St. Martin/Sint Maarten, the island controlled half by the French and half by the Dutch, is a beautiful place. We arrived here after what was supposed to be a rather simple passage from Virgin Gorda, BVI's on this past Sunday. The passage was about 80 miles and was begun at around 2:30 pm with an expected trip time of 20 hours.
We left the BVI island of Virgin Gorda from the Bitter End, motor-sailing past Necker Island, owned by billionaire Richard Branson, of Virgin Airways, etc. It was a cloudy day as we left and the forecast called for moderate winds (8-12 kts) with seas of 4 to 6 feet. It also forecast the weather would be worsening on Monday afternoon. So the three amigo boats headed off together anticipating a rather typical pass to St. Martin. Once out of sight of land we enjoyed a fantastic dolphin show on our bow around sunset and had up to ten dolphins swirling around between the hulls of our boat, zooming up and down in and out just missing the bottom of our hulls as they played in our wakes.
After a dinner, one of our favorite salads, the Nor'easter, we settled in for a couple of hours of what we hoped would be quiet sailing. At around 8pm, the big colorful Genaker sail (kind of like a spinnaker) decided to come unfurled at the top and began wildly slapping about in the rigging behind causing much noise and grave concern for it's being able to stay in one piece as it flogged about in the guy wires. We had to act quickly if we could save it and the only solution to keeping it in one piece was to try to lower it onto the boat and stash it in a forward locker hatch until we could sort it all out in calmer seas. The seas were not friendly at this point and were bucking the deck around fiercely as Rick donned his life jacket and strapped it's safety harness onto the lifelines strung from the bow to the stern of each side. The lifelines allow one to move about the decks while remaining fixed to the boat via a harness on the life jacket. The principal is that if one is pitched overboard at least they would still be attached to the boat. Getting them back aboard would be difficult at best but having to find them in the water, overboard in the dark, would be practically impossible. The conditions were not good to be forward of the cockpit for any reason,let alone one calling for emergency action and gymnastic climbing and heavy lifting. Rick carefully inched his way around the cockpit and up to the mast where the lines were cleated, holding the Genaker halyard and the sail aloft. Initially, lowering the halyard and the sail a bit made conditions worse as the flopping sail tried to tangle itself around the mast and stays holding the mast in place. Suz maneuvered the boat away from the wind allowing the wind to move the sail away from the mast as Rick continued to lower the sail closer to the deck. It became evident that any additional lowering would allow the sail to drop into the seas, making it nearly impossible to retrieve it once water soaked. Cleating the halyard, Rick cautiously moved down from the mast and around the deck to where the sail was flapping off the side of the boat. Sitting on the tramp, he was able to pull the sail aboard as he stuffed it into an opened locker hatch. Unfortunately, the top third was still hanging above the locker and I had to quickly improvise with some lines to keep it from re-deploying before I went back up to the mast to lower the rest of the sail for storing. Once down, the final third was retrieved and stashed away, while Rick inched back to the safety of the cockpit, exhausted and soaked from the spray and rain. Oh yeah, had I mentioned that it had since decided to start to rain and we were now under a passing squall. Whew! What an ordeal. Lesson learned! We should never move with a sail unintended to be deployed during a trip. The Geneker is a specialty sail used specifically for downwind sailing, something we wouldn't be doing during that trip.. We had put it up the morning before, anticipating using it when all six of us sailed back downwind to check out of customs. After our return from checking out, I had left it up not wanting to deal with the extra hassle of putting it down and storing it away for the passage. I thought about the possibility of it deploying but decided that was unlikely. WRONG decision made too late! Fortunately, all turned out OK but it provided a very scary 30 minutes.
After that excitement, Rick went below to try to relax for a few hours, anticipating taking the first late watch from midnight to 4 or so. Before he went below, we dropped the mainsail after the rain squalls continued to pass over our boat with winds up to 25v kts. The winds continued to maintain a constant 15-20 kts and the wave heights began to pick up to around 6 to 8 Rick tried unsuccessfully to get much sleep below. Finally falling under somewhere around 11:30 he was able to sleep until 12:45 when he came up to relieve Suz. She reported consistent wind in a very manageable sailing range so we hoisted the main again to try to counteract the mounting wave heights. Having sails up, seems to stabilize the boats motion and we wanted some relief from the pounding we were getting from the on-the-nose wave action. It helped but not much. It was a very bumpy, motion-filled night.
Rick did his watch from around 1 pm until around 4:30 when the exhaustion from the sail ordeal caused him to yield his watch a half hour early as he went back down below to get a couple hours of shut-eye. We have an agreement that a watch can be switched for any reason, no reason needed, but here seemed no reason necessary after the earlier experience. At around 7am Rick reappeared to take over from Suz and she gratefully collapsed onto the cushions in the cockpit for some rest as he took the helm. We were still a couple of hours out of St. Martin yet we knew the worst was past. We would be at anchor in a couple of hours. Pulling into the harbor at St. Martin, was welcome and we quickly found a suitable anchorage spot and dropped the hook for some rest.
As usual, Suz did her watches in Yeoman-like fashion and even negotiated a cruise ship passing a bit closer than we like, sometime around dawn. She had to call them on the VHF and make sure they were aware of the three of us out there. They came back to her and after she asked them if we needed to do any course changes to accommodate them, we made a 30 degree change of course and they passed us without incident. Unfortunately, the wet rainy passage, coupled with the overdrive excitement of the sail ordeal, seemed to have taken its course on Suz as she seemed to feel flu-like symptoms the entire day of arrival and still isn't 100% but is definitely on thew mend.
Having not yet cleared into the country through customs on Sunday, our arrival morning, we stayed aboard and cleaned the boat, rested, and relaxed. Monday morning we arose, went ashore, cleared in, went to the first French bakery we could find and enjoyed fresh pastries for breakfast. Afterward, David and Vicky and Suz and I took a local bus to the Dutch side of the island where we spent the day wandering around, window-shopping and enjoying the sights of a new place. We returned around 5 pm and enjoyed a simple dinner ashore. Into bed early last night allowed us to get up-and-at-em this morning.
We seem to arrive into these islands on their holiday season as today most stores are closed on the Dutch side as it is their Carnival week. Then tomorrow is the Dutch Queen' s (second!) birthday (she gets to have two since she's the Queen!) so everything will still be closed. Then on Thursday, it's May Day, another holiday for both sides of the islands. We hope to leave for St. Bart's (only 18 miles away) Thursday so we spent much of the day today seeking out a couple of boat parts we need to replace. No luck, but the repairs are superficial so not a biggie. We'll get them fixed when we can find the parts elsewhere.
Hopefully our next leg will be uneventful, but we now know, more than ever, not to ever expect anything to be simple at sea.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
more pics from Jen
The first 2 pics are on White Beach (on a small island--can't remember the name--it was really small, which we-Suz, Jen, Vicky and David-hiked the entire way around, and over the top--inadvertently--barefoot on hot black rocks... ouch! I forgot to put that in the note, or maybe I didn't? I tried to block it out it was so painful on the feet!) The next pic is Us at the Bubbly pools on Jost Van Dyke. Then Greg and I and ALton Brown on Virgin Gorda (at Spanish Town). The last one shows the Bomba Shack, as you can see, it's really a large shack, looks like it will fall down, doens't it? I think if you click on that pic it will bring up a larger version of it and you can scroll around it and see how weird of a shack it is!
Jen and Greg
Hi all, it's Jen adding some of her pics below: we had a blast!
The Baths
Greg and Jen at Soggy Dollar Bar
Pop and Suz and Jen and Greg on Jost Van Dyke
A2C anchored in a beautiful little cove!
Another horrible sunset
If you get a chance to go sailing with Pop and Suz, please make every effort!
Jen and Greg
The first picture is at the Baths, a series of caves and water tunnels on Virgin Gorda. The next 2 pics are of us at The Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke. Then the boat, then the last one is one of the horrible sunsets we had to endure while there. This one was at Cane Garden Bay, where we lost the anchor chain!
