taurus in The Grove.
Bottom line: We're going on the trip!
GregH
