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Once again, a new page has been turned and I have started a new chapter in my book of life. I decided to leave the M/Y Stampede in November and after a 6 week stint in Ft. Lauderdale, FL I was offered the opportunity to join as mate on the M/Y Ha-Sea II. She is a 112’ Westport built in 2006 and her home port is Naples, Fl. I have been aboard for almost 3 weeks now and have enjoyed getting to know my fellow crew members (Captain Kirk, Stewardess Wren, and Chef Dan). We are at the start of a 5 month Caribbean adventure in which we will travel as far south as the Grenadines and then weave our way up through the Windward and Leeward Islands. This posting is my daily log from our recent passage from Naples, Fl to St. Thomas USVI. Thanks for taking the time to look it over and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you….All the best…Mike

January 19th 2011.…Ha Sea II begins voyage to St. Thomas USVI

We finally left Naples a day late after dealing with some electrical issues and fighting against thick fog (that’s right, Naples Fl…the newfound land of fog). It seems like life on a motor yacht can sometimes be referred to as hurry up and wait. Granted the crew doesn’t own the boat and extra precaution must be taken to ensue as safe of a delivery as possible. So I get the game…but it was good to get out of Naples. And I had only been there for 10 days. We still had to do some calibrating on the big girl as we just got a new satellite phone. So, Paul (our electronics man) came out with us to do some test circles and made sure everything was going to function as it should. He and I took the new tender out ahead of the young lady and he showed me some of the new additions he made. Pretty awesome. The tender is equipped with auto-pilot, a 72 mile range radar, and a vessel tracking system that runs via GPS and allows us to track it wherever it might be (in case it gets stolen or the tow line breaks on the way down…all hail the tow gods).

Once Ha-Sea made it through the pass I dropped Paul off and waited in the tender until he was done with his calibrating. We headed out late in the afternoon and watching the girl make some turns amidst the backdrop of a gulf coast sunset while sitting in our tender was quite the experience. Moments like these are why I enjoy this lifestyle. Constantly being in nature offers some great opportunities to learn, become inspired, grow, appreciate its power, and make some great memories. After Paul completed his task (all systems go…woohoo!) I picked him up, ran him back into Naples, and headed back out to the Gulf to meet my ride south. Running 40mph just offshore in the Gulf with a huge full moon and Ha-Sea in view a few miles away was pure exhilaration. I have been mainly operating sailing vessels for the past few years (which are awesome in there own right) so for now the purr and roar of 900 horses gliding across the top of the water is certainly addicting. Give me more, give me more. Shortly after getting back to the yacht we got the tender safely secured for towing and began our voyage.

Night number one consisted of tacos (prepared by our excellent Chef Dan), a huge full moon, and smooth seas. We all settled into our watches and life was good on our boat.

January 20th…Ha Sea II en route to St. Thomas (3 and a half days left)

Captain Kirk (not quite the same Kirk of the Starship Enterprise) and I have the 4am to 10am watch which brought us into Key West, FL. Key West is surrounded by shallow water, reefs, tons of fishing traps, and narrow channels. The Keys are great and I hope to spend more time there one day, but navigating through on someone else’s 10 million dollar yacht implies keeping a sharp eye out and preferably coming through during day light. Our tender is being towed via a 200 foot line which we shortened to 50 feet to lessen our concerns a bit and as the new day began to show herself we quickly noticed we were in the middle of thick, milky fog. Not exactly what I expected traveling through Key West and certainly not inductive to easy navigation. But with the help of our two state of the line radars, a big boomy horn, and sharp eyes we made it through without any problems. I am certainly learning more about safe sea keeping everyday I am aboard and this morning offered another valuable experience.

At one point our port generator went out and shut off most of the electric power running onboard…but that’s why we have a back up. And after a quick start we were back online. The marine industry really teaches you to stay cool and deal with what you are dealt. Shortly after exiting the main shipping channel off of Key West, the fog lifted (of course) and we were greeted by sunny skies, deep blue seas, and a warm breeze. Dan and Wren came up to take over watch, I made myself a sandwich, made my way to the fly bridge and enjoyed watching the cruise ships, massive cargo ships and of course, the sunshine. Today we will pass north of Cuba and into the Bahama Channel as we meander our way south. We are chilling back and certainly chilling, Jack.

P.S…..Just had a pod of 8 or 10 dolphins join us for several minutes on both sides of the boat (12:30pm) They seemed to enjoy our bow wake. They are such awesome creatures.

Jan. 21st…22 29.50N…77 49.25W…In Bahama Channel

We have had another good day. The seas have picked up a little (2-4ft 6 sec.) but they are coming in just aft of our bow and Ha Sea is riding them nicely. We have had the stabilizers off for most of the trip. I think the weight of the tender is acting like a sea anchor and smoothing out the ride a bit.

One interesting thing to report. Around day break while Kirk and I were on watch we noticed two vessels show up on the radar. Both 12 miles out and both headed our way but with their heading our closest point of approach would be 3 miles for one and 1.5 miles for the other. Really no concern, but as usual we set them as targets and keep an eye on them. When you set a vessel as a target the radar informs you of the vessels constant speed, heading, our closest point of approach, and the time to that closest point of approach. All great aids to safe navigation.

