Finally we found the time to update our blog… This post is a mixture of posts written during the last month.
06.08.2018
I am sitting in a tight seat trying to write some concluding remarks about our sailing project.
Amos is sitting next to me watching cartoons on the little screen in front of him. We are flying back to Boston where Nomad waits us tied to a small mooring ball in the bay of Continue reading
Email sent via SSB after the crossing from the Bahamas to the States on May 21st.
Hello!
We had a fast and pretty agitated crossing with plenty of wind and sometimes big waves. Like always with the gulf stream we were stressed as to how the sea will behave once we crossed its way but this time the stream was very gentle with us and the big seas of just an hour ago became moderate even though the wind got much stronger – gusting to 28 knots apparent, so about 36 knots true. But early this
When we arrived at Great Sale Cay in the Abacos the plan was to stay 2-3 nights, get some rest from the previous crossing, enjoy the warm crystal clear waters of the Bahamas and keep on sailing north towards the USA as soon as the next weather window opens. Already after the first night we started having doubts about this plan. Why rush? We want to be back in Switzerland at the earliest around mid July. It was end of April still plenty of time to visit and enjoy the Abacos.
A couple of hours after putting down the anchor we went with our dinghy for a little exploration of the surrounding bay. We did not even put our dinghy engine on but rowed instead. Aiming at a little ruin of what seem to have been a stone dock. On the way we
These are emails we sent via SSB during the crossing from Isla Mujeres, Mexico to Great Sale Cay in the Abacos, Bahamas.
Sailing north
Mon, Apr 23, 2018 at 7:27 PM
After spending almost a month on Isla Mujeres it was time for some inland explorations. We put Nomad in a small marina, rented a little car and together with Con El Viento we went traveling around Yucatan for eight days. We visited the old Mayan cities of Tulum, Coba and famous Chichen Itza, we spent a couple of days in the colonial town of Valladolid and discovered another hidden treasure of Yucatan – the Cenotes.
We read horror stories about the Mexican checking-in process in general and on Isla Mujeres in particular. We were told that we will be lucky if we will make it in two days, for some it took five. And on Monday it is carnival in Isla Mujeres and people told us all the offices will surely be closed. With all that said we decided to use the help of an agent from a nearby marina but he refused to help us claiming the law changed last week and he cannot represent us. We think that he is simply not
We were a little stressed before we left Cabo San Antonio, the westernmost point of Cuba. The distance to Isla Mujeres in Mexico is a little over 100 miles so not even 24 hours of sailing. But it’s the Gulf Stream crossing that makes this passage a bit more stressful. It was our third crossing of the biggest river in the world – our first time was almost two years ago when we sailed from Bermuda north to Maine and the second time on our way to the Bahamas 6 months later. Between Yucatan and
Nueva Gerona, the capital and main settlement of Cuba’s biggest island – Isla de la Juventud, sits a couple of miles inland on the north side of the island. A river, Las Casas, allows the city an access to the sea and provides it a natural harbour right in the middle of the town. That’s where the boat that will bring Louis, Alnorto and Noel back home will arrive. Foreign vessels are not allowed in this harbour and so we had to go around the south coast of the island and anchor in front of Marina Siguanea on the
Imagine a tropical island, a couple of coconut trees, crystal clear water in shades of blue you did not even know existed, underwater lobsters, fish, sharks, rays and turtles in abundance, on the island giant iguanas sunbathing in the sun, two or three crocodiles hiding in a mangrove pond, jutias (a small mammal) running around, vultures, herons, pelicans and ospreys fly overhead of dozens of little monkeys and in between all these three men living in a small wooden hut. They fish, they hunt and they survive out of what nature gives them. You could think that
After a night sail from Casilda we dropped the anchor outside of Cayo Largo – a small island where no Cuban permanently lives on the islands. The island was developed by the government as a tourist resort with hotels, restaurants, bars, cigars shop, turtles farm and a yacht charter base. You cannot be further from authentic Cuban than Cayo Largo. In the evening we could watch the semi-wild crocodile that lives in the mangroves around the marina. Semi-wild because every