NOAA predicts active 2013 Atlantic hurricane season


I'm scheduled to sail from Miami to Panama via Jamaica starting Monday. Why did hurricane season have to start on time?


fml

How long of a trip is that chopstick? Yea, it's certainly off to the kind of start to suggest the early predictions might be money. There is an invest (92L) brewing out there in the mid Atlantic might be concern, but for now it appears it will get sheared apart.

Hopefully smooth sailing for ya.

Depends on where we stop, which will depend on weather. Probably about 2-3 weeks. Port Antonio in Jamaica is the only definite stop at this point, though we are bringing courtesy flags for both Cuba and Haiti in addition to Jamaica and Panama. May end up getting a DR flag, too. The real decision will be whether to aim for San Andres, or something more easterly.

I'm keeping an eye on the 96 hour forecast and so far it doesn't look too bad.

Meh, you'll be fine on that trip. Looks to be an active year but it's still very early in the season and shouldn't effect your itinerary. That said - congratulations I just screwed you.

If you're planning to transit the canal pm me for some info.

de captain - how far ahead are you booked for things? like one of the trips you host/teach people what sailing is about? I think this is the year i'd like to learn, but not until winter, Jan/Feb kind of thing.

Not planning on taking it through the canal, just below latitude 12 to avoid the brunt of the hurricane season. I suppose there's no decent way to go the San Andres route without falling in the hole and then coming down the coast of Nicaragua.

Two other little bummers - minor oil leak (it's a rebuilt Yanmar on a 1979 Morgan 38) from somewhere near the oil pressure sensor & a leak somewhere in the fresh water tank that will result in either using an inside bladder or lots and lots of jerry jugs. Tank is custom and shaped to the hull.

Final destination will be more weather dependent than anything else. The owner just wants to get it somewhere south where he can bum around during the summer without worrying too much about hurricanes. The ABCs are also on the potential list, but Panama is the default for now.


Miss Nicaragua 2009:

i dont mind if chopstick keeps posting at all

YB,

Are you in school to be a weatherman or something? you seem very interested/in-the-know on a lot of weather related issues.

Fresh water tank - still cracked. Water Weld did not work. Cut open tank with dremel, going to throw a bladder inside. Fresh water would be good to have.

Engine oil pressure sensor - owner had to drive 3 hours north of Miami to pick it up. Not sure why he didn't just have it shipped to Miami. Hopefully easy to install and we don't need to bring a gajillion quarts of oil with us to deal with the leak.

Provisioning - everyone wanted to do all of the food two days ago. I said only non-cold, non-perishable stuff and since I was the one paying, that's all we got then. Now that we are a full day behind schedule, I think they are starting to understand it was good to wait on the cold & perishable stuff until the last minute. No reason to reduce the number of days that you have access to stuff like lettuce, avocados, etc.

Speaking of food - why is there no fruit hammock on this boat. I have a mesh laundry bag but that seems pretty meh. Apples need security.

Much better to safely pack the apples away as opposed to hammock. My brother is an apple nut and packs large #'s of apples for passage. He eats at least 2 per day on passage and I eat a few as well.

For the passage from Auckland to Seattle we packed 180-200 apples and ran out a day after arrival w/ no spoilage.

If you have a fridge/ freezer it's better to buy the cold non perishable stuff ahead of time so that the boat fridge can get stuff good and cold using shore power before you go.

Should have fixed the tank w/ high speed 5200 that **** will seal any leak. I've had issues w/ bladder tanks due to the movement of the fittings.

Eggs that haven't been refrigerated will last 2+ months no problem without any special care or refrigerating. Take lots of eggs.

ETA:
Any spare space in the fridge/freezer should be filled ahead of time with gallons or small bottles of water so that the boxes are completely full when you leave. Fill the boxes a couple of days ahead of time so everything gets cold and the water freezes.

Pretty much any bar or restaurant that you hang out in will let you bring in jugs of water to put in their walkin cooler over night so you can get them frozen solid ahead of time.

sounds like a nightmare but i'm envious of you

JM,

Kind of surprised sailing/ living aboard isn't your thing given your experience and time on the water. If you're trying to live cheap, have fun and bang chicks, living on a sailboat is pretty much the nuts.

believe me I've thought about it. sailing was never my strong suit but I learn fast. I love the freedom of the water, it runs in the family. my grandpa has circumnavigated in a 37' custom sailboat. maybe if I'm lucky I'll inherit it someday. I like regular showers too much though :/

I love solitude and I think there's really nothing better than being at sea in your own vessel.

edit:
the few people I know that live aboard don't make it sound very glamorous. They only stay in 1 harbor, but they are basically 1 or two steps above homeless. Not a lot of chick-banging going on for sure.

