6 Months in a Passage
We have completed 6 months in our passage. What happened to making the trip in 3 months? Well that was a bit ambitious, and who knew that we would be challenged beyond most anything to date in our lives. We are currently in Dominica, the bay at Portsmouth. The sailing we did through the Bahamas, Exuma’s, to Turks and Caicos was amazing. The color of water in the Exuma’s is magical and more hues than one can count of the color blue. Turks required a significant repair to our Anchor Shoot, and a haul-out for a survey. I will say that the diving in Turks and Caicos was epic, and we enjoyed both Aqua TCI and Dive Provo. We waited for a weather window, along with all the other cruisers, a few bigger, faster boats were able to make the hop to Ocean World, Dominican Republic, in one very short window, and many of them had tough times the last 5 - 6 hours. We waited, we knew with Simplicity that we needed more time. The Caicos Bank, and shelf 6,000 feet below the sea, it is something to marvel. Imagine, what all that water does when it meets a bank that has an average of depth of 20 feet in less than 100 yards.
We both love our careers and that we can be anywhere and have Internet connectivity. On occasion its been a bit sketchy but overall we have managed. Here is the thing, we can’t leave when the weather may be perfect. We have commitments and do our best to insure that our life style is not in the way of our work. It can be a novelty, and sometimes we have to let that weather window pass us by.
Expectations were we would be there by now. With all the books, we’ve read we have never read anything that was anything like this trip. This trip is tough enough on those who have plenty of sailing under their belts. It is arduous, and rigorous, and amazing! It can be dangerous, challenging and exhausting. We have some requirements, with our work. If you are doing this because you think its a nice Sunday sail, think again. Once your committed, there is no turning back, that is really no further than the Dominican or PR. We have insurance requirements that state we are to be at 12 degrees 40 minutes by July 1, 2022. We will make it, but its going to be close.