The Path Southeast (with New Friends)

Our next challenge was to sail 400 miles southeast (into the wind the whole way) from the relatively populous Exuma Islands to the nether regions of The Bahamas and on to the Dominican Republic. We departed George Town around 8:30 am, winding our way around some shallow reefs with a wary eye to the reefs between Fowl and Guana Cays.

About one month earlier a brand new Lagoon 45 catamaran (expensive) was following the recommended route on Navionics chart and ran hard aground on a reef between the islands. Despite efforts of cruisers in the George Town area the cat was a total loss. We all depend on these charts and guidebooks, but it brought home the point that all of us are just a few minutes away from losing our boats if we make the wrong decision when transiting reef-strewn areas (essentially the entire Bahamas).
We took the deeper channel south of the wreck site and began a long 26-mile close reach southeast to Calabash Bay on Long Island. The weather gods had predicted a weeklong weather window of somewhat moderate winds all the way to the Dominican Republic so I was surprised to see only a couple other boats departing Elizabeth Harbor. Over thirty boats had attended Tassie Dave's Heading South seminar a couple of days earlier and I had expected to see a flotilla of boats leaving during the brief weather window.

We had met the young crew of an Antares 44i catamaran called Field Trip at the Tassie Dave meeting the day before and discovered we were both leaving on the same day and agreed to contact each other once underway. Thus is the beginning of what is known as a "buddy boat" relationship. Just like a real relationship, you first have a coffee date to see if you have anything in common and then go from there. This first leg was our "coffee date." We called each other a couple of times during the day to see how things were going. The sail to Calabash Bay was relatively easy, but we were tired once we arrived so we just checked in with Field Trip on the VHF to see what time they would be leaving in the morning. Calabash Bay is an open roadstead-type of anchorage with the potential of a rolling swell in a northerly wind. Luckily we had relatively light wind and got a good night's sleep.

We left Calabash at 9:30 am on March 20th for the 35-mile sail to Rum Cay. As usual we had the wind on our nose and motor sailed the entire way to Port Nelson at Rum Cay. At Rum Cay you enter through some breaks in the reef, always a challenge with our 6 ft. draft in the shallow waters. There is a marina there that got hit hard by Hurricane Sandy and was offering free mooring, but once we looked at the run down docks we opted to anchor out. We got a quick coat of varnish on the starboard rail (coat #6) then got a call from Field Trip with an invitation to go snorkeling on the reef off Sumner Point. Their friends had said the snorkeling was fantastic, but it was over 30 ft. deep on the outside of the reef and with the waves rolling in, it was a little rough for us.

The crew of Field Trip:  Sara, Mark, Michael, and Elizabeth.

Field Trip invited us over for a drink and we had an opportunity to meet Sara and Mark from Castle Rock, Colorado (near Denver) and their two delightful children, Michael age 5 and Elizabeth age 8. Elizabeth is the apple of her father's eye and snorkels right alongside her dad. She inherited her mother's beautiful eyes and sparkling personality. Michael, with a mop of sun-bleached blonde hair, has an impish personality that is endearing. Sara, a licensed elementary teacher, is home schooling the kids each day (now you understand the name of the boat, Field Trip). She has the looks and carriage of a super model, coupled with an engaging personality and broad smile that puts people at ease and makes friends. As a family they have decided to take a mid-career break and sail around the world. Sounds reasonable to me. What an opportunity to explore new cultures, lands, and experiences with your children. I so wish we would have done this with Christa and Brad at the same age.

The beautiful Antares 44i, Field Trip.

Mark, a former tech consultant, supervised the construction of their Antares 44i in Argentina. I could write a whole post about this incredible boat, but we'll save that for later. Let's just say it falls in the "dream boat" category. Mark sailed the boat up the coast of South America to the Caribbean where he met Sara and the kids and continued the trip up the US coast to Maine for the summer, then back down to The Bahamas where we ran into them. Mark and Sara epitomize qualities of the perfect buddy boat, knowledgeable, kind, generous, and forgiving of our frequent delays for equipment issues. As an uber-techie (yes, I've met my match) he has satellite Internet on the boat and can download weather forecasts for each leg of our trip. He's even been so kind to email me copies of the weather routing and routes generated by his MaxSea software (the same system we use on Flying Cloud).

We are so grateful to have met them and to be able to cruise various portions of our trip south with them. Again, I could write an entire post on how generous they have been to us, but most important has bee the opportunity to be around the magic of young children that reminds us of our children and grandchildren. Thanks so much, Mark and Sara, for letting us tag along.