And So It Ends

Providing us with a glorious spectrum of reds and oranges, we watched the sun set behind the thunder clouds that were building just off the coast of Florida. LaLeLu's motion was easy and effortless as she glided along, in a groove, motoring with the current, and a slight following sea. Still no wind, but with the push of the stream we were able to throttle back to 1500 rpms and still make 7.3 knots. After running hard the prior day, 1500 rpms felt like a mere purrr. The last drops of daylight finally gave way to darkness at about 9:00 pm. The moon rose slowly from the east and the coastal clouds that were obscuring the sky dissipated and cleared. At about 11:00 pm we had a full moon overhead, a sky full of stars, 10 knots of wind on the aft port side, biolumenecsence lighting our bow wake and a following sea. These are the nights you only read about in sailor's fairy tales. We were able to raise the main and head sail. After unzipping the dodger/bimini connector, Chris and Park used the `star cards' to identify the constellations. Before we knew it, we were an hour outside of Port Canaveral, trying to fight off the urge to sleep. As we feared, we arrived too early and had to wait outside the port for just a bit. At 6:30 am we were hailing the 401 bridge, and at 7:30 am LaLeLu was back in her slip at Harbor Town. Fairwell Abacos - until next year.