Exactly Where We Should Be

Arriving in French Cay.

After spending two very pleasant days on a mooring ball in West End (a little rolly-polly but secure), we decided it was time to move on. The beaches were lovely, the town was quaint, and everything felt peaceful…which probably meant bad weather was on its way. With slightly harder conditions predicted in a couple of days, we knew we needed as safer, more protected anchorage.

Before setting off on this little hop, I had asked Jens to give me some video-editing training. To my delight, Arzum also joined us for our seaside classroom session. Since Jens is a journalist and talented YouTuber (check out SV Dilly Dally) Who better to teach me, and the price?? Beer and food, best tuition plan ever.

I thought it would be fun to add a few videos to the website from time to time and stretch my brain with a new skill. Now, don’t get too excited, we’re talking very basic here.

Eventually, we got ourselves into gear and sailed the very short distance around the corner to French Cay. It’s a fantastic anchorage with protection from most directions; however, we could clearly see the predicted unpleasant weather building up. Our various wind and weather apps were now suggesting winds of 35 knots and more.

We enjoyed a couple of peaceful days hanging off the hook while things were still calm, bliss before the storm.

The Stowaway called Draggie

Just as we arrived in French Cay the surprise guest showed up. We had no idea we were traveling with a stowaway. How long he had been living on our boat is a mystery. On arrival in French Cay, Eric and I were enjoying our new backyard and salt pool when total panic struck.

There, in the aft saloon, was the biggest BAT we had ever seen. Just hanging there. Like a lazy crew member. As if this was going to be his forever home.

Yeah….Nooooo. I do not do bats.

We immediately sealed off the aft saloon and refused to go in there again until the beast had departed. Of course, Jens and Arzum arrived for an anchor beer and found this situation absolutely hilarious. Naturally, they insisted we all sit in the aft saloon. Obviously I sat as far away as humanly possible.

Out of nowhere, our bat – now named Draggie, decided he didn’t like the sound of our voices or our music and launched himself straight between us. His enormous wingspan opened dramatically, turning him into something out of a horror movie.

There was screaming and there was chaos of course from the humans and a lot of flapping from Draggie. After several seconds of airborne terror, Draggie flew off over the water to find a new home to haunt. I was extremely relieved to be rid of our stowaway.

Fantasy Island

After just two days on anchor and with the storm still approaching, we realized there were a few marinas nearby where we could tie up and be safer, and more comfortable. Suddenly, this felt like a very attractive idea. I mean, why sit out a storm if you don’t have to.

Together with Dilly Dally, we decided to move into Fantasy Island Marina ( Just saying “ The Fantasy is to be Fancy”). Most importantly, we could be securely tied up without worrying about a dragging anchor or a broken mooring ball.

Of course, nothing in boating is ever straightforward. When we arrived, there were no side tie docks available, so we had to do a med moor – meaning stern to the dock while dropping our anchor in front. The dock fingers were very short, so precision was required and so were nerves of steel, due to a large amount of wind already playing its part in creating as much discomfort as possible.

We’ve logged a decent number of nautical miles over the past couple of years and have been in and out of many marinas and anchorages. I wouldn’t call us pros, but we’re far from beginners. Still this manoeuvre made me nervous. We had never used our anchor while tying up to a dock before.

Years ago, when we chartered in the Mediterranean, the skipper handled all that. Back then, I just held my cocktail and looked confident. Very different job description I have today.

Thankfully Jens and Arzum have lots of experience med-mooring in Europe and Turkey. Jens offered to come aboard Intle Breeze after securing Dilly Dally and help us through this new challenge.

Once small problem and most likely the cause of my anxiety is the fact that we have not had a working chain counter since we left South Africa. The spray paint marks we once used to measure chain length?............long washed away by salt water.

So now it is all about educated guessing and counting “One rhinoceros……two rhinoceros…...three rhinoceros”

Miraculously, we made it in safe and sound and learned yet another new skill. We were very relieved to be snugly tucked into the marina.

The really bad weather was delayed a couple of days, but it did eventually arrive. We were extremely happy with our decisions, especially when one of our friends had a mooring line break during the worst of the weather and several boats on anchor began dragging.

Proudly South African.

This has been a very slow start to our sailing season. The weather hasn’t been fantastic, an endless amount of rain and unpredictable winds, which also limits what we can explore on land. Hence, we have become a bit boat bound.

At least being in marina, we have easy access to our friends and there happens to be a palapa where we can escape our floating home, when there is a gap in the weather.

To my delight when we arrived we discovered a South African flag proudly hung in the palapa by the previous marina managers, clearly they were long gone and that flag needed a new lease on life, we hauled it down for a good wash and hung it up proudly on the only day we had a gap in the weather, to light up a fire and have a good old South African Braai, with loads of meat on the fire and more sides than you can imagine, a beautiful melting pot of cultures chatting around the fire, and food from all around the globe. This reminds me of a beautiful word we have in South Africa “Ubuntu” meaning “I am because we are!” The philosophy behind this is that humanity is shared and is the embodiment of, compassion, respect, generosity and hospitality.

A Solo Return to South Africa

In the meanwhile, there were other plans in the making, and a split-second decision was made for me to return to South Africa for a few weeks, it wasn’t an easy decision, but sometimes the journey takes us exactly where our hearts and bodies need to be.

In the meantime, Eric will not sit still as he needs to be out of Honduras by the 11 Feb. As of right now there is no clarity as to exactly when I will return. Great news is that a lovely husband and wife team was found to crew with Eric until Cuba, to where I will hopefully return. Approved my all of us including buddy boat and Miço we are all set to move on to our next journey whatever and wherever that might be.