Voyages Of Raft -- C&C Landfall 38

2008-06-06T14:06:00.001-04:00

Crossing the Gulf Stream, heading to the USA June 2008

After consultations with Chris Parker, it now appears that we should have a good opportunity to get across the gulf stream and head north. May not be enough time to get to Beaufort as we would really like to do, but at least get us somewhere on the US east coast, and closer to home.
We pulled up anchor and headed our 0830 on Tues. May 27th with a reefed main. It was like RAFT didn’t want to leave, the engine started overheating as soon as we cleared the anchorage. A quick check of the possible problems showed that the water intake valve was half closed, our 1" rubber hose on the handle which was to stop this from happening had jumped off sometime in the past few days…said it was a bumpy anchorage. Easy fix this time.

As we approached Great Issac the winds had increased to 25+, we had reefed both sails. By morning we were in the Gulf Stream. Wonderful sailing, traveling the Gulf Stream was a delight, 10-15 knots of wind with a 3.5 knot current had the boat rocketing along all day and night long. We covered 175 NM with ease and best of all very little boat traffic, the seas to ourselves.
We were making good progress in the Gulf Stream until midnight when the wind shifted to the north putting it right on our nose of course, this causes big seas in the Gulf current so we were forced to bail out of the stream early for safety and comfort sake. We are now 45 miles south of Charleston and trying to decide if we can make Cape Fear or pull in there. The weather guru says there is time once the winds shift SE but that won't happen until this evening. So we started tacking up the East coast at 3-4 knots. Hopefully the wind will shift before we get to Charleston. We traveled 132 NM yesterday. Slow progress now in lumpy seas.
We had to motor sail for 24 hours. Weird eddy currents south of Charleston and stronger than expected NE winds dragged down our potential to put some miles under the keel. But we persevered. Still managed to do 127 NM pounding into waves and then finally late Thursday afternoon…NO WIND. So we turned the boat NE and headed for Cape Fear. We have another 50 miles to go and need to tuck in soon because of bad weather Sunday/Monday.
We feel the temperature change as we head north. We now wear sweat pants and long sleeve shirts in the evenings now. No shoes or socks yet. The blue water is gone and the brown/muddy ICW awaits us.
Decided to bail out at the Cape Fear River. This is Vixen’s (our buddy boat) home stomping ground so we let them lead us in. What a culture shock!! As we entered the ICW, after a 105 hour sail, we are bombarded by jet skis, fishing boats, people waterskiing and tubing in the channel, kayakers, swimmers (on the beaches) tons of buoys (remembering we need to put green to the right) and shoaling waters. We knew that we shouldn't be on the ICW on the weekend, but our Bahama crossing ended on a Saturday. And in the middle of this, the shackles on the boom and traveller broke, so Ross is on the deck jerry rigging the main sheet with Bev on the wheel. We did get anchor in Wrightsville by 6 pm, very tired after 108 hours -- our longest passage ever!!
Called US customs and they were insisting that we go to a local marina and check in, immediately!! It was now 1900, getting dark, winds blowing 25+ in the anchorage, and we were dead tired. We tried calling the marina and found out it was already closed. Finally the US coast guard intervened on our behalf, getting permission for us to delay the boarding until the morning provided we didn’t leave the boat. No problem all we wanted was a good night sleep.
Next morning we were off to the marina, as required. While we waited for customs to arrived, we were able to fuel, and water up, and do our laundry. Nice people at Sea Path Marina, so guess they are used to this routine.
Once customs arrived, it really was easy. He sat in the cockpit, copied our document info onto a plain piece of paper (reminded us of Luperon), and stamped our passports. He never inspected the boat in any way, or asked us any questions about what we had on board, or where we had been, except for last port. Obviously not many boats check in here, most boats go to Charleston or Beaufort. One advantage to us…we didn’t have to find our own way to the customs office, which are often at the airport requiring transportation.
We are spending a couple of days in Wrightsville, Paul and Denise have friends they want us to meet which means we will have access to a vehicle to take us grocery shopping!! After all the time in the Bahamas RAFT’s cupboards do need some restocking. Plus we have the traveller to fix.

2008-05-30T13:22:00.002-04:00

Leaving Nassau, heading Home!! May 2008
Now that Kathryn and Ron have left, our final visitors of our sailing odessy, and we have met up and separated from Jim and Dinah on Evergreen, it was time to make our way north. Time was passing, and hurricane season approaching.
Raft was refueled, rewatered, reprovisioned for the trip. Our plans were to head for Beaufort, with as few stops as possible. As always, weather was our major concern. And weather in the Abacos has always been tough to deal with. We were anchored in Nassau harbour with a cold front approaching, and a potential window to jump to the states after it passed. The two captains (Paul on Vixon and us) and decided that the anchorage behind Chub Cay would be just as good an anchorage as Nassau for the cold front, and that would take one day off the trip home. So we motor sailed to Chub and anchored in Frazier Hog Bay.
From the charts, we expected the anchorage to be more protected with drying sand at low tide than it was. But we knew that the marina at Chub was now a "mega marina" so not really an option. At first we were the only boats in the anchorage, but were joined by a couple others. We checked out the island, not much to see, had a beer at the Berry Beach Club, again not much happening.

Picture: Berry Beach Club

All the excitement would happen that night!! Why must excitement happen after the sun goes down? Luck of a sailor. Here is the report.
At sunset we noticed dark clouds coming our way, then the lightning flashes in the distance. By 2100 we were in 46 knots of wind, from the west. It was dark and we had not expected anything this intense. We were anchored in Frazier Hog Bay, in 12-15 feet of water in good sand, with Vixon and two other boats we had seen in Nassau, Fantasy Island and Caledon. The wind maxed up, and a big wave sideswiped us, and Ross felt the anchor give way. We motored for over an hour while the anchor dragged and grabbed, in good sized wind chop. After an hour the winds slowly dropped back down to 15kn, Ross dropped the second anchor. He hadn't wanted to do that earlier, in case they fouled each other, plus our backup anchor only has 40 ft of chain, and he didn't want to risk running over the rode. We had a restless night, and this morning we calculated we had dragged about 400 ft, fortunately there was lots of room in the anchorage, so except for our pride, no damage was done.
We have reanchored, and are still sitting here, awaiting the approach of the cold front, expecting 20-25 kn from the NE later today. Hopefully we won't have anymore squalls....Last night was the highest winds we have seen in all our time out here.
Things did settle down, and the last couple days in Frazier Hog Bay were bumpy but nothing like we experienced that night.

2008-05-30T09:32:00.000-04:00

Revisiting the Exumas May 2008
We hung around Georgetown another week, and we were able to reprovision, before Kathryn and Ron (Bev’s sister and brother in law) arrived. This was their third visit to RAFT, having previously visited in the Puerto Rico/US Virgins and Antigua-Dominica. Since K&R’s passion is snorkeling and walking beautiful beaches, we knew that they were going to have a great time in the Bahamas. Our plans were to pick them up in GT and sail with them to Nassau, letting them explore and us revisit our beloved Exuma Islands.
Once they arrived we gave them a quick tour to GT, moved over to Volleyball Beach, where we hiked to the Monument, kayaked the holes and snorkeled the "blue hole". The weather gods were with us, and we took advantage of the light winds, to motor sail to Rat Cay, fishing as we went. We caught a "big" barracuda, which we returned to the sea and ¾ ‘s of a good-sized ceral mackerel. Vixon, sailing with us, caught a mahi mahi, plus tuna and mackerel. We enjoyed a great fish dinner on RAFT that night.
Next day we were off to Galliot Cay. On the way, we caught our first mahi mahi of our trip. Paul had warned us, that when you catch a mahi, it will jump out of the water….and this one was jumping and continued to jump. As we reeled it in, we saw what was causing its displeasure…it was being chased by a shark. We had to reel in quickly in order to save our dinner, and we did. What a beautiful, blue and yellow 30" fish it was. It might have had a chance to be returned to the sea, except mahi taste so good! After an exciting "drift" snorkel between Galliot and Big Farmers, on the incoming tide, we had a second wonderful fish dinner in 2 nights.
Next day, we walked the island before taking a leisurely light wind sail to Black Point. Black Point looked better than we remembered Lorraine’s Mom is still baking great bread, and Lorraine’s restaurant is about the same, self serve bar, good food. In town there is a newer grocery store and a superclean laundromat.
Moving right along, our next stop was Piggy Beach at Big Majors. The pigs were there, waiting to be fed, and the Mega Yachts are definitely using this as their preferred anchorage. At low tide, we snorkeled the Grotto, and Bev still was impressed with the coral garden just east of the Grotto. Next day, after checking out the Pink, Blue and Ayles General Stores and buying fresh bread from Rhonda, (a new bakery to us) we were off for a high tide snorkel at the Grotto. This was a new experience for Bev, and a very enjoyable way to enjoy the Grotto. Even at high tide, you can still get in without going underwater, weaving your way through the cave entrance with about 6" airspace.
Pipe Creek was our next stop. We had heard about the docks at the end of the Decca Range but had never visited there before. We were fortunate to have just us and Vixen there, and thoroughly enjoyed checking out the military ruins, and walking over to check out the "mice run" at both high and low tide. Bev collected as many palm fronds as she could, knowing that her sources were coming to an end….and once they were gone she would have to go through the painful process of "weaving withdrawal".
Next day: a lovely sail to Exuma Park…a little more wind than expected. We had reserved a mooring ball in Warderick Wells in anticipation of an approaching cold front bringing in strong south and west winds. The park is much more organized than it was a couple of years ago. A huge mooring field has been installed in Emerald Bay, and there are now moorings at Shroud and many of the other islands in the park. They have installed Pay Stations, like the on St. John, to collect the money. Price is still $15 per night for RAFT.
First item: walk up BooBoo Hill to see if our RAFT momento is there, and if so, retrieve it to add a new date. But alas, the park clean up must have also included removal of the "old" momentos, the only new remain are those from the past year. Too bad. The trails are better marked, and new signage has been installed identifying the flora and fauna. Bev didn’t like all the "organization".
Over the next few days, we hiked all over the island, including revisiting of Pirate’s Lair. Once the wind had calmed down, we enjoyed the snorkeling on the wall at the north end of the mooring field. We knew that lobster season was closed, and we were treated to nature’s exhibition the reason why. The mega lobsters, at least 5 pounders, were playing hide and seek under the coral heads, but some were crawling right out in the open, some were chasing each other, some fighting, and others doing things that couples do. Although a little voyeuristic, that didn’t stop us from watching! Paul and Denise (Vixen) did a SCUBA dive, and it was wonderful to watch them pirouette under the water doing a wonderful dance.
K&R still had a couple more days of their vacation, and we had a couple more islands to share with them. One night at Normans, where they snorkeled the plane, and had a beer at the reopened McDuff’s – now called the Normans Beach Club. Next, we were off to Alans (not our favourite anchorage) but our guests definitely wanted to see the iguanas.
We had to motor to Nassau, very little wind, where we finally met up with Jim and Dinah on Evergreen IVrest. K&R visited Atlantis and returned with a KFC banquet for all. Their last day was spent shopping at the cruise dock for souvenirs and eating lunch at Potter’s Cay, before they caught a taxi to the airport. Another successful, and possibly their last, tropical holiday on RAFT.

2008-04-30T08:16:00.000-04:00

Long Island and Conception Island April 2008

Pictures: Beautiful beaches on Conception

One island we had missed on our previous times in Georgetown was Conception Island. Rated highly in the cruising guides and among our boating buddies, we did want to get there. However, due to its unprotected location and only having a lee anchorage, visits are not recommended if west quadrant winds are expected (common when cold fronts pass over area), or if northern swells are present (common if cold fronts pass to the north).
Following Brenda and Dan’s departure, we decided to move down to Red Shanks anchorage to sit through the next cold front, while we waited. This was another anchorage we hadn’t visited, so wanted to check it out. We were surprised how pretty the anchorage is. We knew it was well protected and collected an assortment of cruisers who enjoyed its serenity and lack of facilities, a total opposite of Volleyball Beach. While here we checked out the blue holes, snorkeled and kayaked plus were treated to a meet and great at the legendary Red Shanks Yacht and Tennis Club.
The weather still would not allow a trip to Conception, so we moved out of Red Shanks (saw 6’6" at low tide) and started doing the typical Georgetown shuffle, staying a couple nights at Monument and then back to town to shop, fuel and water up.
Desperate for a change of scenery, we decided to check out Long Island. Thompson Bay now has two new marina operations, Parrots of the Carribbean (2 cottages and restaurant/bar/laundry) and Long Island Breeze Resort. The latter is planned to be a major development, complete with $900,000 condos, hotel complex, and docks. At present a model condo is up, and the main lodge with restaurant, swimming pool, laundry and internet, is open. In fact while we were there, we attended the grand opening complete with free pizza and nearly everyone including us won a free Tshirt. Everything is first class, but it is tough to imagine that clientele rushing to vacation in Long Island.
We hung around Long Island for over a week, still hoping we would get the weather window to go to Conception. The well at Thompson Bay is still there, so we took advantage of the fresh water to do laundry, hanging our clothes lines around the "sailors bar". We had a campfire on the beach, walked the ocean side shelling, beach combing and collecting palm fronds.
We had almost given up on our trip to Conception, when finally a short weather window opened up on Saturday. Not perfect, since we would have to motor there, in NE winds, and run from westerly winds Wednesday. But we decided this short trip was better than no visit. And we were right!! The westerly beach off the anchorage definitely rates near the top of the most beautiful we have seen. An incredible long crescent of fine white sand and beautiful crystal blue water. The mangrove area is an interesting dinghy run, although we didn’t see any wildlife. Snorkeling the reefs: excellent visibility, good coral recovering, large reef fish, but not in large numbers. Despite our short stay, we were very happy we were able to see the Island.

2008-04-15T09:22:00.000-04:00

Family Island Regatta, Georgetown April 2008
Threatening west winds chased us back to Georgetown, arriving back in town for the Family Island Regatta. This regatta is totally for the local Bahamians, a full week of partying and they know how to party!! At least six of the local commercial (mailboats) boats had brought boats and participants from all over the Bahamas.
There were three classes of Bahamian sailboats racing each day, one small dinghy, and two larger sloop racers. Each wooden boat is manned with enough crew to sit on planks on the high side, to help "flatten" the boat, and keep them from capsizing. Quite often, during the race, there was crew in the water that had to be retrieved. The boats start the race with their sails and anchor down. When the gun goes off, the anchors are raised, and the sails unfurled, and race begins. The first couple days were quite windy, and there were a couple of broken masts, and blown out sails. We were able to watch the races from the comfort of RAFT anchored in Kid Cove.
The GT commercial dock had been transformed into a parade route flanked by about 50 plywood temporary stalls selling all kinds of foods and beverages. Every evening, after the races, everyone dressed up in their finest, to meet, eat, dance and party. The locals were really having a great time, and it was fun to speculate.
With all the extra people on the island, and the nightly BBQ’s, it isn’t surprising that Exuma market and Shoprite were running out of food. Not that it mattered too much, because the stores were closed most of the time to allow their staff to attend the celebrations. Even after the Regatta closed, there still was no food in GT, since all the commercial boats had to return their charges to their respective islands, before heading back to Nassau to get stuff to bring back to GT. There were a few complaints, but hey, this is the Bahamas!!

2008-03-30T08:30:00.000-04:00

Georgetown -- March 2008

Pictures: Dinghy raft up for concert on Free Bird, dolphins doing Seaworld routine beside RAFT

2008-03-05T11:59:00.000-05:00

Back to Georgetown - March 2008, originally uploaded by S/V Raft.

Picture: One of Bev's dreams - a ride in the back of a pickup!!

Spent a few days waiting in Boqueron for weather. Boqueron hadn't changed much in the past two years, although the weekend we were there, the Harleys didn't show. A new marina store had opened, opposite where the vegetable/meat man was last time, whom did not open while we were there. The Peas and Rice restaurant is still there, offering cheap breakfasts and lunches, the bakery is still up by the highway, as is the only ATM. Rodrigues offers very limited groceries, but we did luck into a farm truck selling great fruits and vegs on the street by the bakery, so we were able to restock those items. Marina looked the same, but we didn't need water or fuel, so did not confirm availability. Gallaways, has free internet, if you are enjoying their food or beverages. Ross sat there all morning, slowly enjoying a couple of beers and no one hassled him.
We knew we had been having long distance problems with our VHF radio, and Paul from Vixon had determined we were having power output problems. The new marina store had one in stock, so that one has made a new home in RAFT. We didn't want to make the next passages without full VHF coverage.
Waiting for weather, created another problem. We had decided to sign up for Chris Parker's personal SSB verbal weather service last fall, so that we could get his weather expertise for our longer passages. Wouldn't you know it, the week we were planning to jump to the Turks, he was in Georgetown giving a weather seminar so not on the air. So based on our own expertise, we decided to head out expecting lighter SE winds than we would like, dead down wind, and we would be racing a cold front which might meet us there. We hauled up the anchor about noon, Sunday, sailing with Vixon. The trip went quite well, mostly sailing, some motoring until we approached the Turk's passage. In the middle of the night, the winds were up to 20+ still dead astern, and we were doing over 7 knots. Ross decided to take the longer course, around Big Sand Cay, to kill some time and arrive in Cockburn at dawn. We were very pleased that the depth sounder, which had been giving us problems since St. Croix,
decided to work as we entered the anchorage. The passage had taken us 68 hours, our longest ever, but we could have done it in 62-64 hours if we hadn't slowed down to arrive in light.
After a brief rest, Denise and Bev went to check in, having to ask several of the local people for directions. As we had experienced the last time we were there, the people as so friendly, but none of the buildings have signs indicating whether it is a business or private home. We needed to find both immigration and customs, customs had a new office since we were there last. Cost $15.00 to check in. One new thing, free wifi internet available to all the boats in the harbour.
While the women were doing the legal thing, the guys were checking out the damage to Vixon's davits and determining that a welder would be required. The locals indicated that out at the new hotel development at High Point, the job could be done. Unfortunately the only way to get there was by taxi, $50 return trip. We all went, and received a tour of the island at the same time. Saw the airport, the salt flats, the flamingos, plus spent a lot of time out at the work camp waiting for the welder to show up and do the job. The US hotel project is massive, overlooking the beautiful sand beaches and gorgeous blue water on both sides. Most of all the workers are imported from Haiti and the Dominican Republic and live on site. The morning we were there, immigration was on site extending all the workers' visas, and that was the main reason for our wait. Even the airport is being upgraded to take larger planes, in anticipation of this project bringing huge numbers of tourists to the island. We are glad we had the opportunity to see South Caicos before the world discovers it.

Picture: Flamingos in front of unfinished resorts

No matter how we planned the trip, it seemed impossible to get to Mayaguana without doing an overnight trip. Neither Vixon or us were excited about heading across the banks, especially with our lack of confidence in our depth sounder. So we decided to leave Cockburn Harbour and sail the north coast of T&C directly to Mayaguana. During the night, we had to deal with lots of current in the Caicos Channel. We experienced a north setting current on both east and west coasts of the Caicos, and a west setting current on the north coast. The combination resulted in confused seas, and the light east winds required motor sailing, preventors to hold out the main sail, and we furled in the foresail to just a small triangle.
In the morning, the seas had settled down, and the wind had completely died, so we motored the last four hours, and anchored after lunch in Abrahams Bay. We had never been here before, and were surprised how large the protected bay is and quite easy to enter. We anchored with Vixon and Excaliber who had come from Provo, too far from the reef to snorkel, and too far from the town to go visit. But Excaliber had caught a 4' Mahi Mahi on the way over, and was sharing!! What an excellent meal that was.
That night the wind did catch up with us, and blew and blew and the rain fell, so we did laundry and filled all our water tanks. Next day, we had a meeting on RAFT to discuss weather and harbours available between here and Georgetown. Neither Vixon or Excaliber wanted to do any more long trips, so wanted to stay put until the next week, when more settled weather was supposed to come. We still had 2 weeks to get to Georgetown for Brenda and Dan's arrival, but were feeling some pressure. We knew we could go now, and sail directly to GT, or hang around for the next few days, and hope that the weather would cooperate and allow the day sails. Probably the unreliability of our depth sounder, which was still working, pushed us to the decision to make our move.
We left at first light, expecting moderate winds from the stern. Timing the trip to GT was difficult. The distance to travel was about 185 miles, which at 5 knots would mean 37 hours. However, we rarely average 5 knots, especially lately, even downwind and with currents. But maybe we would be lucky and arrive into the harbour at sunset the next day, and we knew the harbour well from our previous visits.
We were doing alright for the first nine hours, averaging just under 5 knots and then as we approached Plana Cays the winds died and the sea went smooth. We had to start the engine until midnight, we had finally found wind off of Long Island. We did 106 miles in our first 24 hours, not bad for us.
Day 2, we had lots of wind, averaging over 5 knots but it was evident that we couldn't avoid another night at sea, so we spilt wind, slowing RAFT down to try to arrive at dawn. But once we rounded the north end of Long Island, we were on a beam reach, and RAFT just wanted to run. At 0400 we dropped the main, and did a 180 turn, killing time sailing with a small jib. It was a beautiful night, stars shiningdidn't mind being out on the water at all. 0800 we dropped anchor in Kidd Cove, ready to assault GT.

2008-03-01T11:29:00.001-05:00

Pete and Kathy Visit February 2008, originally uploaded by S/V Raft.

Picture: What the shark left!!

By careful coordination, Bev and Kathy and Pete flew into San Juan the same day. Ross, with Denise and Paul from Vixon, did the well practiced Fajardo - San Juan routine, and were waiting at the airport with the rental car. We even had enough time to stop at West Marine and still make the 7pm ferry back to Dewey.
We were looking forward to showing our favourite Virgin island spots to Pete and Kathy, who had been with us last year in Martinique, Dominica and Guadaloupe. They had been in training at their Canadian gym for this trip, so we started off with a hike to one of our top ten beaches, Flaminco. As expected. K&P we impressed by its beautiful crescent uncrowded beach, affordable campgrounds and tank art.
We wanted to go to Culebrita, but decided to head for St Thomas for two reasons. First, northerly winds and swells would make the anchorage uncomfortable and we had one empty propane tank. Ross had been unsucessful finding propane man on Culebra while Bev was away, and we knew it was easy to obtain in Crown Bay.
Once underway, fishing lines were out. Immediately we caught a 48" barracuda, which we released. Our next strike, would have been a very large yellowfin tuna, had we not had to share. The guys did forensics on the teethmarks, and determined our thief was probably a shark. Even our share was sufficient for a good meal once we anchored in Charlotte Amalie.
We hadn'd told P&K about all the seaplanes that fly in and out of the main harbour. We passed the two large cruiseships at Crown Bay Marina, and just as we motored through Haulover Channel a seaplane was landing on our starboard side. A surprise for them, but Bev was more concerned about the failed depth sounder, as she negotiated the narrow waterway. We had been in and out of Charlotte Amalie so often that anchoring without a depth sounder wasn't a problem.
The next couple of days were spent exploring the town including all electronic and marine stores to see if replacement electronic parts for the depth sounder could be found, or a fishfinder could be purchased as a backup plan. Pete and Ross had the depth sounder apart, all contacts cleaned, soldering points checked, and for no reason at all, the depth sounder resumed working, but not consistantly.
We motored to Moho Bay, St. John to show K&P another of our favourite islands. We did our usual hikes, and snorkeling and relaxed, until unexpectedly the second propane tank ran out. Now we are in St. John, with company and no propane for the stove. Bev was not impressed, since she had suggested we stop in Crown Bay on our way through and we hadn't. We don't know why we ran out, as the guys could not find any leaks, so maybe it hadn't been filled properly wherever we had had it filled wecan't remember. Fortunately we had one small can of propane (off a torch), which fit on the BBQ. The girls tried to sweet talk the guy at the Moho Resort to sell us some gas, but he was afraid he wouldn't have enough for his glass melting kiln. Imagine valuing a melted beer bottle paperweight more than our meals. He suggested we eat in their restaurant!! We were able to buy another small canister in Cruz Bay, so we won't have to eat raw meat, but the meals will be interesting. After a couple of very enjoyable days snorkeling in Christmas Cove, we headed back to Crown Bay and refilled both of our propane tanks. Let the cooking begin.
The weather had settled down, and we had a lovely downwind sail to Culebrita. Here we did a lot of beach walking, hiking, turtle and deer watching, and playing in the Jacuzzi's. Alas K&P"s trip was coming to an end. Back on the early ferry to Fajardo, rent the car, and off to San Juan..all without a problem. On the way back we once again stopped at West Marine, and bought a fish finder. We haven't shut our depth sounder off, and it was been working for over a week, but we still know it will quit sometime in the future. We have asked Pete to check out a replacement for ours on Ebay.
It is now time to continue our trek north, but the weather gods want us to delay a few more days, before sending us lighter winds to head to Vieques. We overnighted at Green Beach, and made an early start the next morning for Salinas. We hadn't even got the sails up, when Ross sighted a dinghy floating offshore, no motor, or painter. The party boats in Green Beach weren't answering our radio hail, so we contacted US Coast Guard and told them we would tow it to Salinas.
We also had a whale surface very close to RAFT and show off with a few blows before waving with his dorsal fin goodbye. Sorry no pictures, but vivid memories.
Next day, after turning the dinghy over to the Park Police, we were off to Gilligan's Island. This was one of the anchorages we had missed on the trip down (you don't stop when you have west winds). While we were here, we heard Valeda IV on the radio. What are they doing here?? Aubrey and Judy were on their way back to Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic. We were so excited to see them, we had parted company last fall in Venezuela. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner together and the next morning we had to part again but such is the boating life. Who knows when we meet again.

Picture: Baby turtle on beach at Gilligan's

2008-01-09T14:21:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year -- St. Thomas Jan 2008

Picture: Murray with his part of the Wahoo
Our company arrived Dec. 28th, exactly as planned. Since the airport is very close to Charlotte Amalie, and the main harbour anchorage is very convenient to town, we made arrangements for Debbie and Murray to meet us at the Green House Restaurant on the waterfront. Our experience with meeting guests has shown us that bars are the best place, taxis don’t need directions, and we can enjoy a drink while we wait for the cab to show up.
We are always very careful who we invite to visit us. RAFT doesn’t offer our guests, or us much privacy; no private staterooms, heads or showers. So we always want our guests prepared that their getaway is closer to "camping in paradise" than a five star resort. Fresh water is rationed, we don’t go to marinas, and we tend to live with the sun. We actually didn’t know Murray and Debbie all that well, but Ross’s parents and Murray’s parents had been close friends for thirty-five years, starting as neighbours when both families were growing up in Toronto. But we knew that Murray and Debbie liked camping, had a summer cottage (a real one with no running water), and lived in Northern Ontario for the past 20+ years. That meant they must love fishing, snowmobiling, and roughing it. Murray had taken a keel boat sailing course and participated in their local yacht club races as crew this past summer. They had been following our trip on this blog and contemplating getting their own boat, but wanted to make sure they were compatible to the lifestyle.
We chose to have them come to St. Thomas, because we were concerned that with strong Christmas winds, we might get blown about in big open anchorages. We were confident in the US Virgins we could find some quiet anchorages, great snorkeling and fine sailing even if the wind blew strong.
Over our first breakfast, we discussed with M&D as to what they were interested in doing while they were with us. As expected, sailing, fishing, snorkeling and hiking were activities mentioned, while enjoying the sun and beautiful islands. Based on this list of priorities we decided on the sailing adventure right away. We sailed off the anchor and headed off to Christmas Cove. The winds were 15 knot trades, and the eastern swells were considerable.
We put out our 2 fishing lines, and within a few minutes the clothespin alarm jumped off the life rail. We were towing the dinghy with the motor on, and the line had gotten caught on the motor, so we thought it was a false alarm. The sea state was rough enough that Ross didn’t think he could free the line without getting into the dinghy. Then the other line also got caught on the dinghy motor, or so we thought. Not a great start for our fishing expedition. Debbie also wasn’t feeling great, so the decision was made to retreat to Charlotte Amalie. We turned around and Murray started to pull in the lines, Ross got in the dinghy to assist, and Bev was on the helm trying to keep RAFT steady. Murray thought his line was really hard to pull, but it wasn’t fighting like a fish. We soon found out why, as he pulled in half a Wahoo. Obviously something else had enjoyed the tail portion, but had left us more than enough for a great meal. There wasn’t another fish on the other line, but it had managed to get wrapped around RAFT’s prop. Good thing we are sailors, and sailed back into the harbour and anchored under sail. Bev went in the water to free the line, and managed to save the lure.
We thought we had thoroughly upset our guests, but we were wrong. They were very excited about the fish, and that overshadowed the rest. The fresh Wahoo steaks for supper were fantastic!!

Picture: Debbie, Murray and Bev at brunch in Red Hook
The wind conditions were similar on Sunday, so we went took the $2 safari (bus) across the island to Red Hook. After walking the docks and having brunch, we got back on the safari, and enjoyed the tour of the southern anchorages. Bev thought that we could get a safari up to Magens Bay Beach, but a local resident on the safari told us otherwise. He also informed us that we could take the safari to the end of the line at the Universtity and walk to Brewers Bay which had a lovely beach. This also gave us the opportunity to see how close the safaris pass the airport. (Not close enough, a taxi is necessary) We followed the instructions and ended up at a very nice beach, which we shared with a handful of local families enjoying their Sunday afternoon.
By Monday, the winds were coming down, and we wanted to go explore St. John. We went out prepared for the upwind passage to Current Cut, motor sailing in the lee of St. Thomas as much as possible. Once through the Cut we were able to sail to Trunk Bay. After grabbing a mooring, Debbie, Murray and Bev went to enjoy the beautiful beach and snorkel trail. Later we moved up to Maho Bay for our New Year’s Eve celebrations. We did enjoy a lovely Italian meal, but completely missed the celebratory champagne toast when 2008 arrived.
New Year’s day was spent hiking around the north end of St. John, visiting the old sugar mill and Annaberg Schoolhouse and snorkeling Waterlemon Bay. It was a delightful day as was the next one, when we stopped at Cruz Bay to allow M&D to tour the town, before sailing to Christmas Cove. Bev was anxious to snorkel here to see if it lived up to her memories of 18 months ago. The manta rays were there to greet us, another green turtle, plus lots of fish were present in the trench, just as she remembered.
D&M’s week was approaching its end, so we down wind sailed back to Charlotte Amalie. We wanted to give them some time to check out the "fairy land" that greets the cruise boat guests, and see how many diamonds are sold in the numerous stores. Fortunately their flight was not so early, that we didn’t need to find a taxi at "O" dark 30, so they had ample time for some last minute shopping before going to the airport. Our week together had been very enjoyable, and all of our initial assumptions about compatability worked out. We are quite confident that D&M had a great time, and we would welcome them back anytime.
Now that we have RAFT back to ourselves, we get to plan our next couple of weeks, before we must get to Culebra, and Bev’s trip to Florida.

