Setting Sail

We are in a marina at the south end of Mobile Bay. We took it easy on the river the last few days- only going a few miles every day (usually at naptime, the motor really helps the sleep!) and anchored by 3PM most days. Dinghy rides, nice family dinners at the table and oh-so-many lego towers, train games and Dora 'epsisodes'.
It feels a little like we were doing all of this in preparation for this leg, our longest sail to date with John. Tomorrow we will resume the routine of 24-hour-watch-keeping, sleeping in the pilot berth and meals in the cockpit. Our *tentative* destination is Grand Cayman. We were there last winter and so are familiar with the Island and the check-in routine. From there we'll likely head down to Providencia, Columbia and then to the San Blas Islands (Kuna Yala) off of Panama before transiting the Canal sometime after Christmas.

Whew.

Fair Winds and Following Seas and all that stuff... I'll try to update as I can from onboard. The weather looks fairly light for the first few days at least!
Tomorrow I'll be chopping onions and carrots and putting them in bags ready for pressure cooker stew, cross your fingers we won't need it! I'm also going to make a few pizza crusts that I just have to roll out and 'dress' before cooking at dinnertime, the less time spent in the galley the better!


Fishing (notice a no pants theme here?)


ARRRGH!


John and Jeff 'rowing' to shore- a little shore leave is necessary for John once in awhile!

Rock Bottom

As I read back in my journal about this passage, I get chills and a bit teary eyed. So vivid are the emotions that Jeff and I experienced during these days....

Leaving Guatemala, we nearly hit the (unlit) buoy, and maybe we should have used that incident as an omen to STOP. But alas, we kept on going. Remember, we were leaving on the moon tide, which happened to be late(it was dark, I don't remember what time exactly, maybe 11PM?) We had anchored in Livingston and Jeff went ashore to check us out. I stayed aboard and made scones for the passage, not knowing what we were in for. We were heading to Cartagena, Columbia- approximately 800 miles- our longest passage so far. The weather the first night was pleasant, a few rainy but warm squalls that only required a spray top and crouching under the dodger. We made two stops along the way, the first in Utilla, Honduras for fuel. Again, Jeff went ashore and brought the fuel back in the kayak- I stayed aboard and washed out the cockpit. The second stop was on the Island of Roatan, again just for an overnight.

From Roatan we still had to sail East a fair way before heading more South towards Columbia. We were also careful to stay fairly far off the Nicaraguan coast, for fear of pirates. We did get lucky that the wind shifted in our favor as we rounded the point, this passage is known to be a rough one and rarely does one get to sail the entire way. However, for 6 days we had around 30 knots (about 35 miles per hour) forward of the beam. Living our life heeled over about 25 degrees was a bit difficult, especially when I was seasick and trying to figure out meals. I had a pressure cooker, but so far had not really learned to use it properly and could only make one thing at a time. We basically survived on water and hard boiled eggs.

It was during this passage that our (now running) joke began that the squalls only happen on Abby's watch... See, at this point we were standing 2 hour watches. The weather was so rough that that's about all we could handle, and even went down to single hours during the roughest weather. Jeff would often have a windy but otherwise beautiful watch and just as he was waking me the clouds would start to roll in. It was truly bizarre, he could almost set the clock by it! I would come on deck dressed in every piece of wet weather gear I had just knowing that I was going to get pummeled. For real. To this day, when the clouds roll in Jeff knows that it must be nearing my watch! Oh, and we were sharing MY 10-year-old heavy weather gear at this point as well, Jeff only had dingy racing gear!

When I read back in my journal to this passage the words are shocking...
"...We have come to the heartbreaking conclusion that cruising may not be for us..." This was written on Jan 18, 2005 with approx. 180 nautical miles to Cartagena. The one question that remained was, what do we do now? Then, Jan 22, 2005... "We made it to Cartagena, Columbia after 6 days of sailing, wow. The weather was so bad that the port here was closed to boats under 60 tons leaving!" We made it in. Still outside of the port entrance we turned a bit and the motion of the boat was not so violent. Within a few hours we would be anchored and eating a hot meal. The waves were awesome. Jeff called me on deck to point out a ship. There was green water breaking over the bow and running all the way back to the pilot house. Wow.

Anchoring around 11PM (twice because we were dragging!) A dingy came over to welcome us in. We made hamburgers and inhaled them and then slept hard. The next day we checked in and explored Cartagena with some new friends. There was no more talk of selling the boat, in fact we were already planning our next stop. With new found confidence in our abilities, each other and the strength of NoNews we were ready. All it took was hitting Rock Bottom.

Ironically, this was our first passage with our new kitten Maya, and she was great! She managed to use her (corn) kitty litter pan in the head (bathroom) and was begging for meals throughout the passage. She didn't seem to notice the heel, but got into major trouble when she chewed through the chart that we were using!







Not suprisingly, we don't have any photos from the passage- we got better at taking photos, I promise!

Setting Sail- Mexico

November 2004 was an adventure. We set sail from Fort Lauderdale on a sunny day, a day later than we had *planned.* One of the first things we learned about cruising is that plans are always subject to change, mostly due to the weather.

We sailed down the Florida Keys, stopping each night- we're cruisers now and in no particular hurry! Jeff's parents met us in Key West and treated us to a few days RnR, taking showers in their hotel room and dinners out. When we were ready to go we pulled up our anchor and went into the marina to fill our water tanks one last time. Little did we know that this would be the worst water we'd have for the next 2 years, thanks Key West!

Jeff with our MUMM Champagne, left over from our wedding! We toasted our first anchorage after setting sail, and saved one bottle for our first anniversary.

Our first stop was Isla Mujeres, Mexico which is an island just off of the Yucatan Peninsula across from Cancun.

View Larger Map

Before we left the US, I had gone to Costco and provisioned the boat like a madwoman. I borrowed a friend's freezer and I spent a whole day cutting, seasoning and vacuum sealing a lot of meat. When we arrived in Mexico we *almost* lost all of our meat due to quarantine regulations! Luckily we somehow managed to talk the officials into keeping it, and now we know. If we had it to do all over again we'd provision in Cancun- there is a well stocked WalMart!

My Galley, where the magic happens!

We spent a few weeks sailing the coast of Mexico, experiencing unmarked reef passes, high fees and corruption of officials. We also experienced Mayan ruins, the best Cevieche we've ever tasted, and cheap beer. You take the good with the bad!



Jeff and I in Tulum, Mexico