Simpson Lagoon
Sint Maartin
18.02.721N
63.05.616W

The extended crew of Orpailleur stopped by this morning at 7:00 to pick up the CD of photos I made for them before heading to the airport and the first leg of their trip back to England. We really enjoyed Mark & Sue’s visit with Gerry & Nicky and wish them well with the upcoming wedding of their eldest daughter.

At about 9 am, we lowered the dink and headed into the French side of the lagoon and met up with Gerry & Nicky for breakfast of croissants and pastries at an outside café. Our big discussion today was the change in the weather forecast. We had anticipated leaving first thing tomorrow morning for St. Barts, then on to Antigua, however, a new weather pattern is developing which would produce 20-25kts winds and 7-9’ seas. Not what we wanted to be in. That would leave us socked in at St. Barts where we really didn’t want to be for any long period of time. So . . . We decided to stay here until it passes. Race week in St. Martin, hummmm. That would be a first too.

With the decision made to linger longer in St. Martin, we strolled along the quayside occasionally perusing the straw market, then over to the little mall. Passing by the customs office, we realized that we needed to have our papers updated to extend our stay.

We returned to the boats where Dale and I both finished the books we had been reading and were in the process of laying down for a nap when Linda & Gary dropped by and invited us and Orpailleur to go with them to one of the race parties and then on to a piano bar later. Sounds like a plan!

At the appointed hour, we met with Gerry & Nicky as they exchanged charts of the Bahamas with some German sailors for charts of the southern Caribbean. Now that they had charts of where they were going and a little beer money, we stopped in a place called Shrimpy’s where we ate peri-peri. For those of you who have ever had New Orleans barbequed shrimp, peri-peri is very similar but originates from South Africa. Spicy shrimp, yum! Also, it appears that Shrimpy’s is an internet hotspot, so we’ll be heading back tomorrow to upload these posts.
When Gerry & Nicky headed back to their boat early, we continued on with the intention of meeting Gary & Linda at either the race party or the piano bar. We stopped by the race party which was packed with people. Not wanting to venture any further into the thick of it to find them, we continued on to the piano bar that they had told us about.

We arrived early and when the piano player and singer entered there were 3 bartenders and 4 patrons. Clearly they were unimpressed. Just as we were about to call it a night, people started arriving. The race parties must have been closing down. Linda, Gary and an entourage of 8 more entered and clearly they were the party people. The bar livened up and the dancing started in earnest. Dale and I joined in the fun and did our best to cut a rug. We got back to the boat about 11:30pm, the latest we’ve been out in a long time and we still had the genset to run. At midnight, we turned everything off and promised ourselves that we would run it extra long tomorrow.

Simpson Lagoon
Sint Maartin
18.02.721N
63.05.616W

Today was Orpailleur’s car trip around the island, so Dale and I made a quick trip to the pharmacy to stock up on our prescriptions, then returned to the boat and read the rest of the day.

At one point, we had spoken with Linda & Gary on RainbowRider and thought that we would get together with them for lunch but the quick repair on their dinghy ended up running much longer than they had originally planned so we scrubbed those plans with ones of getting together for dinner tomorrow night instead.

The husband and wife crew of another boat by the name of Westerleigh dropped by. They have 98’ Hunter Passage 450. We talked a bit about the boats and tentatively arranged to get together with them sometime tomorrow as well to show and tell the ‘upgrades’ we’ve made to our respective boats.

As planned, we met up with Gerry, Nicky, Mark & Rose on the French side of the lagoon for dinner this evening. The Tropicana served an excellent meal and even more excellent desserts. We enjoyed our last night together with Mark & Rose and wish them well on their trip back to England. They’ll fly from here to San Juan where they have a 7 hour layover before taking the next leg to Barbados. They’ll spend the night at a hotel on Barbados, then fly back to England on the 1st of March.

Tonight I made up a CD copy of all of the pictures I’ve been taking since they got here to take with them tomorrow morning. I’m sure they had a wonderful time with their long time friends, Gerry & Nicky, and will take home many more memories of their time in the islands than they will photos.

Simpson Lagoon
Sint Maartin
18.02.721N
63.05.616W

Well once again, Dale was right. After surviving a horrid night of swells, he got up early to query the cruisers’ net about customs and going through the bridge. Apparently, they’d had heard the question before. Yes, we could go through without the customs shuffle I was expecting. So, as 9:30 approached, we hoisted our anchor and joined the line to go through the bridge. So did just about every other boat in the anchorage, including some of the big boys in for the race. I tried to keep a margin of safety between us and the big guy in front but apparently a couple of other boats thought that they were already racing and tried to nose in; only one made it. The other guy had to circle around and try to cut someone else off. The sphincter factor was already up a notch entering a new place in 25 kts of wind but with boats powered with an overdose of competitiveness, pucker power was clearly going to rule the day.

As the bridge opened, we started through. Most turned right heading to one or another of the marinas that catered to the mega yachts. We turned left and headed to France; or at least the French side of the lagoon. I have never in my life seen so many boats anchored in one spot so haphazardly; Dutch or French. Dale was on the front with his head set on but with the wind blowing so strongly, I had a hard time hearing him. When I asked that he cup his hand around the mouthpiece to block the wind, I nearly blew an eardrum when he cupped his hand around the mouthpiece and shouted instructions.

We ended up anchoring pretty much on the imaginary Franco-Dutch border through the lagoon as we lined up on the flags I could see on the shore. Orpailleur anchored a bit behind us. Well, at least that’s where they started. Once the anchors were down. I went down for a nap as well. I had been up and down all night with the swells and other boats coming in from the French side to either motor by us or anchor near us.

I heard Gerry come by and speak with Dale at one point but didn’t hear the conversation. A couple of hours later, when we went topside, they were gone. Dale said that he figured that Gerry had moved the boat to be closer to the dinghy dock to keep from getting drenched. In the lagoon, we were out of the swell but the wind still caused enough waves inside to make any distance in a dinghy, a wet ride. As we made our way to the dinghy dock, Dale wondered aloud why Gerry had moved his boat to a spot that was surely more exposed to the fetch than where he had been. I reminded him, it was a shorter dinghy ride.

As luck would have it, we spotted them as we approached the docks and waved them over to say hi. You can imagine our surprise when Gerry said that he had not moved his boat and that it certainly couldn’t have drug anchor the way that it had been set. We believed him. He sets his anchor the same way we set ours; drop, back, set, power back and wait for the bow to dip and watch for the spring forward. It’s set. He was so convincing in his statement, perhaps being so tired when we anchored this morning, we had been mistaken in our judgment of distance. Nope! When we returned to our boat later, Orpailleur was gone again. We saw Gerry in his dink talking with a catamaran owner and pulled over to find out what happened. Sure enough it had dragged anchor.

As close as we can figure, shortly after they left, the anchor pulled up the huge hunk of grass, weeds and mud it had grabbed onto. On its journey across the harbor, it kissed at least one boat gently and continued to collect an assortment of grass, weeds, mud, sand and gunk. An announcement was broadcast on a channel we didn’t have scanned in and 3 other boaters chased it down and deployed the secondary anchor.

When Gerry pulled up his primary anchor, it looked like the creature from the black lagoon. They took a couple pics showing what looked like a 4-5 foot tangle of muck and mire where their anchor should have been. What a mess. But then again, how lucky that the cruising community looks out for one another.

