Fajardo, Puerto Rico

Once again I cannot move or label most of the pictures.

Harry @ spring atPunta Cana

Water spout, DR

Sprinmgs at Punta Cana, DRStella Maris @ Ensenada

Guvate Pork House

Linda at Spring in Punta Cana

El Moro              El Moro from SW side of harbor

 

After leaving Punta Cana, DR, we made a night passage N of Isla Mona to miss the nightly thunderstorms that rumble W off Puerto Rico into the Mona Passage. We arrived just after dawn after a mostly motor sail at Boquerón, Puerto Rico. We checked in with US Customs by phone (we have the Local Boaters cards), but still had to go ashore later for a personal visit to answer more questions. Bureaucratic BS is alive and well! We rented a car with Stella Maris and drove to San Juan for the weekend where we “sight-see’d” and shopped (West Marine and COSTCO). On the way back we stopped at Guavate where they have pig on a spit. After 20+ hours of spinning, it’s almost as good as Hawaii’s luau pork. After a heavy shopping spree for food, we got back to find a gay festival in full swing: beer, urine, and trash everywhere blocking our way to the dock. We left our non-perishable food and “stuffs” locked in the car ‘till morning when we could get them dingyed aboard. Surprisingly, by afternoon the place was cleaned up by the core participants and locals.

El Moro fort,

San Juan

 

A day trip to Ensenada for the night and we next stopped at Salinas…no great shakes as another rundown, 3rd World town. The Marina was run by a bunch of fools who don’t have a clue re running a marine facility, and this from someone who anchored off and only used the facility as a “guest” of a Stella Maris. Our family (Vaughns and Riebolds except for Chris who had no vacation time) flew in for Father’s Day and a short stay to fish and sight see. On the way to the airport we stopped at El Junque (the rainforest) after driving around the SE coast - beautiful, mountainous country with very old, winding roads like the run to Hana, HI in the old days - past, you guessed it, Fajardo.

At Bacardi with fruit bat company symbol

Off again to Fajardo where we anchored off Isla Piñeros 45 minutes S as the Marina wanted/demanded $108 for the night before we pulled out: another incident/example of poor management/business. Puerto Del Rey Marina is the largest marina in the Caribbean: 1,000+ slips plus a huge dry storage facility and haul-out that can accommodate boats up to 30’ wide and up to 100 tons. It lies several miles south of the town on the E end of the island and faces the Spanish, British, and US Virgin Islands to the E and Vieques to the S. Vieques is the island along with Kahoolawe in Hawaii that drove the locals to demand the US Navy to leave alone and stop using as a training target. Here they were able to close Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, too. We were pulled/lifted out, had the rudder shafts straightened, the two fist-sized dings in the keels filled and re-glassed, the forestay replaced (too small/light when compared to the main stays), the sails re-stitched and repaired, and the sail bag’s 27’ zipper replaced. Sun (UV) damage is impossible to prevent completely. Back in the water and we find the haul out cracked the port hull so we are taking on water again just like we did in the Bahamas last August and the engines won’t start. Seems that there has been an electrical trickle that has caused excessive rusting which has destroyed all four alternators and contributed to the destruction of the starboard starter. Plus my rebuild of the raw water pump on the port engine, ‘though good for the leak, ended up not pumping water (probably due to the impeller being reinstalled backwards). So, we’ve called in the techs, bit the maintenance bullet, and will have everything fixed to include another expensive haul-out to reseal the hull. The biggest problem is the boredom waiting in the rain at dock side for parts and quotes. At least we can stay aboard with AC as it won’t work on “the hard” as there is no raw, cooling water there unless we rent a cooling tower for $400. Otherwise, we have to stay in a hotel, eat out, and rent a car: expensive.

While we are still Hawaii and beyond bound, we have decided to stay in the area ‘till December given the hurricane season predictions plus input from other cruisers. We missed the window for Grenada: all the hurricane holes are filled and the stormy weather makes sailing (rain, waves, and wind direction) miserable and swimming (muddy, churned up water) lousy. So, we’ll putz around the Islands here and head back to central Florida on October 20 through November 30 for Linda’s Mom’s 86th B-day and Thanksgiving with the kids, grand-chillens, and friends.

