What’s the first thing we do after we dock our boat at a new location? Walk the marina or cruise around the anchorage and look at all the other boats there. We tour boats to help you all learn more about the different makes, models and features and this is one you have been asking for for a while, a Hunter. Watch as Nick & Sherry share what they like about their 2005 Hunter 36, some things they would like to change and how they handle sail management, docking and life aboard as a couple. If any of you have a specific boat you would like us to try to tour, please let us know in a comment below. These BOAT TOURS are for you!
The current of the Gulf Stream is no joke, particularly when it is pushing you into head winds. Watch as we reef up and cross a pretty kicked up sea state across the Gulf Stream, sing to our first Cuban sunrise, deal with an issue with the furling gear on our headsail, navigate the entry to Marina Hemingway and make landfall in Cuba. HaveWindWillTravel is traveling this year! There’s a great Patreon update for you as well in here as we will soon be getting a video update from each of our previous Gift of Cruising winners and get ready to give our 4th gift away — a 100% free offshore voyage on SailLibra at the $500 reward level. WHOA. Become a Patron to be eligible to win and help us create cruisers out of each and every one of you! Hope you all are enjoying the journey to Cuba. We can’t wait to share that beautiful, culture-rich country with you.
Last time we documented power management underway, now we’re dealing with a rudder post that won’t stay … put anyway. Follow along as we fix our boat in exotic places (i.e., on the way to Cuba). You’ll also hear extensively from Phillip in this episode about preparing for a lightning storm, navigating ships at night and getting accustomed to our new electronics. We also hope we will be able to meet some of you during our travels in Florida this February. Thanks as always for your support and following along.
Follow along as we are mesmerized by a jumping pod of dolphins at the bow, monitor the power situation (and show you our cool below-decks inverter), and make our one BIG tack of the trip. We had some great wind that allowed us to hold a pretty steady rhumb line all the way to Cuba. Hope you guys are enjoying the vicarious Cuba voyage. Enjoy!
Get ready for it to blow! These weren’t super heavy winds but they were on the nose and had Plaintiff’s Rest really heeled over during the second night and day of our voyage to Cuba. Our Niagara 35 proved she was up for the task though, practically sailing herself across the Gulf. Follow along as we share some storm sail tactics in here as well: rigging up of the inner forestay, setting the second reef in the main and checking for chafe on the furling lines. Hope you all are enjoying the Cuba Voyage series!
And they’re off! Plaintiff’s Rest is finally headed south for Cuba. Follow along as we cast-off the lines (finally!), make good way our first night under sail, get used to the new hydraulic auto-pilot, hand-steer just for fun (that wouldn’t last) and pass our first ship in the channel using the new AIS. Any questions about the new systems (Navionics, the auto-pilot and/or AIS), feel free to leave them in a comment and we will respond as soon as we get back ashore. The winds will find us next time on this voyage, but our first leg of the trip was a nice downwind run. Stay tuned for a wild, windy romp part two of our Cuba Voyage at www.HaveWindWillTravel.com and follow on HaveWind’s Facebook page for Delorme posts while we are underway. We shove off from the Keys for Pensacola this afternoon!
Friends, followers, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from HaveWindWillTravel! A real treat for you here, available for the first time to my entire audience: my two-hour movie from our trans-Atlantic. For those of you who are new, Phillip and I had the good fortune to be invited as part of a four-member crew to cross the Atlantic, sailing from Florida to France, this past June on a 46’ catamaran and I created my first full-length film documenting our journey. I thought it would be a great way to kick off Season Five of our YouTube channel which will be all about our TRAVELs, with our biggest voyage of 2016!
When Captain Yannick first met me (which was around the same time he agreed to let me make this tremendous voyage with him, brave guy), he had no idea who I was really, the kind of videos I made, my audience or how I might portray him and his family on film and, because he has plans to produce video documentaries of his own someday, he initially asked that I not share the movie publicly on YouTube. Now, after having watched many of my videos, particularly the movie itself, and with a better understanding of the purpose of my platform (to help share the realities and rewards of a cruising lifestyle) Yannick graciously granted my renewed request to let me share it with my entire audience, for free on YouTube.
So, kick back, make some hot cocoa, round up the last of the Christmas treats and enjoy the show while Phillip and I explore the vast historic castles, churches and smoky cigar holes in Cuba and work to get videos to you all from this incredible adventure as well as my sail to Isla Mujeres, Mexico this past November and our upcoming sail to Miami in February for the Miami Boat Show (we hope to see some of you there!). Thank Captain Yannick for inviting Phillip and I on this incredible voyage and letting me share the experience with you: a crew of four on a 46’ foot catamaran, thirty days at sea across the Atlantic Ocean. The perfect way to kick-off HaveWindWillTravel 2017!
