Long Island at last!

Seven or eight hundred miles of water have passed under the keel since Ponce, Puerto Rico. We anchored at Boqueron to stage for crossing the dreaded Mona Passage. Fortunately it did not live up to its reputation and we again experienced an uneventful crossing. However, on our third night out, still off the north coast of Hispaniola, things deteriorated rather rapidly. Peter was on watch while everyone else slept. He was stretched out on the helmsman’s seat reading by flashlight while Otto steered the boat under full sail. Suddenly Otto jumped out of gear and the boat careened off course. The boat crashed through the waves and became a slave to the wind. Peter’s cursing awakened Al. It was apparent that we needed to shorten  

sail. Thankfully the reefing lines for the mainsail are led back to the cockpit and it was a relatively simple matter to take a reef there. The line for furling the jib is also led back to the cockpit, but it was jammed! This required a trip to the bow with the waves tossing and turning the boat. Al finally worked up the nerve to crawl forward to fix the problem and we could finally reef the jib and the ride became more comfortable and the boat was easier to handle. Claudia slept through the entire episode.
 The rocking and rolling in the anchorage at Matthewtown, Great Iguana, Bahamas were a welcome respite from the 25-30 knot winds of the night before and after 3 nights underway a dip in the clear turquoise water was refreshing. After a good night’s sleep we were again underway. Hand steering this time since Otto was apparently on strike for better working conditions. The next morning brought us back to Clarencetown, Long Island, Bahamas where we first stepped on board Second Wind five years ago. Ironically, Long Island was our original destination when we set out from Brunswick back in December!