A busy week with the Newlyweds!
After arriving into the US Virgin Islands from Culebra from the rather bumpy and windy ride across the 15 miles to St. Thomas, we settled into the world famous crystal clear blue waters of the region. We stopped at a beautiful bay called Christmas Cove across the way from Red Hook on St. James Island for the first night. During our sundowner session that night, a neighboring boater swam over to say hi. As he approached the boat where we were cocktailing, he raised his head above the water and asked if we were really from Steamboat Springs as our transom signage said. We assured him that we were and he then asked how a friend of ours was doing. We were once again reminded of the smallness of the world and quickly were enjoying his company on board our boat as we found he was from the Denver area and ran a charter boat business every winter down here. He had been to Steamboat Springs many times as his wife was a doctor who had done a medical training rotation at the hospital in Steamboat where they met some of our other friends as well.
The next day we headed over to St. John and went ashore at Cruz Bay to take a look around and reprovision our pantry. Suz found and Optomotrist who was able to fix her broken sunglasses and we were happy to have access to a really well stocked grocery. We did some window shopping at some of the boutique shops and then headed back to our boat to move toward Caneel Bay for our evening anchorage. The anchorage was very rolly and neither of us slept well that night and were happy to relocate to Maho Bay on St. John, one of our favorite sites in the USVI's. After a much more relaxing evening on the boat in Maho, we headed back over to St. Thomas and picked up Jen and Greg at the marina where we planned our rendezvous.
They arrived late Thursday night after dinner time and were wide awake form the excitement of the trip. The night before we had reunited with the other boaters we'd traveled so many miles with. Jake and Carol on OffLine, Richard and Leila on Nebula and David and Vicki on Windfreak all rendezvous'ed that night for a long intended reunioon. Nebula and OffLine had taken a differnet window to lkeave Puerto Rico and headed to a different layover spot than ours at Culebra/Culebrita. It was a fun early evening and everyone except Suz and I were off to bed prior to Jen and Greg's alter arrival at the marina restaurant at 10:30 or so.
Once we gathered the luggage and kids we headed to our slip on the dock and got everyone aboard for the night. A quick nightcap and off to bed we all went.
The next morning we all got up early and did a little last minute shopping for anything not already aboard. Then, at around 11:00 AM we all released the dock lines and headed out of the busy Charlotte Amalie harbor on St. Thomas, heading for Christmas Cove for a quick snorkel and lunch break.
I think daughter Jen wrote a wonderful entry to her friends and family which I'll place into the official ship's log below. Enjoy her comments and if I have any additions to hers, I'll place them in CAPS to differentiate her notes from mine. It was really great having them aboard for this leg of the trip. They enjoyed the sights, sounds and smells of the islands and if I'm not mistaken, we may have created another sailing habit in them both which will need to be continually fed.
Jen's notes:
We stayed on Allergic to Cities (Pop/Suz's boat) the entire time, which made a great "private charter" for us! We got to see way more than if we had been at a resort, which tended to be just a bar and a restaurant and nothing else around to do... you may think "what's wrong with that?" but seeing all the islands we did was way more fun than just 1 or 2 islands!
We're still getting our land legs back, it's weird how being on a boat for 13 days can make you wobbly on land! any tight space we get into (bathroom or cubicle for instance) and we feel the motion of the boat! and we've been back on land since Monday!!!
We flew into St Thomas Th 4/10, stayed 1 night in a Marina.
Fri 4/11 set out to Christmas Cove on St Thomas for snorkeling and lunch on the boat and a cocktail on the beach, then for St John (Maho Bay) for cocktails and dinner--we stayed overnight here. This was a fairly unpopulated island (most of it is US national forest) so it was weird to see a beautiful island not cram packed with houses and shops on the beaches. Actually, it was pretty refreshing.
On Sat 4/12 we sailed to Soper's Hold at the West End of Tortola to clear customs into the BVI's. This is where you have to be very polite and quiet, or supposedly the customs people can get grumpy. Greg likened it to the soup nazi on Seinfeld: get in line, slide your passport across the counter, mouth shut, when he asks a question, answer yes/no and slide down for the next person to do whatever they need to do to check you in. We ate lunch at Pussers, which is a rum company who has chain restaurants down there. Then we sailed across the Sir Francis Drake Channel to Norman Island. We intended to go to the Willy T (a large boat bar) after going to the Pirates Bight bar, but ended up just eating on the boat and chatting. it was a beautiful cove with only the one bar on the beach and the Willy T boat in the water. A very quiet anchorage for sleeping.
On Sun 4/13 we then sailed to the Treasure Caves (where pirates supposedly hid their treasure) and snorkeled, then over to the Indians, which are large rocks jutting out of the sea--we snorkeled these too, but it was a little too wavy for me, so I didn't do much, it started to make me nauseous. Greg free dove down (hold your breach and dive down with a snorkel) and said the coral and fish were so bright and colorful! We sailed on to Peter Island and had a beach party at Great Harbour, which was an empty semi-sandy beach on the shore. The people Pop/Suz have been sailing with were joining us, and did so for various parts of our trip. they are super cool people and we see how they have so much fun. We stayed overnight here.
Mon 4/14 we motored on past Dead Chest (15 men and a bottle of rum--you know, the song! Captain Blackbeard apparently was running low on provisions and ended up dumping 15 of his least favorite crew men on the island with a bottle of rum, hence the song and name of the island), and across the Sir Francis Drake Channel. We went to Cooper Island at Manchioneel Bay to discuss scuba diving with a dive shop. Then went sailing on thru the Sir Francis Drake Channel (the waves were swelly and the weather was gray, the only day that was like this) to Marina Cay, a small private island (owned by Pussers Rum) where we anchored in a very rolly anchorage. We were going to go to Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda, but decided to go to Marina Cay instead. Apparently the islands generally get 40" of rain a year, and that specific day, we got 12"!!! so we were wet! While Greg was washing off his salty body (on the deck of the boat) his ring flew off his finger and plunked into the sea (20 feet down!). we spent 45 minutes snorkeling for it with him diving down when we saw a shiny object, but to no avail. We dinghied in to Marina Cay and went to Happy Hour where a man named Michael Bean's sang pirates songs... and told Pirate's jokes. "what's the first letter of the Pirates alphabet? R! what's the last letter of the Pirates alphabet? R! What's the middle letter of the Pirates alphabet? D... RDR" ha ha ha! That night I actually had to take a Dramamine bc it was so rolly. but I survived!
Tues 4/15 we sailed pas the Dogs, a group of islands. I don't know why they're called the dogs, they don't really look like dogs! We were going to snorkel them, but it was really rough, so we didn't. We sailed past Mosquito Island and stopped at Saba Rock island and also walked on the Bitter End Yacht Club (a ritzy club, which we decided was nice to stop at but we didn't want to think about overnighting there in a hotel room). The area was very beautiful though. We had Delicious burgers and Mojito's at a restaurant and moored overnight on a mooring ball. Greg and I were learning the ropes along the way, how to anchor and moor on a mooring ball, how to raise/lower sails, how to find the best angle to go in the wind, etc.
Weds 4/16 we sailed down to Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda and Greg and I took a taxi from the marina to The Baths, a series of caves and tunnels. Very pretty! Our Cabbie was a little sketchy, and we got freaked out that he was out to get us, so we ditched him and got another cab back to the Marina. While we were at a cafe there, we saw Alton Brown, a star on the Food Network. We were typical tourists and got a pic of us with him, kind of neat! Then we motored over to Tortola again, to Trellis Bay. There was an airshow that weekend and the airport at Beef Island is right there, so we got to watch them practice. This was also right across from where the ring was lost, so we decided to try to dive with scuba gear for it. One of the sailing companions from a boat called Windfreak (David) and Greg were down for 1.5 hrs doing a search and rescue pattern underwater while I snorkeled from above looking down at anything shiny. Again, no luck. We decided it was a gift to Neptune, the God of the Ocean, and will protect the sailors in the sea. We moored overnight at Trellis Bay and had cocktails and dinner on land at a bar called DeLoose Mongoose. We celebrated another sailing companion (Richard-from England!) Un-birthday. apparently his wife and the rest of the group had MISSED his bday which was 2 days earlier (forgotten?) so we celebrated there. We also learned a lude Rugby Song from Richard. :)
Th 4/17 we motored along Little Camanoe and Great Camanoe ( which are very high cliffs and some spectacular houses high on the cliffs), were going to anchor at Monkey Point, but it was too rolly, so we went on to White Bay on Guana Island. Later we found out that Guana Island is a PRIVATE island, I think it's owned by guy in NYC!? Maybe Nance can get hooked up with him and we can have a private resort to go to! Greg and I dinghy'd ashore to see if we could buy ice, but they said they don't "sell" ice, but Ricky (the guy in a uniform!) gave us a bag. they had a fully stocked "on your honor" bar on the beach for the guests. but we didn't go raid it... could have though! :) This was a beautiful anchorage and super quiet!