2007-12-28T13:16:00.000-05:00

Christmas in St. Thomas 2007
Picture: Merry Christmas Everyone!!
Now that we are where we need to be, our guests arriving on December 28th, we started to plan our Christmas. We had never been to St. Croix, and understood there were lots of Christmas celebrations planned so we decided to go there. It is a 40 mile trip, with a very tricky entrance (read reef protected) into Christiansted. Having never been there, we definitely wanted to arrive in early afternoon with lots of light to guide us in. We were up before dawn and underway by 6am. But the weather gods were still not being kind to us, and after 3 hours we turned back, knowing we would not get to St. Croix in daylight. The waves/currents were pushing us the wrong way, and there just was no reason to take unnecessary risks for a pleasure trip. We would have to find something else to do for Christmas in St. Thomas.
And for this, the boating community did not let us down. We were not expecting "Diesel Duck" to be in St. Thomas, but when we heard them on the radio, we quickly made contact. We had been following Benoit and Marlene in and out of anchorages for nearly two years, and only had personally met on a couple of occasions. We accused them of branding us as fleas, because it seemed as we entered an anchorage, they were making their exit.
We met up on their boat for drinks, and planned to share Christmas dinner on RAFT. As they were anchored off Crown Bay, we decided to move RAFT over there. Anchoring off Crown Bay is difficult, as you must choose a spot among moorings, long term residents on multiple anchors. Plus the bottom is debris and coral covered, and the depth quickly changes from 4 ft to 30ft. Not an ideal anchorage, and one that caused us difficulties when we were there in 2006. However, Benoit had snorkeled and determined a spot that we could "just" fit in.
We had a lovely Christmas dinner, since we couldn’t be with our family, new boater friends are the next best. Benoit and Marlene know many of our Ontario boater friends, having built Diesel Duck through the OBBC (Ontario Boat Builder Coop), living and sailing out of Toronto.
Marlene showed Bev how to take the safaris to the "upcountry"shopping areas after the holidays, something not high on Ross’s desired activities, but the girls had a good day out.

2007-12-18T13:12:00.000-05:00

St. Martin to St. Thomas December 2007
Picture: Megas in Simpson Lagoon
The nasty weather that Chris Parker had been warning us about turned into Tropical Storm Olga, surprising everyone. Olga passed just north of us, giving us some rain, and lots of gusty winds. We are anchored in Simpson Lagoon, completely protected, but even here, there have been some waves in the 35 knot gusts. Unfortunately the lagoon bottom is weed covered and the anchors tend to fill up with weeds and become big balls of dirt, instead of doing their job. We dragged a few times when we first got here, but then we put out our second anchor, the CQR, one that likes weeds better, and now we seemed to be okay. Problem is that there are many other boats in the lagoon, and every day someone else is dragging near us. This means that we don't go too far from RAFT and that we don't sleep too soundly at night.
The Big Atlantic Rally boats arrived in to St. Martin while we were there, Some of the boats made the crossing from the Canaries (2600 miles) in 10 -12 days. Every day there is a parade of the multi million dollar plastic megas, trekking in and out at bridge openings. The marina guys with divers, really have to work hard to shoehorn them into the med moored docks, especially with the wind. Gives us a new "show" to watch from our cockpit everyday.
We ended up paying for another week, as we waited for the 9-12’ seas to come down. However, we had to get out of there, boats just continued to drag onto us regularly. Our boat neighbours were disappointed to see us leave, we were such good goalies. During the time we were in the lagoon, 12 days, we dragged 3 times, stopped with second anchor. We were endangered by six boats, Ross helped reanchor 3 unoccupied boats, and woke up one sleeping sailor as his boat approached the mega boats on the dock. Note to anyone considering anchoring there....don't anchor close to Shrimpy's. That's were all the boats try to, and then the owners jump off their boats, leaving others to tend to while they are off enjoying St. Martin.
We moved out of the Lagoon on the 1130 bridge and anchored in Simpson Bay, planning an afternoon departure. We calculated that with the predicted NE winds 15-20, we should have a fast downwind sail, and if we left too early we would arrive in St. Thomas before dawn. Not that it would really be a problem, given how large and well lit Charlotte Amalie harbour is. But as usual, the winds did not perform as predicted, instead we had light east winds, directly on the stern. We were able to sail, the main securely tied off, the foresail flogging, furled, wing on wing, averaging 4knots, instead of the expected 6. As a result our anticipated 18 hour sail, took over 24.
We were pleasantly surprised to find "Off Call", friends from Trenton Ontario we had not seen since Luperon. They were heading off to St. Martin but had waited for us, knowing we were coming in. It was great to see Joe and Wendy, even if it was only for a few hours.

2007-12-01T13:08:00.000-05:00

Leaving Venezuela December 2007

Picture: Catching tunas
All systems are ready to go north. Its time to wait for weather. Our intentions were to sail from Margarita to St. Thomas, which should be a 4-5 day sail in moderate easterly winds, southeasterly would even be better. Since it was only the middle of November, we were hopeful of getting a favourable window, before the Christmas winds set in. So we started the wait, consulting Chris Parker, computer models, Sandcastle (our buddy boat) and for the next two weeks, all we saw were light northeast winds (guess which way we want to go), nothing to sail with.
By the 29th of November, we are starting to get tired of weather consultations over cheap beer at Juan’s. The 7 day outlook indicated more of the same. Some weather gurus and old salts seemed to think that the Christmas winds were kicking in early—just our luck. Our Canadian friends were going to join us in St. Thomas on Dec. 28th, and we wanted to get there. We made the decision to motor in the light winds east, to Los Tostigos and then on to Grenada, hoping that the winds would go more easterly and we could sail up the island chain. Of course that meant burning our cheap Ven. Fuel, but we didn’t have many other options.
We overnighted in Los Tostigos and continued using the iron genny until we pulled into the Lagoon, Grenada. There we stopped long enough to buy fuel, caught a few hours of sleep and then left, still motoring as we passed Union, Bequia, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, thinking we would stop in Martinique. By the time we were there, we were finally getting a little lift from the light east winds so we kept going. We finally anchored at 8pm in Deschaies, Guadaloupe on Dec. 5th. Next morning, more weather consultations and we determined we had one more day of good weather, before nasty 20+winds and squalls were expected. Up with the anchor and we set off sailing. The winds continued to be from the NE, but now we have done our easting, and our course is west of north to St. Martin.
We had been dragging fishing lines most of our trip, (except at night), so Ross set the fishing lines out as we were leaving Deschaies. Within 20 mins, Ross pulled in a small blackfin tuna…Lunch!! We reset the lines and continued sailing. As we passed a big commercial fishing trawler, both of our fishing clothes pin alarms went off. As we started to pull in the lines we figured the two lines had gotten twisted together, but we very quickly discovered we had two more tunas, they had escaped the trawler and come our way. We kept one and released the second one, to go back to school!! The winds we clocking and we enjoyed a beam reach the balance of the way to St. Martin, anchoring in Simpson Bay at dawn.
We checked in with the Dutch authorities, paid $10US for a week’s stay. Charges are levied for all boats in Simpson Bay and in the Lagoon. With the rough weather predicted, possibly the beginning of the Christmas winds, we decided to go into the lagoon on the 0930 bridge opening.
It had taken us one week to make the trip from Margarita, with 3 overnight stops (Los Tostigos, Grenada and Guadaloupe). Not the trip we had planned, but we now were only 100 miles from St. Thomas, and have three weeks to get there.

2007-11-15T13:04:00.000-05:00

Shakedown cruise to Porlamar November 2007

Picture: Happy hour at Juan’s Hutch (Sandcastle) and Frankie(Second Wind) beside Bev

After our exciting and exhausting land trips, it was great to be back into the more sedate boating life. Raft had done fine in the marina while we were away. It was now time to restart the refrigeration, refill the water tanks, (we left them superchlorinated while we were away), pay our marina bill and say our farewells to all our friends, whom are either staying in the Cariaco area or heading west.
Before leaving Ross had spent the week in the marina in Cumana getting the boat ready to go. We had been in Venezuela since July, and had done very little sailing in that time, plus RAFT had been at dock for over six weeks, all the systems needed to be checked. Fuel was scrubbed. Filters were changed. Batteries were topped up. Sails and rigging were checked, and retaped.
Friday morning looked like a good day to make the run to Polamar. The winds were supposed to be light for one more day and from the SE, afterward a week of higher trades were predicted. Up at 5:00 am to put the last minute lines, power cords & water hose away. Tuned on the computer to start the navigation system only to find that the inverter would not start up to power the computer. The battery monitoring system error code indicated that there was insufficient voltage and probably dirty contacts. We started to trouble shoot the system and within 30 min we had the problem identified and repaired. The isolation switch on the inverter had shorted out internally and melted the contacts. The solution was to remove the switch from the system until we can buy a new one. We will try in Polamar or up island.
Departed the marina at 7:00 am and headed north up the Arraya peninsula. 15 knots of breeze from the ESE. Wonderful sailing weather. As we reached the north end of the peninsula the winds increased to 22 knots but the waves were less that 3 feet and the sky was clear, so a good day for a sail. The water is less than 100 ft deep here and protected by the islands that lay to the east, Cubagua and Coche. Rounding the north end of the peninsula we began to get the full effect of the current and the winds switched the NE. Guess what direction we wanted to go. You guessed right, NE. RAFT does not travel well head to wind so we continued to tack off the wind for the next 4 hours, managing to make 4.5 miles of NE progress towards our destination 22 miles away on the Northwest side of Coche. After 3 tacks to windward we commented that we were breaking all the lessons we learned on the trip down about traveling to windward.
We decided to start the engine and motorsail to help with the progress. This lasted for about 30 mins when the engine quit. This was not a sputter and die, but an instant stop. Bev felt we must have picked up something on the prop. Checking the engine compartment we could see that the prop shaft was still turning, so this was not the problem. Checking the Primary Fuel filter revealed that the sediment bowl was clean and full, and that the filter was just as clear as a new filter because we had only pulled 1 hour's worth of fuel through the system. We checked the intake from the fuel tank and found that it was blocked. Blowing back through the supply line cleared the pickup tube but dirt was obviously present in the bottom of the tank. We rigged up temporary fuel supply lines from Jerry cans that we carry on deck and got the engine restarted. Luckily there was no air in the system so she started right up with the alternate fuel supply. We still had a long way to go but decided that it would better to sail and leave the Jerry can fuel system as a backup for our arrival.
Now it was 2:00 pm and the afternoon sun was increasing the wind velocity up to 28 knots. On one of our tacks the flogging jib sheet wrapped itself around one the dorade cowlings on the deck and tossed it overboard. Now we are short two because of the one that the kayak knocked off in Medragal Village. The boat looks better now that is symmetrical again. More parts to look for as we go up island. By 5:00 pm we were still 7 miles from Coche when we did a tack. The winds were still 23-24 knots and we had hoped that they would be dying down by now. Not so. As we tacked the back edge of the jib caught on one of the spreaders and tore the leech line out of the sail. We furled in the sail to prevent the winds from shredding it further. Time to go back to motorsailing with the main only. Given the wind and current situation we decided carry on to Isla Margarita rather than stop at Coche. We also knew we would arrive in the dark, and we had never been in that anchorage before, but knew the fisherman like to spread their nets around it.
Although the fuel system was temporary it should still allow us to motor up to the south coast of Margarita. Motoring into strong winds and current reduced our boat speed to under 1 knot for the first 2 hours of the trip. In fact at some point the GPS said we were going backwards. It was a tough uphill slug. By midnight we were north of Coche and 12 miles from Polamar. The winds began to drop to 15-18 range and the engine continued to run well. Our only concern was that we seemed to be using fuel at a faster rate than usual. We had topped up the 23 litre fuel can we were drawing from to make certain that we would not run out through the night. Normally this tanks should have given us 12 hours of motoring time but it was 3/4 empty after 6 hours. Not a good sign. Either we were burning too much or there was leak in my temporary fuel lines.
At 3:00 am we had rounded Mosquito Pt and were 6 miles from Polamar when Ross went down to check the fuel situation. He took one look at the Sediment bowl and could see that it was almost empty. The engine died just he called to Bev to shut the engine down before air was sucked into the fuel system. Too late. Now the system had be purged of air and refilled with fuel. Obvious we had some leaks in the temporary fuel system that allowed air to enter it. We pulled out the foresail part way to maintain steerage prepared to purge the fuel. Over the next 3 hours we purged the system twice. Getting the engine to run once for 10 minutes before it died again. During the course of the purging event, Bev was on the helm when a thunderstorm passed over us. Of course this brought the wind up from 12 knots to 25 knots instantly. Disrupting our purging process and blinding our visibility until the rain passed. After the storm, which lasted only 20 minutes, we were back to purging and sailing onward.
We finally reached Polamar at 7:00am. Dropped the anchor, had a beer and went to sleep until 2:00 pm. A 24 hour adventure that got us right back into sailing/traveling mode. Even with all our preparations for the first major/minor trip in a 4 months the Gremlins were still in fine form. We weathered it well.
Next day we took down the jib to be repaired. Borrowed extra jerry cans to store all the fuel. Bev dove on the boat to check and clean the prop. Ross would not let her do this in the marina in Cumana (foul water and stray electrical currents). She said the prop and shaft were heavily coated with barnacles and this obviously contributed to our slow motoring speed and higher fuel consumption. We opened up the fuel tank to clear out the sludge and dirt that had accumulated over the last 4 months (we did this job last in January and found it to be reasonably clean). We also have to go up the mast and re-inspect the rigging at the spreader to find out what the sail caught on. We suspect that it was a cotter pin that is protected by bits of carpet we have wrapped around the spreaders especially for this purpose. They probably have deteriorated over the last 3 years. Yep, we were right, new carpet was taped on, hopefully it will last the trip home.
The sail took a few days longer than Johnny the sailmaker promised, a few times we checked on it we were told, manana and tarde. But we did get the repair done satisfactorily. We finish our final shopping in Venezuela – beer, coffee, Chilean wine. Our US dollars are going much further now, but unfortunately there is less to buy…tough to find milk, flour,butter, etc

2007-11-05T10:32:00.000-05:00

Trek to Roraima October 2007
Walter met us at the airport, and confirmed to us that the bus to Santa Elena was an all night bus. While on the Angel Falls trip, we met a couple of younger guys who were backpacking/touring South America on the cheap. They had stayed in Santa Elena, and filled us in on where to stay, eat, get money changed. Etc. Also, the tour group that we shared the Angel Falls camp with, had done Roraima and loved it Best part was they didn’t look anymore fit than us. We made our decision, we had decided to head south to Santa Elena and give Roraima a go!!
We had farewell drinks with Pat and Miriam in their hotel (Valentina again) and then took a cab to the bus station. Of all the companies and times, we chose Occidental, 7:45pm to Santa Elena, thinking that would get us in early in the morning and we could figure things out from there. This trip was quite different. We were still in a Buscama, 2 storey edition, with lazyboy styled chairs, but no assigned seats. We chose to sit right above the stairs, no one directly in front of us to give us more leg room for the night. As expected it was cold, but we had long sleeved shirts, sweat shirts, long pants….and we still froze. Wish we hadn’t booked our sleeping bags in the luggage compartment. We got underway by :00pm and the first couple of hours were uneventful. However just south of Port Ordez, the bus was stopped by the Gardia National and all the passengers were required to get off the bus, and make two lines, male and female. Our passports were checked, and we were allowed back on the bus. At least 3 or 4 more times during the night the bus was stopped, soldiers with guns boarded the bus, sometimes checking passports, other times just looking at the passengers. Finally, about dawn, just north of Santa Elena, again we were stopped, and ordered off the bus. This time we had to claim our luggage and all bags were searched. At least this time, the Gardia National did give Bev a cup of coffee.
We were told that the GN was searching for illegal drugs and aliens trying to get into Brazil, and apparently in the past week, there were arrests made from these bus searches. We obviously had nothing to hide, but all of this military presence can be uncomfortable…or perhaps it should make us feel safer…but it didn’t.
We arrived in Santa Elena bus station and took a cab to Hotel Michele, which our backpacker friends said was the headquarters for the backpackers as well as the cheapest hotel in town, 30,000B for a clean double room (about $7). When we started to find out if there was a Roraima trip happening, this is when things bogged down. Apparently we were the only 2 people in town, at this time, who wanted to make the trek, and to be affordable the guides want 4 or more.
We figured we would stay in Santa Elena a couple of days, see if a group could be put together, and if not…c’est la vie…and we would head back to Cumina. Our backpacker friends had told us about the KILO restaurant, where you can get a great meal, cheap and we were hungry. The KILO restaurant is a large buffet, not all you can eat, instead they weigh your plate and you pay by the Kilo. Our lunch/dinner cost less than 20,000B ($5) for both of us, and we ate well. After eating, we returned to the hotel for a nap. We hadn’t gotten much sleep on the bus. We were sitting out in front of the hotel having a beer, about 5pm when one of the guides came to us with a proposition. He would agree to guide just the two of us, for a minor increase in price (100,000B more per person -- $50 for both of us).. This price was still very much in line with what we expected to pay, (1.6million B) and the B exchange rate was getting better each time we changed money. We had very little time to make up our mind, as this deal meant leaving the next morning. We agreed and starting packing for the trip. We would leave our extra stuff at Hotel Michele, and carry the bare minimum for the six day trip.
Day 1 – Friday
We were up early to go to the Indian market to buy fruits and treats for the trip. About 0930 we jumped into the 4 wheel drive vehicle for the 70km trip to the Indian Village (San Franciso)– Jaime’s, (our guide, pronounced Himy) hometown. From there we were off on the dirt road that winds its way to the Trek’s starting point. We ate a cold lunch (sandwiches) before setting off about noon. The sand path led up and down through the grasslands over a couple small streams. At the first stream Jaime insisted that we stop, wash our faces and ask Nature’s permission to enter, and provide us with a safe trip. This portion of the trail was 12 kms, relatively easy except for one very large uphill. We arrived at Rio Tek camp in the expected 4 hours.
We washed in the stream, while our dinner was made and our tent was set up. Jaime, and Alex (our porter) did all the work. With no power at the camp, once dinner was over, it was off to sleep on the ground in a tent….exactly what we wanted to get away from when we started boating. However we were comfortable, tired, and not cold at all. There was a beautiful full moon to compliment the night.
Day 2 – Saturday
Of course, we were up at dawn, and Jaime had breakfast of eggs and Harina de Mais Tosedos (cornmeal porridge – which we liked) ready for us. We were off on the trail by 0730, but only had a short trek to the second river, Kukenan, where we went for a swim, before continuing on. We walked past a pretty Catholic Church on top of a hill. A fantastic view point, and it can be seen for miles, only problem is very few people live in the area, so it is only used about once a year…what a waste. We continued on the path through the Sabana, and as we progressed the trail became more rocky and rough. We were quite tired by the time we made it to the Base camp about 2 pm. While we soaked our feet in the cold mountain stream, Jaime made us soup and tea…exactly what we needed. We had made it to the base of Roraima, and were camping under the shear cliff face.
After supper, we stayed up long enough to see if the Guacharo birds would come out of the caves at dusk. Unfortunately, no such luck, so it was off cheerfully to bed, knowing tomorrow would be our day to ascend Roraima !!
Day 3 – Sunday
We started up the "golden walk", slowly ascending Roraima from the Base Camp at 1870 m to the top at 2700 m in 2.5 km. We had to work our way across the jungle, to a crack, climbing up rock rubble. Unfortunately it is not all up, there were quite a few down legs, necessary to get over to the crack trail that led up. Every time you gave up elevation, it hurt, because you knew you would have to reclaim the loss. When the trail became tough, Jaime started telling us Indian folk stories, designed to take our mind off our hurting muscles and pass the time. They did work, but we also knew what the purpose of the stories was. We rested at the first lookout point, and the second lookout point. At this time, we wondered how many more lookout points we had to endure….By 1130 we were on top, and Jaime welcomed us to Roraima !! We relaxed, enjoyed the view and our accomplishment.
Roraima is not flat. It has no trees, only lots of large and small black rocks….very desolate looking. Almost a disappointment at first, until you start looking at what Roraima does have. She has many varieties of miniature flowering plants, indigenous tiny black frogs, veins of fully formed quartz hexagonal crystals. And it is windy and cold!! After a short break, we were off to our campsite…..Jaime promised us we would be sleeping in a cave. It took about another 40 minutes to walk to our side, called the Principle. Apparently there are 12 camping sites, the largest one accommodating 40 people. Each site is nestled under a rock ledge, giving rain and wind protection.
We said goodbye to Alex who was walking back to the village that day. He had brought all the foodstuffs up to the top of Roraima, and it was up to us to eat it all, or Jaime would have to carry it. There was lots of work for porters this week on Roraima . There were three large groups coming in, a film documentary crew from Caracas, a group from the National Geographic, plus a Japanese group which were being helicoptered up and were going to spend eleven days ontop. The Japanese group even had a generator brought up, and rappelling/ledge climbing professional and equipment ready for them. The porters were going up and down as fast as they could, taking advantage of this opportunity to make money. It appeared that only the very old and very young were left in the village, everyone else was packing up the trail.
After we made camp, and relaxed, we were off exploring the summit. First stop, the Jacuzzis for a swim. Erratic pools of clear water whose bottoms were littered with huge quartz crystals. Although the water was warmer than the mountain stream at the base camp, it wasn’t warm enough to entice us to go in. Only Jaime went in. We were using our raincoats to break the wind, and weren’t about to get wet. We slept well that night, in our tent, sheltered by our rock ledge.
Day 4 – Monday
We told Jaime, "no long hikes today" our old bodies needed to recoup after the past 3 days hiking. Jaime had mentioned going to the triple point, an 18 km hike to the geographic border of Brazil, Guyana, and Venezuela. We didn’t realize that all 3 countries share this tepuis mountain, but weren’t going to take on an all day hike to see the monument. Instead Jaime took us to the canyon where the Guacharo birds live. Here we saw the birds, and heard their screaming which reminded us of our earlier adventure to Caripe. Then he took us into one of the caves where the Indians had found gold dust, and diamonds. Of course, none can be found, and if they were, nothing can be taken from the mountain.
After lunch and a rest, Jaime insisted we climb to the highest point of Roraima, the roof of the maverick, which was very close to our campsite. Since we had come this far, we had to agree to go to the summit, and we were glad we did. After supper, we snuggled into our tent, and we were glad to be protected by our ledge, as nature put on a thunder/lightening and rain show all night.
Day 5 – Tuesday
We had been warned that Day 5 is the toughest day, even though most of it is down hill. We were expected to travel from the summit right back to Rio Tek (the distance that we had taken 2 days on the way up), and going down on the steep, rocky parts and the slippery muddy parts is difficult. Plus it had rained overnight, and the streams would be fuller. One advantage of the rain, the previous night, was the waterfalls off of the next tepuis, Kukenan were revitalized. One of Kukenan’s waterfalls is the second highest in Venezuela, but only exists after a rainfall.
Without Alexis, we had a slower start, not getting underway until 0800. The going down was tough. You had to be careful for every step, watching the rocks, roots, or slippery mud. Bev fell once, and fortunately only bruised her right knee. We were very tired when we got to the Base camp, fortunately before it really started to rain. After a short rest and lunch, we were on our way, across the Sabana. But the trail continually goes up and down, over hills and down to streams. At what had been our previous lunch spot, Bev laid on the warm rock, not wanting to go on, but Jaime once again insisted we must keep up the pace, as rain was once more approaching us. We joined a group of porters huddled in the shelter at the Rio Kukenan as the rain pelted.
The Rio Kukenan can be dangerous. During rain, it can flood quickly, and be impossible to cross. The previous year a porter was killed when a flash flood washed him down the river while trying to cross. Since our supper meal had been left at Rio Tek on the way up, we had to get across the Kukenan before it rose, or we would have no supper. Jaime helped us across the rising river, it wasn’t too high or strong yet. Rain continued to fall all the way to Rio Tek, and the waterfall off Kukenan Tepuis became more impressive. This waterfall feeds the Kukenan River we had just crossed.
Rather than sleep in the rain, on the wet mud, we decided to sleep in the shelter. Just before dinner we had seen 2 hikers leave Rio Tec for the Kukenan campsite, and after dinner 2 more porters had followed them. At dark we could see lights at the church, but we don’t know whether just the porters or all of the hikers couldn’t get across the river. We didn’t hear there were any problems, so guess all were safe.
Day 6 – Wednesday
Our final day on the trek. Jaime made "bakes" and they were excellent. Bev got the recipe, but will have to practise, as Jaime just makes them by feel. The morning was dry, so Ross and Bev took off ahead of Jaime. Jaime, is also the local medicine man, and one of the porters had fallen the day before and sprained his ankle, so Jaime wanted to tend to him before he left.
We knew Jaime was tired, this trip without porters was wearing him out. He had told us at the start that he was 51 years old and had made 386 trips up Roraima . His wife is expecting her 5th child (his 27th or 28th) in the next week. All week he ad continued to call on the walkie-talkie to make sure she was okay. But we were quite surprised that we beat Jaime to the Park office, the official end of the trek. But only by a very few minutes, we had seen him hurrying down the trail trying to catch us.
Jairo (Jaime’s partner in Aponwoa Tours) arrived soon after to take us to Jaime’s village for a great chicken bbq dinner. We can’t complain about the food on this trek…it was excellent, and more that we needed. After lunch we returned to Hotel Michele, and took long showers. We also took all our clothes to the laundry, and were happy to have them back clean later that afternoon (5 kg of very dirty laundry –25000B $6US)
Day 7 – Thursday
We were still very tired when we got up. After packing up our stuff, we headed off to the Panderia for breakfast and to get some snacks for the bus trip home, back to RAFT. Who did we meet there? Jaime!! But this time Bev brought him his drink. We changed some money, checked out of the hotel and went to the bus station to wait. The bus didn’t leave until 630pm, but the bus station was as good as place to wait as anywhere else. We wondered how many stops we would have on the northbound trip.
The Environmental/Park person searched our bags and tagged them. They said this would eliminate the need for the Garda National to do it. We were stopped, just south of Jaime’s village, but only passports were checked. The overnight bus was cold, but this time we kept our sleeping bag, and we both slept reasonably well. We arrived in Porta La Cruz by noon, caught a bus to Cumina and were home on RAFT by 4pm. It had been a great trip, but we were happy to be home.
In case you are interested, and we know some of you are…the trip from Cumina, to Angel Falls, to Santa Elena, to Roraima and back --- 5 million B’s (about $1200) --- Memories -- PRICELESS

2007-10-22T10:29:00.000-04:00

Angel Falls, Venezuela October 2007
Back to RAFT after a 3+ week family visit to Canada. With so many people we wanted to see, and others who wanted to see us, we were very busy. It was very enjoyable but we were happy to return to our quieter life on board. Our taxi driver, Miguel, was waiting for us at the Caracas airport at 0600 am and drove us to the Rodovias Terminal, to catch the next bus to Cumina. Being a weekday, there was much more traffic on both the run from the airport to the bus station, and along the road to Cumina. As a result we did not get back to the marina until 9 pm.
However, Mary and George from Avalon V were in the marina. They had opened RAFT’s hatches to air for us, and left cold beer in a cooler bag for our return. Boater friends are so fantastic!! RAFT had faired well in the marina while we were away. One dead cockroach, but no other obvious problems or creatures. Not sure if it was the ant bait, the boric acid or the Baygon spray, but one of these worked. Since we were planning to take off on land travels now, we "camped" out on board, not starting the fridge, or taking on food.
We visited the dentist, and both had our teeth cleaned and checked. This time the dentist had water. We had made appointments to see her before our trip home, but she was unable to do the cleaning due to "no agua", a common problem in Cumina. Ross has one cavity and will get it attended to when we come back from our land travel. Cost of check up and cleaning 95,000 B each (about $25).
Also in the marina were Pat and Miriam on Rhiannon 3. We were pleased to find out that they were in the process of booking a trip to Angel Falls, and we could go along with them. They had made the arrangements with Walter (speaks great English) from Sapito Tours (representatives of Bernal Tours). This company had been recommended to us from other boaters. Angel Falls is the highest waterfall in the world and we wouldn’t want to be this close and miss it.
We left Cumina on the 0700 Caribe Express bus for Cuidad Bolivar. (35,000B each) The trip went via PLC and then south through the oil fields around Le Tigre, and across the large suspension bridge over the Oronoco River. Being Sunday, the trip was fast, no traffic or construction, and we arrived in Cuidad Bolivar by 1 pm. Walter picked us up, helped us with a couple of errands and then took us to the airport where his office is. We had hoped to stay in Posada Don Carlos, but apparently it was full, so we stayed in Hotel Valentina, a nice clean hotel, quite close to the airport but a little expensive for cheap travelers like us. (115,000B)
After settling in at the hotel, we went for a tour of the town, walking down to the waterfront, seeing the bridge from the land side, and walked up to the church. Not much was open, no restaurants or stores. In fact things were very quiet. This was no surprise, we had been warned that if we arrived on a Sunday, nothing would be open. We took a taxi back to the hotel, getting the driver to stop at a local bar to get some cold beer, to go with our snacks we had brought with us.

