What else could go wrong???

Ok, I haven't been completely honest with my blogging lately and as y'all know, that's not really my style...

Things have been rough here. The company has been having financial "issues" and we haven't been paid. We are all broke and quite honestly over it. It's hard enough work as it is but top it off with being broke and not knowing when or if you will be paid makes it harder to stay positive.

This morning our second and third mates quit.

The second mate was my watch leader and a huge inspiration for me and I am really having a hard time with it.

These two mates are so amazing, they really know their shit and made me feel really safe and completely confident in our ability to sail the boat safely and now I am nervous.

I just want to get to Key West.

It's hard to be excited about Cuba when you have no money to spend on seeing the sights and getting out and about.

We are supposed to leave today but who knows. We aren't allowed to go to Cuba till the 22nd so basically we will just be out there sailing around for the next 12 days. That sucks. That's a long time to be at sea with no fresh water showers or time away from the boat or time to yourself.

Thank god for the crew we have left. It's going to be interesting to see how we deal with the loss of 2 very important crew members. I feel sorry for the first mate, now he has even more on his shoulders to deal with. Everyone does.

Oh well.

See ya in Cuba, or somewhere, or the Bahamas, or Key West if everything falls through.

Short and Sweet

Things have been crazy. Truthfully it's kind of been a shit show but at least the crew are having fun together. I'm amazed how well we all get along.

The sail from St. Thomas to the Dominican Republic was a fast 2 days and pretty nice. When we got here we were joined by 2 D.R. law students and 4 Hatian law students as well as one translator. We took them out sailing for 2 nights, rigged up a rope swing from the yard during a swim call and taught them as much as we could about sailing in 2 days with limited communication. I guess hard work is hard work in any language. They all had a good time. When we arrived back in Santo Domingo there was a reception with drinks and tapas and a video that Rueben put together was shown to the community members that were a part of setting this whole thing up. Then the students sat down and had a round table discussion about their time on the boat and what they gained from the experience. It was the first time we (the crew) actually felt like we were doing what we had set out to do. The mission was finally being put into action.

I am so tired I can't even think. Let alone write coherent paragraphs. Whew.

I am really enjoying my time here in the D.R. and I think I might have to come back here for a month or so in the winter. It's so cheap. You can rent a nice apartment for about 200 USD a month. The people are friendly and the rum is tasty.

Again, I tried to put some pictures up but I forgot my camera on the boat so this candid one from carnival will have to do for now.

Oh, we are supposedly leaving today headed towards Cuba. Not sure when or where we will end up actually but the arrival date for Havana is the 25th and Key West arrival on the first of April.

IN Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic!

I promise to post pics asap. I promise to write a blog someday. We leave tomorrow to sail to Cuba. Should be about a week. We look to be there on the 22nd then in Key West on the first of April.

The Dom Rep is sooooo awesome!!!! So cheap. I think I might have to spend the winter here next year! :)

We had a blast at Carnival....