Bike Ride

Got up this morning to a beautiful blue sky so decided to try to bike up Crown Mountain, which gains 1500 ft of elevation in 3 miles. A short rain put enough water on the road to make my back wheel slip, but I eventually made it to the Miuntain Top restaurant! Beautiful ride, humidity was high but the breeze made it comfortable. Ed is still working on getting his photos from the crossing to me, so maybe tomorrow we'll post a summary of the trip. In the meantime, enjoy these biking photos :).

Smith Bay

St. Thomas from above with Water Island and Hassel Island in the distance

Top of Crown Mountain, with Magen's Bay in the background

Near Frenchtown in Charlotte Amalie

These tarpon are protected by the government so grow huge and prowl around the docks. Don't worry, they only eat trash, not crazy guys swimming in the anchorage

The Islands!

After another hard run to windward, we arrived in St. John's on Sunday afternoon, tying up to a mooring ball in Cinnamon Bay. The biggest casualty of the passage was my phone, which decided to go for a swim about 20 miles north of the islands... But I've gotten a new one, as well as a big floating waterproof bag :).

Other than the phone, no other major issues. The boat, despite traveling 2200 miles to windward over the past 20 days, is in great shape! I'm looking forward to some rest before we take the nice downwind run to Panama.

Here is a picture of Fred and I on the way past Jost Van Dyke on the way to Cinnamon Bay and one of Sirocco on the hook in Cruz Bay. I'm actually flying back from Chicago right now after a surprise visit to my girlfriend, but once I'm back in St. John's I'll upload a bunch more photos and videos that Ed took during the trip.

Coming into the islands between Jost Van Duke and Great Tobago 

Sirocco at anchor in Cruz Bay, USVI

Videos

We uploaded two videos Ed took to YouTube. Check them out!

Nick and Slocum: https://youtu.be/B0lnLkIXO68

Nick the Bird Whisperer: https://youtu.be/EHPpDw7b1xE

Marathon, FL

After a wet and fast trip across the Gulf, we are tied up to a mooring ball in the Marathon City Marina (also called Boot Key Harbor, still not sure what the difference is...). No serious issues on the way over is allowing us to make a quick turnaround to try to catch this weather window and make a quick trip again to the Virgin Islands!

Of course, the biggest surprise upon landing in Marathon was the election. I don't want to turn this blog too political, but suffice to say each one of us aboard was very surprised.

City Marina is really amazing, the staff is incredibly helpful and the other cruisers are a great group. We found someone aptly named "Stich" to patch up our No. 2 jib which was the only real casualty of the crossing (after the forestay of course). It would be a cool place to visit for a while, though in all honesty, I feel like Edward Bloom in the movie Big Fish stumbling on Spectre twenty years too early.

Our faithful crew member Eric safely got home to Freeport, TX and we picked up our new crew, Fred from Seattle, WA. He'll continue to the Virgin Islands, then fly home while Ed and I continue to Panama after we meet up with my parents in St. Johns.

Enjoy the pictures below from Marathon and the crossing! Ed's having some technical difficulties so we'll have to wait to upload his photos in the USVI.

Oil rig off of Freeport. This was just a small one. Later on we saw what we believe was the Bullwinkle oil rig off of New Orleans. It looked a like a large city lit up at night. At least it was easy to avoid.

Ed bravely manning the helm in a bit of easterly breeze and spray.

This supposedly shy parrot, "Slocum," took a liking to me. We ended up whistling the march from "Bridge on the River Kwai" together, which Ed got on video! Check out the video here.

On my bike ride this morning to Bahia Honda, I met this guy on Seven Mile Bridge. His name is Ed and is currently 44 miles from hiking from Canada to Key West. It's taken him 5 years, doing it in section as the seasons permit.

Route 1 looks a lot different here than it does in West Chester, PA!

Yes, the bike is a pain to bring on the boat. And yes, it is totally worth it :).

We're Off (Again)

With a little bit of luck and some great help from Hayes Rigging who turned around both main shrouds and both stays in about 2 hours, Sirocco is ready for the sea again. The two crewmates, Eric and Ed, had a great time hoisting me up and down the mast again today, and with our hard work, we're ready to go. Winds are looking good for now so hopefully we have a fast trip to Florida.

We're Back

The word adventure has gotten overused. For me, when everything goes wrong, that's when adventure starts.
                                                                                                        -yvon chouinard


Friday afternoon, 100 miles from Freeport, I was taking down the big headsail (the front sail) to put up a smaller one because of the building wind. After it was down, I noticed a piece of string on the piece of wire that holds the mast up, called the forestay. Only it wasn't string, it was a piece of the wire. The forestay was fraying, drastically reducing it's strength and making it impossible to raise another headsail.

Because of the safety factor, we decided to turn around and come back to Galveston to get a new forestay and while we are at it, the other rigging that keeps the mast up. Hopefully when it starts really blowing out there I'll sleep more soundly with the new rigging.

It sounds like we may have found someone to make new rigging tomorrow, so we could be gone as early as Wednesday. I'll be sure to post updates as they become known. In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of the short "shake down" trip! All picture credits go to the faithful crewmate, Ed Stancil.

Eric relaxing as we motor out the Freeport jetties

Last view from slip in Freeport

Stores that we keep in the kitchen. We have more than twice this stashed under the cockpit, ready for some great meals!

After salt shower, before I found out about the forestay...

Sunrise on Friday

The rainbow ended up not being a great omen...

I believe I'm actually asleep here...

Carnival ship leaving from Galveston

Just hanging out

Inspecting the spreaders and removing the shrouds

We're Off!

Looks like everything is ready. The wind is starting to come from the east and we have enough food to seemingly last years! Anyway, thanks Texas for a great two years! Next stop, Key Largo, FL. Also, I added the Yellowbrick tracker to this blog. It's in the header.