Pictures: Suspension Bridge over Rio Oronoco, Inside the church in Cuidad Bolivar, Our Cessna at the airport, Bev, Miriam and Ross in Cessna, Views from plane, Five waterfalls across from Bernal Base Camp

Next morning, bright and early the taxi picked us up to take us to the airport (0700) to catch our flight to Canaima. Angel Falls is only accessible by air, there are no roads to the area. Our pilot ushered us onto the 5 passenger Cessna plane. Miriam and Bev were seated in the back, Ross in the middle, and Pat took the copilot seat. This was a first for all but Ross, who had flown in a small plane before. The views were magnificent, flying just under the clouds at 5000 ft, looking down on the rivers, trails, and one mining operation.
Once we arrived in Canaima, we were met by Jose, for the trip across the lagoon to the Brenel camp. Passing by five waterfalls on the way to the base camp in the motorized dugout canoe type boat, was our first taste of what was to come. At the Base Camp, we chose our hammock for the night and had lunch, before going on our afternoon hike to Saputo Falls. The most thrilling part of the trip was the passage under the falls. At times it was like a hurricane, incredible water shower, and noisy!! No trip like this would ever be allowed in Canada or the US.
Pictures: All of us in the motorized dugout canoe, Bev choosing her hammock, Bev on hike to waterfalls, Behind/under the falls, Bev getting shower on top of falls -- Pat watching, Rainbow over Saputo Falls

We hiked to the top of the falls, had a swim and then got to do the under the falls passage a second time…just as thrilling.
We ate well, and as darkness fell, we moved into our hammocks for the night. The hammocks were large and comfortable, each equipped with mosquito netting. It was cool that evening, and we were happy to have our sleeping bags with us. The camp does have blankets, but you have to ask for them.
Tuesday morning, and we are waiting for another group to arrive by plane, before we could start our river trip. The fortunate part of this, was that we got a truck ride to Ucaima, instead having to walk. Before we left the base camp, we had pared down our luggage, only bringing what we needed for the night, and packing it all in "dry bags". Although the boat operators, do cover the luggage with tarps, we had been forewarned that this keeps the bags dry from above only. The boat's bilge gets full of water, and things still get wet.
The boat ride up the river was fantastic. For 4.5 hours our driver, Joel, who is only sixteen, had to weave his way up the river, dodging rocks, racing up rapids, lifting the 48 hp motor to clear rocks. The bowsman had a paddle to help steer, and at times had to shove the boat off the shore or large rocks. The trip takes its toll on propellers, and if they damage 3, the tour loses money. When you looked back at Joel, you could see the concentration and determination on his face. He knew his job and he did it very well. Lunch was delivered on the boat ride, airplane style, ham and cheese sandwiches and cookies on a Styrofoam tray, Pepsi poured from a large bottle and passed forward.
When we reached the Angel Falls tributary, the boat discharged us on the shore at the edge of the jungle. Looking up we could see Angel Falls. We walked uphill through the jungle for about an hour, stopping first at the viewpoint, and then on to the base of the falls and the swimming pool. The rocks here were very slippery and the water quite cool, but Bev still went in for a dip into the pool. After all we are at Angel Falls!! We didn’t stay too long, as we were concerned about getting out of the jungle before dark. The sun was setting as we got to our pickup point, and it was getting dark by the time the canoe came to get us to take us to the camp across the river on Raton Island. Just a note about the jungle hike: trail is not really groomed, worn paths with lots of roots and rocks to watch out for and not to steep. We understand in the rainy season, the pool is overflowing so swimming is not allowed, also in the dry season, the falls are just a trickle and there is virtually no pool to swim in and the boats have difficulty maneuvering the river. We seemed to have timed our trip perfectly.
A great roast chicken dinner was prepared for us, and then it was off to bed in our hammocks, as the generator was running out of gas….lights out by 8pm or when the generator runs out of gas whichever comes first. We were sharing the camp with a group that was on a 16-day tour of Venezuela, about 16 in total. Add our 10 and it was a full camp, the hammocks were slung quite close so occasionally you did swing into your neighbour. This had a knock on effect similar to the little chrome ball desk ornaments that swing back and forth – thank you Sir Issac Newton. Blankets were provided, but we still used our sleeping bags, the night was cool.
As we awoke, the view of the falls was obscured by clouds/mist, but these burned off so we could have another beautiful view of Angel Falls before we left. We had an early departure, and once again Joel did a magnificent job of jostling the canoe down the rapids this time, weaving side to side across the river, much faster this time as the current was pushing us as well as the motor. It was as thrilling as a water park ride, water splashing all around and over us. "You will get wet on this ride!!" We stopped at Happy Pool, for a great shower, better water pressure than most homes have. Great back massage and it is FRESH WATER.
Back in the boat, shove off, and the motor won’t start. Fortunately we are in a quiet section of the river, so we drifted gently for about 40 minutes, as Joel, Jose and the bowsman, all took turns pulling on the recoil rope, adjusting idle/fuel mixture, changing spark plugs to no avail. Another canoe came to our rescue, and his driver tried his muscle and mechanical skill. Still would not start. Fortunately for us, the second canoe had a backup engine, which as all good boaters would do, he was willing to lend to us, minus its propeller. Joel quickly changed props and got our boat going with the back up motor and we were off and running.
Now we were running late for our flight. To save time, we were let off above the Sapo Hacha (hatchet falls) directly opposite the camp, and hurried down. As soon as we arrived, we were informed that the pilot was waiting. We quickly changed, and the camp prepared us a "to go" hot meal and we were rushed to the airport via dugout canoe. Well not really rushed, the guide did stop at the general store to buy cold drinks for us. We did miss the flight. But arrangements were made for the four of us (Pat and Miriam) to go back on two planes, one couple on each.
This time Ross and Bev sat in the second row, Bev directly behind the copilot’s seat and could watch the pilot at work, and land the plane….pretty exciting.

2007-10-15T12:38:00.000-04:00

Cruising the Golfo & Flight Home -- September 2007

Picture: can you see the Red Ibis?
The next weekend, we went with the group, to the east end of the Golfo, where the Rio Cariacou enters. We dingied, and kayaked up the river, where the scarlet ibis live. These birds are a bright, almost fluorescent scarlet, definitely not camouflaged in the mangrove trees where they roust. Also up the river is a derelict shrimp farm. the ponds where the shrimps used to breed were huge, probably covering a couple hundred of acres.

Pictures: Shrimp farm -- water pumping system, old ponds, Ross gunholing in the river

With Aubrey and Judy (Velada IV) we toured the small town, Muelle de Cariacou, another fishing village, but not so isolated, as it is on the main road between Cumina and Cariacou.
More info about our time in Muelle de Cariaco, and Laguna Grande: see Velada IV's blog http://www.searoom.com/veleda/logsec14/veleda4-log44J.htm

We returned to Medregal on Sunday for a possible final domino game, swim and dinner. Monday we paid our tab, and headed off to Laguna Grande. There Bev received a lesson on how to find scallops, clams and other edible shellfish while snorkeling. Not exactly Bev's favourite food group, but Ross should enjoy the adventure and the dinner afterward. She had a second chance the next day, when Rhiannon joined the group, another set of Canadian boaters we hadn’t seen since Antigua. And it was on that snorkel, Bev got to see her first whale in the wild, swimming and blowing in the Laguna. She was so excited…just wish Ross had been there, and that we had been able to take a photo. The whale had entered the Laguna, and was blowing as it swam back and forth in the main channel. At one time, it surfaced and its back and tail were above the surface. Don’t know what kind of whale it was, but from her vantage point in the dinghy, it looked quite large.
Picture: Beautiful Laguna Grande

It is now time to head to Cumina, to get RAFT settled in the marina, and ready to leave for the trip home to Canada. We were given our "old" slip next to Don Carlos, and reacquainted ourselves with the skipper of the charter fishing boat. Explaining in our broken Spanish, that RAFT would be his neighbour for a month, we tied the attached RAFT’s stern line to Don Carlos.
Picture: Cumina Marina

After completing our tasks and farewell drinks, we off to Caracas. We had purchased our tickets a couple days before our departure date, and walked over to the bus station, early to catch the Rodovias Bus. The lazyboy styled seats are assigned when you buy the ticket, we were on the upper level, and it wasn’t as cold as everyone was prepared for. Most of the countryside is flat, skirting in and away from the coast, on good highways. The bus stopped for lunch at a busy roadside restaurant area. After that we entered the more mountainous area, with deep green valleys, becoming more picturesque as we approached Caracas. We were slightly concerned about dealing with a busy city bus terminal and were pleasantly surprised to find out that Rodovias has its own very clean, modern terminal.
Outside we easily found a taxi to take us to Catia La Mar (100,000B), about a 30 minute very pretty drive, on a freshly paved expressway, with a couple of modern tunnels through the mountains. The driver had to ask directions to find La Parada, the hotel which Louis, the travel agent had booked for us. They had our reservation, and the young man on the front desk spoke excellent English, having gone to school in Chicago. Our room was small, but spotless, air-conditioned, and had a large private bath, with modern glass and ceramic shower stall. The cable TV even had about 5 English channels including CNN. Since it was Sunday, the hotel restaurant was closed, but they were willing to drive us to another one, no additional charge. We weren’t hungry, but we did want to see if we could get the Polar Beer cans with the attractive ladies on for our son. Could they direct us to an open liquor store? No problem, their driver would take us there and bring us back. We asked about walking….but they preferred their guest to take the ride, to ensure their safety. The town didn’t look that rough, in fact looked quite nice, but we took the complementary ride anyhow. The hotel staff was quite attentive to all our needs, wake up call and transportation to the airport early the next day, less than 10 min. away. Price, a little higher than expected, 180,000B but we all know that airport hotels get a premium.
Flight home to Toronto, via Houston, no problems. Watch for our return in October.

2007-10-01T11:55:00.000-04:00

Playing in the Golfo -- September 2007

After Dean came Tropical Storm Felix. Although only expected to be a tropical storm, we decided to move RAFT into the lee of Guacarapo, not taking any chances. During Dean, the boaters who had remained at Medregal had experienced some heavy west winds and lots of bouncing. And the night before we anticipated Dean’s influence, had been very rocky, the worst it had ever been, claimed the Medregal "regulars".
Guacarapo is a small fishing village about seven miles down the Golfo, and protected from the west by a long sand spit. The village doesn’t offer very much, a few small shops and bars, but it does have "por puesto" access to Cariaco, if you need to get to the larger town. We anchored off the town with about 4 other boats. Being the weekend the locals were enjoying themselves, the children were jumping and swimming off the "town dock", cars were driving the "strip" and the music was thumping. There even was school road race running and all the town’s folk were cheering on the kids.
The next morning birds squawking were disturbing our morning coffee. Through the binoculars we ascertained that a large flock of green parrots were arguing in the trees on the east side of the bay. We explored further by dinghy. These were large green parrots, more than we had seen on our parrot expeditions in Dominica and Grenada.
Pictures: Boat Parade -- Festival of the Virgin Valle

The first weekend in September is the festival of the Virgin del Valle. The small town just to the east of us, Los Cachicatos, was written up in the cruising guide as having a big celebration. We went down by dinghy, early in the weekend to check out the venue, and to find a place to land the dinghy, in anticipation of returning later. The town people had strung streamers, set up a couple of band stages, and decorated their homes with paper and plastic flowers. Unfortunately for 3 of the 4 festival days, there was just too much wind and rain in the afternoon to dinghy down and check it out. The final day, Sunday, was beautiful, warm and calm, but we wasted the opportunity enjoying the Medregal’s pool. We did see the fishing boats, decorated with balloons and streamers, loaded with partygoers, many carrying their own Virgin statue, heading down to the village. Even a large Garda Coasta boat was decorated and participating in the boat parade.
By mid September a new group of boaters had shown up in the Golfo. We had sailed with many of this group in the Bahamas and Dominican Republic and hadn’t seen them since spring of 2006. As veterans of the Golfo anchorages and Medregal Village we became tour guides.

Pictures: Ross sitting on cooler on bus, entrance to caves, Bev and stalagtite/mite, Our guide, guide holding fledging too fat to fly, group at end of cave

We arranged to have a bus trip to the caves in Caripe, recognized as some of the largest caves in the world. In the caves live the local guarcharo birds, actually about 18,000 of these nocturnal birds, which squawk as the guide's lantern slightly lit up the caves. The stalactites and stalagmites were fantastic. Plus the 3 hour trip each way through the mountainous countryside was very enjoyable. Another highlight of the trip was the fresh strawberries and cream in Caripe.
Pictures: our group, Linda (Sandcastle) & Paul (Vixon) behind guide, Bev and Ross, Jeanie & Bob (Island Dreamin') Denise (Vixon) Hutch (Sandcastle) Judy& Aubrey (Velada IV), Sephanie (Stephanielyn)
For a more descriptive detail of our day’s adventure check out Valeda IV’s site http://searoom.com/veleda/logsec14/veleda4-log44J.htm

2007-08-29T21:38:00.000-04:00

Cruising the Golfo de Cariaco August 2007

Pictures: RAFT and Drumbeat at anchor in Laguna Grande, Mike, Marlene and Bev hiking

Now that we have found our summer home our next priority was to make arrangements for our trip back to Canada in September. Usually arranging our flights is no big deal, we just check things out on the internet and book the flights, paying by credit card. But in Venezuela there is one big difference: to take advantage of the exchange rate differential (as discussed in Venezuela General Info July 2007) we needed to pay for our flights in Bolivars. However we did not have sufficient Bolivars or even American cash with us and even if we did it is hard to stuff them in the computer. Jean Marc in Medregal had a contact who will cash cheques in Carupano, but JM only goes there once a week, and we figured making our arrangements would take more than one visit. We decided to head to Cumina, a city at the west end of the Golfo, to see how we would make out.
Picture: Old and new towers, one for spotting fish, the other for modern communications.

The marina in Cumina, Marina Cuminagato, is a basic marina, but has finger docks, fuel (most of the time) and offers free water, electricity and wifi is available at most slips. For us it costs 22,500 B per night (about $6 US). Once we were in our slip, we were met by Alexis, who speaks English, French and a few other languages. He gave us the name of a travel agent who speaks English and should be able to help us. Of we went by local bus (800B about 25cents) to downtown Cumina to see him. Arranging the flights –no problem—but Luis wasn’t going to help us with our cash arrangements. It was then suggested we visit the local business where the owners spoke great English. Theyd agreed to accept a wire transfer, and then release the B’s to us. 24 hours later, we had our airline tickets in hand, RAFT full of diesel, water, market shopping complete, interneting and skyping done and we were ready to head back out into the Golfo.
We were heading for Laguna Grande, and this time we knew Dreamtime and Paridise were there to keep us company. We hiked, kayaked, and dinghied around this impressive basin, exploring all the little bays. (The pictures only start to show the desert beauty of this anchorage). And then came Dean…and we had no worries, knowing no weather issues could hurt us here.
Pictures: Bev kayaking in Laguna, various beautiful views, Ed and Manuela (Dreamtime and Paridise) putting their "rocks" on the summit pile

Once Dean had passed, we had been joined by Avalon V, our sailing companions from Trenton Ontario, whom we have been sailing with since the Bahamas. George and Mary had shown us the way in and out of West Caicos, Luperon, and Grenada. But it was their first time in the Golfo so it was great to be their tour guide, leading them from Laguna Grande to Medregal, and then back to Cumina.
We have been playing with dolphins, every time we sail up and down the Golfo. You can count of being entertained by a couple or a lot more. We have seen up to thirty at a time, but other boats have reported more. All of our friends have also seen a whale, up close, but we have not yet had that experience. They say you have to get into the middle of the bay….we usually have been on the north side. But now we have a mission…..We want to announce on the radio "There she blows!!"

Pictures: Laguna Chico, a small fishing village on the north side of the "Golfo" with bar and dance floor, afternoon storm clouds passing over most afternoons

2007-08-28T21:26:00.000-04:00

Medregal Village August 2007
We have found our summer home, Medregal Village and Marina, on the Northern coast of the Golfo de Cariaco. To us it is everything we have been looking for, a safe anchorage in about 12 feet of water, 15 boats to keep us company, great dinghy docks, and the owners Jean Marc & his wife, do everything to keep the cruisers happy. Jean Marc speaks English, French and Spanish, offer free water, and an honour system bar. The pool and showers are available to us. He drives his old Landrover to different towns and for a small fee takes cruisers where they need to go, ie for shopping, parts etc.. They have just installed a travel lift, so are now hauling boats. There are no slips, but we don't like being at dock anyhow. Talking to the other boaters, they are telling us about all the day trips you can do from here, by boat, dinghy or land...to see caves, birdwatching, desert hiking...lots of places to go, things to see, all from this safe location. Sounds like heaven to a cruiser.

Pictures: Loading Jean Marc's van at Cariaco market
the chicken lady selling her goods -- now that's fresh!!
The Golfo de Cariaco is 35 miles long, about 8 miles wide....with only one entrance to the Caribbean about 2 miles wide at the west end at Cumina. It reminds us of lake sailing, except of course the water is salty. Medregal Village, is about 2/3rds of the way down the length. The Araya Peninsula is very mountainous, so we are well protected from any adverse weather coming from the south, east and north.

2007-08-08T20:34:00.000-04:00

Tortuga, Venezuela July 2007
We really enjoyed our stay on Blanquilla and now we are off to another deserted sand island, Tortuga. Fine white coral sand that makes all ou pictures look out of focus because of the shimmering heat rising it. Only things here are the Guardacoasta Station and the fish huts. This island is a rich & famous haunt for the mainland crowd. A small airstip was built some years ago (very narrow -- 15 -20 feet). The affluent mainlanders fly out in private planes and helicopters for a day at the beach with coolers and umbrellas in tow. On the Saturday we arrived, three planes just as we were anchoring, and the next day, Sunday, three more planes and two helicopters. Nobody stays overnight, they all leave before dark because there are no lights on the airstrip and it gets very dark. Once the weekend tourists leave, we are alone in the harbour with 6 other boats.

Our time in Tortuga is being cut short due to weather. Both Chris and Eric do not have a handle on the tropical wave which is developing in the Atlantic, not sure whether it will or not develop into a closed low system. The problem we have, is that if a low does develop, (no one expecting a named storm or hurricane), we could experience some strong west winds and seas. Unfortunately these out islands don’t offer much protection from west winds, so we will enact our hurricane strategy….run south!! We are only 70 miles north west of Cumina and the mouth of the Golfo de Cariaco. This large bay is south of 11 degrees latitude, and has many well protected anchorages.
We set off at 1pm anticipating light winds on the nose, expecting to motor into light seas and stronger current. Figured we would average 4 knots and arrive at Cumina by dawn. Of course that didn’t happen, within an hour we had northeast winds 25knots and we were doing 7knots, and if that continued we would be in the Golfo at 3am. We slowed our progress, and the winds died as well, so ultimately we did have light to find the golfo entrance and motor to Laguna Grande. When we found that we were the only boat in that large bay, we continued on to Medregal Village, (Photo Page)where we knew we would find company.

2007-07-30T20:19:00.000-04:00

Juangriego-Blanquilla, Venezuela July 2007
Juangriego
Having completely filled all the lockers on RAFT, it was definitely time to get out of Porlamar, quit shopping and get on with exploring. We motored east, past Pompatar, which we could see this time, no haze, and then sailed up the east coast of Margarita island, past all the resorts and beautiful sand beaches to Juangriego. This is a quaint fishing village, quite the opposite to Porlamar. Although there are lots of touristy shops. We toured the fort, mainly just a scenic view point and the boat building factory. The guys there we great, letting us look around, take pictures, even took a tarp off a big Caterpiller diesel engine so I could take a picture for Ron, Bev’s brother in law who works on Cats in Canada.
Next day: off to Blanquilla, a small fishing island 50 miles north of Margarita. The only people who live here are fisherman and "guarda". so why are we here? ... to get away from everything Porlamar is...shopping, traffic, noise, city lights. Here the beaches are so beautiful, certainly rival any we have seen in the Bahamas and the Virgins. The water is so clear, you can watch the gurnard crawl along the bottom in 25' of water. We can snorkel right off the boat. And at night, the stars are fantastic, even saw a shooting star and there is lots of phosphorescence in the water.
We had a great day sail from Margarita island here. Early in the day the winds were light and from the south east (stern quarter). Ideal conditions for our spinnaker (light nylon colorful sail) which we hadn't used since we left Canada. Our inexperience showed when Bev mishandled the sheet and got a rope burn on her right hand. Really our first onboard accident. Now before everyone gets worried, we have lots of prescription antibiotic cream onboard she is using this "hurt' as an excuse not to do her usual household chores, so Ross gets to cook and clean. She can still manage the helm, type one handed, but will baby herself for a couple of days.
We are basically anchored on the the west side of the island hiding from the tradewinds. When we were in Margarita we were out to the "Trade Wind" belt. Now that we are back north we are back into steady east winds blowing 10-15 knots, no roll so very comfortable. Blanquilla has white sand beaches mixed in with granite outcrops. Looks a little like a moonscape with the craggy bits. The sand is very powdery and very comfortable to walk on. There are about 12 boats in the anchorage, all sail except one large fishing boat (Wooden 60 ft long.) This is the mother ship that all the local fisherman bring their catch (average around 25 fish a day per boat) to and then weekly they return to Margarita to sell the catch. This is the type of boats we saw being built in Juangriego.

The local fisherman only fish when the big boat is here as they have no way to store the caught fish. Once a day the small boats pull up to the mothership and off load their catch. Because Blanquilla has only a small fishing village, we have only seen about three different boats come along side. The mothership has a crew of five who don't seem to do much all day long and even less at night. The boat is in complete darkness-no music day or night. One guy cooks and four tend to lounge around on the deck waiting for the local fisherman to return. Wedon’t know whether the motherships are part of a national (gov't) operation or private. I suspect national to help the local fisherman get their product to market as this whole Agro Economy is subsidized by cheap fuel ($0.03 per litre) to keep the cost of food down. Anyway I digress.
These fisherman which are always touted as being the source of the "we Cruisers" problem. We anchored beside this boat the day the we arrived which was late in the afternoon on Saturday. During the night at 2:30 am we bumped into the mothership. We were more concerned than them but it brought all of us on deck, we let out some more rode so hopefully that would solve the problem. We thought they would be upset with us, but the next morning after we re-anchored the fishermen were all smiles and nods.
Later that afternoon two of the crew were dispatched to our boat and we both though that now we were going to hear something about interfering with their operation or that we had damaged their boat in the night. These were the type of ploys we had been told to watch out for. What they wanted after much pantomime was a to see if we had replacement brass fitting for the pressurized gas system on their boat. I rummaged through my stores and found a some partial pieces that could get them started but were not a direct match. Off they went to other boats to try and find a replacement. At 5:00 pm on our way to another boat for Sundowners they call us over to say that they got system working and here were the parts that I gave them back. We thanked them and carried on to "Dreamtime" for drinks. On our way home from "Dreamtime" they waved us back to the mothership again. This time was to present us with a 10-12 lb Tuna to thanks us for trying to help them. Looks like we will have sushi for happy hour today. Off course Ross had to clean this in the dark last night because it would not fit in the fridge whole. Bev's hand injury strikes again.
Other activities we managed to fit into our week here: dinghy picnic to Americano Bay – absolutely beautiful, must be seen, pot luck on the beach where we cooked a 36" Barracuda on a fire and shared with all the boaters (another gift from the fishermen), plus a day exploring the south bays and fiords, where once again we ended up anchoring among all the fishing boats.

Pictures: Americana Bay iguana, coral fossils, rock bridges Last Picture: unusual rock formation weathered into girl like statue, south coast of Blanquilla

2007-07-20T22:28:00.000-04:00

Venezuela General Info July 2007
We are really enjoying Venezuela. However if you plan to visit here, there are a few things you should know before you arrive.
Money Exchange
The official exchange rate (Up to date Info at Veneconomia site)at the bank is 2200 B per 1 US, but the are many people/businesses who will exchange US$ at 3500 B. Big difference. they want larger bills ($20 min, $50-100 bills even better), and there are also places who will take a personal cheque, $500.00 minimum drawn on an American bank, and some have an American acct that you can wire money into, and still give you the higher exchange rate. So what this means, is bring as much US cash in larger bills that you can get your hands on, before you arrive here. You need to ask around to find the money exchangers, but it isn’t all that difficult. You don’t want to use the ATM’s because they only exchange at the official rate.
Things you cannot buy get here:
peanut butter, butter, white sugar, pancake syrup, batteries -- we have been trying to get 6volt ones, unsuccessfully, BBQ lighters. Eggs are only available in the small markets.
Picture: Diesel being delivered to RAFT
Pricing:
Beer is 800-1000B a can, Chilean wine is good value, Vene. wine was cheap and okay. Rum is 5000-10000 B per 750 ml ($2-$3) Gas/diesel so cheap, less than $.30 a gallon delivered to your boat. Water is available delivered to your boat in Porlamar or jerry jug from Juan (.10 per gallon).
In general, if you pay the official rate, most other things in Venezuela cost about the same as in US or Grenada. It is when you get a good deal on your exchange, that you see great savings.
Juan charges $70 US or 210000B to do the check in, therefore you are better to change your money before you do your check in. Nearly everyone still uses Juan, but there are some complaints that it is too expensive, and now you can do it yourself, but it still is a fair amount of work.
Taxi's are cheap...10000 to 15000B for most rides, we never did take the buses, although there are many in Porlamar. Happy hour at Juans after 4pm, starts earlier on Friday. There were over 100 boats in the harbour. Sigo’s (a very large grocery/department store/mall runs a free bus from Juans every Mon, Wed, and Fri.
We have had no problems with security, Porlamar is relatively safe, However we had security bars made for our hatchway and are using them at night, and always raise and lock the dinghy. These will go missing regularly if not well secured, or if left at dock after dark.

2007-07-11T07:51:00.000-04:00

Los Testigos, Venezuela July 2007

PICTURES:

Momma Leatherback turtles buried in the sand, laying their eggs. (taken with 2 different cameras) Tracks from ocean to nesting spots, Ross measuring track width -- up to 80" wide. We estimate these turtles to have shells 3-4' long, weigh 400+lbs.
Northern ocean beach where turtles came ashore
Downwind sailing, it is hard to believe, that we have finally made the time on our adventure that we are venturing west….and the winds behaved themselves and were on the stern quarter and sometimes right from behind as we made our passage from Grenada. It was a lovely sail, under the full moon. We got underway about 5 pm, a group of 4 boats leaving Prickley Bay, and another group of similar size leaving St. George’s. The wind was very pleasant 15 knots, and we were doing about 6 knots with reefed sails. The current came and went, but really wasn’t an issue, we just sailed east of our rhum line so we could let it take us, if it wanted. Once we approached Los Testigos, the current certainly did pick up, and was pushing us towards west towards the islands, as we wove our way into the central passage. We anchored in front of the Guardacosta station by 9am. Check in was very easy, and we were given permission to stay until Monday (arrived on Thursday). We reanchored off Playa Real, rested for a short while, before going over to walk on the beautiful beach.
Navigational note: If you are using the Doyle/Fisher guide, 2002 edition, chartlet on page 70. The way point off I. Noreste 11 25.0N 63 02.0W puts you dangerously close to the island, especially with the easterly trade winds, easterly swell, and west setting current, all encouraging an unexpected visit which after an all night sail is the last thing you need. We had to adjust our course southerly.
Friday morning, after a wonderful hike around Testigo Pequeno, we moved the boats just north of Isla Langoleta, in preparation for our noctural turtle expedition. We walked over the sand dunes, and waited under the full moon, hoping we would get to see the Leatherback turtles laying their eggs.
We had been waiting from sunset (7pm) and about 10 pm we were just about ready to give up, when we discovered that the moms had decided to use the next beach to the east, and one was buried in the sand. We sat for the next 3 hours and 2 more big mommas waddled up out of the sea surf, proceeded to dig a hole, larger than their own diameter about 1-2 ft deep using only their flippers, drop their light coloured eggs, and then meticulously bury their important treasures. It was fascinating. These turtles are about 4 ft in diameter, probably weigh 300-400 lbs. Their flippers look as long as our arms. With the full moon it was easy to see them against the white sand background.
We went back to the beach area the next day, took pictures and measured the tracks. We also discovered that three more turtles had come to the beach last night after we left. They seemed to arrive around High tide which makes sense since it is a shorter distance to the high water mark, above which they lay their eggs. Hauling that bulk about soft sand must be a real chore for these moms. The total time out of water was about 3 hours. We found out from another boater, who had been on an organized trip that the turtles lay both fertilized and unfertilized eggs (30%), about 120-150 in each nest. The unfertilized ones act as space makers in the nest so the baby turtles will have room to dig themselves out. The fertilized eggs are light brown coloured and the spacemakers are white. One of the nests that was laid the night before was deposited too close to the surf and unfortunately the high tides accompanying the full moon, washed it open. We measured the span of the fore limbs on the turtle we saw the night before from the tracks. The largest one left tracks 80" wide, another was 72". They look like ATV tracks in the sand.
Bev got to go turtle watching again the next night. That was after we had our first Venezuelan beer in the only local bar (actually the porch of the owners' home) with the cruisers in the anchorage. Beer was 2000 Bolivar (less than $1 US) which is an outrageous price we were told, as it is usually 700 B in Margarita Island. But is was cold, served in a can, on a plastic patio table....who can complain. We actually didn't even pay, because we don't have any Bolivars yet!! Some of the other cruisers, who had been to Venezula before and had B's, picked up the tab.
After our liquid refreshment, 12 of us went back to the sand dunes to wait for the turtles. Another beautiful night, full moon, and a fresh, warm Caribbean breeze. We waited until about midnight before the first Mom lumbered out of the sea. Then we watched for an hour while she chose her spot, dug her hole, laid her eggs and buried them. No other moms had arrived, and the group decided to let her return to the sea in peace, so we departed. Ross, Mike, and another Dutch boater were our water taxis for the night, and dutifully came when called.
Next morning Bev woke briefly at 0630 to check the SSB weather, find out nothing has changed and no "bad" stuff is headed our way, and then slept soundly until 0900. Two late nights in a row, had tired us out!! We were sitting having coffee when we started to hear a lot of chatter on the VHF radio, the coast guard was being called in Spanish and some French, but really weren't paying much attention. Then Bruce on R Phurst called Drumbeat (Mike and Marlene). Bruce had left about 0830 heading for Margarita Island, so we expected he was just calling back a wind/sea report. No, Bruce was diverting his course, to heading north toward a motorboat (3 miles further north and 10 miles from Los Testigos) that was on fire, and would we make sure that the coast guard was aware of it. We could see the plume of gray smoke from RAFT. Next we saw about 4-5 guys running with gas cans and jumping into one of the larger open island boats, about 22 ft long with double outboard motors (75+). The boat took off right away with one motor, and with a little persuasion (maybe some gas) the second one fired up. Seeing this, plus M&M checking with the fishing boat anchored beside us, it was determined that the coast guard and locals knew and were responding.
Bruce called back to say that he had rescued 3 persons from the sea and that the local boats had picked up one. He transferred his 3 to a local boat, and that he was continuing his trip to Margarita island. Hopefully someone there will give him the hero's welcome he deserves. Once the local boats returned, things got much quieter. Fortunately there were no injuries, but the powerboat is burnt down to the waterline and left to drift at sea. More garbage to avoid in the night.

Pictures: Local fishing boats, Bev and Ross enjoying the wonderful setting
All this before we had time to make breakfast!! Today being Canada Day, we are celebrating by raising our large Canada Flag (thanks Sheila Copps) on the flag halyard, and installing a new smaller flag on the stern flag pole. (All our flags fade and fray due to the constant exposure to sun, wind and salt.) Fortunately, the summer we were home we were able to get quite a few on sale at Canadian Tire after Canada Day, and still have a couple left.
Monday, as dictated by the guardiacoastal, we left Los Testigos, reluctantly. It is a lovely group of isolated islands, with wonderful people, and unless you have a boat, you won’t get to see them. We were enjoying a very pleasant sail enroute to Margarita Island, when we were surrounded by a pod of dolphins. Our special good luck sign.
Did someone ask about fishing?? Once we had cleared the islands, we did start dragging our two lines. All morning long, not much was happening. Just after noon, we could see the mountains of Margarita Island rising from the haze. As we were approaching Pompatar, Bev was contemplating bringing in the lines. A noise like a gunshot surprised us, and once we figured out what is was, we realized the entire fishing system on the port side was missing…the bungie cord shock absorber had broken, the 80 pound test line had broken, 250 feet of line was gone, as well as the lure. Even the clothespin alarm tied to the lifelines with dental floss was missing. We consoled our loss by realizing the one that got away was definitely too big for us!!
We continued on and anchored in Porlamar – affectionately known as Rollamar with about 100+ other boats. Another boater came around, he had been fishing on his way over, and was offering us wahoo. He had caught and landed a 50 pounder, and was very willing to share his prize. So we got to eat fish, despite our loss.
We expect to stay in Porlamar for a couple of weeks. This is the shopping meca of Venezuela, so let the shopping begin!!

2007-07-10T16:53:00.000-04:00

Grenada June 2007

Picture: Ross using cockpit table as a work station to take 4 hp apart.

Back in Grenada, it seems like "home"!! However with the exception of Sea Witch, most of the boats are new to us. But we are in Grenada with a purpose….get some work done, have some fun, and get ready to head for Venezuela.

Work list: Improve security on RAFT and dinghy….new locks, dinghy chain, "bars" on companionway
Get 4 hp motor welded -- the controller arm had broken off the main aluminum casting
Service gib winches -- salt water had welded the winch to the base plate, but PB Blaster and a lot of arm wrestling got them free. Ross was then able to dig out the drainage holes, and greased them, so hopefully they won’t weld together again.
New sewage discharge pipe on head (not on original list, but when split got priority treatment)
Fix drain from head sink (not on original list, but broken when trying to install sewage pipe)
Check and changed fuel filters – the motor trip around the south end of Grenada was very choppy as usual, so shook up the diesel in the tank.
Clean dinghy
Replace lost water jug and bought a extra gas jug
Clean head after shaving cream can rusted through and spurted cream on vanity and sink
Of course there were a lot of things on the work list that just didn’t have high enough priority to be completed, and sooner or later will need to be attended to.

