Captain's Log Archive

St. Petersburg, FL April 4, 2009

After taking fuel in G.C. We are underway bound for Guanaja in Honduras 300 N.M. away. With a fine Tradewind we make good time and I remind the students to enjoy it while they can as we are soon out of the Caribbean and won’t be having beam reaches and sunny days forever, but that is the future.Coming into Guanaja is a little tricky with lots of Coral Reefs for which the island is famous. I put the first mate up aloft to spot the for me and the tender ahead to sound out the bottom with a lead line while doing this I realize that this is probably the same way Columbus came into this harbor over 500 years ago we couldn’t use the radar as it was still in disrepair and the GPS is sometimes unreliable down here due to old chart datum that has never been accounted for. I thank all those old navigators who have come before and the ones who taught me the skills we are now passing on.
We come to anchor and have some time to look around at this magical place tall with lots of trees making a recovery from hurricane Mitch years ago. The main “town” is mostly on stilts and after a short while we are cleared in.In what has become typical of this voyage Miss. Honan quickly finds the best boat operator on the Is. And the students are off seeing some of the last live coral reefs in the world.On our second night we take the students out to a restaurant owned by some very nice Germans who feed us roast pork and Spetzla (German pasta) a good time is had by all.Next day we are bound for the USA 750 NM distant. The students are really coming into their own now and we are trusting them with more and more responsibility they are all studying hard for midterms and navigating and sailing and cleaning and…… I really am pleased at how well they take it all.We have a couple of great sailing days with one day of 190 nm falling just shy of the coveted 200 mile day.
As we approach the Yucatan channel and leave the tropics mother nature shows us her stuff buy sending a cold front our way all hands have plenty of time to get ready and the ship is as prepared as she can be for this event. Finally we see the line approaching with lots of rain and lightning as the lightning gets really thick and close I order all student hands below. And the cold front passes in the classic manner temperature drops, lighting strikes all around, rain falls and the wind comes around 90 deg. One bolt of lightning comes so close that Mr. Simpson and John Fagan feel a shock! After all this the wind dies and we have to motor student Anthony Merrill and B watch Navigate as we make our way to the anchorage south of Mullet Key A huge American flag on the key welcomes us home.

Fair Winds, Captain Flansburg