Sailing the ocean blue...for real

Hmmm…where to begin! Seriously…where to begin. Last I left you we were in Georgetown waiting for weather to leave for the DR. Little did we know that instead of waiting for 3 days like we had intended we would end up being there for 3 weeks waiting for the crazy weather to subside. Our plan was to provision the boat and pick up some last minute items and head out asap. We listened to the weather guru (Chris Parker) everyday on our SSB radio hoping and waiting for good news to head south. Everyday Chris would come on and chuckle as he said “anybody heading south…it’s not looking good.” Everyday…we had fingers, toes, arms and legs crossed in hopes the wind would change…and everyday the forecast was the same “25 knots gusting 30 out of the NE-E with chance of squalls”.
No hope for little Megs to get our of Georgetown…so we made the best of it. We were fortunate enough to meet some very special and great people while we were stuck in Georgetown (aka: hotel Georgetown…you can check out but you can never leave).
One day while checking my email in the little shack known as the internet café, I met two young fellers from Canada, Eben and Jordan aboard Laboris. Instantly we clicked and so an everlasting friendship began with 2 23 year old boys from the west coast of Canada who soon became like my little brothers. (To hear their story…which is hilarious, check out www.jordanandeben.blogspot.com)..Eben and Jordan were hoping to make the DR by April 1st, but with the weather being so horrible for heading south they had to unfortunately end their adventure in Georgetown where they hauled Laboris and we celebrated their adventure with a bonfire on the beach for their last night on the water. We also met a single handing Aussie (Michael) who had just purchased a 47’Catamaran who soon became like our father (or older brother!!!!) who hosted our dinners and drinks pretty well every night. Add Tashmoo, Cat Lady and Wee Beastie into the mix and we have an extended family with whom we spent many interesting and entertaining nights together.
We also met a great couple Neil and Stephanie aboard Rhapsody who were so kind and lovely to us and we enjoyed meeting them so much. I never actually told Neil this….but he really resembled the lead singer from the Beegees during the filming of staying alive. Now Neil…if you’re reading this…I would take it as a huge compliment…and never cut your hair.
During one of the interesting and entertaining evenings, while eating a spectacular dinner aboard Sommerset Cat, knowing there was a chance of squalls, Mike perked up and said “Something isn’t right…I’m going back to Meggie”. Before I could even stand up the dinghy was gone and Mike was back at Meggie, only about 100 yards in front of us. A couple of the guests aboard Sommerset Cat told us we were paranoid and everything would be fine, but Mike’s instincts are good and I didn’t doubt him going back to check. I proceeded to tell them that piece of mind is much better than wondering if everything was alright and that Mike would close the hatches and probably be back in 15 minutes. I poked my head around the side of the Cat and to my surprise the wind nearly blew my over. I turned to Michael (from Sommerset) and said “This is serious…we need to turn on the radio”. As soon as we did, the radio came to life with terrified shouting, angry voices and paranoid screams. We soon heard “Cat Lady is dragging and no one is on the boat and they’re moving backwards at 6 knots” meanwhile Cat Lady is sitting right beside me on Sommerset Cat. Eben dinghied Mike (from Cat Lady) back to his boat and they were able to save Cat Lady and the other boats in the line of fire. Meanwhile I am frantically trying to get a hold of Mike on Meggie to make sure everything is ok and ifind out f we were dragging or if someone was dragging around us. Finally Mike came on the radio and put my mind at ease that everything was ok…..
I finally got back to Meggie once everything calmed down a bit and Mike told me that the previous cold front of 42 knots was like a walk in the park compared to what just happened. He said Meggie’s rail was in the water about 8 times and we later found out that someone had clocked the winds at 59 knots!!!!!!!!! SCARY! BUT…Meggie held like a champ and we were ok. The anchorage was crazy with people dragging everywhere and we were a little unsettled for the rest of night, but Mike was most upset that he left half a plate of food and half a glass of rum unfinished aboard Sommerset Cat.
