If you promise not to judge.. RV’ing is WAY easier than putting your best “Boaty McBoat” face forward! So much to think about when embarking even on a short sailing trip. Especially when you want to have all of the toys, eat well and wear your cleanest dirty shirt. Provisioning was a trick this time. Well it usually is a test of my imagination especially in past when we would have a crew of 8-10 to feed when we would race in the islands. This time it’s just the 3 of us, but nowhere really to re stock without spending a lot time shopping along with the high prices of food post hurricanes Irma and Maria. You’ll be hearing those two names a lot I think. Not only just food on the mind, but also all of the things you need “just in case”. Then there is the weather, fuel and water management, etc.. the list is quite long. Can’t just hop on your bike and run to the camp store!
Post Irma and Maria all of our islands are stills struggling which makes the normal pit stops for water, fuel and ice a bit more challenging. We have planned a 2 week short summer sailing sabbatical and I have meals planed for 3 square daily plus snacks. Freezer is fully stocked and holding well!..but I didn’t’ expect to put 20lbs of Tuna in there right away!!!… Savannah landed a HUGE black fin tuna off the transom, while under sail on our crossing from Puerto Rico to the West end of Culebra! Things got a little exciting as we were making way in 18kts of breeze gusts over 20. A rain cloud however passed and with our decreasing speeds I decided to do a little trolling. Within about 3 minutes of setting the drag..BAM, fish ON! I could not real it in still being in the yellow zone for recovery from a surgery less than two weeks ago, so I excitedly handed the rod to Savannah who had NO problem with this. Jim and I slowed the boat down and furled the jib. Rocks within in shouting distance made for the pucker factor! As Savannah was able to get the fish close enough to the stern after about 15min of trying to outsmart Mr. Tuna, Jim had a good angle and was able gaff the fish and not the boat and we got the tuna in the bucket and into ice. Savannah’s adrenaline was off the charts!! I seriously thought she was going to blow a gasket!!! I immediately started washing everything with salt water and a brush before it dried- it was impressive! We were about 20 min from our mooring and our friends Estella and Luigi, also on their Grand Soleil, were awaiting us and excited to hear of our fish story! They dinghied over and we cleaned the fish and quickly planned dinner together.

With daylight burning we decided prior to meal prep we would all pile into their dinghy go do some exploring. We hiked over to Flamenco beach (I believe named one of the top most beautiful beaches in the world!). Lovely walk/ hike over the hills on a packed old dirt road with tall grass separating the ruts was truly spectacular with the panoramic views in all directions. There was plenty of green despite the storms and current drought, compounded with the very thick Sahara dust that has been coating everything, including our lungs. They say it keeps the hurricanes away, hope this holds true! We were a bit of taken aback arriving to the massive parking lot at Flamenco, jammed with rental jeeps and cars and bars and people. Wow, only out of society for a day and it was a shock. We took a quick peek and a photo and high tailed back to our little piece of “pretend seclusion”!
Gorgeous sunset and salt water bath off the swim platform made for the right recipe for a perfect evening. We prepared garlic bread and asparagus and then headed to the neighbors one mooring ball over! S/V Estella.. a lovely 52 Grand Soleil LC outfitted as a performance cruiser. Carbon sails…sick boat! Estella loves to host, cook and entertain. We felt like royalty with the good tunes, horse doovers and wine. Dinner was exquisite with perfectly pan seared fresh caught tuna, rice, cucumber/tomato/artichoke salad, garlic bread and brownies for dessert! After some great laughs and conversation that was cut short as we had to scoot back to Huntress and close the hatches due to a much needed and welcomed rain shower!

So with a new boat comes all of the bells and whistles, which run off of battery, engine or generator power that need to be managed with a little thought. We have a great electrical system that keeps everything charged. AND of course the generator did not work last night. Brand new boat and there is an issue with the generator getting fuel so we troubleshooted as a family, even got the book out. (Jim is quite mechanically inclined, if it breaks he can usually fix it..) looks like we will be using the engine to keep things powered up until we can deal with the fuel filter. Kind of like the old days. Besides, Fischer Pandas are WAY overrated… Damn generators.