Jan 25 – Feb 1, 2026

We heard the USCG come over the VFH radio probably 286 times warning us of the coming gale. The gale-force winds would be creating a sea state worthy of small craft advisory warnings for 72 hours straight.

We drug anchor, got a new anchor and chain, made a new bridle, and rode out a gale with 30+ knot sustained winds and upwards of 45 knot gusts. This week really tested our nerves and decisions – have we made a huge mistake choosing this lifestyle? Are the unprecedented northerly storms trying to tell us something? Are we cut out for this?

We even had to layer up and run the heater. Are we in the Florida Keys or the PNW? So grateful for new buddy boat friends – our ‘Class of 2025’ sailors who rode out the Marathon Blow together. And we did it! Our new ground tackle held well. And we are ready to leave the Florida Keys.

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Excerpt from letter to home v. 02.01.2026

Hi Nobad Fam, 

Well to say this past week was a true test of our fortitude would be an understatement. This will be a long one, and I’m sorry. But this is apparently how I’m documenting right now, until I catch up on videos. Skip to the end for itinerary and video updates. :) 

Those crazy winter storms pushing across the US did turn south and blow right over southern Florida and Keys. The primary gale targeted to hit us Saturday night into Sunday morning. Building up to last night, on Monday we did move from the West side of Marathon to the East side of Marathon to anchor. A couple strong blows were coming thru earlier this week from the N and NW and [the east side] had better protection from those winds. We did meet up with 7 other boats from our bluewater cruising community in this anchorage. Which has been super fun! We have the funnest group text. These people are so genuine, generous, funny and ready to help. 

Monday was the first strong blow to rip through (30+ knot gusts). We had set our anchor Monday morning as close to the Northern shore as possible. We were feeling pretty good and took advantage of the nice afternoon weather to go to Sombrero beach to stretch our legs and meet up with another kid boat I had connected with in a kid boat whats app group. We had fun at the beach and the weather was awesome. Upon returning to the boat, we FINALLY busted out our new portable washing machine. I was beyond excited (no more washing clothes in a Home Depot bucket off the back of the sugar scoops). I did the first load and it worked like a dream. The level of joy I had was beyond exciting…but short lived…as the weather was about to severely humble and test us. 

We’ve rode out blows up to 25-30 knots. The blow coming in Monday night was supposed to get up to 35 knots and we learned at around 8pm Monday night that our current anchor set up could not handle the 30+ knots of wind. 

We started dragging anchor. 

Our first time dragging anchor. 

*Pause* please note, dragging anchor is part of sailing life. Everyone experiences this. 

With this being our first time, of course we were nervous (I was scared, honestly) but we jumped into action very quick. We already had a plan in place in case this ever happened. I could feel the boat lose the anchor holding at the exact time our anchor alarm went off. I yelled Josh’s name as we started to swing. Josh jumped into the helm seat and threw on the engines. We monitored to see if our anchor would catch again, praying it would reset itself. I was also trying to feed the kiddos dinner. There was a lot going on. Unfortunately, our anchor would not reset. We think it was the ocean bottom we had anchored in. 

Fun Fact – different anchors work better in different ocean floors. The anchor we have is super solid in sand and that’s why we didn’t budge in the blow we rode out on the west side of Marathon – the floor is all sand. Here, we think we were anchored in mud, which is not our anchor’s strong suit in strong winds. 

This was around 8pm Monday night. So we decided we needed to pull the anchor up and entirely reset. We were getting too close to some of our buddy boats as well. So Josh got the helm station ready and I grabbed the spotlights and ran up to the front of the boat to get the anchor in. We pulled up the anchor and tried to essentially reset the anchor directly behind where we had already set, hoping further back would be more sandy. As I dropped the anchor, I was spotlighting the boats around us so Josh could see them. We got the anchor out, ran through our anchor setting process, and thought we got it set. I made sure the kids were good with dinner and they even got to facetime their cousins which was awesome! It distracted them from the situation and I’m very grateful for that. They were not scared at all. After I cleaned up dinner, Josh continued to sit out at the helm seat with the engines on monitoring our anchor. Unfortunately, we started to drag again. So we repeated our drill, I ran to the front and pulled up the anchor and we moved to an entirely different spot hoping it would be sandy and it was away from all the other boats so we wouldn’t have to worry about hitting them. When we were ready to drop the anchor again, it was stuck. I couldn’t get it out of its cradle no matter what I did. 

Remember, we are in 30+ knot gusts and choppy waves at night. I yell at Josh about the issue and we switch spots, I take over steering the boat and he took over the anchor. 

