Anna Marie and I are waiting here in Martinique for our new generator to arrive. While we do so, we are catching up on some boat chores, and making plans to sail to New England for the summer.
We had two options. Sail south to Grenada or Trinidad to be south of the hurricane belt, or go north. We are going to opt to go north and be close to family and friends this hurricane season.
Being that neither of us has a great deal of offshore sailing experience, we wanted to have at least one other crew member with a good deal more experience than either of us. The search was on…
For numerous reasons, we started asking people we knew and trusted. Experience is great, but if personalities clash on a long voyage, tension can become very uncomfortable. Although none of the people we knew could help out the dates we wanted to go, they pointed us in the right direction.
We contacted Hank from Offshore Passage Opportunities. Hank was extremely helpful in assisting us posting the opportunity, and within a couple hours, we started to receive resumes from sailors who had much more experience than we could have hoped for. We figured the fairest way to approach the selection process was to interview them via telephone in the order we received them.
Much to our surprise and good fortune, the first candidate turned out to be perfect. He had his captains license, was a member of the USCG Power Squadron in the States, and in addition to all the other sailing experience he has, he has circumnavigated the globe single handily for the majority of the trip. His personality is easy going,which fits perfectly with ours, and as a plus, he cooks.
While all of this was going on, I was busy learning how to operate our SSB (single sideband radio), researching satellite phones, and weather apps we can use for route planning and passage making.
So, here we go.
Our generator arrived early this week. Fortunately, it passed through customs quickly, and we are well into the replacement project. Once completed, we plan to sail to Antigua, leave the boat in a marina for a couple weeks while we head home for our son Bryan’s graduation, and fly back the end of May. We will then sail to Saint Martin, wait for good weather, and head out to sea. We will be buddy boating with Miles of s/v Lady Bug. Miles has been making this trip back and forth between Rhode Island and the Caribbean for many years. Although we are leaving our comfort zone, we believe we are doing it in good company.
Exciting, new adventures! Happy Sailing! Congratulations on Bryan’s graduation. I remember my first FaceBook/email contact with him. God bless the Stascavage family!