We dinghied to the Dutch side for dinner this evening and slowly putt-putted by the mega yachts lined up in the marinas. Dale & Gerry barely contained their drool, each picking out various “dream” boats; winch envy I’d call it. The tenders on these mega yachts (their version of a dinghy) cost more than our ‘big’ boats. I could go on and on about the differences but you know what? I noticed that they were rocking in the swell last night, just like us.

Simpson Bay
Sint Maartin
18.02.084N
64.06.160W

We got a good night’s sleep last night and started the morning raring to go. Surprisingly, there were many, many more boats in the anchorage than we had first assumed. They hadn’t been showing their anchor lights, so it was a good thing that we had stayed on the outside and not gotten ourselves mixed up in the crowd.

The crew of Orpailleur was moving a little more slowly though so we took off ahead of them. When they arrived, Nicky took the opportunity to tease that I had already made my first purchase at the straw market.

We walked en masse to the customs and immigration office and filled out the necessary paperwork to be allowed access into the country. Being a Sunday morning, the shops were slowly opening and we walked through the town of Marigot pointing out the necessary banks, pharmacy, internet café’s and watering holes.

We took a break at one of the bayside restaurants for a snack and then walked to the bridge that opens into the lagoon. The ladies hit the supermarket just shy of the bridge and the guys went on to scope out the path we’d be taking when it opened at 5:30. With that done, we headed back to where we had left the dinghies. This, of course, was right beside the straw market, so the guys found a watering hole to sit a spell and allowed us to shop without the usual comments of “where are you going to put it” and the “why do need that.”

I think all of us made some type of purchase before we made it around to where the guys were sitting. When we joined them for lunch, we ended up pushing a gentlemen farther and farther toward the center. At one point, one of us commented that it would be easier for him to join us than for him to keep moving further away. Much to our surprise, he did! It ended up that he is a CPA/attorney and was in town for a week working up interest in a new fertilizer that he was taking public. He was very excited about his product and told us all about how it was made and what kinds of yields it was producing. If all that he told us is true, it should be a great boon to the agriculture community. I told him I could use a thimble full for my roses; he promised to send me just about that amount. However, I had to promise to grow one rose with the product and one rose without.

After lunch, we all made our way back to the boats and much to my surprise, Rainbow Rider was anchored right behind us. I jumped into the dinghy and took off to see Linda. She & Gary and their guests, Donna & Toby, had just gotten back from Orient Beach where they had been frolicking around naked. Unfortunately for Linda, she now has parts that are sunburned that should never be sunburned. I didn’t ask about everyone else, they all appeared to have had more than their share of the sun today. We caught up slightly before I left, promising them that Donna & Toby could come look at the Palace before they left, as they were looking to move to a larger boat and were thinking about a Hunter. (Note: the first time I’ve ever hugged an almost naked woman! There are still firsts in life, even at this age!)

I made my way back to the Palace and took a little nap before big rolls from the ocean starting rocking us violently. We knew that the Atlantic swell was supposed to pick up but I guess we figured that we’d go into the inner anchorage when it happened. However, as 5:00 approached and it was time to move in, the swell was making it more dangerous. Both we and Orpailleur draw 5.5 - 6 ft. The channel is 7 foot. With the swell, water was drawn out before racing back through. Gerry had been leery about the channel before but now he just said no and said he was heading for the other side.

Once the decision was made, I jumped back into the dinghy to go tell Linda & Gary our plans (since they weren’t answering the radio) but when I got there, only Donna & Toby were on board. I told them that we were heading to the other side and if they wanted to see the boat, they had to do it right then. They hopped into the dinghy and back to the Palace we went. Dale conducted the nickel tour, they hopped back into the dink, and then I took them back to Rainbow Rider. Once deposited, I headed back to the Palace, Dale & I raised the dink, and we were underway within minutes.

I couldn’t believe that at 5:00 in the afternoon, we decided to go around the island to an anchorage we’ve never been to before and try to get there before dark. We did it! We were doing 6.5 - 7kts all the way but we made it as the sun was setting.

On the way around, the swell was definitely hitting the 8’ mark. Pretty exciting. When we arrived, we found several mega yachts and several of the boats that will be participating the Heineken Regatta. We anchored right next to one named Creightons. I’m not sure if it was the bright yellow color or the way we were being blown more towards them than where I thought we should be tending, but the old saying reared its ugly head: If Mama’s not happy, no one’s happy. Just as dark was really descending, I told Dale that I wanted to move. I’m sure that he wasn’t pleased, but he did it anyway. When he asked me why, my only reason was liability. They were here first; if any damage occurred in the wee hours of the morning, we’d be responsible. We hoisted the anchor, circled around and dropped again where we had been resting, so that when the rode was deployed we dropped behind the racer. I’m sure that I was being overly cautious but now that the wind has piped up and we’re dancing all over the place, I don’t worry that we’ll accidentally bump into them. I wonder if all of the attorneys I’ve worked for realize that I’ve been ruined for life.

Now that we’re here and at least a little more comfortable from the nasty swells, I think we’ll have to either rent a car or dink through the inner harbor back to the French side to clear customs before they’ll let us through the Dutch side’s bridge. Dale says I’m over rationalizing things again. I say that until we’re administratively pure, they won’t let us through. Two of the three guide books aren’t real clear; the third (and oldest of the three) agrees with me. There’s a cruiser’s net in the morning, so he’ll ask there.

I think tomorrow I’ll make the suggestion that only one boat asks the question. That way if we get thrown in jail, Orpailleur can make a run for it and clear properly, then come back and bail us out.

Marigot Bay,
St. Martin
18.04.288N
63.05.753W

We were up by 4:30 am and the mooring lines were dropped by 5am. With Orpailleur right behind us, we cautiously made our way out of the mooring field, across the bay and through the channel. We turned right, added more throttle and maneuvered between Virgin Gorda and Necker Islands. Once clear of all reefs, we throttled up to 6 kts and programmed our autopilot to go to the waypoint previously set for Marigot Bay in St. Martin.

Just before sunrise, we noticed that the running light on our bow decided to be temperamental and quit working. We knew that it just needed to be taken apart and cleaned but as long as we made it to St. Martin before sunset, we figured that it wouldn’t be a problem.

We watched the sun rise as we passed the eastern most tip of Virgin Gorda and noticed that Orpailleur was falling behind, so we slowed our speed to keep pace with them. They point higher than we do when sailing but we motor faster than they do. At 10 am, I did a quick calculation and estimated that we wouldn’t be making landfall before nightfall.

At 1pm Dale called Land Ho. As luck would have it, St. Martin was just where the GPS said it would be but when I relayed the info to Orpailleur, Gerry said that he was wondering when we would notice the land on the horizon.

As we continued on our track, Dale and I kept watching a cloud with a flat bottom. There was something about it that kept drawing our attention. A few minutes later we saw several funnel clouds starting to form. Needless to say, we kept our eyes on that cloud for the rest of the day. Only 3 funnels ever made it to the water and none that we could tell became water spouts.

As the sun set at 6:30 we could see our destination but we still weren’t going to make it into the bay until 7:00pm and well after dark. It seems that my waypoint (taken from a guidebook on our first trip here) was way more conservative than it needed to be.

With Dale on the bow with a high powered flashlight and me steering according to the chart plotter, we made our way in and realized that we were way past where we had intended to enter and had to backtrack across the bay to where we wanted to anchor. Although we are in less than 20 feet of water, I have the feeling that when we see where we are in the morning, we’re probably going to be way farther out than where we want to be. The only boats out here are the big boys in for the Heineken Race starting the 1st of March and everyone else than entered after dark. I guess we all think the same thing: get to the nearest boat and anchor behind them in as shallow of water as you can and figure it all out in the morning light.

