the death trap

that is how is called, the entrance to the basin at great inagua, the last island of the bahamas. we tried to approach and unfortunately we got stock in the rocks. the boat was sitting on a big rock and was hitting badly for at least 1o very long and painful minutes. esteban jumped in the water and pushed the boat with the help of the waves while I was at the helm ready to leave full throttle as soon as the boat was released from the rock. after this we anchored, fixed the broken rudder with underwater epoxy and went to town by dinghy. this was a lesson for us. the charts showed at least 2 meters of depth but this was in fact not true. we did not have a good feeling coming into this harbor, so the lesson we learned is precisely to follow our instinct. we shall do that next time.

meet our third crew member

the aries wind vane!! not a person really but even better. it does not drink, eat or sleep but simply steers the boat patiently for as long as there is wind!!!!!!!!!! after losing our raymarine autopilot we installed the aries wind vane in rum cay. we still do not know or understand how it actually works, but we do not care, it works great. thanks to aries esteban and i have taken rather dangerous naps at the same time for hours while puerto seguro and aries sail away!!!

warning: due to the abilities of the camera man this video is best viewed in an iphone or some sort of device that you can turn around :-).

a day at the office

not really :-) just calling mom and dad from the marina to let them know we arrived safely... and by the way, a very special hug to all my friends at DHL!!!!!!!!!!!!

lucifer

when we arrived at rum cay the wind was blowing pretty hard and esteban was worried about the boat being pushed to one side of the dock and damaging the paint, of course. so he jumped in the water and passed a few lines trough the wooden pilings to prevent the boat from moving. after he was done we climbed up the dock and we talked to the fishermen who had just arrived from their fishing trip. they were all shocked to see he had been in the water and warned him about lucifer which is a 16 foot hammer head shark that lives in the marina. all this while we were seeing with our own eyes a nurse shark bigger than esteban swimming and eating the left overs from the fish the fishermen were cleaning.... after this i think esteban will think twice before jumping in the water again, or maybe letting the paint get a little scratched...

not a bad place to weather a storm

rum cay!!!! after several days of sailing without the autopilot, which broke soon after we left miami, we decided to stop on this little island with only 80 people living there. what a place. during our stay we had a storm with 40 knots of wind and broke our anchor roller while lifting the anchor from the hook. the waves were almost breaking on us and we decided to seek shelter at the marina. once safely in the cove, we installed the wind vane (to use as wind auto pilot and be able to stop steering all the time!!!!). but not all was work. we also relaxed a few days while cruising the island with the folding bikes!! and enjoying the beach and amazing little place!

almost no wind.. from the stern

that's right, we had very little wind crossing the bahamas. we motored most of the way but luckily we had enough wind to raise the spinnaker for the first time . neither esteban or i had ever sailed with a spinnaker and we certainly had not tried the spinnaker pole justin installed on the boat, and the second pole bob gave to us. we were incredibly happy flying the spinnaker and going wing on wing at a slow speed of barely 2 knots... Ahhhh!! the pleasure of sailing, which i read it actually means the art of going nowhere at a ridiculously slow speed and at huge costs and expense!!! jaja!

celebration!!!

after crossing the first part of the bank we had water coming on board....... we heard the high water alarm beep and when we were in the tongue of the ocean we realized we had two feet of water on board. this meant water was coming in at a ratio of more that 2000 gallons per hour. we panicked but quickly emptied the bilge and prepared the emergency gasoline pump. we could not believe we were actually going to use that emergency pump, specially on the second day after departing!!!! but we had to and therefore decided to stop at chub cay to fix the problem. the bilge pump was acting in reverse. instead of throwing the water out of the boat, with the movement of the waves it was siphoning the water in. esteban chose to fix this at 15 feet of depth and not in the deep tongue of the ocean in case we needed to re float the boat!!! so luckily that was fixed and then we left chub cay and headed towards ship channel and the exuma sound. after departing the berries we felt it was the right moment to celebrate the fact we had made it all this way and therefore finally opened the champagne that martin had given us so many moths before. it certainly felt like the right moment for us to drink it while enjoying a beautiful sunset, with calm waters and a light breeze, and without water on board anymore!!! therefore observing one of the two rules of sailing bernard wisely told us about: keeping the people on the boat, and secondly, keeping the water out of it!!)

clean crew + clean boat

not all is fun and enjoyment on board.... we must also clean the boat and organize and clean ourselves of course.... what a hard job this is....!

