Sailing Catamaran: On our way for the crossing.

Countries visited by boat

1 nautical mile(nm)=1.86km

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Antigua & Barbuda.....61 nm

Australia...........1239 nm

Bahamas.......2009...529 nm

Bahamas.......2012...607 nm

British Indies

- Turks and Caicos

- ......2009..........45 nm

- Turks and Caicos

- ......2012.........478 nm

- Montserrat..........33 nm

Canary Ialands.......172 nm

Cape Verde.............5 nm

Colombia.............293 nm

Dominica..............37 nm

Dominican Republic...293 nm

Equator

- Galapagos............5 nm

Egypt................846 nm

Eritrea..............273 nm

Fiji...................5 nm

French Indies

- St-Marteen.2009....103 nm

- St-Marteen.2012....103 nm

- St-Barth............19 nm

- Guadeloupe.........124 nm

- Martinique..........67 nm

French Polynesia...1,043 nm

Grenada...............85 nm

Greece...............558 nm

Gibraltar.............37 nm

Indonesia..........1,656 nm

Italia...............672 nm

Malaysia.............449 nm

Maldives...............5 nm

Netherlands Antilles

- Bonaire............ 44 nm

- Curacao............ 63 nm

- Aruba.............. 55 nm

Maroc................146 nm

Panama...............692 nm

Puerto Rico (US).....222 nm

Samoa..................5 nm

St-Kitt and Nevis.....61 nm

St-Vincent............80 nm

Singapore.............47 nm

Spain................818 nm

Sri Lanka..............5 nm

Sudan................337 nm

Thailand ............166 nm

Turkey...............419 nm

USA................1,760 nm

Vanuatu................5 nm

Venezuela............391 nm

Virgin Islands (US)

...........2009.......21 nm

Virgin Islands (US)

...........2012......107 nm

Virgin Islands (US)...21 nm

Yemen................457 nm

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46 countries......15,764 nm

Ocean Passages

1 nautical mile(nm)=1.86km

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Pacific ocean

- Panama to

....Galapagos.......880 nm

- Galapagos to

....Marquesas......3050 nm

- French Polynesia to

....Samoa..........1179 nm

- Samoa to

....Fiji............574 nm

- Fiji to

....Vanuatu.........711 nm

- Vanuatu to

....Australia.....1,320 nm

Indian ocean

- Darwin to

....Kupang..........476 nm

- Thailand to

....Sri Lanka.....1,150 nm

- Sri Lanka to

....Maldives........457 nm

- Maldives to

....Yemen..........1503 nm

Atlantic ocean

- Rabat Morocco to

....Canary Islands..459 nm

- Canary Islands to

....Cape Verde...s..866 nm

- Cape Verde to

....Antigua.......2,111 nm

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3 oceans.........14,736 nm

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

On our way for the crossing.

Yesterday we left Miami on our way to a small island called “Pumpkin Key” about 30 miles south. The goal being to get more south than needed to compensate for the Gulf Stream current that will push us north. The watermaker being fixed and producing water so pure that we will likely need some mineral supplements, the boat is now ready for the serious passage to the Bahamas. Well, at least that what we thought. Dark forces, it seems, were at play yesterday to make sure we don’t get to Pumpkin Key and not a minute after we raised the anchor Danielle noticed that the port engine throttle did not respond to the control level. It was running but was not going faster or slower???? I then put my repairmen hat and jumped in the engine room to found out that the control cable for the throttle had just snapped. A control cable for a boat engine is a big cable similar to the one used for the breaks on a bicycle. It is easy to fix, when you have a spare one!!! While I was scratching my head to figure a way to fix this, the dark forces were still at play. Danielle complained that there was a strong gas smell in the cockpit and sure there was one. After investigation, I found out that the gas line of the inflatable dinghy had a 1” crack and was leaking its gas.
The good news is that the Yin and the Yan of the universe created opposite forces to help us fix the issues. For the dinghy gas line we unbelievably happened to have bought a brand new one the day before as a spare! But the control cable was a bit more complicated. We stopped the boat at an anchorage point a few miles down the road and it just happened that “Slow Mocean”, a boat we know with Blake and Sunny on board, was there. Blake went on board to help me out while Danielle contacted Hans, a very good mechanic in Clayton NY. Hans quickly gave me the information we needed on the cable and with Blake’s help Danielle, who had already managed to get online, found a store on the other side of the bay that had it in stock. Blake happened to have a parcel to pick up at the marina one block from the store so he took me there with his boat. We found the problems around 11:00 am and at 5:00pm they were both fixed! After five months of dealing with boat issues we are now getting pretty good at it ;-) Of course, all the stars aligning at the same time helped too!
Since we left one day earlier we are still on schedule for Pumpkin Key and our crossing.

Sailing Catamaran

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Blog Archive

Countries visited by boat

Countries visited by backpacking

Ocean Passages

Planned itinerary

Note about real itinerary map

Real itinerary

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

On our way for the crossing.