Just like JC Penney we had a bonus spring sail. We had hoped to sell Fly Away by spring and when
we didn’t sell it, we decided to sail it.
Spring sailing, we have come to find out, is the best and most comfortable
sailing. The weather is mild, so the seas and the anchorages are calm. No hurricanes, storms, no heavy winds, no becalming winds, just right. And everything followed – the water was calm
and clear, the exploring more comfortable, sleeping was great, cooking was
cooler, and relaxing in the cockpit was better.
We had three big adventures on this sail from March to June
2017. We had a Cuban refugee stowaway,
sailboat wrecks (2), and found a huge anchor.
Then we had typical adventures, still wonderful, a shark encounter
during a loggerhead turtle encounter, friendly folks from Colorado Springs with
a bright red parachute spinnaker, and unexpected buddy boating friends from
last year.
In our last days on Cay Sal Island before we headed to
Marathon and back to St. Petersburg, we had a Cuban racing pigeon land on our
decks, our only Cuban refugee this trip. We shewed it off, but it returned and
indicated it wanted to stay. It had a yellow leg band with Cuba 2012, some initials and a 6-digit number.
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| Gui, Cuban racing pigeon with its leg band |
We
checked with our friends stateside who checked on the internet, and found that Cuban
racing pigeons are great sport there, but since Cuba doesn’t have internet
access there were no records online and we couldn’t find it’s owner. We found
that racing pigeons cannot exist on their own, and must have human support for
food, water, and shelter to survive. Friends sent us information on what and
how much racing pigeons eat – you feed them once a day if you race them, twice
a day if they are squab! Nuts, cracked
corn, grits, rice (not too much), sunflower seeds (unsalted) were the basic
foods.
Once we decided to welcome the
bird, we named it Gui, Spanish for guide, go figure, since it apparently got
lost in a race, perhaps blown off course in a storm. D took a container that stored some of our
canvas and cut vents in it to make Gui a coop.
He put a perch and water and food dishes in it. Gui went right in her
new home and napped immediately. She was
home! Each day at sunrise, about 6:30
am, Gui flew to our boat and each evening about 4-5 pm she would fly to a
wrecked sailboat on shore to roost in its top open lazarette. She was a
beautiful flyer, wings swept back and so fast. She regained her health but did
not fly back to Cuba as we were expecting her to do. That’s what racing pigeons do, return home,
according to their GPS and training. So
what to do? We’re leaving. She couldn’t survive on her own. The island had no
fresh water, she couldn’t find food on her own, and there were no other
companions.
When she flew to her coop the
next morning, we closed the door and departed for Marathon. She was a good sailor and traveler. In Marathon, we bought her a two story cage
and decked it out with swimming pool to splash in, put in real pigeon food,
oyster shell grit for digesting food, and water trays. It had a raised bottom
that poop went through and was easier to clean.
Now what to do? There were people
and groups who rescued Cuban racing pigeons in the Keys, brought them back to
health, and released them to return to Cuba. Gui didn’t want to go to Cuba or
she would have gone when we were 30 miles off Cuba, now we are 100 miles from
Cuba. Marathon had fresh water and lots
of pigeons that looked like Gui, but we decided to take her to St. Petersburg
and Orlando and see about retraining her for a new home and change her
GPS. Once again, she traveled well, but
she really wanted to fly, and it was difficult to see her caged.
In Orlando D found there were 2 racing pigeon
clubs, and he knew people in both of them!
Not only that but there was a big race in Spring Hill, Florida, June 24,
with 1500 pigeons racing from a point north.
They were trucked up north in cages, released, and returned to their
home cages which triggered a timer to turn into the race officials. The purse was $1,000,000!! Pigeon racing is big! Who knew?!
D found a man who retired from racing
pigeons and now just showed them and had them as pets. His name was Fred and he
was from Puerto Rico, so he could speak Gui’s language. He offered to take Gui. That’s when we found out that Gui was a ‘he.’
Oops. Fred said he would work with Gui
to retrain him and reset his GPS and then be free to fly and safely
return. The strategy was to mate Gui
with a female and have a brood. Once the family is created, Gui would have an
incentive to come home as racing pigeons apparently mate for life. This would take a while, and is in the
process now.
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| La Vie, St. Petersburg, on the beach of Cay Sal Island, Bahamas |
The wrecked sailboat that was Gui’s roost on Cay Sal Island
had washed ashore on our favorite beach. It was La Vie from St. Petersburg. It lost its keel, rudder, and the propeller
blades were bent back. The mast had
crashed through the deck and sand had filled the boat making it crack open in 3
places.
We found out later that it was
an O’day 37, a lovely center cockpit sailboat. I took pictures hoping to return
to St. Petersburg and find the owners and hear their story. We suspected that a
storm broke loose their anchor and washed them ashore while they desperately
tried to motor off, hence the bottom damage. I especially wanted to know about
the rescue from the deserted island.
We
traced the boat on the internet to the St. Petersburg to Havana Race and it
said the owner was Martin Saveedra out of the Boca Ciega Yacht Club. We called him and talked with Janice Saveedra,
his wife, and the story was so much more amazing than we knew and could
imagine.
