The new adventure has begun! We left “Now or Never!” on a mooring ball at Coconut Grove Sailing Club. We met our friend Al at the airport. He had quite a long layover so, of course, we had to take him to “El Atlacatl” in Little Havana to sample the Mariscada. Then we all boarded a plane and headed to Sint Maarten where we provisioned “Second Wind.” Soon, we were on our way to Puerto Rico. The sailing was great! (see below for “what she said”) We turned off the engine as soon as we left the lagoon. The wind was from the NE at 12-15 knots and we were headed straight West. We set the sails and hardly touched them for the next 20 hours—woo-hoo! 6 knots! 7 knots! Even 8 knots! We were cooking in 6 foot seas (what she said below) We set the whisker pole to sail wing and wing as we came to the southern shore of Puerto Rico. By now, we had a following sea with 8 foot waves and an occasional 10 footer. There is nothing quite like looking aft to see a wall of water towering over the transom.
Our arrival at Ponce provided the only real excitement of the 30 hour trip. Since the jib was poled out certain precautions needed to be observed when furling the sail. Even so, the sail got pinched in the jaws of the whisker pole and we had a problem getting the sail rolled up. We started the engine and discovered that we had no steering gear. Yikes! We dug out the emergency tiller and with some difficulty, we were able to pilot the boat into the anchorage where we dropped the hook and rewarded ourselves with a ‘ti punch (basically rum, lime wedge and a bit of sugar).
“What she said” Great sailing my eye! Sure 6, 7, 8 knots. That didn’t change the fact that the boat was bobbing up and down on every 6 foot wave that passed! I spent the next 24 hours curled up in a fetal position in the V-berth.