Worship Sailing

Mission sailing adventures

10 September 2023 | Livingston, Guatemala
21 August 2023 | Islamorada Florida
30 June 2023 | Marsh Harbor, Abaco
04 June 2023 | Tahiti Beach , Elbow Cay , Bahamas
29 May 2023 | Sea of Abaco
12 August 2022 | Sea of Abaco
25 June 2022 | Man O War Cay
04 June 2022 | Marsh Harbor Bahamas
28 May 2022 | Marsh Harbor Abaco, Bahamas
23 May 2022 | Bimini
01 May 2022 | Islamorada Florida
30 April 2022 | Yucatan Channel
28 April 2022 | Departing Guatemala
11 December 2021
15 November 2021 | P. G. Belize
11 November 2021 | Guatemala

A Word From Todd

27 July 2008 | Gabriella
Todd
Friday July 25th 2009 Wednesday turned out to be one of the mellowest days that we had to date. The sea finally started to settle down and we seemed to be making good north headway towards the Phoenix Islands but by evening it had become apparent that Canton Island, an old WWII outpost would not be achievable without some major changes in the wind patterns that were not likely to occur. As we steamed slightly East of North Ted decided that we would instead aim for Gardner Island, a small atoll that at one time had been attempted to be settled, but was currently the quintessential "deserted island". We had been at it hard for about five days so the thought of settling into a nice anchorage for a day or two to recoup was starting to sound pretty good to everyone. Renee was nursing a pinched nerve in her neck to I was all for giving her a chance to not have to work around the constant motion and muscle tension that accompanies heavy sea days. All in all this was a good day and we continued to make good headway, although our goal of getting to Christmas Island before the sail to Hawaii was starting to come into question as the winds have just not been giving us much headway east and we are now nearing five degrees south latitude. Thursday July 24th - Learning To Tack Today started pretty auspiciously. We have achieved great headway north in lighter wind with much more comfortable seas. As we all ate breakfast the goal for the day was to head for Gardner Island where we would settle in for the next few days to rest and recouperate and make do some boat maintenance and general cleanup after some pretty hard sea days since leaving Fiji. As fate would have it, the winds were not going to make that as easy as we would like. We steamed up into the wind and it became obvious that we were struggling to make much headway east to our desired goal, so we began to tack in the early morning with Ted running me through the paces of the line handling to make good clean, fast tacks. After a few of those I seemed to have it down and our team of crew was working pretty well to head up. With our seabird friends watching over our trailing lure's we began to head to wind. As it turned out we would fight almost constant 20 knot headwinds and about 1-1.5 knots of current fighting for almost 18 hours to make about 40 miles of east headway. As we finished dinner and night settled in we had reached within 8-9 nautical miles of the island. Because the charts did not show a clear passage to a safe anchorage in what on an island almost completely surrounded by coral reef. Ted decided that we would proceed to tack slowly through the night (and some rather testy squalls with up to 30 knot winds, waiting until morning to attempt to find a line to a safe leeward anchorage. As we would discover the following morning, this turned out to be a very wise decision. Friday July 25th - Gardner Island and "The Day of the Shark" Before bed last night we had all settled into the realization that a stop as Christmas Island from our current position would exact a heavy toll. The trades are blowing strong from just South of East to directly East and the 15-18 hours that it took us to go 40 miles east made it clear that we were fooling ourselves if we thought that we would be able to head to wind for almost 1,100 miles in anything like reasonable time. We had decided that we would shoot for Hawaii and hope that the trade winds in the Northern hemisphere turn out to be more favorable as our current course lands us smack in the middle of the Hawaiian Island chain. Having only provisioned the boat for a twelve to fifteen day passage to Kiribati we did have some concerns about provision so I awoke shortly after first watch to find Ted putting the finishing touches on a strategy to get to Hawaii. As we tacked slowly in front of the reef protected lagoon entrance, we began to question our ability to find a safe anchorage, particularly with the skeletal remains of a sunken steamer sitting on the reef in the exact place that we expected that we would be able to lay anchor. What did become clear as we checked the depth was that the leeward side of this islands drops from the reef very drastically and very deep, making it impossible