Sail on Sail Pending

I had this all written and ready to post via the IridiumGo, but saw I was picking up service from the Morton Salt Company on the island!! So, I get to post normally with better quality pictures. 

Turks and Caicos 🇹🇨 to Cuba 🇨🇺 
2 days down, 2 to go!! 

Day 1: We woke up to an empty marina. All of the boats who were stuck there waiting out the weather went their separate ways. Our first leg was only a few hours, so we had a relaxing breakfast and left late morning. We had a beautiful sail to West Caicos and picked up a mooring ball in the late afternoon.
 
Day 2: We woke up at 3:00am and departed in the pitch black darkness; there was not a star to been seen or even the slightest glow from the moon. It’s almost like being in a cave and your eyes play tricks on you when it’s that dark. The only light we could see was a faint glow on the horizon, from Provo which was over 30 miles away.  

Our sail today is to Great Inagua Island, Bahamas, about 85 miles or 14 hours away. We left before 4am, so we would get there while there is still enough light to anchor. 

The forecast was for 15-20 knot winds and 1.5 meter (4.5 feet) waves, decreasing to 1.2 meters (4 feet) through out the day.

The day started out as originally forecast, but as the sun came up the winds and swells picked up. There was a beautiful red sunrise and I even said, “Red in the Morning, Sailors warning!!”

Around 5:30am the winds and seas increased, we encountered continuous 25+ knot gusty winds and seas over 3 meters (9 feet), for most of the day. There were probably even a couple 11+ foot waves. It was also raining on and off with the occasional storm thrown in just to keep us on our toes. 

We had all 3 reefs in our main sail and the jib reefed as much as possible, but we were still gliding along at more than 6 knots. 
It was a sporty ride, but not uncomfortable because we had following seas. I managed to bake cookies for the guys and even cooked Tyler’s favorite lunch, steak burritos. 

We caught a small Yellowfin Tuna shortly before we anchored, so  I guess it will be fresh sashimi for dinner!! 

Even better I don’t have cook!!! Just filet and eat. Yum!

But, I do have to admit, it is very nice to be safely anchored for the night at Great Inagua Island, Bahamas. We’ll get some rest before sailing through the Windward Passage, between Haiti and Cuba tomorrow. 

This is just a quick overnight stop to rest a few hours before moving on, so we put the Yellow Quarantine Flag up and won’t check into the Bahama’s, this time….

Tomorrow will be our longest leg. We will wake up at 3:00am again to depart by 4:00am for a 180 mile, ~ 30 hour sail to our final destination, Santiago de Cuba!!! 

The forecast for tomorrow is for the winds to be 15-20 knots in the morning decreasing throughout our sail to almost no winds by Sunday night when we turn West along Cuba’s Southern Coast. 

The seas are forecast to start around 1.3 meters (4 feet) in the morning and then decreasing to less than 1/2 a meter (1-2 feet) by the time we turn West on Sunday night. 

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To follow along on our journey subscribe to our YouTube channel:
www.YouTube.com/user/SailonSailPending

All videos from Cuba will be uploaded as soon as we have access to wifi. 

Comments? Questions? 

While we are in Cuba please contact us at: Sail.SailPending@gmail.com

We will not be able to respond to any questions or comments on Facebook, our Blog, or YouTube. 

We have spent a little over 10 weeks exploring the Dominican Republic…. and when I say exploring I mean visiting the small towns, renting not only cars but also motorcycles and 4-wheelers to get around as the locals do…

I mean purchasing food from the local markets and fresh home-made cheese hanging from someone’s roof… 

We purchased Fried Pork Rines that were fried in a big kettle and then cooled on a wooden table in the street.

We loved the homemade sweet gooey coconut cream stuff. Was spred out across a big wooden board and tasted exactly like the icing on a German Chocoate Cake!! 

I mean we celebrated Carnaval and the Dominican Republic’s Independance Day….

I mean spending several days walking around the Capital City of Santo Domingo and not just in the touristy Colonial zone but also along Calle Duarte where you can purchase anything and get anything repaired. 

I mean we explored their healthcare system because Tyler had surgery to get a wart removed 

and we also visited the dentist to get our teeth cleaned. 
I mean Tyler attended school here. Here he is trying on his school uniform. Here is his video about the school.

 
We didn’t come to the Dominican Republic for the resorts or beaches, we came to interact with the people of this amazing country. We originally planned on spending 4 weeks here, but the more we explored the longer we wanted to stay. 

But, we have to keep moving if we want to be out of the Hurricane Box before July 1st. So, we’ve moved into the Turks and Caicos islands for our daughter to visit at Easter and for us to have a better wind angle for the Windward Passage between Haiti and Cuba!!
Here is a video about our last day in the DR
Thanks for following along on our journey!! 

We kept Sail Pending in a marina while we rented a car and drove to Santo Domingo a few times.

The first time was to see our daughter Kaycie, who flew in for a quick weekend visit. We toured the city and enjoyed the Sunday live music concert. 

The second time was for Tyler to get a wart removed from his finger. Here is our Facebook post about our first experience with healthcare outside of the US.

 Click here!!

The marina was one of the nicest and least expensive marinas that we have ever stayed in. We stayed here for 17 days and our average price per day, which included everything including water, electric, trash, and several loads of laundry was $32.45 USD. We also had use of the entire 4 star resort. 
There were 5 pools!!! Here are the pictures: 

These are 3 infinity pools. The top Pool flows into the lower pool. 

and, they had 2 for 1 Mojito’s from 4pm -6pm, by the pool everyday!!!

Sail Pending was comfortably tucked into a concrete dock and it was easy to get in and off the boat. We will definitely put this marina on our places to return to. 🙂 

We made a video about the marina: Click here to watch!!

There are two different ways to get to the town of Samana from the marina. 

1.) Getting the marina to give you a ride to the gate and hitch-hiking to town. Click here to watch the hitch-hiking video.

2.) Taking a 2-3 mile Dinghy Ride. Click Here for the Dinghy ride video.

Check out our pictures on Instagram: Click here!!

We moved from Puerto Bahia Marina into the Samana Anchoarge so it was easier to go to Carnaval and to wait out some nasty weather. 

For a video about the anchorage and Carnaval: Click here !!

From this anchorage it was easier for us to explore the inland part of the Samana Peninsula. We rented 4-wheelers and drove to El Valle, on the Northern Coast of the Samana Peninsula. 

Here is Tyler’s video about the day we rented 4-wheelers: Click here!!

 

Here are a few pictures from the beach on the Northern Coast.

El Valle was a vast dark brown sand beach and without any signs of tourist!! Just a couple empty beach bars lined the beach. 

It was a great day of exploring!!