This is it! Our official goodbye. We are out! Off! Headed to Cuba! See you next year. Phillip and I were dreaming about this moment every day at the shipyard, every time we encountered a new problem, found a new leak and had to break out another thousand. It all lead to this. We are sailing to Cuba. We’ve spent months preparing, researching and packing and we have had a great time sharing the process with you in Season Four of the YouTube Channel in our “How To” series. We don’t know when we’ll get wifi again or have time to put out our next video. It may be a few weeks. But Season Five will be all travel. We’re taking you with us in videos to Isla Mujeres, Cuba, Key West, Miami and more. Stay tuned and Happy Holidays Sailors!
And, as our continued thanks for all of your support and following along, we put together one last season finale for the YouTube channel talking about and showing you all of the safety gear we will be traveling with and covering our last minute checks (including one unfortunate discovery and repair of a raw water leak) before shoving off. As always, we hope you find the information helpful (and fun!) and enjoy following along on our journey. Stay tuned on HaveWindWillTravel’s Facebook page for updates via our Delorme tracker while we are underway. Wish us luck and fair winds and have a fantastic Christmas!
For any of you looking to do your own offshore voyaging, I have included below a link to our complete 12-page bow-to-stern inventory of the boat in case this sparks some ideas for you of what to stock, how to stow it or how to organize it. Included in here is all of our spares, boat supplies, food, fishing gear, safety gear, etc. Plaintiff’s Rest is loaded down!
And, another Christmas goodie for you! I wrote an article about our rotten stringer repair that will be coming out in the January 2017 issue of SAIL Magazine. It gives me a tingle to think how everything is so connected and truly happens for a reason. It was October 2015 when we watched a fleet of boats sail out of the Pensacola Pass in the Pensacola a la Habana Race and, when we saw a gallant 60-footer pass by that, Phillip and I decided–right then and there–we were going to make a plan to sail ourselves to Cuba. We didn’t know it at the time, but it was Captain Ryan on Libra and we’ve all since become very good friends and I now have a new marketing client who I love to work for (he pays in offshore voyages ; ) … is there anything better?) And, it was the very next weekend after we made that decision (Blue Angels November 2015) that Phillip and I found our rotten stringers. But, Phillip decided–right then and there, with the knife blade still sticking out of the wood–that it wasn’t going to stop us. We would haul out, do the repairs, re-rig at the same time and SAIL TO FREAKING CUBA! It actually motivated us further and because it was so much work getting our boat ready to go, the reward is that much sweeter. And now, right before we shove off, the story of the whole incident comes out in print for you all to read while we voyage. There is sometimes a mystifying symmetry to life that takes my breath away. The good, the bad, the rot. It all happens for a reason and always teaches you something in the process. Never give up!
Provisioning for passage. Stowing goods on the boat (according to weight). Power conservation while underway. Watch schedules. Sleep arrangements. You name it. A ton of good, hopefully helpful info for you all while we are preparing our boat to shove off for Cuba in just SEVEN days. Feel free to add any of your own offshore preparation tips in a comment below and follow us along on our voyage on our HaveWind Facebook Page where we will post MapShare updates and our GPS location via the Delorme. Become a Patron for personal messaging capabilities so you can talk with us during the voyage, get up to date photos and video posts as soon as we get wifi and join us in Key West for a Patron Party when we get back from Cuba. Oh the stories we will tell!
Very exciting video for you here guys. Our 4th Gift of Cruising will be a five-day offshore adventure sail from Pensacola to Miami with us on s/v Libra to attend the Strictly Sail Miami Boat Show, boat show tickets included. Super cool, right? We will depart out of Pensacola February 10th and sail to the show. I will be speaking at the show (so you can come heckle me!) and Libra will be IN the boat show so you can come walk the docks, tour her and meet Phillip and I while you are there. We will give this gift away at the $500 Patron reward level — help us make this happen by becoming a Patron and emailing me to let me know you are available during the passage dates and you want to go on an offshore voyage. In addition, if you would simply like to go ahead and book this passage to make the trip with us, feel free at SailLibra.com! We would be excited to have you! Thank Captain Ryan with SailLibra for this generous donation as well as my many Patrons who make these Gifts of Cruising possible. Get inspired. Get on board.
Also, because it is the season of giving, I put together another full-length video for you all on the channel in our Boat Tours section. It’s my first motor vessel tour! I didn’t even know Gulfstar made motor yachts, but this one was certainly impressive. Twin Perkins diesels, a generator, water-maker, 500 gallons of fuel, 250 gallons of water and insane amounts of storage. Thank Phil for the tour of his 1979 Gulfstar 44, m/v After Five. I blame all Video Annie comments in the outtakes on the wine he kept feeding me while I was working! Enjoy the tour!
