St. Thomas

Off Duty in St. Thomas

On Saturday we motored (the wind could not have been more on the nose) the 20+ nautical miles to Red Hook, St. Thomas.  Our buddy boats stopped at Charlotte Amalie, but we continued to Red Hook where my old high school friend, Garry Bryan, lives.  We got together with Garry and his friend, Pamela, who manages a charter catamaran, Catatonic.  Since Cataonic is out on charters, she kindly is allowing us to stay on her mooring ball that is conveniently located near the town.  It looks as though most all of the buildings here are less than 20 years old.  You can see that the tourism trade is going strong here.  Still it is a beautiful place. 

Yesterday the four of us motored over to Hawksnest Bay in the National Park on St. John.  We picked up a day mooring and had a leisurely lunch and swim.  As I swam, I saw a turtle quite a ways ahead of me.  I then swam to the left so as to keep Wayward Wind in view.  I couldn't find the turtle.  Darn.  Then I looked straight below me and saw two mottled things...Coral?  No, turtle legs!  The turtle was right below me about fifteen feet.  Did he have a fin on his back?  Wrong again!  A foot-long fish was nibbling bits off the turtle's back while the turtle grazed on the sea grass.  Neither seemed to mind that I was there, so I just floated and watched.  Love it!

Oddly, the wind was coming from the south rather than the usual east.  We put up the jib to see if we could sail with jib only.  We eased along at 3.5 knots.  Not bad for this little jib and this big boat.  The wind was at 15 knots for a pleasant ride back.  Wonderful weather and fun with friends made for a lovely day.

Lunchtime view of swimming area

Culebra, Puerto Rico

Dream Walker in Ensenada Honda, Culebra

At 4:15am on May 17, we pulled anchor at Green Beach, Vieques, rounded the protected point of land and immediately entered rolly seas and a squall gusting to 28 knots.  We managed.  Later we found that we’d broken a pin on one of the mast slides which, when we get to a quieter anchorage, we will fix.  Fortunately we have the pieces thanks to forward-thinking Larry, the previous owner.  For now we will keep the second reef in until the repair is done.  Also one of the cords for our lazy jacks (the cord that contains the sails when lowering) almost broke so another minor repair.

Welcome to Culebra

We entered Ensenada Honda bay on Culebra near the town of Dewey.  Though not lush, it is a pretty and green island.  It sports a low-key tourism – enough so that the local businesses are thriving but not so much that it has destroyed the local flavor or jaded the local people.  As are all of the Puerto Ricans whom we’ve met, the Culebrans are friendly and helpful.  The streets are lined with boldly painted buildings and one of the churches has patches of mint green and purple paint. 

Mint green and purple church

Bold blue home adorned with praying hands and doves

Sweet little house

Yesterday I went for a long walk to the local museum, a quaint one-room building made of stone and cement.  There I learned the history of this tiny island.  For many years, the US military used the waters off of Culebra (and Vieques) as a munitions testing site.  In fact, as we motorsailed from Vieques to Culebra, according to our chart, we passed over areas of unexploded ordnance.  During the 1970s, many Culebrans protested against the testing.  One of Richard Nixon’s last acts in office was to end this practice.

Culebra Museum

On the way back from the museum, I saw what I at first thought was a snake wiggling in front of me.  Tured out to be a bright green, 3-foot iguana.  I tried to photograph it, but it was too quick.

US Post Office, Culebra - Meeting all your mail and laundry needs

Need to go to the post office today.  I think this is my favorite U.S. post office building in the world!

While we’re enjoying the quaint town and surrounding area, we’re eager to get going again though we must wait for the next weather window.   Our next port will be Red Hook, St. Thomas, USVI.

La Budita - Little Buddha

Vieques, Puerto Rico

For 5/16/12

Sunrise over Vieques with Dream Walker ahead

On Mother’s Day at 3:30am, Dream Walker and Wayward Wind, motor-sailed out of Salinas for a rolly ride and anchored at 1:00pm in Puerto Patillas for the night where we listened to dreadful karaoke assaulting us from onshore.  Fortunately we were able to sleep through the audio attack for a few hours. 

At midnight we weighed anchor and motor-sailed to Green Beach, Vieques, Puerto Rico.  The reason for the early morning departures is that the wind has been between 15 and 20 knots from the east, so right on the nose and the seas have been about five feet.  Not too bad but not relaxing.   Conditions are usually a bit calmer at night, but not always.  The Green Beach anchorage was so nice we stayed for a couple of days to snorkel. 

