Dewey, Culebra
18.18.330N
65.17.883W

We checked with MTNest to see what their plans were for the day, then hopped into the dinghy and went in for the “cruisers breakfast” at The Dinghy Dock. It might be “famous” and written up in the cruising guides but personally, I didn’t think it was anything out of the ordinary.

After the breakfast dishes were cleared away, we jumped back into the dinghy and went exploring. We motored into the channel leading from the anchorage to the main part of town by first passing beneath the “famous” lift bridge. As we understand the story of the bridge, Culebra was transferred to the U.S. in 1898. In 1903, Roosevelt gave control to the Navy, who decided that the town of Pueblo Viejo on Culebra and all of its inhabitants at the time needed to be closer to the water. So they moved it, lock, stock and barrel, built them a new town and changed the name to Dewey. However, there were a couple of fishermen who didn’t want to wiggle through the reefs and around the peninsula to get to town, so the military built a lift bridge for the two fishing boats. As you can see, it’s quite the construction project for two boats. As you can imagine, the boats are no longer in existence and the bridge is longer being lifted for water traffic.

We passed by a couple of restaurants on the water, a gas station and small haul out before exiting at the ferry dock in town. The harbor between Dewey and Luis Pena was like a pond, so we took the opportunity to cross over to the little island and then walk across the nature preserve to the other side.

When we were stationed here in the early 90’s, the little harbor at Luis Pena was a favorite overnight stop to drop our anchor on our way to the Virgin Islands. Now there are a couple of free mooring balls in the harbor and several more on the western side. We beached the dinghy and checked out the boat washed up on the shore. Dale suspected that it had been a towed target for the military in a previous life as it clearly had “Navy” printed on its side.

I left my leather shoes in the dinghy so when we decided to walk across the island, I scavenged for a new pair. It only took me a minute or two before we were off on another adventure. Tromping across the little island, we surprised a couple of goats and they startled us darting out of the bushes. Other than that, we saw no other signs of animal life on the island. The huge mountain of harvested conch shells that had once dominated one side of the harbor were now gone (thankfully) and only those shells that washed up on the beach were to be seen. Dale saw that the winds were starting to pick up, so we headed back the way we had come and made a slower, wetter crossing to Culebra, through the channel and back to the Palace for a quiet afternoon.

Mike, Terri and the girls told us hey where heading to Flamingo Beach for the day so we hoped they weren’t getting too wet in the passing afternoon showers. In the meantime, another catamaran behind us came by to borrow Dale’s pop rivet gun to attach their radar mount. I guess we looked well equipped as they pretty much made a bee-line towards us from their boat.
We met on MTNest for a pot luck dinner and a glass of champagne before heading into town for the New Year’s Eve festivities. We told them about channel to the other side and suggested that it was the quickest and, most likely, safest way of getting to and from the celebration.

We needn’t had worried though as the party in town was more of a family night than the wild craziness of Foxy’s we had come to expect in the islands at the end of the year. It was an enjoyable night of dancing and fireworks but the only food, drink or a place to sit was what you brought yourself to the party. It was a nice way to bring in the New Year and even the passing rain didn’t dampen the spirits.

Dewey, Culebra
18.18.330N
65.17.883W

According to plan, we got underway about 7:30 am this morning, unfurled our main sail and made our way out of the base harbor. Dolphins in the channel played along side the Palace as we passed by which we always take as a good omen for sailing. We knew that we were in for a long day of motor sailing, emphasis on the motor, since we had not gotten our jib back from the sail loft yet.

We rounded out of the harbor and headed east toward Culebra and were met head on with some pretty stiff winds of a passing shower. Behind the shower we encountered the occasional 30 kts gusts; it‘s just not a shower unless it has the stiff winds somewhere in front, in the midst of or behind it. To make the ride more comfortable, we decided to tack back and forth between Vieques and Puerto Rico to take the waves left behind the shower less stressful on us and the boat. The last time we passed Vieques, they were detonating unexploded ordinances left behind from its days as a military practice area and our cruising chute fell down. One incident was not connected to the other but the loud explosions definitely caught our attention.

We were supposed to meet up with MTNest coming out of Puerto del Rey but they got a late start and ended up falling in about an hour behind us. Although it was a long slog into the teeth of the wind and currents, it was an uneventful trip.

Our course took us close to Louis Pena which has a very small anchorage we used to drop anchor in when we were stationed here back in the early 90’s. We tacked back out again and then dropped our sail to motor around the southern end of Culebra. We followed the bouys that led the way through the protective reefs lying across the opening of Culebra’s Ensenada Honda and worked our way into the farthest anchorage near the town of Dewey. We anchored a little west of the tiny island of Cayo Pirata. According to our guide book, Cayo Pirata “was originally constructed to give shelter to pirate ships.” We figured that was a good place for us. An hour or so later, MTNest anchored behind us. We observed the rules that dictate anchoring as a spectator sport and watched as their daughter, Tonya, fell into the water trying to assist in securing the anchor bridle.

After making sure that both boats were secure in their holding, we took the dinghies into town. We tied up at the town dock where power boats from Puerto Rico were already setting up their barbeques and wonderful salsa rhythms were setting the pace for the walk through town.

In all of the time we spent in this area, neither Dale nor I had ever visited the town of Dewey. Mike had stopped here on his way back to Puerto Rico from Trinidad, so he took the lead and showed us around town. Of course, with 4 women, we had to visit each and every shop and grocery store available. For a small town, I thought they were very well provisioned. In fact, I found a few simple items here that I hadn’t been able to locate on much larger islands further south. They even had a great selection of meats at one of the grocery stores; including a fully dressed carcass of a pig in a grocery cart that I hoped would be on the menu New Year’s Eve.

We walked up and down all of the major streets in town and visited all of the stores in about 2 hours. We returned to the boats early so that the MTNest crew could attend Mass in town. Dale and I kept a quiet evening but looked forward to tomorrow morning when we’ll partake of the famous “Cruiser Breakfast” at an appropriately named restaurant called “The Dinghy Dock”.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

It’s been raining most of today but since the bowling alley was opened until 9pm, I camped out in front of my computer and tried to get as much as I possibly could done before Dale came by to drag me back to the boat. It was achingly slow, but I’m proud to say that I’m caught up on my e-mails, all of our bills have been reviewed and paid, our investments checked, and all of the blogs that could be posted, were in fact uploaded.

Dale spent the day taking down the Christmas lights and preparing to unplug our umbilical cords to Roosey and sail to Culebra tomorrow. He also made sure that since the last word was that the base would be closing on the 31st, we would be allowed back in to retrieve our various cords, lines, hoses, and bicycles before considering leaving them behind (As tenants of the marina, we are supposed to be given 30 days notice to vacate in the event the marina is closed. To date, no such notice has been given to anyone.) Hector, the marina manager, confirmed with the base Officer In Charge and we’re set to go (and return). If our hot water tank arrives while we’re gone, they’ll hang on to it for us.

One good note; when we bumped into the base OIC, he told us that his orders were extended for another 18 months and that now AAFES (Army Air Force Exchange System, I think) as well as the Army, is interested in taking over the marina. That’s certainly an indication that the Navy is prepared to stay as administrators for that additional amount of time and that there is still a speck of hope that the marina will remain a military operation. In addition to that, rumor has it that the local affiliation of St. Lukes Hospital was taking applications for nurses, technicians, etc to reopen the dental clinic here on base as a Veterans Clinic. I suggested that Dale put in his application if they offer housing on base as an incentive; I know which house I want this time! Not very big but a great view!!

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

Today was a day of running errands. We invited Tom & Jordan to go along with us as we were making our customary runs to West Marine and the grocery store.

There was a nice after-Christmas sale going on at West Marine where I picked up a couple of Christmas ornaments and a pair of shorts for Dale. I told Dale all of my purchases were free after the 20% discount was deducted from his purchases. Jordan knew exactly what I was saying but both Dale and Tom decided that I was using some type of foreign mathematics as a purchasing tactic that every woman learned in a class they weren’t privy to.

After our errands, we dropped Tom & Jordan off at their boat then headed out again to Puerto del Rey, the next marina to the east, to see if Mike & Terri of MTNest had returned from the States. We walked down the dock and started waving exuberantly at the dark haired woman sunning on the trampoline. We rounded the corner to discover that we were in fact waving to Terri’s daughter, Tonya. Tonya and Ally, her friend from college, were visiting for a couple of weeks. They all had arrived late last night. Mike & Terri were out re-provisioning and they anticipated leaving for a visit of the Spanish Virgins on Saturday. They promised to let Mike & Terri know that we had dropped by.

While in the middle of preparing dinner later this evening, we received a hail on the radio from Mike inviting us to join them at Lolitas for a night of Mexican food and catching up. Naturally, I finished up and then stored it all away since I wanted to visit with friends we hadn’t seen in almost a year.