Yeah I agree on the showers but you have a couple of options. Most mid sized boats have them onboard but if you want to get started for cheap - you can buy something like a really cool Pearson, or couple of others, in 25'-28' size for a couple grand.

You can anchor out, get a mooring or live in the marina for pretty cheap and use the marinas showers. If you really like the water I honestly thin you'd be happier and have more adventures than living w/ a crazy landlord, your sister and that weird autistic dude.

Your hot gf will dig it.

Confirmed on all three points. Had two different attractive chicks ask me to take them with me today. Both were cashiers at places I was buying something who each asked where I was from & what I was doing. When I explained I was taking a sailboat south from Miami to somewhere in South America and we'd decide the final location after we made it to Jamaica via the Bahamas, you should have seen their eyes. Complete freedom and adventure while displaying supreme confidence are serious turn-ons for chicks. Or at least the idea of those things are. The reality tends to be scary for them.

Anyway, +1 on what de captain said.

Leaving in a few hours. Water tank "fixed" by cutting it open and installing a 150L bladder inside. Engine oil sensor fixed. Apples secured. Should have thought ahead to freeze the bottles of water but I'm an idiot. That's 3 times in a row I've forgotten to do that now.

More from Jamaica is there is decent wifi at Port Antonio. Will try to take photos of any sweet fish we catch, but my guess is I'll be the one bringing the fish in so no guarantees.

Writing this from a sailboat which is tied up in a slip at Turtle Cove Marina. That's on the north coast of Provodenciales, Turks & Caicos.

We sailed out of Miami, through the Bahamas (the water there is absurdly clear, you can see individual stones at over 30ft deep), and now the plan has changed, and instead of heading to Jamaica, we continued east to Turks & Caicos. The owner is now planning on stopping in the Dominican Republic and holing up there for the season instead of trying to make it to Panama. We'll relax in T&C for the next few days then take the boat down south to the DR.

Four crew on board, four different nationalities. Only one native English speaker but we all use English to communicate. Everyone is pretty close to fluent in English so that makes it easy, though we've had a few LOLmiscommunications including announcing a tack when the guy at the helm actually meant jibe. Also some superLOL moments with people getting frustrated and reverting to their native language using much higher volume in an effort to make themselves understood, then realizing no one else understand them.

About 730 nautical miles traveled since we left Miami 8 days ago. We sailed nonstop with the exception of anchoring off Mayaguana (SE island in the Bahamas) one evening. Most of the route has been ESE or SE, so close hauled for most of the way with some tacking. It's a lot easier to sail with the wind on your side than right on your nose. We've been doing a good job staying at or just under 45 degrees off the wind for a lot of the trip.

Here is a shot of how clear the Bahamas water is, somewhere near Rum Cay:



So far we caught a small tuna using a yellow/green squid lure, immediately ate much of it raw, made tuna steaks out of the rest for dinner a few hours later, and used the scraps for bait. That tuna bait resulted in catching a barracuda, which we used solely for bait. That barracuda bait resulted in catching a shark, which we ate. You can see us lassoing the shark below.

The tuna. He is minus his tail for a quick bleed because we were hoping to immediately land another as we were right over a baitball. Only ended up with him, though. Normally would just bleed from the blood lines on each side. I made that cut later anyway, you can see it as a vertical cut right behind the pectoral fin on his side.



He was enough for some immediate sashimi and four small steaks. If you haven't had sashimi from a tuna that was swimming around in the ocean 10 minutes earlier, I recommend it. I have a photo of the filleted carcass on another crew member's phone, I'll post it when we eventually exchange photos. De captain, you will be proud of me. I got every last bit of meat.

Here's the the head of the barracuda. Chopped off the head because we put the line right back out after we landed him with some of his guts and a shark hit it within a few minutes, while I was still deciding what to do with the barracuda meat. He was about three feet long.



The shark gave a good fight, but eventually we brought him in. In order to bring him in the boat, we made a little lasso and lassoed him around the tail so we could bring him on tail-first. Less sharp parts on that end.



He was a little over four feet long I'd guess. Cut off the fin and hung it from the bow as an offering to Neptune. Same thing with the tail of the tuna. I cut out his entire jaw and dried it on the deck in order to get as many teeth as possible, but the seas got rough at one point and they weren't well secured, so over the side they went. Bummer. I did manage to dry out a little skin for some sweet shark rawhide. If you aren't familiar with shark skin, it's smooth if you rub it in one direction and like sandpaper if you rub it in the other. Pretty cool stuff. Nothing interesting in his stomach to report.

