Sailing North: Electrical Snafus, Rocket Launches, and Perfect Tides

After getting our refit and upgrade projects completed, we prepared to depart Just Catamarans. We worked quickly to get everything on Jubilee stowed and shoved off early Friday morning. We navigated our way past the cruise ships and out of Port Everglades, hopped out of the approach channel, and pointed Jubilee’s autopilot—and our hearts—north.

After a couple of miles, though, we decided to call it and head back to Just Catamarans. We were experiencing a plethora of electrical issues alongside an engine problem. Back on the dock at Just Cats, the team quickly hopped aboard and began diagnosing our setup. It turned out our engine turbo was stuck; after a few turns, it was freed and running well again. On the electrical side, they replaced a couple of network T-connectors, tightened a few connections, and our issues vanished.

As it was already getting late in the day, we decided to anchor out in Sunrise Bay, just off the ICW in Fort Lauderdale. There, we spent a hot night aboard getting used to life off the dock. Despite our setback, our spirits remained high, and we were looking forward to heading out the next morning.

Saturday morning brought a beautiful sunrise. Since we had spent the night on anchor, we didn’t have many items to stow, making for a leisurely morning. We had calculated our 400-nautical-mile journey to take roughly 67 hours. So, despite being up and ready early, we hung out until around 11:30 AM to weigh anchor and get our trip started.

We calculated that we had 3 days, 1 hour, and 30 minutes to travel to our next destination: Palmetto Bay Marina on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. It was imperative that we arrive at the marina at high tide and slack water. It would take us about three hours once we entered the channel in South Carolina to reach the marina, and we wanted to use the incoming tide to pull us in rather than fight an outbound current. Then, we needed the tide to go slack upon our arrival. Just past the marina sits a bridge about 65 feet tall—far too short for our 80-foot air draft. Our plan was to ride the current in, wait for it to slack off, make a 180-degree turn, and dock Jubilee at the marina into the last remaining inbound current as the tide slowed to a standstill.

Making our way out of Sunrise Bay to the exit of Port Everglades was the first obstacle we needed to conquer. We had three bridges between Jubilee and the open waters of the Atlantic. Bridges in Fort Lauderdale open on request on the quarter-hour, so upon seeing our first bridge, we radioed the operator asking for the next opening. Holding a 50-foot catamaran steady in the ICW on a Saturday morning isn’t the most enjoyable task—especially with smaller vessels passing us from both directions since they don’t have to wait for bridge openings. Once the Sunrise Blvd bridge opened, we hustled through and kept a good pace to hit the next opening 15 minutes later. Overall, the bridge run went smoothly. As we neared Port Everglades, we were thankful that cruise ships arrive very early in the morning and leave around 4:00 PM, meaning we wouldn’t have massive traffic to contend with.

In just under an hour, we found ourselves pointing Jubilee’s bows north out of the Port Everglades channel. The seas were a bit rough at first—something I forgot to expect. (Despite forecasts stating calm seas, things tend to get choppy when an outbound current slams into the Gulf Stream just outside the entrance.)

After an hour, things settled down quite a bit. We had a 7-knot breeze out of the south, but traveling at 6 knots, we felt almost no breeze at all and had to motor. It was hot—temperatures were in the high 90s with a heat index around 110°F—but we carried on.

We were able to test out our new inverter and solar setup, running the boys’ AC nearly 100% of the time—off solar during the day and off our lithium battery bank at night. Overall, the passage was smooth; at times, we were able to shut the engines down and do a little sailing, though those stints were typically short-lived.

At about 9:00 PM one evening, around 100 nautical miles south of Cape Canaveral, we were treated to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch. It was an incredible experience to share with our boys, watching the rocket lift off into the night sky.

Everything continued along uneventfully—thankfully! On our last night of the passage—Monday—things started to get a bit rough. We were getting knocked around by three- to four-foot waves coming off the coast of Georgia as the wind shifted from south to west overnight. The wind shift was expected, but the wave action caught us off guard. With no moon, we tried shining a large light out onto the water to figure out how to alter course and ride the waves more smoothly. After fighting them for a few hours, we settled on a comfortable path. As you can imagine, we were deeply grateful for the dawn light to reaffirm our direction relative to the waves.

As we approached the entrance to Savannah, GA / Hilton Head Island, SC, we spotted three large freighters on the horizon. Thankfully, this time we had a functioning AIS and could see that two of the vessels were at anchor while the third was well ahead of us. It proceeded on toward Savannah as we turned north toward Hilton Head.

Maintaining our desired 6-knot speed proved tricky: the current was either hurling us toward our destination or barely pushing us at all, turning speed management into a constant game with the throttles. I’m not sure why we have an autopilot that steers us in a direction, but no cruise control to maintain our speed!

Despite the variable current, we eventually wound our way up Broad Creek to Palmetto Bay Marina. We arrived a little earlier than planned—close to slack, but maybe an hour early. Still, we were able to make the 180-degree turn and get the boat safely onto the fuel dock. It was a nice affirmation of our fuel calculations when we realized we had only used about 40% of our fuel for the three-day journey.

After topping off the tanks, we walked up the gangway to grab snow cones right at the end of the dock. It felt great to cool down, though after all the rocking and rolling from the night and morning before, I wasn’t feeling 100% on solid ground yet! Fortunately, land sickness was short-lived. Once the tide became fully slack, we left the fuel dock and headed down the narrow fairway to our slip. At times, we had only about four feet on either side of Jubilee as we navigated between parked boats. It was a daunting task, but we slipped right through and docked without incident.

Words cannot describe the sense of reprieve and satisfaction that comes with navigating your boat 400 miles up the coast from Fort Lauderdale to Hilton Head. It was an awesome accomplishment for our crew and a great test of our ability to handle longer overnight offshore passages. Pamela was incredible—taking complete charge of the boat during her watches—and the boys were awesome! I am super proud of our crew and cannot wait to see what adventures God has in store for us next.