Martin had sailed La Vie in the
St. Petersburg to Havana Race and on his way back, just a few miles from Key
West, one of his crew members had a medical emergency and had gone into
diabetic shock. When Martin tried to turn the engine on, it failed, bad gas
from Cuba in his opinion. Then in very
rough seas he went to raise the main sail and lines became tangled and the sail
flapped out of control, and he cut the halyard.
Now he had no motor, no main sail, just a jib, so he called for a
tow. The towing company would not work
in the rough seas and advised him to call the US Coast Guard for a rescue. By
now the sun was setting and the boat had drifted more miles off shore. The USCG
advised him that when they were rescued they would have to abandon the ship.
That’s how Martin last saw his sailboat, adrift with lights still on, in the
Straits of Florida. How hard is
that?
We came to find out that Martin was quite a celebrity in the race. Having been born in Cuba, he was a part of the Peter Pan program where Cuban parents sent their children to the US when Castro came into control. Parents who hoped to be reunited one day with their children, but that has to be hard! Luckily for Martin, who was 12, and his sister, his uncle claimed them in Miami, and his parents joined them several months later.
So in this race Martin was one of the first Cuban born American citizens to return legally to Cuba. He was held in immigration for 5 hours, missing the race party. His wife and children had come to Cuba to see him and his birth country. She told the race committee of his detention and the Commodore went and was able to retrieve him. They traveled around Cuba always under observation. He and his family and visited his old home that now housed 3 families and saw the business building in Havana where his father worked.
It was an emotional visit for him. It was an emotional trip back. Martin appreciated that the Cuban racing pigeon found refuge on his boat.
We came to find out that Martin was quite a celebrity in the race. Having been born in Cuba, he was a part of the Peter Pan program where Cuban parents sent their children to the US when Castro came into control. Parents who hoped to be reunited one day with their children, but that has to be hard! Luckily for Martin, who was 12, and his sister, his uncle claimed them in Miami, and his parents joined them several months later.
So in this race Martin was one of the first Cuban born American citizens to return legally to Cuba. He was held in immigration for 5 hours, missing the race party. His wife and children had come to Cuba to see him and his birth country. She told the race committee of his detention and the Commodore went and was able to retrieve him. They traveled around Cuba always under observation. He and his family and visited his old home that now housed 3 families and saw the business building in Havana where his father worked.
It was an emotional visit for him. It was an emotional trip back. Martin appreciated that the Cuban racing pigeon found refuge on his boat.
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| Bella, Savannah, in a cove on Anguilla, Cay Sal Bank, Bahamas |
The other wrecked boat, Bella, out of Savannah, Georgia, was
on the northeast rocky shore of Anguilla, located on the southeast corner of
Cay Sal Bank. It was a recent wreck, the foodstuff was unspoiled, a package of
lunch meat was still good. The front of the sailboat was sheared off leaving
only the stern sideways in the cove. The mast laid beside the stern with the
main sail still up the mast. The inflatable dinghy was still inflated and tied
to the mast. Where were captain and crew? There were 16-5 gallon fuel
containers strewn throughout the small cove, along with pieces of the interior
of the boat; cushions, bulk heads, cabinetry.
We hauled the fuel up to the ridge hopefully protecting the water from fuel contamination. Later when the USCG flew over we reported it. The USCG was unaware of the wreck and initiated an investigation. We learned that they investigated but were unable to share the findings due to privacy, so hopefully the captain survived. We continue to search for the owner of Bella.
We hauled the fuel up to the ridge hopefully protecting the water from fuel contamination. Later when the USCG flew over we reported it. The USCG was unaware of the wreck and initiated an investigation. We learned that they investigated but were unable to share the findings due to privacy, so hopefully the captain survived. We continue to search for the owner of Bella.
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| 8'4" x 6' Anchor 200 feet off Cay Sal Island in 10 feet of water |
The last adventure started with a huge catamaran appearing
around the end of Cay Sal Island late one afternoon. It was a Lagoon 45 named Karis, with a 72
foot high mast flying a bright red parachute spinnaker. Imagine this, a bright red sail emerging from
behind the island with deep blue skies in the back ground, brilliant white
sand on the beach with green palm trees in front of the boat. It was spectacular. We met Mike and Carla and
spent the next 3 days exploring the island and enjoying sunsets and cocktails
on their spacious boat. Their boat Karis was named for the Greek goddess for
grace. They told us about a huge anchor below their boat, so we explored and
wow, it was huge.
D and I measured it with line – 8’4” from top to bottom, 6’0”
tip of fluke to tip, and 24” circumference of the shank. We estimated it weighed close to 2,000
pounds. It was about 200 feet offshore in 10 feet of water. How did an anchor
that size get there? Where is the boat big enough to carry that anchor? It’s a mystery! D spent a lot of time
figuring out how to float and recover this artifact. How many 55 gallon barrels
would it take to float it? 5. We think.
This is the final blog for Fly Away. It was sold July 24, 2017 to a couple who
plan to live aboard and cruise which is a very happy ending for D and me. We hope they enjoy sailing and have grand
adventures cruising.
