Hello! 6/6/2026
We are on a
passage from Marsh Harbor Bahamas to Charleston, South Carolina. My sister Helen
Landmesser joined us on Monday in Marsh Harbor. We had fun running around the Abaco
Cays. We rented a car one day to see Little Harbor and Cherokee Sound. She
helped us prepare for this passage and is a great, experienced boater; she has
joined us on Jade many times.
I’m thinking that we west coast Florida boaters like Al and I are just not used to the Atlantic because it seems pretty rough out here. It is a full body workout just fixing coffee. No need for the gym this week. There have been a couple moments I was asking myself, “Why do we do this type of travel?” Maybe I’ll have a good answer before this 4-day, 3-night passage is over.
Here’s what my sister has to say about the trip this morning as I write this: “The boat smells like truck stop!” We put fuel in the tank, so a little diesel spilled in the cockpit. The coffee preparation and drinking caused three coffee spills. One in the microwave, one on the cabin floor and one in the cockpit. I say we do need several more days to perfect all this and clean up our mess. Good thing we are starting to laugh about it.
Back to the questions. Something we are asked:
How are you and
Al getting along with each other on that small boat?
A lot of people
asked us this question before our first long cruise in 2011-2012. We did not
even understand the question because we had not had issues getting along since
we met in 1998. It was a second marriage for both of us, Al was divorced for
just about a year when we met, I was single and dating for 8 years. I kept
getting college degrees since I had not met the right man. For the first 10
years, Al and I fully enjoyed his 31-foot
classic sailboat Christine. We did two-week trips to the Florida Keys,
Charlotte Harbor and Cuba plus extensively explored the anchorages near Tampa
Bay.
However, the 2011-2012 trip brought out any and all fault lines in our relationship. Just this past weekend after a discussion about plans for later in this trip I said to Al, “Well, it’s nice that we can tell each other what we are thinking without the horribleness.” To me that sums up the difference between now and then. I think we all know what the “horribleness” entails, yelling, criticism, insults, not being completely honest, letting things build up so they are a huge thing. Yep, that’s where we were on the first trip. Even though we kept going and had a lot of fun the tension was bad at times. Thank goodness we learned how to get along because there is so much we enjoy about each other and so many similar ways we like to enjoy life.
I need to get this out on Starlink and prepare to take watch. It’s actually a very nice day, sunny, not super hot, just bumpy waves coming at us regularly on the rear starboard quarter. Soon, we will be in the Gulfstream and hope to pick up speed. The weather predictions are good for the rest of the trip. Al checks in with our weather router twice a day. And will keep working on our coffee making and drinking skills!
Thanks for reading!
Love and Peace,
Fran Lima