Porker

El Conquistador Hotel

Salinas

Rat Island near Salinas

Cayo Largo (Isleta Marina) from El ConquistadorSpring

I am unable to place the pictures, so you'll just have to figure them out: SORRY!

Hola todo el mundo! We are in our first Spanish speaking country working with our Lingo to translate and calculate the rate of exchange (36.1 pesos to the buck). W e left South Side Marina at Provo, Turks and Caicos Islands on Monday May 17th for Ambergris Cay (approx. 23 nm SSE) where we stopped over night to check on the weather. We should have gone in the water ‘cause the bottom turned out to be covered in conch. But we didn’t and left Tuesday a.m. for Big Sand Cay 23 nm, again, SSE. This time we had to motor as the wind was once again on our nose. I managed to get us onto an elk horn bed of coral and bent the port rudder up against the hull where it stuck fast. Out came the anchor aimed at a sand patch, but of course not with any luck or accuracy. By hooking a block and tackle around the bottom of the rudder I managed to straighten it where it would once again turn: simple. Now came the fun part: getting the anchor up from under a coral head 28’ down. In the day, 28’ was nothing; today it is a different story. I had managed to break the windless trying to pull it up. So, I got out the hookah (electric, oil-less air compressor) hooked to my SCUBA regulator with a 70’ hose, my mask and fins, and weight belt. As I’m huffing and puffing and bouncing around the trampoline at the bow Linda saw a T&C fishing boat nearby and flagged them down (no she didn’t take off her blouse). In 10 minutes I was able to pull the heavy 3/8 chain up and bring the anchor aboard. Just before I collapsed, Linda brought the guys alongside and thanked them with two pint bottles of Ronrico rum and two $5 bills. We were as ecstatic as they were. Three hours late we decided to make the passage after all and arrived at Big Sand Cay at around five o’clock having crossed with nose on the 20-25 k wind through 6’ seas. Oh, joy. We were very glad to get into the anchorage and put the Rocna down attached to a nylon line: the heavy chain was back in the locker. Wednesday we listened to and spoke with Mr. Parker. He suggested the passage would be ok with 15-20 k winds from 100⁰T and 5’ seas 6 seconds apart. Not!!! Our course was 177⁰T and we couldn’t maintain it as we can only get within the27⁰ of the wind. Added to that were gusts to 32 k over the steady 25 k all night: yes, a night (5 p.m. departure) passage so we’d arrive off Luperon in the early a.m. We averaged 5.4 kph and arrived 12 nm E of Luperon just at the “red sky” dawn. We turned on the motors and headed once again into the wind crossing the swells and waves at about 45⁰ so the ride was a lot more pleasant than the slamming we did all night.

The DR is fantastic to see in the early morning as compared to the Bahamas and T&C. High, green mountains rise out of the sea to greet you, but no land smell as the wind is from the ENE. Stella Maris was 8 nm behind us also beating into the wind to get to the harbor entrance. Another boat, Loose Change, was 30 minutes in front of us having left BSC 6 hours before we did. We followed Van Sant’s guide and promptly ran aground because some G.D. fool (on board a tourist cat named Tip Top) put in a RED buoy (“We didn’t have a GREEN one.”) where a GREEN one should have been. Again the port rudder was slightly bent and will have to be straightened as soon as we find clean water. Yes, clean water as Luperon Harbour is a cesspool for the city: runoff, gray and black water, animal waste, etc. However, it is still very pretty with green mangroves ringing the harbor with steep green, lightly wooded hills behind. We missed Marina Luperon Yacht Club which sits atop a hill on the N side of the N finger of the harbor. Frankly, it is a very small (room for less than 15 barcos) with fixed (tree trunk pilings) plank docks that have seen much better times. Most of the “docks” have cleats that are pulling/pulled out, nonexistent electrical (50 amp) outlets (they open to the wood they are made of), no potable water, and electricity that is on maybe 8 hours a day (not their fault as he DR can’t seem to produce reliable, constant electricity). For this we were told by the owner’s son that they get $1.90 per foot and double for a cat “as we are so wide” even though we take up only one 45’ alongside slip! “Bull pucky” says Linda and launches into Javier with great gusto telling him what a dump this place is (no showers, no laundry, no water, no fuel, etc., etc., etc.), and he’d better think this whole deal over or we and Stella Maris would go out and drop an anchor and he’d get NOTHING. Well, someone called “Dad” and the proverbial s..t hit the fan. We now think we’ll get down to $1.00 a foot on a weekly rate.

