May 1
We have had off and on rain ever since we got here. Showers came and went a couple of times during the evening requiring the run and close all the hatches dance again. Today is forecast to be the rainiest of the week, so we don’t have any plans. During the night, a boat came in from offshore. Barb had been having trouble sleeping and was lying in the cockpit awake watching them approach. They gave the impression that they must not have detailed charts or the cruising guide, because the route they took was way closer to the shallow water than I would have gone. Barb said it looked like they came to a complete stop and then backed up, as if perhaps they had run aground. They eventually anchored way out away from the main anchorage where the water is still pretty rough. After dawn came, they weighed anchor and moved in right behind us. They are traveling with a second boat that was several hours behind them. He came in a little after dawn and anchored behind them. Also slightly after dawn, Island Time, whom we met in Ponce came in.
Lin from Alize is coordinating a potluck on the beach this evening. She already had us, Lone Star, and Sol Y Mar lined up. Now she attempted to contact the new boats and Mi Delphine to invite them too. She finally got a hold of everybody, and Mi Delphine and Island Time will definitely be there. The other two politely said thanks but didn’t commit to coming or not.
Since it looked like off and on rain all day, I started to read a book. I haven’t read a book since last year in the Bahamas. It has seemed we have had something going on all the time, so I just haven’t picked one up to start it. Our friends Jack & Carol on Reach, whom we met last year in the Bahamas had given Barb a book called Embarrassment of Mangoes for here birthday last summer. It is the story of a couple in their forties who quit there jobs, buy a boat and go cruise the Caribbean for two years. Along the way they met Edward Hamilton, who wrote the Rums of the Eastern Caribbean book that I have. It was a conversation with Jack & Carol about the rum book that led them to know that we had never read Embarrassment of Mangoes. Barb read the book as soon as she got it and really liked it. I have been planning to read it but hadn’t gotten to it yet. Barb lent it to Pat on Sol Y Mar a couple weeks ago, and he just finished it. He also has been saying how good it is. So I picked it up at 09:00 and started reading it. At 17:45, just before we left for the beach potluck, and three hundred pages later, I finished it. It was a very good book. It was neat to not only read about their trip through the places we have been already, but also about their season in Grenada. They stayed in the same bay we are going to be in.
At 18:00 the dinghies all converged at the dock and we walked over to some picnic tables on the beach. At the dock we met two young guys who had come in on a boat this afternoon. They are northbound. We invited them to join us for dinner, and they said they would come back in a little while. We all spread our dishes out on two picnic tables. Since the beach is deserted and all the kiosks are closed today too, we have the place to ourselves. We had a couple of drinks and visited for a while and then dug into the food. There was plenty to go around and it was all good.
After we had finished eating, Brad & Dan from Kaleidoscope came back to join us on the beach. We were all interested in how a couple of guys as young as they appeared to be got to be out here cruising. We learned that they are both twenty-three and graduated from college last year. They made a boat-load of money (pun intended) playing online Texas Hold ‘Em poker. They cashed out, bough the boat and took off. The boat is not fancy and doesn’t have extensive cruising equipment, but it seemed to be sound and they only planned to do this trip. They left Florida last fall, have already been as far south as St. Vincent, and are on their way back. They have had a great time and they were very interested in sharing their story with us and hearing ours. Unlike some other “younger” people we have met, who bemoan the fact that “cruisers are a bunch of old farts”, these guys thought it was cool that we all shared this gypsy nature to get out there and see new things, regardless of our ages. It was a pleasure meeting them.
When we returned to our boat, it was after dark. I noticed that one of the boats who had not attended had their running lights on. I thought perhaps they had forgotten to turn them off when they came in this morning, and considered calling them on the radio to tell them. Before I could, I heard them start their motor. After a few minutes we heard them call the other boat that had been traveling with them this morning to see if he was ready to go. They are obviously leaving. Since they are going the same way we are, I have to wonder if they don’t listen to weather reports, are tougher sailors, or just plain stupid. In their conversation with each other as they were pulling out, they sounded as if they were going based on the calm conditions in the anchorage. Well, it's calm in the anchorage every night. It’s the night lee effect of the island cooling after dark and the offshore breeze from that canceling out the prevailing winds. A mile offshore it’s blowing fifteen plus knots right out of the east, while here in the anchorage there is maybe five knots out of the north. They also didn’t seem to really have a plan of where they were going. One of them said they would see how it was out there and maybe go all night. I’m not sure what their final destination is, but there is nowhere to tuck in between here and where we are going. That’s why we are waiting until conditions are better. After they got outside the reef, we could see their masthead light pitching wildly as we would have expected, but they kept going.
GPS N 17-58.582 W 065-59.617 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 8888.
May 2
On the Cruisehiemers SSB net this morning, I heard our friends on Milano Myst check in from Key West. I tried to contact them but they apparently got off the radio before I did. They are on their way back to Houston. I know they are not happy about their cruise coming to and end, but I’ll bet they get out here again. It was great traveling with them for the couple months we were together.