Here we are after pulling into T&C. Not sure why the owner wanted to come into the slip bow first, but whatever.



And the obligatory sunset shot, somewhere in the Bahamas:



So we'll chill in the T&Cs for a week or so, then on to the Dominican Republic.

After we get to the DR, I'll probably hang out a few days and then fly back to the mainland at the end of June or start of July. I've got a wedding to be at in Denver in mid July, so I decided to fly to Florida, buy a car, and drive it from Key West up to Prudhoe Bay in Alaska. These are the southernmost and northernmost driveable parts of the USA. Barrow is further north than Prudhoe Bay, but there are no paved roads there. Have always wanted to do this drive and now is the perfect time of year for it.

I'll stop off for the wedding along the way. After I do that road trip and knock off SD/ND/ID, I'll be down to only 1 unvisited state - Hawaii. I'll sell the car in Alaska and either fly back to St Thomas then, or fly out to Hawaii to complete Achievement: All 50 States Visited, before flying back to St Thomas and continuing the sailing education.

I think my travel route will mostly look like due north from Florida up to D.C. to visit family. From there, NNW up to the Dakotas, then a straight shot to Colorado, and then to the Al-Can highway after making it to Idaho. I'm in the wedding party so I kind of have to show up for it. Other than that I'm just going to drive wherever I feel like on the way north.

I'll keep taking photos and reporting back if you guys are interested. I guess the LC thread is the best place for this stuff?


Living my dreams instead of just sitting around dreaming them is incredible, I'm ridiculously happy with my life right now. I highly recommend it.

More details later, got some reefs to snorkel.

loving it chopstick. would be nice to see in a thread for ease of access in the future. but you can always put that together at a later time too.

so jelly.

I like this. You could turn this into a t-shirt business.

Chop,
Nice report keep it up

I forgot to say sweet TR Chop. Its hard not to be jealous when you see that clear blue water. Reading the sailing around the world thread in its entirety is now a top priority for me.

Hey guys, thanks for the compliments. Glad you are enjoying the trip reports. Today involved walking along the north side of Provo for some snorkeling of the reef. Later on there was a fish fry about two kilometers away from the marina, so we walked down there for some live music and fried fish. This was one of the roads we walked past:



The other crew have never played poker so they didn't understand why I thought this was funny and took a photo of it. I didn't try to explain.

Here's one of the crew taking a break from snorkeling. The dark patches in the water are the reef:



There was pretty much no one on the beach for about half a kilometer in either direction. The water was a little choppy but there were lots of fish.

They are setting up for a "battle of the bands" in the marina parking lot. That's on Saturday night, and the stage is being set up spitting distance from the boat, so we'll have front row seats. Should be pretty sweet.

Still need to figure out what kind of car to buy once I fly back to Florida. I'll only own it for about 6 weeks. Probably a 4-Runner or a Rav4. Both should have good resale value in Fairbanks/Anchorage. It's mostly a tradeoff decision between good gas mileage vs rugged enough to handle the Al-Can and the 240 mile stretch from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay, much of which is unpaved.

Trying to figure out the best route as well. I'll be in Key West probably the 1st or 2nd of July. Need to be in Denver July 11-13. Want to hit Atlanta and D.C. prior to Denver to visit friends & family. Also would like to fit in a trip to Madison, WI but not sure I'll have time to do that and make it to Denver by the 11th without driving crazy hours. Would prefer to not drive more than 4-6 hours a day if I can avoid it.

Once I make it past the wedding, I can go as slow as I want. I think I'll save the SD/ND until after Denver, and just hit them after the wedding, then head west to check ID off the list, then up to Canada after that.

Looks like about 7,200 miles on Google Maps, thanks mostly to the SD/ND/ID detours.

I should probably just drive straight to Denver from Key West and visit the family in DC at another time. That may end up being what happens depending on how long it takes me to buy a car in/near Miami. Key West to Denver directly saves me about 800 miles, or two days of driving. Probably easier to get there on time with two extra days. The schedule with including DC is pretty tight.

subscribed - go chopstick.

wow, so cool. I dont think i could handle being on a boat for that long but im still envious of the lifestyle.

What's the background here? Kind of sounded like a delivery, but now it sounds like recreational? Either way, looking forward to it. Love sailboat/sailing porn.