Full Circle — s/v Reach

We have come full circle in 2021. We started the year in the Bahamas and will end the year in the Bahamas.

Following our haulout in June and a whirlwind of boat projects, we took to the road to visit family and friends for the rest of the summer. It turns out that we drove three full round-trips from GA to MD ~ once to pick up our rigging, once to move the boat, and a finally up and back for visiting…

It was great to have some family-time after not seeing anyone for two years. We even got in a trip to the beach when everyone was dow-nee ocean.

A few home projects were tackled when in town. The basement of my parents house was stripped down over days of trips to the dump, plus a dumpster. We are experts at getting rid of stuff!! The only thing we saved were old photos, including our own ~ the only box we saved from our downsizing. These were sorted (what memories!) to get digitally scanned.

We also drove from MD to MI and back for a family visit after our flights got canceled twice. By this time, we were amazed that our old [Craig’s List] car was still running… barely. We had a great time visiting in Flint and seeing everyone again after two years, although we were woefully negligent in getting any photos this year and will have to rectify that next time! On our next trip to CT to visit friends, we opted to rent a car and not chance any mishaps in the middle of NYC traffic.

Our goal this year was to get back to the Bahamas in November right when hurricane season ends. The weather and waters there in late fall are usually mild and lovely and you have the place to yourself before the post-holiday rush. There were a few lingering projects to knock-out before provisioning and setting sail.

Sailing straight from Georgia for 4 days took us right back where we wanted to be, to check-in at the Berry Islands. It was a favorable window with some light winds for motor-sailing at times. Passing the Florida Straits for our last night was a game of Frogger in-between plenty of brightly lit cruiseships among tankers.

We stopped at Spanish Wells for the first time this year and made a quick stop to visit friends on Long Island before getting south to the Ragged Islands. We like to spend time far as far south as possible for the winter months. In the spring we will sail leisurely back for more visits.

2021 Highlights ~

People

Compared to the previous year of self quarantine, 2021 brought a renewal of connections with people. After months of no socialization, it almost felt like you had to relearn how to interact again…

We had wonderful reunions this year with old and new friends. After being without, it sure does make you grateful for the people in your life!!

Reach

Before setting sail this fall, Reach had a few additional improvements beyond the June haulout project list and some rigging tuning.

One of our favorite additions to Reach is the forward-opening hatches installed in the saloon for much needed air-flow. Yet, we had to go through three iterations to get them delivered and installed without damage. Bomar really came through each time there was an issue and we finally have them just right.

We also bought a new screecher to round out our new set of sails. This is a CZ90 laminate sail from Calvert in gray, to match our North Sails 3Di main (69 sq. meters) and genoa (135%). The screecher (210%) is simply amazing to use in light winds and is the most impressive performance improvement we’ve noticed on our Dolphin 460.

Finally, we replaced the hydraulic steering pump with a new Vetus and all old solar panels (3 x 285W) with newer REC ones with a higher rating (3 x 370W). Together with the LG 400W bifacial panel on the davits, we now have 1510W of solar (!!). We run our AC watermaker and hot water heater routinely off of solar/battery power, plus we can power our new microwave/convection/broiler/airfryer!!

Fish

This year saw some highs and lows for fishing. We’ve starting to catch a few more fish trolling on the line here and there. We feel so healthy when eating a majority fish diet and have accumulated some great recipes over the years for wonderful meals.

Once Mark got into the groove of spear-fishing last spring, we got hit with ciguatera poisoning from an 8 lb tiger grouper. We knew it was possible to get ciguatera in the Bahamas and have always been careful not to catch bigger fish for that reason. Although 8 lbs is a size we’d usually eat, we didn't take into account the growth rate and full-grown size of the tiger relative to other grouper. For example, a Nassau grouper that size would be fairly young, while a tiger group of the same size is older, allowing for more toxin to be accumulated.

It was not pleasant to have ciguatera, even though we probably had a mild case and didn’t get nauseous. The symptoms started with lips, hand and feet tingling, plus muscle burning during walking. The itchy hands and feet stayed on for 3 months and was exacerbated by alcohol, other fish and nuts!! We learned a good lesson - never eat tiger grouper. It is a shame, because that was our best meal of the year, shared with friends (ugh)!

Birding

I would say that 2021 is a year that I really focused on listing while birding. Using eBird from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, I had been submitting sightings in recent years and even started updating historical sightings. This year, I reached a place of relative expertise built on more experience and confidence in the field that upped my game. Birding also brings a wonderful community of people where I have met mentors and friends to share the fun and build knowledge.

The eBird database is amazing for tracking sightings and finding birding hotspots. I started trying to reach some monthly goals to spot over 100 species of birds. During summer, I wouldn’t reach it, but during migration time, I saw over 130 birds in a month.

I hadn’t kept close track of my bird lists in the past, but eBird did. So in retrospect, I noticed that in 2020 I saw 198 species of birds (only needed 2 more to break 200… ugh). My 2021 goal was to break 200 species, which I did early on and ended the year with 217 birds between the Bahamas and US.

Listing is a nice challenge and way to build my knowledge,,, along with building my photography skills, which I am always working on to get past the next plateau. One of the things I worked on this year was bird-in-flight photos. I enjoy similar challenges underwater, especially to find the next “new” species, which I’ve documented in recent blog posts.

New Chapters

Back in the Bahamas this season, we are writing new chapters in our sailing life. For us, the people, places and nature are of foremost importance next to living in a safe, comfortable home, which Mark makes certain of.

We hope to continue to meet old & new friends and share common interests, like Shiera & Allen on Gémeaux who captured some lovely photos of Reach at anchor for us from interesting perspectives that we don’t usually get to see!

We were happy to spend Christmas with them and Susan & Rick on C_Language and Lynn, Mike, Amy & Dave on Sunbird, with a tasty dinner, care of Maxine!

Can’t wait to see what 2022 brings!