We could tell from the information that the radar was giving us that one of the vessels was moving at 17 knots and seemed to be a large cargo ship. The other was moving between 7 and 8 knots and was a much smaller vessel. As our approach range decreased we gained a visual on the vessels. The cargo ship was going to pass well away from us
but the smaller vessel was slowly altering course thus causing our closest point of approach to now be within a half of a mile. As we moved within a mile of the vessel we were still headed for a close pass and now the vessel was slowing down to 2 knots. Upon further visual examination we noticed that the vessel was what looked like an old rusty fishing boat, 50 ft. in length, and its decks were full of people. Remember, we are just off the coast of Cuba. So this was certainly not a sight-seeing boat. You never hear of any recent pirate attacks coming from Cuba, but you do hear of refugee escape boats headed to America and who knows what they have planned. So I went up on deck to keep a look out and as we passed they came around on our stern but fortunately picked up speed and continued on their way. I would say there were 40 to 50 people on deck and more in the boat itself. Who knows where they were headed or what they were doing but I hope they all stay safe and out of trouble. It was quite the site indeed and of course the theatre of my mind aided in this excitement. Fortunately there was no need for a flare gun….Sail on!!!

Thick fog in Key West…the silhouette is a 200 foot salvage tug that was only a few hundred feet off of our port side

Dolphins give us some company just outside of Key West, FL

Strange boat we passed off the coast of Cuba. Perhaps full of refugees??

Sunrise off of Cuba

Awesome sunrise off of the Dominican Republic

My favorite tool during the passage…the West Marine hand pump…never board a leaking Boston Whaler without one.

Humpback Whale breaching off Samana Point in the Domincan Republic…awesome!!

Whale tale

Land Ho!!!…Outer Brass island off of St. Thomas USVI…we made it.

Dan, Wren, and myself enjoying our day off on St. John

Hawksnest Bay on St. John…my favorite beach.

Humpback Whale no more than 100 feet off of our bow…awesome creatures

Jan. 22nd….20 56.99N…73 50.27W…(ETA 1/24/11 10:30am)

Its 8:15am and Capt. Kirk and I are on our usual 4am to 10am watch. We are coming up on Great Inagua Island (to out East) which is the southernmost island in the Bahamas chain. Through the eyes of our binoculars it seems be somewhat populated as there are several towers and buildings scattered across the island. There is a nice lighthouse on the west end and what looked like some great beaches We finally passed Cuba in the early morning hours. I did not realize how big of an island Cuba is. As the crow flies it’s a little over 600 miles long and it took us 2 and half days to get past (running 10 knots). The wind has died down to 10 knots or less and moved around to the Southwest which has helped to flatten out the seas even more. We have really been blessed by the sea gods so far and based on the forecast this should continue (knocking on wood).

We noticed our starboard running light was out yesterday around dusk and the solar sensor on our tender seems to have failed as its running lights did not come on either. We had the solar sensor installed as to save on battery drain but with only two nights of effective use we would have been better off just using the battery. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Kirk and I changed the bulb in the starboard running light earlier this morning but with incredible luck, around 11:30 last night we got a call over the radio from a USCG Cutter that was out on patrol off of Cuba. We noticed them pass on our radar and could see their running lights but had no idea it was the Coast Guard. Just as they were off of our starboard stern they hailed us, turned around, and held off within a half of a mile throughout our chat. They were checking in concerning the running light being out but more so about the center console within 200ft of our stern with no lights on (our tender..Ha!) Kirk explained the situation and they proceeded to ask several questions to verify who we were, where we were headed, where we were coming from, and who was onboard. The seaman on the radio was pleasant and its nice to know they are out patrolling and keeping the waters safe. Cruising the Caribbean is certainly much safer than cruising around Libya, Somalia, Sri Lanka or other pirate infested waters. But with the evident unrest in Haiti and political turmoil in Venezuela I once again say its nice to know our ocean going military branches are out patrolling.

It looks like its going to be another great day. The Caribbean sun is out in full glory and after my watch I am going to head up to the bow and catch some rays. Today we will be passing the Turks and Caicos to our port (hoping to stop there on the way back) and will have Haiti and the Dominican Republic to our starboard by mid afternoon. This is living life to me.

January 23rd…..19 37.45 N…..069 28.05W (877nm down and 273nm to go)

It’s 8:30am and Capt. Kirk and I are almost done with our early morning watch. We had a really great sunrise this morning and enjoyed some nice views of the hills of the Dominican Republic. The winds are coming out of the SSE at 10 knots or less. The seas are 4 to 5 feet but its all swells and they are spaced 9 to 10 seconds apart. Ha Sea is riding them nicely and its fun to watch the bigger ones from far out as they approach the boat. We have 77 nautical miles to go until we get past the Dominican Republic and 142nm until we reach Puerto Rico. We are starting to hear more English on the VHF now and heard a long USCG transcription coming from San Juan earlier this morning. So, needless to say, we are approaching US waters. We are hoping pick up cell phone signal coming from Puerto Rico later today. In the midst of all the hurry to get out of Naples we forgot to register our Puerto Rico Direct TV dish (heaven forbid) so we lost satellite signal once we got past Cuba. No big deal, but today is Sunday and the Divisional Championship games for the NFL are scheduled to be played. Don’t get me wrong…the sun and fun is great. But seeing the games would be great too…Ha…Wren (our stewardess) mentioned that we would be passing Sumana Point today which is on the southern tip of the Dominican Republic. This is Humpback Whale season for these waters and according to Wren, Sumana Point is a favorite hang out…so maybe we can do a little whale watching instead.