We had a marvelous time and of course, reminisced about our times with Roger & Elaine. It’s hard to believe that the last time that we saw Mike & Terri was about this same time last year. We had met in Luperon and had spend our time in the Dominican Republic with them, crossed the Mona Passage together to Puerto Rico, toured the western and southern coast of Puerto Rico with them and then said our good-byes in Virgin Gorda last February when they continued on with DocNoMore to St. Martin and we headed back to Puerto Rico to meet our daughter Michelle and, . . . Hey wait a minute . . . We were waiting for Gerry & Nicky a year ago too!!!
Anyway, we had a great time and learned that they were going to Culebra for the New Year celebration, then on to St. Thomas. Ally was returning home out of St. Thomas and Tonya was staying another couple of weeks before leaving the same way. They invited us to join them for as long as we could.

We decided that we would join them for the New Year festivities and go as far as St. Thomas but that we needed to be back in Puerto Rico by Friday as we had to pick up our jib and dinghy cover from the sail loft. We coordinated our plans and hope to meet up with them on Saturday morning on the way to Culebra.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

It rained off and on today but between raindrops I did laundry and “assisted” Dale in splicing an eye in a double braided rope. I say “assisted” only in reference to the fact that we had two sets of directions on how to complete the task. Mine had more pictures but lacked some key steps. Dale’s set of instructions were more detailed but practically written in Greek; sometimes you just need a little visual aid to figure out what is being conveyed. Between the two sets of information, multiple readings, a couple pair of scissors, several ‘fids’ (giant metal needles), a cleat on the dock and our combined body weights to ‘bury the splice’, we figured it out and now have a very nice little eye spliced into the new spinnaker halyard which holds the snap shackle. Pretty dang professional looking, I might add.

Now we only have to run it down the mast.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

Happy Birthday April ! We hope you took some time off to spend with family and enjoyed the holidays.

We received an e-mail from Gerry & Nicky today that they have left Georgetown only to discover that the vibration they were tracking down in their genset was due to a broken frame supporting it. They hope to have it welded in the Turks & Cacos.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

We spent a quiet day together starting with a big sausage and egg breakfast and the rest of the day talking with our children, grandchildren, parents and siblings on the sat phone with only a few dropped calls. It was wonderful to hear all of their voices again.

In the afternoon, I made an apple crisp dessert to take with us to Mac & Marie’s when we joined them along with Mac’s sister Clare and her two daughters, Christie & Janine, and their neighbors, Martin & Sara. Our group ranged from ages 18 - 80 and we discussed everything from pivotal points in our lives to the goals we hoped to achieve in our lifetimes. Mac & Marie prepared a standing rib roast dinner with all of the fixings and ended with bananas flambé ala mode. Impressive and they didn’t even know that it was my favorite!! I enjoyed the dynamic mix of people and all of the tasty dishes.

We said our goodbyes and took our time driving home admiring the holiday lights along the way. It wasn’t until we had turned into the entrance to the base that I realized that I had forgotten my purse which contained my military dependent ID card. It had the potential for being an awkward situation but the guard at the gate waved us by after checking Dale’s ID. Winding our way through the base to the marina we discussed calling and driving back in the morning. As we pulled into the marina parking lot, Dale reached into his pocket and we remembered something else I had dropped into my purse; the keys to the boat.

Being resourceful and smart enough to stay out of my husband’s way for the next few minutes, I hurried aboard the Palace and started checking the larger hatches to see if we may have left them unlocked to accommodate the Christmas lights we had strung. Sure enough, one was left unlocked and I climbed down through it and tried to locate the spare key. I stuffed a flashlight and every key I could find though a small hatch in the cockpit to Dale even though I knew none of them were the right one. Eventually, he gave up and climbed down through another hatch that I opened from inside. He finally located the spare key, crawled back out and we were able to unlock the companionway.

A quick call to the MacDonald’s confirmed that they had found the missing purse and would drop it off to us in the morning on their way to the airport. Boy do I feel ditsy! I’ve gotten out of the habit of carrying a purse resorting to a backpack to keep my hands free in the dinghy and now forget to bring it along when we’re traveling in a car. I guess I was having a senior moment since I don’t exactly qualify for having blonde moments. And that comment, my friends, will get me e-mails from both of my daughters in a heart beat!

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

Christmas Sunday. Deep in the closet we found a dress and suit to wear. We had previously scoped out a Baptist church not too far from the front gate of the base whose sign indicated services were in English. We were not disappointed.

We pulled into the driveway and greeted a man who welcomed us in and showed us around. He turned out to be the parish preacher; previously of the U.S. Marines. Most of the parishioners were retired military so we fit right in, in spite of Dale’s growing ponytail. It was a fairly small congregation and I’m sure we were greeted and shook hands with every last one of them. They were all very kind and we were invited to join them while we’re here. I’d like to try except that it’s a bit of a bike ride when we give up the car. The minister had a different slant on the holiday season and freely admitted that it ‘gets him in trouble’ but he did a good job in explaining his position, so I understood what he was trying to convey. I’m curious about his other convictions and would like to hear him again.

We returned to the boat and Dale hid out in the back stateroom while I took over the galley and salon to prepare our big meal. Turkey, dressing, gravy, sweet potato and green bean casseroles. I prepared my yeast rolls too but when the turkey and sweet potato casserole didn’t finish cooking on time, I opted to leave them for leftovers.

We joined Tom, Jordan and Harry (their Pomeranian) on their boat for the big feast. Harry was decked out in red velvet and tiny gold bells. The rest of us, having changed from our Sunday best, wore the shorts and shirts with the least amount of holes in them. We had a wonderful evening and I learned that Jordan’s family is from Arkansas too. We left early enough for Tom & Jordan to get ready to attend evening Mass and we spent the remainder of the evening watching “The Polar Express” that they had lent to us. It was a cute little movie and one I had not seen before.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

We have a car, so that means shopping! Dale was none too excited about heading out on the weekend before Christmas so I gave him a hard time about being a Scrooge and dragged him along anyway. Mostly we were out for grocery shopping but we found a Radio Shack that had the plugs that allow our American 110 plugs to be used in the European 210 sockets at the internet cafes on some of the islands south of here. Usually I can get by with WiFi but its always nice to have an electrical backup in case it’s a slow connection.

When we got back to the boat, we dropped by St. Christopher and got together with Tom & Jordan to discuss sharing our Christmas turkey with them. (You remember that one don’t you? The one we tracked down last October in Trinidad for Thanksgiving but ended up not using. Well, its been residing quite nicely in a compartment in our ice maker ever since.) We determined that Sunday evening would be best and divided up the menu. It will be very similar to our Thanksgiving feast but for four instead of 6.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

While I pedaled up to the bowling alley on my daily routine, Dale went and picked up a rental car for the week. When he got back he spotted Gordan & Marie MacDonald preparing to launch their boat for a day on the water with some relatives from out of town. Dale and “Mac” had served together at the hospital here at Roosey and Marie and I had belonged to the Wives Club together. If you remember, we had anchored literally out their back door when we first arrived in Puerto Rico back in February.

As luck would have it, they were returning just as I was getting back from extended hours on the computer and we were able to chat and catch up for a bit. They invited us to join them for Christmas dinner at their home in Palmas del Mar on Monday, so we’re looking forward to continuing our catching up then.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

You know, my days have definitely developed into a pattern. I ride up to the bowling alley about 9 or 9:30 in the morning and stay there working on the computer until they close at 1:30pm after the lunch crowd has left or when they clean up and I finally take the hint about 2pm.

Today the base police had their Christmas party there and things were pretty loud. Dominos, pool balls and crashing bowling pins to the beat of Christmas music in Spanish (with a little salsa thrown in for good measure). It was a nice change and good to see people on the base again.
Then I pedal back to the boat and either read if its sunny or take a nap if its raining. It’s a tough life, I know.

Today Dale was taking his little yellow multimeter to various lengths of the copper strip we put down for the SSB radio. He wanted me to help him lift up the bed and check where we a laid it beneath it. He said that it was to make sure we had continuity the entire length and that it hadn’t broken anywhere. I don’t know. I think he’s making work for himself. Still, he keeps the boat in tip top condition, so if poking little prods along the copper strip helps, I’ll lend a hand.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

The knock on the hull early this morning was Tom telling us that he didn’t trust the car to make it all the way to San Juan so our trip to the exchange at Ft. Buchanan is off. Rats! I was really looking forward to the day out and about.

So I changed my plans and rode up to the bowling alley to continue trying to upload my posts to the internet while Dale stayed behind to try and track down stray electrical currents. Apparently our zinks are deteriorating quicker than he thinks is proper and he wants to make sure all of the 110 connections are properly grounded. Tom dropped by later and told him that when he dropped off some work to be done at the aluminum shop, our outboard motor hoist had been repaired and was waiting for pick up. He and Dale doubled back and by the time they got there, Tom’s repair had been completed too. Wow! Talk about service.

While waiting for my photos to upload into the blogspot (which is why it takes so long), I was able to ‘chat’ with Gerry & Nicky via Skype today. They are still in Georgetown and anticipate leaving on Saturday if the weather holds. They’ve been having a tough time with the weather lately and Nicky sounded anxious to find better sailing and swimming conditions. I remember the feeling and tried to assure her that once they made it this far south, things would improve tremendously.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

Happy Birthday Dad!

