Bahamas to Haiti through the Windward Passage

Our first experience with Haiti was when we were in the Bahamas preparing to set sail for the windward passage... Early in the morning on the day we left we saw four Haitian boats sail into the marina we were at. They dropped the sails and the crew paddled the rest of the way in to the dock. From a technical perspective, this was very impressive to do with without the use of an engine! Upon a closer look at the boats, they were about 35feet long with 10 people per boat. The boats overall appeared in rough shape with the sails made out of various patched together fabrics and the mast was actually made out of a tree. You could even see branches coming out from the mast! Keep in mind to sail from Haiti to the Bahamas would take approximately 2 days. We later found out that not only do these boats not have engines, they are Haiti's main transportation for shipping. They have no source for cooking so they make a fire in the bridge to cook fish that they catch along the way! Needless to say, their lack of resources on their boat compared to ours and the amount of people they had per boat and still made the journey was inspiring. Shortly after, we set our sails with our destination to Haiti!