After the radio stuff, and confirming that the weather will be keeping us here a couple more days, I decided to take the big walk to find the Post Office. I took the lights, a bottle of water, and the handheld VHF in a backpack and headed out. I wore my real sneakers instead of Crocs, since I’m expecting at least a mile walk. Even though I have the bottle of water, I stopped at the colmado as I passed and bought a bottle of lemonade. I walked west along the coast on the road we can see from the anchorage, which it turns out is PR 3, the same road that starts in San Juan and runs along the whole eastern coast. William told me the other day to just keep going down this road without making any turns. Where the road curves away from the coast, I headed inland. From the dinghies the other day, we could see that the coast road seemed to go to the Interstate styled PR 53. We saw no sign of a town from the water. I kept walking and got to the interchange with PR 53 and kept going on PR 3. Past the interchange, PR 3 turned west again and went slightly downhill and straight for at least a mile that I could see. It looked like there might be some businesses at the end of my line of sight, so I kept going. Since leaving the coast, there had been no other buildings along the way. I was walking facing the opposing traffic, and I noticed a nice SUV slowing down to stop by me. I thought maybe they were going to offer a ride, even though they were going the other way. They rolled down the passenger’s window as they came to a stop. I’m going to make those appearance based generalizations again here – the driver looked Puerto Rican, and the passenger looked like he was from the States. I quickly realized they wanted directions, not to offer me a ride. The driver pointed in the direction I had come from and said “playa?”, which means beach. I said “Si!”, proud of myself that I understood his request. Then the passenger said “Thanks man”. I thought how cool was it that they asked me directions to the only place I could have successfully told them. But how ironic was it that we communicated in Spanish when the passenger spoke English?
I continued on my way and could see that indeed there did appear to be a town at the end of the road. There are distance markers on the road and I know I have walked between five and six kilometers by the time I finally find the Post Office. (That’s about three and a half miles.) In addition to the Post Office, I find that Patillas is a good sized town. I have seen three groceries stores, Burger King, Church’s Fried Chicken, two drug stores, a hardware store, several independent restaurants, a video store, and lots of car repair places. I now understand that Puerto Patillas is the beach and port area, while the real town is Patillas. In the Post Office, I found a clerk who spoke fluent English, and he judged from my appearance that I only spoke English before I ever opened my mouth. I bought a box for the lights, packed them up and shipped them off. Mission accomplished. Since I was here, I walked a couple blocks further into town to look around. I was able to reach Barb on the VHF and see if she needed anything from the real grocery store as long as I was here, but she said no. So back I headed.
I considered trying to hitchhike, but I figured the exercise was good for me, and I didn’t feel too bad yet. This time I walked on the “wrong” side of the road, with the traffic, just in case somebody stopped to offer me a ride even though I didn’t have my thumb out. But, that didn’t happen. By the time I got back to the dock I was getting a little sore. I considered stopping at a little roadside bar that overlooks the anchorage and having couple beers and a rest, but I was afraid that if I stopped I might not get started again. I did grab a beer as I passed the colmado, but took it with me and kept walking the last quarter mile to the dock.
I was a tired puppy when I got to the boat, but I got the job done, got some much needed exercise, and didn’t get rained on. A shower came through minutes after I was back aboard. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading and napping in the cockpit. The ladies made a plan to meet on the beach near us to look for treasures. Pat form Lone Star had been there earlier in the day and had quite the haul of sea glass. The guys plan to sit at the bar nearby until dusk and then we’ll all have dinner there.
Lone Star picked Barb up from the boat and went to drop her and Pat on the beach. Sol Y Mar dropped Dori on the beach, and then the guys took the dinghies to the dock and walked back. When we entered the restaurant, we saw they had put up their “closed” sign. We asked to clarify if they were closing, and they said yes in a few minutes. So, I walked down the beach and told the girls that if they wanted dinner here, the beach combing would have to wait. They all came back and Island Time also joined us just in time to have a nice diner. This is the same place we had a mediocre meal at a few days ago, but this time the service and the meals were much better. We thanked them for staying open a little late for us.
GPS N 17-58.582 W 065-59.617 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 8888.
May 3
Bruce and Lin on Alize rented a car from a local guy yesterday so they could drive to Fajardo to West Marine. They have the car until 14:30 this afternoon and offered to make a grocery store run. Barb, Dori, Pat, and Lin met on the dock at 10:30 and headed to town where I walked yesterday. I gave them the scoop on where to find their choice in grocery stores.
Sol Y Mar Pat and I decided it was too much work to dinghy back to the boats only to have to come back in an hour to fetch the groceries, so we agreed that we’d just wait at the beach. We have plans to leave here very early tomorrow morning, which means we need to go to bed early this evening, which means we should just back up our whole daily schedule a few hours. So, we walked to the convenience store to get a few beers. We had hoped one of the kiosks on the beach would be open early, but none were. We bought three beers each (they’re only 10 oz.) and a bag of chips each and sat at a table outside the store and watched the world go by for a little while.
Pat and I were back at the dock before noon waiting for the ladies. The local bus which is disguised as a trolley was there waiting for something. We tried to ask the driver what the schedule was, but he only spoke Spanish. He later came back to us with another guy who spoke English and we found out there is no set schedule. You call the office and they will come get you and take you to town or on a tour. Too bad we didn’t find this out earlier in the week. Turned out the bus was waiting for about thirty high school kids who apparently were on a science field trip to the beach. They all came walking out of the woods at the end of the beach area a little bit later with boots in hand and got on the bus.
About 12:30, the ladies showed up and we loaded groceries into the dinghies. Barb told me that as they walked down the street in Patillas to the grocery store, a couple of women driving by yelled out their car window, “Hello American people!” Given my track record with identifying native Puerto Ricans vs. people from The States, I’m surprised they would have done that. But, as with the family on the beach a few days ago, we have consistently found the people to be warm and welcoming and grateful that we are here.