Dale dug out our bicycles and pumped up the tires so that we could ride up to the bowling alley to upload these posts to the blogspot. I had forgotten how slow the internet connection was here but its FREE!! So I won’t complain too much.

Tom (off St. Christopher) was already there trying out his new Skype software. He told us that a neighbor of his on their dock offered the use of their car while they are in the States for the holidays. He and Jordan want to make a trip over to the exchange at Ft. Buchanan tomorrow and invited us to go along. Wonderful, another day of shopping!

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

Today was a big day. We rented a car and went shopping!

After picking up the car, we dropped by Puerto del Rey to drop off our outboard motor hoist at the aluminum fabricators to see it they could repair it. They said that they could but were uncertain if they could get it back to us before the Christmas holidays. They are one of the services that plan on being on vacation from this coming Friday until the 6th of January, after Three Kings Day.

Next we traveled to Farjardo to drop off our jib and dinghy cover for leather repair at the local sail loft. They too were planning on closing Friday afternoon but planned on being back after the New Year. Perfect! We left everything with them. While we were there, we checked across the street at one of the local chandleries to see if they had a hot water tank like ours. They didn’t but they could order one and gave us a quote.

Next we stopped by West Marine to pick up a new spinnaker halyard and, of course, to check out their end of the year sale. Next was Walmart where we picked up copies of the latest Harry Potter movie and the DaVinci code. Then we swung by the grocery store to pick up a few fresh vegetables before heading back to the boat.

After checking things out a bit, we found that it was to our benefit to order the hot water tank via the catalog. We received an e-mail from Gerry and Nicky today that they had made it to Georgetown in the Bahamas, so we’re going to be here for a couple more weeks; the 10 day back order wasn’t going to be a problem.

We ended the day with another quick trip to Farjardo to the local Pizza Hut. It’s been a long time since we had a Pizza Hut pizza and it tasted really good. We took our time coming back enjoying the Christmas lights of Farjardo and Ceiba along the way. Last year we had been caught in weather in Mayaguana where we weren’t anywhere near a town or the holiday decorations. This year I’m soaking it all in.

Photo: Our home at Roosevelt Roads between 1991 - 1994.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

This morning, we gingerly worked our way through the maze that our boat has become with the salon torn to pieces to check on the hot water tank. The second repair is still not holding. Somehow I already knew what the prognosis was going to be. I’m not sure I would have trusted it even if it had worked. So I dug out all of our mail order catalogs and started researching cost and shipping expenditures. We’ll rent a car tomorrow to do some leg work at the local chandleries as well. (His trip to West Marine yesterday wasn’t very fruitful. They had a hot water tank but from a different vender which would require re-plumbing all of the hoses.)

Since we’re going shopping, we might as well get everything else while we’re out and about. So I hoisted Dale up the mast to check on rigging the spinnaker halyard that broke. First we needed to locate the current one and then see if something had cut it while the cruising chute was deployed. Normally this is something that I would do since Dale’s not one for looking down from high places. But after convincing him that no matter what I found, he was ultimately the one who would have to tell me how to go about doing what ever had to be done, he agreed that this time he would go up. He did great! He even fixed the wind index that would hang up every once in a while since our transit from Martinique. He took a camera up with him to take pictures of everything so now we’ll both know just exactly what the other is talking about in the future. Jordan came by just in time to help tail the line when I let him back down again.

What we learned was that the spinnaker halyard looked to have simply worn out; there didn’t appear to be anything that would cut it. (Good thing it wore out on the chute instead of one of us). So we’ll add a new halyard to our shopping list. We also know that there is nothing we can do to add a pulley at the top of the mast that would made a difference with the cruising chute (an option that we had discussed). Dale fixed the wind index, so we’ve taken that off our list.

Since the boat looks like a bomb has gone off inside it anyway, I took the opportunity to dig out our “up and over” Christmas lights and rearrange one of our storage lockers in the back.
By night fall, we were decked out for the holidays. There are lights going up the roller furling and down the back. We have bells on the bow, a tree on the back deck, as well as another in the salon on the only clear space available. We’re the only Christmas lights for miles. The boat’s a mess but I’m happy.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

First thing this morning before anyone else had the same idea, I finished the laundry that I had started last evening.

We dug out the cruising chute (asymmetrical sail) and laid it across the lawn to rinse the salt water off it and waited the better part of the day for it to dry. Later in the afternoon, I was able to repair a tear in the sock that I can only assume occurred on a sharp piece of metal when it took flight.

We also unfurled and let down the jib so that we can take it in to have the clew corner repaired. The leather chafe guard has completely been worn off.

In the meantime, Dale tore the salon apart to get to the hot water heater. We moved the table up and out of the way, then he had to cut the seat to allow access to the hot water tank. He unscrewed the housing and used a mirror to look all the way around the hot water tank looking for any sign of a leak. We found two spots on the underbelly of the tank at appear to be faulty weld points but no leaking water.

He removed the front section of the settee and was able to expose the hose connections and found where the leak appeared to be coming from. However, after he trimmed the hoses and made sure that the new connections were solid, the leak continued. It seems that its not the hose connections but the metal to metal connection that the hoses connect to that is leaking.
Next, he used a special epoxy to try to make the repair but by evening, there was still a little leak. He added more epoxy so we’ll have to until tomorrow morning to see if repair holds.
It was a long day so we ended it with a game of Cribbage in which Dale won soundly. Since I’ve ‘skunked’ him the last couple of days, he feels vindicated at last.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

As quietly as we could, we hoisted our anchor at 6:50 am and motored out of Charlotte Amalie through Haulover Cut by Hassel Island. We ghosted along West Gregorie Channel between St. Thomas and Water Island, past the airport, past Porpoise Rocks, Saba Island and finally past Sail Rock. We were in familiar waters heading back to Roosey Roads.

Once again we had light winds directly behind us. After we determined that the few showers left in the area were more than likely going to miss us, we rolled in the jib, rigged the asymmetrical, then hoisted the giant colorful sail. Boy does it make a difference! It’s a little trickier to use but we were flying along with up to 8.5 kts over the ground in breezes rarely above 12 kts. We were in the process of leaving Culebrita behind us when Snap!! The giant sail above us was suddenly laid out perfectly in the water beside us.

Dale ran forward while I tried to keep us pointed in any direction that would keep the sail to the side of us and not beneath us to foul on the keel, rudder, prop, or anything else below the waterline. We decided the best course of action was to open the forward hatch over the head and stuff the sail down into the boat and figure things out later. This, of course, was easier said than done. It took a bit of heave-ho on Dale’s part but he finally was able to pull the monster out of the water and stuff the last of the sail, lines and dousing sock (which had turned itself inside out during the process) down the hatch. A check later on showed that the halyard had severed about a foot from the top.

We unfurled the jib once again, turned a bit off straight down wind (we’d had enough excitement for one day) and continued our trip to Roosey.

About an hour out of Ensenada Honda, the official name of the harbor at Roosey, we called ahead for a float plan number to relay to the Coast Guard in requesting permission to enter. A half hour after that, we were granted permission to enter and weaved our way through the empty mooring field up to the fuel dock. We were in our slip by 4:00pm.

Tom & Jordan on the catamaran St. Christopher, whom we had met the first time we came through Roosey, came out to greet us. They had decided to stay in Grenada during the hurricane season and had made it back before us.

While Dale rinsed off the Palace and plugged us into electricity, I grabbed a couple of loads of laundry and started cleaning from a different point of attack. As I’ve said many times before, this is our home away from home. We feel very comfortable here and know that all of our pieces and parts can be repaired or replaced here. We’ll have no problems keeping busy until Gerry & Nicky get to Puerto Rico.

Charlotte Amalie
St. Thomas, USVI
18.20.243N
64.55.870W

Leinster Bay is one of my favorite anchorages. Not only because you can snorkel to Waterlemon Cay from your boat but also because it is so well protected. Not a ripple during the night. That, of course, meant a great night of sleep, finally!

The morning dawned a rainy grey and after we dropped our mooring at 8:45, we motored out into Sir Francis Drake’s Passage to find it rather blustery. The wind was against us the entire leg up to Road Town. The 4-5’ waves were choppy and made it a moist transit from the rain and the waves over the bow. At one point, we had to come to a complete stop in this mess when Dale noticed that our outboard motor hoist on the back arch was taking more of a beating than we had anticipated. We have a tendency to use it as another support for the dinghy on transits; snugging the dinghy closer to the arch. As luck would have it, this time the hoist bent in all of the pounding into the sea.

When we turned to enter into Road Harbor, we watched the (apparent) wind register 30 knots as a passing rain shower breezed by. There were two cruise ships in the harbor as well as what appeared to be the entire Moorings charter fleet. We anchored outside of the cruise ships amongst some other boats and Dale lowered the dinghy to go in search of the store that held the replacement sat phone we came to exchange. I babysat the boat to make sure it didn’t go anywhere in the high winds and to fend off in case other boats got too close to us or us to them. Thankfully, nothing like that was needed and Dale was back in a flash with the new sat phone. They had powered it up in the store and made sure it locked onto the satellite before Dale left, so we figure we’re good to go.