Fri 4/18 we sailed (raced David's Windfreak--he had a monohull and in all fairness to us, had a 10 min head start, so even though we didn't catch him, we gave it a fair shake!) ending up at Jost Van Dyke on Little Harbour where we all hiked to the Bubbly Pools, which is a narrow opening in big rocks where the waves crash in and make tiny bubbles in a pool. We had cocktails at Foxy's Taboo, the local bar and anchored overnight. Greg had talked about scuba diving the Rhone, a large mail ship that was sunk over by Cooper Island, so much of the night was spent discussing how Greg and David and his girlfriend Vicky and Pop would be able to get over there (on the other side of Tortola!) to dive then come back for a big party on at Cane Garden Pay on Sun... it was decided it wouldn't work, though.
Sat 4/19 in the morning the diving was revisited and we started to go to a dive shop to see if we could make it work... motoring to Cane Garden Bay on Tortola, where the parts needed for a repair for a dive item were not found. We motored back to Jost Van Dyke to Great Harbour and drank at Foxy's (a famous island bar) and stayed overnight. It was decided again that the diving would not happen. Greg just decided that it meant he was supposed to come back to do the dive another time! We both commented a lot on how fun it would be to charter out a boat with our friends to go exploring the islands... hint hint!!!
Sun 4/20 we walked along the streets in Great Harbour and went to a bar called Corsairs (to get a tshirt we wanted) and met the owner--who was from Denver! then we motored to another bay on Jost Van Dyke called White Bay, where the Soggy Dollar Bar is... we had lunch here and cleaned the bottom of the boat a bit in the beautiful blue waters. We motored back to Cane Garden Bay on Tortola to anchor for the Full Moon Party at a bar (?) called the Bomba Shack (which we thought was right down the beach there at the harbour... we were WRONG!!! Funny (maybe not so funny) story about anchoring, we ended up getting to Cane Garden Bay quite late in the day. Most of the time if you're catching a mooring ball or even anchoring, you want to be where you're going about 3-4 pm, or you'll not catch a mooring ball (they'll be all taken) and the light isn't that good for making sure your anchor catches on the bottom. So we had to motor in and out of all the boats that had gotten there earlier (for the party) for about 45 min, trying to find a good place (all the balls were taken so we had to anchor, which means you have to have more room for the boat to swing and not hit other boats.) finally we found a place, dropped anchor, 3x, and didn't feel it catch, so we picked up and moved again... all the while the sailing companions from the other 2 boats were having cocktails on the beach watching us go back and forth like idiots! We found another spot, which was deeper than we had normally anchored, and dropped anchor. This time we found a hold spot and since it was deeper had to let the full length of the chain out. However, here comes the funny (not so funny) part... the guy who they bought the boat from had TIED the end of the Anchor chain (you know, the part that holds the actual anchor and chain TO THE BOAT?) tied it with a piece of nylon rope skinnier than my pinky finger... and over time it had rotted... so, as we let out the full chain it sounded funny coming out, and all the sudden we heard a clunk and rattle rattle rattle and ploop... there goes the end of the chain! into the water! Luckily we had the bridle on (which are huge ropes that connect on the anchor chain so you don't feel the movement against the anchor when you're anchored)... so we didn't actually LOSE the chain to the bottom. but still, can you imagine! we gathered the end of the chain after pulling on the bridle, and connected it with a metal U-bolt back to the boat. and proceeded to go ashore and drink our cocktails on the beach. Then we went back to the boat where Pop grilled delicious burgers and we got ready to go to the Full Moon Party. We started walking on the road towards where we thought the party was, and got to it and there was nothing, so we walked back to where cabbies were coming from and hitched a ride... glad we did, bc it took about 1/2 hr by car (on VERY windy and hilly roads (think the crooked road in San Fran, except up and down and back and forth and almost like a roller coaster!) We got there and the Bomba shack (at Apple Bay on Tortola) isn't really a bar, it's seriously a shack, held together by people's panties and bras and god knows what else! they had a dj (kind of Jamaican reggae rap?) and a booty shaking contest... which I won, just kidding! I didn't' participate! but the boys sure enjoyed that! ha! We headed back to the boat (by cab!) on another hairy cab ride, I think the cabbie thought that faster on these roads was safer!? We stayed at Cane Garden bay that night.
Mon 4/21 we woke up and connected to the internet to check in for our flights (out of St Thomas)... we were planning on motoring that morning to West end of Tortola to get the ferry to St Thomas but found out our flight was CANCELLED! (and they rebooked us for a flight the next day!) Was this the gods telling us we should not leave this paradise? But we were missing our doggies and wanted a day at home before going back to work, so we got it all worked out to fly out of Beef Island on Tortola (the entire opposite end of the island where we were) and we arrived in Denver only an hr after we would have on the orig flight. So Greg and I got to see the island of Tortola by cab from one end of the other... and we made it home.
So, I hope I've gotten everything in! Oh, and drunk people and airplanes seemed to follow us, on both ends of our flight, there were drunks... the first set was a group of people from a bar in Denver who one a trip and they bought ALL the alcohol on the plane!!! (after 6 of them had racked up a $700 bar bill in 45 min at the airport!) on the way home a drunk guy sat across the aisle from me and I was so scared I was going to get puked on. thank goodness I didn't!
Love Jen and Greg
PS Pop and Suz call putting the dinghy on the hooks behind the boat "putting the car in the garage" and now Greg and I refer to parallel parking our cars on the street as docking our dinghy. :)
Oh, I forgot to mention a few things, Alton Brown is the moderator of Iron Chef America, and also has his own show Good Eats. Also, on Sun I just remembered that we didn't motor back to Cane Garden Bay, Greg and I were the captain and sailed it ourselves. Pop and Suz said: we want to just sit back, you guys do the sailing, so we raised the sails ourselves, figured out the wind direction and steered the boat to catch the best wind. we knew which direction we were to head and we did quite well if I do say so myself... until the wind died to 2 knots, which is not much to sail by. We got her up to almost 6 knots ourselves, which is pretty good considering the strongest wind was not even 12 knots. You're supposed to be able to go at least 1/2 the wind speed while sailing. We even got it to sail "wing on wing" which means that one sail is one way and the other sail is the other way, it gives better wind catching. :)
Well that is what happened from Jen's perspective and she was accurate without a flaw. We really did enjoy their visit and now are feeling happy to be back alone, but smiling from the memories.
After we dropped Jen and Greg off at Soper's Hole for their taxi to the Beef Island Airport, we headed off to St. John to try to retrieve the mailed packages we had ordered from West Marine. They weren't there and now we must leave the islands without the parts we ordered to fix a broken hatch handle. Not a big deal, just a frustration as we ordered it with ample time for delivery there. From St. John's we sailed around the bottom of the island back over to Norman Island where we rendezvoused with the other two buddy boats for a night of fun at the Pirates Bight. The next morning we all left for Cooper Island but A2C found the slight water pump leak (drip) in the starboard engine had magnified and no needed to be dealt with. Windfreak and Nebula continued on to Cooper Island while A2C diverted off to Tortola and into the main harbor at Road Town intent of fixing the leaky pump. We spent the day replacing several parts we thought were suspect only top finally discover the problem was a seal on the shaft of the pump. Once we found out that, we were able to source the new seal and make the repair. The next day we headed out of the smelly harbor and back out into the open waters of Sir Francis Drake Channel.