So we just enjoyed playing volleyball, beaches, rum and great people, but it was seriously time to go…big time! FINALLY…we got good news from Chris that the weather was going to calm down…and he promised. So we waited about 3 more days for the sea to subside to about 6 feet instead of 12 feet (YIKES) and we finally left hotel Georgetown…(also aka: Chicken harbour as people are notorious for heading back north instead of their intended route south). We pulled up anchor on Monday morning, April 2 at about 6:30am along with Tashmoo and another singlehander we met named Joe from Seneca. However Joe isn’t alone, as his first mate is his black lab, Leah. So we all headed out to the unknown in hopes we would make Luperon, Dominican Republic.
We first headed to Conception Island about 50 miles from our anchorage and although it was a long slog out the cut to the ocean we started out on a close reach but unfortunately we couldn’t hold our rum line (the line from point A to B) and we ended up having a brutal current against us, so at 4:30 with 10 miles to go we bailed out as we knew we wouldn’t make landfall before dark. So we headed the 12.5 miles to Calabash Bay on Long Island and once we turned the boat around we went from barely 3 knots to 7.3 knots…so we made the anchorage no problem and enjoyed a comfortable and relaxing evening. The next day we pulled anchor and had an awesome close reach sail to Conception. With the rail in the water almost the whole way (which is unusual for Meggie) we averaged about 6 knots to Conception and were able to enjoy one of the most beautiful islands in the Bahamas.
We went snorkelling and spear fishing with some friends and Mike and the boys were yet again scared away by another shark.
We were on a roll, so the next morning at 6:30 we had the anchor up again and were off to Rum Cay a short 20 miles away. Meanwhile, because we had turned around to Calabash Bay, Tashmoo and Seneca and another boat were a day ahead of us. We heard that night that Tashmoo had some problems and during their rough slog of a sail to Rum they had to dive into the ocean in huge waves and discovered their centerboard hanging loose and had to cut it from the boat. So all of a sudden their trip to the DR became a trip back to Florida. Needless to say they and we were totally bummed, but they made the right choice and they’ll be back out before we know it. Seneca, continued on to Mayaguana or so we thought.
So we had a lovely sail to Rum that day and arrived at the waypoint at around 10am. The conditions were good and the seas were calm so we thought….lets keep going. Our next stop was Mayaguana some 125 miles from Rum, 150 miles from Conception. So we just kept going. We had a beautiful 1st night under a bright beautiful moon and sky full of stars. The next morning we were closing in on our target, but unfortunately were going slower than we had hoped so once we reached Mayaguana it was 8:00 pm the second night and we didn’t want to land in the dark so we decided to keep going…next stop 60 miles away, landing in Turks and Caicos! During our second day, we saw groups of pilot whales and were fortunate enough to see a sperm whale who was only about 40 yards from Meggie. It was sooooo excited yet a bit scary as I thought it might think Meggie was a whale and try and mate, but that didn’t happen! We also saw huge dolphins thumping Meggie's belly, but they're harmless....we think!!As we continued to Turks and Caicos and the sun set on the horizon the waves became a little lumpier and the wind became a little stronger. Before we knew it we had 20 knots on the nose and the waves were building to 6-8 feet with the odd 10 footer just to keep us on our toes. We had 30 miles to go, but our guides say to arrive in the Turks in morning to approach the banks and at the rate we were going we weren’t going to make it. We had to sail way off our rum line and we were struggling to make 3 knots…not good. Should we bail and go back to Mayaguana a short 25 miles back the way we had come? What to do??? We were getting hit with squalls and we couldn’t battle the wind on the nose anymore and we were absolutely exhausted!!! All of a sudden at 4:30 in the morning the radio came to life and were heard “Braveheart this is L’Attitude”. L’ATTITUDE…..OH MY GOD…..(We met L’Attitude back in the Chesapeake if you don’t remember…we had Thankgiving with them and enjoyed crab night). Holy @#%*!!!! We were soooo excited we hailed them and sure enough there was Doug on the other end and they were heading from Peurto Rico to Mayaguana. Our minds were made we tuned back. Before turning though…we put 2 reefs in the main, dropped the storm sail and mizzen sail and flew at 7 knots back to Mayaguana. We pulled into the most uncomfortable anchorage but we didn’t care as we were soooooo tired and soooooo excited to see L’Attitude, we slept and then had easter dinner at the L’Attitude bar and grill…very suiting.