We had a quick dinner of grilled chicken alfredo and are making a few notes in our respective journals before hitting the hay. Gerry and Nicky are anchored slightly behind us and to our starboard quarter; its already quiet on their boat.

Leverick Bay,
Virgin Gorda
18.30.016N
64.23.179W

After a leisurely morning, we motor sailed to Spanish Town to clear out of customs. No dinghy dock this time; we had to beach our dinghies in the sandy cove near the ferry docks, then wait in a line for about half and hour before anyone showed up at the window. The French couple ahead of us said that they had been waiting for over an hour. They could hear the officials talking in another room but they never looked around the corner to where quite a crowd had gathered.

Once our paperwork was in order, we set off to motor sail to Leverick Bay. However, when we turned the northern corner, the wind was directly on our noses and we had to roll in the jib and power our way through to our destination.

We grabbed the outermost mooring, while Orpailleur pulled up to the fuel station at the marina. There was another boat on the dock with them. We couldn’t help but take a photo to show the differences in size. Keep in mind Orpailleur is a 43’+ sailboat. Nicky said that they were very gracious and even said hello to them.

Dale did his usual check of fluids, belts, and electrical components prior to undertaking a major transit, so I dinghied in to pay our mooring fees, then check out the local pantry and the Pussers right next door. I picked up a souvenir shirt and hat for him since the last Pussers’ shirt he has is several years old.

I came back and deposited what little groceries I could find, then headed over to Orpailleur with my laundry to pick up Nicky and hers before making the trek back in. Gerry had already taken Mark & Rose in to do a little sight seeing. While Nicky & I did laundry (with Rose’s assistance when they returned), Gerry & Mark checked out the local watering hole. When I figured Dale had probably finished all of his maintenance checks, I went back and picked him up to pay for the last round of drinks the guys had been kindly providing us while we folded clothes.

It’s going to be an early morning for us, so we returned to our respective boats for a quick dinner before bed. The mooring we chose is close to the internet hotspot, so when Dale hit the rack, I took the opportunity to sit in the cockpit and upload my posts with pictures for free!!! It makes it so much easier this way. Tomorrow, before the roosters’ crow, we’ll start our transit to St. Martin across the Anegada Passage.

Trellis Bay
Beef Island
18.26.857N
64.31.924W

We eased into this morning and really didn’t have any particular plans except to make our way to Trellis Bay. Last year when we were here, the moorings in Trellis were gone by afternoon if you didn’t get there early. So we disengaged our stern anchor via the dinghy (with no drama), while Gerry helped to hold the Palace in place. Then we pulled up on our primary anchor and slipped into the center of the harbor while Gerry let go his piling and did the same.

We unfurled our main and as soon as Orpailleur was clear, we made our way slowly out into Sir Francis Drake’s Passage. We had 14-18 kt winds slightly north of east which demanded that we claw our way to our destination. Of course, when two boats are going in the same direction, it’s a race; whether the other guy knows it or not. It was a great day of sailing in spite of the fact that Orpailleur beat us by a quarter mile or more. I couldn’t believe how well they could point. We thought we were good but they left us in their wake. I’m still not convinced that they weren’t motor sailing part of the way. We slipped into Trellis with our tail between our legs and made reservations at The Last Resort for dinner for all of us.

After getting ourselves together, we dinghied into the little shops here and had a look. The guys found a place to have a couple of beers and entertain themselves while Nicky, Rose and I perused the handicrafts. We found them later cutting a beer can in half. Gerry had told Dale that the Brits have invented a way of making sure that each can of draught beer pours with a head on it by placing a widget inside each can. Sure enough, there was a little bobber looking widget in the can that supposedly released an additional amount of gas as soon as the can was opened. Per Gerry, the guy who has the patent on the widget gets a penny per widget. Does anyone besides the wives of these men see the irony in an engineer, journalist and doctor cutting open a beer can to discuss the merits of another inventing a contraption to put extra gas in beer and how said inventor could have put his ingenuity to better use?

A few hours later, we ended our day with dinner and dancing at The Last Resort, a little restaurant on a piece of land hardly big enough to call an island at the end of a runway of the local airfield. The band played loud and a just a little too fast to dance to but we gave it our best shot. Although the crowd was quiet to begin with, we were all up and dancing by the end of the evening. A fun time had by all.

Photos: Stolen from Nicky's blogspot because she had better ones !

Little Harbor
Peter Island
18.21.296N
64.35.966W

High winds and rain punctuated the quiet night at Norman Island but all in all, we got a good night’s sleep and awoke to a beautiful day. Of course, there was still the lingering rain shower from time to time which was announced by a few gusts of high wind during the morning hours. We listened to “Chris” anticipating the forecast for a weather window this weekend in which to cross the Anagada before we dropped the mooring ball and made our way around the corner to Peter Island.

Arriving in Peter Island there were 6 boats med-moored along the perimeter so we dropped our anchor and prepared to do the same. For some reason Dale wanted to set the anchor in the opposite direction before we backed into place to drag another line to shore forcing the primary anchor to turn around and reset but it still worked and we were situated well away from other boats leaving enough room for Orpailleur to back into a spot where they could tie to the rock pier still standing from the 60’s.

As it was still well before lunchtime, we jumped in and snorkeled around the edges. Nicky spotted a ray loitering beneath our boat right away, so we all gathered around to point, take pictures and basically scare it off. A school of non-descript fish were gathered in the shadow of the Palace as well. I found a good sized conch shell but it was inhabited by one of the largest hermit crabs I’d ever seen. I did spot a fish that I don’t recall ever seeing before. It had a mouth like a moray but a body like a fish and stayed sitting on the bottom. According to my fish book, it could have been a Bluestriped Lizardfish. Also according to my book, they are rare in the Caribbean. In any event, I’ve got a picture of the thing. Maybe not the best picture but I’m still playing with the new camera.

We swam back to the boats for lunch and then Dale and I watched the incoming parade of boats doing to the anchor dance while Gerry took Mark and Rose to the old house on the hill to show them around.

We finished the day with a curried chicken dinner on board Orpailleur prepared by Mark and a banana crepe dessert prepared by Nicky. I brought a Cobb salad. No one was left hungry. In fact, we tossed a couple of bites of crepe into the water for the little fish gathered in the light and suddenly a huge fish zoomed in and downed it in a gulp. Dale figured it looked like a tarpon. My natural inclination was that it was a barracuda. What ever it was, I’m not doing moonlight swimming.

The Bight
Norman Island
18.18.971N
64.37.001W

The high winds that we were expecting yesterday afternoon and last night really didn’t hit until today. They were howling through the anchorage this morning so we took our time leaving. We had given some thought to hanging around for another day but listening to “Chris” on the SSB for weather, showed a developing window for crossing the Anagada Passage this weekend. We dinked over to Orpailleur, compared notes and decided to make our way over to Norman Island and “The Willy T” for today’s adventure which would start us making progress to Virgin Gorda to our jump off point.

We continued over to Exit Strategy and said our good-bys to Doris & Tom, who gave us a the name of a good wine store on the French side of St. Martin for Orpailleur to stock up. Then we headed back to the Palace and made preparations for a windy transit back the way we had come yesterday.

We dropped our mooring about 10am and motored around the rocky prominence that protected Lameshur Bay. With winds ranging from 10-20 kts, we unfurled the jib and sailed a respectable 4 and 5 kts until we tried to go around Ram’s Head on St. John and needed to pinch a bit higher. Although we had 20+ kts at times, we rarely got above 4 kts over ground and usually were doing about 2-3. You can’t get anywhere like that so we unfurled the main as well. This allowed us to point a little better but still we rarely got above 5 kts.