to find an anchorage that would give us peace of mind for an unabated night of sleep for all. As we steamed to windward in hopes of finding a safe anchorage we dropped lines in the water in an attempt to allow the sea to help us shore of our protein supplies. This paid off shortly with me landing a nice albeit small yellowjack. We did not however locate anything resembling an anchorage so we headed back to leeward and proceeded to emabark on a series of chores and safety checks to insure that the boat was ready for the passage to Hawaii which we estimate at somewhere between 15-25 days depending on what the wind decides to give us. While not a night in safe harbor on a stunningly beautiful desert island, the sight of land had eased everyone's spirits as we went about the business of taking care of the boat that had carried us just over 1000 nautical miles from Fiji to about 4 degrees south of the equator. Everyone put their heads down on an associated set of tasks and off we went. As part of this check Ted informed me that we needed to check the rigging up high, so I seized the opportunity that I had been waiting for and for the first time, got to go up the mast of my new boat. While not exactly climbing it did remind me that I was actively participating in a new and amazing challenge of boat ownership of a cruising catamaran. Trevor has been chomping at the bit to get ashore and check out the island, and since we needed to burn the trash, Gail, Trevor and I decided to swim to shore across the protective reef. I dropped off of the trampolines and donned my mask and snorkel and it immediately became apparent to me that this place was amazing. What I did not realize that that moment was that it was also potentially dangerous. After snorkeling in Fiji, reef swimming had taken on a bit of a novelty feel. Coral reefs tropical fish, and amazing natural beauty. The leeward reef of Gardner Island is all of those and more. The tropical fish here were far more varied and colorful and the 100+ visibility in crystal clear and deep blue water allowed it all to be taken in very easily. As I approached the reef I found it hard to focus as the amount of underwater life was mind blowing. Tropicals, Giant Clams, stunning anemones, and coral as well as brightly colored grouper and snapper. As I approached the barrier reef and the accompanying 30-60 shelf on the outside I did catch sight of something that would be a harbinger of the tone this particular swim. Not 30 feet away a small 3.5 ft black tip shark had taken notice of me, and unlike the white tips we dove with in Fiji, this guy seemed none too happy to see me, and proceeded to swim circles around me with the eventual probing head butt. It was only after I returned to the boat that I would be informed that black tip sharks butt before they bite. I did swim quickly into the reef and soon discovered that this shark was protecting a small group of babies that were swimming in the reef shallows. As the reef depth shortened to under two feet I was able to stand and head to depth that my shark friend could not follow. Trevor and Gail arrived shortly and we proceed to the beach to burn trash and search for ripe coconuts for the passage to Hawaii. No luck on the coconuts, but after a short fire on the beach we headed back to the reef just inside the boats new position. Since I was not carrying a board I was able to get out in the light surf quickly and turned to wait for Trevor and Gail. It was at is point facing the beach that I was hit from behind by a bigger set and proceeded to get knocked off my feet and raked across the reef. With a few minor albeit bloody scrapes I decided to get out of the surf and proceeded to head down to waves swimming to make it through the rather short lineup pf two to three wave sets. As I dove into the last of the waves, I was completely startled by the motion between may legs of the leathery skin of a medium to small shark. Shocked, I opened my eyes underwater and indentified the fuzzy outline of another one of my carnivorous ocean companions. Having just been side swiped by one of these, I was feeling a little freaked out and donned my mask as quickly as possible and ducked to get a better look. At this point I was still holding my fins in my hand. What I found as I went under was a little disconcerting. Now just past the surf line, in about 25 feet of water with some reef around I was swimming with not one, but four or five 3-4 foot black tip sharks circling me with great interest. As I back peddled towards deeper water they swung wide circles, with one or two at a time charging me to within 2 feet. Using my fins to make myself look big I kept telling myself that these sharks were typically not aggressive (WRONG!). I was able to keep them at bay for a few passes with the fins until I reached deeper water at which