Luperon is a what I would call a typical third world town with gravel streets lined both sides with trash-clogged gutters; some wood and mostly concrete block, sheet-metal roofed, mostly single and two story shops and homes built a long time ago and mostly ill maintained; populated with motor bikes and a few cars; lots of dogs, pigs, chickens, and goats; lazy policemen (speed bumps) every three blocks; above ground utility lines and non functioning street lights. The people are very friendly and helpful. Meals are on the cheap: breakfast with a large pineapple or passion fruit jugo, two large eggs, home fries, ½ lbs. sausage, and a slice of pineapple: $130 p or $3.60; full dinner $300 p or $8.25; Presidente (22 fl. oz. beer)$90 p or $2.47). Hot, hot, hot; high humidity. We are using the A/C mostly on our generator because the DR gives electrical power sparingly: maybe 6 hours on a good day. Still don’t know what the cost of diesel is. But, so what: pay/cool or die!

We made a road trip by Toyota SUV with nearly 200,000 miles on it with Stella Maris (Luis and Consuelo Adan, Luis, Jr. (17) and Angelica (14). Consuelo is a young retired merchandiser and Luis is a retired 20-police captain both from Tampa. Consuelo was born and reared in Puerto Rico and Luis was reared in a Spanish speaking family. What luck for us gringos! Anyway with Luis driving we wound our way to Santiago, the second largest city in the DR, had lunch and went to the banco. From there we rode the autopista Duarte to Santo Domingo, the oldest city in the New World (listen: the sound of French horns!). What a wild ride in each city consisting of maneuvering on two land roads with three lanes of cars with motorbikes sliding past on all sides. “He who hesitates is lost.” Give even

an indication that you might fall back a few inches from the car in front of you, and the guy in the next “lane” dives in. Everyone is changing isles constantly to “get ahead” at 2 mph. I’ve driven in Paris and Amsterdam, and they don’t hold a candle to this: thank you Luis for driving! Our hotel, Duque de Wellington, was on Avenue Independensia a block or two above the Malacon or seaside boulevard where all the expensive hotels and casinos are. Road maps are a joke especially in Spanish, and finding a turn off is nearly impossible. At one point on the way to the hotel we ended up in a very poor section of the “old Town” when the A/C quit for the fourth or fifth time and the engine died in the middle of an intersection. You’d have thought we were an invading army bent on keeping the traffic grid-locked. Luckily Luis was able to get it restarted before I had to push us out of the way. We toured the sites and paid the entrance fees (Dominicans do not have to pay) and suffered the police trying to give us a ticked for not wearing our seat belts in the back seat: oh, look, no one is wearing a seat belt; cute little trick/trap of radioing ahead as the tourista drives around a monument. Consuelo was able to shame the woman cop into not giving us the ticket. Anyway we toured for a day and a half seeing all the sites (forts, traffic, caves, traffic, cathedrals, traffic, ports, traffic, etc.). We did a little shopping for supplies at the local hardware stores and headed back to Santiago for more shopping and car dodge-ball. Once back on the road, and missing a turn, of course, we sailed through beautiful green forested mountain and valleys studded with palm trees and little villages (beautiful as it reminded me of mauka Kona; volcanic origins, too. Lovely!) back to Luperon.

