Surfing "to" USA

We are making our way back to USA, and the wind is just about perfect. Downwind all the way.

We left Dominica to a steady 20 knot breeze for a 240 mile journey to St. Croix (USVI) where I was hoping to make a phone call and take care of a few things back home.

The phone reception was very bad, so we stayed only about 4 hours in St. Croix and decided to make another jump (about 90 more miles) to Salinas, Puerto Rico.
We stayed in Puerto Rico a couple of days, rented a car to go to Costco and re provision some food as our storage was starting to look rather empty. We also took a trip to the top of their highest mountain. We like Puerto Rico.

 The next day we sailed around Puerto Rico to go to Mayaguez to use it as a launch pad for our big journey, we went to town to try and get some souvenirs. There were older men on the beach playing cards. They started talking to us, and were full of advice, not only that, a couple of them got a car and drove us to the "Plaza" were we were able to pick up some souvenirs. On the way back, one of them showed us what he just bought for himself in the neighboring town - a nice carved dish for mashing things. Phyllis loved the dish  - so he sold it to us for the same price ($20) and told us that he would go and get another one for himself. What a gesture. So we got our souvenirs and had delightful talk with the locals. Did I mention that we love Puerto Rico and its people?

Phyllis made a great guacamole in it

We left Puerto Rico that evening as the wind was supposed to be strengthening in the next 3 days around the Dominican Republic, and we wanted to be out of that area within 3 days. To get to the first island in the Bahamas (Mayaguana) is about 500 miles.

We had really nice downwind sail. Galaxy was a speed demon putting around 180 mile days. We could probably do a 200 mile days, but we decided to put 2 reefs in the main sail to slow her down a little bit - because Galaxy was doing 13, 14, and yes we saw even 15.7 knots of speed going down those waves. Those 2 reefs in the main sail were due to us being too scared seeing those high speeds.
From Mayaguana we sailed straight to Georgetown (200 miles?). From Georgetown we sailed straight across the Bahamas to West End in the Abacos where we are now. We will stay one night, check out of the country and hit the Gulf Stream in the morning.
See you in the US of A!

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A Day of Many Firsts and Lasts

Today was a special day. Many things happened that we will remember.

• We crossed the Tropic of Cancer (located at 23 degrees and 30 minutes). This is the highest point where sun comes (earth tilts) before it goes back south. This is the first time that we sailed into a true “tropics”. From now on the weather will remain pretty much constant. (and tropical). 
• Today we have done our first true ocean overnight passage. We travelled around 150 miles, had watch schedule, did our offshore night readiness gear etc . . . 
• We are getting the feel of real offshore cruising for the first time. The huge swells that pick the boat up and then take her down. The hour after hour of dealing with boat motion, which does not seem to stop soon enough - cooking, showering, studying - all under way - no more waiting a few hours until we are safely at anchor.
• Today for the first time we caught a Mahi-mahi fish. 2 of them ! ! ! It was fun fighting them. They would leap into the air as we were reeling them in. We started the grill and ate one fillet of one fish (there is enough for 4 meals). It was delicious! I always wanted to catch a mahi as they look so awesome and taste awesome too.

• We also have some sad news. Our friends from Jacksonville on another Manta catamaran, that travelled with us ("Lady J”) decided to abandon traveling south due to some issues they are having with their boat. For many months we dreamed how we are going to plow the oceans together, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. We really miss their guidance and wish them the best on their coastal adventures in the Bahamas and US. In light of this event we spent a lot of time discussing our plans “solo” and what we want to accomplish and where we can go. One thing we all agree - we don’t feel like we are done cruising and exploring new worlds, so stay tuned to see where the journey takes us.
• Also today we have reached the “End of Bahamas”. This place is amazing, and it is with mixed feelings that we will bid adieu to the Bahamas in order to explore other countries. I wish that we will have many future opportunities to explore these beautiful islands again and again.

