last leg

through the windward passage, cuba, bahamas and cay sal....

finally the winds clamed a bit and esteban and peter departed for the last leg of the trip. they left port antonio on christmas day and arrived in Miami on new year’s eve. (so much for spending the christmas holidays together as a family…. but we will make up for it next year for sure!) peter cooked lunch on board for christmas while I went to bed early with my mom and the baby after having just arrived home from the hospital a couple of days before. we were anxiously waiting for them to arrive. this leg was easier than the previous one, except for very rough 48 hours of a strong northerly that met them near cay sal. It was rough sailing with 35 knots of wind against and in the gulfstream and with cay sal so close. unfortunately there was no where safe to weather the storm so they had to sail right through it. the boat and crew took a beating. funny how in this last sail, on the last couple of days of the trip, the weather changed and left them with a reminder of how strong it could get. esteban told me it was one of the hardest sails ever… and so close to home. he said he was so tired and wet but happy to know they were going to arrive soon. finally on december 31 at midnight they entered government cut in miami. just in time to see the new year’s eve fireworks. as for myself, between the baby feedings and changing diapers I received the year in bed sleeping at 11 PM. there is something with us and the new year’s. we always seem to miss them. wrong hour in thailand, no food and long nap in carricou, or apart and dead tired in florida…. not the average new year’s celebration for sure.

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!!