Back in Luperon, we fuelled up via a fuel boat ($4.50/gal; 103 gals.), paid our $7/ft/ week, said our goodbyes, and headed out for Rio San Juan a short sail away. Missed the shallows and left the “Red” mark to starboard this time. From Rio San Juan, a sleepy, but much more prosperous fishing village (must be the European influence from the Jews during WWII that were deposited along this coast ‘cause Uncle Smiley wouldn’t take them in), and made our way on to Samaná, another beautiful port with overhanging hills covered in green. Our Dispacho expired here and we had to get another one for Punta Cana, our last stop. It’s a “Get out of jail free card” from the DR Navy, at a small cost of course. After two swell days and nights of sailing and motoring, we got it once again with 3-4’, short period waves/swells and 20 k winds: the weather forecast said 5-10k. But, Samaná exuded a feeling of unwelcome and higher prices as this is a tourist cruise ship destination, so we bugged out probably faster than was needed.

Punta Cana is the heart of eastern DR’s all inclusive resorts. Club Med is here. It is an ecological reserve within which development is very controlled and thoughtful. Old marina, but friendly staff. First time we had a cabbie give us one price before we got in ($25) and then said the fare was $35, (veinte cinco v. treinta cinco) Yah, I fell of the turnip truck this morning. And all this in dollars for a 20 minute ride and wait for us to a over- priced grocery shop on the resort property. Anyway we’ll be here probably until Friday afternoon when we’ll make the run to Boquerón, PR. I also learned there is a conference here of 30 nations trying to figure out what to do for Haiti. The USA method of throwing unsupervised money at a problem isn’t working apparently.

4/26/2010: Good Bye Georgetown

 Yul and Linda at Baycayneer with junkanoo costumes

Junkanoo costumes

 Bone fishing flatsConceptionDanielle Solan at RumDC-3 at MayaguanaFawn, Linda and Bobby @ salt pond inlet.  Bobby

 cutting up the conch with his mud mask on.

L-R John & Linda and Chris Lone Star; Dave & Heather Mann Wild Hair; L&H at Sumner Pt. Marina dinner

Salt pond inlet, RumFlat MayaguanaL&H at BaycayneerSumner Pt. Marina, Rum.  Kuhela in foregroundBone fish flats, MayaguanaAnother drug wreck

0700 and the alarm went off…Linda has been up for an hour listening to Chris Parker, the weatherman, and will make the coffee when she hears me rustling around. Our 0800 departure is on Bahamian time (“later mon”) and we emerge into the Exuma Sound at around 0830 to find 15-18 K SE winds, seas 1-2 ft. also from the SE, and us on course to Conception Island cutting across the waves at about 50⁰: nearly perfect sailing. Clear, blue skies with cottony cumulus clouds over Long Island and inky blue seas; what more could a cruiser ask? At 1640 we dropped the hook off a western beach south of Southampton Reef. Tomorrow we’ll snorkel the reef which is said to be spectacular as Conception Island is one of the national parks and thus protected.


Well it didn’t happen…Mr. Parker informed us that another front with 20-30K squalls was due in this evening and would put us on a lee shore (the shore being down wind), so we hightailed it out first thing in the morning to Rum Cay 20 km to the ESE. Unfortunately, there were 2-3 ft. swells 3-4 seconds apart and winds and currents nearly on the nose, so we had to tack and motor sail. Oh, well, can’t have a great sail every day, right? We snuggled in at Sumner Point Marina at Port Nelson, the only settlement of this 9 mile by 4 ½ mile island/cay. The highest point is 121 ft. so it’s virtually flat as are all the Bahamian islands and cays: good for bicycling mon. We met Danielle Solan, a 30-ish South Beach (Miami) model who was a close friend of Bobby Little the marina owner. They took us under their wing and showed us their rather beautiful and quaint island sites: the salt pond entrance where we slathered spa mud all over us and had beer and wine with a conch salad lunch from conch we caught wading in the pond; north beach paddle boarding collecting Whelks, a black and white conical snail attached to the iron rock shore. This is a great place to vacation and lie-back, especially if you love the sea: conching, shelling, diving, snorkeling, deep sea fishing, etc. One night we had dinner “in town” at Kay’s Restaurant and Bar owned by 78 year old Delores and her daughter Donna. The other daughter, Judy, ran the “grocery” store and made shell jewelry. The rest of the nights we dined high on Mahi Mahi, Wahoo, Snapper, Tuna (all provided by the sport-fish boats to accompany our sides), Peas-n-Rice, Mac-n-Cheese, Whelks (like fishy escargot)and crabs. We stayed a week.

