The adventures of Simba The Sailor!

I know I have quite a few readers who are waiting for me to spill the beans on "Simeons' Grand Adventures at Sea" as, anyone who knows him, also knows that it takes a lot to get the complete stories out of him!
I will start by saying that Simeon says he never felt in any danger and that he was in control at all times. And, that is very important to Simeon, as some of us who know him well and truly believe that! Whether we THINK he was in control or not may be another matter.
Also, I am paraphrasing, so anything else will have to come from the horse's mouth!

After Simeon's stomach ailment and making it back to the Dominican Republic, resting up a bit, he made it to Jamaica. I don't think I ever quite got that piece of the puzzle about WHY he went to Jamaica, but apparently, none the less, maybe only because it was down wind he went to Jamaica.

Upon arriving, he picked a spot to anchor and as you do in most countries of the Caribbean, grabbed all his boat papers and headed ashore to check in. That is when the fun began. After busing or taxiing around practically the island, he finds out that Jamaica is one of the countries that wants you go radio on the VHF and stay on the boat. They will send a customs agent out to the boat. We might just have to get him a REEDS Caribbean Manual for Xmas!!!
They were NOT impressed with him. So unimpressed that they basically confined him to his boat for three days making him wait for one more person to show up to stamp his passport. As he tells it, he had planned to explore Jamaica and then after this fiasco he was just PO'ed and that was when he was heading back to the BVI last time.
****
So, he puts Jamaica behind him and starts sailing west. He basically gets to the eastern part of Jamaica and there is a lot of current. And not in his favor either! He spends 3 days sailing and tacking 24 hour hours a day and make an entire 30 miles. Apparently about that time he was becalmed. For two weeks. Watching his water and food supplies going down.

He DID NOT want to back track to Jamaica, as he knew those miles were hard won. Therefore, he drifted. He fished. But he did not troll as he sure was not moving enough to catch anything! He kicked the boat. More then once i understand.
He found out the boat leaked at a spot or two, that the boat also sweated. Yep, believe that. He also decided somewhere in there that he did not like monohulls. I think I few things crashed around the boat actually!
His food and water continued to dwindle. He caught a Mahi, with a spear gun, as he had picked that up in Red Hook. Basically he said the spear gun might have just saved his life. I am not too clear where exactly he was drifting around at this time. The Mahi came after about 3-4 days without food. Then he caught a smaller sailfish! Of course, this was after another few days of no food. Apparently getting it into the boat meant he was laid out on his back with the fish on top of him! I TRULY wish that I would have had a picture of that for my blog!!!
Unfortunately, Sail Fish, does not even last as long as other fish without refridgeration, and he made a tactical error of cooking some up when it had really gone off too much. He said it was the worst thing that he had ever tasted in his life! AND then he proceeded to spend the next few days trying to gurgle with the food he had left to get the taste out (hot sauce and balsamic vinegar) and it did not really work.

Then he started getting some chaotic wind from different angles, which enabled him to sail in fits and starts. Still not wanting to go back to Jamaica to get supplies he decided to go kind of on a broad reach up to CUBA (yep, if we had of had to guess where in the hell he might be in the Caribbean Cuba would not have been my first choice!) By the time he reached the south coast of Cuba, he was down to his last half a gallon of water. And he apparently made landfall along an area of the coast with nothing there. He sailed along...and eventually was at a very poor place, and an Immigration or Customs official came out to him in a little boat. He is not sure, as they could not talk to each other. He figured it was too complicated to try and get on to land, so he settled by picking up his water jugs which were empty and plaintitively saying "AQUA" over and over again...
Simeon says the gentleman gave him 15 gallons of the best tasting water he has ever had in his life. Then he sailed on his way.
******

Still sailing along the east coast of Cuba toward us, and he knew he was around skinny water, and somehow miscalcuated by 15 feet and fetched up in mangrove mud. That was a fun night. Finally the next day, after moving the brand new gallons of fresh water to the front of the boat, taking the engine off the boat (and breaking mounts somehow), putting the engine on the dinghy, sort of, he managed to walk around the back end to get off. Apparently the bottom of the keel has some fiberglass showing now. Onward sailing ho to Haiti we go!

****Sometime in this adventure, but I think much earlier, he found out that packing anything that required cooking for food was a bad idea. He has no autohelm. It is a small boat. So he would set up the sails to continue on and then go below to prepare something. Only to have his weight shifting throwing off the sails. And the attendent slop of water off the stove etc. I believe this was some of the kicking episodes.

*****Also sometime in this adventure between Jamaica and this, he was boarded by the coast guard and they did a safety check! Took about 10 minutes and he did pass!! Simeon says that was the day we heard the coast guard calling Whiskey Dream on the VHF.

He tacked and sailed for 4 days until he was somewhere on the north coast of San Juan area. He had no chance of sailing into a clearing in spot, so he anchored the damn thing. He had no engines, no power, no food, you get the picture hey? Then had to figure out how to get to an official clearing in place. He asked for help and eventually showed up at the airport to check in. And if you don't think that confused the hell out of him you would be wrong! It took a few days to get straightened out, and he avoided quite a few fines by doing things wrong.
That is when I heard from him again. He spent 5 days in San Juan eating, resting and "taking a break from sailing" Found out when he checked out of San Juan that he and his boat were celebrities somewhat from this whole thing. Apparently he kept on telling the officials to take pity on his, he had had no food for 4 days! Over and Over!!

Then he checked out and sailed all the way to the BVI lickety split, of course arriving just hours after we left on Friday.
Let me repeat that he never felt not in control, and he always had options, he just did not want to take them. Neither should you trust my time frames here, and I can see SImeon shaking his head now and telling me I am exaggerating! Would not be the first time he told me that now would it???
Yes, he is on Promenade at the moment. Still hating monohulls!!! But, I bet you he damn well knows a hell of a lot about monohull sailing now!!


And yes, I did get Lisa to take more pictures for my blog for me!! I am not sure how anyone is going to know about Simeons' adventures once he stops telling me so I don't blog about them! I told him he looked like hell! Not quite like our good looking cabana boy at the moment!
I am really sorry to have missed seeing him, but we have a lot of people who live outside the box in our world and follow their dream. Just like Bruce has recently did, with Promenade, you have to give us all credit for taking chances.

Anyone want to go sailing with Sim?


On another note, my good friends Sheila and Bob from Paradise Connections also have followed their dream and sail around on their yacht. They were making their way from the boat show in St Thomas down to the boat show in Antigua, when things apparently went a bit wrong!


Picture from Sheilas' blog at sheilas blog

And you can go to her husband, Bobs blog for the story commentary...All kind of boat stories I have today don't I! That is it....