Waiting for weather

Weather, outside of catastrophic events such as hurricanes, was not a big part of my life. I did not make many decisions based on it. I might choose note to go to the beach on a rainy or very cold day, but going to work, or pretty much anything else that I did could be done during any weather. Taking a trip to Key West, for instance, could be planned and followed through. This is not true for sailors. For the past few days several boats in the harbor have been waiting for the right weather to get out of Georgetown... Right now it is blowing about 20kts with higher gusts, making even going to shore a difficult task. The worst part of all this is that the weather window that we had been waiting for is changing a bit on us so we don't really know when we'll leave. When I talk to friends and family about going to my next destination, they almost always ask "so when are you going to be in ?", my answer is usually "I don't know, it could be one week, maybe three!". These answers sound confusing at best, and dismissive at worst... Usually, the next part of the conversation involves me trying (unsuccessfully) to explain that I live by the weather and do not intend to risk boat or crew for the sake of reaching somewhere by some artificial date... Can you imagine how sweet it would be if going to work depended on the weather? "yeah, I'm sorry boss, I'm not going to be able to go to work today... I'll be home just chillin in case there is anything I can do for you from there...". Please note that the same principal does not (should not) apply to going home from work...

First few days on my own

A couple of days ago we had some really nice waves and offshore wind in Exuma Sound.  Matt and I spent a long day surfing waist-high glassy waves over two feet of rock!

We have also been investing time in the time-honored tradition of beer drinking... Sometimes we do this at the beach, sometimes in town, other times on boats...

Aside from these two activities, we've spent time wakesurfing, building bonfires, and doing nothing at all... Such is the hard-knock life of the unemployed.

Not all is fun and games though, I've also been spending time cooking and cleaning.  The task that seems to take me the longest is doing dishes, I seem to procrastinate on this all the time, until I find myself forced to do it in order to cook, which has the undesired side-effect of dirty pots and pans... It is a neverending cycle, not to mention that my faucet doesn't work, so I have to get saltwater with a bucket and use that instead (this is possible here given that the water is so clean), then I rinse with freshwater.

Some would say that I'm having a blast out here on my own... They would be right!

Transitioning into a singlehander

Yesterday, we decided that I will continue this trip by myself!  Lorena needs to go to Colombia for some family matters and I will be continuing this little adventure on my own.  It was a tough decision for us but I think it will be a fun challenge.  I will miss her dearly...

I have been preparing for this possibility for a while by doing many of the tasks by myself... Our autopilot has been working well (knock on wood) and I'll have to rely on it a bit more when doing some of the trickier tasks such as reefing while under sail... Most of the other tasks that usually require both of us to be engaged simultaneously will have to be tackled with better preparation or planning (docking, anchoring, cooking under sail, etc).

I must admit that I was a bit concerned about having to singlehand, but then I also know that plenty of people cruise singlehanding without issue, often on boats that are more difficult to handle than Seas the Moment (Catalina 27) which is a pleasure to sail...

As I write this post Seas the Moment is morphing from tiny home to tiny bachelor pad.  My surfboard is in plain view and all the girly things are slowly being packed away...

Wish me luck!

Salt Pond to Georgetown - bittersweet

Heading back is bittersweet.  Heading back implies that I did not reach my original goal, but it also allows me to try to give Seas the Moment a new home, and run some errands that I'd need to do in Miami.  I'll also have a chance to visit some of the places that we skipped on the way south. 

We are underway right now, passing by Hog Cay in the easternmost tip of the Exumas headed toward Georgetown.  We will be stocking up on stuff and extending our visas.  This passage has been uneventful so far, there has been barely any wind so we have been motoring in flat seas, which I don't mind at all.  Had we not been able to get the throttle cable fixed on Wednesday, we would have been motoring at idle speed and would probably be doing about 1 mile per hour!

I feel I've gone through an interesting transformation during this trip so far, I've learned to not give a fu©k about anything and to just do what I want!  This reminds me of a Southpark episode...

Anyway, here are some pictures of what this passage has looked like so far (note how the wind seems to always be on my nose!).

Long Island - continued

Even though I had originally planned to be back in Georgetown by my birthday (which conveniently coincides with St Patricks day), we ended up staying here in Long Island in order to hang out with Jess, Matt, and his parents while checking out different parts of the island in their rental car.  We had an awesome birthday dinner at Matt's parents' room at Long Island Breeze and the next few days we spent driving around and slaying some lobster. 

