Atlantic crossing and problems getting away..

Its 21:28 on Day 3 of the crossing. You join me while I am aboard a 56m Feadship heading for Falmouth UK. We set off from Fort Lauderdale on the 11th after what can be described as “one of those days”. Nothing seemed to be going to plan.

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We woke early on the morning of the 11th to move on to the fuel dock.. oh no…. scrap that, someone has come in during the night and taken our spot. A lot of faffing later and the captain has been woken up and we are now at 8am on our way. During the maneuver a thoughtful chap needing ice.. yes ICE.. decided to pop in front of us. Thanks for that. So. There we are… waiting. Waiting in the channel like the girl who no one wants to dance with, awkwardly, waiting for the man… in his boat.. to pick up ice. What a nice bloke.

Our friend “the ice man” as I like to call him, left. We were able to join the dance, and come alongside. Time to fuel… wheres the fuel? Wheres the trucks? A phone call later and the trucks arrive. Lets start fueling… wheres the adapter. Faff some more.

So the fueling begins… hurrah!!! We take on fuel at a good rate and the guys that drive the trucks are a good sport. Fuel done. Time for a quick pre crossing photo. Wheres the chief engineer? “Sorting the Internet out.?” Enter into the ring the latest problem of the day. Modem has crapped out. Needing internet for weather reports and to keep a happy crew for a crossing that will last over two weeks, we call the tech guy out.

The nice man from the making things work company arrives and sets to work on our internet. He soon has worked his magic and we are up and running. Time to go?

“Are we on a slant….?” Yes… yes thats right… the charts say we have enough depth for our draught of 3.5 meters… the marina management say we have enough water.. but this incline says otherwise. We are aground. We have to wait 4 hours till high water.

The water arrives… how nice of him.. and we set sail up the FLL river to await our bridge. Through the bridge we go. Finally, we are off on our adventure. Is that a pilot up ahead?

***PILOT CALLING ON CH 16***

“There is a tanker on its way in and we require you to wait for it to pass”.

Sounds about right after the day weve had.

We waited and off we went. We used the famous Florida stream to give us a boost.. We were cruising at 15.5 Knots.

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Right. Its time for me to put my clock forward an hour. Were heading east and its time to change ships time. Its an hour less in bed tonight but a good feeling of getting closer to our end goal. England.