With our dream sailing catamaran found, the contract signed, and the keys handed over, you’d think we’d be done. The hard part was finished. Right?
Nope. For us, the biggest logistical nightmare was just beginning.
Our boat was in Texas. We live in Florida. And as much as we love Amazon Prime, it couldn’t help us out with this one. We were now the proud owners of a 2016 Leopard 44 Sailing Catamaran (owner’s version), but we had to sail it over 1,000 nautical miles through the Gulf of Mexico to get it home. With summer weather so unpredictable and hurricane season just around the corner, we couldn’t waste any time.
We’re thankful to have a few experts as friends: Justin Hobbs (a meteorologist and Emily’s former co-worker) who gave us advice on the upcoming weather patterns. We brought our friend Jeff along, as he is super handy and could help us with the journey back. And we also hired an experienced captain. Because the Gulf of Mexico is home to thousands of oil and gas platforms, we were a little intimidated to navigate the oilfields on our own. We needed all the help we could get.
After a delayed flight, we landed in Houston at midnight and went straight to the boat. We reached it around 2 a.m. and headed out into the night.
This whole trip had a lot of ‘firsts’: Emily got seasick for the first time. We watched our first sunset from the boat and, after some successful fishing, cooked our first fish. It served 5 people and we still had half left!
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One problem with sailing, especially when you have a specific destination: if the wind doesn’t cooperate, you have to use the motor. And fuel.
The best outcome from the trip, besides getting the boat home? We discovered what could go wrong. Clogged fuel lines? Check. Lost prop? Check. (Thankfully the boat has two engines!) We even experienced our first storm at sea—and with some more advice from Justin the Meteorologist, we made it through.
Let’s just say boat life has a way of keeping you humble; there’s so much out of your control. But there can be magical moments, too. Heading into Tampa Bay, we spotted a rainbow in the clouds. Hardship and difficulty can bring good things, right? We thought about all of the hard work, sacrifices, and giant to-do lists that got us to that moment—sailing our new boat home—and it was hard not to get choked up.
We made it. We did it. We’re so excited for what’s to come, and we’re thrilled you’re following along on our journey.
Don’t forget to check out Episode 1, Episode 2, and Episode 3!