It was a down hill sleigh ride back the way we had come along Drake’s Passage, through the Narrows around St. John into the Windward Passage, along Pillsbury Sound , through Current Cut between St. James and St. Thomas and down the leeward side of St. Thomas. We arrived in Charlotte Amalie about 4:00 pm just as the first of the 3 cruise ships berthed there figured it was time to leave. Of course, we were right behind him at the time and had to turn on the engine and scurry out of the channel. We continued on into the Charlotte Amalie anchorage, circled a few times in front of the Coast Guard pier like the tired dogs we were, and found just the right spot to drop our anchor in about 17 feet of water.

Tomorrow, bright and early, we’ll hoist anchor again and head for our Puerto Rican home of Roosevelt Roads.

Leinster Bay
St. John, USVI
18.21.883N
64.43.321W

Good Grief! Now we know why there weren’t very many boats in this anchorage. We rocked all night long. Normally the cruising guides warn you about conditions like that but they must have missed that part for Buck Island.

We awoke to a beautiful morning and hoisted anchor by 7:15 am. We eased our way out of the anchorage, rounded north along the protective reef, then unfurled our sails and romped between 6 - 7.5kts across the passage to St. John, arriving on the south side of St. John by noon. That has to be a record! We tightened our sails to negotiate the cut into Pillsbury Sound and then pinched really, really high to ease by Blunder Rocks. Dale did a really super job squeezing every inch we made windward in order to stay on the same tack and not add to the hull tally for these notorious rocks.

We continued on towards Jost Van Dyke and by 2:30pm made our first tack in front of Sandy Cay to head back towards Leinster Bay on the north side of St. John. A passing rain shower ruined our chances of negotiating Thatch Cut on this leg but it also provided the double rainbow we spotted as we headed back across. Instead of tacking two more times, we turned on the engine and arrived at Leinster Bay by 3:30 pm.

The same National Park Service volunteers that were here back in February are here again and recognized our boat. We put the dinghy back together again and went by to say hello before heading into shore to pay our fees. Regretfully, we didn’t have enough time to snorkel Waterlemon Cay as I had hoped we might, but once Gerry & Nicky get here maybe I’ll have another opportunity.

Tomorrow we want to slip into Road Town to pick up our sat phone before heading west to St. Thomas for the night. After that, we’re back to Roosey for the last days before it closes.

Buck Island
St. Crouix, USVI
17.47.151N
64.37.763W

We left the marina about 8 am this morning in order to drop by the National Park Service to pick up our anchor permit for Buck Island and then continued on to the center of the island to return our rental car. The young lady who drove us back was really a sweet kid. When we started talking about Hurricane Hugo devastating St. Croix back in the late 80’s, I realized that she might not have been born yet. She was kind enough to say that she had been born by that time but that she was still a baby.

We checked out of the marina, which took us a lot longer than we expected, then waited for a rain shower to pass before we left the dock at about 10:30 am. We retraced our rather tortuous route back out of the harbor and made our way to Buck Island. The entire island is protected by the National Park Service and in 2001, it was expanded to preserve “one of the finest marine gardens in the Caribbean sea.”

We anchored at the west end of the island and dinghied to the east end where we jumped in and found the underwater trail we’d heard about. The snorkel trail meanders through coral grottoes out to the reef protecting the island and has signs directing you through the grottos or indicating the types of fish that are usually located in the area. Dale had to dive down to clean off most of the signs as they were covered with quite a bit of silt. The elkhorn coral in this area was so thick that it formed its own patch reefs. Sadly, most of the coral we saw was either dying or just bouncing back from being damaged in the various storms. It seems the soft corals bounce back quicker than the hard corals.

We saw lots of blue tang and several different varieties of parrotfish along the way. Dale said that it looked like I had been trapped when we got to the end of the trail and 3 barracuda blocked my way from either continuing forward or scooting to the side to get back to the dinghy. I took the route with only 1 barracuda to contend with. None of them were over 2.5’ long but still, I don’t want them to think I’m threatening by invading their space.

We returned to the Palace and secured the dinghy for an open water transit by taking the outboard off and putting it in on its perch on the back of the boat, then hoisting and snugging the dinghy itself as tight as we can to the transom and davits. Apparently, we’ve been doing a pretty good job of tightening it down since the area where the ropes go have worn right through the canvass cover we purchased a few months ago. Once we get to Puerto Rico, I’ll have to remedy the situation.

There are only 2 other boats in the anchorage with us tonight, so hopefully we won’t disturb anyone when we leave bright and early tomorrow morning for St. John.

Gallows Bay,
Christiansted,
St. Croix, USVI
17.44.911N
64.41.908W

We had hoped to get an early start touring the island today but since we needed to get a car rental agency that would pick us up and drop us off when we were done, we were at their mercy. We found one but by the time we actually got the car, it was after 10 am.

We began our tour of the island at the Whim Estate Museum. Whim is a restored sugar plantation from the mid-1700’s. I was particularly interested in the antique furniture and furnishings of the great house which were from the same time period though not the original furnishings. Regrettably, they didn’t allow photographs of the interior. I was able to snap a few of the outside, the windmill and the animal mill.

We next ventured to the top of St. Croix’s semi (as in it doesn’t get the full 200” to qualify) rain forest to where wood workers collect trees that have naturally fallen to carve their pieces. I was a little disappointed in this stop because it ended up being just a big barn. Although I have to admit, the wood carvings within the barn were pretty cool.

Our next stop was the Carambola Golf Course to pick up a couple of souvenir golf balls. After that we stopped for a quick lunch and then headed to the Cruzan Rum Factory. Now, I admit that every island has it’s own brand of rum but if you don’t stop and tour each and every one of them (sampling a taste or two) how will you know which is the best?

I wanted to continue with St. George’s Botanical Gardens but Dale said no; that he’d seen enough botanical gardens to last him for awhile. We also missed the beer swilling pigs and the crab races but we’ll have something to see if we ever make it back.

We made a mad dash back to downtown Christensted so that we could obtain the blessings of the National Park Service before they closed in order to spend the night at Buck Island tomorrow. We made it, but then were told that they wanted copies of our boat papers which we hadn’t brought with us. They were very helpful in saying that we only needed to copy them, fill out the request form and drop them in the door tomorrow morning when we dropped the car back off.

Back at the marina we learned that our mail had arrived. We took the next hour sorting through it before heading out to dinner at a little place Bruce (the outboard repair guy) told us about. Although the outside of a pub called “No Bones” wouldn’t have enticed us in, the recommendation for a good steak house was a good one.

Now that we’re getting ready to leave, we both agree that we thoroughly enjoyed our stay here, although we rocked quite a bit at the dock. Still, the people at the marina, the restaurant, the repair facility and everyone we’ve met, have been wonderful and made our visit very pleasant. In fact, we’d like to come back and check out the marina at Green Cay. Hopefully, it’s a bit more protected and doesn’t suffer from the constant rocking.

Gallows Bay,
Christiansted,
St. Croix, USVI
17.44.911N
64.41.908W

We started our day with brunch in the marina restaurant but because of sporadic rain showers all day, we pretty much spent our time reading on the boat. Between raindrops we’d check on our computer connection but still no luck, so we’d have to splish splash our way up to the marina store and check for e-mail.

During all of this ‘quiet’ time on the boat, we heard the water pump cycle periodically. Normally, the only time we hear it is when a faucet is on or if we’re making ice. After making sure neither of those were the case, we realized that we had a leak somewhere in the system. We both grabbed flashlights and started checking all of the waterline connections. Dale found what he thinks is the culprit.

Beneath the L-shaped settee in the salon, the hot water tank is stored. The area around it is slightly damp. Unfortunately, Dale can’t get to it to figure out what the problem is because the settee was obviously installed after the water tank was. Due to other systems that needed to be accessed beneath the settee, Dale had cut the seat in a couple of places and installed a piano hinge so that he could get to the fresh water pump and one of the air conditioners. Unfortunately, that remedy was literally cut short of where he needs to get this time. It appears that he will have to do the same thing in order to access the hot water tank, so we’ve decided to wait until we can get to Roosey to effect that particular repair. Since the water appears to be coming from the bottom of the tank instead of the connections, I’m afraid that its one more thing we’re going to have to replace.

Gallows Bay,
Christiansted,
St. Croix, USVI
17.44.911N
64.41.908W

Nothing much new for today; we’re still waiting for our mail to arrive. We still can’t connect to the internet unless we’re sitting in, or in front of, the marina store. Dale busied himself putting our old fin stabilizers on the new outboard. He had to drill a few holes to do it so he had wait until his drill batteries charged up.

After that, we tore the boat apart so that he could run the lines for the SSB radio. I mentioned before that Jim on Chez Freddie had suggested them to aide in transmitting. Dale had lots of wire on board and cut them to length as directed for the project but then we had to figure out a way to lay them out so that there were no turns in them (apparently this is important). Easier said than done. We eventually started them in the lazarette where the antenna tuner is mounted and then fed them through to the master stateroom underneath the bed and along one of the bulkheads. Like I said, we tore the boat to pieces to do it. I hope its worth it but I’m not sure how we’ll know for sure.

