Puerto Rico at Last

Returned to Curacao Marina doing up to 10 knots down wind and current. Got thru the swing bridge

only 6 or 8 circles at the entrance. The slip is only 20' long so we had a time getting Kuhela in straight. Going to be a hassle to get on and off as we now have to do it amidship with our dock steps (a gift from The Rapers) rather than off the lower stern.

7/22/17: After clearing Customs and Immigration in Punda and Othrobunda respectively and after a McDonald's fix we paid our marina bill and at 1340 hrs. left Curacao Marina behind. On the way we passed Morning Light, our dock mates

on their way back to the marina with just their main up?? I guess 7 knots down wind was enough for them as newbies. The seas as you can see above were running 2-1' with the winds out of the ESE at 18-20 k with gusts to 25 k. Bright and sunny. By 1500 hrs. we made Spanish Waters without incident.

7/23/15: Off the hook by 0730 hrs. Out the channel into 23-26 kts of wind and 3-4' seas 6 seconds apart. Cloudy but dry so far. Bonaire arrival is projected by the chart plotter for 1332 hrs. In first hour we are averaging just over 4 kts with both engines at 2,500 RPMs. Autopilot working flawlessly.

0910 hrs and we are leaving Awa di Oostpunt, Curacao behind. Seas are 3-4', 4-6 sec apart. Winds are 25-29 kts. Cloudy but sunny. Generally rough overall.

1100 hrs and I can see Bonnaire over 19 nm away; it is that tall on the west side. Still as rough and windy. Apparent wind has shifted more to the E.

Arrived at Bonnaire at around 1430. The mooring balls, and there are two per position, are just off the shore about 40 yards for the first row and then over the "wall" another 25 yards further out from there. They are S of the Harbor Village Marina. We're pooped, so we'll snorkel in the morning before we leave for PR. We averaged 4.9 kts, motored for 8 hrs over a 36.2 nm route.

7/24/15 Left Bonnaire after plotting our course to Culebra at around 1020 hrs. Winds are around 20 kts, sky's are bright and sunny. Seas are calm as we are in the Lea of the island and we are motoring at nearly 7 kts. Linda is at the helm.

Motored to the W side and put main up with one reef, jib out full. Took off like a scared cat (pun intended) at over 9 kts with 20-25 kts of wind. Man we were flying. Started trimming the sail as we came close to the last point and turn to our main course of 27 degrees T for the next 200 nm. This should cancel the easterly (1 kt ?) current and maintain our intended heading of 22 degrees T. We are now motor sailing with just the starboard engine (it's 67 operating hrs. under the port ('cause I needed it to charge the batteries when our generator - and sun, too- were on the fritz). Seas now are 3-4' with a 5 second interval; winds have settled back down to the predicted 15-20 kts. We're moving at 6+ kts towards PR. Skies are partially cloudy with lots of sunshine.

1440 we can't hold 27 degrees T. It's too close to the wind. Speed is down to 5 kts. Apparent wind angle is 37-43 degrees. I think our bearing now (1620 hrs) is about 18 degrees T. This will put us about 50-60 nm W of Vieques. But, we are averaging over 6 kts.

7/25/15: 0800 - winds most of the night were 16-22 kts with seas 2-3' with a 5 second period. We able to maintain a bearing of around 19 degrees T which will leave us W of Salinas when we make landfall, 240 miles hence. That's about 90 miles W of our intended landfall. Passed 6 boats over night. Saw them ( targets) on the radar. We've come 128 nm in 22 hours 54 minutes at an average speed of 5.7 kts. Linda kept the lookout 'till midnight and a took the duty on my back and setting the timer for 30 minutes to look around and adjust the course to the wind the rest of the night. Our cabin hatch leakers even after I rebedded it. Oh, the joys of cruising!

24 Stats: 142 nm; Avg. speed 5.9 (with starboard engine at 1,500 RPMs); 227 nm to PR; and 8.1 nm W of bearing course.

We are now finding small and large patches of sargassum.

7/26/15 - Holly mackerel, Sapphire! What a morning. Linda woke me from my catnap at 0400 and showed me the storms/squalls that had popped up on the radar. We spent the next three hours dodging, slackening sail, turning into them, etc. They were running E to W with gusts at one point above 50 kts and torrential rain. In the middle of all this, the first reef came off the boom: I guess I didn't tie a good bowline. All of this, of course, in the pitch black. Oh, and the starboard jib line which was slack because we are on a port tack got wound around a hatch. Thankfully I discovered this at dawn as I tried to bring in the port jib sheet because things had settled down for the moment. I freed it easily from the fore deck.

It's now 0750 hrs. Linda's has made coffee by holding the percolator on the stove. I'm at the helm watching the wind angle (to keep our speed are direction at optimums for the conditions) and looking out for more squalls: yup, there's one 14 nm ENE of us as I type this on my iPad. Not good, I now remember, as they are moving W at a very brisk clip. Skies are dark and cloudy. Seas are rough with swells in the 2-3' range. Winds are slightly South of east so we are I able to make up a little of the 25(?) nm we've lost to the W because we can't hold our desired and plotted bearing course. Cats don't go well to weather: they can't seem to get closer than 50 to 60 degrees to the wind on a good day. We are 114 nm from Salinas. The squall is now 10 miles away and bearing down on us. I've got the engines turned up and we're doing 7+kts over the ground. We might make it. It broke up as we came along side it. Unfortunately another to the ENE has got us in its sights. 0910 and dodged another one. Looks clear for now out 24 nm. But for how long??? We are down to the third reef as the first two broke. It wasn't my knot tying after all. Should have put in new ones when we put in the new main sail. Sure hope it holds. By 1030 we cleared the squalls and the sun came out. Seas rose to 4-6' rough and confused and the winds likewise increased to 20-25 kts with gusts to 30 kts. The wind angle improved both in direction and with the reef in the jib. We are now making headway back to the E so we'll probably make Salinas.

7/27/15 - Uneventful night thank God! Seas rough. Cloudy this morning with choppy seas. Overcast. We will make Salinas, even Humacao just E. Winds are out of the E so when we get close to shore and hopefully out of the suspected westerly current we'll drop the sails and head into them just like most of this trip. Refueled from the jerry cans with the transfer pump. Went well with little spillage. Linda made coffee the hard way again. I'll buy vice grips when I can to secure the pots and pans to the stove top while cooking.

 

 

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