Stan and Elizabeth dinghying over to pick us up for a snorkling adventure

Snorklin' Dave

Stan and Elizabeth are avid snorklers and divers and often harvest their evening’s meal from below.  We joined them on two afternoons where we found conch.  Stan then gave me a conch cleaning lesson on the stern of our boat.  Dave is not too fond of conch because of its rubbery texture.  As per Elizabeth’s instructions, I beat the heck out of it to tenderize it.  We’ve now had conch salad which turned out pretty tasty if “chewy.” 

Conch Harvest

Enjoying mahi mahi pasta salad at a table with a view

We had Stan and Elizabeth over for a mahi mahi dinner which Dave had caught on the way.  A couple of nights later, we had dinner aboard Dream Walker that included delicious conch fritters and Elizabeth’s specialty, crème brulee.  This was no ordinary crème brulee but was coconut cream brulee sweetened with maple syrup from Stan and Elizabeth’s home state, Vermont.  And for the evening’s entertainment, Stan whipped out his plumber’s torch to caramelize the sugar, which he did ever so expertly.  Words fail to describe the experience of tasting that maple coconut crème brulee.  I will say that a hush prevailed over this moment of gastronomic bliss.

Ahh...

Plane to Sea

About four weeks ago, our friends, Don and Janis on Plane to Sea, had a boating accident.  They are physically OK but have had a very difficult time.  I did not post about their accident earlier because I wanted to wait until Janis posted about it on her blog. 

Essentially they were traveling at night across the Mona Passage - not an easy passage - from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico.  They were with another boat but were five miles ahead at the time.  Things were going along well when about 28 miles off the coast of Puerto Rico, an alarm went off saying that there was a dangerous target nearby.  They looked and looked but saw no boats.  Again the alarm sounded.  Again they looked all around and saw nothing.  Then suddenly a huge dark form of a ship was bearing down on them from behind on the starboard side.  Don throttled up and turned the wheel so as to avoid the ship hitting them directly.  It was sort of a side-swipe.  Unfortunately the underbelly of the ship "grabbed" their mast, rigging, and stanchions (side rails) and ripped these out as they bounced and were tossed along the ship's side. 

The good news is that Plane to Sea was not ruptured and stayed afloat.  Don radioed the ship but got no response.  They felt that no one on the ship even knew what had happened.  Their buddy boat heard the calls, dropped sails, and motored to catch up to Plane to Sea.  Don contacted the Coast Guard who luckily had a cutter on the west side of Puerto Rico, which was unusual.  First a Coast Guard helicopter came and hovered until the cutter came. Their buddy boat continued to PR since they were in the hands of the CG.  Janis boarded the cutter which towed Plane to Sea with Don aboard to Mayaquez.  Don cut on his foot, but amazingly they had no other injuries. 

They have rented a car and are staying in motels. They visited us twice while we were in Salinas and were able to spend two nights with us.  We had a great time together and Janis says that it did them a lot of good to visit.  We spoke with them the day before yesterday and they were able to stay aboard Plane to Sea overnight, which pleased them. 

The Coast Guard was fantastic with the help they've provided including helping to identify the vessel - a 650-foot long ferry - that hit them.  They are in communication with the ship's insurance company and hope to work out a settlement soon.  As one would imagine, it's been quite difficult for them, but with their Texan "git her done" attitude, they're making progress and feeling like things are going in the right direction.  They hope to get the boat fixed and continue on, though they know that they may have to remain in Puerto Rico for the hurricane season.  There happens to be an well-protected, mangrove-lined hurricane hole not far from them should they need to find a safe haven.  And Puerto Rico is a great place with lots of services available.

For our friends and family reading this, we don’t want you to worry.  One important piece of equipment that we have is radar.  When we are on watch at night, we frequently check the radar which picks up ships, sailboats and other obstructions such as oil rigs and land forms 12 miles out and farther.  We also have an AIS receiver which gives us specific data such as the ship’s name, heading and speed. When we spot a ship on our screen, we determine the course of the ship.  If it looks as though it will come within a couple of miles, we radio the ship in plenty of time and ask if they see us.  Sailboats have the right of way, so we make sure that they see us so they can alter their course if needed, which they must do.  If we were not to get a response, which has never happened so far, we would dramatically alter course to avoid a collision.  We also just purchased an AIS transponder that will transmit a signal from us which will show our boat on the screen of any ships that are in our area.  That's one of the new pieces of electronics that we just bought and will pick up in St. Thomas.  This will give us added protection.  Please do not worry.  Fortunately, we are done with long passages for awhile as we make our way down the island chain.   

