Deja' Vu all over again!

I'm a month behind due to poor Internet connections in Honduras and the fact that I left the boat and came home to NC for a visit. Pictures and a map can be found at the link for part one of this trip.

We left Key West January 15Th sailing out to the west through the many sailboats practicing for the annual Key West Race week. We had a repeat of the weather and seas that had caused us to tun around and return to Key West. We expected 15-20 knot wins decreasing to 10-15 at dusk. We got 15-20 winds increasing to 30 knots and seas the US Coast Guard called "very, very rough"! Never heard of that before.

Heavy seas and winds pounded us and with a double reefed main sail and seas on the beam, we plodded west. The winds increased to 35 knots on the 16Th, quite a bit more than the 5-10 forecast we downloaded. We came to appreciate how huge Cuba was, taking until the 17Th to get by and turn south. Heavy Seas and the Gulf Stream caused us to set about 15 degrees off the course he were sailing.

The morning of the 18Th, Larry prepared our first hot meal, egg sandwiches and coffee. We had gone four days on a couple of Salami sandwiches, peanut butter and crackers, oranges and water as it was too rough to try to fire up the stove. The day was interesting, continuous rain squalls with thunder and lightning all day with out warning. The rain reminded me of the monsoon season in Singapore and Malaysia, heavy, heavy rain, then clear and muggy. The squalls swept from the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico across about 100 miles to Cuba. The water temperature was up to 86, so swim suits under our foul weather gear was comfy (finally).

The 19Th and 20Th of January were pleasant days sailing, still with 15-20 knots of wind. We kept a vigil on the water off Mexico as we had heard some sailors had been pursued by boats out of Mexico. With us making 5-7 knots, we needed an early start to out run anything. The nights were incredible, the moon was so huge and bright you could not see stars or planets. A good thing too as the running light crapped out from the pounding they took and the alternate Tri color light on top of the mast worked periodically. (In Utilla Larry hoisted me up the mast and I discovered the mast light had been wired incorrectly and occasionally worked through a "sneak" circuit in the switchboard). The coast of Mexico, Cuba and Central America was very busy with coastal freighters, a few large tankers , huge cargo ships and cruise liners. Very few ever spotted us with sometime as many as six ships around us at once.

21 January was a rough day again with winds in the 20's and rough waters. At midnight the winds were again 30-35, thankfully we decided to double reef again. Larry stayed on the wheel for about 12 hours as I reduced the sails and finally lit off the motor to keep us into the seas. We sailed to the Eastern most island of Guanaja as they were the most experienced immigration and customs office for sailing vessels and easiest to get around (no wheeled vehicles).