So, where were we?? After we left Jacksonville — with an absolute thrill of excitement to leave the dock and be on our way — we headed for a 20-hour passage down the coast of Florida to Port Canaveral. This was the final item to complete from the dream board we created last summer in Toronto. The boys are enamored with all things planes, rockets and space so Kennedy Space Center was on the list as a must-do. As a bonus, one of the kid boats we met back in Annapolis in October (Hello Traveller!) had arrived in Port Canaveral a couple days before us and we were excited to meet up with them again.

After a day, plus half a night of ripping sailing, the wind got stronger, clocked around to right behind us and the waves built, creating a fairly unpleasant last 4-5 hours of transit. It was also about 35F overnight and we’d left most of our cold weather gear in Michigan and Colorado. Ooops! Our unpleasant overnight also included a bungled furling of the mainsail at 3 am in the dark and in big waves that resulted in us fearing that we had just broken the furler on the mast we had JUST put back up… Thankfully, once we got into port and the wind died that morning, we unfurled the sail successfully and refurled it, realizing we had just gotten a seriously bad wrap and all was well again.

We weren’t sure how long we’d be in Port Canaveral, as we were already looking for weather windows either straight to the Bahamas or to West Palm Beach/Fort Lauderdale. So we headed directly to Kennedy Space Center the next day and crossed that off the bucket list. The boys loved it, but in true kid-fashion—after paying a little over $200 USD for the privilege of visiting—they both agreed their favorite part was the giant space-themed playground. Sigh.

One thing they—and we—were eager to see was a rocket launch. Thankfully one was scheduled for that week so we packed up the rental car, scouted out a great spot and headed over for the 6 pm launch, along with our friends from Traveller. The same weather that was keeping us stuck in Port Canaveral longer than planned, though, ended up resulting in three straight days of scrubbed launches for us. Gah! Finally, on the fourth try, the weather was perfect. So perfect in fact that we were planning to leave at midnight that night to make the trip to West Palm Beach before we got strong wind coming on the nose.

Hugely festive atmosphere, back at our chosen spot for the fourth day in a row. Tons of people milling around, chatting, enjoying tailgating from the backs of their cars. Everything was a go, kids were beyond excited. Countdown began, we were listening to the livestream while watching across the water. Minute to go. 45 seconds. 30 seconds. Launch is SCRUBBED! Cruise ship meandered right into the security zone on the water that is so clearly marked and announced and relayed to boats by the USCG. Having just come down the coast past this very area, we were well aware of where we could and could not go. Everyone was so disappointed and in disbelief and poor Oliver crumpled and started crying. I felt so badly for them and honestly, for me too! I wanted to see it almost as badly.

But West Palm awaited us and if we didn’t take that weather window later that night, we’d have been stuck in Port Canaveral for another five days. So off to bed went some sad boys and at midnight, we headed out. There’s a bit of a happy ending to this tale of woe, though.

We got to West Palm Beach mid-afternoon and anchored in a lovely spot right between West Palm and Palm Beach. We had dinner in the cockpit and pulled up the live feed of the launch. I suggested that it wasn’t that far away and the boat was pointing the perfect direction to perhaps see it in the distance. Sure enough, the rocket, on this fifth try, finally launched and we could see it so perfectly! It was amazing to see and because of where we were located it literally flew above us as we watched the boosters separate and head back down for landing and the satellite get launched into orbit. Even though we didn’t get the full effect of being on the ground in Port Canaveral, it was truly a really great and exciting memory for all of us.

One more highlight of our time in West Palm Beach was reconnecting with Mac and Patty, the parents of my college roommate, Storrey. During college, Storrey and I had come and stayed with her parents a couple of times in West Palm and up in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, too. I have such great memories of hanging out with all of the Skellys and I was delighted to see her parents after about 20 years—and to host them on the boat and introduce them to the boys. We had a fantastic evening that ended all too quickly!

After that, it was all about finishing our final provisioning for the trip. At that point, we thought we wouldn’t be back to the States until Christmas, so we filled just about every nook and cranny we could find with lots of dried goods, cans and snacks. We’ve been here in the Bahamas for a month now and we’ve still got A LOT of food to get through. I could probably skip grocery shopping (except for a few fresh supplements like eggs, apples and the like) for the next two months and we definitely wouldn’t starve.

Finally, it was time to leave. Our targeted window had narrowed considerably, so we needed to be in and secured at West End before 2 pm the next day before a big blow from the north. This meant yet another nighttime departure, leaving at midnight and heading out through some rolly seas before things calmed a bit further away from shore. We crossed the Gulf Stream in the dark but it was certainly apparent when we were in it! It was a pretty, easy uneventful crossing and many boats made the same hop that night. It was a steady stream on AIS, all heading the same direction.

And in the morning, as the sun came up, we could already see the deep blue hue to the water. We’d made it to the Bahamas! It was a thrill for all of us to have made it safely here, seven months and 2000+ nautical miles after leaving Toronto. Little did we know that within a week, we were going to be contemplating heading in a completely different direction altogether!