Heading North…..

The temperature is 32 degrees Celsius. There is a warm breeze coming in from the southwest. The sun feels warm on my skin as I get S/V Ileana ready for the voyage home. The staff at Puerto Bahia Marina greeted me like an old friend when I arrived three days ago. They genuinely seemed happy to see me after being away from them for the past 3 1/2 weeks. They cleaned the boat and removed the barnacles and algae from the bottom of the boat to prepare for the journey north. S/V Ileana has been in the Caribbean since November, having left the east coast of the United States 6 months ago. It has been an amazing adventure. I will miss Puerto Bahia Marina, one of the best places to stay on a sailboat in the Caribbean.

I began the trip by loading the boat on the truck and shipping it to Annapolis in October 2022. They launched the boat after they commissioned it at Bert Jabin’s boatyard. With the help of Neil and Paul, we sailed down the Chesapeake Bay to Hampton. There was a two-week delay because of bad weather and avoiding hurricane Nicole, but we left port in mid November and arrived in Antigua on November 21, 2023. I kept the boat in Antigua for the next two months. Robert and Roger helped me sail the 3 day voyage to the Dominican Republic in March.

The trip so far

Arriving in Puerto Bahia was like entering a world of paradise with infinity pools, a billiard lounge, great restaurants, exercise facilities, spa, all the while enjoying the perfect Dominican Republic warm weather. I had plenty of time on my hands and passed the days basking in the sun, going out on adventures, and something that I always wanted to do. I wrote a novel. I have called the fictional story “The Sailor”. The storyline is about a chief of surgery at a community hospital in Toronto who is arrested for murder after one of his patients dies unexpectedly after surgery. Someone is trying to destroy him and will stop at nothing until doing so. How he ends up sailing in the carribean and the Bahamas…..well, you’ll have to read the book to find out. I am hoping to get it published on Amazon sometime in the next few months. It is amazing where your mind will take you when you have nothing but time on your hands. I am going to miss this……

Preparing the boat to head north meant pulling out the code zero sail and putting it on the front forestay. I expect there to be a fair amount of downwind sailing, so I will need it. We will be sailing in the trade winds through the Bermuda Triangle heading directly to New York City. Last year around this time, sailing back from the Bahamas, I had to duck into Norfolk, Virginia to avoid a terrible storm that ravaged the east coast. I am hoping for fair winds and following seas this year……… Chris Parker, my weather router, is about to become my best friend…..I hope.

We will divide the trip into three parts. The first part involves beautiful trade wind sailing. This will take us north of the Bahamas, perhaps taking three or four days. The next part, there will likely be no wind. It may last anywhere from 12 to 72 hours. We will have to motor. To prepare, I have loaded up my fuel tanks but I also have an extra 300 liters of diesel fuel ready in jerry containers. The last part involves dodging the north-easterly storms that come through every one or two weeks. This is where we got fouled up last year but I’m hoping that with good timing and exceptional luck, we will slide in between two of these storms, missing both of them…….

I’m still having a few problems with the boat. It’s the life of a sailor. Fixing stuff. The bow thruster is still not working properly. The water maker which was working fine this morning no longer works. I remember seeing something on the Internet showing a picture of a beautiful sailboat with the caption “Everything is broken, you just don’t know it yet…..”

Steve, Neil and Ben are arriving next week to help sail S/V Ileana north. I need to load up with fresh vegetables, fruits and other supplies so we don’t have to rely on our questionable fishing skills for dinners. It will take 9 or 10 days to get to New York City. From there, up the Hudson, to Albany and the Erie Canal to Lake Ontaio. You can follow my adventure on:

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Ileana/

So far the weather looks promising for a May 12th departure to New York City, but it is too early to plan for that. I won’t be certain of the departure until we physically begin motoring off of the dock at Puerto Bahia Marina.

S/V Ileana rests comfortably under full moon before the journey home.