“ How it Started- the Plan Our 1,259 nautical mile offshore journey from Panama to Florida – non-stop 8 days, 24/7.

Paul & Heather’s Adventure: Day #1793: The Wildest Yet!

After mapping the perfect weather window, confirmed by top meteorologists, we left Colón, Panama, at sunset on Thursday, Jan 23. Destination: Florida. 1,260 nautical miles.

But the ocean had other plans… Relentless 25 knot winds, 10 foot waves every 9 seconds meant as soon as we thrashed up one wave, it would crash over our boat and right when we were almost through it, another one would immediately come again. Nordhavn boats are meant to plow through anything safely, but it was rough!”

“Lifesavers in San Andrés, Colombia:

Just before losing Starlink, Heather activated her Colombian and world network of legends texting 3 key people, quickly explaining the situation and that we might need help getting into and settled in Colombia. She also spoke via VHF in all the chaos at the helm to a local cargo ship captain who was returning to San Andres (thank goodness she is fluent in Spanish!) This angel followed us for 15 hours to make sure we got safely to shore – especially critical as we did not have electricity at this point. The result of her amazing #dialafriend efforts resulted in the Coast Guard, marina owner, and port officials all prepped and waiting for us, while we were escorted into port, secured dock space (the ONLY space available), and cleared customs like VIPs.

Blessed to all who helped us. (Especially Miguel, Ann, Fer, Nana, Catalina, Nene) Exhausted but so grateful.

PS. For anyone that knows Heather – she LOVES Colombia and has a strong network of dear friends, some of course even on this small island 80 miles off the coast of Nicaragua in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. We are safe. #gratitude “

MV GRATITUDE Heather & Paul – Nordhavn 43′

Captain Ron? Pushing genoa a bit hard off Turtle Cay and blew out clew. “Ah, let’s remove the reef and go for it!”

SY SERENITY Mark & Kathryn – Antares 44

On the afternoon of 22 July, we moved Fortitude X across the bay closer to the cell phone towers in the village as we watched the clouds developing. Steffi and I were sitting below deck and made sure not to touch any metal. The thunderstorm drew closer, and within minutes it looked like night time. We experienced a sudden flash with no delay between the lightning and thunder and we knew immediately that we were hit.

Date 22 July, 2024 Time: 15:00 LIGHTNING STRIKE   FORTITUDE X