Checking in with the other boats, we discovered they were planning to stay another night at Cooper. We have been there many times so we went off to discover something new and found a beautifully calm anchorage above Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda were we were able to drop the hook in some of the most beautifully transparent water we've seen to date. We made it a nice night with grilled steaks and baked potatoes and enjoyed a beautiful sunset alone. The next day the other boats joined us for an additional day at the same anchorage, complete with snorkeling and beach walks.
Friday morning, we all arose and headed to the Virgin Gorda Sound for a couple of nights up there to await a good window to head across the passage down island to St. Martin. We anchored in Leverick Bay so we would be close to where the Friday night party was planned. The resort at Leverick Bay holds a weekly Friday night beach party, complete with Jump Up Jumbay dancers. These are colorful stilt dancers who do an amazing performance from up to 20' up on stilts! It was a fun night for all of us. We checked the weather once we arrived at the sound and found that the best weather window was coming now for only a day or two, then it could be another week before another favoritable one appeared. We all decided to make the trip oin Saturday afternoon/night to arrive around noon on Sunday. So even though we wanted to stay late at the party, it was an earlier to bed night for all concerned travelers.
Today, Saturday, we left the anchorage at Leverick Bay in the Virgin Gorda Sound with all 6 of us aboard Allergic to Cities bound for Spanish Town to do the check out for our passage to St. Martin., our next island destination. It cost us a whopping 75 cents to check out (5o cents for Richard since he's a Brit!) and we are heading back up to the sound to drop the others off at their respective boats so we can prepare for the overnight pass to St. Martin. Tomorrow at this time we will be there and enjoying the sights and sounds of yet another culture.
As we are on a shorter timetable here at the wifi spot, I'll have to post the pictures at a later date. Sorry no visuals this time. But we hope you all enjoy the entry anyway.
Off we go...
The next day we headed over to St. John and went ashore at Cruz Bay to take a look around and reprovision our pantry. Suz found and Optomotrist who was able to fix her broken sunglasses and we were happy to have access to a really well stocked grocery. We did some window shopping at some of the boutique shops and then headed back to our boat to move toward Caneel Bay for our evening anchorage. The anchorage was very rolly and neither of us slept well that night and were happy to relocate to Maho Bay on St. John, one of our favorite sites in the USVI's. After a much more relaxing evening on the boat in Maho, we headed back over to St. Thomas and picked up Jen and Greg at the marina where we planned our rendezvous.
They arrived late Thursday night after dinner time and were wide awake form the excitement of the trip. The night before we had reunited with the other boaters we'd traveled so many miles with. Jake and Carol on OffLine, Richard and Leila on Nebula and David and Vicki on Windfreak all rendezvous'ed that night for a long intended reunioon. Nebula and OffLine had taken a differnet window to lkeave Puerto Rico and headed to a different layover spot than ours at Culebra/Culebrita. It was a fun early evening and everyone except Suz and I were off to bed prior to Jen and Greg's alter arrival at the marina restaurant at 10:30 or so.
Once we gathered the luggage and kids we headed to our slip on the dock and got everyone aboard for the night. A quick nightcap and off to bed we all went.
The next morning we all got up early and did a little last minute shopping for anything not already aboard. Then, at around 11:00 AM we all released the dock lines and headed out of the busy Charlotte Amalie harbor on St. Thomas, heading for Christmas Cove for a quick snorkel and lunch break.
I think daughter Jen wrote a wonderful entry to her friends and family which I'll place into the official ship's log below. Enjoy her comments and if I have any additions to hers, I'll place them in CAPS to differentiate her notes from mine. It was really great having them aboard for this leg of the trip. They enjoyed the sights, sounds and smells of the islands and if I'm not mistaken, we may have created another sailing habit in them both which will need to be continually fed.
Jen's notes:
We stayed on Allergic to Cities (Pop/Suz's boat) the entire time, which made a great "private charter" for us! We got to see way more than if we had been at a resort, which tended to be just a bar and a restaurant and nothing else around to do... you may think "what's wrong with that?" but seeing all the islands we did was way more fun than just 1 or 2 islands!
We're still getting our land legs back, it's weird how being on a boat for 13 days can make you wobbly on land! any tight space we get into (bathroom or cubicle for instance) and we feel the motion of the boat! and we've been back on land since Monday!!!
We flew into St Thomas Th 4/10, stayed 1 night in a Marina.
Fri 4/11 set out to Christmas Cove on St Thomas for snorkeling and lunch on the boat and a cocktail on the beach, then for St John (Maho Bay) for cocktails and dinner--we stayed overnight here. This was a fairly unpopulated island (most of it is US national forest) so it was weird to see a beautiful island not cram packed with houses and shops on the beaches. Actually, it was pretty refreshing.
On Sat 4/12 we sailed to Soper's Hold at the West End of Tortola to clear customs into the BVI's. This is where you have to be very polite and quiet, or supposedly the customs people can get grumpy. Greg likened it to the soup nazi on Seinfeld: get in line, slide your passport across the counter, mouth shut, when he asks a question, answer yes/no and slide down for the next person to do whatever they need to do to check you in. We ate lunch at Pussers, which is a rum company who has chain restaurants down there. Then we sailed across the Sir Francis Drake Channel to Norman Island. We intended to go to the Willy T (a large boat bar) after going to the Pirates Bight bar, but ended up just eating on the boat and chatting. it was a beautiful cove with only the one bar on the beach and the Willy T boat in the water. A very quiet anchorage for sleeping.
On Sun 4/13 we then sailed to the Treasure Caves (where pirates supposedly hid their treasure) and snorkeled, then over to the Indians, which are large rocks jutting out of the sea--we snorkeled these too, but it was a little too wavy for me, so I didn't do much, it started to make me nauseous. Greg free dove down (hold your breach and dive down with a snorkel) and said the coral and fish were so bright and colorful! We sailed on to Peter Island and had a beach party at Great Harbour, which was an empty semi-sandy beach on the shore. The people Pop/Suz have been sailing with were joining us, and did so for various parts of our trip. they are super cool people and we see how they have so much fun. We stayed overnight here.
Mon 4/14 we motored on past Dead Chest (15 men and a bottle of rum--you know, the song! Captain Blackbeard apparently was running low on provisions and ended up dumping 15 of his least favorite crew men on the island with a bottle of rum, hence the song and name of the island), and across the Sir Francis Drake Channel. We went to Cooper Island at Manchioneel Bay to discuss scuba diving with a dive shop. Then went sailing on thru the Sir Francis Drake Channel (the waves were swelly and the weather was gray, the only day that was like this) to Marina Cay, a small private island (owned by Pussers Rum) where we anchored in a very rolly anchorage. We were going to go to Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda, but decided to go to Marina Cay instead. Apparently the islands generally get 40" of rain a year, and that specific day, we got 12"!!! so we were wet! While Greg was washing off his salty body (on the deck of the boat) his ring flew off his finger and plunked into the sea (20 feet down!). we spent 45 minutes snorkeling for it with him diving down when we saw a shiny object, but to no avail. We dinghied in to Marina Cay and went to Happy Hour where a man named Michael Bean's sang pirates songs... and told Pirate's jokes. "what's the first letter of the Pirates alphabet? R! what's the last letter of the Pirates alphabet? R! What's the middle letter of the Pirates alphabet? D... RDR" ha ha ha! That night I actually had to take a Dramamine bc it was so rolly. but I survived!