I think we all agree we are going to leave in the morning, so it should be a quiet afternoon. We went back to the boats, had lunch, read some, napped some, and then started getting the boat ready to move again. Of course all this was done while opening and closing everything between rain showers. I swear we are going to wear out the zippers in the cockpit enclosure before this weather pattern is through. We got the dinghy hoisted, at dusk we folded in the solar panels, and we gradually put away things that had gotten left out over the past week as we have been sitting here.
The manatee that lives here in the harbor came to the stern of Sol Y Mar this afternoon. He stayed there about twenty minutes nibbling on the line tying the dinghy to the stern. Pat & Dori were able to stand right there and watch him and he didn’t seem to care. Of course, they neglected to obtain any photographic evidence of this visit.
After dark, we took our showers off the stern and then sat in the cockpit enjoying the evening. On shore, we can hear the peeps and chirps of thousands of tree frogs or other little nighttime creatures. With the swell that rolls through the anchorage we can hear the surf breaking on the shore a few hundred feet away from us. It’s like the best of both worlds; as if I were sitting on the back porch of the house I grew up in, while also sitting at the beach. If only we could get rid of the sound of traffic passing it would be perfect.
Lone Star left the anchorage about 21:00, as they are going further than us on this leg. We plan to leave at 05:00, so early to bed.
GPS N 17-58.582 W 065-59.617 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 8888.
May 4
We finally got out of Puerto Patillas this morning in the company of Island Time and Sol Y Mar. The wind has subsided enough to make a tolerable ride east to Vieques. It is still blowing from the east, making it a motoring trip as usual, but the wind speed is under fifteen knots for the first time in almost a week. Vieques is one of the islands off the eastern end of Puerto Rico that make up the Spanish Virgin Islands. Although they are referred to as the Spanish Virgins, they are still part of Puerto Rico. A large part of Vieques is owned by the US military and until a few years ago was used as a live-fire bombing range. There was a huge protest by the people who live on the island which resulted finally in the closing of the bombing range. The base on the main island of Puerto Rico has closed also except for some small support duties. The land which was the bombing range is still off limits to people, since there is a huge amount of unexploded ordinance on the ground. They are working at cleaning that all up so that someday the land can be used for something.
As we were crossing the twenty some miles between Puerto Rico and Vieques, we heard the frantic voice of a boat we know. Non Linear and a couple other boats we know were coming into the anchorage that we just left this morning. Non Linear’s chartplotter didn’t show a small shallow area that you have to go around before entering the anchorage. The result was that they ended up with their rudder jammed between two rocks, and could not backup. Jon’s frantic voice was calling the Coast Guard to try and get them to contact somebody to assist them. Fortunately, they were close enough in to the anchorage that they were out of the rough water, and not in any imminent danger of doing further damage to the boat. The Coast Guard asked their dozens of questions, and finally contacted Sea Tow, who said they could be there in two hours. In the meantime, several other boaters had come to Non Linear’s aid, and with the use of a couple anchors deployed by dinghies, they were able to winch themselves loose. After getting anchored Jon dove under the boat and found no substantial damage, so a scary situation turned out ok.
About midway in the trip, Sol Y Mar spotted a huge Leatherback turtle. When they first saw it, they thought it was a capsized row boat. Then it popped its football-sized head out of the water and they realized what it was. Of course, once again there is no photographic evidence of this encounter. If they spot a UFO tomorrow, I’m going to become suspicious.
We arrived at Sun Bay, just east of the town of Esperanza a little after noon. We found that there were five mooring balls there that were apparently free. Island Time and Sol Y Mar were already there, leaving three moorings open for us to choose from. The bay is pretty rolly though, as the east swell wraps around the entrance. We launched our dinghies and went for a tour of the bay. The bay is quite large, perhaps a mile across, and three quarters of the shore is a nice public beach. The part that is public beach has a floating line keeping boats out of the swimming area, so we couldn’t land the dinghies. As it was the surf was too rough to land anyway, since getting back off the beach would be a problem. Way over in the eastern corner, there was a small mooring that we were going to tie the dinghies to and wade ashore, but as soon as we tied up, we were swarmed by mosquitoes. So, it was back to the boat for the evening.
GPS N 18-05.473 W 065-27.386 Nautical miles traveled today 33. Total miles 8921.
May 5
This morning we dinghied into the town of Esperanza. To do this, we have to actually leave the bay we are in and go around a point and into the Esperanza harbor. We could have anchored here, but the area deep enough to anchor is fairly small. I am almost out of gas for the dinghy, so Sol Y Mar stayed close to us in case we ran out. We got there ok, and tied up to the dock. We had just gotten tied up and out of the dinghies when a young guy came out jabbering at us in some mixture of Spanish and English that we could barely understand. While he was jabbering at us, another guy walked out to get in his dinghy that was also tied here. He told us that the gist of what the guy was saying was that we can’t tie up to this dock. It’s supposedly just for the local fishermen. So, we moved the dinghies over to the beach nearby, although the small surf and deep water right to the edge made this less than desirable. We learned later that the guy jabbering at us is more or less the village idiot, and his status to control who uses the dock is questionable. While we had the English speaking guy here, we inquired about gasoline and learned that there is none in his town. You have to get it in Isabella, but the publicos won’t let you take a gas can. So, I’m probably out of luck here.
We found a nice maleceon here with several small restaurants and shops along it. We stopped at one and asked the owner how we might get to Isabella, the other town on the island. He was kind enough to call us a publico. Publicos here are full sized vans which work like taxis except that you may share the rid with other people. They don’t jam as many bodies as possible in like the guaguas in the Dominican Republic though. Our van showed up in a few minutes and took us the seven or eight miles into Isabella. We just had him drop us off in the center of town and we started looking around.
