May 3 – Dominican Republic:
Glancing down at my red, scraped knuckles as I type, I am reminded of the hard work Cielo’s crew has been putting in to gear her up for the 1200-mile passage that lies ahead.
Up until yesterday, my time on Cielo seemed more like a vacation on a floating hotel complete with first class drinks made by Kevin, the best bartender in the Northern hemisphere and snacks whipped up by Lizz, who’s evidently been an apprenticing Betty Crocker. Within the last 36 hours, this feeling of vacation has been replaced by cold hard reality of the serious work required when preparing for an extended off-shore passage.
We spent all day yesterday prepping for our journey: ferrying food and fuel from town to the boat, boat maintenance including changing the fuel filters, preparing provisions and tweaking our planned sailing route.
The most physically intense thing I’ve done since coming aboard is clearing Cielo’s hull of growth. The longer a boat sits in the water, the more slimy hairy growth and barnacles she accumulates. Surprisingly, just a small amount of growth can impede our speed through the water by a knot, which would cause us to lose 24 miles of distance every day. 24 miles is a lot of distance when you consider that a good 24-hour run for Cielo is 150 miles. So, with this in mind, we all donned snorkel gear, grabbed our scrapers and brushes and got to work. At first blush, scraping the hull may not seem like a big deal, but I can assure you… It’s an absolute bitch!
