For once the weather was pretty much as predicted. Saturday, May 29 was beyond awful. Heavy, heavy rain and big NE winds with gusts up to 35! Glad to be in port. To top it off, it was cold — high in the 50s though the damp windy conditions made it feel colder. Despite growing up in northern climates, after spending nearly seven months in the Caribbean where the weather was a remarkably consistent and pleasant “partly sunny with highs between 80 – 84 degrees,” we got a little soft. Still, we did laundry (placing everything in industrial sized black garbage bags for dry transport) at the wonderful laundry facilities at Sunset Marina. It’s amazing what $3 per foot will buy you! Six commercial washers and 6 commercial dryers in a sparkling clean room with a folding table that rivaled a large kitchen island. But, alas, no provisioning. The closest large grocery store was a mile away. As much as we are generally keen for a walk, the thought of the mile trek in the gusty downpour was not appealing. Likewise, no exterior boat cleaning—though the downpour was our friend and did do a nice job getting rid of the salt spray that was all over our boat. Free boat wash!
Of course, if we wanted fishing tackle, clothes and gear we would have been in luck. Ocean City is a fishing paradise. We were the only sailboat in the marina. We were surrounded by fishing vessels of all shapes and sizes but most costing millions! Everything you need to fish was just a short walk from the marina. In fact, we visited one of the tackle shops while we waited for our cloths to dry just to marvel at the vastness of what you could buy. And all of these places stocked beer and other beverages but, to Zack’s grave disappointment, everything was bud, bud light, miller light, hard seltzer, etc. The lack of beer selection pretty much confirmed Captain Zack’s opinion of the standing of fishermen on the evolutionary ladder.
Fortunately, May 30 was a bit nicer. Still rainy and cold but the winds moderated a bit and rather than coming down in buckets the rain was more of a spritz that gradually became a mist as the day went on. So we donned on our rain gear and walked to the Food Lion with our LLB canvas boat bags in hand. (An essential fashion accessory for FT cruisers.). We had a successful food run, marveling at all of the things on the shelves that were hard to find in the Caribbean — we nearly kissed the soba noodles and Jill let out an audible squeal when we found Hellman’s vegan mayonnaise. But the nicest part was the total bill for what amounted to about 5 days of food: $90! After regularly spending $350+ for a comparable shopping cart full of groceries in the Caribbean we became somewhat desensitized and forgot how much more expensive provisions were on the islands.
By the next day, May 31, the weather had turned as expected — partly sunny skies, light winds and temps in the 60s. That, combined with the extended outlook which was positive for our planned route (straight to the tip of Long Island then hang a left at Montauk through The Cut and into the Long Island Sound), told us it was time to leave. Knowing that our final destination was about 37 hours away (260 nm), we wanted to leave about 4 PM in the afternoon so that we would arrive in Westbrook CT Wednesday (June 2) in the morning at the start of business hours — no sense arriving at 5 AM! So off we went late afternoon on June 2 and it was almost as if we just picked up where we left off, creating a strong sense of deja vu. The wind was light and right on our stern making sailing (even motor sailing) impossible — if you’ve learned anything about Captain Zack through our blog you will know we tried! These conditions persisted throughout our passage. On the bright side, it did make for a very smooth sail which is always beneficial for sleeping.
We made Pilot’s Point Marina at about 9 AM on June 2. It seems like we finally broke the curse of big winds picking up just as we approach a dock. The day was dead calm — so calm that the water looked like glass as we motored through the Long Island Sound. Not a ripple to be seen, though Zack kept looking over his shoulder for the expected squall. While we would have preferred some good sailing wind during our voyage, if it was not to be, better that the windless state persisted while we were docking vs. just deciding it was time to wake up. Docking was a breeze! No need for Captain Zack to demonstrate his prowess.
Our arrival in Westbrook, Connecticut is very bitter sweet. We really enjoyed our time in the Caribbean, particularly the last 6 weeks when we had the opportunity to explore other islands and got a taste of what it would be like to sail the Caribbean in a post Covid world. There were just too many restrictions and uncertainty as a result of rapidly changing Covid rules — an island was opened and then it was closed — to really venture too far from the USVI during much of our stay. (We loved our time in the USVI so that is just an explanation for our lack of Caribbean exploration and by no means a complaint!). It was hard to say goodbye to those breezy warm days, white sandy beaches and crystal clear waters.
That said, we are looking forward to seeing friends, family and former colleagues. Due to Covid protocols when we left Connecticut, there were no retirement parties or bon voyage get togethers. While neither of us really wanted a retirement party (so Covid provided good cover!) we still would have liked the opportunity to say our farewells in person. We will be making up for that while in CT and our dance card is full of social commitments. And, of course, like many who have parents that don’t live close by, we haven’t seen ours in a long time. We last saw Zack’s parents in December 2019 and Jill’s parents in February 2020 so we are looking forward to our visits to Suttons Bay, Michigan and Seattle, Washington that are in the queue for late June. Finally, we are excited to sail around New England July – September so we can visit some of our favorite spots and visit some new ones that we couldn’t reach with limited time for extended sailing when we were both working full time.