We found a nice little downtown area, but many things were closed. We walked towards the water and found the ferry dock, where the ferry from Fajardo had just arrived. There were a couple hundred people getting off the ferry, but it wasn’t clear where they all went. We walked on to the fishermen’s dock and found the fish market where we inquired about the price of lobster. It was $9/lb, which we thought was pretty steep, so we passed.
We walked back into the main downtown area and found a tourism office. There we picked up a map, and learned that there was a museum nearby. We walked up a substantial hill and found the museum at the top. The building was originally built to be a fort, but was never used as one. It was used as a jail for sometime and then was abandoned in 1940. In the 90’s it was refurbished and made into the museum. It was small but interesting, even though once again, we found mostly Spanish in the exhibits. Even better than the museum itself, was the view from the grounds.
By now we were getting hot and thirsty, so we walked back near the ferry dock to Al’s Azul Bar. It had a nice waterfront view and looked like a nice bar. We joined a few locals at the bar and ordered beer. We met a few interesting folks here. One couple lives here although they are from the US. He works at cleaning up the bombing range. She was wearing a baseball cap that we noticed had the Latitudes and Attitudes magazine logo on the side. I asked her if they were boaters. It turns out the hat was actually an Eric Stone hat. Eric Stone is a singer we know. He works for Lats & Atts frequently, and that’s why the magazine logo is on his hats. Anyway, they had met him at a bar in Marathon and then later at the airport there.
Another guy we met there was Tully. Tully was sixty-one, although he didn’t look it. He retired from the Army almost twenty years ago and has been splitting his time between Culebra and the southern Caribbean ever since. We enjoyed talking to him and hearing some of his stories.
We did learn an important tidbit while at this bar. All the beer in Puerto Rico is sold in 10 ounce cans instead of twelve ounces. We asked why and were told that it was because the military base sold beer on base cheap in 12 oz. cans. In order to make sure that stores and bars paid the proper taxes, they can only sell 10 oz cans. If a bar was caught selling 12 oz cans, they would know they had bought them tax free on base. I’m not sure if I buy the explanation, but since it has to do with the government making sure they collect all the tax they can off vices, it’s plausible.
We were getting hungry and Al’s didn’t serve any food, so we asked the bartender and the locals for a lunch suggestion. They all said back in Esperanza was the only place to go. So, we had Beth the bartender call our publico driver and he picked us up a few minutes later. He took us back to the waterfront in Esperanza where we found Duffy’s. We had been told this was the best food in town and we were not disappointed. While we were waiting for our food, in walked Tully. He joined us and chatted some more until our food came.
After eating we moved to the bar to have some more beer. There we met a young guy wearing a University of Texas hat. We struck up a conversation with Tyler and learned that he lives here on a sailboat and he takes people out on day sails. He has just bought a small piece of land and plans to build a house. He was a very interesting guy and gave us lots of local knowledge. He also offered to give me a half gallon of gas that he had so I don’t run out going back to the boat. I tried to pay him for it, but he refused.
Late in the afternoon, we walked a half mile or so to the grocery store where we got some bread and ice. We walked back to the dock and dinghied back to the boats. After stowing the ice, we decided to jump in the water to cool off. It was getting near sunset, and there were mosquitoes everywhere. We stayed in the water just off the stern of the boat for about fifteen minutes, all the time swatting the mosquitoes away from our heads. When we finally got out, we took a quick fresh water rinse on the stern and ran inside where we stayed for the evening. We only had hatches with screens open, hoping to keep out the mosquitoes, and for the most part did.
GPS N 18-05.473 W 065-27.386 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 8921.
May 6
We left Vieques this morning, bound for Culebra. Culebra is the other large island that makes up the Spanish Virgins. We originally planned to make a couple other stops on Vieques, but learned from our talk with Tyler yesterday that our plans were not good. We had wanted to anchor in the bioluminescent bay just east of Esperanza. The cruising guide says this is fine. Tyler told us that they don’t want any gas or diesel powered boats in the bay and that you are only supposed to go on one of the many electric powered tour boats. The tours cost $30 per person, so we skipped that. Our other planned anchorage was going to be Bahia Salinas del Sur, on the southeastern corner of the island. This bay is in what used to be the bombing range, so we knew we couldn’t go ashore here, but it looked like a nice anchorage. We learned that if a boat anchors here, they have to stop working on the cleanup, since there is always the chance of an explosion. They don’t like to stop working, so they discourage boats from coming in there. So as a result, we are going straight to Culebra.
We found the wind still out of the east, but only about ten or twelve knots, so the eastbound portion of the twenty-three mile trip was not bad. As we passed the eastern end of the island, we could see tanks and other stuff on the hills that had been targets for the bombing range. We turned north at the eastern end of Vieques and hope to be able to sail the last ten miles to Culebra. Of course as soon as we were headed in a favorable direction to sail, the wind died off to almost nothing. We motored on towards Culebra.
We went into Ensenada Honda, a large bay in the middle of the island. The entrance is from the south, and the town of Dewey is in the northwest corner of the bay. There are lots of boats anchored here, many permanently. We came all the way to the northern end to find fairly shallow water to anchor in. After getting secure, we took a little nap before going in to explore Dewey. The airport is just over a hill from the anchorage, and when the planes take off, they pop out from behind the hill just as they have left the ground. Fortunately, they are all small planes and not that often, because they roar right over the boats.