ahhh... bahamas at last

after a very calm gulf stream crossing at night with a beautiful sky we arrived at the entrance point at gun cay in the morning. then we crossed the bank with the most amazing colored water. what a treat!! after so much work every day we could not believe we were actually sailing!!

departure.. for the 10th time

finally, after leaving austral and then staying the night at nixon's with garry and alex, and having had the last night dinner with jules on board, and a going away party also at jules... we were on our way. with the crew rested and happy and with a hang over from the night before, we finally left miami on june 18, 2009 in the evening. (we drank almost all the wine we had for the trip that last night on the bay). on the way out of the channel we sprinkled the boat with the holy water that german and alba gave us. we felt pretty relax and comfortable on board and most of all safe, after all work we had done to the boat and the many blessings we received from our friends alonso and nelly.

biscayne bay... the last night

so we left the river but not miami..... it was 4:00PM and we were just trying the boat for the first time after fixing it for over a year. the boat felt heavy and both esteban and i were a little nervous. we were synchronizing the instruments and pretty much feeling out the boat for the very first time. not the best idea to leave that same day, but because we were so late already we decided to leave nevertheless. when we were in the stiltsville channel heading east towards cat cay we were approached by a boat screaming and waving at us. it was alex and garry on board!!!!!!! they thought we had left miami already and were out in the bay trying their new boat for the first time and saw a blue sailboat in the horizon with the red jerry cans on deck. they approached and sure enough it was us. we took this as a sign and decided to turn around and anchor and spent the night with them on the bay overlooking the miami skyline. it was a great opportunity to rest and properly say goodbye to miami and our great friends.

leaving austral at last

finally the departure date arrived. on june 17, 2009 we grabbed everything that was still unpacked at the dock and basically threw it on the boat and at 3:00PM, before the miami river bridges closed for rush hour, we left the dock. bob thank you so much for the video you took of us with the austral security cameras, this is a priceless video to have, thanks a million. once again thank you to everyone that works in the marina, to bob, to eddy junior and senior, to luly and all our neighbors and friends, mario, alonso and nelly, german and alba, jack, lucas and silvia, nelson, jose, jorge, mircos, paco, eric gracias a todos ustedes austral fue un lugar unico y muy agradable y nuestra casa durante tanto tiempo. mil y mil gracias!!!!

the night and day before the departure

ready, set........... go!! we are finally ready. we had our last dinner with jules on board, and in the morning after we cleaned one more time... very elegantly as you can see washing some clothes on the dock :-)

final preparations

month of june, and we are still in miami!!!!!! hurricane season is well on its way and we have not finished the boat.... we originally planned to leave south florida around march and cruise for a couple of months the exumas without having to worry about not having wind, which is really the scary part of sailing during the hurricane season, plus the occasional storm that forms from time to time of course, but as happens with every project, there are delays, and this was not the exception. instead on leaving on march 15, we committed to ourselves to leave on the 30 of march, and after that date was not reached, we again set a date of april 15, and after we were not ready by then, the new departure date was at the end of april... and so on........... lets just we say we said good bye to everyone more than once. but finally the time was approaching. at the end it was not so much boat projects but actually organizing. we closed esteban's house, then we sold the apartment, then we sold galatea and both cars, we moved twice in less than 10 months and we had all the stuff form esteban's work repairing boats that we needed to put on board or sell, give away or send to colombia. all this sorting took a while and the rain in miami for the last weeks before departing made this task very complicated as we laid everything out in the dock to organize in boxes. we are really grateful to eddy senior and junior and bob and everyone at austral marina who had sooo much patience with us and put up with our mess before departing, so thank you immensely to all!

provisioning the boat with food

well, the pictures say it all...... all those cans need to go in... somewhere... some under the seat, and the rest wherever we can find a little whole for them. a very different experience altogether, buying all the food at once and storing it with certain sense and logic so i would know where things are in order to cook them as we need them on the trip. its amazing what comes in cans...pretty much everything!

planning the route

yeap, that moment arrived!! the planning actually was the first thing we did, over 20 months ago when we both agreed that we wanted to sail together to the south pacific, and after that, we have dreamed about a different destination almost every day. but this time the dream is actually real and the route a shorter one but one of the most exciting ones: it is the first leg!!!! which will take us across the bahamas down to port antonio, jamaica and finally to cartagena, colombia. esteban is great with me on this. he completely lets me do the routes and tells me he will go wherever i choose, and that he will make sure the boat is safe and solid to take us there, well i am happy because we have charts for all over the world and even though this is a start i hope i can plan routes to places i do not even know how to pronounce and maybe have never heard of...!! lucky us!!!!!!