700 miles upwind

They say "gentlemen don't sail to weather". Well, for a little more than a week, I was certainly not a gentleman. We left Pestel on the 18 and sailed, motored, motor sailed around the south peninsular of Haiti to reach Cap Tiburon but did not find wind and had to wait until Vaca Island to start sailing. In the meantime, we got tossed around quite violently by choppy seas and no wind. Then we sailed for a little while roughly until Jacmel. The wind died again and we started motoring. Not for long. The motor died with all fuel lines clogged with thick and large particles of algaes.
Brother Flaco came to the rescue and cleaned up everything real well which gave us time to reach Cabo Rojo (close to the border between Haiti and Dominican Republic) where the wind came back and we started tacking, hoping to reach Punta Salinas.
But Dr Murphy was still with us, and we soon got caught in a fishing net, which 6 foot seas and 20 knots of wind, and we were drifting at around 2 knots, towards the shore, of course. We managed to fish the lines, which I thought were caught in the rudder, as it happened off Port Elizabeth in South Africa, using the dinghy anchor. Eventually we freed ourselves and resumes tacking, practically all the way to Boca Chica which we reached on the 22nd shortly before noon.
It was time to recover, clean again the Racor filter, clear the line from the propeller (not the rudder), have a nice dinner and a few beers, and we left Boca Chica on the 24th morning, thinking that we were sailing towards San Juan.
But again, we kept beating into the wind, and after several exchanges of email with Bill Butler in San Juan, we decided to call into Ponce first, and then, hearing that there were no space available due to the boat show in Ponce, we called into Puerto Real on the 26, happy to have a shorter distance to cover, and happy to get into a very well sheltered bay. But before getting there, we still had to satisfy Dr Murphy one more time by having the genoa halyard break. Fortunately, we had a spare halyard in place and we could quickly get the genoa back up.

Return to Pestel

I was not planning to stop in Pestel on my way to Porto Rico, as I had nothing to bring to the place and I did not want to create false expectations. However, the meeting with the President changed everything and I felt obligated to be the one to announce there that I had committed myself to help with organizing the Festival of the Sea in March 2013.

This was a very emotional and intense return to a place where I had left a big chunk of my heart back in the 90's.

It started with my first fan in Pestel, Drivelhomme who had travelled from Roseaux, where he works, to meet me in Grand Goave and sail with us to Pestel.

Arriving in Pestel was i

ncredible, with groups of folks dancing and chanting my name.

I anchored the boat in the lagoon, and after receiving aboard my closest friends, madame Jacques, Antonie Antoine, Antilhomme, Castrat, Claudel and many others, we went to visit the village and meet with the local priest and seek his support for the Festival of the sea.

The day ended with a fantastic dinner at madame Jacques, with plenty of local food (Riz Dion Dion, Lobster, Conch, fried plantains, etc . . . ) and entertainment provided by our brother Piper, known by o

thers as Scott Rogers.

Upon leaving, we did a very quick detour to see what was left of the little marina that I had built there (Libertalia), just to confirm that everything would have to be rebuilt.

But there is first

a lot of work to be done to prepare for the festival to make sure that the village is once again ready to welcome visitors from Port au Prince and provide accomodation, food, drinks and entertainment.

Presidential day

During the day on 14th, I was told that the President Martelly wished me to pay him a visit. And on the 15th, my good friend Mireille Lherisson picked me up at Max's place and we drove to Port au Prince. Mireille is very active running several projects in favour of the country and was hoping to make a presentation of her project to improve water quality and eradicate cholera in the country.

Late on the 15th, we had an appointment at 7 p.m., but it turned out that the obligations of the President led him to postpone the meeting up to 9 a.m. the next morning.

I spent a nice evening with Mireille and her business partner Ingenieur Guy Francois in a Petionville restaurant and I stayed for the night to be on site for the meeting.

At 9 on the 16th, we were at the president's residence. We were swiftly let in, and after a brief conversation with the first lady, the President joined us and immediately started talking about the Festival of the Sea in Pestel that I used to organize in the late 80's. The President would like me to do it again and I promised that I would do my best to have it running in March 2013. We also talked of several nautical projects that could do good for the country without having to spend a lot of money in infrastructures (create an environment more conducive to attract pleasure boats to visit Haiti, use water taxis in Port au Prince to alleviate congested road traffic, study the possibility to set up a coastal freighting system with boats that Haitian sailors can afford and run).

This meeting is likely to make me change significantly my personal planning for the coming months, if not years. However, if I could within my possibilities and abilities, bring a little bit to help in the reconstruction of Haiti, I would certainly never regret it.

Destination Haiti

visit to Grand Goave and Pestel - 007, a photo by brisegalets on Flickr.

After taking fuel in Staniel Cay and anchoring for the night in Little Farmer Cay, we sailed on, with another night at anchor 30 miles before exiting the bank, to finally drop the hook in Haiti in front of a small village in "La petite Gonave".

This was a first encounter for Country Boy and Karen with kindness, dignity, great poverty, all those things that make Haiti what it is. We spent the night there before sailing on to Grand Goave where Max was waiting for us.

