S/V L'ORIENT

The crab - a work by Picasso Kleman During Mike Tyson's period of boxing domination, a reporter asked the champ if he was worried about his next opponent, who apparently had devised a plan to spring a major upset. "Everybody has a plan until they get hit upside the head" was his response. Here in the Bahamas, we create, revise, and re-revise our sailing route but the ultimate arbiter of our plan in clearly the weather. We're island hopping to the southeast.......making big jumps when the wind is favorable (which isn't often). We get no fewer than 3 weather reports, compare our information to that of other cruisers, then make a decision on whether to sail. The cost of being wrong can be severe.........in 25 knot wind coming right at us, the boat will move at only 2-3 knots; barely a slow walk. It's hard on the boat as well as our nerves. Move the wind around by 40 degrees, and L'ORIENT can move at more than 7 knots and cover a lot of ground quickl...

Staniel Cay, Exumas After Club Chub and New Providence Island we went to Highbourne Cay…..in the Exumas. Lovely spot. More or less a small fishing outpost. Now we are at Staniel Cay, a beautiful, primitive, small resort a bit further southeast in the Exumas. Problem now is that ferocious east wind has trapped us here for a few days. Our choice is sailing against the wind in 12 foot seas or waiting this out……the latter is our plan. Staniel Cay International's Welcome Sign As in other spots, the new standard for us in gauging the suitability of a beach is whether is has perfect sand and is completely deserted. The beaches here are really lovely. Anchored in front of Staniel we actually prefer the beach on the left………while both beaches are devoid of people, wild pigs inhabit the beach on the right…..and feel entitled to handouts. I’m still getting over the Hannibal Lechter movie where pigs eat a guy so I could never spend a relaxing moment there. There are a few rule...

Wow.....to quote an 80s song......"same as it ever was".........or to paraphrase Steven Colbert, we're out to prove we're the same sailors we never weren't. We left Miami Beach Marina on schedule with our Italian friends at mid day on Thursday. Alternator not working, autopilot mis-aligned - in other words, small boat problems. We bypassed Bimini, and headed right for Chub Cay Marina.......about 120 miles. First half of the trip was great sailing; then the wind died and we motored the last half.........still not bad given it's November and every mile east is a small victory (we need 1,000 more such victories). Day two and we sailed to the west side of New Providence Island. We are anchored here with our Amel friends Alessandro, Lucetta, Blu, and Eric (their crew). It's hard to describe the change we've undergone in the past 3 days. As jarring as Dec 5, 2012 was (when we ended our 13 months at sea)........this has been a wonderful reversal of t...