With the
decision made to head back home, the next factor to consider was weather. The rainy and stormy season about to start in
Panama, we were heading north…..possibly to the Bay Islands of Honduras then up
the coasts of Belize and Mexico if we took our time. As you can see from our current location, we
decided to go for it.
There are
two islands off the coast of Nicaragua called Providencia and San Andreas. These islands fall under the jurisdiction of
Colombia. We decided to head for
Providencia as it is farther east and would give us a better angle to head
across the tip of Honduras and Nicaragua.
We stopped there and “yellow flagged” – meaning we did not intend to
clear in with customs and immigration because we were not planning to stay that
long and in Cartagena it was expensive.
We anchored next to a boat that had it’s mast laying on the dodger and
bimini and learned that the night before when we were out there they had a
rigging failure and the mast came down.
With their dealings with the agent to clear them in, they learned that
he was watching and waiting for us to contact him to do the formalities. We decided to leave and actually left on the
afternoon the day after we arrived but it was too rough so we came back
in. The second day (Monday), we left
early in the morning and were “led” out by a Colombian navy vessel. We are not sure if they were watching to see
if we were going to stay in their territorial waters but it sure seemed that
when we made a turn away from the coast that they turned also and headed back
toward Providencia.
There were some Cays a few days
north and west that looked like a good place to stop and rest – reportedly a
good place to fill up one’s freezer with fresh bounty from the seas. As we approached Hobbies Cays and Vivarios
Cays, the weather was on our side and about to change for the worse in about
mid May. We decided to evaluate if there
was a window to head straight for the US.
The only obstacle in that path was Cuba – a big island in our way. We consulted with our weather guru, Chris
Parker, who broadcasts SSB (single side band) daily forecasts. He said we had the opportunity to make for
the western end of Cuba and turn the corner to head for Florida. If not, we could always back out and stop in
Isla Mujeres, Mexico to wait for the next opportunity to make it to
Florida. There was a cold front
approaching and we would have that weather event to deal with but most of the
rest of the forecast sounded great.
We were
already underway when we made the decision to “go for it”. After all if we are thinking about doing more
distant travels, we will be well outside the possibility of landfall during
those and there were several fallback options if we needed them. Darrell was excited about the prospect of us
doing this type of a long trip. When you
are off shore like this, you have to take shifts on watch and at the helm and
you have to get rest and nutrition on the “off” times.
So here we
are miles from any land and dependent on each other, the weather and our faith
in God. And we had to lean on Him during
the tough times. And let us say that God
took care of us all the time! On
preparing the boat for our departure from San Blas, we discovered that our boom
had a crack in it. We had a bulge about
midway along the starboard side near an egress for the topping lift that we
have been monitoring for two years now.
Well……there was a crack – hairline but palpable. We decided if we took it very easy on the
mainsail and reefed early, that she would see us through (once again
FAITH). When we left Panama we had ¾ of
a tank and two jerry cans on deck of diesel fuel and that was about what we
entered Providencia with. Our friend
Chris Parker, the weather guru, gave us details of how to make the trip
including currents, when to motor and when not to, etc. Unfortunately, we needed the motor assist
more than we or he thought to make the timing of the trip happen with the
approach of the cold front. Our
attention focused on protecting the boom, suddenly in the night, on a downwind
sail to make Cabo San Antonio (tip of Cuba) we heard a loud noise! Guessing that it was the boom – Darrell went
forward on deck to see what it was…..not the boom but the whisker pole that Tom
(Tiger Lilly) had been telling us was not big or stout enough. It had folded in half – but thank GOD it was
not the boom! Yeah, Tom, we are in the
market for a more “Manly” whisker pole for downwind sailing!
The front
was coming across the US and stalled across Florida about midway down the
peninsula which was good for us – God was taking care of us! We were supposed to experience it about
sunset on Saturday, May 3 and then we would be good to head East then north
with the help of the Gulf Stream. We had
the first band of prefrontal storms about 3:30 that afternoon and another brief
storm later that evening about 10:30-11:00 PM.
The front actually hit about 3:30 AM on Sunday just after we had triple
reefed the main (remember to protect the boom) and all our sails were ready to
go. We were motor sailing to hold
position when the engine coughed and died.
We had to drop the mainsail to protect the boom since we couldn’t
guarantee that we would not have an accidental jibe (bad news for the
boom). So we Hove to and rode out about
12 hours of winds and seas – I won’t say the height because Darrell thinks I
exaggerate them! LOL The other factor to heaving to was
fatigue. Remember we have been on four
hour shifts for days now and we are getting kinda tired. So we slept in shifts while we rocked and
rolled in BIG seas. While Darrell was
sleeping that afternoon, the winds started coming down so I eased out some
genoa and started sailing west. He woke
up and we were making tracks for home.
God had given us new inspiration, confidence and assurance that he would
take care of us.
We hoped
that the Gulf Stream would assist us in our passage and man it did – cause now
you see, we HAD to sail. This was the
last of the winds from the storm.
Several hours later, we were in the stream just about 40 miles north of
Havana and Darrell kept asking me if I wanted to go dancing! God had different plans, the winds shifted
and we had to make a left turn to head for landfall in the southernmost parts
of the USA. We were able to sail slowly
towards the Dry Tortugas. While
underway, Darrell had to see how much fuel we REALLY had in the tank because
the stick we have been relying on to gauge our fuel for more than five years
told us we still had about ¼ of a tank. Remember,
he was supposed to be resting when it was not his watch – hence we both got
VERY LITTLE rest after that storm. He
siphoned fuel out of the main tank and we put it in empty 2L coke bottles that
we had on board. This gave us the fuel
to get into Dry Tortugas before sunset and get the anchor down. While we were in that anchorage, we broadcast
on the radio that if anyone had some spare fuel, we would buy it. We got one taker – Johnny and Jeremy on
Windwalker from Pensacola, FL. – THANK YOU!!!
And thank you Lord, again!
So we
rested for one night and decided we had favorable conditions to get to Key West
– we were also advised by our weather man to get to KW and get fuel and keep
moving to get to Key Largo before the next weather window closed on us. WELL….we made it to Key West after a LONG
upwind slog taking almost double the amount of time we anticipated and us
SOOOOOO tired. When we dropped the
anchor, we had one last bottle (2L) about 2/3 full and that was IT! We got fuel and went to a marina in Key West
to wash the boat, our clothes, and rest for a couple of days before we can head
to Key Largo. We are hoping for winds
South of East in order to make it to Key Largo which is NE of Key West. Apparently, God is not ready for us to leave
here. We will evaluate conditions
tomorrow (Saturday) and possibly head north or anchor out and sit tight for the
NEXT weather window to head to Key Largo.
While we have been here, we have been able to reconnect with a friend
who had his fishing boat next to our dive boats in Key Largo several years ago
and tonight, we have been in contact with Russell and Jessica and Morgan
(friends from Key Largo) who are here in Key West and we hope to see them this
evening.
