Mayday rescue in the Florida Straits

Ready to change over?” Nigel shouted from the cabin. I looked down through the open companionway. He was sat up in his sleeping bag and I couldn’t help thinking how nice it would be to switch places, but I shouted back for him to stay for a bit longer. No point both of us getting soaked. My position wasn’t as comfortable. The wind and seas had been increasing for the last couple of hours, I’d dropped the battened junk rig sail to two panels, Bluebelle was flying along at 6 knots but the swell was increasing, maybe six to eight feet now. The auto helm was having trouble beating into the waves with the increasing swell, we were being pushed off course and the conditions weren’t improving.

Bluebelle is a 1965 Pearson Packet Overnighter, originally designed as a launch. Pearson decided to do a run of around 50 boats with a small cabin and a lifting keel, but I only know of three others in existence. She is incredibly solid with classic lines. Originally rigged as a Bermudan sloop, she’s a lot of boat for a diminutive 18ft.

I purchased her three years ago as an unfinished project: basically a hull and a stack of timbers and fixtures that had been stripped from the boat. I spent my time restoring her to her former glory but decided to change her rig to a junk and designed a folding mast to make her easier to trailer.

After several trips to Maine and around Charleston, near where I live, I started dreaming of bigger adventures. I had read a lot about Roger Taylor and his voyages aboard 21ft junk rigged Mingming. But for my first big passage I wanted to go to Cuba. It’s such an interesting country and at only 100 miles from Key West, Florida, it was achievable in a single overnight passage – yet it’s still an adventure as Americans aren’t permitted to travel there without special permission.

Not fully confident to do this