This was a four-day sail. We had not done any four-day sails except with additional crew. We were a bit nervous. Our crew flew back to America, so Dave and I had to continue on by ourselves to Cayman. Four days of sailing meant sailing three long overnights.
We hired a meteorologist who advised us on weather including wind, squalls, waves, swell, etc. He suggested a departure plan and weather routing. With the route entered into the chart plotter, along with all the little hazards along the way, we were ready to go.
Since our crew was cut in half, we had plenty of provisions. We would have rather had the extra crew…
We started out the morning of April 30 around 8AM. At six knots, we’d arrive in three days and one hour. Six knots sounded conservative. We expected to arrive the morning of May 3.
The initial winds were a little close on the nose, so our VMG was a bit slow. The forecast was for light winds for much of the voyage. Motor sailing would be in order.
Around 3PM. after seven hours of motorsailing, we spotted Providencia to the NW. This time, we sailed on by. That was the last land for a while.
As evening fell and Providencia started to fall off into the horizon, we started our night shifts. We were doing three four-hour shifts. Dave did 6-10 PM and 2-6 AM. Mary did the 10-2 shift over the midnight hours.
Day Two of the voyage was more motorsailing. And a straight shot NNE towards the Serranilla Banks. Serranilla is famous for its role in the Guano Act of 1856. Guano was big business in the 1850’s! We picked Serranilla as our target as this was over 180 miles from the Nicaragua coast. There be Pirates in them waters…
In mid-morning on Day Two, we turned north near Serranilla and the out edge of the Nicaraguan Rise. Still nothing to see other than the occasional tanker of freighter off in the distance. The motor sailing continued.
Somewhere around midnight on the start of Day Three, we turned a little west to head to Cayman. We’d cleared the Nicaraguan Rise and were hoping for a little better wind and so we could sail without the motor. No luck. Motorsailing continued. And we were leaving pirate waters behind.
We had been in squall territory for a bit, and squalls were expected to increase. During the day, you could see them coming and make evasive maneuvers. At night, you had to check the radar to see where the squalls were heading. We did get caught in the edges of a couple of squalls, so we got to experience the leading winds and some brief heavy rain. One squall had the start of a small waterspout that passed us by just a couple hundred yards away. That was exciting.
About 90 miles from Cayman, the winds turned a bit, and we were finally able to shut down the motor. We were sailing!
On Day Four, after a long night of dodging weather and watching out for commercial shipping, we could finally see Cayman on the horizon. It was a lot flatter than we expected – not even a hill in sight! We pulled into the Port Authority and had a very quick and easy check-in. The officials provided waypoints for all the free government-owned anchor buoys. So we picked a buoy field, grabbed a buoy, and immediately fell into our bunks for some needed recovery napping. Welcome to Cayman!
Sailing YO-D-YO 
Good job! Good snorkeling with clear water like that.
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Great recap. Not sure why I didn’t see this post earlier. Good job!
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