By the time we got the Palace back in order, we were able to sit and watch the St. Croix equivalent of Jacksonville’s Parade of Lights from our transom. They had about 20 boats decorated with Christmas lights that lined up for the parade right behind us, then convoyed to Ft. Christensted, rounded around Protestant Cay to complete their circle before doing it all one more time for good measure. There were some really extravagant decorations as well as a few more humble ones that either were having technical difficulty with their lights or just wanted to be in the parade and put a string around the hull to qualify. Afterwards we had fireworks to the east of us. One of the advantages to living on a boat is that we were lucky in having center seats for the whole show. I really enjoyed the beautiful evening.

Gallows Bay,
Christiansted,
St. Croix, USVI
17.44.911N
64.41.908W

Right when you think things are going smoothly, something jumps up and bites Dale in the butt. Like the fact that every time I’ve tried to log into the internet, there’s been no problem. However, the first time he tries to log into the internet, it won’t connect and its refused to connect since then regardless of who’s trying to make the connection.

Ah ha! A new project. He tracks down a telephone number to see if the internet company is having a problem but they won’t talk with him unless he has the computer in front of him but he has no phone unless he‘s at the marina store. So he beats feet back to the boat and collects the laptop and heads back.

Strangely, the laptop will connect in the store but the second he leaves the store, it drops the signal. Back and forth he goes all day long. Trying one antenna, then another, first one computer, then another. The long and short of it? Unless you’re sitting in the store, we can’t get a signal. That’s the whole reason we bought the connection in the first place. The whole reason we bought the long range antenna. He’s frustrated.

My concern is that I bought a month of this connection as it was supposed to work not only in St. Croix but also in St. Thomas and St. John. I know that I can walk up to the store to do what needs to be done but what about when we leave? I guess we’re back to running around looking for a hot spot. That’s probably what has him all up in arms!

Gallows Bay,
Christiansted,
St. Croix, USVI
17.44.911N
64.41.908W

Today, Dale stripped the old outboard of anything useful and brought back all of the pieces and parts in various ziplock bags. Then he brought the new outboard home to rest on its perch on the back deck. I immediately switched the new cover for the old one and except for the shiny shaft and propeller, which I hope will lose its paint quickly, it looks just like the old one.

Apparently Bruce was impressed with Dale’s strip job because when we walked by the shop later, the outboard carcass was in the dumpster. Normally, Bruce gives the locals the broken outboards for stripping but Dale had done such an outstanding job already, there was nothing left to take off. Dale hasn’t said anything yet but I know he’s itching to play with his new toy.

We finished the day up at the marina restaurant where they had a local band playing. None of the members were younger that 50 but we enjoyed every song they played. Some tunes were from our toddler years but when you grow up in homes where music is played on a regular basis, you remember all of those tunes even though they’re not from your generation. At one point, Dale said that they made him feel old but I noticed it didn’t slow him down any; he was having a real good time. His only complaint . . . They didn’t know ‘A Long Black Veil’.

Gallows Bay,
Christiansted,
St. Croix, USVI
17.44.911N
64.41.908W

While I caught up on my blog posts, Dale joined Bruce in tearing the outboard apart to see what the problem was. They immediately discovered that the impeller was pretty worn and needed replacing. By lunchtime, when Dale came back to the boat they had pretty much concluded that one of the two head gaskets was probably the culprit which, of course, means really tearing into it.

Yesterday when we had checked into the marina, we had walked through the chandlery and spotted a brandy new 15 HP Mercury outboard just like ours. Today, Dale checked to see how much it would cost; it was several hundred less than we had estimated the day before. We discussed the pros and cons of buying a new one and decided that if all of our spares that we had purchased for our trip fit the new one, we might be better off biting the bullet and being certain of reliable transportation considering we were heading to even more remote destinations on the western side of the Caribbean before heading back home.

By the end of the day, after discussing the various options with Bruce, (who told us that the new one was just like the old one except that it didn’t have rust and worked) we decided to buy the new outboard and strip the old one of anything that could possibly be used on the new one, including the old cover. I prefer that it look pretty beat up, particularly now that its brand new.

Gallows Bay,
Christiansted,
St. Croix, USVI
17.44.911N
64.41.908W

The wind remained constant during Dale’s watch and had started moving from astern of us to abeam of us. When I came on watch at 2am, the seas had moderated to a comfortable level and the wind was holding steady at 10-13 kts abeam to slightly astern. Feeling lucky, I unfurled the main sail and away we went. I’ve made up my mind that our boat sails much faster and more comfortably than it motors. At one point after the winds rose more, I saw 7.8 on the knot meter. Wahoo, we were making up for lost time!!

By the end of Dale’s watch at 8 am, St. Croix was well within sight and in spite of the conditions of our transit, we were right on time. I took over at 8am and brought the Palace around Udall Point, the eastern most point of the U.S. and then around between St. Croix and Buck Island. A couple of dolphins welcomed us to the area. by playing on our bow wake.

Dale came up early and we rolled in the sails to enter into Gallows Bay in Christiansted, St. Croix. Dale insists that I look up at the wind index instead of the wind gauges when we’re turning into the wind to bring in the sails and it was when I had done a 90 degree turn that we realized the wind index was stuck. I guess all of those high winds took their toll. I brought the Palace back until the sails started flapping and figured we were close enough. I noticed a little later that the arrow had straightened itself out so maybe its just a little bent and gets stuck in certain directions.

We wiggled our way through the reefs protecting the island and tied up at St. Croix Marine around 11:30am. This is not a place you would want to enter after dark; talk about switch back and hairpin turns.

Dale is still not happy with the outboard, so as soon as we cleared customs, we immediately started looking for a Mercury repair shop to haul the outboard to for servicing. We found one about two doors down (probably why Dale wanted to come here) and made arrangements to meet with Bruce, the service guy, tomorrow to watch over his shoulder so that Dale can fix it in the future.

We signed up for internet service and sent out a couple of e-mails telling those who were following us that we had arrived safely. We also requested that our regular mail be forwarded to us as we haven’t checked it since leaving Trinidad. We straightened up the Palace then fell into bed for naps and ended the evening with dinner in the marina restaurant.
We plan on staying here for a few days waiting for our mail and renting a car to tour the island. Although we were stationed in Puerto Rico for three years, we never took the opportunity to visit St. Croix in all of that time. We hope to make up for that now.

Caribbean Sea

Dale had no sooner taken over watch from me in the wee hours of the morning when he turned on the engine. I assumed that it was because the winds were coming further and further astern of us and progressively lighter in strength as the evening wore on. Lying in my bunk, I was trying to find a way to sleep and hang on at the same time; the swells were making our ride really uncomfortable. Within minutes, I heard the wind pick up and intensify to the point where they were howling, the Palace picked up speed but would list dramatically then round up. I hung on tighter. I didn’t release my purchase on the mattress until I heard what sounded like a bucket of water landing on the salon floor.

I stepped out of the stateroom onto a wet floor. A glance up told me the companionway door was still closed. A flashlight that was normally stored in the well by the nav table was lying at my feet. A further search showed that one of the small hatches on the overhead was wide open and clearly we had taken a wave over the top. I turned on a light. Pillows, books and papers were on the floor but where had they come from? The salon looked as secure as when I had left it. A potato rolled by. I keep potatoes in a bin all the way forward in another stateroom.

I opened the companionway to check on Dale. One look told me all I needed to know. He was hand steering and trying to adjust one of the sails at the same time. I grabbed my lifejacket and harness and gingerly worked my way up the stairs, hanging onto the rails for dear life, trying not to slip on the saltwater that covered everything.

He told me that he had seen the straight line that the leading edge of clouds sometimes take that contain high winds. The radar had not shown rain but he turned on the engine just in case. Sure enough the wind went from 8kts to over 25 kts.

We had rigged a preventer to the boom to keep it stationary in the light winds from astern and rolling seas. When the high winds hit, the jib sheet let go (we really don’t know how that happened) and the preventer rig wrapped itself around it. While Dale controlled the boat, I grabbed the jib sheet (we keep the end tied off inside the cockpit) and wrapped it back around the winch to bring the jib back under control. The problem now was that part of the jib sheet and the preventer line were tangled in a giant knot outside of the cockpit. We couldn’t bring in either sail the way things stood and the wind wasn’t going to die down for a while. Dale did a great job keeping the boat under control with full sails in winds averaging 25 kts and in confused seas.

A while later the winds fell below 20 kts and I was able to crawl out onto the deck to untangle the knot. During my watch, it was Dale’s turn to hook on and make his way to the bow to untangle the roller furling line that had slipped between the spokes on the roller furling drum and refused to straighten when I tried to bring the sail in. While he was out on a pitching deck, lightening would flash blinding both of us and the jib would flap over his head when the Palace would round up. Each of us met the challenges presented but it was not fun.

The sun rose to another day but unfortunately, the conditions didn’t improve so we continued to motor. I was glad that Dale had decided to fill up in St. Lucia because we eventually motored over 24 hours; I like to sail everywhere but today it was one of those rides where you can only hang on as best as you can.

