Back in the USA!

Sunset, St. Mary's River, Fernandina Beach, FL

We have spent the last few nights at a marina in Fernandina Beach, Florida, waiting for Tropical Storm Debby to move offshore.  Despite the few days of relentless rain and wind, it's great to be back in the United States.  The last few weeks, after crossing our track in the Bahamas, we've made our way north and west, through the Exumas and then to Eleuthera, just east of Nassau.  Despite the natural beauty of the Bahamas, with their hundreds of square miles of shallow, sandy bottom waters, it was hard not to feel a sense of growing urgency to get ile de Grace back home, and to begin the next parts of our lives.

Waterspout, Georgetown, Exuma, Bahamas

It's a case of the horse smelling the barn, this desire to just be home, with family, friends and colleagues after 30 months away.  Nonetheless, we were able to get some lovely sailing in, shared a sunset cigar with friends, managed to avoid a nearby waterspout, dove some nice reefs, and tasted the power of tradewinds on the oceans, as we rode a strong Gulf Stream current up the coast of Florida to this small town on the Florida-Georgia border.  We also had a few rough patches as Debby's reach extended across Florida and hit us with 40 knot winds, but all went well, and the squalls reminded us that any voyage of consequence entails some bumps along the way.

Jennifer diving, Eleuthera, Bahamas

While Debby's center lingered in the Gulf, her reach extended to the Atlantic

But the day has come:  we leave in a few hours to round Cape Hatteras and turn up the Chesapeake, hoping to arrive before the 4th of July, which we hope to celebrate on our National Mall.  This final passage carries a special aura of hope around it, with this morning's news of the Supreme Court's decision upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.  Thirty months ago, unemployed, we left worried about how we would obtain health insurance; we managed to get an individual policy at a very expensive rate with one company, after having been turned down by several others.  It's a relief to know that the days of being denied insurance appear to be behind us, and we are happy to be returning home to a country where, like virtually every other country we visited, everyone will soon have ready access to reasonably priced health insurance.

It's good to be back in the USA!

Boys night out on the harbor; James, Ben and Jon in Georgetown, Bahamas

Mark the Log: The Deed is Done

At 0230 local time, on June 11,2012, ile de Grace crossed her outbound track and we completed our voyage around the world, rounding Cape Santa Maria, on the tip of Long Island, Exumas, in the Bahamas.  A few hours later, we dropped the anchor off the town of Georgetown, Exuma, returning to the harbor we left several years ago, on February 3, 2010.  It’s been quite a trip, but we have another 1100 miles to sail to return to our home waters of Annapolis, Maryland.

We’ve had guests on board for the last few weeks or so, and our days have been filled with fun and frolic, catching up, playing games, snorkeling, preparing meals, and managing the heat.  Ironically, at this most momentous of occasions, the near-continuous and delightful distractions of family and friends have made it difficult to assemble any meaningful insights or reflections on completing our voyage. But we have a 9 day trip from the Bahamas to the Chesapeake, and if the past is prologue, we’ll have plenty of time for introspection then.

ile de Grace, Georgetown, Bahamas

For now, we are filled with a sense of gratitude to our children, our families, and our friends for their support and encouragement as we set out on this peculiar adventure of circling our globe.  We feel blessed to have had the chance to experience a swath of this world we live on, its islands and cultures, its peoples and places.  We consider ourselves fortunate to have spent time with many fellow cruisers, whose advice and friendship meant so much to us.

Last, we feel a sense of fulfillment.  We set out on a voyage, knowing only that we were headed west.  Now, here, 28 months later, arriving where we started after 26,000 miles or so of sailing, we can say: “Mark the log: the deed is done.”   

As we begin our sail homeward, it’s now time to turn the page in our logbook, and prepare it for further sailing adventures whose direction and pace beckon from the unwritten pages of tomorrow’s entries.

Playtime!

Mark snorkeling at Virgin Gorda's Baths

The journey from St. Maarten to Turks and Caicos has brought Jon and Jen very close to completing their trip around the world.  On this leg, Jon’s brother Mark, who is writing this blog entry, and his daughter Maggie spent two weeks heading east enjoying their first oceanic voyage.  After all four of us flew together to St. Maarten (southern Dutch side) and spent a day preparing the boat, we headed north for a night anchored off St. Martin (French side), where the previous blog entry left off.  A blaring few overnight hours of musical thump from the onshore bars kept us awake and on the next day the guests had their first real snorkeling jaunt near Grand Case.  The trek then continued in earnest with a mostly overnight 90 mile sail/motor to anchor off Spanishtown, British Virgin Islands.  The sun was strong and it was literally and figuratively cool to later dinghy at The Baths, a famous beach area with spectacular rock formations and excellent snorkeling.  Marine eye candy abounded as we all flippered and hiked about the popular park.  

A glassy sea, en route to Turks and Caicos

The next morning we began a short motor to Jost Van Dyke, during which time Jen called out “whale!” – after which we all looked quickly enough to see the cooperating mammal off our starboard bow.  Just after lunch we anchored in the thin, crowded boat parking lot immediately offshore, where the water was clear enough and the shore close enough for us to swim ashore to the Soggy Dollar oceanside bar (with inflation and tourist pricing the bar should really change its name to the plural form). Some pub food and boat drinks were enjoyed open air that day before heading out the next morning for the long 500 mile leg to Turks and Caicos.  The first day we moved under sail with reasonable winds, as we did with part of the second day.  But then the winds faded and by the third day the seas were beyond calm, as we chugged our way over the very deep Puerto Rico trench.  Eventually the flat seas resembled a hazy, metallic undulating mirror, something that may be as memorable as the heavy winds that never came.  

It is not easy to briefly describe the human element of being on a round-the-clock cruise, even if only for four days and on a roomy, well-equipped vessel.  The calmness and experience level that Jon and Jen possess made the journey enjoyable and even possible.  As we approached Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) from the south, our arrival across the broad shallow banks made for beautifully colored seas and even included a prolonged escort from a school of dolphins.  We briefly anchored in Sapodilla Bay on the south side of Providenciales (known locally as Provo), the main island in the western Caicos Islands, separated by a deep trench, from the eastern Turk Islands.   We changed strategies and decided to pull anchor and head for the Southside Marina, after four days in the open seas, and begin another chapter in the voyage with a four-day stay tethered to the docks of Bob’s marina.  

ile de Grace at capacity ... 

TCI is relatively dry (~15 inches rain/year) and mostly flat, dominated by limestone features that uplifted over time above the surrounding sea.  On the next day, Jon and Jen’s longtime friends, the Taylor family, joined the crew.  Maggie especially appreciated the new crew as it included the two mates who are nearly her age, and these three younger folks laughed and entertained themselves and their parents.  Their presence also set a new occupancy record for the boat and led to sleeping locations probably never before seen.  Rental of a van allowed for lots of island options, including scuba diving by most folks, during which time a shark and other fish presented themselves.  

Maggie, driving the dinghy "Doodlebug"

Snorkeling along the public north-side beaches was also enjoyed, where the beautiful white sand morphed into an extended coral and grass carpeted sea of beautiful shades of blue, which was then swallowed by the open sea in the distance.  On the last day, we took a horseback ride along the beaches, culminating in a romp through the surf, which might technically be called a high speed swim.  We met and enjoyed the company of our marina mates and were welcomed by the local natives and residents of this relatively wealthy island.  We now return to the suburban, concrete world, healthier than when we left for two weeks in the sun and sea.  We are so happy for Jon and Jen as they approach their own sailor’s version of Promontory Summit – the circumnavigation of the world.