Sailing Into Freedom

Don’t panic people I have Covid. The trouble is I am again in the middle of nowhere and have to deal with it myself. It is definitely the worst flu I have ever had and what’s more it seems to be the flu that keeps on giving.

We hope you’re having a fantastic holiday, we are taking some time to recharge ourselves and sort things out. New Year ✨ new episodes! We are back to our usual series chronology where we are in Grand Cayman. Our excellent fans, Stephanie and Kyle take us for our final shop and surprise us 😲✨

We go through our preparations to leave the country: fill up on water, laundry, uploading episodes, checking out, get our spearguns dropped off to us and then we are off. But things are not quite right and we are forced to aim for a very secluded bunch of islands far far west of where we ought to check in….it is tragic news indeed. But the sailing is great and we are well on our way to an offshore sailing to Cuba….enjoy!

I have finally set sail and leave but only 15 minutes later the bilge alarm started screaming. I had to find out the problem so I hove-to to see the danger. With the winds getting stronger and almost all my electronics dead it looked like the day was going to be a very long one indeed.

Tropical storm Eta has finally developed into a category 4 hurricane so there has to be wind from this coming my way being only 200 mile north of me but the wind is still a headwind so I must be patient and wait … and wait. But it comes good finally and I am off….

I witness first hand and feel the shockwave of a lightning bolt just yards away from me. It travels through every critical instrument in my boat and destroys it all. I am alone, without communication and struggling to find a hole in the hull where it smashed its away to get to “ground”. The next 2 hours in the middle of the night are the most intensive I have ever experienced but the water keeps coming in…