At Sea

Well, we gathered all the information we could regarding “weather”.  We’re crossing our fingers as we pull anchor and set sail.  Already the winds are blowing about double what they’re forecasted but we’re hoping it’s just the effects of the land, funneling the winds directly at us.

By 7am, we are underway.  We listened to the Caicos weather at 7:30 and it confirmed this should be a beautiful day for crossing the banks.  Once we were away from land and well on our way across the expanse of waters that form the Caicos Banks, the winds calmed.  It was a pleasant crossing.  We reached the edge of the banks (where the deep waters of the Turks Channel meet the shallows of the banks) by about 3:30. 

We’d been trawling a line with no success but as we sailed through the deepening waters and into the Turks Channel, the fishing line began peeling off the reel.  Larry caught himself about a 4 foot barracuda.  After retrieving his hook, he set him free.  Within minutes, the line whizzed again.  Damn another barracuda!  Then minutes later, a third barracuda.  All of these fish had given Larry quite a fight and having to reel in three within maybe 20 minutes, Larry was exhausted.  He removed the line from the water and rehydrated.  No fish for dinner tonight.  (hey, honey, don’t forget I also caught a Bar Jack and added it to the freezer with the rest of the tuna! – Larry)

We were about ½ hour into our 4 hour trip across the channel when we decided, hey, its great conditions, let’s head straight for Luperon.  We changed course and headed south.  The seas were amazingly calm considering the force of water that had to flow through the channel and Larry got the latest weather and it should be good sailing all the way.  I may be sending this update sooner than I thought.  We should reach the Dominican Republic by early morning.

Soooo … plans are never set when you’re out on the open seas.  We’ll do what mother nature decides.  We don’t argue with Mother!  Our goal was to reach Luperon.  If the seas were too rough, we would fall off and head slightly westerly further up the coast.  However, the seas were awesome.  So, we modified our route to have our landfall by further east and picked the port of Puerto Plata.  It is about an hour or so longer sail but with the conditions this calm, it is worth it!