Canaveral to the Abacos

Phil Simpson

As you can probably see, The Abacos are nowhere near San Salvador island, and that’s my fault. After a Gulf Stream crossing where Raven reached as many as 8 knots, on the exit we hit some very rough conditions with our staysail and cutter still deployed. It took an enormous amount of courage and effort for us to get things under control again but I felt the experience intensely. The event also brought back my seasickness, which I thought I had beaten. The next morning, for very personal reasons, I told Jason I had to stop my journey. He was gracious and kind, more than could be expected, and at great cost to himself and his own goals, he rerouted to the nearest safe harbor for me. We fought wind, wave and current nearly the whole way. If that’s not a testament to a great skipper, I don’t know what is and I will be forever grateful.