 😱
Ohhhh my!!!
Just reading this I’m not breathing! 
A m a z i n g!

It is incredible ALL you managed, did, recovered and CONTINUED!!!
💪💪💪

What a day! I will remember May 21st for the rest of my life. First, Avery and Wyatt had baby pip! Huge!!!

Next we had a very intense day sailing. The wind was blowing from 12-25 with gust sometimes even higher. We had to put a reef in the main early and had a double reef in the jib after about 2 hours. We saw gust around 28.

Then around 1:30 we hooked a good size Spanish Mackerel. We were under sail so Sophie had to quickly turn into the wind as I brought the fish in. It took a lot of line and I was almost worried we were going to lose it. Once we slowed the boat down I was able to reel it in about 5 minutes. At first I thought it was a wahoo but then realized it was a King Mackerel!!!! First edible fish caught by trolling on Willow Ever!!! Sophie started sailing again while I took care of the fish. It took me about 20 minutes to fillet the fish, bleed it, cut the skin off and freeze it in four separate bags.  We got about 6-7 lbs of meat so I am guessing it was a 20lb fish. 


The sashimi it created was 😍 even Sophie LOVED IT! Then we had a pan seared mackerel dinner with Fraley and her friend Ivie. 

Lastly, we had one of the most difficult experiences on Willow to date. As we were approaching the Jacksonville channel a squall came through with winds over 50 knots!!! We saw the rain coming from a few miles away but had no idea the wind would get that high!!! It only lasted about 5 minutes before dying to 30 but it was extremely intense. It bent a metal pole on our Bimini top which now needs to be fixed. This happened while we were approaching the channel so as the wind hit 50 and our eyes were getting pelted with rain we decided to turn around and go downwind and take shelter below deck. We successfully steered the boat with autopilot from the iPad inside and waited for about 30 minutes for the worst of the rain and wind to pass before entering the channel again. We somehow didn’t lose anything else off the boat but the paddleboard strap was close to breaking. Anyways, we were happy to find a nice anchorage with calmer water. The sun came back out by 5 pm and we had a lovely evening with Fraley!



St Augustine to Jacksonville FL

Crew: 2

Crew Logs

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