As we mentioned in our last blog entry, having now safely and proudly arrived at our destination for the summer, this will be our final post about the leisurely sail back up to New England as well as our final Caribbean 2020/2021 post. We will be starting a new series entitled New England 2021. We thought it would be fitting, therefore, to conclude the Caribbean 2020/2021 series with a best of and worst of list for your amusement (as well as our own). Enjoy!
Best and worst of:
Best beach – Beach on Pine Cay (near Fort George), Providenciales, Turks and Caicos. The white sandy beach went for miles and turquoise water was the clearest we saw in the Caribbean. There was one eco friendly small foot print resort right off the beach, The Meridian Club (https://meridianclub.com/gallery/the-resort/), and we would highly recommend it for those interested in experiencing this untouched gem. We selected a photo of that beach as our feature photo for Part IV of our leisurely sail to New England.
Best hiking – This is not really a fair one because we had the most opportunity to hike in St. John but, from what we have read, St. John may have still made the #1 spot even if that was not the case. Our favorite hike was the Ram Head Trail off Saltpond Bay. The hike — which is moderately difficult because of some steep inclines and loose rock — takes you over a sandy beach, past a salt pond, over a beautiful blue cobblestone beach and then finally ascends up past cacti to a rocky bluff where you are rewarded with an incredible panoramic view of Coral Bay and St. John Island. You can even look directly across to St. Croix which you can see faintly in the distance on a clear day. You can read more about this magical trail here: https://www.fueledbywanderlust.com/ram-head-trail-st-john/.
Friendliest people – We met so many wonderful people; that includes many locals as well as fellow cruisers. That said, it would be hard to top the genuine warmth, hospitality and generosity of the people of the Dominican Republic. That, coupled with the beauty of Samana Bay, puts the DR on our must visit list for those considering a Caribbean vacation.
Best anchorage – National Park, Samana, Dominican Republic. Hard to beat the remote setting surrounded by mangrove forests. If you don’t follow us on Instagram (@sailingchefigtata) it would be well worth it to do so just to see the magnificent pictures we posted of the national park. It was truly enchanting. Runner Up: Saltpond Bay on St. John USVI. Gorgeous small round bay with great snorkeling and access to hiking Ram Head Trail (see above).
Best experience – Frolicking with the dolphins in Turks & Caicos. We still can’t get over the fact that we swam with wild dolphins who sought out our company and seemed to enjoy the experience as much — if not more — than we did.
Best snorkeling – Rudder Cut Cay, Bahamas. While people go there to see the submerged life sized stainless steel grand piano sculpture, it is the coral that has you gobsmacked. So dense and colorful, truly rivaling some of the best coral we have seen over many years of scuba diving and snorkeling.
Best guests — Just kidding! You were all great and there were many of you. (Six sets of visitors over a 6 month period!). Still, we need to give special props to Nancy for replenishing our Wild Moon cucumber liquor inventory — the secret ingredient to Jill’s killer G&Ts. We also need to give a shout out to our sister-in-law, Jodi, and our nephew, Dax, for doing the Waterlemon Bay to Coral Bay hike (not for the faint of heart!!) and helping us with our impeller replacement. We definitely put them to work during their visit! (Hopefully that didn’t adversely impact our star rating. We were going for 5 out of 5).
Best laundry facilities – Sunset Marina, Ocean City, MD, hands down. We thought we died and went to laundromat heaven. (See description above.). When you live on a boat full time you develop an appreciation of the finer things in life.
Best accomplishments – If you exclude our sail up from the USVI to New England with a crew of two (hard to compete with that), we think we are most proud of two things, both owing to Zack’s great vehicle/vessel handling skills. First was Zack’s graceful docking at Puerto Bahia Marina in the Dominican Republic. As described in Part II of our leisurely sail tp New England, Zack maneuvered Che Figata gracefully into a very tight space between a 60’ Hatteras sport fisher and very short and stubby concrete dock. Second was Zack’s driving finesse when we rented a car in the Dominican Republic so we could get our Covid PCR tests and then re-provision in advance of our trip to Turks and Caicos. He managed to get us to our destinations and back to Che Figata without killing or injuring ourselves or others despite the obstacle course of scooters, people, chickens and dogs. For a more complete description of that experience, read Part III of the leisurely sail to New England. Both of these are must reads!
Worst experience – This one is easy because there were so few really bad experiences. If we limit our answer to self-inflected wounds, it is hard to choose between the water that filled our forward cabin when we forgot to batton down the forward hatch or the near collision we had when we ran out of fuel just as we were picking up a mooring. Of course, the invasion of the flies needs to receive an honorable mention if we open the field to havoc wrought by Mother Nature.
Lessons learned — The importance of resilience. As anyone reading our blog knows, life on a sailboat is not all rainbows, waterfalls, hiking, snorkeling and beautiful sunsets with cocktails in hand — though there was plenty of that. There is lots of maintenance and repair work when living on a sailboat (Remember our motto: on a boat some things work some of the time). And plans continually change as you are forever adjusting to wind and weather conditions. If you can’t go with the flow, full time crusing is not for you. If you can adapt to change, however, you are rewarded with an opportunity to savor extended visits in beautiful places that are just not easy to reach any other way. After 10 months of living on Che Figata full time and cruising for the last 7 months of those, we still think that’s totally awesome!
