Mission Panamania 04_ Longest Passage & Biggest Storm Ever (Sailing Curiosity)

We are taking off. It's goodbye Bahamas, hello Panama. The goal is make a straight shot and it will be our longest sail ever. Longest passage ever and yeah. So exciting stuff and we're taking off at what time am I watch on? So I don't know what time it is. It is yep 12 05 a.m which means it's my shift and we have to first navigate our way out of here which should be fun and then it's because there's a couple unmarked reefs. Yeah so let's not sink the boat before we even get out to sea. You ready cap? Okay forward bring it up. Out of here just look out for the reef balls. Okay stop go to port. Oh I see them over there I'm 24 feet so we're in 33 feet now 40 feet 60 80. Okay we're in 100 feet. I'm sure we're probably good. Yeah it feels good to be holding the lines, pulling lines, reefing for ventures and the beauty of downwind sailing like it's just a wonderful start for the biggest trip we've ever done. This is couldn't ask for anything better and look safety first. We got things in here that line up and AIS things and yeah yeah how about that. Making some serious progress. It is 5 30. We're doing seven eight knots. It's a generally comfortable sail because we're not beating. The waves look a lot bigger than what I thought they'd be. They're rolling us like this. Boom every now and then a boom and a slam but we're an hour and a half from Cuba, an hour and a half from the shipping channel, the shipping lane and the whole idea of leaving at midnight was to get here during the day. We're going to be right right at sunset. We're going to be arriving at sunrise. Yeah exciting. We got little hairs standing up on the back of my neck. I mean this is a year ago I would have never thought we'd be right here right now. It's pretty cool. We can't see it through the haze but that is Cuba off in the distance. I am here with coffee. I'm going to leave you for more shifts. Thank you. I was just checking the web downloading the updates right now. It takes like a half hour. Well it is internet out in the middle of the ocean so. As we're passing Cuba I just wanted to take a second to talk about why we're rushing. We get the comment all the time why are you rushing through? Why not go to this island or that island or do this or do that or stop by Cuba. We would love to but it really boils down to safety being in the hurricane zone or the hurricane box as they call it and insurance. Our insurance has been really flexible with us. It was supposed to be below the 12th on July 1st and we realized that wasn't gonna happen. They extended it to the 15th with no extra charge. July 15th and then we realized that wouldn't happen. They said we can extend it to August 1st and August 1st if we get a named storm that comes through while we're above the 12th parallel our deductible will double. So we'll pay $32,000 if we get hit by a named storm. And then after August 1st they won't cover us for anything. So that right there is the motivation and why we're not going slowly and hitting the other islands like Grenada and the Windward and Leeward Islands and all that. We just want to get out of the hurricane zone. We want to get to Panama. We want to start relaxing and you know chill chill and this is such a huge trip for us and it gave us a reason to go fast. To get out here and do it and push ourselves and I love it. I love the fact that we're out here right now pushing ourselves to make it by this deadline. So that's why we're not going to those islands and those islands will always be popular. They're always be there. We can go by on the way back around right? Goodbye Cuba goodbye. It's three o'clock the seas have calmed way down and listen to this rhythm. Isn't that just fantastic? Just lulls you right to sleep which is good when you're not on watch which thankfully I'm not. So it's time to take a little siesta and maybe we'll catch fish have some fish tacos after my siesta. Curiosity standing by on 22. That was the coast guard they just hailed us coast guard cutter something something something something. Sounds like they're just checking in make sure we have our documentation in order make sure we are I don't know maybe not coming from Cuba because we just passed it that would be my guess. We're standing by on 22. It was really funny he asked me my my last name I was like whiskey yogurt in in. Terrible. Terrible. He was laughing too. Gotta work on the phonetic spelling. Curiosity cutter 906 thank you for your time captain you'll have a safe voyage over. Thank you very much and thanks for your service. This is curiosity switching back to 16. Cutter 906 shifting channel 16 out. He said shifting shifting to 16 out. That was interesting. Yeah. Most interesting thing we've something to do. Oh minus one major electrical thing. One major electrical bar inverter went out so we had to eat all the ice cream sorry I did not get that on video we had to do it really fast and let me uh. Technically we didn't eat all the ice cream I saved a half a pint it's like an emergency supply we still have I don't know four or five days at least but yeah our inverter stops working so that also controls how we charge our batteries which means we only have the solar to charge now and we can't plug anything in that uses 120. Yeah so we're down to our 12 volt plugs only which is totally okay we're gonna survive I have a half a pint of ice cream. Fortunately our solar did really well today and we're if we can serve we should be able to make it all six days. Yep. I just realized we you may be wondering why we have two freezers so this one here is called snow master right? Yep. Anyway they had seen us with the Dometic one that we have had for the past year in our videos so this company reached out and they said I'm telling you I think you're really gonna like our freezer so much better let me send you one to test side by side because the Dometic has been great like I mean I really don't have any major complaints except the fact that it still does cross over not nearly as bad as you know the ones that came on the boat but it still does but either way it's been fantastic to have but he was really out of it about freezer was going to be much better so he sent us one and we've had it plugged in and we thought all right we'll test it all the way to Panama and then whichever freezer works best we'll keep and the other one I'm sure we can find a sailor who is in desperate need of a freezer and we can give the other one away because somebody out here is going to probably really want one. Anyway that is why we have two freezers but now that we are conserving power we are only using one so luckily we were able to transfer everything and then we've got some cooking to do. And that is why we have two freezers. 