Departing Marathon

We left Boot Key Harbor on March 23rd, 2010, a Tuesday morning at 7:50am. The weather was nice and sunny but cool. We were motoring for an hour until the wind picked up and we were able to put out our sails and turn off the engine. The wind speed was up to 14.4 knots allowing us to travel at 4.6 knots without the engine running and with both sails up and the engine on we were traveling up to 5.6 knots. We arrived Long Key Bight at 2pm and anchored out for the night. The next day we left Long Key Bight at 8am, but the wind wasn't even blowing 10 knots so we couldn't put out any sails. We motored the entire way to Rodriguez Key at 4.5 knots arriving at 2:30pm. At this point we ran the engine for 4 hours using 6 gallons of our diesel fuel so we refilled our tanks to have full tanks when we cross the Stream. We anchored out for the night and watched the weather, winds, and wave height for crossing the Gulf Stream. There was supposed to be a window early Wednesday morning, but the window disappeared by the time we got to Long Key Bight. So we decided to look for a second window and found that there would be small seas on Thursday early morning. We ate dinner (pasta) early and JR tried to take a nap while I cleaned up the galley and got everything remaining strapped down for the trip. I also tried to get some sleep before the crossing but was unable to fall asleep. Neither of us were able to get any of the much needed rest for this trip, but there wasn't anything we could do. We checked the weather 20 minutes before we were going to pull up our anchors and found that there was a small patch of rougher seas we would have to cross. We debated about whether or not we should leave and then continued looking for the next weather window, which was supposed to be on Saturday. However, that window had also disappeared so we decided to try and cross because the weather was just going to get worse with two cold fronts coming back to back. We put on some warm clothes and my foul weather gear. We were on our way at 11pm leaving Rodriguez Key. The wind was blowing ~12 knots with ~2-3 ft. waves inside the reef, but as we traveled out further the wind picked up along with the wave height and frequency. When we got into the Gulf Stream the wind was blowing ~22 knots with 5-6 ft. waves every 3 seconds! I tried to keep my gaze on the horizon, but it was nighttime and I could only see some red or white lights in the distance when the waves were occluding them. I did my best to not get seasick and we even took a ginger supplement right after dinner just in case. I get motion sickness in a car so I knew that I would probably get seasick on this trip. But I was holding my own until we decided to turn around and go back to Rodriguez Key due to the rough seas. I had to go into the cabin to retrieve batteries for the hand-held GPS device because it was low and we needed to know where we were going so I did my best getting tossed around in the cabin with the rolling seas. I was able to get the batteries and back out to the cockpit within a couple minutes, but I was not feeling good. Then due to us turning around the wind was blowing from behind us and we could not get any fresh air due to the exhaust fumes from the engine blowing in the cockpit. That was the last straw and put me over the edge with the seasickness. I got up and walked to the side of the boat and stood over the lifelines waiting for the inevitable. After I vomited some of my dinner I felt better, but don't get me wrong I wasn't all better. If I did anything to make my seasickness worse I am sure I would have over the side of the boat again, but luckily I was able to just lay in the cockpit and watch the rolling seas go by as we traveled slowly back to our starting point. I fell in and out of sleep because I had to hold on to the side of the cockpit to make sure I didn't roll off the seat and fall onto the floor when we hit a big wave. JR lay in the other seat and kept us on the right course, checked for other vessels, monitored the computer and put in way points for the autopilot and verified everything with the hand-held GPS. He did awesome in getting us back to the same place we were because the moon had disappeared behind the clouds and we were traveling in utter darkness with the rough seas. We threw out both anchors because there isn't a good holding in this area with a slick sea grass bottom. It was 5:40am by the time we entered the cabin for some much needed rest and we both slept soundly. We traveled 30 miles round trip and put now 17 hours on the engine. We were both not feeling good as we still were affected from seasickness. We rested and slept the day away to recuperate from the rough trip. We decided to stay at Rodriguez Key and watch the weather. We didn't want to travel with the cold fronts coming through so we pulled out our huge storm anchor and set it for peace of mind when the wind really picks up. We have seen more sailboats coming in and out of this anchorage ever since we arrived, but we noticed they moved away this morning and more now have come closer to us to anchor instead of being closer to Rodriguez Key. We are disheartened by the rough passage or trip that lead nowhere, which didn't allow us to cross the Gulf Stream even though we endured such high seas. We have forgotten now why this was a good idea to go sailing because we have spent enough money to fly around the world already. We have unfortunately still not left Florida and we are tired of this state. The Bimini Islands of the Bahamas are only 50 miles away, but it almost seems like we need a miracle for the weather to be right before we can cross the now dreaded Gulf Stream. We talked with other cruisers and this year has been really bad for everyone. The weather has been unpredictable and abnormal, which lends to our frustration. We use NOAA, GRIB files, PassageWeather, and the Weather Channel to determine whether or not we should travel. It gets really irritating when they are wrong about even the CURRENT weather! How can it be so difficult we wonder. It is one thing to be wrong when you are predicting weather and it is a whole different issue when they can't tell me what is going on right now with the weather outside. It is so sad that we are so close to getting to our destination, but yet so far due to the weather not allowing us to cross the Stream. I wonder how long we will have to wait before the weather is right. I hope we can be patient enough to make it to the Caribbean because we worked so hard to get this boat in such good condition and ready to sail that it would be a shame to sell it now and go back to land. I am not ready to give up on Frodo and our plans to sail around the Caribbean. We are too close and we worked to hard to turn back now without crossing the Gulf Stream.