svindulgence.com Blog

We arrived home last night at 12:30 AM. The cat got excited as he recognized the familar smell of home (Ocean and spruce with a hint of woodsmoke). I think he realized that his year on the boat is comming to an end.

The passage from Bermuda was bit rough at times (15 to 20 foot seas in the Gulfstream with 30 knots on the nose). For most of the trip we 20/25 knots on the nose, so it was alot of pounding with boat on its side. The boat held up well with some minor damage (wear and tear stuff).

We arrived at 6AM this morning in Bermuda after a 10 day, 1150 mile trip from Nassau (we took the long way). We had calm winds after the first two days, so it was mostly a motoring trip. The trick was how to get to Bermuda when you don’t have enough fuel. Turns out we found a nice current that gave us a boost and enabled us to make it.

There were a lot of Dolphins and a few whales. We stopped every day for a swim. The only significant event happened on Friday night while motoring towards Bermuda; the prop snagged a drifting fishing line, disabling the engine. Paul and I had to dive on the prop, in the dark with 4 to 5 feet seas. We were successful getting untangled and continued on through the night.

Well….here is the end of our time in the tropics. Lorri and the kids are packing for their flight to Georgia and I am getting the boat ready for an off-shore trip to Bermuda. As you can imagine, things are bit crazy. The contrasts with our last 5 days in the Exumas at Allen key….very relaxing (except for the Lion Fish….my final total is 65 confirmed dead).

While I’ll miss the Bahamas, I am looking forward to getting back home to the states and resuming my life. We are planning on leaving Thursday early. Unfortunately, we’ll have to head out the Western side due to the strong ENE winds in the Bahamas. It will be a bit bumpy for the first couple of days…then the winds will die as we head North and East. The next problem will be fuel.

I will posting position reports via shiptrak.org. To find me, you will need to enter my HAM call sign (KB1LIQ). If needed, I can also be post some messages via 14300.net. You will need to go to the website and click on the “Net Watch database”…when that page opens, click on search database link at the top of the page and enter my HAM callsign KB1LIQ…it should show any messages (e.g. “we are drifting in the Atlantic….had to put the cat overboard” or “we are out of beer” or “a whale attacked the boat and ate the cat”).

We have really been enjoying the Bahamas. I have killed 55 lion fish to date with one assist from a reef shark, one assist from a moray eel, and one assist from a nurse shark. It has really been fun swimming the sharks…though when they start getting frenzied, the fun ends and it is time to move on. Now you may be wondering what do we do these lion fish? We we eat them! We have had lion fish sushi, lion fish ceviche, and lion fish tacos. I think Lorri and the kids are getting sick of lion fish.

We just got back from the Berry Islands where we spent 6 very pleasant days. We came into Nassau for a quick stop before heading to the Exumas for one last visit before Lorri and the kids depart for Georgia and the crew flies in.

I will posting directions on how you can track our progess, as well be making position reports via shiptrak.org.

We are still in Georgetown. We’ll be staying through the opening day of the regatta….a very big deal here in the Bahamas. We have been cruising with another Kid boat from Maine called Stary Night and some experienced Bahamas cruisers on a 58′ Krogen, Far Reaches.

Georgetown is a pretty unique place, centered around cruising sailors. There are lots of actiivies and good beaches. Jasper and I have been playing Vollyball and perhaps I’ll try out Yoga tomorrow. The only downside is the long and wet dingy ride back to the boat anchored across the harbor(hence the lack of postings). We’ll be heading up the Exuma chain starting on Friday.

We have spent the last week and half cruising the out islands of the Bahamas. Needless to say, it has been very remote, often with no one around. We have had our share of empty beaches, great snorkeling. If it weren’t for the fact that we have run out of almost everything, we’d still be out there. We’ll be here for a bit….more later.

We had a great passage with some great sailing. We were joined by two other boats (Starbound and Naia). Some of the highlights include a swim in 6500 ft of water in the middle of the ocean, a swim in 10 feet of water in the middle of the Caicos Bank, and catching a big fish that got away.

We are enjoying Culebra…the water is clear, the sun is hot, and the fishing is great. We managed to catch some Lobsters and kill a Lion fish. I even managed to get some surfing in.

We have managed to hook with a lot of kid boats (Begonia from Evanston, Naia from Washington, Starbound from Maine).

We’ll be moving to the Turks and Caicos Tomorrow. This should take us 3 or 4 days. We’ll be traveling with two other kid boats, Naia and Starbound. Once we hit the T&C’s, it should be just day sails up the Bahama chain.

We have had a great stay in St. Martin. We moved from the lagoon to the Fort St. Louis Marina to be closer to our friends from Starbound.

Because we have some good cruising friends here (Bonzai 1 and Starbound), we have been quite busy (hence the lack of blogs). Our social life has been quite busy with dinners, evenings out, excursions, etc. We also met up with a bunch of other Maine boats (some were South going Zax and others were North going going Zax….I guess that Maine going Zaxs are the best kind of Zaxs so it doesn’t matter what kind of Zax you are, as long as you are from Maine)

Starbound arranged for a group of us to sail on the wooden schooner Charlotte built by Nate Benjamin from Vineyard Haven. We had a great sail and really enjoyed sailing around St. Martin. Nate was here to pick up some close friends that had chartered the Schooner the following day.

It turns out that a close family friend, Tanya Bokat, her husband David and daughter Eva were part of the group that was chartering Charlotte. Tanya was walking the dock when she noticed Indulgence and said hello. We were able to sit for while and share some old stories and talk about our families.

Our dad’s were the best of friends…sadly Dr. Bokat died this time last year and my dad died a week or so later on April 1st. I think that they had something to do with this chance meeting.

We are planning on heading North on Wednesday with an overnight sail to St. John. It will tough saying good bye to our friends, but other adventures still await us.

We had an uneventful sail from Barbuda to St. Martin. We have been quite busy re-connecting with friends and boat projects. As we mentioned in previous blogs, we really enjoy St. Martin. We’ll be here for a while waiting for a weather window to for an overnight sail to the USVI.