Mid afternoon, we dinghied in to town. There is a canal through town connecting the bay to the western ocean side of the island. The ferries from Fajardo land over on this side instead of coming in the bay. We dinghied the length of the canal and found the gas station which serves both cars and boats. Unfortunately they are closed on Sunday, so I’m going to have to stretch my little bit of gas a little further. We went back to the bay end of the canal and tied up at the Dinghy Dock Restaurant. The cruising guide says this is the cruisers hangout. There were only a couple of people here, but we were greeted at the bar by Hector the bartender. Hector turned out to be a very cool guy who took good care of us and entertained us all afternoon. He is Puerto Rican, but grew up in New York City and moved back to Puerto Rico as an adult. Somewhere in the conversation we mentioned Jimmy Buffett, and Hector told us he had been there last week. Damn!
Just off the dock huge tarpon swim around in the clear three-foot deep water. We have been told tarpon are no good to eat, which is too bad since these guys are large. We also observed an array of other fish from the edge of the bar. We met the owner, who also spent a lot of time in NYC as evidenced by his accent. As dinner time approached, we moved from the bar into the seating area and had a nice dinner. Pat and I both had tuna seared rare. The owner had told us earlier that the tuna was very good, and we learned from Hector later that he personally supervised the cook preparing ours to make sure it was cooked just right.
We had a couple more drinks at the bar before leaving. We were disappointed to learn that Hector would not be working again until Thursday, by which time we’ll be gone. We met his wife, who works at Mamacita’s, another restaurant in town. She had just gotten off work and stopped in on her way home. All in all, it was a fun afternoon.
GPS N 18-18.403 W 065-18.022 Nautical miles traveled today 23. Total miles 8944.
May 7
Yesterday while at the Dinghy Dock Restaurant, we learned that they also serve breakfast. They had French toast that purportedly has rum in the batter on the menu. So after the radio nets, we joined Pat & Dori there for breakfast. The French toast turned out to be a little disappointing. There was nothing wrong with it, but the alleged rum didn’t make it special either. While we were eating, three other boats we know came into the anchorage. Cheetah II, Non Linear, and Paper Moon and anchored just off the town dock.
After breakfast we dinghied up the canal to the gas station where I filled my tank. One less thing to worry about. We went through the canal and out into the bay on the west side of the island just to see what was there. On our way back, we ran into Cheetah II in their dinghy. We chatted for a few minutes and then went back into the anchorage to tie up at the town dock. We found Non Linear and Paper Moon there and we all tied up together. We are going to do a little walking tour of town from here and started up the hill. We found a few gift shops and everybody browsed around a bit. We walked all the way through town to the ferry dock, which is next to the main street. Barb & Dori did a little beachcombing on the beach just north of the ferry dock. They found some interesting things including Barb’s first piece of red sea glass.
After a couple hours of roaming and beachcombing, we were ready for a beer, so we all went to Mamacita’s. It had been recommended as having good food. There were ten of us, and when we got there, there were no other patrons in the place. The dining area is a covered patio right on the canal, with perhaps fifteen tables. We pulled two tables together and just got comfortable when the waitress came over to tell us we weren’t allowed to move tables. We would have to sit six at one table and four at the other. She would however happily combine all ten of us on to one ticket though. We said that in fact we wanted her to split the ticket into couples. Oh no. Can’t do that. Lotta damn rules for a beach bar on a sleepy little island. I was about to say the heck with them and go somewhere else, but the others wanted to stay so we did. The table of six ordered food right away, while Pat & Dori and Barb and I just ordered beer. By the time the food came to the other table, we were getting hungry and the food smelled good, so we ordered also. Our food was fine, but there was some problem at the other table which resulted in a discussion with the manger. I’m not sure of the details, but they weren’t happy. Too bad we had a poor experience because the place is in a cool location.
There were a number of large iguanas at Mamacita’s. They spent their time sitting on the wall at the edge of the patio, watching for handouts. There are signs posted to please not feed them, but obviously people do anyway. At one point, one of the largest ones slid down off the wall to retrieve a French fry from the floor. The waitress used the chair leg to coax him back up on the wall and then fed him a bright yellow flower. I think he preferred the French fries.
We left Mamacita’s and explored a couple of streets we hadn’t seen yet. When we ran out of places to see, we conveniently found ourselves back at the Dinghy Dock Restaurant. There were just a couple of people there and the bartender today was Judy. We started chatting with two women at the bar, Cathy and Sarah, who were sisters. They were both in the military and were just here for the day. They both have seen duty in Iraq. Cathy, who had been called up from the reserves, now lives in Old San Juan. Sarah who is still an active duty career person, was on vacation between assignments. They were both really neat people whom we enjoyed meeting.
We also met a couple who live here on their boat. They sailed in a couple years ago and never left. And we met another sailing couple who have been bouncing around the Caribbean for fourteen years, and are headed north this year for the first time. Late in the afternoon, who shows up, but Hector. Turned out he forgot he had offered to cover somebody else’s shift, so he’s not off tonight after all. We ended up spending the evening here. We also met a couple who just returned from a charter that was an instructional trip. They lived aboard for a week or so and the captain was supposed to teach them to sail. They were less than complimentary about the experience, but they enjoyed picking our brains about what to look for in a boat and how we liked cruising after being out for a couple of years.
GPS N 18-18.403 W 065-18.022 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 8944.
