If you're new to the site, you might not know that we opened a few spots to crew aboard Calypso. We placed a few advertisements up on social media and got a TON of responses. We interviewed a few and selected a couple of people to come crew. Lucy is the first to come out. Want to hear how it went? Read on!
Meet Lucy! She lives in Florida, we met her and her cool husband briefly at the Annapolis Boat Show this past October! They recognized us from the YouTube series and came over to say hi. Not long after the show, we advertised for crew and she applied! A few emails and a Skype session later, she was selected and we started the planning stages. Which, for boating, meant we would call her on short notice when we had a weather window for her haha.
Some time went by as we sailed south. Planned on The Bahamas, you probably know how that went, and we ended up in Key West. Family left and we looked for a weather window. One came, we called her and she dropped it all, hopped on a shuttle from up north down to Key West and we were ready to go!
Once aboard, she settled right in! She LOVES to cook so we were treated to Brazilian meals each night! It was awesome! She was very sweet and so positive. She was a joy to have around! We departed the marina and set sail (with Lucy at the helm) for the Dry Tortugas!
She enjoyed the sailing, the secluded anchorages along the way to the Dry Tortugas as well as the scenery and sea life! I think one of the most amazing moments was the first time she had every seen dolphins in the wild as they were playing in front of Calypso's bow! So neat! We buzzed around with Taco (our dinghy), explored mangroves, found little beach swings and more!
Once in the Dry Tortugas, we anchored off of Fort Jefferson and then took the dinghy to Loggerhead, a small island with a lighthouse that's 2 miles from the Fort. We spent the afternoon playing on the beach, snorkeling and exploring around the lighthouse. I think this was another favorite for her!
Now, Lucy and her husband are considering setting off on a cruising adventure of their own, that's one of the reasons she applied for this opportunity. To see what it's like. This was a perfect trip for her because she was about to find out that it's not all beaches and sunsets! At 1am, we had a surprise, un-forecasted wind storm hit the area. We were all in the cockpit to witness multiple boats dragging anchor, hitting each other and more. One large trawler was anchored close to us with too little anchor chain out, they drug and hit the front of Calypso before passing down our starboard side. Then their anchor hooked our chain, which then placed both their boat and ours on our anchor alone...in 30 to 40 knot winds.
Lucy went to bed while Jeremiah and I stayed up all night during the wind storm, ready to fire up the engines in the event that we broke free. It lasted from 1am to 6am...5 hours of hanging onto one anchor, swinging back and forth. It was quite a night. All was well in the morning though. We had drug back a bit but our Rocna and brand new 3/8 Peerless chain held strong, keeping us and the boat that hit us off the rocks. She was even able to witness how rude people can be as the other boat showed a complete disregard for hitting us or any appreciation at all for our boat saving theirs.
Then it was time for a nice upwind motor where she got to experience 4-6' seas with an occasional 8' on the bow. She got a little seasick but never threw up. All while remaining positive! She's a trooper.
Before long, we were back in the marina for a day of relaxing and sundowners before we said goodbye the next morning. She took the shuttle back north and made it home safe and sound.
Overall, we think it was a great trip and experience for everyone! Calypso has a little paint from the trawler on her bow but it'll buff out. She and the experience we all had will be featured on our video series in the near future so stay tuned!
Like Jeremiah told her, sometimes when you go looking for an adventure, you actually might find one. This trip was definitely an adventure, we hope she had a great time! Fair Winds Lucy!
Stay tuned for the next crew member to come aboard!