A dark cloud over Norman Island prompted us to furl in both sails and turn on the ‘iron genny,’ shortly after the really high gusts hit us. A few minutes after that a little squall hit just as we were passing between ‘The Indians’ and ‘The Caves’. We slowed to 1.5 kts and turned on the radar overlay on our chart plotter. It looked like a wall of water passing overhead but with the help of electronics we stayed squarely in the water between the hard spots and waited out the wind and rain which obscured all visibility. Surprisingly, once the rain passed a white fog was left for a short while but we were still able to see our way into the anchorage and grab a mooring.
It was only a short time before the sun came out and Gerry suggested lunch at Pirate’s Bight, a restaurant that we’ve never been to before. It had a great little dinghy dock and good food, though once again, a bit pricey. Even the mooring fees have gone up to $25/night. Being a popular place, I guess they can charge whatever they want.

We made reservations at the Willy T for dinner and headed back to the Palace just as the wind started picking up again. We watched the ‘mooring dance’ (very similar to the anchor dance) as committees formed on bows of boats ranging from 2-6 persons and each giving different hand signals to the helmsman as to which direction to steer to best capture the bobbing mooring ball. It was great entertainment for a rainy afternoon. Another squall passed through but this time we were safely inside the anchorage and needed only to close the hatches and go below for snore o’clock.

Lameshur Bay,
St. John
18.18.852N
64.43.315W

Bright and early this morning several of the Sunsail boats headed out. Probably due to the fact that during the night when the winds died down, all of the boats danced around their anchors and could have made for some interesting encounters. In fact, at one point I could hear water splashing on what sounded like a dinghy but since ours is hoisted each night, I looked out the port to see a catamaran passing closely behind us. I went top side and saw all of the boats circling around their anchors. A short time later, we passed behind the cat with barely enough room for its dinghy to clear. Still, as far as we were concerned, the night passed without incident.

This morning we hoisted anchor about 8:15 and headed for the Indians, a group of boulders in the channel between St. John and Norman Islands. We were lucky when we arrived and found a mooring within a few minutes but Orpailleur loitered for almost an hour waiting for a mooring to become available. All of a sudden there were about 3 that dropped their lines at the same time. Then it was like Christmas Eve in a WalMart parking lot. A free for all with swimmers in the water, the least of anyone’s concern. We saw boats charging across areas where snorkelers were and wondered how someone hadn’t been hurt.

We hopped in the water and expected Orpailleur’s crew to join us but they never did. Apparently the guys decided to wait this one out and the ladies went by themselves.
With my new toy (underwater camera), I found myself regretting not bringing our dive gear. I knew that if I could just blow out a little air and sink just a few feet, I’d have a better angle on the slippery little devils. I was still able to snap a few pictures.

After we were done at the Indians, we decided to skip the Caves (I think Gerry had had his fill of milling about smartly for awhile) and made our way towards Salt Pond. Buddy on Indigo Moon heard us talking on the radio and called to say hello. They were out towards St. Croix on a day sail entertaining some guests. As he and his wife, Melissa, are bay sitters on the other side, they thought we should just head on into Salt Pond as the last time they were there, it was completely empty. We took his advice and motored on around.

However, once we got to Salt Pond, it was filled with day boats and only a single mooring was available outside of the protected area. Gerry took it while we checked out the inside but when we found that nothing was available inside, we all headed over to Lameshur Bay, the next anchorage to the west on St. John. We’ve never been here before and after paying our fees at the National Park Service, we dinghied around the harbor and found that Tom & Doris on Exit Strategy were also here. They said that they wanted to kick around the BVI’s for a few days before heading over to Culebrita. Since they were in the neighborhood, we invited them over for hor d’ouvers later in the evening.

There was still time for one more swim, so we headed out towards the rocks at the entrance for some snorkeling. It wasn’t as good as we remembered Booby Rock to be (outside of Salt Pond) but it was close by, so we took what we could get. There were a couple of good sized colorful angel fish but they were very shy and darted away when I came within camera range.

As luck would have it, we climbed back into the dinghy and watched several day boats heading west; we guessed that they were the ones from Salt Pond. If we had waited for them to leave, we wouldn’t have had enough time to snorkel and certainly wouldn’t have found a free garbage drop off. You takes what you can get.

Great Harbor,
Jost Van Dyke
18.26.559N
64.45102W

Is it possible to suffer from sunburn eyes? Dale seems to think so. I’ve been having some problems lately and Dale suggested using my sunglasses more. We’ll see (no pun intended).

We went snorkeling again this morning; this time with the camera. Of course this time, I didn’t see the turtle or schools of fish. What I did see was a good sized barracuda. It was time to get out anyway.

We dropped our mooring ball after Orpailler and their guests returned from the hike to the sugar mill, then raised our sails and ghosted to Jost van Dyke. We weren’t in any hurry and enjoyed the morning sail.

We arrived in Jost shortly before noon but already the customs office was closed for lunch, so . . . we were forced to have lunch at Foxy’s. Dale saw Foxy approaching while we were waiting and we were able to get a few pictures with him. During lunch we teased Mark & Rose about the movie, “Captain Ron,” being a training film for sailing and that they would be quizzed on the particulars later. They were also introduced to Pain Killers. For some crazy reason, these gin drinkers adapted rather quickly to rum drinks.

Before the afternoon ended up in the bag, our captains took off again for the customs office and checked us into the country. The rest of the crews, remained at Foxy’s and had another round of Pain Killers. With our papers in order, we headed back to our respective boats, dropped the “Q” flag, raised the British flag and hung the hammocks for siesta before dinner.

About 5 o’clock, we were wakened from our naps with the sound of bagpipes playing Amazing Grace in the harbor. It was an incredible sound echoing off the mountains that surround the harbor. Everyone was standing and facing a large catamaran in the center, so we assume someone’s ashes were being cast into the wind.

It was also about this time that a flotilla of Sunsail charter boats entered the harbor and a man in dinghy acting as a guide. One by one he would direct them in, show them where they should drop their anchor, let out the amount of chain he told them to and then hand him their bridle so that he could attach it for them. A private sailboat decided that this was a good time to leave only he didn’t have an engine and was trying to sail out amongst all of the boats coming in. He almost ran into us 3 times trying to get out of the harbor before the guide took pity on him and used his dinghy to push him out to safer water.

By dark, Sunsail boats were packed in here like sardines. I have to admit though, there was just enough room between each, so I take my hat off to their guide. I just wish that he had allowed a tad bit more room between us the catamaran that we found next to us after dinner. Right now the spacing seems fine but as cats swing quicker than monohulls, it could make for up close and personal greetings in the wee hours of the morning in case of miscalculation.

Leinster Bay,
St. John
18.21.909N
64.43.429W

We made one more run into Charlotte Amalie this morning to post a letter. Gerry took the opportunity to finally buy Nicky a necklace. However, as we understand it, neither the one he wanted , nor the earrings he considered as a second choice were available. They both had been sold the day before.

We headed back to the boats, hoisted our anchors, raised our mainsails and motorsailed out of the harbor and into the bay. Once we made it out past the red buoy that marks Packet Rock, the mid-way point along the south side of St. Thomas, we were were able to bear off the wind and finally unfurl our jib. We sailed the rest of the way, including Current Cut, although we did turn on the engine, just in case. We continued across Pillsbury Sound and were doing quite well along the Windward Passage until we lost our wind near Johnson’s Reef. We figured we’d had our fun for the day, so we furled in our sails, turned on the iron genny and motored the rest of the way to Leinster Bay where we picked up the last mooring.