With daylight I was able to see that the forward stateroom bunk had started to slip and everything wedged on or around it gave with it. Even the bicycles that have always been secure before, started to slide off. The forward head where we keep our wet gear, hammocks, sunshades, etc, looked like it had been tipped upside down.

By evening the swells and waves started to lie down but unlike last night, the moon was obscured by thick clouds. Once the wind rose over 10 kts and remained consistent, I let out the jib and turned off the engine hoping Dale could sleep better. We were once again sailing at 4-5 kts but the ride felt better. I turned on the radar about once every hour to make sure I wasn’t sending us into showers but other than that, just tried to aim between the clouds that held lightening.

Caribbean Sea
15.12.687N
61.52.173W
9:50PM

Our big transit started today. It looked to be a great day for a sail. The skies were only slightly cloudy and the winds were hardly more than a breeze but we were still being protected by the harbor in St. Anne, Martinique.

We stored and secured everything as we have done in all of our other transits, laid out the jacklines, brought up the lifejackets and harnesses and the proceeded to unfurl our main sail and hoist the anchor. We were a bit surprised when we had to slide ourselves between two boats on either side of our anchor. With the wind changing everyone’s direction, boats coming and going, and us letting out enough scope to withstand the substantial winds that were associated with the rains that passed through, the new boats were closer to our anchor than we had previously thought. No problem really, we usually lift our anchor slowly; we just had to edge a little closer to them than we normally like to do and keep going as soon as the anchor was off the bottom.

By 8:45 am, the anchor was secured in its locker and we pointed our bow in the direction of St. Croix. As I mentioned before, the winds were light as we were on the lee side of Martinique and since the island is relatively large, we were in the lee the remainder of the day. This also protected us from the 10’ sea swell that we knew was out beyond the protection of the island. Unfortunately, it was almost noon when we were able to cut the engine, unfurl our jib to sail unaided, even if it was only at 4-4.5 kts. Mentally, I was already recalculating how long it was going to take us to cross. As long as we arrived in daylight, I didn’t care how many days it was going to take.

We continued at the 4-4.5 kts for the remainder of the day. The 10’ swells gradually made their appearance out of the northeast but with a good 10 seconds between each, they were only noticeable when we were in a trough looking up at one of them. They silently lifted us up, moved along their path beneath us and then gently lowered us back. If they had been the only swells, they would have been disregarded. However, there was another set of swells about half their size coming in from the southeast. At first we thought that these were waves wrapping around the island but the farther away from Martinique the more it became obvious that they were probably the result of the tropical wave that was supposed to have dissipated farther to the south of us. So in addition to the up and down, we now had a rock, rock thrown in for good measure. As the day progressed into the evening, this motion became more and more severe as the southeast swells grew in intensity.

With the nightfall came the full moon we considered ourselves blessed to have for a long transit. However, nightfall also revealed the lightening in the clouds around us we had previously been unaware of.

St. Anne, Martinique
14.26.186N
60.53.141W

The forecast is still good for a departure on Monday, so we made our way in to Le Marin where Dale picked up the o-ring gasket that he had previously ordered for the outboard and replaced the one that Oliver had fashioned for a temporary fix. Then we walked over to a chandlery to see if we could replace our broken dinghy seat. We were lucky and found a used one for a reasonable price. We dinghied over to another dock and walked to the grocery store for our last minute provisions. Then headed back to the Palace.

The rest of the day I baked brownies since we’ve been invited over to Summer Breeze for dinner and I finished the book I was reading. In fact, I’ve been reading a book a day for the last few days. What else can you do when its raining all of the time . . . That you can write about?
Tomorrow when we make our trip in, I’ll drag along my computer and try to get all of these posts uploaded before we check out.

St. Anne, Martinique
14.26.186N
60.53.141W

Today was another wet and windy day but the forecast is still looking good for a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday transit from here to St. Croix and . . . We’ll have a full moon.

Since we had promised to meet up with Chez Freddie, Dream Weaver & Rainbowrider for lunch in Le Marin, we braved the rain and 2-3’ choppy waves to make our way into Le Marin. In fact, we were bouncing so much over the waves, one of the seats broke in the dinghy. It took a great deal longer than we had hoped but we finally made it in and joined the others for lunch at Ti Toques. The food was very French, very pretty and very tasty. Freddie, a French teacher in her previous life, translated everything for us. Just about everyone had something different; Dale had a marinated marlin and I had stewed pork but it was all good.

As we all waddled back to the dock, we ran into John off Panacia. John was right across from us in Trini. When he first saw us and then everyone else, he commented that it was like old home week from Trini. We chatted until the next rain shower broke up the reunion.

We dropped by Chez Freddie on our way back to the Palace and checked out the ‘radials’ he told us about. They were simply wires but he gave us the formula to calculate how long to make them and he and Dale discussed how to attach them and how they were supposed to help in transmitting. Dale definitely has wire, so I’m sure he’ll be adding that little task to his list when the boat stops bobbing and weaving in the winds.

Once again, we spent the rest of the day curled up with a book, computer or simply napped waiting for the weather to clear up.

St. Anne, Martinique
14.26.186N
60.53.141W

This morning we could hear Chris Parker, the weather guru, but he couldn’t hear us and Chez Freddie had to relay for us. It sounds like we might be getting a break at the beginning of next week. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. Today however, the weather is closing in and it rained off and on all day with the wind blowing like crazy. We tried to time our trip in to Le Marin between the showers and for the most part made it; just a few sprinkles. We had more of a challenge with the choppy waves in the inner harbor; they have a tendency to build up pretty quick.

We bumped into Jim & Freddie off of Chez Freddie & Gary & Linda off Rainbowrider at the internet café. Jim, a ham operator, suggested that we add radials to our antenna to help in transmitting our messages. He and Dale spoke at length about them and we asked to see his arrangement tomorrow after we all get together for lunch in town.

Once we made it back to the Palace, slightly damper than we started out, we spent the rest of the day reading and watching DVD movies. At one point while sitting in the cockpit just before sundown, we heard a saxophone playing. We looked all around for MT Nest. We even dug out our binoculars and checked out all of the surrounding catamarans looking for them; it certainly sounded like him. We never did find him and we figure the music must have come from ClubMed but I wonder, is Mike around?

St. Anne, Martinique
14.26.186N
60.53.141W

We’ll be listening to the weather each morning from now until we leave trying to find our weather window to make the jump to St. Croix. We figure it will take us between 45-50 hours to make the transit but we don’t want to get caught in anything so we’ll wait for a 3 day window. This morning’s forecast sounds like we might be here for a week or more waiting. Unfortunately, it sounds like Gerry & Nicky, the friends we’re meeting in Puerto Rico, have it much worse since we figure that they are in the northern Exumas where the winds are howling and the seas are in the 10-15’ range. We’d rather they take their time and be careful rather than rush and beat up their boat or get hurt.

After we got our morning chores done, we lowered the dink, and headed over to meet Gary & Linda on Rainbowrider when we met up Jerry & Linda from Summer Breeze. They had been our neighbors on the same dock as us in Trini, so we spent a few minutes drifting in the current catching up with them and promised to get together later in the week.

Eventually, we met up with Rainbowrider and motored our way over to Le Marin to clear customs into Martinique; they‘re only open in the morning and we arrived too late yesterday. We showed Gary & Linda around a bit as they haven’t been here before. Linda is planning a trip back home to be with her father when he has some surgery and Gary will be left here until she returns. They have a French made boat so he’s hoping to be able to find a lot of the pieces and parts he’s been looking for here. He absolutely loves the fresh baguettes in the French islands and has already found where they make them in St. Anne each morning.

When we came back we toyed with the idea of moving the Palace over to Le Marin since we’ll be making daily trips but since we have a good hold and it appears that the anchorage we’re in now is calmer that the inner one, we decided to stay put. The remainder of our afternoon was spent quietly, reading, people watching and catching up on my blog posts.

St. Anne, Martinique
14.26.186N
60.53.141W

We hoisted anchor at 8 am after a good night’s rest. I say that because the inner harbor of Rodney Bay is so protected, there’s hardly a ripple unless someone is zinging through in their dinghy to the grocery store on the far side. So we might as well have been sleeping in a bed on the hard.

We unfurled our main sail and motored from the inner harbor, to the main harbor, out the cut and finally through to the outside harbor. I guess you could say these harbors are like a lopsided snow man connected by narrow cuts between each one. We turned north, unfurled our jib, turned off the engine and sailed the rest of the way to Martinique.

It was a great sail! In fact, it was such a good direction to the wind that we were able to sail all the way to Martinique and into the anchorage at St. Anne on a single tack. As compared to when we were here in the spring, the anchorage is relatively empty. So we scooted up as close as we could to the shore without violating the ClubMed water space and dropped our hook. It took two attempts because this close to shore, we missed the sandy patches further out and were into the gravel, shell and broken coral area. No matter, once the hook caught, we let out plenty of chain as the forecast for the next few days is for high winds and choppy seas.

