What a day. I got to talk a person!!!! Which instanteniously became a good friend of mine. His boat Acrtorous is headed to GA, or at least N of 30deg N for insurance purposes. Nobody could hear Chris Parker with any clearity, but luckily I got a grib chart off of HF radio email, and I am finally seeing now whats happening to the wind! I got 3 gif files with my region. Arrows point in the direction of the wind. Feathers on arrows indicate wind strength. Im in the middle of a region of colliding arrows with half feather or no feathers. Means stalling cold front, killed the trades, as a result no wind for few days. I am exactly at the half-way point between Salinas, PR and West Palm, FL. The encouraging news is that gif files for 48h and 72h window have arrows pointing from E-SE with 1 and a half feathers on them. That means in 2 - 3 days I'll have 15kts out of E-SE. Really 3 days????? What am I gonna do till then? So if this holds, the trades will set on monday. The question remains, will I make it in by Saturday for Willis(the marina dockmaster, which later turned out to be an idiot) to assign me a slip? I have 500NM to go. I can motor for about 27 hours. I can motor right now, but what if there's no wind on monday? There is also a weak cold front arriving to FL on thursday which will also likely kill the trades. Sometimes its better to be dumb and lucky then smart and unlucky.
I made a decision. I will leave the engine for thursday/friday time-frame, and I will run it now for about two hours per night, just to keep batteries happy, and fridge running. Last night was tough, I was in the middle of shipping lanes with tankers passing by often. Its the entrance to windward passage so there's Haiti, DR, bahamas, Cuba and Guantanamo bay there, so of course there's gonna be heavy shipping there. I am just hoping that whomever is standing watch on these gigantic metal monster cans, can actually pick me up on a radar. Chances are they are probably sleeping. In the meantime, I raised my retro-reflector as high as I could and hoped for the best.
I did manage to sleep for about two hours last night. In the morning there were more tankers, but by mid day, I was out of the danger area, and I haven't seen one the rest of the day.
Its early evening, and the spirits are high once again, the wind veered by some miracle, and is now giving me a lift, instead of coming straight abaft. I was now on a broad reach doing 3-4kts and seas are completely flat. Sleeping in these conditions feels better then a rocking cradle. I wonder how Vlad would sleep in such conditions?We'll find out soon!!!
Another amazing thing I did this evening, is to have a barbeque with two burgers, and some roasted green peppers. It had to be the most amazing feeling, smoking barbeque with burgers, smooth glide, broad reach on a mirror-like water, and a 360deg view of the horizon with not a cloud in sight!!! I pulled out the cockpit table and had a feast! This is life. I was sooo tempted to open a frosty medalla, but had to content myself with cold coke. tired, sleep deprived, and with so much at hand, I didn't dare drinking a beer. But I am looking forward to tonight, I am out of the shipping lanes, seas are flat, and if this light breeze persists, it would be like I got myself a luxury sweet on a cruise ship, accept without all the old-farts and anoying plugged-in people. I still have plenty of water and I might treat myslef to a fresh water shower tonight!!!
So the big decision to make is weather to cut over the grand bahama banks, or take the old bahama channel(OBC). Arctourus is taking OBC since its 1-2kts of current, but its quite a bit longer and its deeper water, there's traffic, and the seas are probably lumpy. The good thing is that you jump into the gulf stream earlier. I have added new waypoints into the gps to keep me outside of OBC shipping lanes, in case I decide to take the OBC. My ultimate decision will depend on the grib charts i receive on tuesday. I will go whichever way has more wind. As I am so drained by the calms of last few days.

No wind, feeling miserable....