Orpailleur was having their fun further out in the sound and since we had taken the last mooring, they had to drop their anchor and wait their turn behind another boat for the moorings to become available when the day boats dropped them.

We dinghied around to pay our fees to the National Park system and then returned for a little snorkeling around the boat. Because it was supposed to be a quick dip, I didn’t take my camera. Of course we happened upon a hawksbill turtle munching away on some coral (I didn’t know they ate coral) and a school of blue tang, parrot fish and a couple of angel fish.

As I have relayed on many occasions, fresh air and sunshine will kill you , or at least make you tired, so we called it an early night after dinner.

Charlotte Amalie,
St. Thomas
18.20.270N
64.55.61W

Once again Gerry began his day determined to buy Nicky a birthday/Valentine’s Day bobble and dropped by this morning to commiserate with Dale for a few minutes. A short time later, Tom & Doris (Exit Strategy) dropped by for a visit, so our morning was filled with visits from friends.

I dug out my paperwork on the new camera and found that it is actually easier to download the pictures from it than it is from our regular camera for the blog posts. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any good underwater pictures and once I figured out the workings, it was relatively simple to complete my posts.

Early afternoon, we made our way back into town to kill time until Gerry & Nicky’s friends Mark & Rose arrived. Once they landed, they were quickly ushered back to Orpailleur to their V-berth before joining us in town for dinner at the Mercury Café. Although a bit pricey, the food was delicious and certainly not the typical American menu that the Green House is known for.

I found Mark & Rose very friendly. Mark was described as being quiet but at a table with 5 gregarious people, I thought he held his own fairly well. Rose was sandwiched between Nicky and I, so she had no choice in joining the conversation with both of us bombarding her with questions. Since they have no sailing experience at all, I’m certain they didn’t realize that we were all teasing them unmercifully. Although, if the weather gets rough . . . .

We called it an early evening since Mark & Rose traveled the better part of the last 24 hours. We plan on meeting up again in the morning and depending upon how they tolerate the night on the boat, will take off for the rest of the Virgin Islands mid-day tomorrow.

Charlotte Amalie,
St. Thomas
18.20.270N
64.55.61W

Why is it that we have the hardest time with internet connections? Yesterday we had purchased some internet time but last night when we tried to connect, the signal kept dropping. We added our external antenna to boost the power, then all of a sudden, we couldn’t make the connection at all. We found out today that the internet provider takes an initial signature of the computer when you sign on. Any changes to the computer after that, ie, adding the antenna, changes the signature and therefore the provider thinks that you’re a different computer trying to use the access code. So now I have to sit in the cockpit to access the internet and keep playing with dropped signals. At least I can down load our e-mails rather quickly.

The rest of the day, we showed Gerry & Nicky around the area as cruisers instead of the guests they had been when they were last here. We walked over to the new Harbortown Marina looking for some logo polo shirts and a jib halyard for Orpailleur but they still aren’t completely up and running yet, at least not for those items. We walked up to the K-Mart for some items needed for the incoming guests. We picked up some fresh tea at the grocery and pointed out where the laundry was located. Then we headed back to town into jewelry central and walked up and down all of the alleyways looking at everything. Nicky and I had a blast just window shopping. Dale and Gerry were being very indulgent. Occasionally we would see a beer in their hands or some other frosty drink but they just followed us around and didn’t complain at all.

At one point, Nicky and I were talking with a woman about conch pearls. She had two and brought them out to show them to us. She told us what to look for and that the Japanese had purchased most of the conch pearls in the Caribbean area which had forced the prices sky high. Then she also showed us the most beautiful 3 carat yellow diamond that I have ever seen. Gerry walked in about the time she said that it would sell for $20,000 a carat. Gerry simply shook his head and left. The woman folded the diamond back into the paper from which it had come, placed it back into a box, closed the box and turned away from us. Nicky and I got the distinct impression that we had been dismissed. Well! We’ll just take our money and go elsewhere! Which we did.

Nicky finally found a slide that she liked to go onto a necklace that she already has. The only question was, would it fit. We’ll head back tomorrow to find out. I know I’m being petty, but I’d love for Nicky to put that necklace on, walk by the woman who looked down her nose at us, just to see the expression on her face. Kind of like the scene in the movie Pretty Woman, when she walks into the store and says: “Remember me. . . . Big mistake, BIG mistake.”

Charlotte Amalie,
St. Thomas
18.20.270N
64.55.61W

Normally, I start my post with a daily entry. However, last night after we went to bed we had a bit of excitement; other than what you normally find exciting in bed.

About 10:30pm a panga (a long, open boat, normally used for fishing) came into the harbor and zinged past us shining flashlights at our boat. Of course, this brought us both topside in a heart beat. Then it crossed the entire width of the harbor to the other side, again traveling much too fast in a darkened moonless anchorage shining flashlights at all of the boats as they went by. Jerry, on Summer Breeze was the farthest out and shouted his displeasure at their stupidity.

As learned in Trini, I grabbed our floodlight and lit them up as they came back in our direction again. There were at least 5 men in the boat speaking Spanish obviously looking for another boat. They came back across the harbor and eventually took the last mooring, right inside of us, then dragged a stern anchor to shore. Five men climbed out and started walking along the beach eventually making their way out past the reefs to the outermost beach that normally no one goes to.

Dale commented that it was going to be a long night, so I went below and came back up with a couple of blankets, binoculars, and nightscope but I couldn’t find the airhorn. Dale had already retrieved it. The long and short of it was: a boat full of men were certainly acting suspiciously, if only being stupid. However, for all of the noise and flash lights they had blazing, they certainly weren’t afraid of being seen. A couple of Homeland Security boats had been lurking in the anchorage earlier in the day, so it made us wonder what we had stumbled into. Dale felt that with me lighting them up, I had made us target. What I didn’t realize until this morning was, he had also grabbed our flare gun. So he was feeling pretty serious about the whole thing too.

In any event, we gave up our surveillance a couple of hours later when they were obviously having a hard time finding whatever they were looking for; clearly they weren‘t interested in us. In the wee hours of the morning, they left much more silently than they had arrived.

This morning, as Gerry would say: “at a sparrow’s fart” we got underway for St. Thomas. The seas were certainly more boisterous than we had anticipated and we slowed our progress to 4 kts to keep from pounding into the confused seas. Some were in the 6-8’ range with 18kt winds on the nose, of course. We entered into the lee of St. Thomas and once protected, picked up our speed until we entered into Gregory Channel. We tippy toed through the narrow and shallow Haulover Cut, then rounded into Charlotte Amalie Harbor with Gerry & Nicky right behind us. We anchored in 17’ of water and let out 100’ of chain; a nor’easter is due by the end of the week, so we wanted our hook well dug in by then. Dale completed this task by losing his hat overboard and had to dive into the less than sanitary water to retrieve it. He seems to be having a hard time keeping his attire on him these days.

After a couple of hot showers later, we lowered the dink and started into town, stopping only to say hello to Tom & Doris on Exit Strategy, whom we last saw at the Pitons. With Gerry & Nicky in tow, we made our way to the restaurant that made Roti’s, we had been told about in January. It was a tiny establishment with only 3 tables but they served quite possibly the best Roti’s we’ve ever eaten. Roti’s, by the way, are an Indian fast food. Curried chicken, beef, goat, or shrimp with potatoes in their own type of tortilla wrap. Definitely a lunch to clear your sinuses. Delicious!