I finally speared a couple of these spiny creatures and along with the ones Matt caught, we had way more lobster than we could eat for dinner!  I also managed to spear a snapper, which we haven't yet eaten.

Yesterday, we had a small issue with our engine's throttle cable, but fortunately, after a long day of tinkering with it, we managed to get a local mechanic to rig a fix in place... Good thing it was a totally calm day to do this, on any other day, removing that engine would be nearly impossible in any kind of chop.

Last night was still dead calm, so I decided to sleep in the fresh air of the cockpit, only to be woken up at around 4:00AM due to the bouncing of the boat in the chop of a new west breeze.  I hesitated for a few minutes but then decided to reanchor elsewhere, this would have been nearly impossible if the engine hadn't been fixed!  After a 45 minute motor accross the pitch black night of the harbor, I set the anchor in the calm waters behind Indian Hole Point.  After that, we had some great sleep which would had eluded us at the previous location.

Our Bahamas visas will expire soon so we will be extending them in Georgetown in order to be "legal" during our trip back to Miami.

Long Island

We have spent the last few days cruising Long Island.  We started out in Salt Pond and made our way up north almost to the tip, there we encountered an annoying swell, so we turned back south and eventually came back to Salt Pond.

We have met some interesting people in this island.  First we met Socrates, a Dominican who took us to Dean's blue hole while stopping every few minutes to top up his radiator with water... When he wasn't topping up his radiator fluid he was generously topping up his cup with rum, needless to say that after a while he was wasted and asked me to take the wheel.  Driving down the left lane of the island's main unlit road at night, with a crazy Dominican rambling about music, while getting blasted from opposing traffic's high beams and trying to stay in my lane was kind of scary! However, it was also fun to see the inside of the island with its abandoned structures and wild goats and pigs!

Then we met a young, engineless singlehander called Alex.  He went with us to the blue hole.  I can't understand how people make it so far upwind without an engine! It seems to me that no matter how much we wait for weather, I always end up motoring against the wind!

Then we met Charles, a south Floridian who owns a fish processing plant which is under renovation, he gave us a ride to a blue hole and offered to hang out with us for some drinks.  It seems his family has long ties to the island.

Shortly after Charles dropped us off we met Mark and Jill, they have a super nice oceanfront property overlooking their Pearson ketch moored right in front.  They have built the house themselves and have done a great job, they have all the amenities of a regular house, but are also totally off the grid, relying on rain for water, and solar panels plus a wind generator for electricity!  They recommended we check a local bar down the road.

We went to Blue Chip bar and there we met Mario, the owner and apparently, local historian... Mario is a descendent of the first settlers of the island, loyalists from North Carolina.  He was happy to discuss chat about the island and ended up offering us a free round of beer, which we eagerly accepted!

On a different note, I did some battery rearranging and the batteries are charging perfectly! A small victory that is letting me sleep much better at night.

I've been thinking about the time when this trip ends and how difficult it will be to cope with having to work now that I've had a taste of freedom... I really wish I could retire at this age, like my friend Matt... Working for a living is no way to live, however, lacking any other obvious means to make money, I suppose that work is an element in the set of activities that compose my future... :(

Hanging out with Kokoi at Salt Pond, Long Island

Yesterday morning I got up around 6AM, and started getting the boat ready for our passage to Long Island.  We had partied the night before and we weren't feeling all that great, but we really wanted to take a break from Georgetown and see different stuff.  The forecast was for very light wind from the north, and during the night, I could tell that the wind was quite stronger than forecasted... However, as I worked getting the boat ready, the wind died down to what I had been expecting, so I raised the anchor and got us underway.  We slowly motorsailed through the harbor and went out the cut by Fowl Cay.  As we got closer to Fowl Cay the wind freshened up, I really wanted to reef but I kept putting that off until Lorena got up and out of bed, but there was no telling if/when that would occur.  As we were going out the cut, surrounded be a maze of coral reefs, the wind and waves picked up significantly! Thanks to the discomfort provided by the state of the seas, Lorena finally got up.  The first thing I did was ask her to steer while I put in two reefs in the main, I should have done that while in the harbor, and not in the cut... We were seriously considering turning back but we figured we would make that decision once out of thr cut.  A few minutes later, the wind and seas moderated and we had an excellent sail down to Long Island, which we reached around 3:30PM.