*PAUSE* We had discussed several times about how I needed to learn how to drive the boat, especially for anchoring, for situations just like this. Many woman drive the boat so the men can man handle the anchor. We discussed practicing in calm conditions until I was comfortable. We had not been able to practice yet. 

So it was baptism by fire for me on driving the boat and driving it at anchor. I took over, Josh got the anchor unstuck and he tried to set it once. We immediately knew it hadn’t set, so he pulled it up and we agreed he would set up the storm anchor set up we had done back in Stock Island. I kept the boat steady while he set up our second anchor. Simultaneously our buddy boat also started dragging at anchor, so they were also in the same situation, steering around the bay trying to reset. Another boat in our group was also out on deck with spotlights because their bridle broke. Luckily their anchor held. Everyone else held, thank heavens. 

Once Josh got the storm anchor set up done, he dropped anchor and prayed this time it would hold. We were a lot farther from shore now and closer to the open ocean, so the chop was uncomfortable. We got the anchors down, went thru the routine, but we kept not turning into the wind, our boat was catching weird and we were worried something was caught in our rudders. After very serious contemplation of Josh jumping in to check (don’t worry, we had all necessary safety lines out ready to tie him to the boat), we think whatever it was fell off because we got rudder control back. Almost at the same time our anchors jerked into a hold and we knew we were set. Thank you Heavenly Father. I got the kiddos tucked in and then Josh and I slept out in the salon with both engines running the rest of the night, just in case. We got beat up by the waves all night, being so far from the shore and honestly, I did not sleep. But we made it through the night unharmed and safe. 

And that was just Monday. 

Tuesday was a lot calmer, so as soon as we were ready in the morning, we moved our boat closer to everyone else and reset the anchor. Unfortunately, I backed over a crab trap while backing down on the anchor to drive it in. So Josh had to jump into the water and cut it free. He freed the prop so we could finish setting. 

Tuesday was full of conversations like “what have we done?” “Are we crazy?” “Can we handle this?” Josh’s attitude thru Monday night was amazing. He was so jazzed and I’m so grateful. It got us through. “We had our first anchor drag! we reset it! we did it!” I was less enthused but grateful. Luckily, we are surrounded by so many supportive people like you back at home and here in this anchorage. 

Tuesday night we slept out in the salon again, just in case. Both of us woke up to eerily calm waters, no wind, and we panicked that we slept through dragging and we grounded the boat.  That was not the case and we went back to sleep. 

Wednesday morning the winds picked up again and we think our anchor drug. The mishap with the crab trap threw off our ability to set up our anchor alarm accurately and it kept going off. Simultaneously Josh and I were trying to game plan how to prep our boat for this coming blow, since all the marinas were booked solid, we couldn’t go back to a marina and tie off. But with these gusts, it is probably better so we weren’t slammed against the dock all night. Anyways, we both hypothesized that our bridle is causing some of our anchor issues, in addition to not having enough chain for the anchor (for reference, we had 150 ft of chain, most of the other boats around us have at least 250 ft of chain). And low and behold, we were right, our bridle is severely too short for our size of boat. Wednesday was relatively mild and we brainstormed how to prepare for the storm. 

Thursday, we called our buddy Jeremy, and he graciously came over to help Josh set up a new bridle onto our chain that would be much longer. Josh made it out of material onboard. We pulled up the anchor entirely so we could set up in a better spot, attached the new bridle, attached the old bridle (as a fail safe) and reset. The difference in the amount of swing our boat does at anchor has significantly reduced. It’s insane and so much more comfortable. We had no idea to even think about the bridle, but too short puts a lot of strain on the anchors, causing issues. Thursday evening everyone took their dinghy’s into Dockside bar in grill in Marathon to hang out. It was awesome to see everyone in person again! 

In addition, Josh had reached out to our friend Steve from our sailing group, if you recall from a previous email we had New Years Eve dinner on his boat down in Key West. We knew he had an anchor and anchor chain he still had not sold and we’ve been talking about buying it for a couple weeks now. Well, this was the week, we sent him an offer for the anchor and anchor chain and thank heavens he accepted. These will set us up pretty good for Saturday. The anchor is 2 sizes larger than our boat needs and everything says, size up your anchors as big as you can. 

Friday, Josh woke up early and drove to Key West to pick up the anchor and chain. A fella in the Ward here offered his truck to us back when we went to church, and luckily he was in town. A few of our buddy boats came over and spent their afternoon helping us switch out the old anchor and chain. We are SO GRATEFUL for their help. We got the new anchor set and a huge burden lifted from our shoulders. There is a possibility we still may drag, but this anchor is huge and holds super well in different bottoms. It is also much better at self correcting if it does drag. 

