January 18
Wow! So much happy emotions this morning when I woke up and saw Puerto Rico South West coast a mile away, Faro Los Morrillos proudly perched on top of a sunlit escarpment. A welcome sight!
From Turks and Caicos, this 3-day-non-stop sail was our longest challenge so far. We had chosen our weather window to arrive at San Juan, Puerto Rico in 3 days and 6 hours. This forecast predicted winds from our stern on Day 1 to 30 degrees of our bow on Day 3, no stronger than 20 knots; swells on our portside and waves following the winds.
Losing our Iridium GO, we took our latest forecast from the internet an hour before departure. We left South Bank Marina on Caicos at 6h45 Sunday morning.
Day 1: It took us the whole day to cross Caicos Banks to the Turks Islands. 10-knot winds to our stern allowed us to raise the sails (including the spinnaker - the big balloon up front) and save some fuel. We looked goood! As soon as we left the banks and the ocean was thousands of feet deep, the swells accompanied us all the way. We motorsailed during the night to keep our speed to a minimum of 5 knots.
Looking at swells, and waves on top of them, the constant movement of water is like looking at the flames of a campfire, mersmerizing. I now understand reading about peaks and valleys of the ocean. The 2-3 metre swells we had came every 8-9 seconds. I was seeing them coming, a valley of water between them and Komeekha, building in height, blocking my view of miles. Then, gently passing under our boat, lifting us to a 15-mile view of more swells. Wow! What a feeling! At the beginning, it took my breath away. After an hour of this, it's business as usual, yet still fascinating.
Day 2: When we passed by the Turks Islands the night before, it was our last view of land and civilization. Our next glimpse of land will be a dim shimmer of light on the horizon towards Punta Cana after sunset 2 days later. Now it's just water everywhere.
We were able to raise our sails again for most of the day, averaging speed at 5-6 knots. The sea was the same as the previous afternoon. We started to see a few dolphins and lots of flying fish. When I see flying fish, it reminds me of the novel "The Life of Pi" in which the little boy is overwhelmed by flying fish jumping in his little boat.
We had to keep vigilant to spot floating sargassum seaweed. This seaweed floats in a line or in closters as large as 6 feet. It can easily clog the propeller and put too much pressure on the engine. A few times, Frank had to put the gears alternately on forward, neutral, reverse to remove the seaweed. Thankfully, this maneuver worked.
As the sun set, the winds picked up. The wave action was changing the wind direction on the sail, making the sail flapped, some times violently. Before we had time to reef the mainsail, two sliders broke. Sliders are the sail attachments to the mast. By this time, it is pitch black and Komeekha is bucking like in a rodeo. There's no way, either of us are leaving the cockpit to go on deck for repair. Too dangerous. After Frank double-reefed the mainsail from the cockpit, our little problem was solved until the morning.
Day 3: The winds are a bit stronger with a forecast of increasing to 20 knots. The forecasted 30 degree wind angle is too close to the bow (the front). The swells were staying on our portside but the waves were changing with the wind to our bow. If we stay the course, we won't progress very quickly (3-4 knots max); and it would be a very uncomfortable sail. So we made the decision of veering South, sailing between Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic, following the south coast of Puerto Rico, ending up either at Bahia de Guanica or Ponce. Oh by the way, on the map, it shows the ocean in certain spots on our route is 12,000 to 23,000 feet deep! Yikes!
As soon as we changed our bearing for this new itinerary, Komeekha just flew. It was as if she decided this was her time to have some fun. Our speed increased during the day from 5 to 8 knots, on sails only. It was bouncy but oh yes so fun! By midnight, winds and waves had decreased and changed direction; we started the engine for the rest of the way.
When I woke up this morning, Komeekha had just turned the South West corner of Puerto Rico. We're now on Atlantic Time, one hour ahead of Quebec/Ontario. We had another happy surprise when Frank realized we could start using our cellular service just like at home. What a relief to finally be able to freely communicate with all of you at any time.
As I write, we are still navigating the South shore to Ponce. We should arrive early afternoon. We need to clear Customs and then we celebrate! Well ... we kind of started to celebrate this morning with breakfast burritos (leftover rice/bean salad, eggs and cheese wrapped in tortillas) and Irish Cream coffees. LOL!
