Starting next week, we'll settle into our regular weekly posting schedule as we explore new islands and adventures ahead. If you're aboard for the ride, we're thrilled, this is Post #2 of our origin story.
Why not? WOLO
What happens when the dog catches the car
As we’ve often done in the past, we decided to go all in. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to own a yacht that we’d never in a million years thought could be ours. So, we made an offer. The sellers said yes, and then suddenly we were the dog that caught the car. Now the fun really started.
Over the next month we arranged to list our boat for sale in Polynesia and return to Florida to take possession of Duende. While it would have been ideal to move everything from our last boat, we could only take what we could fly with. We sorted it down to the tools, gear, and a few precious mementos that we knew would be hard to replace – and let go of the rest. It’s only stuff.
Welcome to Florida – here’s a hurricane. We boarded Duende as the new owners in mid-August 2019. Two weeks later Hurricane Dorian rolled through – but luckily wasn’t more than a tropical storm by the time it passed Fort Lauderdale.
With that excitement behind us, we spent the next 12 weeks working like crazy to get ready to sail from Florida to Panama. There were a few reasons for us wanting to get moving. We had a 90-day window to defer the Florida sales tax, and we wanted to be through the Panama Canal before the prices were set to double at the end of the year. Plus, we wanted to get back to the Pacific coast as quickly as possible so that we could do the bulk of our refit in Mexico where we were familiar with the facilities and could get good labor at reasonable prices. Florida prices for yacht work didn’t fit our DIY Superyacht budget.
The shakedown cruise to end all shakedown cruises. We left Fort Lauderdale on December 7, 2019 on a non-stop, 14-day sail to Colon, Panama. There were 4 crew members with us for the 1,500-mile trip, and it was a ride to remember. We paid the price for the deferred maintenance from Duende sitting at the dock for many years. Lots of things broke, and we fixed them as best we could. There was a lot of jury-rigging, but we’d prepared well by stocking up on belts, filters, gaskets, pulleys, and all the other things that we thought we’d need to fix and repair underway. The motor-sail beat along the Old Bahama Channel on the north coast of Cuba was the biggest challenge as we struggled to keep our raw water pump that supplies cooling to the main engine running. The captain and crew rebuilt the pump twice on that leg, and we tacked 37 times in big seas, taking green water over the bow on every wave.
Duende showed us she could really sail. When we turned the corner to run down the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti, Duende had a chance to shine. Once we hit the Caribbean trades we had a rocking sail to Panama. Our delivery crew left us in Shelter Bay, and the Captain and I did the 2-day canal transit with the help of 4 Panamanian line handlers and a Pilot.
We were anchor down on the Pacific side of Panama on December 28.
This post is #2 in a special 4-part daily launch series covering our story so far. Next week, we begin weekly posts sharing real-time adventures. If you missed the first posts, you can read them on the Shellphone Chronicles Substack Website.
Thanks for reading Shellphone Chronicles! If at any point this newsletter isn't a good fit, feel free to unsubscribe using the link at the very bottom. No hard feelings!
oh wow! it sounds like Duende started showing her mischievous nature right from the start of your relationship- and also her resilience! “just a tropical storm” haha. I’m in awe that you and the crew could make such a trip and just deal with her state - incredible!