Calma

Next stop, the Bahamas with a powercat

Frank Codina has been around boats his whole life, but he only recently took the plunge and bought his own multihull. After much consideration, he and his wife Marcella chose the MY5 power catamaran.

Calma

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Published 28/10/2022

By Julie Echelle

Issue: SP19

Published: dec. / jan. 2023

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Who: Frank, Marcella and their 3 children
Where: Bahamas
Multihull: Fountaine Pajot MY5 (ex-MY40)

Along with their three kids, Frank and Marcella divide most of their time between Puerto Rico and Miami, but their favorite cruising grounds are around the balmy island-strewn waters of Puerto Rico, with their beaches, snorkeling and marine life. “We go out from Fajardo on the east coast and we sail from there to a number of neighboring islands – Palominos Island and Icacos. Sometimes we take a longer journey to Culebra and Culebrita. We spend a lot of time in those islands.”
They all lie within six miles of the home marina, but further east lies the treasure trove that is the US Virgin Islands. “Every now and then we’ll cross to St Thomas – it feels a bit of a blender sometimes, that journey, where the Atlantic meets the Caribbean Sea.”
“The crossing is one-and-a-half hours if the weather conditions are good. Usually, we do get good conditions, but this one time we were expecting 6-8ft of swell only to find 8-12ft. There was about 20 knots of wind, and the kids were there – they didn’t say a word. But they were all excited about it as soon as we reached the harbor - couldn’t wait until they told their friends!”
Now, the catamaran has become a familiar friend for the whole family. “We know every nook and cranny of it,” says Frank. “The kids help out – everybody has a job, we love it.” But with a new project on the horizon, he began to think about a bigger boat: “We are always trying to hang out with friends,” he explains. “Our goal is to explore all sorts of spots in the Bahamas. We could do it in the MY5, but we want to invite more people along.”
The family’s new Fountaine Pajot 67 Power will be delivered in 2023 and they plan to head straight off on their adventures. “We’ll start in Bimini and work our way across to the Exumas. All told, we’ll take a month for the Bahamas experience then hop back to Miami.”

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