Tues 4/15 we sailed pas the Dogs, a group of islands. I don't know why they're called the dogs, they don't really look like dogs! We were going to snorkel them, but it was really rough, so we didn't. We sailed past Mosquito Island and stopped at Saba Rock island and also walked on the Bitter End Yacht Club (a ritzy club, which we decided was nice to stop at but we didn't want to think about overnighting there in a hotel room). The area was very beautiful though. We had Delicious burgers and Mojito's at a restaurant and moored overnight on a mooring ball. Greg and I were learning the ropes along the way, how to anchor and moor on a mooring ball, how to raise/lower sails, how to find the best angle to go in the wind, etc.
Weds 4/16 we sailed down to Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda and Greg and I took a taxi from the marina to The Baths, a series of caves and tunnels. Very pretty! Our Cabbie was a little sketchy, and we got freaked out that he was out to get us, so we ditched him and got another cab back to the Marina. While we were at a cafe there, we saw Alton Brown, a star on the Food Network. We were typical tourists and got a pic of us with him, kind of neat! Then we motored over to Tortola again, to Trellis Bay. There was an airshow that weekend and the airport at Beef Island is right there, so we got to watch them practice. This was also right across from where the ring was lost, so we decided to try to dive with scuba gear for it. One of the sailing companions from a boat called Windfreak (David) and Greg were down for 1.5 hrs doing a search and rescue pattern underwater while I snorkeled from above looking down at anything shiny. Again, no luck. We decided it was a gift to Neptune, the God of the Ocean, and will protect the sailors in the sea. We moored overnight at Trellis Bay and had cocktails and dinner on land at a bar called DeLoose Mongoose. We celebrated another sailing companion (Richard-from England!) Un-birthday. apparently his wife and the rest of the group had MISSED his bday which was 2 days earlier (forgotten?) so we celebrated there. We also learned a lude Rugby Song from Richard. :)
Th 4/17 we motored along Little Camanoe and Great Camanoe ( which are very high cliffs and some spectacular houses high on the cliffs), were going to anchor at Monkey Point, but it was too rolly, so we went on to White Bay on Guana Island. Later we found out that Guana Island is a PRIVATE island, I think it's owned by guy in NYC!? Maybe Nance can get hooked up with him and we can have a private resort to go to! Greg and I dinghy'd ashore to see if we could buy ice, but they said they don't "sell" ice, but Ricky (the guy in a uniform!) gave us a bag. they had a fully stocked "on your honor" bar on the beach for the guests. but we didn't go raid it... could have though! :) This was a beautiful anchorage and super quiet!
Fri 4/18 we sailed (raced David's Windfreak--he had a monohull and in all fairness to us, had a 10 min head start, so even though we didn't catch him, we gave it a fair shake!) ending up at Jost Van Dyke on Little Harbour where we all hiked to the Bubbly Pools, which is a narrow opening in big rocks where the waves crash in and make tiny bubbles in a pool. We had cocktails at Foxy's Taboo, the local bar and anchored overnight. Greg had talked about scuba diving the Rhone, a large mail ship that was sunk over by Cooper Island, so much of the night was spent discussing how Greg and David and his girlfriend Vicky and Pop would be able to get over there (on the other side of Tortola!) to dive then come back for a big party on at Cane Garden Pay on Sun... it was decided it wouldn't work, though.
Sat 4/19 in the morning the diving was revisited and we started to go to a dive shop to see if we could make it work... motoring to Cane Garden Bay on Tortola, where the parts needed for a repair for a dive item were not found. We motored back to Jost Van Dyke to Great Harbour and drank at Foxy's (a famous island bar) and stayed overnight. It was decided again that the diving would not happen. Greg just decided that it meant he was supposed to come back to do the dive another time! We both commented a lot on how fun it would be to charter out a boat with our friends to go exploring the islands... hint hint!!!
Sun 4/20 we walked along the streets in Great Harbour and went to a bar called Corsairs (to get a tshirt we wanted) and met the owner--who was from Denver! then we motored to another bay on Jost Van Dyke called White Bay, where the Soggy Dollar Bar is... we had lunch here and cleaned the bottom of the boat a bit in the beautiful blue waters. We motored back to Cane Garden Bay on Tortola to anchor for the Full Moon Party at a bar (?) called the Bomba Shack (which we thought was right down the beach there at the harbour... we were WRONG!!! Funny (maybe not so funny) story about anchoring, we ended up getting to Cane Garden Bay quite late in the day. Most of the time if you're catching a mooring ball or even anchoring, you want to be where you're going about 3-4 pm, or you'll not catch a mooring ball (they'll be all taken) and the light isn't that good for making sure your anchor catches on the bottom. So we had to motor in and out of all the boats that had gotten there earlier (for the party) for about 45 min, trying to find a good place (all the balls were taken so we had to anchor, which means you have to have more room for the boat to swing and not hit other boats.) finally we found a place, dropped anchor, 3x, and didn't feel it catch, so we picked up and moved again... all the while the sailing companions from the other 2 boats were having cocktails on the beach watching us go back and forth like idiots! We found another spot, which was deeper than we had normally anchored, and dropped anchor. This time we found a hold spot and since it was deeper had to let the full length of the chain out. However, here comes the funny (not so funny) part... the guy who they bought the boat from had TIED the end of the Anchor chain (you know, the part that holds the actual anchor and chain TO THE BOAT?) tied it with a piece of nylon rope skinnier than my pinky finger... and over time it had rotted... so, as we let out the full chain it sounded funny coming out, and all the sudden we heard a clunk and rattle rattle rattle and ploop... there goes the end of the chain! into the water! Luckily we had the bridle on (which are huge ropes that connect on the anchor chain so you don't feel the movement against the anchor when you're anchored)... so we didn't actually LOSE the chain to the bottom. but still, can you imagine! we gathered the end of the chain after pulling on the bridle, and connected it with a metal U-bolt back to the boat. and proceeded to go ashore and drink our cocktails on the beach. Then we went back to the boat where Pop grilled delicious burgers and we got ready to go to the Full Moon Party. We started walking on the road towards where we thought the party was, and got to it and there was nothing, so we walked back to where cabbies were coming from and hitched a ride... glad we did, bc it took about 1/2 hr by car (on VERY windy and hilly roads (think the crooked road in San Fran, except up and down and back and forth and almost like a roller coaster!) We got there and the Bomba shack (at Apple Bay on Tortola) isn't really a bar, it's seriously a shack, held together by people's panties and bras and god knows what else! they had a dj (kind of Jamaican reggae rap?) and a booty shaking contest... which I won, just kidding! I didn't' participate! but the boys sure enjoyed that! ha! We headed back to the boat (by cab!) on another hairy cab ride, I think the cabbie thought that faster on these roads was safer!? We stayed at Cane Garden bay that night.
Mon 4/21 we woke up and connected to the internet to check in for our flights (out of St Thomas)... we were planning on motoring that morning to West end of Tortola to get the ferry to St Thomas but found out our flight was CANCELLED! (and they rebooked us for a flight the next day!) Was this the gods telling us we should not leave this paradise? But we were missing our doggies and wanted a day at home before going back to work, so we got it all worked out to fly out of Beef Island on Tortola (the entire opposite end of the island where we were) and we arrived in Denver only an hr after we would have on the orig flight. So Greg and I got to see the island of Tortola by cab from one end of the other... and we made it home.
So, I hope I've gotten everything in! Oh, and drunk people and airplanes seemed to follow us, on both ends of our flight, there were drunks... the first set was a group of people from a bar in Denver who one a trip and they bought ALL the alcohol on the plane!!! (after 6 of them had racked up a $700 bar bill in 45 min at the airport!) on the way home a drunk guy sat across the aisle from me and I was so scared I was going to get puked on. thank goodness I didn't!