Fun: Hash x2 -- were able to do 2 hashes – one at Mount Carmel and the other north of Victoria. First one very easy, last one really tough, but both very enjoyable.

Rogers BBQ – revisit Hog Island -- Rogers has installed "waterside" deck, picnic tables, & benches -- major development for his "restaurant" But Roger hasn’t changed!!

Pictures: Ross and Bev after Hash, Roger's new "look"
Not much change to Hog Island, except cleared "road" on island to where bridge is intended. Local people very upset with govt. Apparently nothing is finalized with Four Seasons re development.

Pictures: Hog Anchorage still as pretty as ever, Wrecked fishing boats still there, destruction of island

Get ready to go to Venezuala
Determine weather window to leave
Check out
Fill up with water, fresh foods
Spend all our EC’s -- did last minute shopping, didn’t have enough EC’s so had to use VISA, so l left with a few EC’s
Say goodbye to Grenada and our friends

Having done all the above, the departure date was set: 1700 on June 27th -- we were heading for Los Tostigos, Venezuela on a new continent…..a new adventure for us!!

2007-06-14T14:53:00.000-04:00

Fishing and SSB Radio Communications June 2007

Cruising lingo:
Newbies: Cruisers who are on their first trip down the island chain
Reruns: Those cruisers who have spent at least one summer out
So we are Reruns. The advantage of being a rerun is knowing basically where you can get things, as evidenced by our shopping in the various islands, and having lots of boat friends in many places. Nearly every anchorage we enter, we know someone, or they have seen or heard of us. Over the past three years we have met probably over 200 boats, and have 135 boat cards to show for it. Note to would be cruisers: Make up boat cards before you leave home…you will go through a lot!! And over the past 3 years, our boat friends are certainly spread out, as far as Tahiti, nearing the Azores, and many have returned to their homes in Canada and the States. We use the internet to follow many of their adventures, as well as emails and the SSB radio.
Currently we have friends travelling off shore to the USA and to the Azores, and we have been talking directly with them. It is quite fascinating that we are able to talk to North Carolina, the mid Atlantic and Venezuela all through the SSB radio. We listen to Herb, from Burlington on 12359 at 1530 to hear the boats check in for weather and guidance as they make their offshore trips. Our good friend Calaloo, who we were with most of last summer is working their way to the Azores and it is great to follow their progress.

Pictures: our Tuna and Kingfish

We had been travelling a lot this year with Vixon. Paul and Denise are great fishing people. Motivated by their successes, we decided to buy a couple more lures, and put our lines back in the water. It is true that how successful you are at catching fish is directly proportional to the amount of time your try, and you will definitely not succeed if you aren’t dragging a line.
We proved the statistics are right. We dragged lines on all our sails since Antigua. Ron did get a barracuda, which we did not keep. We were 2.5 miles north of St. Lucia when our "clothes pin" alarm sprung, under full sail doing 5.5 knots. Fishing while sailing requires some planning, as we have heard of boats being so excited about their fishing that they to go onto reefs, as they were bringing in their fish. So we luffed the sails to slow us down, brought in the second line, then dealt with the fish. We were surprised to see we had caught a tuna. It was 22" long, and about 8 pounds. We were able to use our old fishing net to pull it in, lashed the net & fish to the front deck and we continued our sail into Rodney Bay.
Having seen other boats clean their fish in a garbage bag, on their foredeck with lots of pails of sea water, we followed suit, and had a couple of meals of fish to enjoy for our efforts. It was so exciting, to finally have caught our supper!!
Leaving Tyrell Bay, we once again were setting out our lines. But before we even had the second line set, we had a "big hit" on the first one. We still had the motor on, hadn’t even let out the jib, so we could concentrate on the fish, as Otto steered us away from the anchorage. We hauled in a 30" Kingfish (or King Mackeral), guess about 12 pounds. Our limited fishing gear doesnot include a weigh scale, but that is only required for bragging rights. We lashed it to the stantchion, and continued our sail to Grenada. We decided we were done fishing for the day, one fish is enough. Once we were in the lee of the island, we cleaned it and filled the freezer with yummy steaks!!
So now we are back in Grenada, our summer home last year, and it feels great to be back.

2007-06-14T14:46:00.000-04:00

Dominica to Carriacou May 2007
Picture: Meeting Recetta at Sea
Now that our company has left, we needed to laundry. Most of the time Bev does laundry on RAFT, collecting rain water, hand washing and drying on lines strung through the cockpit. But when all the sheets and towels are used, it is nice to treat ourselves. In Dominica we found a great laundry service, in Portsmouth. Colle’s Laundry operates behind the Senior Center on the main street. They have new European styled machines and for 23EC we got all got the sheets and towels washed, dried and folded. (the same amount it cost 28Euos in Ainse Mitan, Martinique)
We checked out of Dominica and got an early start for Martinique. Our wine locker was completely empty and we needed to resupply for the summer. Between Dominica and Martinque we sailed with Recetta. We had seen their boat in Portsmouth, but they had left before we had a chance to meet them. Having read "Embarrassment of Mangoes" we felt we knew Anne and Steve, so brashly Bev called over on the VHF and introduced ourselves. They were stopping in Saint Pierre, and we were heading on to Fort de France, so our personal meeting would have to wait for another time.
Twenty four hours later, checked in and out at Sea Services, we had spent $236 euros at Leader Price, and loaded 36 bottles of wine, 8 litres of sangria, 18 packages of cheese, 48 cans of beer, 3 litres of olive oil, 12 milk, assorted pates, dried sausages, pickles, yogurt, tortellis, etc onto RAFT. Filled up with water in Ainse Mitan. Off to St. Lucia to get pop. (Coke products in small plastic bottles) It is great to have been up and down the island chain and now knew exactly what we want and where is the best, most affordable place to buy it.
Since we did not check into St. Lucia, (yes we were BAD) we were anxious to get on our way. We planned an overnight passage to Carriacou, about 100 miles. Using our 5 knot rule, expected the trip to take at least 20 hours, and every long trip we have ever done, always took longer. We uped anchor at 7am and motored out of the harbour. Winds were expected to be East 12-15 so we should have a pleasant sail. Off the Pitons, as expected the winds went flukey and the seas were like a washing machine, so we motored for about 20 minutes to get away from the island effects. By late afternoon we were approaching the N end of St. Vincent, and as the sunset, the winds died for a short while, and we had to start the motor again for another half hour. But then the wind returned, and with the current we were flying. By midnight we were off Bequia and had reefed the sails and spilling wind, trying to slow RAFT down, thus allowing us to arrive in Hillsborough at dawn. Clearing in with immigration was easy (despite being Sunday on a holiday weekend), and was told to return on Tuesday to do Customs.

2007-06-01T10:08:00.000-04:00

Antigua to Dominica with Visitors – May 2007
Bev’s sister and brother in law, Kathryn and Ron had visited us last year in the Virgin Islands. There we had a wonderful time, snorkeling and hiking with very little sailing. This visit was going to be different. We planned to sail with them from Antigua to Guadaloupe, the Saintes and Dominica…doing a lot of hiking and land travel on each island.
Right on schedule their taxi pulled up to the Mad Mongoose delivering two eager travelers. Of course, first on the agenda was an introduction to the local beer, Wadadahli. Then we took a quick tour through English Harbour, while Ross ferried their belongings out to RAFT, which was anchored off Freeman Beach. The following day we hiked to Fort Berkley and Shirley Heights. Between the two hikes we demonstrated how much fun it is dealing with the Antiguan authorities, we went to check out!! Of course the 8 part form had to be filled out, with everyone’s passport information. We were charged extra port charges because we had extra people on board, plus R&K were required to pay $100 EC departure tax. They should be able to use their newly acquired receipt to avoid paying it a second time when they fly home from Antigua at the end of their trip.

Picture: Kathryn and Ron, then all of us, overlooking English Harbour from Fort Berkley

Kathryn and Ron have limited sailing experience, so we do want to make the sailing parts as gentle as possible. That was one of the reasons we moved back to English Harbour, to make the wind angle less on the nose, since the darn south east winds would not back as we hoped they would. Bright and early Monday morning we raised anchor and set off heading basically south in southeast winds, 15-18 knots, heading for Deshaies. We went through a small squall, and the wind died and went more to the nose, so we ended up motor sailing a good part of the way. Despite some queasy stomachs, they did enjoy the pod of small dolphins that came to play in our bow wake. We were anchored in lots of time, for Ross to get us checked in, while K&R explored the small town, and walked over to one of our favourite beaches, Grande Ainse. As the sun was setting, we toasted our arrival to Guadaloupe with wine, and baguettes, love the French islands!!

Picture: Grande Ainse Beach, Guadaloupe

We were not aware that Tuesday was a national holiday, Armistice Day…meaning nothing in town was open except the boulangerie. Hurray, we were able to get baguettes. All we were really concerned about was the car rental office, because we hoped to rent one for the next day. So we snorkeled along the north side of the bay. There were the small red "dust" like biting stuff in the water, what Bev thought were baby jellyfish. The little stings annoy Bev and Ron, but Kathryn reacted badly to them, and by nightfall she was covered with very itchy bites. Fortunately calamine lotion with antihistamine reduced her suffering.
We had no difficulty arranging the car rental for the next morning, so we were off heading south. First stop: Leader Price, where we filled the trunk with wine, beer, fruit juice, rum, all the basic necessities of a good vacation. Then we headed up to St. Claude and the base of the trail to Soufriere. When we started it was sunny, but as we climbed our views were obscured by clouds and it started to rain. We could smell the sulfur venting from the fumeroles. At the cauldera we looked down and watched/smelled the sulfur rising. It was impressive despite the poor visibility. The trail was well marked, not too steep, but the rocks were rough and slippery. You had to be very carefully not to slip or twist an ankle. None of us had any difficulty with the hike, and the rain certainly cooled us down.

Pictures: Foggy, wet conditions at the top of Soufriere, Guadaloupe

Next we were off to the Carbet Falls. When we were there the last time, it was easy to see both the first and second falls from the parking area. But on this day, clouds covered the upper falls. We hiked to the base of the second Carbet, fully enjoying the hike through the rainforest, the huge trees and the beautiful flowers, especially the helicons (Birds of Paradise).
It was getting late as were crossed the island along the Rue de Traverse, but we still stopped at the Cascade des Esceaux, but no one bothered to swim. The sun was setting, and there was some fog as we continued west. At one point, Ron, who was driving, misjudged a curve and rubbed the curb. Ross, always observant, saw the hub cap roll off, so we stopped to retrieve it. Not sure what the cost would have been for this minor incident, but we were glad we didn’t have to find out!!
Even when you have guests on board, we always must be vigilant of the weather. But we were a little surprised when Tropical Storm Andrea developed off the coast of the US. Although not a threat to the Caribbean, it seemed way to early in the year (May 9th) for the hurricane season to be starting. We hope this is not an indication of what is ahead for us this summer.
Next we sailed down to Pigeon Island, home of Jacques Cousteau Marine Park. On previous trips to Guadaloupe we had bypassed this area, as we thought it was only for divers. Our cruising guide seemed to indicate that it was too deep for snorkeling. Other cruisers contradicted this, saying although it is deep, the water is so clear you don’t want to miss it. We grabbed an empty dive boat mooring on the west side of the island. Kathryn was still recovering from her "bites" so we provided her with leggings and long sleeved shirt to see if this would protect her. The size and number of fish, and the wonderful coral were wonderful.
We took time to have another snorkel the next morning before we headed off to the Saintes. We had a very pleasant sail, and were pleased to find very few boats in the anchorage off the town.

Pictures: Ron catches a Barracuda, Iguana on way to Fort Napoleon, Resting at Fort Napoleon overlooking Bourg de Sainte, Point Pierre Beach

After our tour of Fort Napoleon, we had a picnic lunch out at Pointpierre Beach. Connie, from Calaloo, had recommended we go here, citing it as one of the prettiest beaches she had seen. We were not disappointed, it is a lovely palm lined sand beach with several covered picnic areas. Being Saturday, there were many locals there, BBQing, live music and selling cold beer. Obviously we partook in the local fare and enjoyed our time here.
Kathryn and Ron had shared a cab from the airport (in Antigua) and the other couple had recommended La Saladerie restaurant in the Saintes, and in particular the fish fondue. K&R had located the restaurant, and made the necessary 24 hr reservation. It was excellent. A lovely waterfront restaurant, with its own dinghy dock, wonderful ambience and service and the tuna fondue was excellent!!
Next day we were off to Dominica. By now Kathryn and Ron seemed to have their sea legs, or at least the "meds" were working. The winds continued to be from the SE, but the seas were moderate and the trip was very comfortable. We arrived and anchored off the Coconut Resort, to take advantage of the free internet. It was Mothers Day, and we needed to skype our Mothers and our kids. For security reasons, once we finished with the internet, we moved over to the Purple Turtle for the night.

Pictures: Ron and Kathryn raising the Dominican flag, getting cooled off at Fort Shirley, nature grows big in Dominica!!

Checking into Dominica was easily taken care of, and then we were off to explore Fort Shirley. This was our third time there, and every time we approach the officers residence at Douglas Bay, we are still amazed with natures conquest over man.
Dominca is a wonderful island, and we wanted to do a lot of land travel. But the roads are precarious, they drive on the ‘wrong" side, so we don’t want to rent a car, we needed a driver. The boat boys want to arrange this for you, but as we knew the island fairly well and where we wanted to go, we were going to try to see what we could do ourselves. We had met "Short Fingers", last time we were through, he runs a small bar beside the bus stop and he is an interesting character. So we headed off to his bar to talk to "the man". He introduced us to Cesar, (his id says Julius) who agreed to take our group, (we had some extras by this time) out in his van for 2 days, basically taking us wherever we wanted to go.
Day 1: Cesar picks us up at the Purple Turtle at 8am and we head east, across the island. Peter and Maria (Mama Coucha) have joined our group. First stop was the Coconut Processing Plant, where they are harvesting, cracking, and drying the coconut over fires fueled by the coconut shells. The dried coconut is used in the cosmetics industry in the Colgate factory in Roseau and some is shipped to UK. Quite interesting. Next it was the coastal highway weaving up and down the valleys with beautiful Atlantic views. At the fruit stand in the Carib village, we watched the farmer harvest the largest pineapple we had seen and we bought it for $12EC!!

Pictures: Coconut Processing Factory, Windward views, Pineapples Growing, Kathryn with the Pineapple "slayer"

Back on the "bus" and we were off to Emerald Pool. Unfortunately, there was a cruise boat in Dominica (Carnival is always in on Tuesdays) so there were lots of people at the pool. Last time we had visited, we had it all to ourselves. But the crowds didn’t spoil our enjoyment. We swam in the fresh water, and played under the falls.

Pictures: Emerald Pool

Next stop: Lunch. We had asked Cesar to choose a local type venue. He was a little concerned that at this time (1pm) he could find something open and could serve us. But he did fine, a quite large bar, with pool tables, etc. They set up wooden tables in a spacious room and we were served a good chicken BBQ.
We continued on through the Layou Valley, which is very beautiful. The river has carved steep cliffs, on its way from the mountains to the ocean. On to Syndicate Estates. Here Cesar let us explore the falls and forests ourselves. (Last time Winston had shown us the way). We were the only people here, and we did enjoy having the park to ourselves. Unfortunately we didn’t see any parrots this time. After a full day we were back at the Purple Turtle by 5 pm.

Picture: Syndicate Falls

Next day we were off and running. Now we are 10, Judith and Harry (Durrus) and Kevin and Amanda (Soltice) had joined the tour. We headed south through Roseau to Sulfur Springs. Here there are about 4 small bubbling pools of very hot water. Next stop: Trafalgar Falls. There were a few people here, among them a couple being guided by Sea Cat. Sea Cat is an excellent guide, who Judith and Harry knew and have hired for their trip to Boiling Lake, the next day. Sea Cat showed us the way to the falls, and encouraged anyone who wished to swim under the falls and assisted some of the brave young people up to the jump off point. Neither Ross, Bev, Kathryn or Ron felt inclined to follow him. Ross and Bev had enough waterfall climbing and jumping thrills in the DR to last a lifetime. We all did enjoy a relaxing soak in the "hot tub" before returning to the "bus".

Pictures: Trafalgar Falls, Harry, Judith and Peter in the falls, Sea Cat, Hot tub time
We had planned to swim the Titou Gorge, so Cesar headed up the narrow, twisty road off to Laudat. Unfortunately the road was closed for road work. There was some confusion, as we had heard others had been able to get there yesterday, and Judith and Harry were booked for Boiling Lake, tomorrow, using the same road. Apparently, the road is only closed between 9am and 4 pm and had been open Tuesday for the cruise boat visitors. This is the only way into Titou, so there was no way we could get there today.

Pictures: Lunch stop, Cesar with out gang

Now we were disappointed and hungry. We had to return to Roseau to find a lunch spot, and Cesar did a great job, stopping at a small waterfront restaurant near the commercial dock. We had the choice of goat, chicken or fish, rice, provisions and beer for 15EC.
After lunch we headed south out of Roseau, to the Soufriere Hot Springs. Cesar had suggested this spot, since we couldn’t go to Titou. This one was not worth the walk. The hot pools looked cloudy and stagnant, not very appealing, and the hike to the top, (45 min) was not worth the trip. There were some sulfur vents, but nothing spectacular.
So off to the Champagne at Scotshead. This was worth the trip. Access was very easy, along a boardwalk, across a stony beach to the end, where there was a large rubber mat to assist getting in and out of the water. As soon as you get in, you can see the streams of bubbles, and as you get out a little further, there were lots of them, and some quite large. There you can actually hear the bubbly gas escaping and feel the heat. There were a good number of fish, and corals and we all had a good time. Judith had given Kathryn a European sunscreen product with "anti jelly fish sting" stuff, but she was still cautious. It did seem to work.
Pictures: Swimming in the Champagne, Ron and Kathryn, Amanda

We returned to Portsmouth, after another full day. Later we met on Mama Coucha to swap photos. Digital cameras and memory sticks makes this so easy. We all agreed that it was a great tour of the island.
The next day, Judith and Harry were going to Boiling Lake (with Sea Cat) and they had been trying all week to convince us to go along. Although Ross and Bev had done a lot of hiking, and Kathryn and Ron even more (Mount Robson in BC, Grand Morne in Nfld, and the Grand Canyon last fall), we were very hesitant, given the amount of elevation and the heat, so reluctantly declined. After all we were twenty years older than the younger couple.
Friday, K&R’s last day with us, and we let them have a day to themselves. We dropped them off at the Purple Turtle to return to Fort Shirley, swim, check out the town. etc. Bev and Ross relaxed. Later, Harry and Judith did stop by to give us a report of their trip – they absolutely loved it and said the reports exaggerated the "rigor", and Pete and Maria stopped by to say goodbye, they were heading south in the morning.
Kathryn and Ron had a flight booked out of Canefield airport to return them to Antigua. Dominica does have two airports, neither international size. Canefield is the smallest, but is very easy to get to. Taxis want $40 US for the trip, but the local bus will take you there for 6EC each and let you off at the airport gate. K&R opted for the bus and were off on another adventure. It all worked out fine and they were in the airport in ample time to get their flight off to Antigua and then home to Canada.
We had had a wonderful holiday, but it was great to get RAFT back to ourselves, and start planning our next few months.

2007-05-21T11:50:00.001-04:00

Antigua Classic Race Week April 2007, originally uploaded by S/V Raft.

Pictures: Beautiful Classic Boats at Dock in Falmouth Harbour

We are not racers, and apart from our brief crewing experience in Georgetown Bahamas, have had very little interest in sailboat racing. Although we do recognize that as in most other aspects of life, when two sailboats are traveling side by side, it is a race. But since we were in Antigua, and the Classic Regatta was on, we were going to participate.
We anchored once again in Falmouth Harbour, and each morning we hiked from Pigeon Beach up to the old battery, which offered a great viewpoint (seated on an old wall in the shade) of the start and end and most of what happened in between. There we also met a British couple who followed the different Regattas over the years, and who could identify the competitors and how they were doing in their race. Their input definitely made the races more interesting. There were about 60 classic boats, including many island boats taking part in the regatta.
The old classic and the new replica boats are beautiful, complete with tons of woodwork, expertly maintained, and all their stainless gleamed. (unlike RAFT's). Several friends were crewing on some of the boats, so each evening we would meet up with them for a few drinks and hear their perspective of the race, or how the owners were feeding them.
Pictures: View from Vantage Point above Fort Berkley, High Tea, Fun Racing of Small Boats

The week passed quickly and it was about time we started to make arrangements for our next set of visitors, Kathryn and Ron, Bev's sister and brother in law. They were flying into Antigua on May 5th. We needed to reprovision, finish off some boat chores, and get RAFT watered and fed. We decided to head back to Jolly Harbour, where there was a great grocery store (the Epicurian), Budget Marine, and a marina to get all the projects done. If we had any time to spare we would scope out some of the other anchorages/snorkeling spots until K&R arrived.
But after a couple of days in Jolly Harbour, we changed our minds--sailor's plans are made in jello, right?
1) Budget Marine: very limited selection and very expensive -- didn't have what we needed
2) Epicurian - excellent store, but no bargains
3) Water still turbid, didn't see any snorkeling opportunities (although we didn't look too hard)
4) K&R were flying in on Sat. and we wouldn't be able to check out until Monday
So after we watched about 120 Racing week boats enter Jolly Harbour, we exited early to arrive in English Harbour before they raced back. Just a note about Race week, part 2 (not the classic boats). Again not being racers we were not aware that about a half of the racing boats, were bareboat charter boats that were rented and entered. Obviously racing in Antigua is on someone's "top 100 things to do before I die" list.

2007-04-03T13:47:00.001-04:00

Dealing with Customs/Immigration/Port Authorities March 2007, originally uploaded by S/V Raft.

Picture: Ross and Bev overlooking the crater on the Quill, Statia

After 4 weeks of company, which we did enjoy, it is still nice to get RAFT back to ourselves. On our way back from the airport, we took advantage of rental car to start reprovisioning. The next couple of days were spent getting water, doing laundry and then getting water again. Fortunately in Deshaies, water is free, as long as you are prepared to fill your own jugs and walk across a good size parking lot back to the dinghy.

With RAFT is back in order, we are ready to take off, but that requires checking out of Guadeloupe so we can head for Antigua. Normally checking in and out of the French islands is a piece of cake, usually Douanes are open standard office hours, seven days a week, no charge. We had heard from other cruisers that the office in Deshaies was often closed, but we hadn't had any problem in June and the other day when we went by they we open. The day before we wanted to leave, we set off for the office, to find it closed with a sign on the door said "Permanances" and listed hours Wed and Thurs only one hour around the lunchtime. Since they weren't open when we were there in the afternoon, we figure this must be the hours they are open. "Permanances" was not in our cheap French/English dictionary, so we went over to the French boat beside us, their English was limited but they did have a better dictionary and that indicated that it meant Office on Duty.

With the correct information, RAFT and about a dozen other boats showed up at the correct hour and were issued their clearances to leave for Antigua. By contrast to the French islands, check in at the English islands is always more challenging. Despite what the cruising guide states, Antigua does want everyone to attend the check in. We knew this in advance, so both of us went to the office in English Harbour. We made sure that we arrived on a weekday during office hours although the cruising guide indicated that there were no overtime charges for weekend check ins but we were not chancing a change in policy since the guide was printed. The check in staff were more interested in the cricket match they were watching on TV then providing us with the eight part forms. Press hard please!! We had to check in with Customs, Immigration and Ports Authority, pay $37 US for the privilege of anchoring in English or Falmouth Harbour for 4 nights and cruising in Antigua for 30 days.

We did the obligatory tour of Nelson's Boatyard, oooed and awed at the megayachts complete with helicopters, 40 foot motor tenders, full crewes.Oh for the life of the rich and famous.

Picture: English Harbour (foreground) Falmouth (back)

As previously stated our cruising guides indicated that there were no overtime charges for checking out of Antigua on weekends and that there were Customs/Immigration in Jolly Harbour. After checking the weather, we made plans to sail from Falmouth Harbour on the south coast of Antigua to Jolly Harbour (on the west coast) on Saturday. We would arrive in time to check out with customs and immigration, so that we would be able to make an early morning start with good winds heading for Nevis on Sunday.

The sail to Jolly Harbour went according to plan, and once we turned the southeast corner we were amazed how the coastline changed, and for the first time since the Bahamas, we were sailing in 10 feet of blue, blue water, skirting along gorgeous sandy beaches. But this did not distract us from our destination, and we anchored in Jolly Harbour well before noon.

Once we were sure the anchor was well set (not difficult in 10-12 feet over the sandy bottom) we were off to town. Wanted to check out the reported good grocery store, it was excellent and bought most things on our list. We are currently travelling another couple so the guys were dispatched to take the groceries to the boats, while the girls went to get the clearance papers. Having following the signs to the offices, and yes as promised, customs and immigration were open. But they refused to check us out because the ports authority office is not open on weekends, and we must also check out with them first. Other boaters had indicated there are no port charges to be paid, so we were not sure why we needed to see them, but those are the rules and there are no exceptions to these rules. Our choices were to check out Monday morning in Jolly Harbour or return to Falmouth. None of us could understand why Customs and Immigration are even open when they can't do anything on the weekend.

So we got an extra day to go check out the beautiful beaches we saw as we sailed up.

Monday morning, 0745 the guys this time go to try and check out and Antigua once more tried hard to prevent our departure. The 3 Port Authority staff (who had the weekend off and forced us to stay 2 extra days) arriving for work at 8:00 am. But they inform all the waiting boaters that they still could not check in or out because 1) they don't start work until 8:30 am -- 2) none of them had the key to unlock the office today -- 3) they did not know where the key was or when it would arrive and 4) tomorrow they would be closed again because it was the opening of the Cricket matches in Antigua. (a National holiday) By 9:30 in the morning the key arrived by government bus. All the boaters dutifully lined up to have our papers stamped and our charges assessed (zero dollars for us because we paid in English Harbour) so we could move next door, Immigration. Filled out the same 8 copy (press hard on those carbons) Clearance form that we filled out in English Harbour with the only difference being we had to tick the OutBound box instead of the Inbound box. Next it was off to Customs to have him stamp each of the 8 copies and give us the top copy as proof that we cleared out of Antigua properly. But the Customs Officer was late for work. He was supposed to be there by 8:00 am but didn't show up until 10:00am. Once he arrived the guys were in and out of his office in 2 minutes flat.

Despite late start we were able to anchor off Nevis before dark hoisting our yellow Q flag. Unfortunately, we had missed the good wind day, Sunday, and we had to motor the entire way. The current weather forecast indicated light winds and waves for the next few days. After all our checking in/out issues in the past two islands, we decided to bypass St. Kitts/Nevis and head directly to Statia. We had fond memories from visit to Statia when we were here in 1999 and wanted to return. Statia is a small Dutch island, non touristy, the main industry being a major ship redistribution center for the oil. To the north of the small village and harbour is a large oil terminal and there are always a good number of ocean and local oil tankers anchored. Tugs continue to move in and out of the harbour as they do their work on the big boats. The tug wake and the ocean swell (Statia is basically circular, so even anchoring in the lee of the island, we are affected by the waves streaming around the island) make the anchorage rolly, but the island is worth it. But it is not a place to visit when the winds/waves are up, or if there is a northern swell.

Checking in and out of Statia was easy, one government worker in a convenient dockside office did it all. Only one form, one copy, to fill in, and for $20US everything is stamped and you are legal. Plus they give you a receipt to hand back in when you check out.

Just like in 1999, we hiked the Quill, the extinct volcano, about 1800 ft above sealevel. The trail has been improved since 1999, now signed and groomed. Ross decided to be a he-man and did the extra leg into the crater. Again the trail is much improved, but very steep. Since we knew that there were another hiker and guide were in the crater, Bev elected to stay with our sailing partners at the top. He made it and back, huffing, but glad to have done it, and Bev wished she had!! We hiked around the crater, enjoying beautiful views to the south, before returning to the village and stopping at the first bar we saw for a well deserved cold beer.

Winds and waves are expected to be high on the weekend, so on Friday we head back to St. Kitts, another English island so here we go again. Last time we arrived on a weekend and had to go to both the airport and commercial port to get checked in. St Kitts is not cruiser friendly. Port Zante is an okay marina, but the anchorages outside Basseterre are rolly, and there are no dinghy docks. Ross decided to start this time at the commercial port. Here he did find Customs, and was able to exchange 30EC for a 30 day cruising permit which would allow to anchor anywhere in St. Kitts except Frigate Bay. However, Immigration is no longer at the Commercial port, it has been moved to Port Zante. Off he goes to the Cruiseboat dock, where he climbed up the 8' to the pier to continue his trek. At Port Zante he discovers that no one had shown up at Immigration that day, and was instructed to go to the Police Station. Once there, Immigration gives him the necessary forms (only 3 copies double sided) and they want him to return to RAFT to get Bev's signature. Fortunately he was able to talk them into allowing him to sign for her and we are once again legal!! Of course, if we want to go to Nevis, we have to return to Customs to get a Nevis pass.. Think we will wait awhile before we head there!!

2007-03-25T11:11:00.001-04:00

Martinique Feb 2007, originally uploaded by S/V Raft.

Picture: Carnival in Martinique

While we were home at Christmas we found a fantastic flight deal between Montreal and Martinique and had arranged for two sets of company to come and visit us. So it was now time to make our way to Martinique to check out the island for our visitors. The first of our visitors were to be Ross's parents, their first visit since we had left Canada in 2004. Although they are in reasonable good health, their mobility reflected their age, so our primary concern was how to get them on and off RAFT.
Picture: Ross and his parents, East coast of Martinique

Our first plan was to go into a marina, to make boat access easier and take advantage of the marina's showers and amenities. However, all the marinas in Martinque that we checked out, were Med moored and crowded. Having never docked RAFT in a Med situation this was going to be interesting. We booked a slip at the large Marin marina for the day the parents were to arrive, and were assured that the dock master and staff would be there to help us. That morning the wind was blowing 20 knots across the slip, and RAFT like all underpowered sailboats does not like to back up, especially into wind and swell.

As promised the dockmaster met us at the slip, and our friend Pete from Brilliant was onboard to give us a hand. (Pete and Stephanie had just spent 5 years in the Med, and were quite used to Med anchoring.) As instructed Bev had prepared two long bowlines and gave the dockmaster the starboard one. We thought he would secure it to the front mooring and control RAFT's sidewise movement. This was not the case, and we ran over the next slip's mooring ball and caught that line around our rudder.

