A Honeymoon on Honeymoon

"We’re from Chestnut Street on Russian Hill in San Francisco, and we just did the Caribbean 1500 aboard our Lagoon 380 Honeymoon," write Seth and Elizabeth Hynes. "Our boat got her name because we quit our day jobs — Elizabeth as a merchandiser for Banana Republic, and Seth as a wine exporter for Robert Mondavi — to take a year long honeymoon.

"Despite our experience sailing on San Francisco Bay, the Caribbean 1500 from Virginia to the British Virgins was our first open ocean voyage, and we’re happy we did it as part of the 1500 group. We joined the Cruising Division, and were very encouraged by the moral support, weather briefings and safety inspections that came with the event. Steve Black and his crew did an incredible job, so we would recommend the 1500 to everyone from rookies such as ourselves to the very experienced.

"We didn’t race for insurance reasons, but we felt we did well considering the challenges we faced. On Day Two, our port winch failed. Even worse, our mainsail headboard cars jammed at the top of the mast when we tried to reef for a squall. Eventually, the car itself was ripped from the mast, so on Day Three we had to make an eight-hour repair at sea, but it allowed us to continue south rather than divert to Bermuda. The repair involved swapping cars with the lower part of the sail, then continuing on with a permanent reef in the main. Other things broke along the way, but we and our two crew overcame them as a team."

We at ‘Lectronic apologize for leaving the Hynes out of our previous 1500 coverage, as problems with the event’s site made it difficult to confirm that they’d actually done the event.