Underway..

We hope that most of you have been reading the Cat india Facebook posts for the last three months while we have been refitting the vessel and preparing for our great adventure to the Southern Seas.  The FB Page is mostly David’s baby although SOMEONE had to set up the photo ops!  David does those FB posts so well; pertinent and charming, still enchanted with the yacht and the lifestyle as opposed to what I might write as the jaded salty sea bitch that I have been accused of being!  Not to mention the fact that the last ninety days have been a grueling onslaught of repairs and upgrades to the boat, scheduling dilemmas, four 800-mile drives to Charleston and back and one trip to the U.K., and long, very long hours.  We didn’t want to bore everyone with the day to day details that make yachting so un-fun and spoil the glamour of our adventure for you and let’s be honest, for ourselves.  We also needed the encouragement of the rare moments we were able to enjoy the boat and share them with you guys to keep up our momentum and motivation.  I will also have to add, Buying a Sailing Catamaran, to my list of divorce provoking activities that already includes, Designing and Building a Very Big Deck, and a Six-month Trek to India.  But finally, we have threaded the needle in the first part of our project and are happily immersed in Part II – Getting South!

Speaking of schedule; we have resolved to a schedule change.  Our plans to complete the refit in sixty days and be on our way to Panama for an end of March transit was not only ambitious but impossible.  Every project took longer than expected and we encountered some unexpected repairs, so why not take advantage of an extra thirty days in Florida to get all the parts and supplies and specialized advice we needed in the convenience of the USA?  The other truth is that although I consider myself a competent sailor and extremely experienced mariner, these cruising Catamarans are unfamiliar to me and the last time I handled a big sailing yacht was in the early 90’s.  David and I immediately recognized that we could use some more time getting comfortable and familiar with our new boat, not only for safety but because we want to enjoy this experience and this part of it cannot and should not be rushed.  So why not do a shakedown in my old cruising grounds of the Caribbean?  Local knowledge will be to our advantage while we can still get the last of our projects accomplished within range of overnight shipping, good chandlers and more readily available internet!  I am excited to explore some new places with David and see what has become of my Caribbean these last twenty years.  At the moment, we are cruising the Abacos in the Bahamas.  I haven’t been here since my brother and I sailed with our dad on his 49’ Sloop when we were kids!  It brings back such incredible memories of how I fell in love with the ocean and sailing in the first place.  I am so thankful to have this opportunity to see the islands I love and once called home again, especially in this way.  To my SXM people – soon come!

So, our NEW plan is less of a plan than a general direction.  South through the Bahamas on what we can do in a day until we work out a few more glitches and then continuing on to Turks and Caicos, Dominican Republic, maybe a stop in Puerto Rico if we need it and some leisure time in the BVIs.  We will spend some time with friends in St. Maarten/St. Martin, of course, and then get down to 12 degrees of North Latitude for Hurricane Season.  We still intend to do our Panama Transit and will position ourselves for that in the beginning of next year but until then our schedule is FLUID!

I can’t express how glorious it is to be underway now.  David and I are already nude and tanned, catching fish and cracking coconuts, and my baby has just baked his first bread boules on our india!  Did I mention that our yacht is definitely female?  I have made the acquaintance of vessels of many types in my years at sea and not all boats are females but I think the best ones are.  We just assumed our catamaran was feminine, I think, because she is so pretty, a little dainty even, to my mind.  But this one is whimsical, fucking stubborn, and wildly unpredictable yet promises great rewards.  As I said, exciting as any woman should be!