The next day we planned to head out around 6 pm to Turks and Caicos as the seas had settled and we would arrive the next morning as we had to fuel up. I listened to the forecast and we had the perfect window to head straight Luperon…some 185 miles away. BUT…we needed some fuel. The closest place to get fuel was the Turks….what to do???? On the radio we get to the other boats in the anchorage and we were able to scrounge 10 gallons…enough to make the trip to Luperon. Anchor up by noon out the reef surrounded anchorage and off to Luperon!

We had a uneventful motor sail the rest of the day and all night across the Caicos passage and pretty soon the sun was rising to unveil another beautiful day. We motor sailed for part of the day and soon the wind was picking up and off with the motor and we had a great beam reach for about 8 hours. Unfortunately as the day came to and end the wind began to clock around onto our nose and we were forced to turn Stg. Major (our engine) on again and buck into the waves…but we only had 45 miles to go!!! We had an uncomfortable next 5 hours and of course it was my watch…which sucked but we got though it and with 30 miles to go I could smell something in the air. I had read that you can smell the DR well before you see it, and I instantly called Mike out and told him to sniff. No question….we smelled the most fantastic smell… earth. There is no other way to describe it. It was the smell of lush earth, 30 miles away. With 15 miles to go (on Mike’s watch) we entered into the lee of the island so the waves and the wind died down and we cruised along at an easy 4.5 knots the rest of the way and by sunrise we had the most spectacular sight in front of us. Mike woke me up with a big smile on his face and told me to get into the cockpit. As I came out of the cabin into the cockpit I turned around and saw mountains. Mountains as far as the eye could see. After the Bahamas the mountains were a welcome sight. We carried on into the tricky harbour and as we entered we marvelled at the lushness of the trees, the blow holes that lay to our left and the sound of a kazillion birds singing. Suddenly we weren’t tired anymore and we had huge smiles on our faces and as we entered the rest of the harbour we were greeted by familiar faces like Grace, Allouette and Seneca. We were on a high and absolutely thrilled to be out of the Bahamas and entering a new beautiful lush fantastic country. Mike turned to me at one point and said “There is a fine line between cruising and sailing and for the last week we were sailors”.
I sit here now in the small tiki bar at the yacht club overlooking the harbour as Meggie sits in calm safe water. After covering over 450 nautical miles in exactly one week, she deserves a good rest in a safe harbour. We sit with presidente beer in our hands and watch the sun set into the mountains and can’t believe we’re here. We’re soooo happy. Another freaky crazy thing that happened…..The morning after we arrived we heard “Meggie….Meggie….Meggie” at about 8 am…I poked my head out the hatch and to my disbelief and surprise it was Kim and David aboard Amanzi. I know…your thinking who’s that. We bought Meggie from David and Kim almost 5 years ago and here we meet again in Luperon of all places. Needless to say we had lunch, drinks and then more drinks catching up and getting info from them about the different islands they’ve been to and discussing the work we’ve done on Megs. Pretty weird.
The people in Luperon are fantastic. We really feel like we’re a long way from home, but we’re so excited to keep going.
Seeing and being in these places makes all the downs we experience so worth it. We are now waiting to hear if Mike’s dad and step mom will visit and have plans to rent motorbikes and explore the mountains and coast as well as visit Santo Domingo and Santiago. Lots to do…lots to see.
So…I apologize for such a LONG blog, but lots has happened and I want to share it all with you. So until next time….
Hasta Lleugo
Kylie
Ps….Eben, Jord, Cindy and John: We wish you were here with us, but we know we’ll see you along the way somewhere, someday!