The dockmaster said some very unkind things to us about our boating proficiency, and proceeded to cut the mooring line. Once free, the dockmaster wanted us to try again, but only bow in. This was of no benefit to us, since there would be no way any of us would be able to get on and off RAFT over the bowsprint and around the furling. After promising the boater who had had his mooring line cut we would return to make restitution, we enacted Plan B.....back to anchor in the Marin harbour.
Picture (left): Ross's Mom & Bev in dinghy (below) Sugar plantation ruins, Prequ'le Carnaval -- east coast of Martinique

At least the car rental went fine, the trip to the airport easy, and the parents' plane arrived early and no luggage was lost or damaged. The next two weeks we spent doing primarily land travel, up the east coast and to St. Pierre. Carnival was on, and we saw the parades in St. Anne and moved over to Fort de France for the last day to see the "big one". The last couple days of the parents visit were spend in Anse Mitan, enjoying the beach, and the public showers there.
Picture: Boats anchored below St. Pierre, Mount Pelee looming over St. Pierre's theatre ruins

Despite a few boat "bites" and bruises we think Ross's parents had a good time. We enjoyed a fabulous lunch in Ducos on the way to the airport, got them checked out, and waited for our next set of friends who were coming in on the plane the parents were taking out.

Enter Kathy and Pete into the Caribbean. These are sailing friends who we had been sailing partners when they had their boat Steelaway in the Bahamas (2004-2005), and when we were home the summer of 2005 had been guests on Steelaway in the North Channel in Ontario. So for the next two weeks, we were going sailing!!
Picture: Ross in dungeon where the only person survived. Picture: Bev in massive roots, Fort Shirley, Dominica

After checking out at Fort de France, we sailed up to St. Pierre so they had a chance to see the volcano ruins. On the way we saw four dolphins. Great start for their sailing adventure. Next, we were off to Dominica, anchoring in Prince Rupert Bay. We took a couple days to explore Fort Shirley, but even on a second visit, amazes us. We booked a guided tour to Syndicate Rainforest, hiking to the falls but you are not allowed to swim here since the rivers are a water source for Dominica. We hiked the nature walk through the rainforest and saw 3 parrots flying in the canopy. Everywhere we went our guide Winston identified the vegetation, trees and foods that were being grown. By the end of the trip we had a grocery bag of fresh oranges, grapefruits, pineapple and bananas. Unfortunately for the second time, the rum distillery was closed (closes at 3pm) so we missed the tour --something to look forward to on our next visit to Dominica.
Picture: Winston (our guide), Nature walk, Syndicate Estates, Dominica
Picture: Iguana at Fort Josephine, the Saintes

Another fabulous sail from Dominica to the Saintes and anchored in the tight deep anchorage (28') off the small village. You can now check in here at the Marine, the forms are faxed to Point au Pitre and returned in 20 minutes. The French make checking in very easy and convenient. But we couldn't get a baguette..all the shops closed for the afternoon. Next day we toured Fort Napolean, a wonderful restored French fort. The views are wonderful and well worth the trip up the steep road to the fort.

As we sailed from the Saintes toward Guaduloupe we saw a whale!! Our first since we started this trip in 2004. All we saw was its flipper, which was waving. Everyone caught a glimpse, but unfortunately it was too far away to get a picture. Despite the flukey winds off Basseterre, we had another wonderful sail to Deshaies. Pete was certainly enjoying his time at the helm.

But their time with us was coming to an end. We arrived in Deshaies on Friday, and they had to be back in Martinique Monday afternoon to make their flight to Canada. We had investigated ferries between Guadeloupe and Martinique, and knew that the high speed catamaran didn't travel south on Monday morning, but the slow all night ferry should to leave Point au Pitre Sunday evening and arrive in Fort de France Monday morning. Since the cost about half the price of a flight, Kathy and Pete were up to the adventure.

Picture: Carebret Falls, Guadaloupe

Picture: Pete making his jump!

The car rental place in Deshaies is not open on Sunday, so we booked the car for Saturday and Sunday. Saturday morning we headed south along the coast road to Basseterre, and around the south end to where you can drive into the National Park. The drive through the rainforest was wonderful and the hike to the 2nd Carebret Falls, great. We were able to see the top of the highest falls, but passed on the two hour hike to that level. Have to leave something for our next trip. We returned via La route de Traverse across the island and stopped with the tour buses at Cascade aux Ecrevisses where Pete finally had his chance to dive from the rock wall into the fresh water pool under the falls.
Picture: Grand Anse, north coast of Guadaloupe
Sunday morning we were heading over to Point au Pitre, we wanted to make sure we did understand the ferry schedule and that we could get Pete and Kathy on to the evening boat. There was a bicycle road race through the streets of PTP. This caused most of the downtown roads to be closed, and of course the ferry docks were downtown, right in the middle of the race. Bev had to stop and get directions and assistance with her limited French and Ross had to drive through parking lots, over sidewalks, make illegal U turns to get through the race course to the ferry docks. Once there, there was a typed notice on the slow ferry office, but we were told by the other ferry people, that the office would open at 4pm,

So we were off to explore the eastern wing of the butterfly for a couple hours. When we we returned to the ferry dock, there was still no activity at the slow ferry office, so Bev took another look at the notice and recognized the word "annulled", and got someone to translate the message to determine that the ferry had been cancelled. Off to the airport, and within a few minutes Pete and Kathy were booked on a flight to Martinique the next morning. All we had to do was extend our car rental for another day and all would be fine, and it was. Pete and Kathy got to sleep an extra night on RAFT instead of the ferry and we said our goodbyes at the airport instead of the ferry dock.

We really enjoyed both our sets of company, but after 4 weeks, it was great to have RAFT back to ourselves.

2007-02-07T10:37:00.000-05:00

Bequia to Rodney Bay Jan/Feb 2007

Picture: Using the dinghy to propel RAFT

We were motor sailing along the northwest coast of St. Vincent, when the high temperature alarm started screaming. About the same time the wind had picked up, so once again we became a sailboat. Bev on the helm in 20 knots of wind, mostly close hauled we were making good time toward St. Lucia. Ross put on his mechanic’s hat, to search out the source of the alarm. He expected a water pump issue, and determined it was the Yanmar engine one, (not the cooling system pump) but it was not the impellar, instead the pulley had sheared off the shaft. Ross had seen replacement pulleys in Budget Marine (Grenada) and had a fleeting thought about getting a spare, but hadn’t, and now Murphy’s law was haunting us. (If you have a spare, the original won’t break)
But RAFT was sailing in the right direction, and quite quickly the Pitons were coming into view. We weren’t concerned until four miles southwest of the Pitons, the wind died right down, we were becalmed and the current was moving us toward Mexico. So close, but we can’t sail, and we can’t motor…..or could we. Down went the dinghy and it became a tug. Lucas, one of the boat boys from Soufriere came out to see what we were up to, and stayed with us for the entire 3 hours that it took to get into the harbour where he helped us get onto a mooring ball. It was a comfort knowing he was behind us all the way.
Next day, Ross was off early, to get the bus to Rodney Bay, where he hoped he could buy a new pulley. That was not possible but he was able to get a welder to repair the existing one, and once again we were in the motoring business. Can’t have a cold beer but at least we can make our way to Rodney Bay where we hope we can get the fridge fixed.
We had skipped Rodney Bay on our way south, so we were off to new territories. But getting the fridge running was highest on the priorities. After 3 days, and visits from 2 refrig technicians, we decided to bite the bullet and go for a new system. Fortunately Island Water World here has everything in stock and the price was acceptable. Ross decided to use one of the techs, to extend the piping so he could locate the new compressor in the same position as the old one. (the new kits don’t come with sufficient copper pipe). We figured, that if Ross took out the old system, and installed most of the new one, it shouldn’t take the tech very long to put in the longer pipe and recharge the system. How could we forget about Island Time!! The tech didn’t weigh out the R134A gas (as Bev’s brother had done on the old system) he prefers to slowly, and we mean slowly, add the gas while he talks about everything and bill you by the hour.
Ross of course, sat with him for the entire process, trying to learn as much as possible about the new gas and its properties. He didn’t think that there was enough gas in the system and when water hadn’t froze the next morning, we called him back. To his credit, he cheerfully returned and spent another afternoon slowly adding gas, but at least we were not charged for the second session. Still our time in Rodney Bay is wreaking havoc on our cruising budget.
So now, we have a new refridge system, chocked full of meat and we need to get to Martinique, as Ross’s parents are arriving there next week. But the winds and seas intend for us to stay a couple more days in St. Lucia. Now it is time for exploring. We went by dinghy out to Pigeon Island intending to climb to the fort, until we found out it was $5 US per person to sweat our way to the top. Did I mention that the cruising kitty is dry!! So we walked the beautiful Redoit Beach instead and had a cold beer for less than the admission to the National Park.

Picture: Square rigger used as Black Pearl in Pirates of Caribbean -- stationed in Rodney Bay

Next day, we took the local bus to Dennery. Why? Just to see the other side of the island. Dennery is a small fishing village that doesn’t get many tourists, and the locals are happy to see some. The bus trip over took us through the banana plantations, up into the rain forests, towering high over deep valleys, before bringing us back to sea level. Really there is not much to see in Dennery, but the bus only costs 4EC from Castries and we had a good time.

Heading North Grenada to Bequia Jan. 2007

2007-02-06T19:01:00.001-05:00

Heading North Grenada to Bequia Jan. 2007, originally uploaded by S/V Raft.

Picture: Cruise Ship blocking entrance to Clifton Harbour, Union Island

Subtitle: Playing with the Big Boats!!

We finally escaped Grenada's charm which had held us since July, and sailed from Carriacou (north island of Grenada) toward Union Island (southernmost island in the Grenadines) We had been in the Union Island Harbour on the way down, and knew that it was U shaped, 2 entrances, with a reef in the center. Just as we were approaching the island we watch a cruise boat arrive. We didn't think the harbour was large enough to accommodate such a vessel, and we were right, so it anchored right at the entrance to the harbour, and with the NE wind, right in the channel. Fortunately we are small and sufficiently maneuverable to still make our way in, and once inside it was not as crowded or windy as the last time, so we were able to anchor. Ross stayed onboard (we were anchored very tight) as Bev walked to the airport to deal with the government officials and pay the entrance fee (71 EC about $30). We were also informed that is we wished to visit the Tobago cays there now was a new fee 10EC per person per day. Somehow St. Vincent has to get the money to pay for the services they offer, nothing!! We had visited the Cays on the way down, they are beautiful, but will probably bypass them on this trek.

Once checked into St. Vincent, we exited Union and made our way to Mayreau, the next island in the chain, about 3 miles to the north. Here a 5 masted cruiseboat was anchored off the beach, and its occupants enjoying a day of sun, sand, surf, and beach bars. Didn't see the play toys we had seen with other boats, ie jet skis, wind surfers, etc. We stayed on RAFT and let them have their fun, knowing that they would be rounded up and taken back to their big boat well before dinner time.

Next experience with a big boat: We are anchored about 150 feet off the Mayreau's "commercial dock". It appeared, and confirmed by locals that the "commercial boats" docked on the far side so we where we were was okay. Also since there are only about 300 people who live on Mayreau, we were not expecting too much traffic. However as we were making supper, a good sized ferry, complete with cabins, dining rooms, and double width cargo level, pulled up beside us, dropped his BIG hook and proceeded to do a 180 turn within 30 feet of RAFT. The captain obviously had done this before, and was turned, dropped off his packages, most in garbage bags, and was gone within 10 minutes. It really was something to see, but really didn't want the front row seat.

As sun set, we watched the cruise boats sail off to the northwest, the commercial boat go south, and we figured our contact with Big Boats was done for the day. We are sharing the anchorage with a mega yacht, probably 80-100 ft long. About 8pm, of course we were already in bed, they are on the radio trying to hale the Mayreau police. We got up but couldn't see anything suspicious, their boat was lit up as most mega's are. No one was answering the radio call, and we found out later there are no police in Mayreau, but we figured they have cell phones to call for help. It did raise our security level, (we are out of Grenada) so we locked ourselves in RAFT and settled in for a night's rest. And so end's our day with the BIG Boats.

The next day, we had the town, beach and island to ourselves, and we took full advantage its peaceful serenity. We walked into the town, toured the church, enjoyed the fabulous views of the Tobago Cays, Salt Whistle Bay and swam at the billion dollar beach, that yesterday had been swarmed by the cruise boat occupants.

We had a fabulous sail into Bequia, even tacked into the anchorage. What a wonderful treat! But now we have another problem: the fridge has decided not to freeze anymore. It is of course the original refrigerator system, over 20 years old which Ross has been babying by topping up the R12 for nearly a year since the Dominican Republic, Since we had stocked up the freezer in Grenada before we left, we were going on the Scarsdale high protein diet until all the thawing meat is eaten. We didn't think we would be able to get the system fixed in Bequia, so we took off for St. Lucia.

2007-01-15T11:07:00.000-05:00

BACK IN GRENADA – JAN. 2007

Picture of Rhonda Brenda & Pauls annual tradation of making and decorationing a ginger bread house --this year it was a lighthouse obviously with actual glass/candy windows.

After six weeks in Canada, including an eightieth birthday, a twenty-fifth birthday, Christmas, New Years, we are happy to return to Grenada and RAFT and start our next sojourn of cruising.
We had left RAFT on the hard in Spice Marina and she had fared well while we were away. The taxi driver on the drive back from the airport, let us know that December had been a very rainy month, especially Christmas day. Other cruisers confirmed this, and also mentioned that the Christmas winds were very evident, 35 knots even in the boat yard.
As hurricane season was over, we had chosen to leave the bimini up, because we didn’t want to take down the solar panels mounted above. Everything was fine, and the batteries were fully charged. (We had left the wind generator up as well, but turned off). We did have some mildew, and if we had been away longer than the six weeks, this could have been a problem. As for heat, there must have been some, as we had one exploded pop can. But thankfully no evidence of bugs, or other furry creatures. And thanks to all the rain, the decks were power washed clean. Not much to our surprise, the sanding and fiberglass work we had asked the yard to do while we were away, hadn’t been started.
The Tuesday evening we arrived was a beautiful starry night with a full moon. So we sat on the deck and toasted our return with a bottle of red wine as the champagne wasn’t chilled. It was great to be back!!
The next morning we let the staff know we were back, and the work on the rudder and keel joint was organized. The yard did a good job, but wasn’t finished until Friday. Ross had booked RAFT to be dropped in on Monday, so we were going to be delayed. No bottom painting would have happened over the weekend unless we did it ourselves, so the decision was easy. We spent the weekend painting at 6am and 6pm and in between sat around and watched the paint dry. The days were very hot, so it was difficult to accomplish much during the afternoons anyhow. We were invited to play dominos on Sunday and Bev did find the energy for that.
For you yachties following this adventure, we put on 2 coats of barrier coat, and 2+ coats of Micron 66. We used the barrier since we were covering Atlantic marine antifouling and we wanted ensure compatibility.
We had been told that we could not be launched on Tuesday, since the Marina owner wanted to paint his mega racer, and didn’t want the dust that the Travellift might stir up. However when we woke up Tuesday to the pitter patter of rain, we rightly assumed the paint job would be off, and by 0830 the marina staff was at RAFT asking us if we were ready to go. Hurrah!!
We launched and anchored out beside our friends on Second Wind. It was great to be back on the water and experience the roll that Prickly Bay is known for. The next few days were spent getting RAFT into sailing mode, sails put up, refrigerator started, systems checked, social life started. Of course, what would cruising be without socializing. Sundowners on RAFT with Second Wind, dinner on Moon Goddess (a thank you to Ross for helping them install new motor mounts).
Provisioning is high on Bev’s list to accomplish. Until we were satisfied that the refrigerator was functioning, we always keep our fingers crossed that this 20 year old system will keep going, we couldn’t stock the fridge and freezer. We had been out together to the larger stores, Food Fair and Real Value in Spice Mall, but hadn’t found everything she wanted. So she decided to make another trip to the Frozen Warehouse to see if they had any stock in, previously the shelves were quite empty. This day, she was successful, and filled her thermal bag with frozen meat. We had purchased pitas the day before, that we baked at the Mediterranean Bakery on Maurice Bishop Highway. We had walked this road many times and never seen a bakery, (followers of this blog know our love of bakeries), so Bev asked the store clerks if they knew where it was. The first clerk didn’t, but told Bev about Melo’s just up the road beside the Carib plant. Before Bev had left the store, another clerk had found up the Med. Bakery was in the Rice plant next door. Leaving her thermal bag in the freezer at the store, Bev set off to find the bakery.
Next door, there was no sign indicating a bakery but the door into the Rice plant was open, so Bev went in and spoke to the man at the desk. Yes, the bakery was in the building but he didn’t think anyone was there now. When asked if rice is grown in Grenada, he answered no, they used to import from US and Ghana, but now they can’t get any rice and the plant is closed and unlikely to reopen. Another industry gone from this wonderful island.
There was no one at the Med bakery, so Bev went to find Melo’s. Not far up the street, as promised. Bev told the lady at the bakery, how pleased she was to find a bakery walking distance from the anchorage and bought bread and some treats. As she was leaving the lady gave her two biscottis, for being a new customer.
Just another great afternoon adventure and why we love Grenada, the friendly people always seem willing to go out of their way to make sure we are having a great time here. When Bev related the story to Ross, she added "I feel like Justine on Pilot Guides/Globetreekers" a show on OLM network we always watch when we are in Canada.
Next day we were off to the market, perhaps for our last time. We were happy to find Sister John was at her regular stand, and mangoes were back in season.
Now we wait for the winds to come down, the seas to settle so we can head north.

2006-11-15T11:23:00.000-05:00

Getting out of Hog!!

Picture: Prickley Bay Anchorage

We are trying to get RAFT ready to go for a sail. We have been anchored in the same spot since the middle of July, and feel it is time to see if we still remember how to sail. Plus we have heard that there is R12 in Carriacou and we would like to replenish our supply before we really need it.
So Friday Bev finished scraping the bottom of the boat. Over the past four months she has overcome the fear of diving under the boat, and feels comfortable doing most of the underwater work. The weight belts that Kathryn and Ron gave us help a lot. Ross raised and checked the sails and they seemed fine. Then we cleaned the anchor chain, a real messy job, the prop and shaft and the dinghy bottom. It took a screw driver to dislodge the big mussels going on the prop shaft.
We thought we would be ready to leave this morning, knowing we still had a lot of tidying up to do in the morning. But Ross had gotten interrupted the other day, and realized that he still had to polish the diesel fuel, to catch any sediment that may have settled out in the past few months. The last thing we want is the engine to fail as we try to leave the anchorage, we have to pass through a reef on the way out. We still remember when that happened at the Whale in the Bahamas, when the engine failed at a critical time due to dirty fuel. (quickly we became a sailboat). We delayed our departure for a couple of hours, as Ross pumps the fuel through the filters to make sure it is clean.
The previous night we were at Whisper Cove Marina for a Cuban hog roast, the pig was roasted over coals in a dug pit, with a Cuban hand turning the spit. The package included unlimited rum punches, plus the meal, and that is also another reason both of us a moving a little slower this morning, but we did have a good time. It was also a good opportunity to say hello to boats that are returning from Trinidad, that we haven't seen all summer, and say goodbye to boat friends which are starting their trips north.
We delayed our departure until Monday, getting an early start and motor sailed hard on the wind and waves to Carriacou, (an island about 30 miles north of St. George's) arriving in the mid afternoon, to a full anchorage. But many of the boats that are here are the ones that have escaped from Trinidad and are moving on to the Tabago Cays after just an overnight here. There is a regatta this weekend with many racing boats up from Trinidad, so we will stay here and watch the action before returning to Grenada.
We revisited our favourite haunts, Hillsborough, the bakery in L’estere, the local rum shop. We watched the larger racing yachts sailing in from Trinidad, and the smaller ones being towed up, like 3 ducks in a row, from Grenada. Although we had planned to stay for the whole weekend, the weather wind/wave report looked like Friday would be the best day to sail back to Grenada, so we left early and had a wonderful return.
We anchored in the Lagoon and spent a couple of days getting prepped for the next week. We had arranged to be hauled out on Wednesday at Spice Marina and then fly home on Friday. RAFT would be left in Grenada until we returned to her in January 2007.

Picture: RAFT on the hard

2006-10-20T10:21:00.000-04:00

Ross deals with Head Problems
(What life is really like in Paradise)

Head Problem #1 After the daring rescue at sea what could be more dramatic that than saving the RAFT from filling up with body waste as a result to of blocked joker valves on the toilet. Up to my elbows in it this morning while Bev is off shopping for the Pot Luck tonight. In the last two weeks we have run out of our Puerto Rico supply of 1 ply toilet paper and have enjoyed the pleasures of two ply as this is all that is available here on the island unless we want to buy special paper from the marine stores at $3.00 USD a roll. This coupled with salt/urea crystal build up in the hose lead to this morning’s head problem. Why do they always break/block/dam up when you need them most first thing in the morning? Well the dirty deed is over and the hatches are open to remove the sweet aroma from the cabin. I am enjoying my first cup of coffee and awaiting Bev's return. Guess we will have to separate the 2 plys from here on out. Will call it an economy move to stretch our dollars. That's life in paradise today.
Head Problem #2
The head performed admirably for the next 24 hours. 2 ply paper religiously separated into 1 ply. But by 6:00 am the next morning it plugged up again. Undid the Joker valve and stuck a wire up the tube only to find that it was blocked at the fitting going into the holding tank. Breaking hose connection on the holding tank and on the joker valve fitting is not what I had wanted to do but now there was no choice-- Bev had to go pee. Remove the nav station seat-- 8 screws, exposes the top of the tank completely. Undo 2 gear clamps loosens the input hose. No leverage to pull. Empty the cupboard under the head sink. 30 mins of pulling and twisting with one hand--all there is room to get on there, still no disconnection. Dismantle the head sink and drain. Break the tail piece on the sink drain. Now I can get two hands on the hose to pull. 30 minutes later still do disconnection. Finally pry the hose off the fitting and what do we find? Six wads of 1 play paper jammed at the end of the pipe bound up with large chunks of salt/urea crystals that have broken off the walls of the pipe during the previous clearing. The salt buildup is only about 1/16th-1/8th inch thick but with the extra heavy dose of vinegar we offered up to the toilet god yesterday it was enough to catch the shredded paper offering. Now the chore was to get the 42 inch length of pipe out from 3 bulkheads and two 90 degree bends. Guess what, it doesn't want to bend and flex like it did when it was new. Surprise Surprise. Three scraped knuckles & two bruised arms later out pops the hose. The hose gets beaten into submission with the old trusty claw hammer and 2 lbs of kidney stones appear on the head floor in front of the toilet bowl. Now we must reverse all of the process. Hose still does not want to bend, rags all smell this S##T, boat smells and all the gear clamp connections still leak. Each day we continue to check and retighten, hoping it will stop. Keep your fingers crossed.
Head problem #3 started this morning with the downing of Breakfast. Ross made the mistake of chewing too hard on his granola and broke a tooth. Now we are in for another new adventure in Grenada. This is a big filling so expect to hear the words CROWN from the dentist. No appointments here so we are told. Just go to the office and wait in line.
Thursdays morning and all seems to be going much better. The head discharge hose seems to have stopped leaking but there is a fishy smell coming from the rim of the bowl. Likely something has died in the rim. It will take a few days to decompose and then hopefully the smell will go away. My trip to the dentist was successful on Wednesday. Got there early (10:00 am) Dentist came in at 10:30 (wasn't supposed to be in until 11:00 am). We had no appointment and were told to just show up at 11:00 am. He looked at the tooth said it was broken. I agreed. Gave me a shot of Freezing and sent me to the waiting room, called in the next patient--froze the second patient and call me back into the patient room. Remove the filling--refilled and had me out by 10:50 am. Charged me $90 EC or $36 CDN. Even if this lasts 1 year it was less than a temporary filling would have cost in Canada. His equipment was clean but not new. His office was destroyed by Ivan but he has salvaged most of it. Works with just his receptionist and only one chair. So head problem #3 is now fixed.
Head problem #4 Bev has been complaining that her hair is too long and there didn’t seem to be a haircutter in the anchorage. Out of desperation she talked another boater into giving her a beach cut this morning. Claims she feels much better now.
Next Problem: The computer was broken this morning. Took me all morning to discover that the sleep switch that shuts the screen off when you close the lid was sticking down. Hence no screen when you started up the computer. Happy we were able to get this fixed, as most cruiser’s computer fixes are not this easy.
Not all life here is problems, we are still really enjoying our time in Grenada and the great people we are meeting. We had an interesting experience Saturday morning. We are sitting in the cockpit about 10 am enjoying a 2nd cup of coffee in a downpour. It had been raining hard the past 24 hours so we had collected all the rain water we could hold. We had noticed a young local guy rowing a rectangular box (6' x 8') while fishing. Along with the downpour, there were gusty winds, so he had grabbed the mooring ball beside us and was holding on. We yelled at him to see if he was okay and if he would like to come alongside. He climbed into the cockpit, soaking wet, just wearing a pair of shorts. We gave him a towel to dry off, and made him so hot chocolate. His name was Darren, and he had made his "raft" as he called it, from left over wood at the construction site he worked at during the week. He had floatation, looked like empty caulking tubes, 2 x 6" sides, and oars made of 2x2" boards with plywood blades attached. He hoped to get a real boat built when he saved some more money. Nice young man, that once the rain stopped, went back to fishing.
What else is new? We are taking dancing lessons, have had 2 so far, learning the samba and the mauba. One of the cruisers in the anchorage is offering them free, so we are trying. Also Bev is now playing bridge Sunday afternoons.
Boats are starting to move, so we do expect we will see/hear from some of boating friends soon as they return from Trinidad and Venezuela. We are hoping that one boat will bring us some R12, as we had to give some of ours away to another boater who needed it

2006-10-15T14:39:00.000-04:00

Autumn in Grenada October 2006, originally uploaded by S/V Raft.

Picture: sunset over Clarke's Court Bay

Today was an exciting day. This morning, being Thursday, Bev was getting ready to go for her walk with the other boaters through the hills of Woburn. Ross was in the dinghy, going to blow up the tubes, we have a very slow leak, not worth the effort to fix, so we add air about every 2 weeks. But today, when he tried to undo the valve, the entire valve, and backing came out, blowing the inner ring into the pontoon, deflating the dinghy on one side instantly. He called for Bev to help, using the motor crane, she had to lift the outboard motor up while Ross held up the deflated tube so the dinghy would not fill with water, then get the dinghy up on the davits so we could work on it. Ross was able to fish out the missing part from inside the pontoon, but couldn't separate the valve cover from the valve. We soaked it in hot fresh water, to break the salt seal, but still no luck. So he drilled two pin holes in the outer ring, and used the metal dividers to get some leverage, and release the valve. We were successful, and then were able to reset the valve and parts back where they we supposed to be and pumped it up and surprisingly it held air. We still went over to Whisper Cove, but Bev had missed the walking group, but went on her own anyway. The yfi internet is still down, so Ross hung around with Lucy and Rick, (Flying Cloud) even got Lucy to make us breakfast when Bev got back.

We were just returning to RAFT, and as we approached we could hear voices on the VHF radio, Que Rico was hard on the reef. Ross, and about 6 other dinghies, plus a couple of larger power boats, including White Squall with its twin 200 horsepower motors quickly responded to the call for help. It took about half an hour, but Que Rico, a very strong Whitby 42 (Canadian built boat) was pulled off the reef, by White Squall, and towed to Clarke's Court Marina and put to dock. Their motor had overheated, malfunctioning water pump, so they had been trying to sail the tricky entrance to the Bay, and clipped the corner of the reef. The wind had piped up, and in no time, they were on their side, in about 2 feet of water. Thankfully there appears to be minimal damage, some scratches and bruises, but they are not taking on water, and their steering seems okay. These old sailboats can really take a licking!!

Things are changing here in Grenada. Even the weather guros are hinting that Hurricane season could be over, and already boats are starting to move. We are starting to see boats arrive back from Trinidad daily, and some of the boats that have been with us all summer are now moving on. Such is the live of a sailor.

All summer long in the anchorage we have been hearing and seeing the survey and construction teams working on Hog Island. Rumour has it that the Four Seasons Resort is dividing the island into lots for upscale waterfront retreats to be built. It really seems a shame, that this pristine deserted island would be torn up and developed when there are some many unfinished projects all up and down the island chain.

On one of our walks we went for a walk on the Hog Island to see first hand the devastation on the south side from the construction. They have stripped clear all the vegetation and left the soil exposed to erosion. This is a Trinny group working for a British firm. They know about erosion control but because it is not required here they neglect it and the people who buy these 1 acre lots will have to contend with it. They have bulldozed in a road and surveyed off lots to try and get investors and purchasers. Plans call for a bridge between Hog and the main land as well. The clear cutting is probably for the aerial photos and to make the lots accessible to the prospective purchasers. No idea on the cost but based on what they have invested so far this summer, expect it to be plenty.

Roger's beach bar & BBQ on the northside has become quite the focal point of entertainment on Sundays. Live band with SAX, Steel Pan, drums and a singer every week. Both locals and cruisers are participating. Its getting a little crowded in the anchorage on weekend with the boats coming over form Prickly Fridays and returning Monday. As well the runabout traffic (locals ferried out 20 ft boats with 200hp motors, only one that big, most are 40hp, but they still go fast) has made the anchorage dangerous at night and even during the day. The cruiser on the next boat was going between our boat and his to pick up his wife and was T-boned by one of these guys (drunk). No one was hurt thankfully. Big discussion on the Beach with the locals and the driver and owner of the boat. The Locals are trying to police the situation themselves and don't want the authorities involved. The activity level on the beach is likely a show of force by the locals to show the purchasers of the Island that the beaches are public property. The developers have already stated that they intend to leave Roger's bar as is because there is supposed to be a 10 meter strip above the high water mark that is designated public. But Roger doesnt own his land, just squats, and his makeshift bar was set up by the cruisers. He has no electricity, running water, or bathrooms but what do you expect at an island beach bar. Only time will tell but if this is like most of the half finished projects we have seen as we traveled south, the investors will get their financing then declare the project unfeasible and abscond the funds and the vegetation will grow back.

We had a chance to discuss "Embarrassment of Mangos" with some of the locals yesterday as well. Most didn't even know that there was a book written about the area. We did find out that Mr Butters now has a store/farm just east of Westhall (10 min from here to the east, Dwight is ok and back to diving for a living (Dingess' son who got the bends) and Dingess still lives here in Woburn but her husband has since died. As for purchasing and eating Mangos, the season is almost over here now. The best kind are Julies and Ceylons because the do not have stringy pulp that gets caught in your teeth. To eat a Mango you hold the stem end in your hand and bite off a small portion of the tip. From there you peel back the skin like you would a banana. Only works really well if the mango is ripe otherwise the skin just tears off in little pieces like an orange. Good Luck (they cost us a $1 EC here when we can't find them free).

2006-09-30T21:17:00.000-04:00

Grenada Cont'd September 2006

One thing we neglected to mention in our past report is Carnaval, Grenada style. Grenadas carnival was moved to mid August so as not to conflict with Trinidads February carnival. Most of the events happen in St. Georges during the evening/middle of the night. There were music and beauty competitions, paint slugging, all night dancing and costume parades. We had heard conflicting reports as to the safety for cruisers, although after the fact, there were no problems reported. However we had no intention to move RAFT to the Lagoon, so we would not be attending any of the night activities. We did enjoy the costume parade, the costumes similar to what we had seen in the Dominican Republic minus the wacking.