9 20 or something but I am the portion of Jason's shift tonight he has a terrible headache and was kind of out of the day so anyway portion of his shift which is no big deal it is absolutely beautiful there is lightning which looks like it's happening kind of off right off the coast of Haiti or right over Haiti the moon is out we've only got a little sliver but it's you can just kind of see the waves rolling off and the stars are out seas are calm we're downwind it's comfortable it's good which is really nice because we were kind of all really rested today everybody's been super tired and kind of just laying around and sleeping a lot that first day after a night shift I'm feeling good liking my little shift here. Everyone says sailing is like I don't remember the saying but it says something like five minutes 50 50 minutes of service and five minutes of joy we just had a tear apart 50 knots of wind out of nowhere damn good thing we weren't flying spinnaker no went from 15 to like 30 to 40 to 45 to almost 50 in just like an instant now we're motoring downwind just barely got the motors on just in case and I didn't think you were like you were struggling with that sail I didn't think it was coming down I didn't think it was coming down at all Justin and I were both on it full fledge. It's a battle. It is a battle. What did you think about all that? Pretty intense right out of nowhere were you scared at all? At the very start the boat was like kind of listing to one side lifted lots of smoke out of her eyes. Not fun. How about you Jason were you scared? Yeah of course my heart was going like a million miles an hour stay calm though and try to figure it out we did it probably not perfectly but we did it sails are down we're all good and Dale I slept through it all I forgot to make a yelling my name and I thought it was a dream and then I was like maybe it's not so I ran up just in case I was down in the cabin Dale and I are on our auction and all I can start to feel the boat gaining power and I can hear the wind and so I decided oh I better come up and check and sure enough that must be right when I think I came out both the guys are trying to hurry up and let the main sheet out and trying to get the sail to come down so I took over the helm and it is amazing with all that force on there how hard it is to hold the wheel and hold the rudder and to keep it pointed in a certain direction so our first like real moment of like and we couldn't get it on film not because I was scared I was just like after dead sleep to like really like in the moment like pay attention things should happen yeah good job guys okay well 1 42 a.m we have gone from oh what a lovely night look at all this lovely lightning off the coast of Haiti to holy crap how did we go from 15 knots to 40 knots and we can't get the main sail down and we've got preventers on and total chaos to now we are motor sailing with the main sail because we're getting anywhere from four to eight knots of wind so it is just one of those nights what did what say you Dale I slept through the commotion do you feel like you missed out on something kind of that's one of those things you kind of don't mind missing out on though maybe or do you feel like you missed out oh yeah everyone's all like amped up and excited and I'm just like what's happening 16.1 we were flying during that storm that is scary speed big old floating log we've seen a lot of trash oh so much trash so much plastic disheartening like really kind of breaks your spirit a lot of trash and then a floating log and Dale saw one teeny tiny turtle whoa big fish jumping back there look at that so pretty jump right over our lure he got it yes yes he looks pretty I don't know what he is I just ran from that side of the boat Dale somehow you're always the first one to the pole how does this happen she has specially attuned ears to the sound of the clicker that was amazing we saw him jump jump and then grab it hook broke last second oh metal leader oh that's heartbreaking going past Jamaica which technically somewhere right over there just can't quite see it another day on the books tomorrow wide open ocean wider than what we already have preparing for a blow tonight just in case reefing just getting curiosity all ready for bed it's because of the craziness that happened last night but a little on edge this hour it's five o'clock we've got clouds sort of building around us wind speed's only 20 knots so it's not crazy on our reef number two that means one of the gentlemen one of the main sail but the stars are falling all around us keeping an eye on the shooting stars and the falling stars satellites milky way it's all it's all pretty surreal and amazing and frightening at the same time it's a blackfin tuna delicious i feel like the ear was rattling i was like what are you doing in there man we got here we got on watch like 10 minutes ago we've already had to reef reel in a fish plug in the fridge try to eat some cereal poor things yeah all right i guess i should sleep you should sleep yep he says the biggest fish we've had yet it's a big one he's gonna have a lot of fight let's not i don't know if we need to put him down or not throw him in the cockpit grab the juice where is it a cockpit i don't know that's a good idea it's in the cup holder i better help all right guys good job we got a little tuna they're big always so hard to show like how big waves are but we've gone from like six to eight footers to definitely like 10 to 15 foot swells coming in so if they stay this big and we get any more wind it is gonna be for a very exciting night some of these waves are definitely the biggest we've ever seen we've had like 10 to 12 foot but some of these like they're coming in sets and they get it's massive i have no idea how to get through it is 3 a.m saturday july 29th straight and nog land 7 26 at 12 25 a.m and so far we have done 445 nautical miles which gives us an average of 148 miles a day and an average speed of 6.1 not too shabby considering we have not used engines it's all been sailing we've been just flipping along we can just make it all the way to panama that same exact consistency we get all right i hate hate leaving you out stranded in the middle of the ocean like that but that's it for this video two things i want to say first thank you thank you thank you from the bottom of our salty hearts we are so grateful to have you watching our videos on youtube our patrons shopping our store you know whatever if you gave us a thumbs up that's awesome that's 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