Ponce, Puerto Rico

Ponce, Puerto Rico

On May 11, Stan and Elizabeth Walker of Dream Walker and Dave and I rented a car to provision and do some sight-seeing.  We first went to San Juan to go to West Marine to pick up, what else, parts.  We then drove to Ponce, Puerto Rico’s second largest city.  We drove to the center of town and looked for a place to eat lunch.  We peeked into a place – a buffet-type place – filled with locals, so we decided to try.  I had fish salad and Dave had shrimp salad.  Though it wasn’t inexpensive, the food was tasty and it was a fun place to people watch. 

We visited the unique red and black firemen's museum, Museo de Bombas, built in the late 1800s.

We saw some nice architecture.

Tight pants seem to be in vogue amongst the women here.

And even the police women don tight pants.

This gazebo was a particularly beautiful work of iron.

We also visited the Art Museum where we saw this painting, Flaming June, the museum's prize acquisition.

Salinas, Puerto Rico

Around 5/10/12

We enjoyed our time in Salinas, Puerto Rico.  It was a calm, protected anchorage which made boat maintenance easier.  We researched and ordered several things to be shipped to our friend, Garry, who lives on St. Thomas, our next destination.  Krina, who does canvas work, helped us prepare our canvas order for a new bimini and dodger (sun shades) and the two sail covers, all of which desperately need replacing.  I tell Dave I feel like Ma and Pa Kettle with our duct-tape patchwork job.  Hopefully nothing will come ripping apart before we get south to have the work done.  Also ordered some electronic stuff. 

Below are photos we took in the town of Salinas.  Everyone we met was extremely polite and helpful. 

Health food store where we found flax seeds and alfalfa seeds for sprouting

Dave bought three T-shirts for 10 bucks.  The kind proprietor gave me a bright pink bag like the green one here.

Another shop

The lovely central park

A beautiful Deco building

Men were placing bets on this antique horse race game.  The proprietor turned a big crank to start the race.

A friendly if slightly inebriated gentleman showed us the place where roosters are raised for cock fights.

 The roosters are cleaned free of feathers on their fronts. 

More on Luperon, DR

Still catching up on Luperon visit.

4/7/12

Mike goint up the carbon fiber mast of Wayward Wind

Yesterday Mike and Sarah from Tanqueray came by to help with the jib box.  Lutz came, too, to help us get started.  All told, Mike spent well over five hours here, most of which was up the mast.  We are so appreciative.  Of course, we paid him, but probably not enough.  Mike is a structural engineer and Sarah is an electrical engineer hailing from Vancouver, Washington.  They are in their early thirties and recently married.  They are on an extended honeymoon and are taking a year out of their lives to sail.  This is as far south as they will come, but they hope to do more.  Sarah works for an electric company and does research on electric consumption throughout the West Coast.  They are a sweet, beautiful couple – a rarity amongst us oldsters – and are sailing with their cat.

Lutz showing Mike how to attach a safety line

I learn so much from Lutz and Krina.  When Lutz came by to help us get started, he showed us how to do a safety line around Mike.  Since Wayward Wind has no stays, it is important to have another line holding the one going up the mast in case the main halyard breaks.  He showed us some good knots for this as well as how to winch a line around the forestay to loosen it without having to remove the jib (foresail).  He also showed us how to take out our starter motor.  One of the other boats back in the Turks and Caicos had their starter motor short out when a piece of aluminum from the insulation fell into the motor.  The down side of these diesel motors is that you cannot jump them to get them started as you can a car motor.  Lutz suggested we get an extra starter motor here in the DR since it would be pretty cheap.  We are thinking about it. 

Even the cows are relaxed in the DR

We'd heard about "The Falls" - a natural rock formation where a series of cascades is cut through the mountain by flowing water.  You can jump and slide down through the cascades and it was supposed to be fun.  Along with two other couples, we decided to make a day of it and tour the countryside, too.  A local woman, Rosa, organized the tour.  We rode two different buses through the mountains and first visited a wood-carving cooperative, a cigar-making site, and a coffee and cacao area.  We enjoyed all of the samples. 

Carving wood figures

Making cigars

Drying shed

As we drove along through the mountains in the bus, the children would shout out "Mentay" (mente) because they wanted us to throw candy to them. 

"Mente!"

Family at roadside kitchen

Carrying a bundle of grass

Animal pen in lush surroundings

Cemetary

Herding cows

After the tourist stops, we had a delightful Dominicana lunch at an outdoor cafe of grilled chicken and pork, rice and peas, green salad, and fried sweet plantain.  We then went to the Falls where we donned life vests and helmets and were herded like sheep with two other groups, UP through five cascades where we then turned around and slid or jumped back down.  It wasn't too organized with log jams of people and hunky guides grabbing and literally picking us up one by one to the new levels.  I came to realize that I'm really too old for this type of "fun." 

