First Official Sail on Soul de La Mar; Puerto Rico to the Bahamas

Before leaving for our 980 nm journey, we looked at the weather and downloaded as much of the forecast as we could. The forecast showed 20-30 knots of wind from the east for the first few days of the sail. This meant that the first few hours from leaving the marina and getting to the east side of the island, the wind would be behind us. On the way out of the channel, I opened some sparkling grape juice and cheered my first official sail and finally leaving the dock. The waves were about 4-8 feet behind us for the first few hours. The headsail was out and we were cruising between 8-12 knots (getting 10-12 when we would surf the waves). It was a beautiful sunny day and the boat was so comfortable. David went to take a nap and I read a few chapters of my book and had a short workout. 

By sunset, it was time for us to turn north and begin our way through the Mona Passage. I hadn’t done much reading about it but had heard that it is nicer to come from Puerto Rico versus the Dominican Republic and I was also told to head north and go toward Turks and Caicos versus the Dominican, where it stays rough. This is due to only 65 nautical miles between the two islands, and the north side is where the Caribbean waters meet the Atlantic, along with strong winds. 

I took the first watch, which lasted until about 2 am. The wind died down to about 15 knots and we let out the full headsail, but had to reef it again within the hour. The waves got smaller, or maybe felt smaller since it was dark and I couldn’t see them, until about midnight. Around 1 am, I heard an unusual splash and had a pod of dolphins right next to me that hung out for about 15 minutes as we were exiting the passage between the two islands. This moment was so surreal to me as the first time I had ever sailed on a monohull, we saw dolphins at 1-2 am after we finished crossing the gulf stream. 

I went to sleep shortly after this and David took a watch. I don’t sleep well when I’m down below due to multiple reasons. Everything sounds and feels more intense; this combined with not seeing what is going on makes it harder for me to sleep. The winds and waves had picked up a bit, David had needed a rain jacket, and he was adjusting the sails. I went upstairs to check a few times before 5 am and quickly went back downstairs each time trying not to think about the size of the waves and the wind speed. 

He probably had the worst of the watches so far, and I took over shortly before the sun came up. Sunrises and sunsets are my favorite thing, especially over the ocean and I always like to watch them. This morning was cooler, a little cloudy, and the waves were the biggest I had ever been in. The swells were probably 20-30 feet, but spaced out with 5-10 foot chop on top and in between. They were to our beam, but it was really comfortable and we were not keeled over too bad. After breakfast, we napped on and off most of the day as the conditions stayed constant. 

The following day as we approached some banks, the wind and waves died down a bit and were behind us. By mid-afternoon we noticed the boat was swinging a lot, seeming to overcorrect every movement to stay on the right heading. I pulled out yet another manual and tried to adjust the autopilot settings. Nothing worked and we ended up setting my autopilot to a wind heading versus a compass heading. This meant that although we didn’t have to steer constantly, we had to check our heading frequently as wind direction can change at any moment as well as steering once in a while when the wind was shifting or dying.

Our first sunset in the Bahamas only had a few knots of wind. David was on the deck finishing dinner and I was on the bow of the boat, in front of the forestay taking pictures and videos when the autopilot stopped working and we did a full circle. I hung onto the boat while David ran back and corrected it. We were slowly losing wind and the autopilot had less of a sense of direction. My batteries were also struggling to keep up whenever we turned the engine off because the solar panels were not giving the boat energy (we had no multimeter and couldn’t diagnose the root cause) and with the wind dying, we lost the power we were originally getting from the wind generator. Throughout the rest of the trip, we had to start the engines periodically to charge my batteries, mainly for the navigation equipment.

We anchored in Great Exuma on December 21 around 11 pm to clear customs and immigration the following day. We were going to test the autopilot in the morning, but when I turned my electronics back on, everything was working, including my radar. Apparently, they just needed a break. While I cleared, David worked on the solar panels. We found out that the solar panels were producing power and the controller was properly connected to the batteries, but there was a disconnect somewhere and we couldn’t do much else. 

Leaving Great Exuma we had 15 knots of wind in the face for the next 24 hours. I dropped David off in Staniel Cay and continued the trip (36 hours) solo. It was so exciting. The following day around noon I was able to change my heading and sail for 8 hours across the bank until I reached the gulf stream. It was a beautiful, sunny day with only 1 foot waves and I was even able to finish my book.

I pulled into Fort Lauderdale at sunrise on Christmas Eve, got fuel, and went to the dock. My first time docking solo and I had only backed a sailboat into a slip under 5 times. This was the part I was most nervous about from the whole trip. I was so happy there was no wind and my grandfather was there to catch my lines. 

I washed the boat, changed the oil, got groceries for my trip back to the Bahamas, and tried to clean up a little bit. We were going to see family for Christmas Eve, but I knew on Christmas Day I had about 50-60 boxes of food I had ordered from Costco and Thrive Market plus my personal stuff to load up and find homes for. 

On Christmas Day I had help with all the boxes and patching holes in my dinghy. Somehow, I found room for all the food I had preordered and I successfully used a patching solution that works from the inside out for the dinghy (this was a lifesaver and am so happy fellow sailors mentioned it). I worked from 6 am to 5 pm (after only 1 true night of sleep since leaving Puerto Rico). Everything was on the boat, including Mako’s things, and I went up for Christmas dinner with my grandfather and friends. After dinner and being in Florida for only 30 hours, I pulled out of the dock and headed back to the Bahamas.

I had no wind the entire trip and motored the whole way. It was absolutely stunning and the ocean was glass. Mako got sick at first but was back to being a monster by sunrise. I caught 3 fish, including a tuna and a type of spearfish, and also saw pilot whales. The sunset as I was approaching Nassau was beautiful, I pulled into anchor at sunrise 36 hours after departing Florida.

My second solo sail (236 nm) was done, and I was finally in one place for more than 48 hours. I spent the day starting to organize things, spearfishing with friends, and having a glass of wine at sunset paired with fresh hogfish. My best friend from high school, Anna, was flying in the following day and we would be organizing and doing boat projects until 3 other friends flew in on New Year’s Eve.