Long Island

We have spent the last few days in Georgetown provisioning, relaxing, nursing a wound, studying and socializing. We met a few more cruisers and  caught up with some of the others that we had met during our first time visit to Georgetown. Jimmy from Axion helped splice the lines that make  our bridle so now we have  a spanking brand new bridle, thank you Jimmy! We were also able to fix our engines so they can start now without running below to wiggle the connectors, we hope the connectors behave continue behaving. Our leaking hatches were also fixed and hope everything stays dry going forward.

We had a great sail from Georgetown, the winds were blowing 15-20 knots from the Northwest which set us up for a nice down wind run. We were hoping to make it to Rum Cay but because we left a bit late from Georgetown we had to tuck in at Long Island for the night since we did not want to be arriving in the dark.  On the way we saw the most amazing clouds, they had sort of a green color to them it was amazing.

We are currently anchored in a very rolly anchorage, there is some surge but the winds are supposed to change and die down early morning so we should be able to enjoy the anchorage once the conditions mellow down. One very positive point about the anchorage is that there seems to be decent internet so we have been able to respond to emails and take care of some "stuff" while we have internet.

Georgetown - 2nd time around

Right before christmas we had made our way here to await the arrival of my brother-in-law who was arriving from Europe. After his arrival we made our way back up North to sight see some of the islands we had missed on our way to pick him up. Now we are back to Georgetown to see him off, whaaaa! We miss him already:)

SO yesterday was an interesting day at Lee stocking island to say the least…I will spare you the gory details but our youngest crew member’s hand came in contact with a machete and he sustained a cut on his left index finger…Our poor booboo it must have been such a shock and am sure it hurt like crazy. Lucky for us while exploring the island we had met up with the crew of Sailing Vessel(S/V) MOMO and S/V Sheila and the 1st mates Amie and Tracy respectively, happened to have experience in the medical field and they sure did save the day. Amie and Tracy came over to our boat and calmly told us what to do and helped us bring the situation under control. We are so grateful that they were around and appreciate all that they did to help us. We hope to cross paths soon with them.  

Because of the issue with Jordan’s finger, we decided to leave for Georgetown so we could see a doctor as well as get my brother in-law closer to the airport.  Our sail to Georgetown was rough! and I mean rouuugh!! As we approached the cut I secretly hoped Mirek would suggest to turn around but to my dismay he plunged right ahead, as we left the cut(Rat Cay Cut) we all thought the waves would dissipate but OMG! some of them were humongous.  We saw 7-8 swells and one big one went over our salon hatches and we got sea water into our salon yikes! I would say I hope I never see that again but it would be false hope but for now I do hope I don't see another one like that one.  Jordan slept all the way to Georgetown which was good because we need him to move less for the sake of his finger.

 Right now we are anchored in a quiet bay at Georgetown no winds no swells, just peaceful surroundings,we are grateful to be here and to be safe. 

See you on the next blog...

Greetings from Lee Stocking Island

We took of yesterday from Blackpoint and sailed about 25 nautical miles to Lee stocking Island. Blackpoint was a wonderful place to stay, we enjoyed conch at Lorraine's restaurant and bread from her mom's house...

Our passage from Blackpoint to Lee stocking was good, the seas weren't flat so there was a lot of rolling which lead to Jordan getting sea sick and loosing his breakfast, but he was a great sport and finished his math work. Anthony struggled with nausea all the way but handled it like a man while studying math and Latin, and I amazingly did not get sea sick and am the one who has always been sea sick, needless to say I was very happy.

We arrived at Lee stocking Island at around 2PM to find about 10 other boats  anchored here. As we were anchoring, one of the cruisers came and told us that there was going to be a get together on the island and that we were welcome to join them. We told them we'd stop by. In the meantime, Mirek and my brother in-law got on the dingy(dingy is to us as a car is to someone living on land, that's what we use to get to land) and went lobster hunting.  A couple hours later they showed up with conch, lobster and fish, it therefore suffices to say we are going to be enjoying some sea food today.

We did make it to go ashore to socialize, we met cruisers from the US and some from Canada. There were two families with kids, one family had two girls and the other had one girl. They were adorable.

