17 May 2009 | Marathon Florida
17 May 2009 | Marathon Florida
07 May 2009 | Chicago, Illinois
05 May 2009 | Marathon, Florida
05 May 2009 | Marathon, Florida
05 May 2009 | Marathon, Florida
05 May 2009 | Marathon, Florida
19 April 2009 | Chicago, IL
08 April 2009 | Chicago, IL
06 March 2009 | Arecibo, Puerto Rico
06 March 2009 | San Juan, Puerto Rico
06 March 2009 | Offshore Near Puerto Rico
13 February 2009 | Simpson Bay, St Maarten
13 February 2009 | Simpson Bay, St Maarten
20 January 2009 | Simpson Bay, St Maarten
20 January 2009 | Simpson Bay, St Maarten
20 January 2009 | Simpson Bay, St Maarten
20 January 2009 | Simpson Bay, St Maarten
20 January 2009 | Simpson Bay, St Maarten
Sailors Don't really sail most of the time
05 May 2009 | Marathon, Florida
Bill
The autopilot does most of actual steering we are only hear to take care of a few details that are needed. We tend the sail and check the charts but Mr. Auto keeps us going north. We passed Haiti on our port from 20 miles out on a broad reach. There has been a consistent amount of wind and we thank the Mintz family for going the hard way. We are going for 6 days of sailing with only a quick stop at the atoll. Last night we had lots of rain. We are now at Hogsty Reef. We came in here very slowly and carefully and are anchored in the lee of the atoll. We traveled for 28 hours to get here. We are 30 miles from any type land. We are at the only atoll in Western Hemisphere. The water around us is up to 12000 feet and the atoll is made up of coral and forms a nice shallow bay. We aren't actually going on the island. The atoll has many ship wrecks including a huge one with a rusted red hull we saw while coming in. We came in with a few hours of light and went snorkeling and fishing. I partially cleaned the bottom of the boat of coral and Bill caught us a small grouper for breakfast and I gutted him. Dan cooked us a great cheese green chili egg potato Frittata. Erica caught a long Barracuda but he smelled like fish and we sent him back in. We drank a cold bottle of Coke and are now resting. Our next leg takes us past Cuba and up to Florida. The moon hasn't been out until yesterday and is a quarter full tonight. Its nice to see where a little boat is going for half the night with the moon light. Its only stars after 3am. We took off for our final leg at 3am We pulled up the anchor from the sandy bottom and set off toward Cuba. This part of the journey will lack much culture it will feature much open water. We have been going for 15 hours and I am a bit board. I am down bellow and getting tossed around and nauseous It would have sucked coming over on a ship in the 17th century. Our head is clogged and my bunk is messy and damp. Maybe talking to the complaining Highland Parker's wouldn't be so bad
We just went 11 miles out of our way for 2 30 lbs Dolphin or Dorado fish. Dolphin travel and mate for life and we just hooked a pair. Big fun and I am feeling alive again. Our first one was the male and we heard the whine of the real and we began the fight. We headed into the wind to slow the boat down and furled the jib After 25 minutes we got him along side the boat and Eric gaffed him hard and tried to get him in the boat After a big fight the fish was thrown in the boat and kept going down into the cabin. We were cracking up and blood was getting everywhere. Blood on the floor. Blood on the sail bags. Blood on the deck. Blood on the stairs. The fish was squirming everywhere down bellow and was making for my bunk. Captain Bill was wrestling the fish and wanted to give him his last drink of bad rum when his mate sent our second pole reeling. Now we had a fish in our cabin and one on the hook. Eric had him on the line for half an hour. This one was a big fighter but in time our fisherman brought him along side the boat and we decided to let number 2 go free. Our fish down bellow had died and was more than enough for us to eat for the rest of the journey. Dave barked orders to Bill on how to cut up the fish and we began the debate on what ways to cook our next 6 meals. We will not be hungry. Meanwhile our boat was off course heading toward the Columbus Bank. After our 2 hour ordeal we pointed the ship in the right direction.