May 8
Today started a little slowly. We did the usual radio stuff in the morning, but didn't leave the boat until after noon. We met Pat & Dori ashore and walked into town to find a publico out to Flamenco Beach. We have been told that Flamenco Beach is a must see. Town is quite dead today, and after waiting for half an hour or so, a van that runs back and forth to the beach finally came by. It was $2 each and only takes about five minutes to get there. Since the weather was overcast, we found the beach lightly populated. It is a very large crescent shaped beach with a reef close enough to shore to snorkel off the beach. The path from the parking area is about midway in the length of the beach, and we walked all the way to the western end from there. At the end of the beach we found the rusting remains of two Army tanks that were left here from the days when the US military used Culebra for target practice as well as Vieques. There was a light rain shower while we were on the beach, and this sent the few people who had been there home. By the time we walked back to the path to the parking area we found almost no people around. The food vendors near the parking area were packing up too, even though it was not yet 15:00. We got a drink and grabbed the next van back to town.
We had hoped to eat at the beach, but since they were closing up, we didn't get that option. Back in town, we found the only place open all afternoon for food is the Chinese restaurant. We stepped inside the front door and were met with an odd and not too pleasant smell. I quickly said I didn't want to stay here, so we left. Down the street we found Mamacita's bar open, but they won't start serving food again until 18:00. We sat and had a couple of drinks and watched CNN for a couple hours until dinner was available. Unlike our previous visit, this one was excellent. The afternoon bartender and Tom the waiter who took care of us once we were seated for dinner were both very pleasant. The menu here is different every day. I had tuna, even though I had tuna just a couple days ago. It was excellent as were the side dishes. We didn't stay out late tonight, and were back aboard the boats just a little after dark.
GPS N 18-18.403 W 065-18.022 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 8944.
May 9
If I titled each day's logs, today's would be "Let's Go For A Boat Ride". Our plan today is for Pat and I to take the ferry to Fajardo, on the big island of Puerto Rico, to go to West Marine, while the ladies do laundry. We met at the dock about noon and walked over to the ferry dock side of town. The small laundromat is supposed to be behind the gas station right at the ferry dock, but we had not seen any indication of that when we walked up there on previous days. We got to the gas station and sure enough, in a door at the back of the building was a room with three washers and dryers, but only two of each worked. We left the ladies there and went across the street to buy our tickets for the ferry.
The ferry runs from Culebra at 06:30, 13:00, and 17:00. It returns from Fajardo at 09:00, 15:00, and 19:00. Our plan is to leave Culebra at 13:00, snag a taxi at the dock in Fajardo to take us to West Marine, taxi back to the dock and get the 15:00 ferry back. I went up to the ticket window and asked for two round trip tickets. I was surprised when I had to tell him exactly which ferries we wanted, but I answered the 13:00 out and the 15:00 back. He happily took my $9 for both round trips and gave me the ticket. The ride is $2.25 each way, which seems silly cheap. It must be subsidized somehow. We sat around with everybody else until a few minutes before 13:00 and then boarded. We have the choice of sitting below in the air conditioned cabin where you could store frozen food, or on the upper deck. We chose the upper deck far enough forward to be under the partial roof and settled in. We shared the ride with about thirty high school seniors who must have been here on an overnight trip to the beach. We didn't do field trips like that when I was in school. Promptly at 13:00, we pulled away form the dock. Here's where the plan starts to go a little awry. After thirty minutes, Pat and I noticed that Fajardo was still quite a ways in the distance. We had never asked anybody how long the trip was. By 14:00, when we were still a fair distance from docking, we started to get worried. At 14:35, when we docked, we had a decision to make. We could either go ahead and go to West Marine, and return to Culebra on the 19:00 ferry, or we could grab a beer across the street from the ferry dock and get back on the 15:00 boat which we have tickets for. The fact that we would have had to buy new tickets for $2.25 each wasn't much of a factor in the decision. The fact that we wouldn't get back to Culebra until 20:30, and the ladies would have been wondering where we were for a few hours made up our minds. If we could have communicated with them, it would have been easier, but we are past the range of our handheld VHF radios. So, grab a beer it was. Did I mention that the ferry doesn't have any kind of concession stand? They could make more money off concessions than they are off the fares. Promptly at 15:00 we were on our way back to Culebra.
As we disembarked at 16:35, the ladies were just finishing the laundry. Perfect timing except for the fact that we weren't carrying West Marine bags. We walked the ladies and the laundry back to the dock, with a stop at the small grocery in town for a couple of items. Back on the boat we decided to behave tonight and have dinner aboard and not test the rum resources of the local bars again. We plan to head over to Culebrita tomorrow, which is just a few miles away.
GPS N 18-18.403 W 065-18.022 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 8944.
May 10
We weighed anchor about 09:00 after the radio nets. The trip to Culebrita is only seven miles. We went out the southern entrance of Ensenada Honda and turned northeast in the channel that runs between Culebra and Culebrita. At the northern end of Culebrita, we turned east for a bit and then south to enter Bahia de Tortuga. Culebrita is a nature preserve, primarily because it is a nesting habitat for sea turtles. For that reason, you are not allowed ashore after dark. The turtles come and go laying eggs at night. We saw a number of turtles swimming in the bay while we were here.
There are five free moorings available in this bay, and since it's a weekday, they were all available when we arrived. There was one other boat here, but it was anchored. We picked up our moorings and then just relaxed for a while enjoying the view of the nice beach. Another boat came in shortly after us and got another mooring. It was quite overcast all morning, and showers kept coming and going as fast as you could open or close the hatches. We stayed aboard until lunchtime, and then after a sandwich joined Pat & Dori ashore.
