05/05/2009, Marathon, Florida
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.
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05/05/2009, Marathon, Florida
Today should be my final entry. We have settled into our floating home and have begun looking for other things to do. We caught another 4 fish yesterday but returned them all back to the sea Last night we watched a great movie called Alone In The Wilderness. It was about a man who spends 35 years building and living in a remote cabin. We are rummaging around the boat looking for new books. We are starting to think about our other life and plan on our land fall. The wind has slowed down to 7 knots apparent and so has my enthusiasm for cruising along without my family. We had our best lunch yesterday consisting of potatoes,cheese and onions along with fried Mahi in Bisquick. There were no weevils in the batter but they did find there way in our first attempt at a spaghetti dinner later. We finished up our perfect lunch with fresh chocolate chip cookies from the oven and I drank some of my wild berry sun tea. I have been keeping track of where we are on a piece of paper. If something where to malfunction with the GPS system, we would be able to figure out where we last were by our journal entries. We are now at 80 13 948 west and 24 18 130 north. We are traveling at 260 degrees at 3.2 knots. We can look at a chart on board and see where we are and where we need to go. Most of the time we navigate by staring at our Raymarine C70 and watching an image of a boat head toward the next way point. It is like a video game but doesn't seem to end.
We see the lights of Marathon Key Florida. It was a slow ride through the Gulf Stream at 3 knots. We caught 4 more Dolphin and Bill kept one I caught. 36 inch fighter who I landed while listening to Dire Straits. We loved watching a Frigate Bird catch a flying fish. I think I saw a dolphin follow us for about 2 minutes. I really wanted to take a picture with a dolphin with a double rainbow in it. After a weevil free dinner Dave and I are waiting for our Blackberry connection to get 3 bars and connect with our outside world. Our trip took us 1000 miles and we ran our motor for under 2 hours. Mr Wind did a great job The trip was great and I am already anticipating my next adventure.
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05/05/2009, Marathon, Florida
Next stop Marathon Key Florida? Half Moon has guided toward the west and home The trade winds have kept us at 7 knots and have kept us with a following sea (CSN) We are surfing our way back to the USA. I heard my Ipod for the first time yesterday and today while doing push ups,sit ups and boat yoga. Music puts me in a cheerful mood and pops musical references in my (Maxwell silver hammer came down upon my) head. Lots more stuff broke last night during our uncontrollable jib. The block on the boom jammed and cracked. The traveler block popped off and we kept sailing. Our repairs were made in the sunlight with Bill appearing to chisel his privates. We actually got the stuck line out of the pulley. See picture for more details. Last night we also came to a point where we had a ship in front of us and behind us. I felt like we may become the next Dorado (Mahi) sandwich. My flashlight was circling the sail and Bill in a Zombie state at 130am just laughed and ignored my actions. We haven't seen any planes or many boats until now. We are cruising in the old Bahama Shipping lane and big cargo ships are going by every 30 minutes. I will be a worry wart all night. Luckily we have the right of way as a sailboat I think might is right when it comes to right of way Cuba is 20 miles to our west but we have only seen her outline. We thought about visiting but it has been illegal since about 1960. Silly law makers. Dave and Bill are entertaining each other with Jewish Men jokes They seem to know every joke of each other but still crack each other up. Dr Woo's Zachary disease got me to stop breathing.
Never saw much of Cuba. Just some lights on our port. One light in particular seem to follow us for six hours. It was the Night Cyclopis protecting the country. It seemed like Cuba was cloaked from our view. We did hear some Spanish spoken on the marine radio. We had a small party after dinner. Backgammon , popcorn and rum and Coke were in order. We broke out the good stuff as Billy laid sleeping in the master salon The salon needs the maid service badly. We had one near miss in the night with four huge spotlights coming at us like a moving city from Star Wars. Like all good movies, this had a happy ending and the boat did turned in the final minutes and went on toward Miami. We are not the only ones up in the middle of the night
Our home is like a case study for OSHA. Nothing is safe around here We have a blade spinning rapidly on the rear of the deck. It makes loud hissing sounds to draw you near and generates our power. The boat is always rocking and swaying and makes it very hard to pee of the side in the middle of the night. I am always thinking about how there is no chance of rescue if you go over. We have to fishing poles with big hooks swinging from them. We have gasoline and diesel fuel in containers attached to the side railings. We have a whole junk yard of stuff in the for deck 2 big anchors,a little sailboat with a huge hole in it. A junkie old inflatable dingy that is always leaking and taking on water and some assorted poles and ropes. If the boat were to sink we have a Zodiac life raft that you are suppose to throw overboard and get in. The cover reads "one two three and you are safe at sea". This is a lie. Your odds of survival when you leave the ship are small We do carry a EPIRB that will signal the rescue teams to look for you if there is a life endangering problem. We aren't planning on using this device in our lifetimes
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