With full tummies, we waddled into Liberty Jewelers for our Valentine’s Day presents. I found a pair of green earrings but Nicky didn’t see anything that grabbed her eye. The type of earrings that she had seen last year were nowhere to be found this year. With so many beautiful pieces, she felt overwhelmed. I certainly agreed with her assessment but I can usually force myself to focus in on something I like.

We finished our day by finding an internet store to buy some connection time, walking through the straw market, then making our way back to the boat by snore-o‘clock. All in all, a full day.

Isla de Culebrita
18.19.128N
65.13.738W

Today was just another beautiful day in paradise. Dale and I started our day with a swim to the beach and then a walk back and forth the entire length of the beach. Shortly after we returned, Gerry & Nicky came around and we all jumped back in and went for a snorkel by the reef just a short distance from us.

After snorkeling the Tobago Cays, I’m either spoiled or the reefs here are in worse shape than they were a year ago. In any event, I took our new underwater camera and started playing with it. As luck would have it, the fish just wouldn’t hold still long enough for me to compose a good shot, so eventually I learned to use the widest angle I could and hope one would swim in front of me. As you can see, I got a few shots with fish in them.

We returned to our respective boats for lunch and agreed to meet up again after lunch to hike over to the Culebrita ‘baths.’ Once again I jumped in to play with my new toy but everyone else took in the sights without taking the plunge.
On our way back, we were delighted with the observation that almost all of the moorings were occupied by sailboats today. Not only were they sailboats but all were live aboards. It’s the first time we’ve seen more sailboats than motor boats in this anchorage.

We finished our day by sharing a pot luck dinner with Linda & Jerry (Summer Breeze), Gerry & Nicky (Orpailleur) and Tom & Jordan on St. Christopher. Summer Breeze is heading back to Jacksonville, so we’ll catch up with Linda & Jerry on down the road. Tom & Jordan are heading to St. Thomas in another day, so we’ll more than likely say our final farewells to them there.

In a way, I suppose you can say that this is the beginning of the end of our sabbatical. We’ve both started talking about heading back to work and where to live. We’ve got six more months to go but already our trip is starting to feel as if its almost over. We’ve had a great time and answered the big question of whether we could live in such a small space 24/7, without killing each other. Jordan says that we’ll have more of a hard time returning to our ‘normal’ lives and not being together all of the time. She believes that we’ve gotten too used to having the other around as best friend, sounding board and partner in every sense. In other words, we’ve succeeded in the biggest goal of all: renewing our commitment to each other and why we work in the first place. Isn’t that what a sabbatical is all about?

Isla de Culebrita
18.19.128N
65.13.738W

Underway again! This morning Dale returned the rental car, I tried to confirm that my x-ray had been taken care of and we readied the boat for transit. Along the way, we finally met our neighbor Loretta who was starting laundry of epic proportions. We had met her husband Marshall a few days ago when they first arrived in the slip next to us.

We slipped our lines about 9:30 and said a fond farewell to Roosevelt Roads. We still don’t know if AAFES is taking over the marina or not but hope that they do, so that we’ll have our Puerto Rican home to return to in the future.

We headed out to the turning basin, unfurled our sails, then sailed in the direction of Vieques. The wind was a modest 12-15 kts with seas in the 2-4’ range. We got as close as we could to Punta Caballo before tacking back towards Culebra, dodging a Coast Guard buoy tender working in the area.

Orpailleur and St. Christopher left about an hour before us and we thought we were catching up at one point. However, in my infinite wisdom, I believed that since we had a good wind in the direction we were going, if we continued on the same tack, pinching as high as we could, we could round to the north of Culebra and scoot in with everyone else. It never works that way and I should have known it. Apparently, we actually were catching up with everyone until they tacked back behind Culebra (the normal route) and watched us taking off for points unknown. Although I was able to pinch quite high on the south side of Culebra, we needed to dodge the rocks that lead from Puerto Rico, after that, the wind started to die and we were well on our way to Africa when I turned the wheel over to Dale. About 4 pm he turned on the ‘iron genny’ to insure we made it into harbor before dark.

We arrived in Culebrita about 5:30 pm. St. Christopher, Orpailleur and Summer Breeze (our Trini neighbors) were all sitting in their cockpits watching the sunset as we scurried around trying to set an anchor bridle into the swell. (Dale refused to set a stern anchor again.) In spite of my “short cut” it was a wonderful day of sailing. The winds never rose above 18 kts and the seas were kindly, rarely above 4’ even on the exposed Atlantic side.

Dale dropped the dink and made the rounds saying hello to everyone as I set about gathering something for dinner. Gerry & Nicky joined us later for left over party snacks before we all called it an early night.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

Today the guys wanted to do chores on our respective boats prior to taking off, so I picked up Nicky and headed in the direction of a specific store to pick up a birthday gift for Dale. I can’t write about it now or it wouldn’t be a surprise. Then we headed back to the Palace to do laundry and make the isinglass cover for Jordan that I had promised. Nicky was pressed into laundry service while I sewed and bless her heart, Dale got her to help him put the outboard back on its perch on the back. Sad to say, Dale knows to stay away when I’m sewing but poor Nicky got sent to the corner when she pointed out that in spite of the fact that I was measuring hems with a ruler, they appeared to be crooked. After that, she was an angel when I clearly wasn’t sewing up to my usual standards. In any event, the cover was completed, in spite of the less than perfect stitches and returned to St. Christopher. Tom & Jordan weren’t there so I climbed aboard and left it in the cockpit, giving their guard dog, Harry, a little pat for being so quiet.

Next Nicky & I headed to the nearest grocery store for our last minute veggie shopping. One of the guests that Nicky is expecting is gluten intolerant so she was seeking items with no wheat in them. I started thinking about my menus and realized she has her work cut out. No pastas, no breads, no crackers (unless they’re made of rice); sounds like a forced Atkins’ diet to me; Dale says: not quite.

Being a glutton for punishment, I had also decided that we’d host the last night on the dock farewells. We invited Tom & Jordan, Mac & Marie and their guests, as well as Gerry & Nicky. At one point we had 11 people in our cockpit passing hors dousers around. Probably not the smartest move on my part but I really wanted to see Mac & Marie again and not impose on Tom & Jordan’s graciousness with their roomy catamaran. It might have been a bit cramped but everyone seemed to enjoy the evening. Nothing like a full day of activity.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

Happy Birthday Geri! You know that you’re getting older . . . when the twinkle in your eyes is the sun hitting your bifocals!

The crews of Orpailleur and Gypsy Palace dedicated today as a day of sightseeing. We started off with a trip to downtown San Juan and learned that we had chosen the day of the Boy Scout Jamboree as our day in the fabled city. Boy Scouts were pouring into the city by the minute.

We were early, so we parked next to the cemetery by the El Morrow fort. On our way up the hill, Nicky and I decided that it would be prudent to head to the loo before we got to the fort when we saw the sign indicating that there were none in the fort. We found some very nice ones in the conveniently located souvenir shop. However the ladies room was in the process of being cleaned and we were directed to the men’s room across the hall. It was clean and tidy and not at all what we envisioned a men’s room to look like, except for one item; a blow dryer at waist height. Now I suppose that this could be for children or those in wheelchairs but when we turned it on, the force was enough to blow a small child to the next island. Of course there is only one thing we figured this could be used for and indeed we harassed the guys about it for several minutes upon our return. . . . . . . . . If they didn’t splash water all over the place, there would be no need for a stand up clothes dryer.