Friday night everyone prepared. We set up our safety lines incase we would have to go out on deck. Stowed as many things away as possible. Some of the models were predicting 47 knot gusts, and some were predicting 30 knots. Obviously hoped for the best and prepped for the worst. Everyone took additional measures to make sure their boats were set and ready. And everyone was like “Worst case scenario, we turn on the engines and drive into the wind to relieve the strain on the anchor or pull anchor and just drive around the cove until it calms down.” We also had one of our sailing community calls last night and were talking about the situation with the larger group, and they also reassured us that we would be fine. These blows are something you have to get used to and we were going to be ok with our new set up. That was also very reassuring. 

On Saturday we woke up to a beautiful calm morning and bright red sunrise. We took advantage of the calm morning to finish prepping the boat. By 11am, the winds had rolled in. The worst of it wouldn’t hit until about 5pm. I took a nap after the winds had picked up to prep for the all nighter and when I woke up the wind and waves had completely died. It was spooky and not predicted. We were all very confused. Within an hour, though, the next round came through and didn’t let up. All our buddy boats tuned in to the same radio channel on our VHF for the rest of the night. Everyone was anxious so people were trying to figure out how to calm nerves. We played trivia, would you rather, guess this song, and just talked. It was super helpful. As the night went on, more people fell asleep. Josh and I were both high on anxiety, adrenaline and all the feels but our anchor set up was holding. Everyone in our group was fortunate to have our anchors hold. Two boats we didn’t know did drag anchor through the night, so we all kept on eye on them until they were able to reset, and luckily they were. That didn’t help with nerves. Where we are, the highest winds speeds we saw were 41 knots. Once the winds started to drop back down to low 30s Josh and I were able to fall asleep, one eye watching out anchor alarms. When the sun finally started to rise, I started to cry. We had made it through the night and all that pent up emotion just spilled out. I just prayed thank you over and over to Heavenly Father. The winds have still been strong all day and are supposed to let up tomorrow morning, but they are nothing like last night. We are so incredibly grateful for all the prayers we received from family, friends, and our bluewater cruising community. They were felt and got us through the night. An older gentleman that is a retired military pilot on one of our buddy boats texted our group “That was a confidence builder. Let’s not do it again anytime soon.” Amen amen. We would be jealous of our buddy boats that made it to the Bahamas last weekend. But they also had to ride out this storm. These winds are bananas. 

Today we once again did boat church, not wanting to leave our boat in the weather unmanned. We are bummed that most of our buddy boats here are planning to jump to the Bahamas in a couple days when the weather is good. We just have to finish a couple things on the boat. We hope we can hit the tail end of the Bahama cruising season but we shall see. 

This was a crazy week for us. We learned a ton. Made crucial updates to our boat. And learned that this is normal part of boat life. 40 knots we will experience and we will be fine. and if not, we are a team and know how to handle it. So much to wrap our heads around and learning to trust your “ground tackle” (anchor) and chain and bridle were not something we had ever even thought of. But we have a humongous anchor now and a ton of anchor chain that will keep us safe through pretty severe conditions. Josh’s makeshift bridle has been holding well and we plan to make a new legit one in the coming weeks. I told Josh today that I was praying so hard after Monday night that a spot would be available at a marina for us to go and tie to and I was so frustrated that I couldn’t find one. So then I prayed that Heavenly Father would provide a way for us to be safe if there is not room at any marina, and He did. The anchor and chain were still for sale and we got them for a screaming deal. We were able to secure a car so Josh could drive down to Key West. Through inspiration, we figured out our bridle problem. God did keep us safe while simultaneously helping us update our boat on an incredibly short timeline. And this will keep us safe for our future as well. He hears and answers prayers and we are grateful to know what our new anchor and chain can handle, and what we can get through together. 

These last couple weeks have been nothing that we expected cruising around the Florida Keys. These storms and winds are rather unprecedented and lucky us to experience them as part of our first sailing season. We are learning so much every day and it’s kinda like a fire hose some days. We are looking forward to the calmer weather rolling in. We will say goodbye to our buddy boats, the hardest part for all cruisers, and head up to Key Largo for a night and then jump to Biscayne Bay to anchor for a few days while we figure out our next move. Stay tuned. We love you all, stay warm. We are rocking 44 degrees here today in the Keys. *queue eye roll* ;) 

Ride the t, 

Capt. Josh, 1st mate Sam, and our salty crew