I sailed from St. Martin to the Dom Rep on the Aracanga. During the three-day crossing, I collected a few thoughts and try to bring you along a bit.
Let’s start with the crew and the boat. Martin and Riki know each other from home, they both come from southern Germany. Martin is 38 years old, has been working on boats for many years (often as a skipper) and has already sailed around the world once between 2010 and 2013. He has many exciting stories to tell about this time in particular. After his circumnavigation, it doesn’t take long before there is a spark between him and Riki. He has known the now 29-year-old for some time, but now things are getting serious and a few years later they get married and decide to sail around the world together, starting in 2018. They interrupt the journey twice and come back to Germany for 12 weeks where their two daughters Kira 2020 and Naia 2022 are born. They have been in the Caribbean for 2 years now and want to head for the Pacific in the summer.
But now to our trip together:
From St. Martin (we started on the French side) we sailed past Anguilla after a few hours. The island, which can be seen well from St. Martin, seems inconspicuous, but is supposed to be beautiful!
During the first night we pass the British and American Virgin Islands. Very touristy on land and even more expensive than other Caribbean islands, it must be beautiful by sailboat on the coasts with crystal clear water. Finkbeiners (that’s Martin’s, Riki’s, Kira’s and Naia’s surnames) decided that we’d go straight through. I wouldn’t have said no to a stopover with snorkelling, but it’s not bad for my tight schedule in the Dom Rep. After about 24 hours we are already at the height of Puerto Rico and making good progress.
The Aracanga lies very pleasantly in the water and the quite mild weather does the rest. It’s rocking as usual, but it’s pleasant, even for the kids 😊.
I am happy to have another sailing experience with the Aracanga. Like the Julie Marie before, the boat is a monohull, i.e. with only one hull, but she is much longer: 48 instead of 31 feet. So we have a lot of space below deck and I even have my own bunk. We also have a large sail area.
We steer most of the time with the wind vane, a quasi analogue form of the wind pilot. With a wind pilot, you set on the display which direction the wind should come from and then it steers the boat accordingly.
The wind vane is connected to an extra rudder in an analogue way. We set the wind vane so that it points in the direction or better the angle from which the wind should hit our boat. If the wind shifts, the wind vane is also turned and automatically moves the rudder so that our boat is again exactly at the set angle to the wind. Very practical and workable (uses no electricity 👍).
We divide the shifts here on board a little differently than on the previous boats, where I had 2.5 or 3h shifts. During the day, we are in the cockpit most of the time anyway and are kept busy by the kids. We always make sure that one person keeps an eye on the course and the surroundings. And for the night, Martin came up with the following:
Since I’m more of a night owl and he’s more of an early bird, I do a 6h shift from 8pm – 2am and he does from 2am – 8am. Since Riki always has to take care of Naia at night, she doesn’t have a fixed shift at night, but takes some of the load off us if it works out with the kids. But since Naia slept rather restlessly during the crossing, that didn’t work out – not bad.
I think 6 hours in a row is a long time, but since I rarely go to bed before 1 or 2 o’clock anyway, the shift actually suited me quite well and I could sleep for a long time afterwards. Since the kids are fit as a fiddle in the morning anyway and were in the cockpit with their parents, I was able to stay in bed until 9 or 10 o’clock 😊
I have a lot of respect for the way they rock it with the two kids on the boat. They say themselves that a lot of things get left behind, but you don’t see much of that because the boat is in great condition!
On a boat, there is no kindergarten or grandparents nearby, so they have the kids all day. On the one hand, this is of course very nice, but on the other hand, it is of course exhausting. From 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., they keep an eye on them almost all the time, Naia even at night. From time to time, however, they create space for each other by having one person take both kids. Mostly so that the other person can work.
During sailing manoeuvres, Kira sits in the Maxicosi and Naia is strapped in with Riki, who steers the boat while Martin handles the lines, anchor and sails. A well-rehearsed team and it works really well!
Martin also said that he notices that it is much more pleasant to have someone with him, especially for the night shifts.
I get on very well with the kids and have a lot of fun with them! Kira was shy for the first 5 minutes, but since then she has grown fond of me as a play partner. She likes to show me everything she owns and is very proud of: her books, her bike, her room. Kira usually announces what she’s doing beforehand and then tells me afterwards. “I’m going in my car now. I’m in the car now.”
In the harbour we couldn’t play shop enough, on the road it’s more driving and excursions. When I come into the cockpit in the morning, it doesn’t take a minute before she sits on my lap and wants to be driven somewhere by the quay car. Since the sailboat is normal for her, it’s other things that are special for her: Driving a car, snow, etc.. These are things she hardly knows and finds exotic.
Naia also likes to ride in the quay car on my lap. She likes to hold something in her hand, for example my glasses. Whatever she has in her hand, she likes to hand over to you, but only to vehemently demand it back 5 seconds later.
It’s really fun with the two of them, but it’s also exhausting, because you never really have a moment’s peace on the boat. (Of course I can go to my bunk, but I only do that to sleep, because I want to be involved in everyday life).
From daybreak on the third day, when we enter the bay of Samana in the north-east of the Dom Rep, everyone is on deck: we are on the lookout for whales! Humpback whales come here at this time of year to give birth, and several other sailboats we know have been able to see the whales up close. But no matter how hard we try, we unfortunately have no luck, only Riki & Martin see two whales jumping on the horizon once. It’s a pity and everyone is a bit disappointed, but somehow it’s good to see that you can’t force nature and that the whales can’t simply be ordered.
After 3 days of relaxed crossing we arrive in the Dom Rep and finally I have made it: hitchhiked from Germany to Latin America! This is where I wanted to go!
The first impressions on land are brilliant. Everyone speaks Spanish, there is a lot of fresh fruit, the empanada, which I try right away, tastes great and the prices are much more affordable than on the other islands. But more about the Dom Rep will follow soon in an extra article. It will be exciting 😉
At this point, I would just like to say a huge thank you to Martin, Riki, Kira and Naia! It was an honour and a great pleasure and I am already looking forward to our reunion! We hope that will be in Chile.