We lowered the dinghy, mounted the outboard and headed into Le Marin the town further in. Like Rodney Bay that had 3 harbors connected by two narrow channels, St. Anne and Marin are two harbors connected by a channel. We were in search of a Mercury Outboard dealer or repair facility to see if we could find someone to take a look at the outboard. Dale still wasn’t satisfied with it. The outboard doesn’t sound right. If it were a car, you’d say that it needed a tune up.

We asked around and as luck would have it, the person we were directed to was in the same store ordering parts but he only spoke French. The person who had suggested him, translated what we needed and what the problem was; oui, he would take a look at it and asked us to meet him where he worked in 20 minutes. We were directed to continue further around the harbor to the main boatyard. So we motored our little dinghy over to the main boatyard and tied it to a barge that was anchored next to the maintenance building.

Oliver, our outboard ‘professional’, the one part we did understand went to work. Dale stopped him, how much? Oliver didn’t understand. I rubbed my fingers together in the universal sign for money, he nodded and wrote out 50 Eruo. OK. Oliver took off the engine cover and proceeded to clean everything with a cloth. He took off the carburetor that Dale had rebuilt a week ago and pointed to some bubbles. Then he proceeded to tear it apart piece by piece and clean it with his cloth. Periodically, he show us and everyone walking by all of the water that was in the carburetor. He wasn’t very impressed with the gasket that Dale had fabricated from gasket making material in the reserve bowl and took Dale over to a store to purchase the correct o-ring type of gasket. Of course, they didn’t have one in stock but would order it to be delivered on Saturday. Back they came. Oliver went into his shop and took two smaller o-rings to fabricate a larger one to use until the new one came in.

Then Oliver and Dale proceeded to dump out the gasoline we had filled the tank with after Dale rebuilt the carburetor. Sure enough, there was probably a cup of water in the bottom of the can. Oliver put the outboard back together and directed us to take the dinghy over to the gas station. Thank heavens it was only on the other side of the barge. We rowed the dink over and Oliver met us there. I climbed out and Oliver climbed back in. They filled the tank with a generous amount of 2-stroke oil and fresh gasoline, then fired her up. Clouds of blue smoke billowed out. Oliver took the cover off again and adjusted a couple of screws. He put the outboard in gear; it strained at the painter and small rope we had secured the dink to the fuel dock with; more blue clouds billowed out . He tinkered with the screws some more. Then he put the top back on and off he and Dale went around the harbor.I’d see them stop every once in a while and Oliver would take the top off and tinker with the screws again.

After about a dozen of these stops and starts with much tinkering of screws in between, Oliver gave us back the dink and we handed over the 50 Euro. It had taken him a little over 2 hours but at least the outboard sounded better, not great, but definitely better.

We made a bee line for the Palace so that we would be home before dark. Dale immediately started pulling out his gasket material again because tomorrow, he says, he’s fabricating another gasket to make dang sure water isn’t leaking into the tank around the fill valve.
But what happens if the gasoline came with the water?

Rodney Bay, St. Lucia
14.04.278N
60.57.148S

At 8am this morning, we slipped our mooring lines and along with Rainbowrider, slowly motored out of the harbor in the “cleavage” of the Pitons out into the Caribbean Sea. As with the scenario yesterday, there was no wind. Eventually they did pick up and we were happy to unfurl the sails having already motored about 10 of the 35 miles to Rodney Bay further north on the western side of St. Lucia.

The transit itself was uneventful and we were able to set the auto pilot on a course and let it go. A few rain showers passed overhead to break up the routine but all in all it was a nice morning sail.

As luck would have it, a rain shower passed overhead just as we approached the tiny channel that leads to the Rodney Bay Yacht Club. We elected to wait outside the channel until the shower passed by to make sure no sudden wind gusts surprised us while we were in a channel with no maneuvering room. We called ahead to make sure the fuel dock was empty and lined up to enter into the channel. From our starboard side another sailboat raced to beat us to the channel. Being the conservative sailors that we are, we let him. To our chagrin, he too was headed for the fuel dock. It was somewhat satisfying to see a powerboat on the other side of the channel cut in front of him just before he made it to the fuel dock but still that left us back 3 boats as there was a boat on the dock waiting to back off.

Now picture this if you can: as you enter the harbor from the narrow channel, the fuel dock is on the port (left) side and straight ahead. Beyond it is a commercial dock (commercial as in dive boats and day-sail square-riggers (pirate boats)) with several boats tied to it. To the starboard (right) side, there is a turning basin between the commercial docks and the Yacht Club and associated slips there. So in order to fuel up, you have to slowly enter, port side to and when you’re finished, you have to back out far enough to swing to starboard to clear the commercial vessels before having the room to use the turning basin to pivot around to head towards the anchorage and yacht area even further to the right. Add to this 4 boats in the turning basin waiting to be fueled, a small current heading back out the cut and of course, here comes another shower and its associated winds. Nothing we couldn’t handle but it certainly made the day more challenging. Dale ran around readying the dock lines and hanging fenders while I did my back and forth thing trying to keep the bow into the wind and not drift too far in the direction of the shore or back out into the channel or into anyone else. Occasionally, I’d do a pirouette just to line things back up again.

Once we were refueled, we headed to our favorite spot in what is called the ‘inner harbor’ which is past the main anchorage, through another narrow channel which opens up into a small but very well protected harbor surrounded by town homes and expensive mansions. We anchored next to Rainbowrider who wanted to know what in the world took us so long.

We dropped our hook in 9’ of water into sticky mud and scurried about getting ready to not only clear into St. Lucia but also to clear out, since we are leaving tomorrow morning. We spoke briefly with Scott & Heather on Scott Free who were on the dinghy dock when we arrived and were advised that the rules had changed somewhat in that not only Dale had to go to customs but I had to go as well. Good thing I put on shoes and brushed my hair. We made our way to the customs office and Dale proceeded to fill out the forms while I sat off to the side. No ever said anything to me and we were cleared in and out of customs as usual except for the fact that I was officially there in person.

We ended the day by spending a nice evening in the swing in cockpit watching the sunset and planning our trip to Martinique tomorrow. Since we’ll be leaving out of Martinique straight for St. Croix, we’ll be spending a lot more time listening to the weather to make sure we have a 3 day window for our 50 hour trip. At this point, it looks like we might be in Martinique longer than we had anticipated.

Pitons, St. Lucia
13.49.600N
61.03.789W

In spite of our 6 am start, we were delayed getting out of the harbor by about 15 minutes when a shower passed overhead. There is no sense in trying to maneuver through an anchorage when you really can’t see that far in front of you and you never know what the winds are going to do to you in the process. When it let up, we motored our way out.

Sometimes after a shower passes through, it seems to suck all of the breezes away and that’s exactly what happened this morning. We motored our way out of the anchorage and out past the mountains protecting the harbor but still no wind. We eventually motored past the island of Bequia and past the island of St. Vincent before we ever found any wind. We had no sooner found some breezes worth unfurling our sails for when they really piped up. They climbed steadily from nothing to 30 kts. We rounded up just past St. Vincent to put a reef in but ended up just rolling the entire jib back in until the gusts died back down. It appears today was going to be an all or nothing type of sailing day.

Soon enough we were past the island effects and rains passing over the islands and, at last, where the trade winds settled into their normal routine. The rest of the transit was in perfect conditions; 14-18 kts of wind, 2-3 foot seas. We were even greeted and entertained by several pods of dolphins who came by to play on our bow wake.

We arrived at the anchorage set between the two Pitons about 3 pm and selected a mooring ball right in front of the Jalousie Hilton Resort. The water here is 200’ deep almost to the shore. Dale says that this is one of his favorite anchorages. The scenic beauty is breathtaking. We kept thinking of Kenny, Dale’s brother in law, the artist. He’d go nuts trying to capture all of the colors and contrasts this area has to offer. The whole area is a marine preserve extending out about a half mile from the end of the Pitons, with the two Pitons extending high above our heads. Two mega yachts were anchored in the harbor along with a handful of normal sized yachts. The sunset is perfectly framed by these natural wonders as it drops into the water at the horizon beyond the harbor.

Rainbow Rider, Chez Freddie, and Exit Strategy are also here. Tom and Doris from Exit Strategy came over for a little while to say hi and catch up. They planned on staying a few days to snorkel in the marine preserve.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent just enjoying the sights. We watched as people arrived at the resort by helicopter at one of the tiniest landing pads I’ve ever seen. It looked like they just stopped traffic at an intersection of two one-lane roads to let the helicopter land.

Tonight’s sunset was incredible. The ever changing colors against the clouds were magnificent, even the clouds themselves seemed to have a variety of textures. Although I tried, photos don’t begin to depict the true intensity of the view. We blew our conch horn, listened to Mike’s (MT Nest) CD “Late Night Sax” and enjoyed a perfect evening. It doesn’t get any better than this.

Bequia, Grenadines
13.00.610N
61.14.523W

Last night after dinner, I connected to the internet and proceeded to upload my blog posts, catch up on all of our personal e-mails, our weather e-mails, paid a few bills and updated some of our computer software. By 1 am I was trying to access some information regarding our chart plotter when I lost my connection. Not only did I lose it, I couldn’t get it back. How aggravating ! I had been on a roll. But it was late, so I figured that I would finish in the morning; after all, it was a 24 hour connection. However, the morning didn’t bring any better results. So our quest today was to find out what the problem was.