We found the path that crosses the narrow part of the island to the beach on the windward side and walked over there. The ladies immediately started looking for sea glass and other treasures. There is an abandoned lighthouse atop the 350 foot high hill here, which is supposed to be a must see. Well, after looking at it from below, everyone decided I was the only one who must see it up close. Off I went on the path to the lighthouse. The path is not marked, but Tom on Lone Star, who is a few days ahead of us had called us on the VHF while they were here, and gave us details on what to see. I learned from the experience that Rob from Milano Myst had back in the Bahamas when he went hiking alone. I was prepared in that I had a bottle of water and handheld VHF. Of course, none of our party had another handheld VHF, but I figured if I had an emergency, I could raise one of the other boats in the harbor and have them get somebody. I did screw up in that I was wearing my Crocs. Not exactly hiking shoes. I turned down the path that I believed was to the lighthouse. After a ways, I sensed I was going the wrong way, and I wasn't going significantly uphill. In the brush, I couldn't see the lighthouse to be sure, but I finally reached a point where I could see the masts from the boats to my right. This told me I had traveled away from the lighthouse, not towards it. Just when I was thinking about going back, I came to an intersection of trails, where one clearly turned back towards the lighthouse and started uphill. As I started up this path I could see the lighthouse ahead of me. Later back on the boat, it was obvious what the trail does. It comes back to the north to where the ridge comes down to sea level and then follows the ridgeline up. I finally reached the top and was rewarded with the cool breeze coming off the ocean. I could see Barb & Dori down on the beach, but they didn't see me and it was way too far to yell over the sound of the surf.
The lighthouse building itself is surrounded by a chain link fence, with a large No Trespassing sign, but again Tom had told me to go around the corner to where the fence was open. Besides, the sign was in Spanish. The old building has no roof anymore, but the walls are intact, and the tile floors were still intact which surprised me since some of the rooms had what appeared to be marble tile. I was tempted to climb to the top of the tower itself, but the steel spiral staircase was badly rusted, and when I tested it a bit with my weight, it flexed a lot. No need getting hurt for an extra fifty feet of view. On one side of the original building, I found a cement block building full of stuff that indicated people had been here not too long ago. There were several fold up beds like the ones you get for an extra bed in a hotel, a chest freezer, a stove, lots of gallon jugs of drinking water, and other stuff that was not particularly deteriorated. But the whole room was in disarray, so it hadn't been used very recently. It was pretty odd. As I was about to leave, I noticed signs of another structure through the trees. I walked through and found the remains of another building. This one had the walls and roof demolished and very deliberately cleared to the side, leaving a large concrete floor that could easily be used to land a helicopter. Sitting at the corner of this pad was a large fire extinguisher that had been discharged. It looked like it had only been there a few days. It wasn't rusty or weathered at all. Very curious.
On my hike, I noticed several different kinds of wildlife. There were thousands of lizards everywhere. As I would walk, a group of twenty or thirty would suddenly scatter in front of me. Usually I wouldn't notice them until they moved, and then when they all took off it looked like a school of flying fish. There were also a couple places where the trail went through thicker trees and was shaded. In these area I found lots of hermit crabs. They were hard to notice unless you stopped for a minute and noticed how many shells were walking along the floor. When they sensed you coming, they pull up into their shells, and the shell sometimes rolls over. In at least two areas, I had to watch that I didn't accidentally stomp one. On the way up, I startled some type of large animal. I hadn't seen it until it ran, and all I saw was butt and legs going through the brush away from me. It ran like a deer, but I'm not aware that there are deer here. The other wildlife that there was an abundance of was mosquitoes. Even at the top with the wind blowing, they were everywhere.
Back on the beach I found Pat and the ladies and we headed back to the other side. We got the dinghies, went back to the boats to replenish cold drinks, and then went over to the east side of the bay to find The Jacuzzis. The Jacuzzis are supposed to be a series of shallow pools and rounded rock similar to The Baths in the BVI. We found the pools by walking towards the large sign that said "Area Closed - Slippery Rocks - Strong Currents". This sign was in Spanish and English, but we ignored it anyway. We found several pools of mostly calm water. The main one is straight inside the break in the rocks that lets the waves in. You could stand in this pool with your head at water level, and see the huge waves coming from outside the rocks. All but the largest waves were diffused entirely by the time the water got to the pool. A few very large ones crashed over the rocks, and sent a rush of water through the pool, but it wasn't at all dangerous. A little to the side we found another large pool that was about twenty by thirty feet. It was much more protected from the water flow and pretty shallow. We climbed up into it and found it to be much warmer water. There was a rock in the middle that I sat on while the others sat on the edge. There were a number of pretty tropical fish in the pool, and when we sat still they would swim right around us. As we were leaving because it was nearing sunset, we saw there were even more pools. We may have to come back here tomorrow.
We had a quiet night aboard with Sloppy Joes for dinner. We went to bed a little after dark. It's funny how we fall into the schedule of the sun when we don't have TV or distractions of a town to influence us.
GPS N 18-19.130 W 065-13.740 Nautical miles traveled today 7. Total miles 8951.
May 11
We decided to spend a second day at Culebrita. The wind and seas are calming down a bit for the trip to St. Thomas, but they will be even calmer tomorrow, so we'll stay. I have been needing to clean the bottom of the boat for some time now, so I tackled the task this morning. I got out all my SCUBA gear and put it on. I have not been diving in several years, except a couple of quick trips under the boat, so just putting the stuff on takes some thought and remembering how to do it right. Once in the water, it took a little while to get comfortable enough breathing underwater again to start the work. I started at the front and scraped the whole bottom back to the keel. Since I only have a three inch putty knife to scrape with, I was getting tired. It's also very hard to control your buoyancy right at the surface like that, so I was working at not floating up and scratching myself on the bottom, vs. sinking away when I pushed on the scraper. All in all it was tiring, and when I got half through I gave up. I climbed back aboard and took off my gear and rinsed it. After resting a bit, I got in the dinghy and finished at least going around the edge and scraping as far down as I could reach from the surface. Better than nothing. A few days ago, Pat had looked under his boat a determined it wasn't as clean as he thought, so he was doing the same thing that I was.