We have been pleasantly surprised with the weather so far this summer/fall. Bev had been afraid that the summer would be unbearably hot and humid. In August we found that the days were warm, we sweat (women glow) during the day, but enjoyed a refreshing dip in the afternoon. Thank goodness we can swim in the anchorage!! It does cool down in the evening. However, in September it did get much warmer. We could have predicted this, considering the migration of the sun between June and September causes the sun to be directly overhead. The days are much hotter, and sleeping in the V berth (even with our fans) has become difficult. Often one or both of us moves during the night, looking for a cooler place, the salon, cockpit, or deck.

Throughout September we continued with our early morning listening to three different weather reports, Eric from Trinidad at 0630, Chris Parker at 0700 and NOAA on the Cruisers Net at 0730. Thankfully all the wind gods were with us, and a gentle "windy" season was enjoyed by all in the Caribbean. Even the US got a much needed break from the previous years adverse weather.

However we could not become complacent. It is necessary to keep RAFT in "ready" condition, in case the weather did turn nasty. It was not our plans to "run", Ross would prefer to use the mangroves. The boats that stayed in the Hog Island anchorage were better off during Ivan, than anywhere else in Grenada. The anchors are well stuck in the mangrove "goop" and the island and reefs do an exceptional job at reducing the surf.

Boat Chores

After being "on the road" for the past four months, travelling from the Dominican Republic to Grenada, more than regular maintenance must be attended to. We also have been working on some of the boat projects. Last week Ross scrubbed the fuel and tanks, had the heat exchanger welded to stop a leak, and made a new bracket for the alternator, so that the belts could be tightened and run on hi output. The next jobs include replacing the roller on the anchor roller, and buying and installing more cleats, in case we have to fasten lines to the mangroves. We don't have any midship cleats. (this project was never completed.)

We have encountered a problem with low voltage in the batteries even though we have been running the engine. So Ross borrowed a generator and spent 3 days recharging and equalizing our batteries. He was trying to increase our voltage of both the batteries and our recharging system (alternator on the engine). Since we are not moving, and the wind has been almost non existent, and just enough cloud cover to reduce our solar panels input, Ross has been very cognizant of our energy expenditure. All his tweaking with the existing batteries, alternator, and regulator, has led him to the conclusion that our regulator is pooched, and that is one component we do not carry a spare. He could reinstall the old alternator with the builtin regulator, but would rather not. Instead we have joined the list of many boaters in Grenada who are waiting for parts. We have ordered a new regulator which should show up next week...but we know other boaters who have been told the same thing and are still waiting. In the meantime, he has built a homemade "rheostat" from 2 terminal strips and many small lights and one fan, all hooked up in parallel series to give him the resistance he is aiming for. This temporary fix should handle the short term until the replacement regulator arrives. Plus we have been very frugal with our energy requirements. When we were moving, we usually ran the engine more keeping the batteries charged. The new regulator came in from St Maarten on time but was defective and had to be sent back so we continued on with the temporary regulator. Welcome to cruising and fixing your boat in exotic locations. (Picture above: Ross's "rheostat")

Now we have discovered that the alternator is defective. Living on a boat takes its toll. We carry a spareno problem but need to get the old one rebuilt. Although we could call the marine mechanics, we always choose to seek out the land solution. Time to seek out local help. Enter Chetley. Bev went off on her morning walk and I took the bus into to St George's to find reputably best alternator repairman on the island. Our instructions were to get on the bus in Woburn and ask the conductor to get off at Chetley's place--no problem man everybody knows Chetley. Three quarters of the way to St George's the bus stops beside a broken down, overgrown Volvo parked under a Mango tree and a Toyota Corolla. This is Chetley's place of business and if he isnt there, walk a 100 feet back up the road to the Pinto Variety Store and ask for Chetley. The woman in the store said that Chetley was gone, and she did not know when he would be back, this means today, tomorrow or the next day, and that there was no good time to see. Just drop by anytime with your alternator and he will look after it if you can find him. Ross did manage to get a phone number out of her that was for Chetley's home but of course he is never there.

So it was back on the bus to Whisper Cove Marina to wait for Bev to get back from her walk. Once back there the Carib beer truck pulls in for the marina with a beer delivery. There is no one there for the to pay for the delivery because Shelley (the owner) is off on the morning walk with Bev. The beer delivery is 2 days late and the marina is almost out of beer. Rather than let him leave without making his delivery Ross opted to pay for the beer. We now have a 1/3 ownership in the bar stock at Whisper Cove. So goes the morning in Grenada. We eventually did catch up with Chetley and got things organized this morning with the alternator. Phoned Chetley and arranged to meet him at the Pinto Variety Store. Looks like he will repair the alternator for $80 EC. Not too bad a deal and I am probably only being overcharged by $20 EC. He even said that he would have it ready by 11:00 am today. Its now 2:00 pm and we have not heard from him so expect he will miss his self imposed deadline. No surprise there, that's GMT anyway. (Grenada Maybe Time)

Things grow very fast down here. The Crabs and Krill can be heard munching on the bottom of the boat even though Bev scrapes it off every 2-3 weeks. Our northern paints are not as toxic as the Caribbean ones, the bottom paint is still on the boat but it does not stop the growth. That's the reason for the haul out in November when we go home. We will fix the minor bumps and scratches on the bottom and rudder at the same time. Same applies to the oil changes and zinc replacements.

Picture: Bev cleaning anchor bridle

Hash House Harriers

Another new experience. The first one we participated in was at Whisper Cove. About 150 runner/walkers were expected to take part in the event. Bev wanted to take part in the trail experience, and Ross was going to help Whisper Cove run the bar, serving beer before and after. It was a great time, despite the trail being set at low tide, and the event happened at high tide, resulting in a lot of the event taking place in knee to waist deep water. But it was a great way to see the island and meet some of the local people and a lot of the university students.

The next one was two weeks later in Grenville about 15 miles east of here, and Bev wanted to do it. So she organized a bus to go. Ross will drink and socialize with the locals and Bev will walk. The off road trek was incredible, along a valley in the rain forest, up to the top of the hill, incredible views to Carriacou (north) and Grenville. Upon return, we got to try an local delicacy, "oildown".

Next Hash: A full moon hash at Fort Frederick. Hash House Harriers Website [Drinkers with a Walking Problem]

Picture: Bev greeted at the end of a wet Hash

2006-08-30T11:16:00.000-04:00

Summering in Grenada August, 2006

Picture: Hog Island Anchorage as seen from Whisper Cove

It is another beautiful morning, the winds blew most of last night, making sleeping comfortable. The anchorage at Hog Island, is very protected, not rolly, so we enjoy the wind turning the generator blades, keeping the batteries charged up. During the day the solar panels are doing a good job as well. All the rain seems to passing to the north, over the hills.

Picture: Happy Hour at Whisper Cove
We are working ourselves into our weekly routine. Much of our time is spent at Whisper Cove Marina, a new marina just east of the Woburn dock. Nice place and good group of people. Canadians, Philip and Shelly, whose steel ketch went up on a reef in Ivan, are working hard to get a business started there. It is owned by Henry's Safari Tours Monday is movie night there, with 1EC pizza pieces and free popcorn. Tuesday and Thursday Bev goes with a group of cruisers walking the hills around Woburn. The group stops at the local fruit stands and stores for fresh baking.
Friday, we usually go to Clarke’s Court Marina. This marina is just around the point from our anchorage, and was completely destroyed in 2004 when Ivan came through. The owner, Bob, is Canadian/Grenadian, his family and his dock building company are in Pickering, and he is down here now trying to rebuild the marina. He has brought down a tractor trailer from Canada (old Wilson Transport Trailers--we have seen about 5 on the island so far), which he outfitted in Canada with washrooms using Home Depot product...looked just like Home. He has reconstructed the marina bar/restaurant but still has no kitchen so can't serve food. So he has the potluck for the cruisers, we bring the food and buy drinks from the bar, and there is Karioke afterward. Picture: Bev and Connie hamming it up at Karioke!
Saturday it is back to Whisper Cover for dominos, and Sunday is Roger’s BBQ on Hog Island. Add to that the occasional island trip organized by the cruisers, and regular boat chores, incredibly the weeks are passing quickly.
Martin’s marina in Mount Hartman Bay is being redeveloped as a mega yacht marina. The marina is basically empty, 4 mega boats at dock, and about 15 boats tucked in around the bay. The Moorings base has moved out, the hotel and marina are in disarray, no longer a focal point, but they are the only ones between here and Prickley Bay that have fuel. Prickley Bay has about 30 boats anchored there, Spice Island Marina, wiped out in Ivan, has no inwater dockage but has upgraded their land storage, and it is about 1/2 full. Most US insurance companies have put Grenada back in the hurricane box, so the Americans are in Trinidad, and the dog owners are in Venezuela. Only the self insured, fancy way of saying uninsured, like us, are spending the "windy" season in Grenada.
Sometime during the week we take the bus to St. George’s (2EC less than $1 Cdn) to sightsee, and shop. St. George’s is the capital of Grenada, and it is one the prettiest towns we have seen. We had bypassed the anchorage in the Blue Lagoon, which is fully protected but the "anchor holding" is less dependable. Within the older town area, is every possible store you might need, from boat parts, hardware, clothing and groceries. The bus station is close to the cruise boat docks, but in the summer no cruise boats are expected to visit. Over the summer we visited Fort George, enjoyed the great ocean views to the west, beach views to the south and city and mountain views in the other directions. Every day, except Sunday is market day, Friday and Saturday being the busiest in the open air town market. We tried to visit the same fruit/vegetable lady, Sister John, and we got to know her. Her farm is in the north end of the Island. Once she got to know us, she always gave us a little extra, and made sure we found everything we were looking for, even if it meant her going to one of the other ladies’ stands for us.
St. George’s is still recovering from the devastation that Hurricane Ivan left. Many of the buildings have been repaired or are still under construction. However the old historic churches and many of the fort’s buildings are still missing their roofs, and the Parliament buildings are closed, and the government is holding their sessions in the convention center.
There are many grocery stores in town, most are a good size. Foodland and Food Fair are large local stores, and Real Value in Spice Mall is just like a good size IGA we would see at home. We often walk from the Hog Island anchorage, a pleasant 45 min walk across Mount Hartman point, following a rough track up and down a couple of hills and through the cattle and goat pastures to the Spice Mall. From here, you can walk across the road to Grand Anse beach, one of the best beaches, perhaps only the only long, white sand beaches in Grenada. Only problem is that you have to be prepared to walk back, as there is no road access to where we have left the dinghy. However CK’s (great deals on booze, beer, and other package stuff) will deliver to Clarke’s Court Marina, so by the time we walk back, our stuff is usually there to be picked up.
We did a wonderful daytrip, a round the island bus trip, leaving RAFT about 830 and didn't get back until after 6pm. Another boater in the anchorage had arranged the tour in a minivan with a driver, so with 12 other cruisers we took off on a clockwise tour of the island. The roads are narrow and twisty, up and down the mountains, not as bad as in Dominica, not as good as St. Lucia, but we are still glad not to be doing the driving. Picture: Nutmeg drying indoors

We stopped at a waterfall, 2 nutmeg plants (old the "old" way, one a "modern" one still in operation). Grenada used to supply about 1/3 of the world's nutmeg, with 6 nutmeg plants, now, post Ivan, only one plant is operating at about 50 percent capacity. They are replanting the nutmeg trees but expect it will take 20 years to rebuild the industry.

Then we toured the northern towns, had lunch at a small beachside "hut", and then were off to the River Antoine Rum Distillery. This one still uses riverpower and a waterwheel to crush the sugar cane, and wood fires to power the boiling and distillation process. Unfortunately the waterwheel wasn't running while we were there, but we did get to sample the 140-160 proof Rum -- Firey stuff. The chocolate factory was next..here the factory is powered by solar panels, which of course the guys were all interested in. Everybody bought the chocolate bars...very good. The return trip was through the central mountain area, where the forests are still showing the evidence of Ivan. The trip gave us a good overview of island, and we will do further exploring, by taking local buses to the various communities
One day we left about 930 and caught the local bus to head for Grenville, the 2nd largest town on the island, on the east coast. We went with Rick and Connie, (Calaloo) and had to walk the first mile, up hill, to catch the bus. Have we mentioned before that Grenada is a very hilly island, and it seems every trip starts with the walk up the very steep lane from Whisper Cove to the main road. On this trip, we continued walking inland to the crossroads we call "the Cliff", a five road intersection with roads leading to St. George’s, Woburn, Fort Frederick and Grenville. The road to Grenville, snakes around the coast, up and down the steep hills, around hairpin turns, across narrow bridges over V shaped mountainous valleys, through several small villages. It is a beautiful trip.

Picture above: South coast of Grenada
All this in a bus, actually just a van, that the driver pushes to the maximum (about 40 mph) sounding the horn at every turn and hill, passing anything that might slow him down and the conductor watching for potential riders and trying to pack in as many as possible. The road, is paved and barely 2 lanes wide. We are amazed that there aren't more accidents. Bev is always happier to be sitting in the rear, the front passengers' perspective it is like an amusement park ride. We arrived in Grenville safely, certainly getting value for the 5EC fare. We walked around the streets, checked out the stores, churches,market, waterfront, and had lunch. It was a very busy small town. Then we got to to do the roller coaster bus ride back. Ended the day with a movie at the marina…a very full day.
August 22nd. Our first weather worry. The morning the weather reports, indicated that we could have a tropical depression heading our way, and it could come in quite quickly. Winds in a TD should be less than 45 knots, but even that is something we have to prepare for. So today we spent most of the day preparing RAFT, taking down the foredeck tent, wrapping ropes around the sails, setting a second anchor. The evening report is much better, looks like the storm shouldn't be as bad, hopefully just some bad squalls (30-35knots). But we are ready in case it is worse, and today was good practise. The next day was spent watching and waiting, and by Thursday (24th) afternoon TD5 passed between Grenada and Carriacou, and in the anchorage we experienced SW winds up to 30 knots for most of the day, but all the boats were fine, no dragging or issues. TD5 did get upgraded into Hurricane Ernesto and head off toward Florida.

2006-08-03T12:19:00.000-04:00

Bequia to Grenada July 2006

Bequia was delightful, a large anchorage, much easier than it appears on the charts. Check in was very easy, 70 EC for 7 days. The small town is easy to walk, and has a selection of small stores, chandleries and restaurants.
One of our more interesting hikes was across the island to the Turtle Sanctuary. It was very interesting, the owner Mr. King has been trying to save the sea turtles from extinction for the past 11 years. He finds the baby turtles and raises them in pools, protected from predators for about 5 years and then releases them back into the ocean. He has released over 800 turtles. This is a long process, since turtles don't lay eggs until they are 25 years old. But this spring, he had not been able to get any baby turtles, so he is concerned.
This is carnival weekend in Bequia (June 25th) Since we are anchored right off the town, just north of the main channel, we can enjoy the music and parade right on RAFT. The music and parade started about 4 am and lasted until early morning. It wasn't really much of a parade, but the local Bequians were having a good time, dancing, shouting, and imbibing to their loud music. They call it "jump up"
In brisk 20-25 knot easterly winds we had a great sail to the Tobago Cays, anchoring behind the horseshoe reef by mid afternoon. The Cays were everything we expected, very beautiful, an incredible reef that protects the anchorage, allowing the winds but not the waves to sweep in from Africa. We also we fortunate that this late in the season we only had about six or eight boats to share the anchorage with. Bev did do some snorkeling, but with the brisk winds and accompanying big seas, didn't get to do the horseshoe reef.
As things were not expected to settle down, we decided to head to Salt Whistle Bay and duck into the lee of Mayreau Island. This is another gorgeous anchorage, with beaches on both the eastern and western side to explore. The local beach bar is unique, with circular booths whose construction technique is similar to a fieldstone fireplaces. Obviously built to withstand a hurricane!
And speaking of which, it is now July, and we are getting anxious to get further south. Although nothing yet is predicted, we checkout out of the Grenadines in Clinton, (couldn't anchor in harbour, too rough so picked up a mooring ball) Cost 64EC including 13EC for overtime charges Then we had a great sail down to Hillsborough, Carriacou where we anchored off the commercial dock to check in. Luckily for us there was a commercial ship in, so customs and immigration were available, cost 50EC for cruising permit and 40EC for overtime charges. Would have been better if we had travelled on a weekday. A quick tour around Hillsborough showed us nothing is open on a Sunday and everybody goes home. Fortunately the ATM was working so the trip to town was not a complete loss. We up anchored and sailed on to Tyrrell Bay where we found about 40 boats in this lovely anchorage.
We have been investigating Carriacou, as a possible place to spend the hurricane season. Carriacou is a small island, about 13 sq. miles, about 20 miles north of Grenada. There are about 1000 people living on the island, and it is not a tourist location. Most of the boats are with us in Tyrell Bay, on the south west corner of the island. We hadn't considered staying here, until we met some other boats who have, and will, and they kept singing the praises of the island. It does have a fantastic hurricane hole, and Ross got a tour of it, with one of the other boat skippers who was here for both Ivan and Emily and came through without any problems. All the boaters work together, when there is a warning, to get the boats into the "holes", and secured to the mangroves. We are certainly hoping we don't have to experience this, but it is good to know that there is quite a system in place here. It also is a very friendly and safe island. But there isn't a lot to do, you can easily walk from one side to the other, which we have been doing. There are lovely beaches and you can swim in the harbour where we are anchored. We are still investigating our options.
But from now on, the weather is our prime concern, and much of our day is spent getting, listening to, and discussing what is happening, and how it will or won't affect us. Its payback time for living in paradise. Our morning starts at 0630 listening to Eric out of Trinidad, then 0700 Chris Parker and then 730 we can get the weather from the Grenada Cruiser Net. After determining that there is no imminent or coming "bad stuff" we can get on with our day.
We are rediscovering what "living on a boat" as opposed to travelling is all about. We decided we wanted to meet some of the local people, and thought maybe we could do some volunteering. We visited the library, tourist information people, and the Ministry office, really wanted something with adults, literacy, environment ie clearing nature trails or (re)building homes. What was offered to us was helping at a Youth summer program. We went for 2 days, but it wasn't what we what to do, and certainly not every day. They have 120 kids aged 8-16 and are trying to run summer school in the morning and games in the afternoon. But they have no equipment, and no organization and the teachers (and it is run by professional teachers) spend most of their time lining the kids up, Ross calls it "queuing up", and trying to get the kids to be quiet. We will try again when we move down to Grenada and check out the "doing something" opportunities there, it is a larger island, 100,000 people.
We had a wonderful downwind sail from Carriacou to Grenada, wind and waves on the stern quarter pushing us along, no banging and splashing. Only when we turned the corner at the southwest end of Grenada, to head to the anchorage did we have to deal with the wind on the nose. But that was only for 3 miles and we put the motor on and hammered our way through. We maneuvered our way through the reefs that protect the entrance to the bay, called for assistance one, and then anchored RAFT beside Avalon V, George and Mary out of Trenton, whom we haven't seen since Luperon. It was the first passage in a long time, that the inside of RAFT did not look like a warzone.
Hogg Island is going to be our home for awhile. First impressions are good, a small bay, protected by reefs from the ocean swells, and mangroves around the outside. Mangroves provide fantastic surge control, not reflecting waves back, like you get from hard shores. Plus the mangrove plants are extremely strong, well anchored. If nasty weather should come, we would tie RAFT to the mangroves, which are better anchors than the ones we carry.
Immediately after we had anchored, George and Mary came over to welcome us, have a celebratory drink, and give us the "whats available and where to get it" info for Grenada. They have been here for over a month, but have also spent at least one other summer here. We put RAFT back in anchoring mode, put the foretent back up, put the fuel jugs back up on the deck, drop the dinghy and put the motor back on, and start exploring this new island.

2006-06-30T15:48:00.000-04:00

Martinique, St. Lucia and Bequia June 2006

Picture: anchoring under the fort in Fort de France

Still feeling uneasy, anchoring with our secondary anchor, we decided it was time to make for Martinique, where we hope we will be able to get new chain and sleep better at night. So after one night on a ball at Roseau, we were up early to head south. We had a great down wind sail, flying at 7.5 knots across the Dominican Passage. We anchored under the old fort at Fort de France by 3 in the afternoon.
Check in was very easy, Sea Services Marine, not only checked us in and out, were able to outfit us with new chain and rode by the next day. We even got a great price, since there was a boat show taking place in the anchorage, so we received a 15% show discount. Sharla, a former Canadian, who works there did a great job for us! We spent the remainder of the day, and the next walking the town. Fort de France has a European atmosphere, great French restaurants, and shops with affordable French wines, cheese and pates. Leader Price is a good store for this purpose, having a good selection of wines and other goods, and they will let you borrow their grocery carts to deliver you purchases to the main dock. That was a good thing, because we really loaded up on the $2-$3 wine, as Martinique will be the last French island we will visit for awhile.
We would have loved to spend more time in Martinque, visiting St. Pierre (buried in the 1902 volcano, and the anchorages on the south side, but as we are past the middle of June and tracking tropical waves every morning, we wanted to get further south. We will definitely spend more time on this island, when we head north next year. So we are off to St. Lucia. We were having such a great sail, that we decided to pass Rodney Bay and head for Marigot, which was described in both the cruising guides and by some other sailors as a lovely small anchorage. As we pulled into the bay, all we could see were condos, marina docks and lots of boats, so we decided to skip Marigot and head for Soufriere. In Soufriere we were surprised to find no other cruising boats, the park moorings were completely empty. Since we had to check in, we took a ball closest to the town and went ashore.

From the waterfront, the town appears to be very poor, people living in small metal huts, farming pigs and cattle right on the waterfront. Chickens and goats running free in the town. After checking in, we got caught up on a "tour scam". It started with him offering to show us where the bakery was. We thought he was just a helpful local. He did take us to a neat home bakery, still baking in a wood fireplace, where we did buy some great still warm bread. After that he started to tell us the island history, we realized this was his occupation and we asked him "how much?" which he would not commit. After he back doored us into the Botanical Gardens. This is where we drew the line, we would rather pay the admission fee, as it goes to support the park. We got rid of the "guide", we only giving him 10 EC (about $4 US) and he wanted more. Tough, we didn't want a tour anyhow, and he certainly was not upfront and honest with us. We continued to walk around the town and were looking at a tree along the road, which we thought was an almond. We asked a local, and he took picked up the fruit on the ground, and with a sharp piece of broken concrete, pounded out the almond from the center. It took a couple of minutes to get each small nut, a lot of work, but the nuts are good. We gladly gave him 10EC for showing us how to get almonds. We continued on our exploration of the village, and we came upon 2 men that were making cement blocks by hand. They had mixed the cement, were filling the moulds, packing it down, and sliding off the moulds. The man in charge said he could sell all he could make, just on the side of the road. 2.50 - 3.0 0 EC a block (about $1US each). In these communities, there are ways to make a living, but it is hard work.
The next day walked to the Sulphur Springs. Here hot gases are venting, and there are pools of boiling water, just like in Yellowstone Park, but no geysers. They advertise this as the "drive in volcano" We had never seen anything like it. The sulphur fumes have created a landscape just like around Sudbury, no vegetation, just white/yellow and then black rocks.. but this is natural. Along the road we picked mangos and when we arrived back in town we smelt fresh fish. On the main corner there was a fisherman hacking up fresh tuna and we bought enough for a great fish dinner.
We have been hearing about security issues in St. Vincent, boat boardings in Chateaubelair, etc. so we are hesitant to leave St. Lucia alone. But the Pitons and mountainous terrain, don't allow VHF communication with out boatfriends in Rodney Bay and we don't know when they are going to show up. It also prevented us from hearing about the violence in Rodney Bay. So we continue to stay on the mooring ball right near town, where we figure we are the safest. The boat boys do come out each day, trying to sell us fruits and bread, offer to clean the bottom etc but they have not been a problem. The boat boy at the dinghy boat is much more aggressive, but we continue to lock up our dinghy without need of his "protection".
While we wait for both weather and more boats we go do some more land exploring. We took the local bus to the southeast corner of the island (6EC each) to Vieux Fort. I had always thought of St. Lucia as a prosperous, touristy island. In Vieux Fort, there were no white faces, but it has an international airport that we didn't see a plane using, a fabulous Atlantic sand beach that horses and livestock are grazing on, and a lot of poverty. But there were no beggars, or tourist hockers, this area doesn't usually see non natives, and didn't bother us a all. Guess all the other touristy stuff is in the northwest corner of the island, the part of the island we missed.
We still are alone, but we are leaving St. Lucia anyhow sailing for Bequia. We really wanted to buddy boat this crossing, but we have been separated from the boats we were with in Dominica and Martinque.. We can see two boats following us out, we were able to contact the boat behind us, so at least we have one buddy boat, never met them but thats all right, we will have a drink together when we get to Bequia.

We arrived safely in Bequia, no problems sailing by St. Vincent, and Calaloo anchored beside us.

2006-06-15T15:42:00.000-04:00

Dominica June 2006
After complaining terribly about the lack of sailing we have been able to do, we finally had a great sail from the Saints to Prince Rupert Bay. Once we cleared the islands, we set our sails, close hauled in the east winds (10-15knots) and made Dominica in one tack. Since it was Saturday, we had to go to the customs officers home (next to the commercial dock) to clear in. The cost, which was mainly the overtime fee was $25 US. After a quick walk through Portsmouth, which reminded us much of Luperon, maybe a little better, we were off to the Purple Turtle to help another boater’s son celebrate his birthday (local Kubali beer 3.50 EC about $1.50 US for a small bottle)
We have been learning about new weather patterns now, tropical waves and of course there is Tropical Storm Alberto, the first one of the new hurricane season, fortunately which will not affect us. But the tropical wave expected mid week will. So we decided to stay put, since Prince Rupert Bay is a good anchorage. In the meantime we will explore Dominica.
Sunday, we set off for Cabrits National Park. Cabrits means goats, after the goats that the British left on the island to provide meat for the soldiers. Fort Shirley is being restored, a lot of work is being done to maintain this 200 year old fort. But what really is amazing are the ruins of the Douglas Bay Battery, officers residence and commandants house being reclaimed by the immense vegetation. It could be a movie site for another Jurassic Park.
Monday, we rented a car with Tom and Christine from Rock and Roll. The rental guy suggested we go north and east first, as the roads are better coming back from Roseau, especially if we were travelling after dark. So off we went, on roads that twisted and turned, up and down the mountains, banana plants beside us clinging to the steep slopes. Our first stop, Valleyview Bakery. A small hut, where 2 guys were baking bread, commercially. The dough was mechanically kneaded, but everything else was done by hand, and the bread was baked in a stone oven, heated by a wood fire. Of course, it was great, hot and delicious. Next we stopped and picked some bananas at the side of the road, and we were off to the Carib Indian Territory. Here the road is lined with small stands selling baskets, wood carvings, fruits and local food. The old Carib woman at the one we stopped at, gave us a lesson on the local fruits and samples of passion fruit, while the young lad went out and picked fresh papaya from the tree in the yard. We passed a man frying what looked like tortillas, so we had to stop there too. On a broken piece of a cast iron pot on a wood fire the man was frying bread made from cassava (yucca), coconut and sugar…it was excellent. By now it was lunch time and Tom was hungry so we stopped at a small restaurant near a school to try their johnnycake and crab, and chicken.
We started out trek inland to Emerald Pool, another site in the National Park system. (each site costs 5.20EC each, but you can buy a day or week pass) Here we hiked along a wide well maintained path through the rainforest, to the deep, sand bottom pool at the bottom of a beautiful waterfall. We were the only one swimming in the fresh water pool. Apparently the next day would be busier, as a cruise ship is expected into Roseau. We were glad we were doing our trek today.
In order to get to Trafalgar Falls, we had to go into Roseau and back up another mountain, further south. The roads were getting narrower and steeper, with very few opportunities to pass. One would hope that they were one way, but they weren’t. Tom did an amazing job of weaving up and down, around the curves and dodging the other vehicles. We were happy to be in the back seat of this roller coaster adventure ride. Think Christene would have liked to be with us also. Trafalgar Falls consists of two high waterfalls, on two rivers emptying into the same river valley. It is an easy walk to the viewing platform and a more challenging one across the rocks to the bottom of the first falls. Only Tom was sufficiently adventurous to swim across the pool and climb up the falls part way and jump in. We took pictures. None of us were up to the climb to the bottom of the second falls….another time.
We returned to Roseau, and headed north, on the good road. Unfortunately it was after 4 pm by the time we were at the Machoucheri Rum Factory which closed promptly at 3pm, so we were unable to tour it, or buy any rum…something else to do another time. As we entered Portsmouth, we were surprised by the nice apartments around the Ross Medical School. We saw a pizza restaurant, so decided it was dinner time. Here we met a professor from the school, who have their boat in Grenada (on the hard in St. David’s) and they told us all about the school, and what it was like to live in Dominica and what to expect in Grenada.
Back to the boats after dark, very usual for us, but it had been a great day.
The next day, it rained, and rained, not too much wind, but lots of rain. We did laundry, and collected fresh water, and read.

2006-06-03T15:42:00.000-04:00

Nevis to Guadaloupe June 2006

Picture: Ross at small waterfall on river hike

After a pleasant walk to the bakery in Basseterre, St. Kitts, we paid our marina bill ($57 US for the 3 nights) we were off to Nevis. The wind continues to be on the nose, but at least we are in the lee of St. Kitts, so we motored southeast. We had hardly anchored off the Four Seasons Resort, when we were radio invited by Rock and Roll to a potluck on their boat that evening. Tom and Christine hosted a spaghetti dinner for 13, and we all fit. It was a great opportunity to establish relationships with the new group of boats we would be travelling with as we all head south. Each boat has a slightly different timetable and destination, but along the line we will be seeing or hearing each other on the radio.
Dawn the next morning we left with Paanga, heading for Guadaloupe. We were doing okay, motor sailing close hauled toward the north end of Montserrat. Because of the ash venting, travel on the western side was not recommended. At 1230 we got an excited call from Paanga, they had experienced 30-35 kn. Winds as they rounded the northern point of the island. We reefed our sails and tacked further north to remain in the deeper water. It was a very rough sail around the north end. We experienced 30Kn winds, huge waves, and the inside of RAFT was just a mess from the pounding and sea spray.
Fortunately we knew that the entrance to Deschaies (pronounced De Hay) was straight in, and Paanga had left a night light on to guide us in. We arrived in around midnight and we happy to get the anchor down. No real damage, but everything was wet and salty and in disarray.
The next morning we checked in with the French officials, no problem and no charge and set off on the hike up the Deschaies River. It is not a well marked trail, in fact there didn’t appear to be trail at all, we just climbed the rocks as we made our way up the river. Near what we thought had to be the top, we stopped and skinny dipped in the fresh water…it was great. Doyle’s guide book promised a road at the top, which we never saw. Finally we took off up the river valley, into a field, over a gate into a monastery. We asked the monk, which way back to Deshaies, and he pointed to the left. We walked down the concrete road, picking mangoes as we went. Once we were in town, we met some other cruisers, talked a little before heading back to RAFT.

