Back in Long Island

After a week or so in the Jimentos, we are back in Long Island, but on the east side this time (Clarence town). We had a harrowing off shore crossing that started off very nice, but ended poorly. We are safe and the boat is fine, but it was scary from around 2-8 am. The winds stayed around 20kts the whole night. While we were going east in W to NW winds the cruise was wonderful. We then turned the corner around Long Island and beat into 6 ft wavess around midnight. Now we are tired and have only 20 miles to go, but we need to make sure we enter the harbor during daylight. David thinks motor sailing would be a good idea. The motor dies around 12:30am, fuel filter clogged….again. We only have one more filter by the way. So David and I tag team, I get the tools set up, he does the dirty work, so we can limit the time below decks. The waves are killing us. Sam is sleeping through all of this. We get it done, motor works, David nor I puke. We continue with squalls hitting us every once and a while. During my driving time around 4:30, I decide to tack, without waking David. Let’s just say my judgement wasn’t very good. Luckily I didn’t break much. As the sun rises we are feeling a little more relaxed even with our hour sleep. David pukes after he turns on the motor. We make it to the somewhat difficult harbor entrance and the motor dies…wow. We get Sam up and get lines tied to cleats. When within a hundred yards of the marina entrance, David turns on the motor, I drop/sort the main sail, Sam monitors the fuel pressure, then I throw the lines to the dock master (thank goodness he was there) and we arrive with style.

Here is a video I took of the nice part of the passage. David threw his hat into the cabin and claimed that it went all the way into the forward head. Sam disagreed. The name “Parker” is said a lot as a family joke. Enjoy. ok it will take me a while to figure this out.

One of the reasons for this bold maneuver of this passage with cold fronts bearing down on us was that David was out of Pringles. I think we are going to rename the boat “more pringles”. The Jimentos although beautiful, had very limited provisions in only one island at the southern tip of the chain. This was the first time in the Bahamas we couldn’t just go to the store if we ran out of something. It was what I imagined the trip would be like from the beginning. We learned a lot. We were truly roughing it. We also were running out of fresh water. So we bit the bullet and made the 22 hour crossing for Pringles and water. We are fat and happy now. We are staying at the Flying fish marina, having hot showers every day, using unlimited electricity and have reprovisioned thoroughly. There are more cold fronts coming so we are staying here for a few more days, oh darn.