Last night we went aboard Plane to Sea to celebrate Don’s birthday with three other couples.  Janis made gumbo with fresh lobster and Sarah had brought homemade bread.  Lots of stories were told and enjoyed by all.  The favorite of the night though was a short one told by Dave.  We were trading  strategies about how we choose a place to drop the anchor.  Janis commented that Dave seems to spend a lot of time tooling around while Linda impatiently stands on the bow with her hands on her hips just shaking her head.  Dave exclaimed, "I'm like a dog circling around three times looking for a place to take a shit!"  That was it - the quote of the night!  Our faces ached with the laughter from all the stories.  So many. 

Today Dave and I went into town to pick up our laundry and use the internet at Cap’n Steve’s Restaurant.  He is an American married to a Dominicana and has two young girls.  He was a commercial fisherman for many, many years and has settled here.  He brought his computer over and showed us photos of his house that he is having built up in the mountains.  There are never too many tables filled at his restaurant so we always wonder how he makes it.  He has his restaurant up for sale.  Apparently there was a large hotel on the coast associated with a British travel group that provided a lot of tourism here in Luperón, but for a variety of reasons, the travel group no longer includes Luperón on the tour, so the hotel has closed, and that has had deleterious effects on the local economy.  And that’s how it is.

Cacao - the source of a delicious cup of cocoa.

Culebra

We're in Culebra now with a really good internet connection and weather that's too windy to move, so I vow to get caught up on the blog.  Have to listen to the weather now.  More later.  All is well.

Trip to Santiago, DR

I waited to post this until I was able to upload photos from Sara, which I finally did.

04.28.12 

Trip to Santiago from Luperon, DR

Countryside outside Luperon

Agricultural land

Along with Mike and Sarah on Tanqueray, we hired a driver, Nino, and his Toyota Camry station wagon for the day.  We drove through the mountains to Santiago.  The drive through mountain farm and wild land and small villages was beautiful.  People mostly farm in the countryside where you see few personal cars.  Most who own motorized transportation drive motorcycles, and you will see an entire family riding on one.  The Dominican Republic is lush with trees and foliage which makes any drive scenic.   

Mounument to the Restoration

Sara and Mike

We first visited the Monument to the Restoration atop a hill with a stunning view of the surrounding city and valley.  Three teen boys offered to shine Dave’s shoes, even though he wore white tennis shoes.  We later saw the boys racing each other up the hilly paths.  We chatted with them and found out that they were 15, 16, and 17 years old and each had a profound dream to become a professional baseball player.  As we chatted, they vociferously named a long list of American baseball players born in the DR.  Sammy Sosa!  Jose Rentaria!  Juan Marichal!  (my hero!) They knew their numbers, too.  In broken English, one of the boys finally said, “Give me one dollar?”  I said, “Por que?” (Why?)  He said, “para aqua.”  But the 16-year-old scolded him saying, “No!  No!”  So I didn’t.  The boys challenged me to a race, but I declined and sent in my substitute, Dave.  He raced two of the boys and came in third, giving it his all.  It was enchanting to chat with these three polite young men and watch them practice in pursuit of their big league dream. 

Two of our three new friends

By then it was lunch time and we had more provisioning to do so went to a mall with a big hardware store and big supermarket.  We were leery about Nino’s promise of good food at the Food Court, but decided to chance it.  What a bonanza!  Delicious grilled red peppers, fresh corn salad in vinaigrette and roasted pork and other savory treats.  And you can buy beer, if desired.  This ain’t your mama’s Food Court.  Because the DR produces its own food, the vegetables and fruits are delicious as is the meat.  It was fun to people-watch at the Food Court.  We noticed a difference in how people dressed as they were a bit trendier compared to small town Luperón. 

That's paella on the left!

Satiated, we continued with our provisioning and found hoses, clamps and rum.  Yes, Dave was on a mission to buy some Dominicana rum and accomplished his mission at the Supermercado, so we are well-stocked for visitors.  Hint.  Hint.

Mangos...yum!

After seeing a bit more of Santiago, we headed back through the mountains and stopped at a fruit stand where we bought mangoes, bananas, and a large papaya.  We then stopped at a small shop in a village where we bought fresh cheese -- one is light orange and is hearty and the other is white and tastes like mozzarella.  We bought two balls of aged hard cheese dipped in wax that do not need to be refrigerated.  And for the road, we bought some coconut cookies. 

We dropped off Mike and Dave at the dinghy dock so they could take the provisions back to our boats.  Sarah and I went with Nino back to the gas station to fill up our 5-gallon jerry cans with gasoline.  Mike came back to pick us up, and that was our Santiago day.