12:15pm…Yesterday afternoon we were in some really calm seas so Kirk decided to slow the big girl down, pull in the tender and have me hop aboard to check things out. Mainly to see what was up with the running lights not coming on.

As I boarded the boat I noticed an alarm going off and figured it was a low voltage alarm for the house battery. I checked the gauges in the cabin and sure enough the battery was dead. Then things proceeded to get interesting.

The boat has 3 batteries dedicated to powering various things and to also be used as backups in situations like we were in. So I flipped the switches to the other two batteries and they were dead as well. That was weird; because I had turned them off just as I was getting off the boat to begin the trip down. Time for further inspection….

The batteries are located in the aft bilge locker so I opened it up to have a look. The batteries were there, but there was also about a foot and a half of water sloshing around as well. The water was high enough that it was splashing up over the tops of the batteries and covering the bottom quarter of the generator (which just so happens to include the
housing for the generator electronics)….bucket anyone??? All of the thru hulls were closed and this is a brand new Boston Whaler (trademarked as the “unsinkable legend”…remember the other vessel with that self proclaimed title??).

Well it wasn’t sinking, but it was sure full of water. After several minutes of pumping water, bailing, and a little cursing, all of the water was out. The batteries had died because this unknown leak was causing the bilges to run and they finally sucked out all the juice the batteries had to give.

The seas started to pick up a bit and with a dry bilge (at least for the moment) Kirk wanted to get me back on Ha-Sea for safety reasons and we would deal with the problem the next day.

Well today is the next day and we have been blessed by the sea gods again to have favorable seas for a boarding. We pulled the “leaking lady” in around 10:30am and I hopped aboard (this time armed with proper buckets and a better hand pump). Long story short there was twice as much water in the aft bilge today as there was yesterday. The
batteries were completely covered as was half of the generator (If anyone reading this blog works for Boston Whaler I mean no harm…but why is the battery box in the aft bilge to begin with; and not to mention the generator…The electronics housing that has now been thoroughly soaked with salt water is literally inches above the low level bilge
pump with a big sticker on it that reads “Caution: electronics; do not get wet!”…Really?? C’mon man…).

Hopefully we can get a charge on the batteries when we get to St. Thomas but I am afraid the generator is “no bueno” and we still can’t tell where the leak is coming from (we have a fairly good idea though).  Unless you are a fish, salt water has ill effect on most things it comes into contact with so, unfortunately, our new tender is going to need some serious attention. Such is all part of yachting I guess…glad I am not writing the checks.

4:45pm…Humpback Whale Sighting!!!…Well, Wren was right about Sumana Point being a favorite spot for Humpback Whales this time of the year. I never imagined we would actually see any but sure enough, around 2:30, Dan (our chef) spotted an area of white water 2 miles off the port-side of the bow that looked like a big fish had just
jumped. Capt. Kirk sidelines as an amateur photographer so he decided to change course and take a look. We were all up on deck with our eyes peeled and sure enough, about 5 minutes later a massive Humpback breached the water and landed with an earth shattering splash….”holy shit!” was all I could say and we all scattered for our cameras. We were
fortunate enough to follow this pod of 6 Humpbacks for the next 45 minutes.  They came as close as 100 feet from our bow and they were each 25 to 30 feet in length.  We could see them dive in the water and they gave us quite the show with multiple fin slaps, flukes, and 4 or 5 jumps clear out of the water. Their fin snap was like a loud snare
drum and the sounds of them clearing their blow holes was just awesome. This was quite the awe inspiring experience. I never thought I would have such an opportunity, especially in the beautiful blue Caribbean water….what a moment.

January 24th…Land Ho!…We Have Arrived…M/Y Ha-Sea II and the crew entered Red Hook Harbor at the East End of St. Thomas USVI at approximately 4:30 this afternoon. With our ‘leaking lady’ of a tender being non-operational we tied her up to our port hip and are all safely secured at American Yacht Harbor. We were certainly
blessed by the sea gods throughout our trip and the big boat performed admirably. Kirk is giving us the day off tomorrow and we plan on making the most of it by going over to St. John for some sun and fun. Its nice to be back on land for a bit and its good to be back in the Caribbean. This is the start of what should be a great adventure. If everything goes as planned, when its all said and done our round trip will be a little more than 5 months and 3,400 nautical miles. I am looking forward to it all and will enjoy sharing my experiences with the cyber world. Now, what do sailors do when they make landfall after a great passage? Drink rum of course and who am I to go against tradition…Cheers and thanks for reading…Mike