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| 2 reefs, a dog and Susan at the helm |
We said we were waiting for the end of hurricane season and we did. After fueling up and topping the water tanks, we departed Marathon at 0815 December 2. We entered the Florida Straits at Sombrero Reef light, and tacked close hauled all the way to Nicholas Channel where we dodged the Cuban coastline and plenty of shipping traffic. Tiring of dodging tankers and cargo ships (apologies to Ian) we headed toward the Bahama Banks, still bucking 20-25 knot headwinds. What we thought were the easterly trade winds were really southeasterly forcing a course favoring the Cuban coastline and constant shipping traffic. Our plan was to make landfall at Mathew Town, Great Inagua Island to regroup, reprovision, repair and rest. Then we planned to examine our options: continue to Panama via Windward Passage or island hop the Caribbean. Other variables slowing progress and preventing Mathew Town landfall included weeklong steerage problems associated with the Aires wind vane at the beginning (it's shelved for now), shredding our aft upper sail (the belly was already blown out; still we used upper-to-reef line sail portion (shelved & now down to one cat sail), two 72 hour fronts and two engine failures (impeller and broken starter solenoid), the later creatively repaired to enable our first landfall at Clarence Town. Our initial thoughts of a two day shakedown to tweak systems have proven to be a continuing process which will probably last the duration of the voyage. Despite constant boat issues, prolonged sea time seems favorable to us. Jon's working out his sea sickness thing and I'm adjusting to night watches and cooking on a heel. Even Opti is adjusting to life at sea and will finally "go" on deck, even in miserable conditions.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring. The latest weather report has us socked in here for a few days so we have time to chart our next leg. And you can always track us by clicking here.
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| What is this mysterious hitchhiker ? |