We continued with our tour of El Morrow enjoying the views and imagining what life must have been like in days of old. By mid-morning, it was obvious that this was going to be a sweltering day. After a couple of up and downs on the steep staircases, we made our way out of the fort and headed out of the city at a snail’s pace. By this time the streets were clogged with uniformed munchkins with their larger versioned leaders and guardians in complimenting colors. The main street heading out of the city was closed for the mid-day parade so we eased through cobble stoned side streets built in the 1600’s, long before today’s SUVs were thought of.

Nicky had been looking to purchase a mask that is made in Ponce and we saw several in the windows of the stores as we passed slowly through town. We considered jumping out a making a quick purchase but the guys said that as soon as we did, the traffic would clear and they would be forced to circle around to come back and pick us up. It was made clear to us that this was not to be considered. No sense of adventure, it seems.

We eventually made our way out of San Juan and followed the signs to the Bacardi Rum factory for the tour there; no I didn’t buy any rum - in fact, I volunteered to be the designated driver. This time the walking tour wasn’t turned on (probably due to all of the cruise ships in town) and we quickly made our way through the audio/visual center and back to the tasting center. Thankfully, the tastes seemed much lighter than our first encounter a year ago and my driving services weren’t required.

We headed back to the mall in Carolina and grabbed a quick bite for lunch before making our way to Sears. Nicky’s vacuum sealer had sealed its last bag and we found a newer, smarter, more expensive version to replace it. We walked with purpose and determination through out the remainder of the mall looking for the Ponce masks, just in case they might be there and quick enough so the guys had nothing to complain about but still, no joy.

Later as we passed by the souvenir stores at the El Yunque rainforest turnoff, we found just what she wanted and just as the shops were closing. I’m glad we were able to locate them as Nicky wanted to pick one up for their daughter but they had only spent the night in Ponce and did not have enough time to locate the masks there.

Another full day and one that we ended with dinner at Lolitas as we were all exhausted from the fresh air and sunshine.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

Happy Birthday Nicky! You know that you’re getting older . . . when your back goes out more often than you do!

I think that when we started out this morning, they guys were going to move Orpailleur over to the travel lift and Nicky and I were going to go back to the base and do some laundry and possibly some shopping in town without the guys. However, I had taken our computer over to their boat to download our e-mails and while in the process of making the internet connection, the guys starting untying the lines and we all ended up moving the boat over to the travel lift for the cutlass bearing to be replaced. We had told Gerry about the great deal to be found in pulling the boat during the noon lunch break. He checked into it, made all of the arrangements and while the boat was in the sling, Dale and Gerry scraped the barnacles off the keel while the people Gerry had hired worked on replacing the cutlass bearing. Nicky and I ended up supervising from some chairs in the shade. As soon as the lunch break was over, the boat was dropped back into the water.

I was surprised and delighted to see that a young woman operated the travel lift when it was time to return to the water. We all made the comment that it took 3 men to pull the boat but only 1 woman to move her back and lower her in. Once back in, we motored over to the fuel dock and topped her off before finally heading back to their slip.

With the better part of the day gone by this time, Nicky and I decided to vacuum seal her purchases from yesterday and created a little production line which had everything taken care of in fairly short order. After that we had a couple of cocktails before going up to the marina restaurant to celebrate Nicky’s birthday.

With all of the major projects completed, we only have our sight seeing left to do and then we’ll be off once again.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

We picked Gerry & Nicky up this morning and after checking our e-mails via their internet connection, headed to the pottery factory that I have been wanting to visit since the early 90’s. It was another example of not knowing what to expect but once arriving, certain that what lay before me was not what I was expecting. After making the guys promise not to rush us in our perusing all of the wonderful items, we were in, out, and gone within 10 minutes.

We continued on to the town of Carolina, grabbed a bite to eat for lunch, then the guys dropped us off at Sams for re-provisioning while they went to Home Depot for their shopping. As Nicky and I walked into the vast warehouse, we had to walk past a huge flat screen TV. We both turned to each other and said that the guys would never get past that TV to find us in the back. Sure enough, when they did find us they were still talking about where to mount that big TV on the boat.

Although we had rented a large car, we stuffed it to near capacity with our purchases. We made the long drive back to our boats and called it a day; although I know that Nicky, like me, is dividing, vacuum sealing, arranging and re-arranging to make everything fit. I’m still not completely done with putting everything away but I’m finally down to cooking up all of the hamburger before dividing it, vacuum sealing and heaven only knows how I’m going to get it to fit into the freezer. I don’t know why I do this every time but there always seems to be something I can’t fit into the freezer and have to empty the whole thing out again to rearrange it one more time.

Tomorrow is Nicky’s birthday and unfortunately, the only thing we have planned thus far is Orpailleur being hauled for work on the cutlass bearing. I’ll have to figure out a good way to celebrate it besides doing laundry.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

Our original intention was for Nicky and me to go shopping for a few hours while the guys checked on the cutlass bearing on Orpailleur. I took the computer along to respond to a few e-mails and by the time I was able to log into their internet connection and do my upload, they were back saying that the boat needed to be hauled to fix the problem.

Gerry had already checked on the availability of doing a quick haul and had found out that he needed some additional information from the boat manufacturer for size specifications as far as replacement parts. So once the determination was made that they did indeed need to pull the boat, it was just a matter of making a few quick rounds to confirm what was needed and when to do it.

After that, we made the normal rounds to the various chandleries for pieces and parts; a quick run to the normal WalMart, WestMarine, bank, refill on propane, a bite to eat for lunch, return to the stores that had been closed for lunch and then back to their boat to shoot the whole day. Nicky and I noted that when guys make multiple runs to stores for comparison shopping, well … that’s OK. But when we do it, its wasting time and money. We had a blast watching the two of them.

This evening as we shared dinner together, we caught up on the activities of our various children and what was going on back home. Tomorrow, Nicky and I will finally be able to go do the shopping we thought we were going to do today. The guys are going along too since we’re going in the direction of Home Depot but maybe we can figure out a way to send them off in one direction while we take our time in the pottery factory. We’ll see.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

They’re here, they’re here! I was still easing into the morning when Dale turned on the radio to listen to the Safety and Security net and then the morning weather report when we heard Orpailleur hail Gypsy Palace. You would have thought that the mattress had shot a spring I bounded up so quick. When they instructed us to turn on the VHF, we knew they were close. That only meant one thing: they had left early and sailed through the night to avoid the wind and waves.

A hasty call to Jessica got us a rental car and a couple of hours later, we caught Orpailleur’s lines as Gerry & Nicky pulled into Puerto del Rey. It was so good to see them again. We spent a short time catching up, walked with them up to the office to check in and then left to give them some time to catch a few hours of sleep before returning to pick them up for a Mexican dinner at Lolitas.

Between times, Dale took me to McDonalds so that I could down load our e-mails, check our financial status and upload our blog posts. I seem to get sucked into a black hole when I’m on the computer because Dale said that I was typing away for almost 4 hours. It hardly seemed like one.

Anyway, they’re here, they want to check a few things on the boat, do a little sight seeing, re-provision and then take off for the next leg of our adventure.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

We received two e-mails from Gerry & Nicky today; the most important was that they were looking to make a straight transit here from Salinas starting tomorrow morning. That should put them in this area on Wednesday sometime.

