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.

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!!!!!!