08/08/2009
After about 6 weeks with Zach, I want to take this opportunity to wish him and "hug it forward' the best of luck in the future-Im glad to have been able to, in some little way, further the cause
david
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Comments [2]
08/08/2009, Jamaica to Cartagena, Colombia
As the sun comes up tomorrow, Sunday August9th we, Mango and Me and new crew member Lou will set sail across the heart of the Caribbean with the destination of Cartagena Colombia.
This is a rather hasty departure for upon arrival we were greeted by the very unfriendly news that if my dear dog Mango was caught off the boat, he would probably be shot. Looking further into such a monstrous law, I discovered that indeed the law is even more insidious. If a boat with a dog on board comes within ONE mile of the Jamaican 3 mile territorial waters, the boat can be boarded and the dog shot. This puts Mango in violation of the law as we sit on the dock.
More later on efforts to insulate him.....corruption corruption.
So...needless to say, I have little to say for Jamaica and hence the speedy departure.
Zach Heenal left the boat to have a look around Jamaica.
In their place comes Lou from West Palm Beach. Lou knows the boat well as we tested the boat on numerous occasions together. It will be good to have an experienced hand on board.
We are expecting r ather big seas and waves.....averaging 20-30 knots and 6-10 foot waves. The jib worries me as it is now 3-4 days straight with no stops.
We need to be in Cartagena by Wednesday morning before the conditions worsen.
I promise when I arrive in Cartagena I will put together a video of two of our experiences, especially Cuba.
All the best and thanks ever so much for checking in
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08/02/2009, Cuba to Jamaica
On the eve of our departure from Cuba, we sit quietly on the side of the dock, the quiet waves lapping against the side of the boat....the moonlit night....all give us a false sense of quiet for we are in a protected harbor with tallish mountains on all sides. But... all day... the 'elephants danced'. As we peered out through the narrow gap delineating the harbor from the Caribbean sea the outlines of the waves could be seen dancing across the gap.....almost as though to playfully beckon us out. The weather forecasts all predict mild seas but, as usual, one little snag....three tropical waves are making their way from east to west, their broadness over large areas give us little to go on......tomorrow will tell....should be an exhilarating ride to Jamaica.
Cuba, we leave with affection for its people and generosity and spirit. We hope to post a video snapshot of our time here when we once again enter the world of Internet in Jamaica. It is our hope and the hope of every Cuban we have talked to that our idiotic politicians get their act together and stop this shameful policy toward such a warm and generous neighbor.....
Aboard we have a third crewmember, a friend of Zach named Heenal and thankfully he is a better cook than I....so as is usually the case...the best.....cooks.
The voyage is 110 miles more or less and with a departure time of about 3 pm tomorrow, August 3rd we hope to make Jamaica the next morning, August 4th on an almost direct course of 197 degrees.
Jamaica has a miserable dog policy...'no dogs from the usa'....so we are bit anxious, once again for Mango.
An attempted fix of the jib is all we have ..... we are ready for it to collapse....we have two other spinnaker type sails aboard which might have to be pressed into service of some sort.
The reef lines have been fixed and antichaffing gear put in place.
Shearwater is about to begin the next leg.
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07/16/2009, Windward Passage
Being in the grips of a Tropical Wave Shearwater and the three of us have taken quite a beating. We have been experiencing 10-15 foot waves with winds sustained in the mid 20s with gust into the 30s. Very difficult following seas, the big mountaneous swell types punctuated by nasty smaller waves that often break into the cockpit over the back of the boat. After trying to decide if the boat could take another 24 hours of this not to mention the crew.....we have decided not to attempt our destination, Jamaica, and instead will divert to Cuba. With things like the two main reefing lines almost cut through and water slowly filling our bilges and an auto pilot that without warning turns off (that can lead to catastrophic results should it do so when Shearwater is surfing down a wave at 15 knots)with all these things needing attention, we will for safety reasons divert to Cuba. Obviously, this will met with differing attitudes on the part of the americans and the cubans. In fact, as I write I see Guantanamo Base to our right.....any moment now I expect to contacted by the americans who, ironically, cant offer refuge to their own countrymen.
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07/16/2009, Long Island to ...Cuba
In building seas as we headed south and with things getting progressively worse we headed to the windward passage which is like a scoop, a funnel, if you will between Cuba and Haiti. The winds tend to increase in this decreasing space. As we rounded that eastern tip of Cuba the winds kept building until Shearwater was literally surfing down the faces of these monsters ever threatening from behind. There were moments that I must admit I had to garner all my learnt and instinctive skill to keep her under control. For instance, after waking from sleep for my watch...I came up to find the wind howling at 25 knots, the waves now breaking over the back of the boat and and.....there are two container ships within a few hundred yards.....we were on the run and on a run, meaning the wind was over our stern, pushing the boat. This is the most risky point of sail as with one wrong turn of the rudder the sail can do what is called a jibe. This is when the wind sneaks behind the wrong side of the sail and literally slams it to the other side of the boat and all within an instant.....a not insignificant distance on a cat, namely 24 feet. This is when boats break.
Shearwater was wild and wanted to run, I was having trouble slowing her down and there they were.....the container ships-we seemed not to get out of eachothers way. Had we for a half minute or so lost control she could have sped at 15 knots toward one of those masses of steel. Huge bangs and cracks as the waves would smash the bottom of the nacelle, the area between the two hulls.
Mango cringed at every hit and at times would break out in shivers.
The darkness, the total darkness has a tendency, like fog, to rob one of ones usual equilibrium. Suddenly even the direction of the wind can be, for a moment or two, hard to determine.
One has to quickly to relinquish the usually relied upon inputs and switch to learned knowledge.....GPS and the other instruments wildly flashing information at one.
Slowly and carefully we maneuvered ourselves away from these two ships of the night and spent the next 6 hours, not looking ahead, but peering behind through the dark anxiously trying to find warning of the next wave as it rushed our stern.
Morning finally came and in the tranformation we began to finally see the true forms that had so threatened during the long night.....finally we could anticipate and rest in the comfort of the leader of our senses.... we had sight again.
Surveying Shearwater for damage we discovered to our disappointment that she had in effect blown out her jib Additionally, both the reef lines, the lines that hold the sail down when reduced sail is called for, had chafed through to uselessness....we couldnt face another 24 hours so we diverted to....
CUBA.......
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07/12/2009, Long Island,
15 MILES A DAY! How is possible to go such a short distance in hours and hours of sailing and in a fast Cat? For days now we have been averaging about 20 miles,as the bee buzzez- direct, distance to destination. However, if you measured the track the boat has actually sailed it is well over 3 times that distance. How is that possible? Well, imagine a line drawn from the boat to your destination. Now imagine the wind coming from that destination directly to your boat. THAT is the ONE direction the boat CANNOT sail. The "modern day" solution(since the one-way clipper ships)? Remember that line you drew from the boat to the destination....you cant sail directly along it but you can sail in any other direction..... so, you have to criss cross that line, back and forth, numerous times at approximately 45 degrees and slowly but surely you and your boat get closer and closer to your destination. Slow, frustrating and true sailing....
That is what we are engaged in now.... in order to reach Clarence Town, directly ahead and a distance of 40 miles we will have to travel nearly 150 miles......trying to go South East into a South East wind.
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