That day, we were supposed to have lunch at "Chez Christian" with the crews of the three french sailboats that had made it to Grand Goave. In fact, lunch started around 5 p.m. and we came back to the boat well into the night.

Next day, it was a kind of tourist trip to Port au Prince, in a bus supplied by my friend Lionel Pressoir, that took us through Port au Prince and Petionville. We had a wonderful lunch and a good taste of haitian cuisine before returning to the boats. Later that day, the three Haitian brothers present in the country at the time, plus the four of us, american brothers, we conducted a ceremony to invite Max into our community of sailors under the name "Moun ak grand ke" (the man with a big heart). This was followed by a wonderful dinner buffet and good entertainment in wich Piper and Country Boy participated.

This was to me of great significance as I had tried to achieve this for the last 10 years, and I am convinced that the brothers of Haiti will greatly benefit from this injection of new blood.

Under Way

Under Way

At first, I thought that we were going to have a less comfortable
crossing of the Gulf Stream than I anticipated. The seas were as choppy
as usual but at around 6 feet and the wind was from the NNE at 20 knots.
This anyway only lasted for 4 hours, after which we had to hoist the
Yanmar sail and motor all the way up to North Rock which we reached at
6:00 a.m.
We then motored, or motor sailed to NW channel that we passed at 16:00,
then on to Clifton Pier to enter the bank at around midnight.
My plan was to continue up to Samson Cay and top up the fuel tank. But
there was no fuel there and we went to Staniel cay and refuelled at
14:00. Having still 3 hours of daylight, we continued to Little Farmer
Cay and anchored there in front of the south west beach. This was the
first time that I tried the new anchor riding sail but there was not
enough wind for this test to be conclusive. Anyway, as it was, it worked
beautifully and Papy Jovial never made a move towards the anchor.
Once anchored, we had a nice dinner of Mahi Mahi and penne pasta, cooked
by Karen. After dinner, I played on the TV the documentary made by
Jacques Yves Cousteau in 1985, titled "Waters of sorrow", knowing that
there will be even more causes for sorrow in the Haiti that we will find
in less than a week.

Final dash

Not only I had to be in Fort Lauderdale in time for my flight to France on November 2nd, but also the ontime reputation of Papy Jovial was at stake. From Saint Augustine, it was a direct shot to Port Canaveral, basically with no wind and the Yanmar sail up all the way. Got there in time though, in fact arriving at the fuel dock at 6 in the morning. Tied up and went for a nap.
At that point, I was beginning to fight a cold, coming out of nowhere, maybe related to this other cold front threatening for the rest of the way.
I decided to stay inside as there was no way we could make Fort Pierce before the front would hit. From Port Canaveral we made Vero Beach, not a bad place, with good facilities at the municipal marina and a very nice restaurant nearby, underneath the highway bridge.
Then the weather held up until we got to Blowing Rocks marina (do not try that one, sailboats are not welcome) just as the wind picked up. I had to get into a slip with a strong side wind, strong side current and a million dollar boat next to us that I would certainly not like to hit.
Unpleasant night, in choppy waters, although we are in the Hobe sound with no fetch. Next morning, at first, it looked like we were not going to be able to leave the slip without falling onto the boat next door. Around 10:00, the wind shifted enough so that I could escape and we made a run for the gazillion bridges left until we would get to Fort Lauderdale. That day, we made it all the way to Delray Beach, leaving us with only 26 miles to get to Cooley's Landing.
We left Delray Beach at 8:30 and arrived in Fort Lauderdale (very busy with the boat show and the humongus super yachts lined up under Las Olas bridge) Cooley's Landing at 2 p.m.
Mission accomplished. And my cold is slowly giving up.
Brother John has kindly offered me the use of his dock and I will move the boat there on Tuesday before flying to Paris. Karen is flying to the Bahamas to visit with friends before going North and enjoying the cold weather up there.

Playing tourists in San Augustine

We left Barefoot Landing around 7h30 with a little less than 300 miles to make it to Saint Augustine. Up to Georgetown, uneventful motoring through the Golf heaven that is Myrtle Beach. Going out through the Georgetown, I though I could turn south before the last marker and hit a submersible jetty that goes parallel to the channel all the way to the end. No damage, but a big scare and a reminder that no matter your experience, you are never totally protected against stupid mistakes. Sobering and humbling reminder.
Then we went on with our two nights crossing to Saint Augustine, a first for Karen. She did very well, just got a little quizzy at the end with the constant rolling caused by following seas. Nothing serious.
We got to Saint Augustine in time for the 8h30 opening of the Bridge of Lions, which allowed us a full day of playing tourists, including a horse drawn carriage tour, a Sangria in a tavern which uses local wine for the preparation and a nice pasta dinner in an Italian Trattoria recently opened.
I had rented a car late afternoon for one day so that we could do the provisioning today. We then visited the fort Castillo de San Marcos, something that I had never done although I have visited Saint Augustine several times.
Tonight will be quiet dinner on the boat, with a Halibut Chowder prepared by Karen. I intend to leave mid morning tomorrow to get to Cape Canaveral on the outside and arrive there early morning on Thursday. There is some strong wind forecast for Saturday and Sunday and I will adjust my plans accordingly. But I will get to Fort Lauderdale on October 31 late afternoon.