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From Deb O'Neill, Software Engineer:

"So what do you think, honey?" my fiancé Justin asked. I tried to smile encouragingly as I looked at the new purchase and the start of our next adventure. If you've ever seen the movie "Captain Ron," where a sad old yacht is creaking at the end of a dock in the Caribbean, then you have an idea of what our new purchase looked like.

The yacht was really decrepit. You name it, it didn't work. The engine was in pieces, neither of the toilets worked, the fridge was broken, and the sides leaked. We spent the next five months trying to get the boat sea-worthy enough to sail out of the harbor. Even then, we left with a meat thermometer stuck in the header tank of the engine so we could monitor and prevent an over-heating problem.

We hung out for a while in a port in the Dominican Republic (where we bought the yacht), waiting for good weather so we could sail across the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico. The rough conditions in the Mona Passage were so feared by tender-hearted cruisers that people would wait weeks for the perfect weather window. We thought all the worriers were lame and that it was no big deal. We decided to head out.

It wasn't too bad for the first 24 hours — a nice wind and not too rough, until around six in the evening. The horizon looked a bit cloudy and the wind had picked up a little, but we still weren't particularly anxious. Next, the breeze picked up to about 60 knots with waves to match. At that point, we decided to roll up our headsail; this was when we found that it didn't work. That meant Justin had to go up to the bow. Harnessed and tied to the boat the whole way, I watched him clinging to the sail and rolling it up while being pounded by water. Not long after this, I was forced to go up on deck as we tried to pull down the mainsail, which had started to tear apart. While all of this was going on, we looked on our port side to see a school of pilot whales cruising next to us as if to say that everything would be all right.

We had to wear wet-weather gear the whole time because the rain was hitting us like bullets. Down below was pretty wet, too. In addition to the leaky portholes and hatches, there was water and oil running across the floor from the bilge because we were heeling so hard. We should have pumped the bilge before we heading out. Then, for some stupid reason, we squirted detergent on the floor in an attempt to disperse the oil. Needless to say, this just created a slip-and-slide floor — it was crazy!

Finally, the conditions settled, or so we thought ... It was pretty nice out for awhile. At about midnight, we thought we saw land in front of us on the radar. Instead, we realized we were looking at storm fronts so heavy that they were showing up on the radar! We were hit by a few more smaller fronts, but nothing as heavy as the first. Due to the storms, we docked in Puerto Rico around 4:00 a.m. We managed to navigate our way with the radar and a map, anchor, and finally go to sleep. What a great feeling it was to know it was all behind us! The following morning, we woke up only to notice a huge rock nearby poking out of the water. It was not on the map. Lucky us ... again.

As someone once said to me, "God looks out for drunks, fools, and sailors."

— Deb

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Read more "Letters from Tripod" in the archive.

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