Samana Cay was an interesting stop. I re-read the National Geographic (November, 1986) – thanks again Jim and Jane – article and re-learned the extensive reasoning that declared Columbus must have stopped here first in 1492 and not at San Salvador or Whatling or Plana or… The Acklin islanders come here to fish and gather conch and bark from trees that is used in making Compari: Kathy, maybe you should move here. The entrance to the anchorage was not nearly as treacherous and difficult as the charts lead us to believe. We anchored in sand behind Propeller Cay in 12 ft. of clear water where Columbus probably anchored, too, over 500 years ago. We were the only boat in this idyllic spot. We didn’t go ashore and left the next morning for W. Plana Cay in 5k of easterly wind: not so good for a sailor and we had to motor/sail once again. From there we motored straight into the wind (known as having it on the nose) the 40nm to Mayaguana arriving on Friday, May 7, our Aimee’s birthday: “Happy Birthday, Aimee Arnold Riebold!!” We expected to collect from the post office our courtesy flags - 1 X 2 country flags a boat flies after clearing in (presenting oneself to customs, immigration and health) - that had been mailed here a month ago from a flag company in the US of A. No show, maybe on the mail boat Monday, or Sunday, or Tuesday or BahamasAir on Monday or Wednesday. Dimes to doughnuts we’ll end up calling Nassau’s main post office to (hopefully) find them. Yul Charlton (“Papa Charlie” and the first really enterprising entrepreneur we’ve run across in the Bahamas) called on the VHF next morning having heard we asked about renting a car and offered to take us around the island for $30 less than the rental. Deal! Turns out this island is even flatter than most with an old US Army Air Corps airfield littered with confiscated drug aircraft to include a DC3: all stripped of course. They still use the strip 3X/week for flights from the rest of the Bahamas. We had a few Kaliks along the way at T.N.T. bar with owner Jingles and pork chop or fried chicken and Kalik lunch at the “Baycayner” resort near Pirate Wells. This north side of the island is a bone fisherman’s paradise with a mile out reef fringing shallow sand bars under aqua/gin-blue waters.

Today, Sunday, we’ll do projects: laundry, dive the boat for barnacles, change out the starboard fresh water pup (it keeps tripping the breaker), defrost the Engle (freezer), and go ashore to send this to BlogSpot and get email for free. It turns out the flag company cancelled the order ‘cause they didn't like the shipping address: huh?? So, we’ll buy them as we go along instead. The zincs had the barnacles, not the props. Yahoo!! It took 10 minutes to clean. We then took up the dingy, had dinner and went to bed. Back up at 2030 and pulled up the sails and motor/sailed back out through the reef following our bread crumbs on the chart plotter (the chart plotter leaves little dashes – bread crumbs – showing where we’ve been: really convenient for moonless night passages). We sailed all night in 20 k winds gusting to 25 k and 6 ft. seas 5 seconds apart making an average of 6.7 k/hr. Arrived at Sandborne Channel, Providenciales (Provo), Turks and Caicos around 7 am as directed by the Van Sant cruising guide to have the sun in our eyes and no chance to see the bottom/coral heads. Made it handily, however, to South Side Marina by 0830. Given the weather forecast we got on our way in from Simon at the marina, looks like we’ll be here a week.

Oh, we finally got OCENS (satellite weather and email) up and running. Seems the handset which I thought was the way to the satellite wasn’t right (and the “experts” at OCENS and Vizada – the satellite provider - didn’t catch it either) wasn’t the way.. Turned out just ‘cause I happened to look behind the cradle in the cupboard that the 9-pin cable connected to the DTE socket was the way in. Bada-bing it worked with a little adjustment on timing-out! So, now we can get both weather and our email – not daily ‘cause it’s expensive to use the satellite – when we don’t have a Wi-Fi connection.

PLEASE REMEMBER we are ready for company. Send us an email to let us know your desires. We can then let you know approximately where we’ll be. But, remember there is little accuracy in that the further out in time you want to come; like we stay a week in Rum ‘cause it’s fun, or don’t explore Conception because of the weather. But don’t let this stop you: COME!