point they seemed to become less interested and headed back to the cover of the reef. Later I would learn that Trevor had a similar experience, but that his saving grace had been a huge loggerhead turtle that went after the shark on his behalf. In any case, after I was safely back on the boat, I decided that maybe I would think better of it next time I decided to swim in a shark infested reef of an uninhabited island in the middle of the pacific ocean. Live and Learn! After we were all safe and sound, back on Gabriella, we pulled up stakes quickly and decided get under way to Hawaii. While we would all like to have explored the inner lagoon and coconut palm forests of the island, the lack of a suitable anchorage facilitated a quick departure and we soon had our lines in the water making headway just east of north on what we expect to be a 13-25 day journey to Hawaii. Should the winds prove seriously incompatible with that goal we will then tack southeast hoping to get a better angle from Christmas Island 1100 miles to our East. As we steamed away from the island hoping to add to our protein stocks we had been sailing for less than one hour when we had hits almost simultaneously on two of the three rigs that we had been trolling. Mine fought slightly less and I was absolutely pleased when I landed a small (10-15lb) yellowfin tuna. After a quick clean with some help from Ted, we had lines back in the water as Trevor continued to land a 30 or so pound yellowtail. As Trevor was cleaning his fish Ted also laid into a pretty good size yellowfin and we looked to be all set in the protein department for the remainder of the trip. As Ted led the Tuna to the side of the boat, out of the middle of nowhere appeared our blacktip friends larger cousin and with one quick snap reduced the tuna that Ted had been ready to land, to nothing more than a mangled tuna head dangling from the end of Ted's pole. It seems that the carcasses that we had dumped had been a nice appetizer, with Ted's tuna as the main course. Better the tuna then me is all I have to say about that. In any case, after yielding out about 25-30 pounds from the two fish and having a quick sushi snack, we turned back to the northeast and continued on our way. As of now it is 8:30 PM and I am finishing up this entry getting ready to catch some sleep before I go one watch at 2:00 AM for the first of many nights one our next passage, hoping for the winds that will allow to continue to make out way north and east to the land of Aloha.
Comments
Vessel Name: Veinto Azul
Vessel Make/Model: 47
Hailing Port: Tavernier Fl U S A
Crew: Ted & Gail Gordon
Extra: WorshipSailing Adventures
Home Page: worshipsailing.com
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Veinto Azul's Photos - Gaberiella Voyage of Faith (Main)
Photos 1 to 60 of 60
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Christmas: Santa in the Village
Family on hill: Friends in Ezmeralda
Tree top: Awesome Tree
Girl in Guarita: Beautiful Native Mayan
gg with pina: Good day shopping
Rio Aguas Caliente: Favorite Spot in Guatemala
music house: Music mans house
Funny Pig: Walking friends
IMG_3426: Tree flower in Town
7:4:07 Natalie: Celestial Navigation
gg: gg and spinaker sail
7:3:07: Midgie our friend
7:3:07 Trevor fishing: Pray for fish
7:2:07Fort Jefferson: Ship just arrived two days go
7:2:07 Trevor underwater: Trevor under Gabriella
7:2:07 scarey baracudda: Water Monster & Natalie
7:2:07 Lisa Hammock: Fun on the water
7:2:07 Natalie at Fort: Surfing
6:30:07 Departure: Heart on Apple from Marietta
7:2:07 Chef Trevor: Trevor cooking Carolina Steaks
7:1:07 Sunset: Lisa in Gods beuaty
7:1:07 Our Friends: Waves of Love
6:23:07 The Blessing: Pasto Marlin, Goldie and Pastor Gary with Family
4:7:07 Mary& John: Visit from Gram & Papa
4:7:07 Dewinds: Tramp Jumping our friends from air strip
3:29:07 SailingWhale Point: Windsurfing in new home port of whale point Eleuthra
12:17:06 friends Carolynn: Live Nativity Scene aboard Gabriella
12:17:06 boat parade: Ted and Jesus
2:26:07 Manatee: Baby Manatee in Florida
12:17:06Ted & Gail: Welcome Aboard
11:11:06 service: Our Friend Karen
7:22:06 Tuna: 7/22/07 Penny& Gail Tuna fishing
7:13:06 shark: 7/13/06 Trevor Sharkfishing Eleuthra
8:19:06: 8/29/07 Ted Whale Point Future Home
7:19:06Gabriella: 7/19/06 Gabriella under Way Eleuthra
 
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God's hand at work along with the beautiful people we meet along the way.
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Fun aboard Adonai the BOy Scouts of America rock out on the a Sea of Abaco, Bahamas
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These are pictures taken around spots we've been and some of the interesting things I have seen.
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Prayer God Bless all the children in the world.