The one interesting thing about Lee stocking Island is that it used to be a marine research center that was in full force operation but due to lack of funding was shut down and now no one lives here. The grounds are well taken care off so we are assuming there is a caretaker that comes once in while to make sure things are clean. The boys love it because they can climb trees, run and do the things that boys do...

I think our next destination is Georgetown but we will keep you posted...Have a wonderful Sunday...

Happy New Year!

Wow! Can you believe that is is the 8th day of the new year already? Where did 2014 go? I hope it did not go to the dogs but rather that it was a year of great accomplishments and that 2015 will be a year of even greater accomplishments.

So where have we been? I think the last post made was on the 20th of December, yikes! Talk of absenteeism:((( We are hoping to pick up where we stopped so we can stay in touch with friends and family.

So the past few weeks have found us enjoying the company of my husband's brother who is visiting us from the Czech republic.

He arrived on December 22nd and is staying with us till January 14th. (I think he is the reason we haven't been posting we've spent all our time with him...poor thing he is our scapegoat lol) It has been nice having him here the kids have definitely enjoyed his company as we have, he has helped catch some lobsters, fish, and conch and has been helpful around the boat, anchoring, raising the sails....it surely has been nice to have some extra muscles around.

With my brother in law visiting, we have travelled to different Cays, snorkeled in amazing corals, harvested some delicious coconuts, and walked on some of the most white sanded beaches we've only seen in magazines. It has been fantastic! We even managed to see some islands that are owned by country music legends, film actors like Johnny Depp, Oprah and the like.

Currently we are anchored at Blackpoint Cay, it is blowing like crazy gusts of up to 25 knots, feels like we are surfing even though we are anchored. We hope the winds will die down. Blackpoint is a small island that hosts a very popular restaurant called Lorraine's restaurant, so if you are ever down here stop here for some real island fare. Behind Lorraine's restaurant, her mom makes the most scrumptious breads, the favorite one is the coconut bread one, the stuff just melts in your mouth.


We will keep you posted as soon as we know what our next destination will be. May you have great success this new year!

The Exhumas

We landed in Bimini and got our paper work from customs.The dock we stayed at was a home to 5 foot Tarpon and 8 foot Barracuda.From there we left to the Berries and stayed at the east side of Chub Key Island.We went ashore to see a wrecked house and took a short walk and until we reached the jungle. As for the locals we only met one friendly Bahamian who directed us to a great coral reef and valuable information on how to catch Lobsters.

We then crossed to Nassau and though we didn’t get out of the boat as we were just transiting through, we were able to see Paradise Hotel.Then we went to the the Exuma Islands  where we met the docile Allan Cay Iguanas who will run up to you seeing if you will feed them.

We went spearfishing but there are thousands of beginners who are better at it then so I scared more fish then actually hit them. But Dad is a lot better at it then me and he nearly had a huge fish but it dove under the reef and we couldn’t reach it.

After that we went to Normans Cay and saw a huge sunken plane, it is said that at one point this Cay was overrun by drug lords and this plane was used to transport drugs around the island before it met its demise in this piece of paradise...Then we went to the beach and walked along the beach and climbed up the rocks and the saw the jurassic park like forest below. 

Later we took it easy and watched a movie. 

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Bimini, Bahamas

We crossed the Gulf Stream!
Actually it was quite uneventful as the wind completely died out and the stream was almost completely flat.

Phyllis, in anticipation of a rough passage drugged herself and slept throughout most of the voyage which was too bad as this was the one time that offshore sailing (motoring) was very calm.

We have cleared the Bahamian customs with no issues and got our BTC mobile SIM card so that we can have more internet options.

We topped off with fuel and moved to the north east shore of Bimini island where the kids and I spend a couple of hours in the water collecting conch and learning how to spearfish. The winds are going to be still light out of the north tomorrow so we will make a run for the Berry islands (about 80 miles). We will be leaving around midnight so that we can arrive during a daylight.

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