Our looky bucket has developed a leak where the clear bottom is glued into the bucket. I pushed on the clear bottom and found that with little trouble I could pop the whole thing out. The glue has deteriorated in the sun apparently. So I cleaned the old glue off and resealed the bottom in with UV resistant caulking.
A couple of other boats have arrived in the anchorage today, so all the moorings are taken and a couple are anchored. There goes the quiet neighborhood.
Early this morning as we were sitting in the cockpit, Barb spotted a deer on the beach. I guess that explains what I saw yesterday on my hike. In the afternoon the four of us snorkeled on the reef just a hundred feet or so behind the boats. We swam to the reef and drifted around over it. The reef almost comes up to the surface in some places, and then drops off sharply to about twenty feet. There was a lot of fish on the wall and I enjoyed just hanging out over them and watching. The coral itself was in generally poor condition. It wasn't all dead, and there were lots of big purple fans and other corals, but there was lots of dead places too.
GPS N 18-19.130 W 065-13.740 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 8951.
May 12
We got up today and headed for St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. The wind is still right on the nose and the seas are still three to four feet, but this will be the last of the bashing to weather for a couple weeks. Pat & Dori had been hoping to meet up with a boat they knew from a couple years ago that is US bound. They have been in St. Thomas for a few days while we were in Culebra and Culebrita. Unfortunately, they headed west this morning as we headed east. We passed Crab Louie about halfway between the islands. Too bad they didn't get to hook up.
Our plan is to go to Charlotte Amalie, the "big city" of St. Thomas. We plan to anchor in Honeymoon Bay off Water Island. Sol Y Mar went right there, while we detoured a mile or so to the Crown Bay Marina to get fuel and water. I had fueled our charter boat here a few years ago, so I was familiar with the fuel dock. We pulled in and tied up with help from a dock hand. He quickly told me which pump to use and then went back into his air conditioned office. He didn't pull the hose to the boat or anything. I don't think I've ever experienced such poor service at a fuel dock. We filled the fuel and then started filling our water tanks. Sol Y Mar called on the radio to say that they didn't anchor after all. Honeymoon Bay is filled with private moorings, and the only place to anchor was thirty feet deep. Since I haul the anchor by hand, I don't like to go over twenty feet deep. Sol Y Mar decided to go ahead and come in to get fuel and we discussed our options. We inquired about the price of the marina, and it was reasonable at $1.35/ft. We plan to move on to Red Hook on the eastern end of the island tomorrow and stay in the marina there, so I got on the phone and called American Yacht Harbor to see if they had room today. They did, and they are only $1.25/ft, so off we went.
We toured the main harbor of Charlotte Amalie as we continued east. We could see the new Yacht Haven Grande marina over near the cruise ship docks, and it looked almost empty. There was only one cruise ship at the dock, but being Saturday, most ships are probably in their home ports swapping passengers. The Marriott has a huge construction project going on, but other than that, from the water everything looked pretty much the same as a few years ago. Red Hook is only eight miles by water from here, so once outside the harbor we sat back for the ride along the coast. We got waked several times by the large ferries that run between Charlotte Amalie, Red Hook, and St. John. One passed so close by us that we almost got wet from the spray coming off his bow. I guess they get used to dealing with all the charter sailboats that they don't care.
At Red Hook we found the harbor full of moorings again, and were glad that we plan to go in to AYH. I hailed the marina on the radio and got direction to our slip. We got tied up with no problem and then hailed Sol Y Mar. They had waited out in the harbor until we were secure so that we could take their lines when they got there. We got them secure and got the a/c fired up. In the back of the harbor where the marina is, the breeze is significantly cut off, so we were hot. We got checked in at the office by the dockmaster, Barbara Roderick. Our friend and marina manager back in TX, Lynda Hall, used to work here, so I asked Barbara how long she had worked here and if she remembered Lynda. She has been here ten years, and thought she did remember her. Small world. I also was able to get a phone number for our friends Floyd & Jennifer who moved here from Kemah five years ago. I gave them a call and we will be getting together tomorrow.
Next stop was the bar. Molly Molone's is one of the places right at the marina complex. We had not eaten all day, so after a beer or two to cool down, we ordered a late lunch/early dinner. After eating, we went to avail ourselves of the nice showers they have here. I have written about how important the showers are in a marina, and this place has done it right. There are four rooms, which are complete private bathrooms. Sink, toilet, and shower, just like in a house. They were clean, the shower heads were not stingy, the water was hot, they were air conditioned, and the lights work. What more could you want?
Later in the evening, the ladies decided to stay on the boats while Pat and I checked out one of the other bars in the marina. Sopchoppy's is on the third floor of the complex with a nice view of the marina. We sat at the bar and had a few drinks. We chatted with a local guy for a while about life in St. Thomas. Or at least his view of it. Back at the boat, I enjoyed some cable TV. We haven't had TV in a long time, so it was nice. I watched a Discovery Channel show about the sinking of the Lusitania, followed by a Weather Channel show about a sailboat sinking in a big storm off New Zealand and the subsequent rescue of the crew. Great stuff to be watching on a boat.
GPS N 18-19.481 W 064-51.03 Nautical miles traveled today 25. Total miles 8976.