Love Jen and Greg
PS Pop and Suz call putting the dinghy on the hooks behind the boat "putting the car in the garage" and now Greg and I refer to parallel parking our cars on the street as docking our dinghy. :)
Oh, I forgot to mention a few things, Alton Brown is the moderator of Iron Chef America, and also has his own show Good Eats. Also, on Sun I just remembered that we didn't motor back to Cane Garden Bay, Greg and I were the captain and sailed it ourselves. Pop and Suz said: we want to just sit back, you guys do the sailing, so we raised the sails ourselves, figured out the wind direction and steered the boat to catch the best wind. we knew which direction we were to head and we did quite well if I do say so myself... until the wind died to 2 knots, which is not much to sail by. We got her up to almost 6 knots ourselves, which is pretty good considering the strongest wind was not even 12 knots. You're supposed to be able to go at least 1/2 the wind speed while sailing. We even got it to sail "wing on wing" which means that one sail is one way and the other sail is the other way, it gives better wind catching. :)
Well that is what happened from Jen's perspective and she was accurate without a flaw. We really did enjoy their visit and now are feeling happy to be back alone, but smiling from the memories.
After we dropped Jen and Greg off at Soper's Hole for their taxi to the Beef Island Airport, we headed off to St. John to try to retrieve the mailed packages we had ordered from West Marine. They weren't there and now we must leave the islands without the parts we ordered to fix a broken hatch handle. Not a big deal, just a frustration as we ordered it with ample time for delivery there. From St. John's we sailed around the bottom of the island back over to Norman Island where we rendezvoused with the other two buddy boats for a night of fun at the Pirates Bight. The next morning we all left for Cooper Island but A2C found the slight water pump leak (drip) in the starboard engine had magnified and no needed to be dealt with. Windfreak and Nebula continued on to Cooper Island while A2C diverted off to Tortola and into the main harbor at Road Town intent of fixing the leaky pump. We spent the day replacing several parts we thought were suspect only top finally discover the problem was a seal on the shaft of the pump. Once we found out that, we were able to source the new seal and make the repair. The next day we headed out of the smelly harbor and back out into the open waters of Sir Francis Drake Channel.
Checking in with the other boats, we discovered they were planning to stay another night at Cooper. We have been there many times so we went off to discover something new and found a beautifully calm anchorage above Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda were we were able to drop the hook in some of the most beautifully transparent water we've seen to date. We made it a nice night with grilled steaks and baked potatoes and enjoyed a beautiful sunset alone. The next day the other boats joined us for an additional day at the same anchorage, complete with snorkeling and beach walks.
Friday morning, we all arose and headed to the Virgin Gorda Sound for a couple of nights up there to await a good window to head across the passage down island to St. Martin. We anchored in Leverick Bay so we would be close to where the Friday night party was planned. The resort at Leverick Bay holds a weekly Friday night beach party, complete with Jump Up Jumbay dancers. These are colorful stilt dancers who do an amazing performance from up to 20' up on stilts! It was a fun night for all of us. We checked the weather once we arrived at the sound and found that the best weather window was coming now for only a day or two, then it could be another week before another favoritable one appeared. We all decided to make the trip oin Saturday afternoon/night to arrive around noon on Sunday. So even though we wanted to stay late at the party, it was an earlier to bed night for all concerned travelers.
Today, Saturday, we left the anchorage at Leverick Bay in the Virgin Gorda Sound with all 6 of us aboard Allergic to Cities bound for Spanish Town to do the check out for our passage to St. Martin., our next island destination. It cost us a whopping 75 cents to check out (5o cents for Richard since he's a Brit!) and we are heading back up to the sound to drop the others off at their respective boats so we can prepare for the overnight pass to St. Martin. Tomorrow at this time we will be there and enjoying the sights and sounds of yet another culture.
As we are on a shorter timetable here at the wifi spot, I'll have to post the pictures at a later date. Sorry no visuals this time. But we hope you all enjoy the entry anyway.
Off we go...
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
On to the Virgin Islands!
After a couple of well deserved relaxation days on Culebrita, the wind changed directions so our anchorages were not too comfortable, so we moveed back over to the main harbor at Culebra to await better weather to head across to St. Thomas, USVI. Although a rather short hop, the winds had kicked up rather stoutly and the wave height had increased such that we decided to wait it out rather than bash into the waves and run the risk of damaging the boats or ourselves in the rough seas and near gale force winds. The one day we thought we'd have to wait turned into two then three as we anxiously watched the weather for our chance to make the break. Finally, with my birthday behind us, and the weather beginning to moderate, we decided to leave the following morning unless something disintegrated overnight. At 5am we arose, checked the weather one more time, found it to be just as we had expected and pulled the anchors, headin gout of the protected harbor into the open sea. The winds werecalmas we were in the protection of the bay, yet as we rounded the reef and left the safetyy of the anchorage, they were apparent and quite stiff, blowing between 20 and 25 knots. Certainly manageable, just not very comfortable even for just 15 miles. Once out in the full open, the seas showed themselves to be the predicted 7 to 8 footers with an occasional 10 and we headed strain into the wind and waves to see how nasty it would feel at that angle. We were able to motor straight through the swells due to our twin screws, but David and Vicky, in their 36' one engine monohull had amore difficult time making headway. They veered off and raised their sails to take advantage of the wind and tacked away at a brisk clip while we continued into the waves on a direct rhumb line taking us straight at St Thomas. We found the cat to handle the waves beautifully and although it wasn't the smoothest ride we'd had, she carried herself above them with dignity and kept her decks pretty dry except for the occasional plow into a really big wave or two. We made between 4 and 5 knots speed on the direct course as David and Vicky on Windfreak, were doing about 6 to 7 on thierr indirect route. They had a longer distance to cover, since they were tacking across, so we were able to made landfall about an hour ahead of them. The shoreline was a welcome relief from the pounding and we headed for what we hoped would be an easy anchorage and some rest. We found after checking out a few likely places that the wave action was invading our anticipated anchorage, so we continued along the St. Thomas coast until we found ourselves nearly at the opposite end of the island for our arrival point. We found a lovely spot to drop the hook and kicked back for some well deserved relaxation once secure on the anchor. David and Vicky found a nice anchorage further back on the coast and stayed their for the night. B ut we were all relieved to have made the "break" from Culebra and safely crossed into USVI waters. Our other buddy boats were still caught in Vieques, another Spanish Virgin Island and would be pinned down there for an additional week!
The islands of Culebra and Culebrita, the smaller neighbor, gave us a wonderful opportunity to relax and catch up on various boat chores and shopping/touristy needs. But now we were in the "real" Virgin Islands... The ones we'd all been aiming for... And how great it felt to have made it this far. For s/v Allergic to Cities, we figure we've traveled over 3000 miles since we left Maine on our trip south. We are really feeling more and more accomplished with each additional passage-making experience.
Since we've been in the USVI, we've anchored at a beautiful spot called Christmas Cove on Great St. James Island, just off the shore of St. Thomas. Clear blue water and pristine beaches abound and ewe intend to dip our bodies into these waters every chance we get.
Last night we moved over to St. John for the night and found the beautiful beach off of Caneel Bay which we'd enjoyed several times during previous visits. The wind and waves were a bit off so we had a rather rolling night and in the moring we moved back over to Cruz Bay to do some internet, provisioning and window shopping. Cruz Bay is a neat small touristy town which has lots of good shops and small restaraunts to enjoy. Today we're doing laundry at one of the local laundromats and getting things shaped up in anticipation of Jen and Greg's arrival on Thursday. We will move the boat back over to St. Thomas on Wednesday afternoon to rendezvous with our other traveling friends at Christmas Cove, as they should be arriving that day fromj their passage from Vieques. Then on Thursday morning we've move into the Yacht Havemn Grande Marina and wait for their plane to land. They will find us, via taxi, at the local pub there when they get in at around 8pm and we will be ready to take them on as our additional "crew" for the next week or so as we show them around these beautiful waters.
The islands of Culebra and Culebrita, the smaller neighbor, gave us a wonderful opportunity to relax and catch up on various boat chores and shopping/touristy needs. But now we were in the "real" Virgin Islands... The ones we'd all been aiming for... And how great it felt to have made it this far. For s/v Allergic to Cities, we figure we've traveled over 3000 miles since we left Maine on our trip south. We are really feeling more and more accomplished with each additional passage-making experience.
Since we've been in the USVI, we've anchored at a beautiful spot called Christmas Cove on Great St. James Island, just off the shore of St. Thomas. Clear blue water and pristine beaches abound and ewe intend to dip our bodies into these waters every chance we get.
