I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving : To reach the port of heaven , we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it... but we must sail, and not drift , nor lie at anchor.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Bite off more than you can chew-then chew it !!!!
Saturday June 19th,2010 West End -Grand Bahama Island
Wow , what a ride !!!! It all glows in pure bliss of victory as I sit here in the Old Bahama Bay-Yacht Clubhouse sipping a Goombay Smash ...
Left Boot Key Harbor on Thursday afternoon to anchor "outside ", regroup and relax for a funride with the Gulfstream from Marathon to West End .I really appreciate Peter Barker , who sails this awesome australian raceboat Cole 42 "Bow Tie Lady 'around the world , for giving us a completely new view on the opportunity we have here . After years of listening to sailors scaring the hell out of me about the mighty stream ,he made me aware of the positive sides of this natural phenomena.If used with common sense -as in avoid any northern winds -this powerful stream will give you an extra 3 knots if you go with the flow .And what's the point of hugging the coast when you're surrounded by spualls that leave you blinded and with no space to evade them . After the breakdown on the Burdines fueldock it took quite some spirit and perserverence to get our act together and to realize the boat will never be perfect ,but we were ready to deal with all the extra challenges . So we had a great dinner and a generous amount of liquid courage only to find a broken fiddleblock on the mainsheet before we went to bed . I have to give cudoos to Bruce for a last minute swift kick in the butt to accept fate and just get the f... out of here and use our brains to deal with it and get sailing...
So at 6:30am we got underway , hit the Gulfstream and took "the elevator" along the Florida Coast . The wind blew a timid 3-4 knots , so our 7-9 knots in the stream created a pleasant breeze and we had an awesome relaxing day . As soon as it got dark the little squalls to the port and starboard got intensified by an impressive lightshow and about 9:30 pm ,halfway between Bimini and the mainland, the squalline crossed our path from east to west as far as we could see. Oh well , turning back wasn't an option at this point of the voyage , we had already celebrated our 99 miles to West End with a beer and so we soldiered on . The lightning around us was just horrendous , with lightningbolts glowing for a minute before letting go and we realized chances of getting fried are quite on, so we went through all the worst case scenarios , got the fire extinguishers into the lazaret - who wants to go into a burning boat to look for them ?? Went through our exit procedure in case we 'd have to leave the boat , our bags ( as in ditchbag ) were packed, we were ready to go and once there was nothing left to do we sat there and sang up some songs and kept in mind we've had a good life and all. At one point we had FIVE lightning bolts touch down next to us and I was almost craving the sour gummiworms we had stowed in the ditchbag . At around 12:30 pm we were about over of heading into the storm and since we were out in the open ocean ( Thank you Peter ) , we turned the boat away from the storm and just looking at the whole affair to the starboard made us feel so much better ,one of us actually got to put in some shuteye , and by 3:00 am the sky was a sea of stars and our bow-wake a sea of fluorescent plankton , hmmm , life was good again and the memory of shit in our pants faded away in the ecxtasy of pure cruising bliss. We reached West End at 9:30 am in the morning and hooted and hollered when I screamed "Land Ho " !!! I couldn't believe it , only 27 hours to West End , thanks to the powerful stream right outside my homeport - at my service !!!
And to quote some famous writer (???) (Sr. Oliver Wendell Holmes) :" To reach the port of heaven , we must sail sometimes with the wind , sometimes against it ... but we must sail, and not drift nor lie at anchor ."
Wow , what a ride !!!! It all glows in pure bliss of victory as I sit here in the Old Bahama Bay-Yacht Clubhouse sipping a Goombay Smash ...
Left Boot Key Harbor on Thursday afternoon to anchor "outside ", regroup and relax for a funride with the Gulfstream from Marathon to West End .I really appreciate Peter Barker , who sails this awesome australian raceboat Cole 42 "Bow Tie Lady 'around the world , for giving us a completely new view on the opportunity we have here . After years of listening to sailors scaring the hell out of me about the mighty stream ,he made me aware of the positive sides of this natural phenomena.If used with common sense -as in avoid any northern winds -this powerful stream will give you an extra 3 knots if you go with the flow .And what's the point of hugging the coast when you're surrounded by spualls that leave you blinded and with no space to evade them . After the breakdown on the Burdines fueldock it took quite some spirit and perserverence to get our act together and to realize the boat will never be perfect ,but we were ready to deal with all the extra challenges . So we had a great dinner and a generous amount of liquid courage only to find a broken fiddleblock on the mainsheet before we went to bed . I have to give cudoos to Bruce for a last minute swift kick in the butt to accept fate and just get the f... out of here and use our brains to deal with it and get sailing...
So at 6:30am we got underway , hit the Gulfstream and took "the elevator" along the Florida Coast . The wind blew a timid 3-4 knots , so our 7-9 knots in the stream created a pleasant breeze and we had an awesome relaxing day . As soon as it got dark the little squalls to the port and starboard got intensified by an impressive lightshow and about 9:30 pm ,halfway between Bimini and the mainland, the squalline crossed our path from east to west as far as we could see. Oh well , turning back wasn't an option at this point of the voyage , we had already celebrated our 99 miles to West End with a beer and so we soldiered on . The lightning around us was just horrendous , with lightningbolts glowing for a minute before letting go and we realized chances of getting fried are quite on, so we went through all the worst case scenarios , got the fire extinguishers into the lazaret - who wants to go into a burning boat to look for them ?? Went through our exit procedure in case we 'd have to leave the boat , our bags ( as in ditchbag ) were packed, we were ready to go and once there was nothing left to do we sat there and sang up some songs and kept in mind we've had a good life and all. At one point we had FIVE lightning bolts touch down next to us and I was almost craving the sour gummiworms we had stowed in the ditchbag . At around 12:30 pm we were about over of heading into the storm and since we were out in the open ocean ( Thank you Peter ) , we turned the boat away from the storm and just looking at the whole affair to the starboard made us feel so much better ,one of us actually got to put in some shuteye , and by 3:00 am the sky was a sea of stars and our bow-wake a sea of fluorescent plankton , hmmm , life was good again and the memory of shit in our pants faded away in the ecxtasy of pure cruising bliss. We reached West End at 9:30 am in the morning and hooted and hollered when I screamed "Land Ho " !!! I couldn't believe it , only 27 hours to West End , thanks to the powerful stream right outside my homeport - at my service !!!
And to quote some famous writer (???) (Sr. Oliver Wendell Holmes) :" To reach the port of heaven , we must sail sometimes with the wind , sometimes against it ... but we must sail, and not drift nor lie at anchor ."
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