Today we took Day 5 of our sailing class.  We were out for a short time yesterday but thought we had an engine problem so we returned before going under the 17th Street Causeway.  After investigating it, Mark discovered that it wasn’t the problem he thought it was, but by then it was too late to go out again.  There is a water pump strainer which feeds water into the heat exchanger, and it seemed like it had lost its water, but it hadn’t.  The bubbles just disappear after about 15 minutes, so you can’t really tell that there is water in it.  At least, no one had explained that to us.  Now we know.

Today we set off hoping to make it to the ocean this time.  To leave Ft. Lauderdale, we have to motor a short distance and go under one causeway which opens on the hour and the half hour.  Our mast is 68 feet high, including antenna gear so we don’t fit under some bridges unless they open.  Once we go under that bridge, we raise the mainsail and continue down a commercial channel out to the Atlantic Ocean.  Soon after that, we raise the jib, turn off the engine, and sail.  Our VHF radios are not working, so we are using a portable.  We thought it used batteries, but discovered that it was almost dead and the batteries are rechargeable.  We discovered this just as we pulled into the area before the causeway.  We looked for the battery charger, finally found it, plugged it in and had to wait another 1/2 hour until the next bridge opening.  You have to call the bridge to tell them you’d like to go under it and we couldn’t do that until we got the radio charging.  Finally, we got out to the open sea.  We headed south and were having a good sail when we saw four or five bright red USCG boats approaching us.  Then we saw a periscope.  This was all about a mile further off the shore.  We were about 1 1/2 to 2 miles offshore when we saw them.  Our radio was in the salon, being recharged, but we thought we heard the words “Sailing Catamaran”  on Channel 16, used for “hailing” another boat.  Suddenly, we saw two Coast Guard boats rushing at us, one from the north and one from the south.  They pulled up next to us and very politely informed us that a submarine was in the area and we would have to stay a little farther away from it.  They were informing all of the boats in the area, and one fishing boat didn’t follow their directions, so the USCG boats “escorted” them for awhile until they were well out of the way.  Soon, they disappeared over the horizon and we headed out into deeper ocean, but soon they returned so we headed toward shore again.  This continued for a good part of the afternoon.

It was a good day of sailing.  Each time we go out, we learn more.  Today, we practiced the quick stop to retrieve a “Man (or Crew) Overboard.”  We threw one of the life jackets overboard and were able to retrieve it with a boat hook.  Hopefully we’ll never have to use that skill.  I think we are getting better at tacking and jibing, which we’ve practiced a lot.  We also spend a lot of time on the different points of sail:  close haul, close reach, beam reach, broad reach, and run.  Catamarans seem to do best at close reach, so that’s what we do most of the time on both a starboard tack and a port tack.

Tomorrow will be our last class and then we will start having day sails on our own.