Last night we moved over to St. John for the night and found the beautiful beach off of Caneel Bay which we'd enjoyed several times during previous visits. The wind and waves were a bit off so we had a rather rolling night and in the moring we moved back over to Cruz Bay to do some internet, provisioning and window shopping. Cruz Bay is a neat small touristy town which has lots of good shops and small restaraunts to enjoy. Today we're doing laundry at one of the local laundromats and getting things shaped up in anticipation of Jen and Greg's arrival on Thursday. We will move the boat back over to St. Thomas on Wednesday afternoon to rendezvous with our other traveling friends at Christmas Cove, as they should be arriving that day fromj their passage from Vieques. Then on Thursday morning we've move into the Yacht Havemn Grande Marina and wait for their plane to land. They will find us, via taxi, at the local pub there when they get in at around 8pm and we will be ready to take them on as our additional "crew" for the next week or so as we show them around these beautiful waters.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
PUERTO RICO!!!
We arrived into Boqueron, Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic after a beautiful motor sail across the Mona Passage. If you read the previous log entry, you realized that the passage was unexpectedly calm yet filled with the natural beauty of whales breaching and dolphins swimming beneath the catamaran's bows. Quite a show.
We arrived into Boqueron around midnight after a long day & night coming across. The harbor was open and so we weren't concerned about entering an unfamiliar harbor in the dark, a usual no-no. It was a Saturday morning (Friday midnight) and the music was loud and the parties were alive all across the town. We could hear them but were in no condition to join into the festivities since were were exhausted form the trip. We all dropped the hook and fell into deep sleep in no time.[ The next morning we needed to check into the country via customs and immigration. So bright and early Saturday morning, we all dingied ashore with the appropriate documents to seek out the appropriate officials who would stamp our papers and make us all official. All except Richard and Laila, that is. Since they hold British passports, they were supposed to have previously obtained a travel visa from the United States, before entering PR. This was something they were unaware of until the got to the Dominican Republic, so they were kind of anticipating a hassle once they got to the customs officials. Once ashore all of us tried to find the customs official, to no avail. We were told the customs people had traveled for the day up to another town to check in a cruise ship. So we decided that if 20 million Mexicans can travel unimpeded around the US, we could handle a day of being illegal aliens. Was actually kind of fun. When we did make the call on Sunday to the Customs officer they gave us clearance and we were legally allowed to be in the country. All but Richard and Laila, that is. They kept quiet and planned to check into PR at the town of Ponce, a few days down the coast. We only stayed at Boqueron for one night as it was very touristy feeling.
The next day we traveled on down the coast to a beautiful beach town called Playa Santa (Saint's Beach). We stayed there only one night, as we were, all four boats, anxious to keep moving on toward the Virgin Islands. Once we arrived into Ponce, PR's second largest city, we anticipated staying a couple of days, doing some provisioning, sight seeing, and boat work. The harbor was fairly crowded upon our arrival and several boats were having trouble getting their anchors to set firmly, and wound up dragging across the harbor dangerously close to the exposed rock breakwater. Our anchor held well and we felt secure, yet didn't like the harbor as it was too crowded, dirty water and near a rather noisy construction field and noisy party dock. The party area used to be occupied by the locals who would come to the area to party over the weekend, much like you'd expect to have in the states at a pretty place where no authorities were present. So the townspeople decided to clean up the area and build a rather large recreation area for the revelers. Now they had a nice place to party, under the nose of the authorities, and party they did. One thing we noticed about PR is that everyone must be deaf. They play their music extremely loud and late into the night. And that comment comes form Rick, the deaf one who loves loud music! But this was ridiculous. Trying to sleep through the Latin music was almost impossible some nights as the music wafted across the water into our boats and reverberated into our brains. But we all made it through OK. The weather turned bad after a couple of days and so we decided to use the extra, unplanned, days to take care of some repairs which needed attention. Most noticeably was the replacement of a throttle cable on Allergic to Cities, and the replacement of the entire Autopilot electronics on Nebula (the only NEW boat amongst us. The parts were ordered and Fed-Xed to the Ponce Marina while we waited out the weather. A2C had their part fixed the day the part arrived, with the help of young David from Windfreak. He has been most helpful to us newbies. I think he's kind of taken to us Old-timers showing them that we can still kick it up when we wish to! Nebula's Autopilot problems were only resolved once a rather terse call was placed by owner Richard to the boat builder. They flew the part in, and with the help of a certified PR technician had them finally up and running.
Oh, yeah, once we arrived into Ponce, Richard and Laila placed a call to the Customs people to try to resolve their Visa issues, to be harshly told to meet the customs official on the harbor dock the next morning at 7AM. That morning, they dingied in to the dock, waited an hour for the guy to arrive, then were basically "scolded", and told to report to the immigration office in Ponce where they would likely face a fine of between $500 and $1500 each. They were not the happiest campers of the bunch at that point, but knew they had to show up and take what was handed to them. When they returned from the meeting, they were visibly happier as the Officer in charge had taken a liking to them and decided the "scolding" was sufficient and stamped their passports and gave them a 1 year Visa for any US possession.
We were all tiring of Ponce after this longer than anticipated stay and were anxious to move along and get closer to the blue waters of the true Caribbean. Once we got a good weather window, were were OUT OF THERE! However, it is important to remember, one can walk faster than most sailboats move. So moving long distances takes a while. Actually, David/Vicky and us decided to move ahead to the next own as we were so ready to leave Ponce and Richard was still awaiting, at the time, his Autopilot fix and Jake/Carol had made plans to have their boat's bottom scraped the next day. So we left on Thursday early knowing that the others would follow on Friday morning. Since we were only going down the coast to the next small village we expected that we'd reconnect the next day. Sure to form, the Autopilot installation guy couldn't come for an extra day so they had to wait longer in Ponce. Once we heard that, the four of us who left early rented a car and took off for an inner-island exploration day. We took the rental van and drove up north to Old San Juan (the Capital city) and to Fajardo and the rain forest area around there. Was a fun field trip and we four enjoyed the get-away immensely.
Old San Juan was a big city and beautiful. A 500 year-old place, it was obviously filled with history. We toured the old fort and wandered around the old part of town which has been carefully restored. The rainforest, El Yunque, was a natural beauty, complete with cascading waterfalls and thick forest canopy overhead. We stayed at a neat bed and breakfast in Fajardo, a rather large seacoast town in the Northwest corner of the country. The next morning, we returned the car to the rental agent and reunited with the other two boats whom had since arrived at our new harbor. We had spoken with them prior to our field trip and suggested we all be ready to move on the night we returned from our field trip. Once we reunited, it became clear that the newly arrived two boats were not ready to move on that night due to weather concerns. David/Vicky and Suz/Rick revisited the weather forecasts and felt comfortable with them enough to continue with our original plans to move on that night. That night at 10pm, we moved on out of our final PR harbor toward the Spanish Virgin Islands, some 12 hours away.
One thing one learns doing this type of traveling, is that one must make their own travel decisions. Those whom rely soley on another's direction must feel totally confident in that person's judgment and must be ready to accept that other person's decisions, good or bad. In our world it's called "being one's own Captain". Since everyone has their own comfort levels, they should be the final "decider", as the fool on the hill says. That way one has no one to blame, should the situation turn wrong or one feel they got stuck behind when moving forward might have been a more desirable choice. So our decision to pull out that night was based on several factors. One, we felt the weather, although not perfect, was certainly acceptable. Two, we were sick of being in PR and the other boat's decision to stay, possibly for another entire week until the weather window improved, was an unpleasant option at best.
That night we traveled through the night and into the dawn in passable seas under motor and sail and arrived at our original destination ahead of anticipated schedule, allowing us to consider continuing further along to the island of Culibra in the Spanish Virgins. Since we were making such gooid time, we actually decided to moved on to the next small island Culibrita, to a stunningly beautiful anchorage.