Picture: picking mangoes along road

As we approached RAFT we noticed that the snubber was off, and that we were anchored with our secondary anchor on rode. Very quickly we found out that our chain rode on the Bruce anchor had broken, and RAFT was adrift in the harbour. Other boaters came to her rescue, before she drifted out too far, found the key we always leave in the ignition and used the second anchor which is always ready to reanchor her. What wonderful people cruisers are. We were able to find out easily who we were indebted to, and gave our heartfelt thanks. Then we set about finding our anchor and what had happened. Fortunately we were only anchored in 18 feet of water, and with 100 feet of chain on the sand, it was easy to find and follow it to the anchor. With the help of Gary from Rainbow Rider (a diver) we were able to retrieve the chain (it ended up in the garbage) and our anchor which was attached to our spare rode.
As to why the chain broke, all we can say, is that the chain had rusted badly over the summer in Florida. We tried to clean it with acid, paint it with anti rust paint, but it continued to flake rust all winter, gumming up the windlass and making a mess of our decks. We thought it was a cosmetic problem and were planning on getting new chain in Grenada, part of our summer list of things to do. Obviously, it was more than a cosmetic issue, and one of the links gave way. Not going to chance it again, it all was disposed of, and until we have the opportunity to replace it, we will be anchoring with 50 ft of chain and the rest nylon rode. This will require putting out more scope and allowing more swinging room and maybe even using 2 anchors if necessary. We were very lucky the chain broke where and when it did and no damage was done to RAFT or any other boats.
We were getting anxious to start moving south, especially as Chris on his morning weather reports is starting to talk about tropical waves and the first tropical depression of the season. We head off for the Saints. We have a nice sail in the lee of Guadaloupe, and stayed close to the light house as we come to the southern most point. The winds were unusual, even westerly (onshore) for the middle of the island, and piped up to 35K in one gust at the south end. We were doing fine tacking across the open ocean to the Saints until we were about 5 miles out. Then we were hit by a 2 knot current against us, and that slowed us right down. But we did find a place to anchor near the fishing dock in only 22 ft of water, but there were lots of boats, and moorings around us. Especially after yesterday, we did not feel that comfortable. We didn’t even drop the dinghy, to do any exploring. Bright and early the next morning we were on our way to Dominica.

Picture: Windmill farm on the Saints

2006-05-28T15:41:00.000-04:00

Marigot , St. Martin to Nevis May 2006

Picture: Rob, Ross, Diane's Mom and Diane at the beach bar in Phillipsburg

We arrived in Marigot the holiday weekend celebrating the emancipation of the slaves. All the stores, and banks were closed. We knew we were going to be here for a few days, so that really didn’t matter. On Saturday, the market was also closed, and that was a little disappointing. They did have a celebration that evening, with live music and some of it was excellent, but no steel bands.
We are waiting in St. Martin until Wednesday, as that is when our Canadian friends, are arriving on a cruise ship in Phillipsburg. It will be good to see Rob and Dianne who are travelling with their family. Their children and ours are about the same age and many years ago when the kids were in elementary school we did a lot of things together, Tball, scouts, canoe camping etc. and we have remained friends since. They are also bringing a new AC adapter for our computer, to replace the one that went on the fritz a few weeks ago. (We have 2 identical used laptops so can swap out parts if required, so we still were up and running while we waited for the replacement to come. Getting one delivered from Canada seemed the easiest way, since we knew Rob and Dianne were coming).
The day they were to come in we went to Phillipsburg on the bus ($1.50 US each,one way). We had sent an email to meet us on the beach at a particular bar, one we had seen in a magazine picture so were confident was there, but had not received a confirmation. We hoped that they were getting our emails while they were on the ship. Ross waited at the selected spot while Bev walked around, hoping we would be able to find each other. There were two cruise boats in Phillipsburg that morning, and we had envisioned 5000 people streaming into Front Street and it being a zoo. Actually there were not many people around, and we were wondering where they were. But there they were sitting under the exact sign we had seen in the picture. No they hadn’t gotten our email, but thought that this was a good place to watch for us and it worked.
Their kids had gone their own way for the day. Rob and Dianne wanted to see some of St. Martin, not interested in jewellery shopping in Phillipsburg. We took them back on the bus to Marigot. As we left the bus, an open Jeep like automobile went by, and low and behold it was their kids. We went to the waterfront and had a great lunch in one of the small restaurants, catching up on old times. Then we sent the parents back on the bus (the Jeep wasn’t large enough and kids still wanted to do some beaching) to Phillipsburg. It was a great interruption to our cruising life, or a chance for someone else to see what we are really doing or not out here.
Having been a week in Marigot, it was definitely time to move on. But the winds continued to be SE and that was the direction we wanted to go, of course!! Where was the beam reach sailing we had been promised once we did the Anegada? We set out to go around the north end of St. Martin in order to get a little better angle on the winds, and make our way to Ile Fourche, a deserted islane north of St. Barts that we had great memories of from our trip in 1999. Once we rounded the north end of St Martin, we were able to make one long tack from Tintemarre to Table Rock, where we encountered a squall with 25knot winds. We shortened sail, started the motor and motor sailed the balance of the way into the anchorage, where we found mooring balls. We were still using our Doyle book from 1999, so were unaware of changes that had been made. We were informed that these balls were free, and no one did come out to collect. Although the island is posted, we did make our way up to see the view from the top, it was still fantastic, but the goats are gone.
We had hoped to sail directly from Ile Fourche to Guadaloupe but again the winds continued to blow SE, so we headed over to St. Kitts. The going was fine until we got in behind St. Kitts, and once again it was a tough motor tack into the SE winds. At the entrance to Basseterre, we encountered a sailboat with its boom on the deck, trying to tack into the anchorage with just its headsail. We asked him if he needed assistance, his engine had overheated, and his mainsail was ripped and yes he would love us to help out. We towed him into the anchorage off the marina.
Ross went quickly into the marina to make a call to friend that lives on St. Kitts. John had not been responding to our emails, and we figured he was not on the island, but since we were here, we would try one more time. We found John at home, and discovered at the same time that the marina only charged 50 cents a foot, free water and great showers. There was only one thing to do, pull up to the dock. We hadn’t been in a marina since Nassau, but here docking was quite easy.
We spend a couple of wonderful days touring St. Kitts, visiting with John and Karen, loving their home with the fabulous views over Frigate Bay. Ross even played golf on the Royal St. Kitts golf course, the longest course in the Caribbean. But time is ticking and it is time to move on.

2006-05-25T15:40:00.000-04:00

British Virgin Islands May 2006

Picture -- The Baths, Virgin Gorda

Guess we are not BVI type cruisers, because so far not much has impressed us. We don’t like the deep anchorages, all the mooring balls you have to pay for, all the charter boats, etc. We are actively looking for long term cruisers to continue our trip south, and the BVI’s just happen to be one of the stops.
We left Roadtown, after a rolly night and were heading for the south side of Peter Island, where another boater said we could anchor. We were in the passage between Normans and Peter about 1 pm when we were hit with a 44 knot gust which caused us to turn around. So we went to Norman’s and took a ball for the night. Went over to the caves, and were not impressed.
The next day we went to Trellis Bay, more boats and balls. It was pretty but we are still not impressed. So we took off for Virgin Gorda, where we know the cruisers wait to cross the Anegada. We anchored off the Sandbox restaurant, and didn’t mind this area. The Drake’s anchorage reminded us of Dakity. We took the dinghy to the beach and gave it a good cleaning. We went to the Sandbox for a beer and to get information about clearing out. We had hoped that we could get a bus or water taxi back to Spanish Town rather than moving RAFT, but no that wasn’t possible. You could hire a taxi (about $40) to take you there, that was the only transportation available.
We decided to take RAFT to Spanish Town, and use the moorings (after all you only pay if you stay the night) check out and leave. The weather looked as good as it was going to be for doing the Annegada ---light south easterlies. Since we were in Spanish Town, we decided to walk out to the Baths. Having done the Jacuzzi’s in Culebrita we were expecting more of the same except with more people.
Here we were pleasantly surprised, not by the Baths or the number of people, but by the hike through the unique rock formations down to the Baths from the road, and out to Devil’s Bay and back to the parking lot. Caves, slim passages between towering rocks, and fabulous cacti line the walkway from the Baths. As far as we are concerned you can skip the water portion of the Baths, but definitely do the walks. They were exceptional, but you need to bring lots of water.
We left Spanish Town at 1430 and motored into light SE winds (4-8 knots) with an Easterly Swell of 4-6 feet. By midnight the winds had picked up to 12-14 and the waves were a little larger, but we kept on motoring. We arrived at St. Martin in the early morning and initially thought about going to Simpson Bay, but there were no boats there, and it was pretty rolly, so we changed our minds and went into Marigot on the French side. There were about 50 boats including some we had seen before, hopefully someone to do the next passages with. Checked in, easy,and no cost. The French do this part right.

2006-05-15T15:22:00.000-04:00

Guests on RAFT --May 2006

Picture--Bev, Kathryn and Ron enjoying Flaminco Beach

This is the first time we will be having guests on RAFT in a long time. Bev’s sister and brother in law, Kathryn and Ron are flying into San Juan to stay with us for a couple of weeks. They are not sailors, but do enjoy Caribbean holidays, especially swimming, snorkeling, and beaching. And they are good travelers and campers, they have their own RV and have taken it across Canada a couple of times, have walked up several mountains and we have enjoyed canoe camping with them in the past. So we think they should adapt to our cruising lifestyle easily.
We returned to Culebra, enjoying a great downwind sail from St. Thomas and attached RAFT to a mooring ball at Dakity Beach behind the reef. Then we arranged with another boater to take us to town the following morning to take the ferry to Fajardo, where we had arranged to rent a car. We quickly walked to World Car Rentals, wanting to beat the rush off the ferry and were first in line to pick up our car, a very basic one, 4 doors, no power locks or windows but for $33.00 a day we weren’t complaining. Then we headed north to San Juan. Once we found where the airport was, we went right by it, and determined that their plane was on time, we took the afternoon to explore Old San Juan. This city was fantastic. We thought that having been to Santo Domingo, we could skip another historic city, but we are glad we didn’t miss this one. All of the buildings have been restored, it was clean, colourful and very interesting. We toured El Moro and Fort San Cristobel, and enjoyed watching the local Puerto Ricans enjoy a beautiful Sat. afternoon in the park, playing ball and flying kites.
Kathryn and Ron’s plane arrived on time. We found them and loaded all of their packs (they brought too much stuff) into the car we were off, heading west out of San Juan. Our plan was to find a small hotel along the north coast and tour the island from there. We stopped at a local BBQ and with our limited Spanish made inquiries. The man there was trying to direct us to the Hyatt. Nothing against the Hyatt, but we were looking for a more affordable solution. When asked where would he stay, the reply, go to Playa Baja Vega and get a beach apartment. Off we went, and there we stopped at a parking lot. The attendant directed us to the pina colada van across the road. "They have an apartment" we were told. Yvetta showed us the 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, spotless secure unit, the main floor of their home. "Quanto Cuesta?" $75 per night…great deal!! We went back to the busy beach front corner and ate at the open restaurant across the road, having been told by Poyo and Yvetta that they have good fish. Ron and Kathryn went around the back and picked the fish they wanted, it was cleaned and cooked on the spot. Excellent!!
The next day we headed off inland to the Arecibo Telescope, the largest radio telescope in the world, something Ross wanted to see. The trip into the mountains was scenic, beautiful flowers and huge trees, small villages, the true Puerto Rico. After that it back north to the beach, and spent the afternoon walking along the sand as the surf pounded in. The locals were surfing and having Sunday picnics.
Monday, we were up bright and early to miss the rush hour traffic around San Juan. We detoured into el Yunque Rain Forest. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to do any of the trails, but we did see enough to wet our appetite, and plan a future stop . After a quick provisioning at Amigo, in Fajardo, we returned the rental car and made the 3 pm ferry back to Culebra. It was a rough ferry trip, waves crashing as high as the second deck of the ferry, so we were glad we hadn’t brought RAFT over. That would not have been a good first sail for non sailors.
Transportation back to RAFT was the next challenge , all the local water taxis expect ou to have a phone to contact them. Being roaming cruisers it was something we had given up long ago. None seemed readily available, so Ross and Ron walked to Mamcita’s to see if anyone was there. There they met Mike, a Zee Zee Top lookalike who picked us up at the Government dock in his workboat, bottle of beer in his hand et al. But we got everyone and everything back to RAFT mostly dry. That night Kathryn and Ron got to have their first Caribbean sunset, rum and Tampico in hand, on the foredeck of a sailboat. As expected, it was a quiet night on the mooring ball in Dakity.
The winds and waves were still up the next day, so we walked out to Flaminco Beach and had a wonderful day swimming, snorkeling, beaching and playing on the tanks. This used to be a old military firing range. We took the bus back to Dewey, and found that our friends Joe and Rick from Luperon were arriving on a boat delivery. The boat was supposed to be going to St. Thomas, but mechanical problems had forced it to be sailed into the west anchorage at Dewey. We all got together for drinks in the Dinghy Bay as it poured rain.

We were off to Culebrita the next day, and that island did not disappoint K&R. They snorkeled, played in the Jacuzzis, and climbed to the lighthouse. On the second night, they got their photo postcard moment, RAFT was the only boat in the anchorage.
We motor sailed to Charlotte Amalie, where K&R explored the Danish town, while we got caught up on some laundry and boat chores. After some light provisioning at the Kmart and Pueblo we headed off to Christmas Cove. Here K&R experienced their first bumpy anchorage, but they didn’t complain. They we so excited about the variety of fish they continued to see every time they snorkeled a new reef.
The next few days, we explored all the different anchorages, hikes and reefs on the north side of St. John. We all got a real "kick" out of the accommodations and programs offered at Maho Campgrounds.
K&R’s return flight was booked out of San Juan, and so we had to get them back there. While we were in Charlotte Amalie, they had booked the seaplane to take them to San Juan. They took the first ferry out of Cruz Bay to Charlotte Amalie, caught the seaplane, which deposited them in San Juan Harbour. They had arranged a B&B in Olde San Juan, so that they would have one day to see the historic sites before they returned to Canada. All worked well for them and we know that they had a great holiday.
Now it was our time to reoganize our life and RAFT, and get back into our routine. After we put K&R on the ferry, we sought out the Laundromat in Cruz Bay and we were off to the BVI’s.

Spanish & US Virgins April 2006

2006-05-03T15:05:00.000-04:00

Spanish & US Virgins April 2006
Originally uploaded by S/V Raft.

Picture: Mocko Jumbies, Carnival Charlotte Amalie St. Thomas USVI

We are now in a holding pattern, waiting for guests. For cruisers, guests are wonderful and we are looking forward to their arrival, but setting a schedule is very difficult for cruisers. We had encouraged Bev's sister and brother in law to come for a visit, and they set the time, May 6th - 20th and as per our rules we set the place. We had had this discussion with them when we were home in March and RAFT was in Luperon. So we told them to fly to San Juan Puerto Rico, as we knew there were affordable flights and counted on this giving us lots of options. If we were anywhere in Puerto Rico, they could get a bus or we could rent a car. We also knew that there was a ferry between Fajardo and Culebra, if we got that far.

If you have been reading our log reports, you realize since we left Luperon, we have been on a fast pace, just because the weather windows were available and longer than we expected. So by April 20th, we are in Culebra with some time to spend, before our company arrives.

We really didn't have any boat projects, not counting brightwork and stainless, but who wants to do that! so we are going to spend the next three weeks enjoying the slow pace. While we are in Dewey, we investigated ferry and air transportation back to Puerto Rico. The ferry from Culebra to Fajardo makes three round trips each day, and at $4.50 return it is a deal. We took the 630 am trip, arrived in Fajardo, walked to the Golden Bagel for breakfast, met another boater who agreed to share his cab and take us to Walmart and West Marine. We shopped and walked, it is a long walk, but we stopped along the way and found the Amigo grocery store, pulling our bundle buggy full of wine, fruits and vegetables, and returned to the ferry terminal in time to take the 3pm ferry back to Culebra.

Another day we walked, another long hike, out to Flamingo Beach. It is a lovely north beach, usually too rough to bring the big boats to, and there a two rusting American tanks, left on the the beach. This is where most of the weekend PR tourists end up, enjoying the beach, picnicking and camping. Local buses and taxis regularly run out to the beach, so you don't have to walk.

We moved RAFT out of the town anchorage to check out the one at Dakity. It was really interesting, the only protection offered is the reef, but it does a great job of shielding the boats from the waves and swells, but allows the winds to keep everything cool. There are complementary mooring balls there and a neat group of cruisers.

After seeing and doing everything there is to do in Dewey, we decided to head off to St. Thomas. We anchored in the main Charlotte Amalie with 3 huge cruiseboats and about 50 other pleasure boats. We were pleased to find out that we had arrived just in time for Carnival. Having seen Junkanoo in the Bahamas, two Carnivals in the Domincan Republic, we were very happy to see another.

Friday was the Junior Parade, for the school kids. This parade was dominated by majorettes, steel bands, live rock music and regal prince and princesses dressed in beautiful gowns riding in open covertables. The kids were very enthusiastic and the quality of the music, excellent. Saturday was the adult parade. Here the very colourful ornate costumed dancers replaced the baton twirlers. There still were steel bands and live music plus Mocko Jumbies. Mocko Jumbies are parade participants walking, dancing and fooling around on stilts. They can be up to 10 feet tall. The history of the mocko jumbie is African in origin, and their purpose is to scare away the evil spirits. This method of removing evil spirits hurt much less than the wacking we experienced in the DR. Every evening the partying continued downtown, with music serenading, quite loudly, the downtown anchorage until 1am each night. We enjoyed the music but it did interrupt our early usual bedtime.

We decided to head off to Christmas Cove, a favourite anchorage at the east end of St. Thomas, so we could get a quiet night's sleep. This is a lovely anchorage with good snorkeling, especially at the south end of the island. Then we continued on east, to check out St. John. Most of St. John is a National Park, and has many rules, as to where you can anchor (very few places) but they do have mooring balls for $15. There are a lot of hiking trails, taking us to the ruins of an old Sugar Mill and School, which dated back to the slave era. Snorkeling was disappointing, as there was a persistent swell and visibility was reduced. Hopefully when we return with Kathyrn and Ron, conditions will be better.

Now having done all our research, we are not returning to Culebra so that we can take the ferry to Fajardo to meet our guests.

2006-04-24T10:14:00.000-04:00

Salinas to Culebra April 2006
Originally uploaded by S/V Raft.

Picture: Bev in the Jacuzzis, Isla de Culebrita

We were welcomed into Salinas by two boats that we had met in Luperon, Rose and Meridian Chaser. Didn't have much time with Rose, Sandra and Bill, only a quick hello and goodbye as they were off the next morning heading west. Jan and Judy on Meridian Chaser had been in Salinas for about a month and were willing to share all the info on this sailor friendly town, starting with dinner at Cruisers' Galley. New owners had taken over in the past few months, and the food was excellent and affordable -- all you could eat BBQ with salad bar for $10. We also found Roy and Wanda (the poet on Renaiance) who are staying in the marina until they leave for an family trip to Alaska in June.

Salinas harbour is surrounded by mangroves 360 deg so it is very protected. Some people use this as a hurricane hole. The harbour and the local wet lands are natural breeding grounds for Manatee and yes there are lots of them here and they are not imported. Playa Salinas has a good bakery and a great marine supply store so most of our needs can be met. Everything is close at hand except food stores and auto part stores. These are in Salinas proper a couple of miles up the road.

The westerly winds are continuing and we know we should really be taking advantage of this but still want to tour the island and get some boat things fixed. At Playa Salinas Marine we were able to get a bracket to replace one that broke off the boom (for the main sheet) and have a new topping lift made. Our old one, made of stainless steel aircraft cable was unravelling. In the quiet harbour it was easy to hoist Ross up the mast to install the new one. (Thanks Jan for your backup) That took two big jobs off the list. We plan to rent a car Wednesday/Thursday to travel to the Aricebo Radio Telescope Observatory and the Rio Camuy Cave Park and reprovision along the way. We can't go earlier because the Aricebo is not open on Monday and Tuesday. We had met up with a nice young Columbian couple, Natalie and Luis, (Vagamundo) and planned to share the trip with them.

But Monday morning, our weather reports indicated that we would have a great opportunity to get to Culebra early this week, and that by the weekend the winds would be too strong to allow us to go. So we quickly changed our plans, we went shopping (still with Natalie and Luis) completely filling the rental car with all of our purchases, mostly food. It was great having Natalie and Luis along, because Spanish is their first language, and they negotiated a better price for the rental car (got a full sized car for the price of the small ones) and got us into Sam's as "visitors" something they are not usually willing to do.

We returned to the Marina in Salinas, quickly dinghied our purchases to RAFT, put the refrigerator stuff in the refrigerator, and then went to have drinks with Roy and Wanda, and farewell dinner again at the Cruisers' Galley Upon our return to RAFT, we still had to store all our purchases away and get ready to take off in the morning.

We had a wonderful sail to Vieques. The seas are calm and the winds not quite strong enough for us to turn off the engine, but it is still a wonderful day to be on the ocean. We anchored carefully off Green Beach, having dragged through the grassy area to the sand, but the anchor held before it reached the coral ledge. Bev dove to check the anchor and enjoy the fish swimming under RAFT. This is only the second time since we left Georgetown that we have been able to enjoy the water.

When we arrived, there was one powerboat there, and he left, leaving us the entire anchorage to ourselves. When this happens we are always concerned that maybe we misread the weather, or charts and question whether we should stay. But we had a very quiet night, and had no difficulty getting the anchor up in the morning.

The winds were still forecast to be light so headed to a little bay on the east end Viaques, Baie Icacos. The US Navy used Veiques as a NATO bombing range for the last 40 years. We have heard that the the bombing range been closed in the last two years and that with permission you can anchor in the little bays BUT DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!! We call the range control to request permission and got no answer. Procedure then is if you get no answer than it is okay to go. We were entering the anchorage when the range control called to inform us that we had to leave the area immediately as the range was "HOT" and that we were in the "fragmentation fallout area". Don't your just love military terms. Appears that they are in the process of cleaning up the range and disposing of unexploded ordinance. This caused us to alter course to Culebra which was our ultimate destination.

We decided to take advantage of the light winds and anchor on the north side of Culebrita. As promised by the guide books, this is a fantastic anchorage as long as there are no northerly swells. We picked up the last mooring ball (free) and started to explore the island. First stop: the Jacuzzi's Here there several ponds, somewhat cut off from the ocean, that trap fish, and the dark rocks absorb the sun's heat and transfer it to the water. It was really lovely. Can't compare it to the Baths in Virgin Gorda as we haven't been there, yet!

The next day we hiked to the lighthouse, 305' above sea level and view was magnificent. We also checked out the other 2 beaches that are on the island. The snorkeling, right off the boat was fantastic. Bev saw reef squid, a school of blue tangs, stoplight parrot fish, and all the other usual reef fish, plus was able to follow a seaturtle for quite a distance, close enough to see the 3 yellow remoras underneath the turtle. That evening when we disposed of some salad leftovers overboard, 3 reef sharks were fighting for the remains. You could easily spend a week in the anchorage, except as the wind started to pick up, the swell caused RAFT to rock from side to side. Guess our time in this beautiful anchorage was coming to an end.

So we motored over to Ensanada Honda, and anchored behind Cayo Pirata, just off the small town of Dewey. We will hang around the Spanish Virgins for the next 3 weeks or so. We will try to use this as a base of operations and take the ferry back to Puerto Rico for some day trips. Hopefully will get to the Radio Telescope and the caves. This is a very protected bay that we can leave RAFT. It is also the local hurricane hole for the charter fleet stationed in St Thomas and St John. Culebra is still considered to be part of Puerto Rico and has regular ferry service between San Juan and Fajardo.

Just as a note: If you are using winlink for emails, the southern coast of Puerto Rico is terrible for transmission. things have improved now that we are in the Spanish Virgins.

Mayaguez to Salinas April 2006

2006-04-23T10:50:00.000-04:00

Mayaguez to Salinas April 2006
Originally uploaded by S/V Raft.

Picture: Ross hard at work in his "garage"

We ambled down from Mayaguez yesterday following the inside route. Left around 8:00 am to avoid the winds but this isn't really an issue since we are in the lee of the island now. Most of the other boats we had left Luperon with had traveled directly to Boqueron. (As a side note to other cruisers who might be reading this log: We were told by the US customs/immigration people that there is no problem with anchoring in Boqueron and going by land to Mayaguez to check in. We just saved the car rental/taxi fare) There were about 30 boats in the harbour when we arrived. Bouqueron is a typical beach town, like Wasaga, Grand Bend, etc. really busy on the weekend with cars and motorcyles driving the strip and locals enjoying the beach. The streets are full of vendors selling oysters, clams, empanados, tshirts..all pretty rundown but very quaint. No Mcdonald's or KFC here. All local stuff and only local people..just like a beach hot spot in Ontario in July. There is some major development around the bay but it set back from the bay so as not to spoil the town atmosphere and the beach. We thought it was condo and found out when we were walking the beach that it is actually short term rental apartments for weekend/holiday use, looked after by the state park. We are waking up to the crowing of roosters each morning. It was really hopping over the weekend but during the week, it is dead quiet, as everyone has gone back to work.

Things are still very affordable. We have been out for lunch twice at a local rice and beans spot. All the rice and beans you want plus good sized serving of roast pork (very good) fish, meatloaf, chicken or turkey (we didn't have that after all we have eaten in the DR) with a can of pop for $4 each. Then we found a small fruit/vegetable/butcher shop and bought 2 large grapefruits, 6 oranges, 6 pork chops and 2 small steaks for $9. 2 french loaves at the bakery $1.25. Too bad the ice creams cost $3 for 2, but we are worth it!

Bouqeron is a really nice place, but after a week here we are definitely ready to leave and we have been trying. We did leave 4 am on Tuesday to go around the SW corner of Puerto Rico, and only made it to the next bay. We had been noticing the engine had been running hot, and the hot water tank discharging (usually means the engine is running hot) since we left Luperon, but Ross just thought that the Heat exchangers (we have 2) were getting salted up, and planned to clean them when we got to Salinas. However, on Tues morning, Ross discovered that his little "rad" bottle had leaked on the hot water tank and it was salt water, which it shouldn't have been. Obviously salt water was getting into the fresh water system somehow. After determining that the hot water tank was not contaminated, that's a good thing, he pulled off the other 2 heat exchangers,and we found out that the little used one we had bought in Annapolis was leaking. Fortunately, we still had all the parts necessary to reconvert RAFT to being a raw water cooled system, which Ross did. The picture show how the difficult it can be working on a boat, especially when at anchor. To get to the engine everything has to be taken out of the large cockpit locker, and what isn't shown is that all of his tools have to be unpacked from under the quarter berth and spread around the nav station. But that is another definition of cruising: fixing your boat in exotic places.

By the time the repair was complete, the tools put away and the cockpit put back to normal we had missed our early morning light wind opportunity to turn to the corner, so we decided to stay the night where we were, off of El Combate State Park. The wind picked up during the day (25 knots), and that night, and we heard the reports from the other boats which had "gone around the corner" and it didn't sound very nice out there, so we decided to return to Bouqueron on Wed. morning and see if we could source out another heat exchanger.

On Wednesday morning, we tried to raise anchor, to find out that the anchor was caught on a coral ledge. It was 0530 when we had dropped the anchor and still dark, so we didn't realize that the lighter sand we thought we were anchoring in was actually a coral ledge. Fortunately we were anchored in only 10 feet, so Bev dove down and attached a back line to the anchor and with the dinghy Ross tried to back it out. However this was not a successful exercise so Ross went down, and sat on the bottom and physically pulled it out from under the ledge. We were free but the shank of the anchor now has a big "wow" in it. (Thank you Kathryn and Ron for the weight belts) We returned to Bouqueron.

Bouqueron doesn't have many stores, but since we were going to be there another day, we figured we might as well see if we can get a new/used heat exchanger. We started at the marina and were sent to the gas station across the road, then directed to the mechanic. The mechanic was enjoying empanadas (look like Jamacian pattie cakes, stuffed with seafood or meat) at the small outside bar across from the marina and gas station. We showed him our leaking heat exchanger and after some discussion in both Spanish and English and with the help of 2 other patrons in the bar, it was decided that he had one that might work for us, but it was larger, which suited Ross fine. He returned in about 20 minutes (to the bar) and $40 cash later we had another "used" heat exchanger but we needed larger hoses, which we did not have on RAFT. We inquired about public transportation, which there is none, so Tony, one of the interested/helpful patrons, offered to take Ross to the hardware store. This always seems to happen, when we need assistance, ride, etc..the good people that we meet come across.

We had dinner on another boat, and an enjoyable evening. The next morning's job... install the new heat exchanger and convert RAFT back to being fresh water cooled. This keeps the salt water out of the diesel engine, and stops "salt water damage".

The weather forecast is finally encouraging, winds are expected to be light, possibly even west?? and seas flat for the weekend, so we expect to try to make our way around the corner tomorrow, enjoy a couple of the anchorages before getting to Salinas. At least that was the plan. However on Friday, we were up at 0400 and ready to go when at squall came through the anchorage with winds 15-20 from SW. The Bourqueron anchorage is completely open to the west, and rarely experiences any west winds, so that had everyone up! We waited for the squall to go through and had our anchor up by 0530. As it was Easter weekend, and with the light winds predicted we had hoped to bypass the first couple of stopping points, even though we heard La Parguera was wonderful, we expected Gilligans to be super busy, didn't need to go to Ponce by boat, and head right for Caja de Muertos (Coffin Island). Bev hoped to spend the weekend hiking and snorkeling around the island. However when we did reach the island, about 1400, the winds were 20k from the south west, and the few boats that were in the anchorage were bucking major waves on a lee shore, and it didn't look very appealing. We still had enough daylight so we continued on to Salinas.

As we arrived in Salinas we were greeted by 2 boats that we knew from Luperon and found another old friend on the dock. Salinas is another great, fully enclosed harbour and very cruiser friendly.