Somewhere north of Haiti

Last night treated me to a beautiful display of lightning that spread north of the North coast of DR. I got caught in it but these were the scattered peaces of the island storms, that had no convective forces, so what ended up happening, is that night lee set in, and I ended up sailing on port tack in light S winds, and smooth seas, and lightning above me. Its 5pm and its windy again. E-NE at 10kts...back to last night. So for a while i had S winds and strange lightning above me that I couldn't hear, and only saw as cloud illumination all around me. The air due South cleared and I could see the lights of Puerto Plata. Also I could smell the warm humid DR mountain air, typical of heavy land masses. Then in front of me the most amazing moonset took place. At first, I thought it was a tanker, I could later make out, a very bright lemon-slice shaped object with unbelievable illumination. Perhaps its the rain that clears the air and makes stellar objects appear even brighter then they normally would. I enjoyed every second of it, as it vanished behind the dark horizon. So a few hours later, the wind picked up out of the east. Sailed the rest of the night in easterlies 20kts+ under triple reefed main and wisker a pole, supporting partly furled genoa. Strangely enough the winds died by 6Am and I ended up motoring :(.
Then today no wind again! I am beginning to have doubts in SE N Atlantic Forecast. It was supposed to be 10-15 E-SE, and I had 2-3 kts out of the east. I am pretty much a sitting duck.
Its amazing how demoralized you get when theres no wind and youre just sitting there, floating away. I spit in the water, just off the bow, and watch the spit slowly move aft. In fact I walk back to the stern and wait for it to pass by. I don't even wanna estimate the boat speed, much less look at the gps, gosh!!!
Kept thinking I need to take the time to myself and stop warrying about the wind. Read a book, make the boat shine again, do something that will make you feel better. Seems to me there's a pattern. The last two days I had moderate-light trades by late afternoon and overnight. North of Hispanyola that was interrupted by the lee of the island. But today, there's no thunderstorm nor proximity to land so I hope this wind is here to stay.

Amazing, by the third night in a row, Im gonna be treated by a beautiful display of lightning fireworks, courtesy of the island of Hispanyola. Tall mountains, and thick vegetation contributes to a lot of land heating during the day, and then in the evening all that evaporating moisture culminates into thunderous storms that roll off the mountains and spread over nearby waters. Its only 6pm, and I can already see some impressive envil clouds. To the north, on the other hand, there's low lying Caicos bank and Murchois bank, and there just few fair weather puffy clouds. Meanwhile, looking due S, its getting nasty. Luckily, my track leads towards the sunset which is still very pretty, with just a few accompanying fair weather clouds. If that is any indication, then I should have a squall-free evening, and a good entertainment to the south just 10-15NM away.
The swelling on my index finger turned out to be a tinny peace of rusty wirebrush, so small that I could barely see it under the naked eye. I tried pulling it out, but it was buried pretty deep and the swelling was still pretty substantial around the very tip.

Connected to DELONA, and then trinidad. Updated position reports. Index finger swelling is all but gone. That was a close call, but I'm not gonna worry about it anymore. Everything is going good. After being 18 months anchored in a swamp, sundowner is doing great. Thank you my old lady, take me back home!!! I dont wanna jinks it. And so I did, another engine mishap. Everyday, something new is problematic with the engine, but I seem to have just enough energy to fix it and not end up another story on Discovery Channel - Storm Stories haha. It's been smooth sailing so who needs that damn thing anyway. And with the forecast as it stands, there's no reason not to go all the way. Im actually starting to like the voyaging life again, especially with no engine. As long as the wind is with you. I have not touched the helm in over 30 hours. Yeah my autopilots! Shes been on autopilot ever since Cabo Rojo, some 170NM away. Strange cloud formations are all around in the distance. Above me is clear skies. To the south, I can barely see the mountains of Hispanyola with mean stormy weather to the south of me. So far, I've lucked out. No squalls or high winds or lightning near by. I have setup Mahi rig, and am fishing as of today. That infection made me miserable, but Im back. Im sailing naked too!!!

Day 2

Connected to Kn6KB melborne FL, updated coordinates. Hard to write with the swelling on my index finger. Feel like I'm coming down with the fever. Sent an emal to Iva to read up on the symptoms.
Ate good, still have an appetite. Battery situation is good. Napped all day, will try to rest more. Nothing in site all day accept for the two east bound sailboats, Mona is quiet!!!! Fridge is working awesome, to my surprise!!! (pat on the back)

South Coast of PR

On the way, doing 6kts. Trades are moderate so monitor the windvane is doing a great job. Managed to connect to Melborne FL at 14megs. Updated position report. Swelling on my index finger is still bad. Cant really move it or use it.

Ready for this?

Salinas, PR

Tough night sleeping on the boat in this heat and humidity. The boat is a mess again. The bottom is covered in barnicles. I hope the proshaft will be ok. Last time I tried turnin git, it was stuck. Erick will clean the bottom for me for $60. Thats a releif.