We dropped by St. Christopher and told Tom & Jordan the news. I had promised them that I would make a cover for their isinglass before we left, so I went over to measure the area and discuss how she wanted to attach the cover. She has the canvas, I have the sewing machine and thread, but after thinking about it for a while, I hope she has some large grommets to run the line through like she wants.

About mid-morning we finally received our wayward mail. It took us a couple of hours to go through, organize and respond to. Most matters I’ve made arrangements to do on-line. One issue I haven’t been able to take care of on-line is something I’ve been addressing since we left Jacksonville. It involves an x-ray, the doctor who ordered the x-ray, the facility who took the x-ray and the insurance that covered the x-ray.

The whole thing started when the insurance carrier wanted a statement from the doctor reflecting why the x-ray was necessary and bounced the bill back to the x-ray facility, who sent a copy of the rejection to me. I made my first series of telephone calls to all of the parties because none of them can conduct business of this type via e-mail, or among themselves. The insurance company doesn’t like talking with me, the doctor’s office says they can’t deal directly with the insurance regarding the x-ray facility’s bill and the x-ray facility says that they’ve sent everything they have in their files but they can’t get paid. I call all 3 from various parts of the world to pay mediator. The doctor says fine; the x-ray facility says they’ll resubmit; the insurance company says they’ll pay. But 6 months later, it pops back up and I have to make the series of calls again to find out what the problem is this time. In each instance, I remind all parties that I’m out of the country and only receive my mail about once every 6 weeks. I’m told by all parties that there’s no problem and that everything will be taken care of but 6 months later, I’ll get another notice that it wasn’t.

One problem that came to light was that the doctor’s office was trying to send me all of the information so that I could forward it back to the various parties but they didn’t have my current address updated in their computer system. They did have it in their physical file but I was actually told in my last call to them that they couldn’t update the change in my address on the computer unless I physically came into the office. These are intelligent people; I‘ve met them. They freely admit they have the correct address in correspondence from me regarding this issue in their hard file. Now I ask you, what difference does it make to the computer whether I’m standing in front of someone, calling them on the telephone or mailing them the correct address? It still has to be entered by a human.

At this point, the doctor’s office as agreed to fax the statement to the x-ray facility and they have agreed to resubmit the invoice to the insurance company. The insurance company says that’s all they’re waiting for. I’m going to call again before we leave Puerto Rico while I still have good telephone service just to be sure.

Dale reminded me that this was a prime example of why we felt the need to take our sabbatical in the first place.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W


The Great Thong Theory and Shoe Search. You may recall from yesterday, Dale’s footwear walked off without him. So today we conducted a less than scientific experiment to see if the remaining flipflop sank or swam to see if we were going to swim or search. While I photographed the trials, Dale tied a string to the surviving twin then kicked it off to see what would happen. We both witnessed the results: it floated like a toy boat bobbing in a bathtub. Guess that means we search.


We lowered the dink, mounted the outboard and African Queen putt, putted to the closest windward shore of the harbor to begin our perimeter search; keeping in mind that we might find Australian footprints of shoenappers instead. Within 20 feet of our starting point, we were poling our way around mangrove roots with the boat hook, with me on the bow, butt in the air leaning way over, peering beneath the bushes as best I could. We found an assortment of buckets, tires, crates and ropes of every imaginable color. We also found several fenders; one really, really big one that I wanted to strap to the boat to keep it from sinking but Dale said I was delusional. It was as big as the dink, so I think he just didn’t want to drag it back against the wind.

When it got deep enough, Dale would switch from the boat hook/pole method of propulsion to rowing backwards (supposedly so he could see where he was going). We frightened a manta ray and saw a couple of good sized fish. Right about the time I started to worry that the Coast Guard guys would see us and chase us away, I saw it. It’s bright yellow Corona letters glistening in the water. It had made its way past the main perimeter and was making its way to an interior cove created by the mangrove trees themselves. We forced the dink through the narrow opening and extended the boat hook to its full length to reach the escapee taking refuge on a small island tree in the middle of the cove.

Once retrieved, we turned around and tried to make our way back out against the wind. At this point, I had one oar and Dale had the boat hook. We worked against each other most of the way out but still managed to break free. Once we cleared the majority of the roots, Dale took over the rowing (backwards, of course) and continued our journey towards deeper water by way of the wind forcing us sideways. Somehow we managed to get ourselves into deeper water so that we could lower the outboard and power our way back to the Palace with the fugitive safely tucked beneath a couple of small fenders that somehow found their way into the dink.

Back on board, his flipflops reunited, Dale was a happy camper when he made his way to the showers with his favorite footwear. He keeps telling me how hard it is to find a really comfortable pair of shoes. I wonder what the hospital will think of his new fashion statements: a pony tail, flipflops and lets not forget about that little earring!

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

Dale decided today that he would make some adjustments to my bicycle. But when he took the bike off the boat, he somehow managed to kick one of his Corona flipflops into the drink without noticing. That or the wind blew it off; or one of the dude brothers saw them and decided that it would be really cool to throw one away. You know the two dudes. They usually show up when something strange happens. The stories to the police or docs in hospital ERs start with something like . . . "I was minding my own business when these two dudes walked up . . . (and did something strange) and that's why I'm here."

Well, that's what happened to Dale. One of his favorite flipflops went missing and it wasn't his fault. In any event, we were on our way over to Tom & Jordan's to play Mexican Train dominos when the lack of footwear became obvious. Now giving some thought to the matter, I think that its a matter of a reciprocal ‘napping. We have Gerry & Nicky's anchor, they’ve pinched Dale's flipflop. The last message we had from them was 3 days ago saying they were in Salinas. Maybe they've made it here and snuck in under cloudy skies to abscond with Dale's flipflop. Just in case it wasn’t them, we’ll drop the dink tomorrow and search the mangroves to check to see if it shows up there.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

It was so quiet today it was spooky. I gathered up what laundry we had and washed it but after that, we just read and played computer games. In the afternoon, we broke out the bikes and headed towards All Hands Beach exploring. We rode down towards the water treatment plant, then down a dirt path towards a pier that overlooked the old Navy SEAL base, before heading back to the road that leads towards the beach. We didn't get very far past the beach when I saw a short coconut tree with several branches of good sized coconuts within arms reach. Well, Dale's arm at least. He was able to grab one branch that had about 8 coconuts on it and bring it down for me. I managed to balance the branch on my handlebars and started making the ride back.

Now I'm sure that you, like Dale, are wondering what in the world I'm going to do with all of my over grown seeds. Well, plant them of course! If you set a coconut off to the side and ignore it, it'll sprout a tree. That was my plan until I got about half way back to the boat and realized that I could set my coconuts off to the side and ignore them all I wanted but with the boat rocking all of the time, I don't know if my plan will work. In any event, I have 8 attempts. If nothing else, I have 8 bug free coconuts to eat at my leisure.

P.S: Geri and Betty Rae, we thought of you two in the Bahamas with your coconuts Unfortunately, my shirt wasn’t big enough to carry all 8 of them.

Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

Feeling much better today, Dale made a quick trip in to WestMarine to pick up the anchor we had ordered for Gerry & Nicky (we never have heard how they lost their other one - can’t wait for that story). He dropped off the car to Jessica, who dropped him and the anchor back at the boat. Then we set to writing the perfect ransom note:

• wE haVe yOuR aNchOR. If yOu eVeR waNt to See it, dON't dO anytHiNg StuPid. dO NOt cONtact the autHoRitieS: NO pOlice, NO fbi, NO tOw bOat US. yOu will receiVe fuRtheR inStRuctiOnS at a LateR date.

We haven't figured out what our demands will be. I'm working on that now.