Mona Passage April 2006

2006-04-16T13:27:00.000-04:00

Return to RAFT and Mona Passage March 30/2006

We enjoyed our family time in Florida and Canada, despite the cold weather, but we happy to return to Santa Domingo to continue our Dominican adventure. We had a great return flight (we flew Spirit Airlines from Fort Lauderdale, very affordable), one more evening at Betty's and caught the 830 bus back to Luperon. We were anxious to see how RAFT had survived four weeks without us.
Upon arrival at the dinghy dock, we called Derek and Ester on our new hand held VHF radio, and they willingly came to give us and our luggage (one more bag than we had left with) back to RAFT. RAFT was fine, no water or mold/mildew issues, and exactly where we had left her. We spend the afternoon putting away everything away and RAFT back to order, and then we were off to Puerto Blanco Marina for Friday night BBQ. The filet mignon was excellent!!
The boat population had rotated while we were away. Only 3 boats that had arrived with us in February were still in the harbour, but there were many others who had come to take the missing boats places. Some of these new boats were travelling southeast, having spent March in Georgetown at the regatta, and others were heading north, home to USA and Canada. Of course the harbour full time residents, like Unity, Off Call, Presque Isle, Smigeon, Rhat Cat, .were still there and welcomed us back.
The Mona passage is one of the "rights of passage" this journey south has in store for us. Like the first crossing the Gulf Stream in Florida, this passage strikes fear in the hearts of sailors!! this is only because its the first time and it is a unknown. Like the Gulf Stream crossing, you must wait for the right weather and sea condition to go. Unlike the Florida crossing it is much longer so the opportunity to go must be there for a 3-5 days. These opportunities seem to happen about every two weeks and seem to be there for a longer time..
There appeared to be a good weather window opening up early in the week, to head east. We really didn't know if we could be ready for it, but were going to try. We had an empty fridge, which had lost its gas while we were away, fuel and water tanks to be filled, anchor chain and bottom to be cleaned and Ross needed to give RAFT a good going over to make sure she was seaworthy having sat in Luperon Harbour for two months. So we made the boat chore list and set about to see if it could be accomplished, should this weather window materialize.
By Tuesday, Ross had changed the oil and fluid in the engine and transmission, topped up the water and fuel tanks, recharged the refridgeration system and given RAFT a good check up. Bev cleaned the anchor chain which was full of barnacles after 4 weeks, and Doug from Presque Isle did RAFT's bottom. We had loaded the freezer with Ana Lopez's chickens, packed away a case of Presidente beer, made our final trip to the bakery and the fruit/veg truck. Last on the list: despacho (check out)
We headed in, with quite a few other boaters to the blue trailer. We had to pay $50 to immigration because we had left and returned to the DR which they call a "crew change". We had been forewarned about this by the other cruisers. Harbour fees were $15 per month and $20 paid to the commadante for the despacho. All together we paid $85 when we arrived, $20 when we flew out, $20 when we arrived and $100 to check out..$225 US for our two month stay in the DR ($90 more than most because we flew home) But we have thoroughly enjoyed the DR, its people and scenery, the inexpensive cost of living, and we really hope to return.
The weather window continued to hold, and so about 5 pm on Tuesday, RAFT and about fifteen other boats left Luperon. The first 3 hours were tough going. The winds were NE about 10 knots, but the seas were 6-8', we had about a knot of current against us, so we were motor sailing, doing 1 mile tacks out from the rhumb line, averaging 3 - 4 knots, speed over ground. The seas were definitely calmer close to shore. We were concerned that if things didn't settle down, we couldn't continue this way for entire trip. We knew we had left before the evening island lee had kicked in, (as per Bruce Van Sant's instructions) but we wanted to leave the harbour in the daylight to be able to see the reefs and the fish pots. Previous departures by other boats were marred with crab/lobster trap floats wrapped around propeller shafts while exiting the harbour at night. Not something we wanted to chance.
At 8 pm, we heard a loud bang, and found that one of the brackets that holds the main sheet in the boom track had broken. It was dark, and RAFT was bouncing around, when Ross tethered to the jack line, had to sit on the cabin top, and figure out what had broken and how to fix it. In the end he decided to leave it, since it was still attached by one bracket. Bev's only thought: Why couldn't this had happened on our sail to Luperon, then we would have had 2 months to get it fixed? Or why do things like this always happen in the dark?
By 9pm the seas were settling down, but we still were only averaging 3 - 4 knots, and this rate it was going to be a long trip. It seemed to take forever to pass the bright lights of Puerto Plata. Finally about 1 am we rounded Cabo Macoris, having fought a 1 knot current all the way. The winds were light, and the little there was on the nose. Our speed did pick up and we were heading for Cabo Frances Viejo. By dawn, we were in light winds and waves, motoring north of the cape. Chris's weather indicated that the winds and seas were going to continue to be light right through to Friday so we kept on going. Since the conditions were so light, we decided to run the rhumb line between Cabo Frances Viejo and Cabo Cabron, just north of Cabo Samana..
Winds and seas remained light all night and all day, as we crossed the Mona Passage. However just before we reached Isla Desecheo the winds picked up enough that we actually we able to turn the engine off for a couple of hours and sail. But then they shifted more to the south east and lightened up and we put the engine back on. It was dark, about 11 pm when we arrived at the Mayaguez harbour entrance and it was difficult to differentiate the navigation and range lights from the city lights. The buoys did show up when on radar, and we slowly proceeded until we had sorted it out, and made our way to the anchorage. Hook down and a quiet night, a successful 55 hour passage from Luperon to Puerto Rico and we were glad to be in.
The next morning, being Friday, we had read in the guide books to expect the ferry in from the Dominican Republic. Sure enough, the ferry was on the horizon by 730 am, and we wanted to get into immigration before it arrived. Clearing in was easy, but because our US cruising license had expired we had to get an new one. And for that we had to wait until the customs officer was through with the ferry. We went back to RAFT, tidied up, and returned before noon to get the paperwork. ($19 for a year)
The winds we up, and rain was threatening, so we decided to stay another day in the anchorage and leave early Saturday morning when we were fully rested.

2006-03-06T14:35:00.000-05:00

Santa Domingo March 2006
We are off to Santa Domingo to catch a flight back to Florida. There are closer airports in Puerto Plata and Santiago which we could have used, but the best deal to Florida for us was with Spirit to Fort Lauderdale. We had wanted to visit the capital anyway, so we decided it made sense to fly out of Santa Domingo.
Getting to Santa Domingo is very easy. The bus leaves Luperon every day around 130 pm and takes you directly there, but with many stops picking up and dropping off passengers. The route across the island goes through the mountains and is very pretty. We arrived in Santa Domingo about 5 pm and had plenty of time and light to find our way to Betty’s hostel.
Many of the boaters in Luperon had recommended Betty’s place. Although the rooms are set up for groups, when Betty doesn’t have one booked, she rents the rooms out to couples. Our room(s) had 10 single beds and one private bath, just for us. The rooms are incredibly clean, beautifully decorated with Betty’s art and very secure. Betty provides a wonderful breakfast too!! The hostel is right in the colonial district, and the music and partying do go on until midnight, but we didn’t mind.
We arrived Saturday afternoon, spent all day Sunday and Monday touring the historic buildings, churches, enjoying people watching in the many outdoor cafes. We even were able to see another canival parade, similar to La Vega but much larger and more controlled. We did a lot of walking, a little shopping and really enjoyed our time there.
Tuesday, noon, our cab took us to the airport and we were off to Florida to pick up our car (left there last fall), visit Bev’s parents and then drive home to the cold north. What we do for family!!

2006-03-01T14:34:00.000-05:00

El Castille & Carnival February 2006

After a quiet week, last week, we have been really busy doing land trips around Luperon. Sunday, we went with Ester and Derek (Unity) in their van, to El Castille and Isabella, the first community established by Christoper Columbus in 1492. This area is just 20 miles west of here on the north coast. It is so beautiful there. Gorgeous sand beaches, towering coral cliffs and green mountains. Derek and Ester have bought a lot there, backing onto the coral cliffs and next door there are caves to explore, and we did. After driving around the beach, touring the replicated Church, and the museum we went into the mountains to a wonderful small resort, Mirmar. There you can swim in their pool, or just relax before dinner enjoying the incredible vista. The meal was excellent too, no peas and rice this time and although expensive by DR standards (1500 pesos $45US) a comparable meal in the US or Canada would have cost three or four times as much.

Monday, Feb 27th is Independence Day in the DR, and its Carnival time. One of the largest in the country is in La Vega, south of Santiago. We hired 2 vans, filled them with 26 sailors and we were off. We had seen most of the scenery on the way to Santiago, but the mountains and flowers continue to impress. The tour books describe La Vega as a place to miss, having nothing interesting to see unless it is Carnival. Then about 70,000 mostly local people invade the streets. We arrived around noon, and were surprised how few people were there, and how much preparation had been done, stages, elevated seating, etc. So we knew we were in the right place. we weren't sure what time things got going, the parade in Luperon started at 9am. We had heard noon, 2pm etc. By 2pm there were certainly more people walking the main area, about ten blocks long, 2 blocks wide, but still no real action, but the bars were open and the street vendors were selling everything from hats, trinkets, all different types of food and "bashers" These bashers look like fabric covered nerf footballs on a tether. One of the customs of Carnival, is that the performers whack people on their butts to drive out the evil spirits. Anyone on the street is fair game, and they use 2 arms, winding up like a baseball swing on unsuspecting people. So you definitely stand on the sidewalk, back to a fence, protecting your rear end. They are very aggressive on young male DR's and less so on "el touristas". But one of the hits Bev took hurt!
By 4pm the parade had started and it was like no other parade we had ever seen. The costumes were huge, very intricate, colourful, tons of sequens, and beautiful. Most of the participants were male, but some women were in costume. The spectators ran along with the parade, getting wacked and having fun, plus all along the parade route were these side tented areas, where people we sitting/drinking and parade weeded their way in and out of these VIP areas. It appeared like mass confusion, fabulous costumes, wacking, people running, but everyone was having a good time. It seemed to go on foreeer, we have no idea the number of parade participants, again because of the irratic parade route. It was still going on at 7pm when we had set our group's departure time. But we had all enjoyed a full day, it was getting dark and all of us were ready to return to our boats. We arrived back in Luperon by 10 pm, it had started to rain, but it was only a short dinghy ride back to RAFT.

2006-02-24T14:31:00.000-05:00

Luperon Week 3 & 4 February 2006

Things are very different in Luperon, at least very different from the Bahamas. First of all, we don't check the weather every morning, because in this harbour it doesn't matter. The fierce fronts we had to prepare for in the Bahamas, rarely have an effect here. If they are strong enough to extend this far south and east, their dreaded west and strong north winds, just cancel out the easterly trades, resulting in the weather window which makes heading easterly much easier. This happens about every week or so, allowing boats to come and go with relative ease. Hopefully this will continue and we will have no difficulty finding a quiet spell when we are ready to leave. When the boats are coming in from the Turks and Caicos, we usually hear them calling on the radio for harbour information and most times Mike from Seacomber goes out to meet and guide them in. Mike provides this valuble service free.
So far, every night has been dead calm, so you get a good night's sleep. It maybe cloudy with a little drizzle, but it isn't enough to stop you from doing anything except dry the laundry. Every afternoon the wind picks up, usually 15-20 kn, but the anchors are all well stuck in the mud. Ross's only complaint is that we aren't getting enough wind power, and the slight cloud cover reduces the effectiveness of the solar panels, so he is having to watch our energy consumption as he hates to start the engine. Another advantage of this protected harbour is that even in the afternoon when the wind is blowing, it is not rough, the distances you need to travel are short, and you don't need to get wet!! We actually changed back to the 4hp, it is lighter to lift up each evening and uses less fuel. Fuel is not cheap $4 a gallon, but we aren't using much.

Most Saturday mornings the cruisers play baseball with the local young men. Baseball in the Dominicans’ national sport, so the cruisers are definitely at a disadvantage….even with the Commodante pitching for our team. But it is a good time, and the local guys try to keep if fun, and the score respectable. After the game, drinks are bought by the losers (US!!). In Canada, kids play road hockey, here it is baseball, using whatever they have. We have seen them playing with a stick, an orange, and a mitt made out of a pizza box. But they love their baseball.

Trip to Waterfalls

2006-02-22T15:01:00.000-05:00

Trip to Waterfalls
Originally uploaded by S/V Raft.

Everyone who visits Luperon or Puerto Plata seems to talk about the waterfalls. Either they did the tour, wished they had done the tour, or saw the waterfalls on Jurassic Park. We had talked to many of the boaters in the harbout who definitely recommended going. We booked our tour through Rosa Van Sant (Bruce's wife), a full day tour including the falls, a trip to a coffee farm, a chance to sit on the Brahma bull, tour a soapstone carving factory, lunch and drinks for $30US -- a lot of money here, but apparently worth it. We booked for Thursday with our friends from Island Dreamin', V'jer, and Orion. It rained Tuesday and Wednesday, and we were warned that the water would be high in the river. Some people had cancelled their trip due to the rain, but it wasn't raining Thursday morning, and we thought it would be okay, we figured we were going to get wet anyway!!

We loaded up the truck at the marina, and then went to the hotel and picked up 6 young Dutch people (age: twenty something) before heading off to Imbert and the backcountry. (Un)Fortunately for us the bull was busy in Santa Domingo so we didn't get to sit upon it, missed another photo op. So it was off to the coffee farm, where they didn't show us how it grows, but we did get a re-enactment of how the women ground the beans in days gone by, and how cigars are made (the museum in Puerto Plata was better). One of the antics at the coffee farm was the placing parrots and snakes on volunteers (guests/tourists), and a chance to buy some local "art". The soap stone carving factory was more interesting. Here they mine petrified wood which they call soapstone, and then carve, and polish it into statues and other small handicrafts. The cost was minimal for the manhours that it took. They also gave us a demonstration of a mock cock fight. No blood was spilled. The roosters were wearing tiny boxing gloves on their feet. Lunch was excellent, and then we were off to the FALLS!!

The first indication, that the rain was going to make this "interesting" was the river we had to ford from the parking lot to the start of the waterfall trail. Usually this river is about knee deep, but for us it was waist deep, and we crossed diagonally, holding hands kindergarten style so as not to be swept away in the current. Then we had about a half hour hike through the forest, crossing the stream several times, but the stream was only a few inches deep, and our 2 guides ensured that we did not lose our footing. We approached the first falls. Here we left our camera, because we would be swimming, and climbing around the falls from here on up. There are 21 waterfalls in total, but the guides only do the first seven.

At Falls 1 & 2, you swim, climb a ladder and scamper up the rocks, this was fine. We were glad we had worn our wetsuits, they kept us very comfortable, and the helmets and PFD's (rented for $1US) looked after our safety. It was great swimming in the fresh clean water. At Falls 3, you had to swim and pull yourselves along a rope to the base of the falls. At that point, there was a 10 foot climb in the raging falls. But to help us, we had to put our left foot in guide #1's hand, and give "el jefe" (the head guide who spoke English) your left hand and he would pull you up...right!! One of the Dutch girls refused to go on, and Bev was glad that Rhonda from V'jer went ahead of her, because she was thinking about chickening out. But "el jefe" was incredibly strong and pulled us all, even the big guys, up the precipice and had us stand on his feet to steady us, and get us safely on the rocks.

Then we were off to Falls 4, where you had to hold the guides hands, and climb up the rock face with your feet, until the guide could pull us to the top. It wasn't pretty, but all of us continued on. We clambered over some rocks and back into the raging stream, clawed our way along the edge to where we could see the base of Falls 5. At that point we sent our strongest swimmer, Jim from Orion, to see if it was possible to continue on. When Jim was unsuccessful at overcoming the current, we retreated.We would make no attempt to get to #7.

We thought that now we had done the tough ascent, going down would be fun "el jefe" told us to hold onto him (he was next to the rock wall) and we would walk down the stream until.we started down but the current was so great that Ross was swept away down Falls 4. Bev was screaming to "el jefe", and he pushed Bev against the wall and went after Ross. Bev could not see where Ross had gotten to, but imagined the worst, just like in the movies. However, Ross had gotten himself stopped at the next level, before the guide had gotten to him, and only had a scaped leg and and lost watershoe to show for his adventure. Meanwhile the other guide had come to rescue Bev, walked her to where you were supposed to jump into the pool below. That first jump was quite an experience, even with a PFD on, you did wonder if you were going to come back up.

We did the remaining jumps but at each level, the guides were extremely careful because the currents and whirlpool action of the falls was increased due to the higher water. It was fun, but we were very apprehensive. Both of us said, they would like to do the falls again, but only when it hadn't rained for a week, hopefully then it would just be fun and not so scary.

When we returned to Luperon, Roy Keith on Renaissance, who had gone to the Falls on Tuesday, not on a daytrip, just with a group and a rented van, wrote and shared this poem when he heard our tales.

The Luperon Waterfall Trip

Last Tuesday some friends and I took a trip to the waterfall.
We waded a stream, strolled and swam - a good time was had by all.

On Thursday other friends went on a trip to the self same place
But the stories we heard regaled by them made my heart absolutely race.

They swore they forged a raging river and stood on death's dark door,
But midst the danger they waved their fists and hollered bring on more.

I gather they had to scale some cliffs using only their fingernails
They suffered from rain and snow and sleet and even a bit of hail.

The ladies said they wouldn't have made it without the guide to push
Their eyes glazed over as they recounted that the push was on their tush.

They talked endlessly about one guide, a Dominican Adonis no doubt,
And how his muscles rippled and how his Speedo filled out.

Our intrepid group finally reached the falls and how their hearts did quiver,
For now they beheld the roaring majesty of the terrible cascading river.

They said the sound was deafening, it rattled their very bones,
The ladies said they began to jiggle, the men lost their cajones.

But big bad Bob rose to the occasion and urged them further on,
He puffed his chest and clenched his fist and looked bad to the bone.

There's some question of just how far they got, one said level seven,
Another said he didn't know but heard angel music from Heaven.

I then got lost in all the tales but at last I think I got 'em,
Something about the head of the Nile and a lost bikini bottom.

National Geographic filming our intrepid group got everything all wrong,
Something about a three headed alien and Elvis in a thong.

I also heard about a deadly python between one person's legs,
And a bird atop another head dropped something that wasn't eggs.

There was also something about an alligator, though that part wasn't clear
And some recounting of buzzards and wolves and even a grizzly bear.

Then to my amazement I discovered their bus served Rum and beer,
And it caused me to wonder about all the tales we'd been caused to hear.

But whether true or whether false or somewhere in between,
I know that their experience had been more than I had seen.

And though we'd enjoyed the company and had fun with our first little troupe
The next time there's a trip, we're damned sure going with this other group.

Roy & Wanda are a lot of fun, and he is always writing these great poems. He wrote on in Georgetown, his version of "The Night before Christmas" and one about Mic on Escargot fishing seminars. His latest was about Bruce Van Sant and was read at the Pot luck at Puerto Blanco Marina.

Luperon Weeks 1 & 2 Feb 1st-15th

2006-02-22T14:48:00.000-05:00

Luperon Weeks 1 & 2 Feb 1st-15th
Originally uploaded by S/V Raft.

Now that we are all checked in, we are learning the ins and out of Luperon. There is quite a cruising community here, over 100 boats, and at times 150. Of that, about half have been in Luperon for a year or longer. This harbour is as good a hurricane hole, affordable and safe as anywhere in the Caribbean, so has become another "velcro beach". But it is different than Georgetown and the long term cruisers want it to be that way!!

There is a cruiser's net, twice a week, where the usual boat problems, social activities and commercial ventures are discussed. The harbour monitors 68 and any other channel that has been mentioned on 68.

Because eating and drinking "off the boats" is so inexpensive, most cruisers spend more time off their boats, than on them. Current exchange rate 34 pesos for $1 (at this point we don't care if US or Cdn) Daily activities include the trip to the local bakery for fresh bread (10 pesos for large submarine roll), finding the fruit/vegetable truck for whatever is in season, walkabout town to find somewhere for lunch (100 pesos or less), then back to the yacht club for happy hour (grande Bohemia 40 pesos and free popcorn). Sometime in there you might find time to take your laundry to be done (200 pesos for couple weeks of stuff), go to the internet café (30 pesos an hour), and sit in the park and talk to the other cruisers as they do the same. The availability of fruits and vegetables is such a change from the Bahamas. Right now in season are pineapples, oranges, tangerines, eggplant, squashes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce and whatever we buy costs about 100-200 pesos and will do for a couple of days.

We have met back up with Joe and Wendy (Off Call) whom we met on our trip down the US intercoastal, and in the Bahamas last year. They have been here since last April and have taken us and a couple other boats (Bohemian 2 and Equinox) under their wing to show us around. Our first adventure was to Puerto Plata. Wendy and Joe go there about once a month primarily to get money. There is an ATM in Luperon, it rarely works for Canadians and even some Americans can't get money from it. (Verizon will change US into pesos in Luperon and will do cash advances). There also is an ATM in Imbert but it often "eats" cards, so Joe and Wendy go to Puerto Plata and we will follow their example.

Puerto Plata is about 20 miles east of Luperon, along the northern coast of the DR, but to get there you have to go to Imbert (inland) and then back to the coast. As described in Bruce Van Sant's book (we are trying not to call him God, since he lives here), we walked in town to the guagua park, got into a guagua (van), which took us to Imbert (35 pesos), where we crossed the road to get on the bus (really a minibus) to Puerto Plata (20 pesos). The entire trip took about an hour through beautiful hilly countryside. The roads are paved, and just wide enough for two trucks to pass, and used by large commercial trucks, buses, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, horses and donkeys with riders, and cows, chickens, goats, dogs, and pedestrians. There is no way we would be driving on those roads, but the guagua and bus drivers are used to the congestion, pass with care and use their horns liberally.

In Puerto Plata, we found the Scotia Bank and our card gave us pesos, toured a couple of good sized grocery stores, saw where we could get fabrics and craft supplies, walked a bit, had great ice cream, before reversing the transit process back to Luperon. We didn't have time to do any of the touristy things, like check out the Fort, the beaches, cruiser docks, amber museum but there will be another trip.

Over the next week, we had water, diesel, and propane delivered to RAFT. Again, it is very affordable and easier on Ross's back to have Handy Andy bring everything out to us!!

There are lots of places to walk around Luperon. From behind the yacht club (or marina), we walked through the partially developed "estate" area. More livestock than homes at this point and up the hill to enjoy a fantastic view of the harbour, the reefs we had passed at the entrance, and beach along the north shore where the all inclusive hotel sits. The beach did not compete with what we had enjoyed in the Bahamas, but the hills, trees and flowers are a nice change. Then we walked down to the beach, apparently the beach is public, despite the hotel's efforts to control access. We also explored the small beach at the harbour entrance. Here we had a weiner roast, organized by one of the cruisers, a good chance to meet more of the crowd here.

The only negative that we have discovered so far about Luperon, is the water in the harbour. It is not the beautiful, clear blue we had in the Bahamas. It is green, turbid, polluted and after rain, it gets worse with the runoff. Somedays, you can see the mud shoals, but most times even our depth sounder has problems knowing what is below RAFT.

We have decided to remain in Luperon until we go home in March. That means we can space out our sightseeing trips, just doing one a week. We did Puerto Plata last week, and Joe and Wendy were going to Santiago in our second week , so we tagged along. This time we hired a guagua and driver for the day. Split between 4 boats, the cost including the drivers lunch and tip was 500 pesos ($15). Santiago is a large city (think over a million people), about 30 miles away as the crow flies, but of course the roads don't go that way. It is a really pretty trip through the mountains, tobacco and fruit farms, rushing streams and small villages. Fruit, food and beverages are readily available along the way if you dare to pull off the road. The main reason you go to Santiago is for engine parts and groceries, 8A called ochaA is like a Home Depot, and PriceMart just like home! Of course there is a Scotia Bank, so we topped up our cash reserves. We lunched at a North American styled food court in a mall (Burger King US prices) and toured the cigar museum which was really interesting. Trip back at rush hour, and we were all glad we had hired Umberto, our careful driver!! Stray animals seem to jump out from around every bend. Weaving between the goats, cows, donkeys and horses coupled with potholes while sight seeing is more than we can handle.

After being here almost a week, El Commodante came and told us we had to move. They had decided that we were anchored in the channel and interfering with access to the government dock. We also heard that one of the salvage boats was carrying explosives, and that would be a good reason to keep out of their way. Regardless of the reason, we upped anchor and moved over closer to the yacht club. This is better, since we seem to be at the club every evening for happy hour.

Off to Luperon (Jan 28- Feb 2)

2006-02-06T08:18:00.000-05:00

Off to Luperon (Jan 28- Feb 2)
Originally uploaded by S/V Raft.

We are anchored in Cockburn Harbour, touted by Steve Pavlidis to be the best natural harbour in the Turks and Caicos. South Caicos protects from the north, Long Cay to the east, and the Caicos banks stops the waves from the south and west. This is a small village, population 1200, not touristy, as most of its inhabitants work in the fishing industry, either fishing or at the processing plant, or building the airport on Ambergis, the island about 10 miles to the south. Ambergis, is a private island, and apparently Canadians are building a resort there. This morning being Monday, there were a flurry of small boats heading south, taking the workers to work, and on Friday afternoon they return to the village, we saw the pontoon boat bring them back.

It looks like the windy weather we have been experiencing since Friday is going to break tomorrow, so we hope to leave here for the 110 mile south to the Dominican Republic tomorrow. It should take us about 20-24 hours for the trip, and we want to arrive in Luperon in the early morning.

So today, is a get ready day. Ross is running back and forth to the fuel dock, refilling the diesel and the dinghy. We mainly motored all the way from Georgetown, and we expect the trip to the DR will be all motoring so we need to fill up. Bev is baking bread, and making spaghetti sauce so we will have some quick meals for the trip. There are lots of stores in the village, seems like on every block there is a store in someone's living room. Not that they have much to sell, we have yet to see a supply boat to come in yet, and have only seen one plane a day coming into the airport.

Yesterday, we went for a nice walk with George and Mary, off Avalon V. We walked around the salt flats, saw a flock of pink flamingo, walked the beach, not as long or nice as GT. On the return to village, we stopped at one of the little stores (size 6' x 15') asked if they had cold beer, which they did and would sell to us on a Sunday. So we walked around the village, green Heiniken bottles in hand. Then we saw another bar open, and we checked it out, and were the only patrons there enjoying a second green bottle. But there isn't much else in Cockburn Harbour.

We left mid morning, after the winds had finally died down some and clocked a little to the south. We had a fantastic sail to Great Sand Cay, toured the anchorage from offshore, it looked really nice. Another beach to explore another day...and kept sailing south to Luperon. By early evening, the winds had died down and we had to use the engine to assist. We had loads of time, as we didn't want to arrive at Luperon until first light, so only needed to average 4.5 knots. So we adjusted sails and motor to the wind and had a very leisurely trip. By midnight, the seas were so calm, you could see the reflections of the stars, it was quite spectacular. A few fishing boats, and two freighters showed up on the radar. We knew from radio conversations that there were a number of boats taking advantage of the weather window. As we arrived at Luperon, we found out we were first, of about a eight boats, and even though we had never entered the harbour before, we were given the honour of being the scout. We had the new Wavy Line Charts, and used their way points as well as Van Sant's range, and it really wasn't that difficult. Another plus, is that there was no winds, currents, or white water to create further excitement.

Rounding the corner into the harbour, it looked like another Georgetown, on a smaller scale, boats anchored everywhere and where were we to go. A couple helpful boaters pointed out the mud shoals, and without incident we got the hook down. We had made another milestone!!

We had barely settled, when Wendy from Off Call, knocked on the boat and welcomed us and very soon after the Port Commodante and his "Intelligent" man came out to inspect RAFT and our documents, and gave us permission to stay in the harbour. We rested a little, and after noon went into town to check in with the other officials. It took about an hour, with 5 different officials handwritting out forms and collected money. Then we had to return to RAFT for the Agriculture and Animal officers to come out. They filled out some more forms and we paid a little more. ($76US in total) All of the officials were very pleasant, and most spoke some English and with our limited Spanish we go by. We were checked in and ready to explore the DR.

South Caicos Island

2006-01-30T12:06:00.000-05:00

South Caicos Island
Originally uploaded by S/V Raft.

Just as we approached East Caicos, Avalon V radioed over, asking us if we were fishing, because ahead of us were a flock of birds and a school of flying fish. We had been unsuccessfully dragging our lines from Georgetown to Rum Cay, but hadn't bothered with since. So out went the lines, after all it is Bev's ambition to catch a fish this year. But RAFT is a better fishcatcher than us. One of the flying fish decided to attack our boat and lost. After the picture we returned it to the beautiful indigo water. We could have kept it for bait, but Bev didn't want to deal with freezing it at this point. It was approaching happy hour time (1500) and we were still had over 10 miles to go.

Next sighting: dolphins playing off Phillips Reef. Ross at first thought they whales, because whales do migrate through the Turks passage at this time of year, but these were dolphins. We were still excited, because we hadn't seen dolphins since Georgetown, and always say they are good luck. Hopefully we would make Cockburn Harbour before dark.

1700 arrival at the harbour entrance, going due west into the sun, no not this time. A large dark cloud very conveniently covered the sun, but also included a squall with 15-20 knots of wind and rain. Doesn't the wind always pick up when it is time to anchor. Despite the squall we did find the harbour, was very easy to enter. The lighted buoys have been replaced to reflect Red Right Returning, and we followed Avalon V into a good sized anchorage, and set the anchor down, just as the sun went down. A little late according to Bruce Van Sant, but safely none the less.

We celebrated with Avalon 5, opening a bottle of champagne left over from the Christmas holidays. A fitting celebration, we had now completed our first 2 night crossing, were out of Georgetown and the Bahamas, and only 110 miles north of the Dominican Republic.

One quick toast, and we returned to RAFT for a well deserved night's rest.

Saying Goodbye to Georgetown

2006-01-30T12:01:00.000-05:00

Saying Goodbye to Georgetown
Originally uploaded by S/V Raft.

After many days anguishing over weather reports and charts, we lifted anchor from Sanddollar anchorage, Georgetown around 7am on Tues, Jan 24th. The winds were predicted to be southeast 12-15 for the day, promising a great sail to Cape Santa Maria at the north end of Long Island. There was an armada of about twenty boats exiting Elizabeth Harbour that morning. Some were heading for Thompson Bay, Long Island, others to Conception Island, but we were determined to keep going east. By 2 pm we were abeam of Cape Santa Maria, the wind had dropped to less than 10knots, on the nose, and combined with the swells and current against us, we were making no progress tacking. We had to give in and fire up the "iron genny" and motor sail toward Rum Cay. The seas were very confused and even with the engine we were only making 3-4 knots over the ground.

About 1600 we were in radio contact with Eclipse, a ketch that had left just ahead of us, and they were experiencing transmission problems and heading back to Conception Island. since it was going to be close to dark when they arrived, we relayed to the boats we knew in the anchorage to be ready for them and help them in, which they did. We heard the next day, by SSB, that they limped back into Georgetown safely, going to arrange repairs.

We really had not planned how far or long we would go for. We had decided that we would go as long as the weather, boat and our bodies would accomodate. We had never done 2 overnights together, and thought this was a great opportunity to see if we could. As opposed to an open ocean crossing, if we decided we could not continue for whatever reason, we did have island and anchorages nearby that we could go to.

We continued to talk to boats all night, by VHS and SSB as we spread out. It was reassuring for all of us to know that we were not alone, and that everyone was having difficulty making speed against the swells. We anticipated the winds to drop, but had hoped we could handle the swells better. the weather forecast predicted that the winds would come up NE 10-15, which we should have been able to sail with, so we motored/sailed east and north of Samana in anticipation. By Wed. afternoon, we had to make a decision. Chris Parker was recommending that everyone be "tucked in by Thursday evening", so where were we going to go, Mayaguana, Provo or East of the T&C. We were sailing close to Avalon V, and they were planning to go to Cockburn Harbour, South Caicos on the east side of the T&C. they had been there before, and said it was an easy entrance, good holding, customs and fuel where readily available. We checked up the writeup in Pavlidis's guide to the T&C and he certainly concurred with Avalon V.

But it was about 130 miles away, and to ensure we got their by happy hour (1600) Thursday we were going to have to do 6-7 knots. The wind should pick up and swing to the NE, and if we ran the engine with the sails and did a second overnight,we should be able to do it. And this would avoid the Sandbore Channel and the Caicos Banks, neither of which Ross was keen on doing. But we could always bail out in the morning and back to Provo or Mayaguana if we deemed it necessary.

The night passage was much better than the first. The seas had settled down, and the wind did move to the NE, so motor sailing was much more comfortable. Plus as we had been told, the second overnight is easier than the first. You do get into a routine and sleep better. In fact Thursday morning, we both felt great!! We still had to push RAFT to get into Cockburn before dark, and we were determined to do it.