See the comments on our
cruising log at the start of Chapter 14
My comments to this letter
were made in June 2003.
LETTER 7
September 27, 1993
"Down Time"
Lat 26o06'N
Lon 80o08'W
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Dear Families and Friends,
Well, we finally made it back to the USA! Our 15 month trip only took 31 months! Now for a few statistics:
We traveled (I started to say sailed) over 5000 miles;
visited 53 islands representing 13 countries;
used eight currencies;
cleared in/out of customs 59 times;
burned 1200 gallons of diesel;
made 3600 gallons of desalinated water.
Enough of that. Now
for the rest of our trip.
We left Fajardo, Puerto Rico in
mid July and sailed along the south coast of Puerto Rico. We took a week getting to Boqueron
at the west end of PR. We stayed in Boqueron a week partly because we had to replace our VHF
radio.
We had a wonderful sail (Yes, we actually sailed!) from PR
to the Turks & Caicos. We set the sails once and didn't touch them
for the rest of the trip. We covered 300
miles in 52 hours.
Then the tropical weather started interfering with our
plans. Brett caused us to hole up in
Provo for several days when we had not planned on going there. From Provo we sailed to West Plana Cay in the Bahamas and then on to Atwood Harbor in
the Crooked Islands. We had hardly
anchored before locals came over and sold us lobsters.
And then along came Cindy.
She caused us to make a quick overnight run to Georgetown. After a week there we went to Long Island
then on to Cat Island.
One of the
most memorable sails we had of the whole trip occurred here along the east
coast of Long Island. We were trying to
reach George Town and we were sailing at night in August. The sky was crystal clear with no moon and it
was the time of the Persaid meteor showers. They were spectacular! We both stayed awake the whole night just to
watch. At any one time there would be
dozens visible.
Dennis never caused us much worry but then there was
Emily. Since Cat Island has no harbors
we had to run to Eleuthera. We sat there for two days and finally decided
that God was telling us that our cruise was over. We had planned to spend a couple of weeks in
the Abacos (northern most islands in the Bahamas)
before returning to the States, but we decided to forgo that and make the shortest
trip back to Florida. Thus we went from Eleuthera to Highborne Cay,
Nassau, Bird Cay, Gun Cay and finally Ft.
Lauderdale.
We picked the perfect time to arrive back in the States
after a 2 1/2 year absence -- Labor Day weekend. As we entered Port Everglades the go-fast
boats were racing past us, helicopters were zooming around below our mast
level, sport fishers were cruising about.
There was everything in the harbor from a Russian freighter to a US
aircraft carrier. Is this country great
or what? We almost turned around and
went back for another 2 1/2 years!
We proceeded to Bahia Mar (home of
Travis McGee for you John MacDonald fans) to clear customs. Since we had been gone so long and been to
all the countries mentioned above, we were expecting Customs to be something of
an ordeal. Not so. Jim called on the special telephone, answered
a few questions and that was it!
Actually,
all they said was, “Welcome home”.
The next day we moved the boat to Cooley's Landing where we
are as we write this. Cooley's is a new
city marina which we recommend to our cruising friend. It is part of the New River Park system and
within walking distance of downtown locations.
Now we are in job looking mode. In fact Diane is off on an interview trip now
looking at two possibilities. We have no
idea where we will actually end up living.
For the next several weeks and maybe until the end of October we will be
here at Cooley's.
There's still time for all of you to write us. Just send those letters to the Starkville
address and they will be forwarded to us. In case you've lost it, that address
is:
P.O. Box 1947
Starkville, MS 39759
We also have one of those fancy voice mail paging
systems. It works like this: You call
305-897-2281 and leave a message up to 60 seconds in length. As soon as you hang up, our beeper goes off,
we get your message and then we call you back.
Now even those of you who have forgotten how to write can communicate
with us.
Of course if you are coming to south Florida you should stop
by and
visit.
Let us hear from all of you.
Jim & Diane
Send comments to: jkbarrentine@earthlink.net
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