Having made the passage safely and successfully, we called the two other boats and encouraged the to move on as soon as possible. This morning, we got a call from them as they were pulling into Vieques,p the island just before Culibra. They had made the night passage, as we had, 24 hours later and were moving forward as soon as possible. We expect to reunite with them later this week in the US Virgins as they come across the last few island passes to meet up with us as we will only be ahead of them a few days.
Culibrita has been a terrific stop and we have thoroughly enjoyed the peace and quiete of the island. Hiking, snorkeling and just relaxing has allowed us to do what we came here to do: kick back. We will stay here another day, then head the final 15 miles across to St. Thomas to prepare for Jen and Greg's honeymoon trip arrival next weekend. Should be a fun visit.
We arrived into Boqueron around midnight after a long day & night coming across. The harbor was open and so we weren't concerned about entering an unfamiliar harbor in the dark, a usual no-no. It was a Saturday morning (Friday midnight) and the music was loud and the parties were alive all across the town. We could hear them but were in no condition to join into the festivities since were were exhausted form the trip. We all dropped the hook and fell into deep sleep in no time.[ The next morning we needed to check into the country via customs and immigration. So bright and early Saturday morning, we all dingied ashore with the appropriate documents to seek out the appropriate officials who would stamp our papers and make us all official. All except Richard and Laila, that is. Since they hold British passports, they were supposed to have previously obtained a travel visa from the United States, before entering PR. This was something they were unaware of until the got to the Dominican Republic, so they were kind of anticipating a hassle once they got to the customs officials. Once ashore all of us tried to find the customs official, to no avail. We were told the customs people had traveled for the day up to another town to check in a cruise ship. So we decided that if 20 million Mexicans can travel unimpeded around the US, we could handle a day of being illegal aliens. Was actually kind of fun. When we did make the call on Sunday to the Customs officer they gave us clearance and we were legally allowed to be in the country. All but Richard and Laila, that is. They kept quiet and planned to check into PR at the town of Ponce, a few days down the coast. We only stayed at Boqueron for one night as it was very touristy feeling.
The next day we traveled on down the coast to a beautiful beach town called Playa Santa (Saint's Beach). We stayed there only one night, as we were, all four boats, anxious to keep moving on toward the Virgin Islands. Once we arrived into Ponce, PR's second largest city, we anticipated staying a couple of days, doing some provisioning, sight seeing, and boat work. The harbor was fairly crowded upon our arrival and several boats were having trouble getting their anchors to set firmly, and wound up dragging across the harbor dangerously close to the exposed rock breakwater. Our anchor held well and we felt secure, yet didn't like the harbor as it was too crowded, dirty water and near a rather noisy construction field and noisy party dock. The party area used to be occupied by the locals who would come to the area to party over the weekend, much like you'd expect to have in the states at a pretty place where no authorities were present. So the townspeople decided to clean up the area and build a rather large recreation area for the revelers. Now they had a nice place to party, under the nose of the authorities, and party they did. One thing we noticed about PR is that everyone must be deaf. They play their music extremely loud and late into the night. And that comment comes form Rick, the deaf one who loves loud music! But this was ridiculous. Trying to sleep through the Latin music was almost impossible some nights as the music wafted across the water into our boats and reverberated into our brains. But we all made it through OK. The weather turned bad after a couple of days and so we decided to use the extra, unplanned, days to take care of some repairs which needed attention. Most noticeably was the replacement of a throttle cable on Allergic to Cities, and the replacement of the entire Autopilot electronics on Nebula (the only NEW boat amongst us. The parts were ordered and Fed-Xed to the Ponce Marina while we waited out the weather. A2C had their part fixed the day the part arrived, with the help of young David from Windfreak. He has been most helpful to us newbies. I think he's kind of taken to us Old-timers showing them that we can still kick it up when we wish to! Nebula's Autopilot problems were only resolved once a rather terse call was placed by owner Richard to the boat builder. They flew the part in, and with the help of a certified PR technician had them finally up and running.
Oh, yeah, once we arrived into Ponce, Richard and Laila placed a call to the Customs people to try to resolve their Visa issues, to be harshly told to meet the customs official on the harbor dock the next morning at 7AM. That morning, they dingied in to the dock, waited an hour for the guy to arrive, then were basically "scolded", and told to report to the immigration office in Ponce where they would likely face a fine of between $500 and $1500 each. They were not the happiest campers of the bunch at that point, but knew they had to show up and take what was handed to them. When they returned from the meeting, they were visibly happier as the Officer in charge had taken a liking to them and decided the "scolding" was sufficient and stamped their passports and gave them a 1 year Visa for any US possession.
We were all tiring of Ponce after this longer than anticipated stay and were anxious to move along and get closer to the blue waters of the true Caribbean. Once we got a good weather window, were were OUT OF THERE! However, it is important to remember, one can walk faster than most sailboats move. So moving long distances takes a while. Actually, David/Vicky and us decided to move ahead to the next own as we were so ready to leave Ponce and Richard was still awaiting, at the time, his Autopilot fix and Jake/Carol had made plans to have their boat's bottom scraped the next day. So we left on Thursday early knowing that the others would follow on Friday morning. Since we were only going down the coast to the next small village we expected that we'd reconnect the next day. Sure to form, the Autopilot installation guy couldn't come for an extra day so they had to wait longer in Ponce. Once we heard that, the four of us who left early rented a car and took off for an inner-island exploration day. We took the rental van and drove up north to Old San Juan (the Capital city) and to Fajardo and the rain forest area around there. Was a fun field trip and we four enjoyed the get-away immensely.
Old San Juan was a big city and beautiful. A 500 year-old place, it was obviously filled with history. We toured the old fort and wandered around the old part of town which has been carefully restored. The rainforest, El Yunque, was a natural beauty, complete with cascading waterfalls and thick forest canopy overhead. We stayed at a neat bed and breakfast in Fajardo, a rather large seacoast town in the Northwest corner of the country. The next morning, we returned the car to the rental agent and reunited with the other two boats whom had since arrived at our new harbor. We had spoken with them prior to our field trip and suggested we all be ready to move on the night we returned from our field trip. Once we reunited, it became clear that the newly arrived two boats were not ready to move on that night due to weather concerns. David/Vicky and Suz/Rick revisited the weather forecasts and felt comfortable with them enough to continue with our original plans to move on that night. That night at 10pm, we moved on out of our final PR harbor toward the Spanish Virgin Islands, some 12 hours away.
One thing one learns doing this type of traveling, is that one must make their own travel decisions. Those whom rely soley on another's direction must feel totally confident in that person's judgment and must be ready to accept that other person's decisions, good or bad. In our world it's called "being one's own Captain". Since everyone has their own comfort levels, they should be the final "decider", as the fool on the hill says. That way one has no one to blame, should the situation turn wrong or one feel they got stuck behind when moving forward might have been a more desirable choice. So our decision to pull out that night was based on several factors. One, we felt the weather, although not perfect, was certainly acceptable. Two, we were sick of being in PR and the other boat's decision to stay, possibly for another entire week until the weather window improved, was an unpleasant option at best.
That night we traveled through the night and into the dawn in passable seas under motor and sail and arrived at our original destination ahead of anticipated schedule, allowing us to consider continuing further along to the island of Culibra in the Spanish Virgins. Since we were making such gooid time, we actually decided to moved on to the next small island Culibrita, to a stunningly beautiful anchorage.
Having made the passage safely and successfully, we called the two other boats and encouraged the to move on as soon as possible. This morning, we got a call from them as they were pulling into Vieques,p the island just before Culibra. They had made the night passage, as we had, 24 hours later and were moving forward as soon as possible. We expect to reunite with them later this week in the US Virgins as they come across the last few island passes to meet up with us as we will only be ahead of them a few days.
Culibrita has been a terrific stop and we have thoroughly enjoyed the peace and quiete of the island. Hiking, snorkeling and just relaxing has allowed us to do what we came here to do: kick back. We will stay here another day, then head the final 15 miles across to St. Thomas to prepare for Jen and Greg's honeymoon trip arrival next weekend. Should be a fun visit.
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