My first multi-day trip! And the first leg of SO much more...

My friend Larry lost his boat (a CSY 37) at the same time I lost mine. (BTW: I get nada on my taxes as losses are less than standard deduction.... and the cost of replacing Dorado gives me only a year before I need to actually work and earn a living. More on THIS later.) Larry bought a replacement to Gigi, Gigi II (a CSY 44), in Tampa and I offered to help bring her to St John. On March 16, I flew to Tampa to crew on this transport job.

The crew consisted of Larry (owner) & Lori (wife), Bill (friend), and me (another friend and owner of an autopilot).

I brought my autopilot from NC and figured out how to install it, then Larry and I figured out why the engine would not run (the neutral wire for the fuel lift pump had broken off), Lori and I loaded up with as much food as we could carry from Costco in a Costco folding wagon,

and we set off.... into two nights and two days of zero wind.

The engine took us gliding across the glassy waters of the Gulf of Mexico, jellies filling...

and then FILLING...

the waters beneath, porpoises frolicking around us, sun setting and lighting up the endless horizon. A swallow landed aboard as a resting spot in the endless ocean

and we caught a bonita (bonito?),

a tuna species that (we discovered) is rightly called inedible.

On the final night and morning, the wind actually picked up to "sailable" and Lori took the wheel to sail for half-an-hour into Key West before she had to head back to work and leave us to begin our decent into serious "adventure"..... and near-homicidal cabin fever.

More on that in a few days....