Excitement on the High Seas -- the Final Voyage of Solstice

The unknown ship had been following us shrouded in darkness for three hours. Displaying no running lights, it stealthily crept up to within a mile off our port side. Then it disappeared. Hours later, that same ship suddenly overtook us and we were boarded by men with guns...

Our final trip from Bimini to the US was an eventful one to say the least. On paper, the forecast looked great for a motoring trip across the gulf stream -- less than ten knots of wind with 0-1 foot seas. We thought it would be flat calm for the entire passage. What fools we were. We left our anchorage at 2am with wind on the nose at 15 knots and very lumpy waves that were increasing up to a steady five feet, with some even higher than that. "Uncomfortable" doesn't begin to describe it, but that has been par for the course for most of the last month of passagemaking! We'd been slamming along for an hour in the dark when Kevin noticed a blip on the radar -- a boat was behind us, something big. It kept coming closer and closer until it was less than a mile away but we could not see anything at all. Clearly the ship was running with no lights on purpose. Our educated guess was that it was a US Coast Guard cutter patrolling the waters off the Bahamas. But after keeping a steady watch on the radar, we saw it zoom off into the night just as quickly as it came. Huh. Weird.

We check our radar at least every 15 minutes or so while we're on passage. It helps us keep track of what's around us even in the daytime (sometimes ships are hard to see with the naked eye until they are really close). Anyway it was now 8am with plenty of daylight, but we hadn't seen another ship for an hour. Then Kevin glanced behind him and was startled to see the Coast Guard cutter right behind us, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. They got close enough to read our boat name and hailed us on the radio, announcing that they'd be sending a boarding party over. Yikes. The seas were kind of steep at this point, but that did not stop the brave boys from launching their inflatable with four guys aboard.

We watched apprehensively as they went airborne over the waves and approached our port side (they had told us not to slow down or alter course so we were cruising along at nearly 7 knots). With a final surge the helmsman rammed up alongside and three of the guys clambered out onto our stern steps. All of them were packing and we heard a clang as something metallic fell overboard from one of their utility belts (Kevin thinks it was a gun but they kind of ignored us when we asked what they dropped).

I took the helm as Kevin showed them around the boat and answered their questions about our flares, lifejackets, documentation, fire extinguishers, etc. They had a checklist and were looking for safety violations (and guns, drugs & illegal aliens too I'm sure but the official reason for the boarding was "safety inspection"). Anyway, they acted a bit surprised to discover that we had followed every regulation to the letter and one of them mentioned that we were the first vessel they'd boarded in a long time that hadn't had any violations whatsoever. They actually gave us a "good as gold" award. Fat lot of good that will do us, considering that it was our last leg of our final voyage ever. Ha!

When it was over they shook our hands, the inflatable came alongside again, and the three guys all lightly hopped back in. It was all incredibly impressive. Just another day at the office for the Coasties.

Four hours later we finally passed through the inlet at Port Everglades and were immediately reminded of how stressful it can be to deal with wakes, bridges and the ICW. The dockmaster at the marina was out to lunch so we had to tie ourselves up (usually there is at least someone to help with the lines but not this time). Luckily we managed to get into the slip without doing any damage to our boat or the megayachts around us. It felt great to get all the docklines tied off and then just sit in the cockpit to decompress a little. Woohoo. Job well done. Mission accomplished.

So there it is. Our final voyage comes to an end. Don't get me wrong, we have a couple weeks of solid work ahead of us to get the boat ready to sell. We'll be moving all our personal stuff into a hotel; cleaning, waxing, and polishing the boat; and then crossing our fingers that someone out there is looking for a new adventure and that our boat is "the one" for them. Our boat brokerage is having a boat show the last weekend we are here, and they are expecting a couple hundred people to see the boat so we will see how it all goes. Wish us luck!

Location=Fort Lauderdale, FL
Lat=26 07.190
Lon=80 06.498