We lowered the dinghy to not only seek out the brick and mortar internet store but to also check out of customs and find a trash can (remember the seasick tomatoes - Yuk!). The trash can was a quick find, the customs even quicker, the Internet store, well the store was easy but the employees didn’t show. We asked some people next door who weren’t very much help and then decided to check out a model boat maker’s work shop. We watched the Sergeant brothers work their magic for a while and talked with them extensively.

Apparently this has been a family business for some time now. There was even a letter from the HMS Britainnia from when the Queen visited here in 1985 and their cousin presented to her a replica of the HMS Britainnia. Anyway, it was pretty cool.

After visiting with them for a while, we returned to the internet store, still no joy. So we headed off to a local establishment for lunch. Dale had curried fish and I had curried chicken. What a great meal. Still, there was no one at the internet store when we left.

Rainbowrider had gotten a late start and wouldn’t be arriving until after 2pm but when they did arrive, they were able to anchor right next to us. About that time, a quick peek through the binoculars showed that the internet store door was ajar, just a little. We took this as a good omen, so we hopped into the dink and raced over.

Sure enough there was someone there. Unfortunately, no one who could help us but he did know of the one who could. He made a quick call and said that she could be there in half an hour. We went across the street for a soda to kill the time. When she finally arrived, we described the problem and she went to work. Sure enough she wasn’t able to get the connection to work either. So she rebooted the whole system. Just before she did, she said “I hope no one out there is on the line now”. Both Dale and I thought of our last conversation with Gary & Linda. He was going to check out of customs but she was remaining back at the boat to work on the internet. Well, we’d drop by and apologize on our way back.

The long and short of it was that after a few long distance calls and rebooting the system, they still couldn’t get our connection back up. So they issued us another 24 hour pass. She confirmed that it worked before we left the shop.

Right now I’m trying to finish my post for today so that I can get it uploaded and finish what I started working on last night. In case you’re keeping track, yes, we did have to apologize to Gary for knocking him off line.

Tomorrow at dawn we’ll up-anchor and head for St. Lucia. Its about 50 miles away, so it will be a full day of sailing. We know that we’ll have great weather but wish us luck anyway. Its always good to have as many blessing as you can get.

Bequia, Grenadines
13.00.610N
61.14.523W

What a beautiful day! We hoisted anchor about 7am this morning, raised our main sail, waved good-bye to Rainbowrider, who thought that they would be following shortly, and motored our way out of the northern entrance to the Tobago Cays. Hardly anyone appeared to be up and the water was still. We did see a couple of early risers on the beach preparing to snorkel around the island we had explored a few days earlier. Probably a good idea to beat the rush.

After we cleared all of the coral heads surrounding the islands forming the Tobago Cays, we turned to get the best angle we could to the winds to sail north to Bequia and unfurled our jib. The Palace responded by listing to the port side, so we turned off the engine and sailed almost the rest of the way to Bequia about 35 miles away. I say almost, as the wind was just a bit north of east, so we had to pinch into the wind all the way. When the winds picked up, we pinched a bit higher.

It was a great transit. We would speed along at 6 knots at times and then drop to 2.5kts at others; it didn‘t matter, it was a gorgeous day and we were in no hurry. A bit of rain did pass over us but surprisingly, the high winds normally associated with passing rain was on the back side of the cloud instead of the leading edge. At the highest point, we saw 23 kts. The Palace took it in stride with simply easing the sails out a bit to control the list but not enough to jeopardize the pinch we needed to make good on our course. As a result, we made it on one tack but then had to turn on the engine to actually enter Admiralty Bay and make our way into Port Elizabeth.

On our way into the bay, Linda & Jerry on Summer Breeze hailed us on the radio to welcome us in. They suggested that the turtle preserve was well worth seeing. We decided to save it until we meet up with Gerry & Nicky so that we could all see it together. Unfortunately, Summer Breeze was preparing to leave for St. Vincent so we wouldn’t be able to catch up with them tonight but promised to try to meet up with them later up-island.

We found a nice patch of sand to bury our anchor in on the north side of the harbor and Dale jumped in to check the anchor and all of the flying gurnards. While he was doing that, I dove below deck to fetch the computer to make sure we had found a spot with good internet connection possibilities. Eureka! There were four in the area. Unfortunately, the best price I could find was $10 a day. Boy, they really know they’ve got you if you’re addicted to the internet.

Rainbowrider radioed later that they wouldn’t be making it up today but that they were able to borrow a prop from their friend and had to go to another island to purchase a used one for themselves and to return the one that they had borrowed. We’d be seeing them tomorrow probably by noon.

The rest of the afternoon was consumed with the normal after transit routine; eating, sleeping and fixing anything that hadn’t made it. It was at this time that Dale fixed the dinghy engine. Apparently the throttle body was stuck in the open position. After applying copious amounts of silicone spray on anything that moved, after drenching the throttle body, and a little tweaking of the idle speed, we were back in business. I, on the other hand, found a can of seasick tomatoes in the very back of my storage locker that had decided that it wanted off this boat and leaked a black sticky substance all over the cabinet in protest. I complied with its wishes and dumped it in the trash then spent an inordinate amount of time in very ungraceful positions trying to sanitize the area. We ended our evening at sun down by bellowing on the conch horn, eating our Thanksgiving leftovers and listening to island style Christmas music coming from the shore. Tis the season!

Tobago Cays, Grenadines
12.37.791N
61.21.393W

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We awoke to a beautiful clear blue morning and a radio call from Rainbowrider that they had lost one of their two props sometime between yesterday and today. Today was the first that he confirmed the fact but upon recollection, he said that he had signs of it as they were anchoring yesterday over on Union Island; he just hadn’t associated the problems with keeping his boat into the wind with the lost prop. Since Rainbowrider is a catamaran, they still had their second engine and those big, white floppy things, so they continued on their way but were concerned with the threatening skies to the east of us. We assured them that the black clouds were still a long way off and it was too soon to tell if they would skirt to the south of us as nearly everything else had. Rainbowrider continued on in and eventually anchored in front of us.

They were well settled when it became obvious that the rain would not keep tracking south as we had hoped but instead, drifted right over us. I suppose I should have known that today, of all days, it would dawn beautifully but end up blustery all day. No matter, Jill, Linda and I had baking to do. We immediately changed the plans of commandeering the picnic table on the beach and voted Linda’s boat as being the sight of our Thanksgiving dinner. It didn’t have to go anywhere, just float, with the least amount of rocking.

Linda had the turkey, mashed potatoes and green beans. Jill had the rice pilaf, squash and gingerbread cake and I had the candied yams, yeast rolls, deviled eggs, dressing, gravy and pumpkin pie. (You’ll be happy to know, Mom, that even though there is no Cool Whip to be found down island, I whipped up heavy cream without making butter.) We decided that 1 pm was our target and away we went. Believe it or not, we made it; sort of.

Dale & I had packed up our dishes and were in the process of transferring everything to the dinghy when the first big drops of rain started. Jill & Dean (Delilah) were doing the same. Both dinghies were heading for Rainbowrider at the same time but ours suddenly started to race and Dale yelled that he couldn’t get the engine out of gear. We tried circling to the right to avoid hitting Rainbowrider and approached the stern again. Still Dale couldn’t get it out of gear. It was either full throttle forward or full throttle backward; there was no neutral. We were heading for the area between the two hulls where Dale tried to control our speed by throwing it into reverse, this didn’t work and we almost knocked Dean out of his dinghy as he was stepping onto the transom of Rainbowrider. In the meantime, the skies have let loose; it’s pouring rain, the wind is howling and the waves are picking up in the anchorage. After another attempt at scooting up the side of Rainbowrider to catch the side and cut the engine, we eventually threw our dinghy painter (the long line we use to tie it up) to Gary and then cut the engine. Gary hauled us in and helped us out. Boy am I glad I put Saran Wrap on the gravy! Gary just said “you should have seen your face”.

By this time, 5 of the 6 of us were soaked to the bone. Two of us were wishing we had kept our bathing suits on. Jill was glad that she had changed her mind about wearing a skirt opting for shorts instead. Dale figured that the accelerator cable came off and that he can repair it.

In spite of our rather inauspicious beginning, we enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Linda sang Happy Birthday to me and gave me a gift that she and Gary made from a seashell, a tiny sand dollar, a sea bean and a tiny piece of coral, it will make a wonderful keepsake ornament for Christmas. Dale told everyone that he’s taking me back to Liberty Jewelers soon. After a delightful afternoon of food, fun, friends, and a promise of shiny things in my future, we rowed back to the Palace.

Tomorrow, we head for Bequia, unless the weather doesn’t clear up tonight. Rainbowrider will wait for a couple of hours to see if a friend of theirs comes through with a spare prop. Gary says its not just the prop that they need. They need the prop, the shaft and the nut that holds it all on. Remember: Cruising is fixing your boat in exotic places.

Note to Self: Cruising is fixing your boat AND your dinghy in exotic places.