We were glad to see Kokoi peacefully anchored in the harbor, so we anchored nearby.  We have hung out with Kokoi in several harbors and we have always had a great time, yesterday was no different!

We went to Long Island Breeze for happy hour, and afterward to Kokoi for some more drinks. 

Tough life!

How to spend $50 on lunch

1) Wake up and cook a big breakfast. 
2) Serve a large amount for yourself, and a decent amount for your girlfriend.
3) Wait for the girlfriend to claim she is full, then eat her leftovers... (by this time you should be very full)
4) Wait one hour, your girlfriend will say that she is hungry... Tell the girlfriend to get ready to go out to eat at a bar close to the boat...
5) Wait one hour while the girlfriend gets ready.
6) Get on the dinghy and go to the bar.
7) Wait a few minutes until the server chooses to acknowledge you.
8) Order one item to share among both of you, remember, you are still full from breakfast, and she seems to get full quickly so one item should suffice.
9)  Wait 30 min, then observe as the staff in the bar get into a violent fight which prompts you to cancel your order and leave before you become a witness of something really bad.
10) Walk for an hour to check out some cool things near the bar since you may not visit this area for the rest of the day.
10.5) Think of the grouper you orderd, but cancelled...
11) Dinghy over to the next bar where you already know the service is bad, but food prices are OK.
12) Order two sandwiches and one side, since you are now hungry after the walk and the thought of food.
13) Wait 45min and ask the server why your order hasn't arrived. The server will be back a few minutes later saying that the food will take 5 more minutes... Proceed to cancel this order.
14) Walk to the conch shack and order two conch salads at $10 each.
15) Eat the conch salad and pray that this meager amount of food will make your hunger go away.
16) Wait 30 minutes.
17) Realize that you are now even more hungry than before the conch salad.
18) Dinghy up to the closest restaurant and order two full meals, a soda, and a beer.
19) Wait 30 minutes until the food arrives and then devour the whole thing like there is no tomorrow.
20) Order the check and pay $30.
21) In order to cope with your loss, write up a blog entry about how to spend $50!

Georgetown - cold front

This afternoon, as predicted by all weather forecasting services, the weather turned ugly.  We had moved to a different anchorage a couple of days ago in anticipation of this stuff... However, the wind direction that we expected is not quite what we are experiencing, so we are bouncing a bit, and we have a rocky shore downwind of us.  I do, however, feel comfortable about my 22# danforth with 40" 3/8 chain holding us well.  The wind is not expected to blow too hard for very long, so if this keeps up, we will move to a different spot tomorrow.

Yesterday we came across our friend, Guillermo, a Colombian living in the Bahamas, and he introduced us to Clementina and Francesco.  We invited Clementina and Francesco over to the dinghy drift and had an awesome time.  A dinghy drift is an activity where many dinghies tie up together and simply drift around.  While we did not drift (there was an anchor involved), we did tie up almost 50 dinghies! It seemed that every dinghy brought food to share, and while we didn't do just that, we did bring about 5 gallons of rum punch which made us one of the most popular dinghies in the drift.  Lorena was acting as bartender and it seemed that she was pulling one of Jesus' miracles off, she served what seemed like hundreds of cups (many of those for herself) and we didnt run out of rum punch, in fact, I am enjoying one right now!

Georgetown - mutiny on Seas the Moment

Georgetown is famous in the cruising world as 'chicken harbor', because many sailors chicken out at this point and don't make it any farther, instead, they turn back north, with their dreams shattered, or with some excuse to not do it this season...

I guess I am not immune to this probability as my first mate has recently decided that she will not go any farther with me, she is, however, willing to cruise back to Miami if I'd like.  This has put me in a tough situation, should I find new crew and go forward? Or should I take the easy way out and chicken out at chicken harbor.

I have also decided/realized that going down the the thorny path to the eastern caribbean will be difficult and expensive, so if I do choose to carry on, it will have to be through the windward passage and down to panama, with potential stops at Cuba, Jamaica, Providencia, San Andres, etc.  This route is laden with long passages in the full force of the trades, albeit behind the beam, which should make for some good sailing... The problem with this route though, is that I have not yet grown big enough balls to do this singlehanded, plus, I have no paper charts for this area...

We'll soon see what happens!