Second Star to the Right
S/V Agua Dulce sails around the world in search of Neverland
| Vessel Name: | Agua Dulce |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Hylas 54 |
| Hailing Port: | Park City, UT |
| Crew: | Charles & Gretchen Cunningham |
| About: | Charles is a retired lawyer from Dallas who started sailing Sunfish in Corpus Christi, TX when he was a boy. I'm Gretchen, and I was a stay-at-home mom who doesn't stay at home much anymore. I fell in love with sailing on our first bare boat adventure in the Caribbean 30 years ago. |
| Extra: | Special thanks to Peter Pan for inspiring generations to stay young and keep searching for their own Neverland. |
12 December 2019 | 14 18'N:59 07'W,
Log Day 19 Ð Last Full Day at Sea
All of us are extremely excited to get to the marina in St. Lucia. We've been talking about what will be the first thing we are going to do after we arrive and get the boat tied up. It's hard to say right now. Agua Dulce has been our cocoon for the last three weeks, and she has seen us safely 3000 miles [...]
09 December 2019 | 15 15'N:50 25'W,
Log Day 16 Ð Counting down the miles!
We have broken the 700NM to go mark, and at 750NM to go, we were three-quarters of the way to St. Lucia. During my 11pm-1am watch tonight, we should break the 600NM mark as well. We're all getting excited to be in the Caribbean! I wish I had downloaded some steel drum Christmas music to get us in the [...]
08 December 2019 | 15 31'N:47 45'W,
Log Day 15 Ð Squalls + Swells Lack of Sleep
It was a wet and squally night. We had lots of rain and gusts in the 30's, but it was all manageable. The worst part about squalls is that when they pass they suck the energy out of the air, and we have practically no wind for a time. In addition, the seas were extremely rolly last night and they have [...]
Log Day 17 Ð Are we there yet?
No, but we are now past the 500NM to go mark Ð 83% of the way to St. Lucia! (Thanks to Captain Charles for the constant statistics)
We are starting to see boats appear on AIS again as we all converge on St. Lucia from the various courses we have chosen. We are headed straight for the island at a course over ground heading of 282¼M (M stands for magnetic versus T for true. Google magnetic deviation if you don't understand what that means. I understand it, but would have a hard time explaining it succinctly.)
We passed the point where the Mini-Transat abandoned boat was adrift. It is right in the path of many of the boats in the rally, so I hope everyone is keeping a very sharp lookout. We never saw an AIS signal from it even though we passed maybe 16 miles away from it. I hope it is showing up on AIS for boats that pass closer!
Yesterday was a great day in terms of mileage. We think we sailed 180 miles. We generally consider 160 a good day. We sailed between 7-8 knots for most of the day. Currently, we are sailing at over 8 knots. The winds are good right now at 23-25 knots from the east. We expect these winds to continue for another day or two and then lessen slightly as we approach the islands.
This boat continues to move around more than the Fun House at the State Fair, and my bruising is getting comical! I happened to glance in the mirror after my shower, and let's just say that my backside looks like a map of the Caribbean islands.
Update 9pm:
Looks like we will be under the 400NM mark later tonight! Not many more milestones left!
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01 April 2019
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06 December 2018
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