We have reached our final destination. The goal is achieved! At 11pm local time the 26^th of January we arrived in Cape Coral Yacht Club. It has been an amazing journey and we will write a short summary below, but let us first tell you about our dramatic last days of sailing.

The plan was for us to go thru the canals from Fort Lauderdale down to Miami. However 20 miles down the canal we came to a fixed bridge that we couldn’t get under. Our mast is approximately 70 feet and the bridge was only 65. Our only option was to turn back and go by the coast instead. The weather forecast was unfortunately proven wrong.  As soon as we reached open water we realized that the sea was going to be rough and the winds strong. We decided to skip Miami and go directly to Key Largo. The estimated arrival time would be in the morning. Sadly, we sailed against the current, the speed was 7 knots while the speed over ground only reached 3.5 knots…  As we approached the Key’s we realized that the channels into the islands was to shallow or had fixed bridges between them that we couldn’t get under. Because of the rough sea and the big swells we didn’t even want to give it a go. So, again we decided to keep going, this time straight to Fort Myers, Cape Coral. According our calculations we would have about two more nights to go. Those two nights turned to be a lot of trouble and drama…

This is the course of events the night between the 24^th and the 25^th of January….:

02.00 – Malin and Elina on night watch. The wind is increasing and they decide to reef the genoa. Elina takes the wheel and Malin takes the winch. Nothing happens. They give it another go, but the sail is stuck. Bengt wakes up and tries to help Malin to pull the genoa furl. Still nothing happens and Bengt decides to go up on deck to figure out the problem. He discovered that the furl not longer on the reel. As Malin and Bengt join together the genoa furl with another rope,  Elina yells “I cannot steer the boat, the rudder is stuck!”

02.40 – The genoa problem seems to be solved but now we have encountered a much bigger problem.

03.00 – The wind force is 25 knots but the speed over ground is only 3.5 knots. We must be stuck in something… Using a spotlight we can see a thick rope going from the rudder down. It is most likely a fishing buoy or a lobster pot.

03.30 - Bengt tries to get hold of the rope when sitting on the transom, the swells and waves makes it really difficult since they’re hitting the boat and Bengt really hard. When trying to catch the rope without success he also got stung by a jellyfish… At the same time Ove and Malin tries to furl in the genoa and after a couple of attempts it works, they furl in the mainsail in as well.

04.00 – We are still stuck and water is coming in, the waves are breaking over the stern. Elina sits behind the wheel and tries to keep the rudder straight, by doing that we could prevent further damage on the rudder. Bengt and Ove get inside the boat to check if there’s any water coming in to the engine. They discovered that there were lots coming in and that something had to be done immediately. So, Bengt and Ove starts to pump out water and Malin calls for assistance on the VHF. “Pan-Pan, Pan-Pan, Pan-Pan…”

04.30 – Malin has reported our position and explained our situation for the coast guard. Because of the bad reception and the sounds from the engine, bilge pumps and the swells she was unable to complete the call. Instead she starts pumping out water from the stern cabins, the flooring is now floating. And the situation is gradually becoming worse.  Worst case scenario would be the water to destroy the electrical equipment. That would shut down all electrical devices on board (GPS, lights, VHF, navigation lights etc.)

Elina is still behind the wheel while the rest of the crew desperately tries to prevent the water level from rising any higher. While a thunderstorm is approaching we continue until 06.00.

06.00 – Elina leaves the wheel and joins the other in the hopeless struggle of pumping out salt water. Malin makes another distress call and this time The U.S Coast Guard inform us that assistance will come within an hour.

07.00-  We hear a helicopter. Soon we can also see a U.S Coast Guard boat coming up to us. Seven men jumps in their rib and starts circulating Xavante. They find the rope and after a few attempts the get hold of it and can successfully cut us free. Two Coast guards got on board and filled out a report. Malin and Elina continued pumping water…

09.00 – We are finally free and we are not taking in any more water since we are moving forward. The crew gathered on deck to summarize the night’s drama. Even though it was traumatic and really serious situation our teamwork was good and no one was panicking.

Now we can continue up to Fort Myers, still with a buoy and a rope around the rudder…

Malin and Elina fall into bed after nine hours of struggling. Meantime, another problem arises, a squall hit us. The wind turned and all the sudden we had strong headwinds that reached 40 knots. It started raining heavily and the temperature dropped 10 degrees. We didn’t really feel that Florida had given us a warm welcoming, rather the opposite.

The next night it was really cold and we had to beat to windward. All of us had caps, gloves, and lots of clothes to keep warm, it felt like we were sailing in Sweden, not in Florida, “the Sunshine State”?

26^th of January

In the morning we reached the Sanibel bridge and barely got under it. There seems to be no end to the drama…

With only one hour left we motored thru the shallow canals and of course our keel got stuck in the sand banks just as we were about to enter the yacht club. It was rather ironical to actually see the slip but dredging there slowly thru the sandy bottom.

Anyway, despite all the drama we are finally here, safe but a bit worn-out. It felt like the ground was moving under us as we stepped ashore, we have truly developed sea-legs. The goal has been achieved and the captain will together with the crew write a summary within the next days. It will be uploaded on the blog shortly. That will be the last post on the blog and it will put an end to this adventure.

Bye for now…we are going to get some rest.

 

On our way to Miami thru the canals, had to turn around just after this,



During the terrible night, Malin and Elina pumping out water..



07.00 when coast guard came to assist us..



Just after that a squall approached,,



Bengt got soaked...



The night after that was freezing.. It looks like this picture is taken out side Sweden in late november.



cold..



Going on night watch or skiing?








Bengt Malin and Elina, early morning outside Cape Coral



Bengt, Malin and Ove



Sanibel Bridge, it was very close that we didn't get under this one..



Celebrating our arrival!



Ove



Xavantes new home!