Month: April 2018 (Page 1 of 2)

Reward for an uneventful Mona crossing

The Mona Passage – the body of water that separates the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico – has a reputation and therefore the nickname of the Murderous Mona. With daily squalls that build up off the coast of Puerto Rico and cut loose to sea in the late afternoon/early evening, you want to plan your sail carefully. We had the advantage of crossing east to west with the prevailing trade winds – the passage is much rougher on those coming east who have to beat into the winds and the seas. Fortunately, we had a good run. We left in the morning, got west and north enough to miss the trail of weather that moved off of Puerto Rico and headed southwest. Winds were solidly in our favor and the only downside was the swell. It was a rooooooolllllly ride with the seas on our beam. However, with our new autopilot in place to manage the steering, it was not a bad run.

Infinity pool at Puerto Bahia Marina

We made landfall at Puerto Bahia Marina just outside of Samana. We had originally talked about bypassing the Dominican Republic altogether because of too many stories of rampant corruption amongst the officials that control customs and immigration, as well as the incredibly unfortunate ‘despacho’ process – officials not issuing you a permit to leave the port until an hour before you go – not feasible if you need to leave early morning or late at night. However, we met several cruisers in Puerto Rico who assured us that the process and the people are working to make things better, and this marina has a great reputation for making the entire process painless. They weren’t kidding.

Samana Harbor

The harbormaster, Eduardo, and his team guided us in and helped us into the slip (not having bow thrusters I still have a love/hate relationship with marinas as it’s simply not easy to maneuver the boat into most slips. They got us all sorted and told us to take our time before clearing in with both them and the Commandante. Good thing, as 10 minutes later fellow cruisers Connor and Karl on Contigo (who we met in Marion, MA and again down in Annapolis) stopped by to say hi – a very small world. After a brief reunion with them we cleared into the marina and then moved onto the Commandante’s office. Shephard and team were all professional, fees were exactly what we expected and not a single bribe even insinuated. Sigh, if clearing in could only always be this easy.

Puerto Bahia Resort Lobby

The marina is part of a resort and marina guests get to enjoy all the amenities. The lobby has beautiful wicker furniture strategically placed to let you enjoy or avoid the sun and maintain some privacy while you suck down a beer and update all your devices with the resort wifi (the perpetual cruiser’s life). The highlight of this place though is the infinity pool that looks out over Samana Bay. You order your beer at the bar and then hang out watching the local fishermen from the pool – utterly indulgent but well earned after our sail. Once we turned into prunes, we sat down with Connor and Karl who were kind enough to brief us on the Bahamas and give us a list of recommended anchorages.

Los Haititses

The marina/resort are a distance from town, so we took a shuttle to the edge of the property (probably a couple of miles), then waited for a local bus. In the meantime two guys stopped on motorbikes (the national form of transportation) so we took them up on their offer. Luckily the ride to town was short and they weren’t speed demons – though a bit of a risk, my life didn’t flash before my eyes as it has on rides on other islands this cruise. Samana is worth wandering around for an afternoon – a mix between pretty waterfront and gritty Caribbean town. We did a rickshaw/tuktuk ride back (rickshaw seats attached to a motorbike), a little less risky but fun nonetheless. And bliss – while we were gone two of the local dockhands scrubbed down our topsides and polished the stainless steel – the boat is starting to look a little less weather beaten! If only we were going to stay longer – they would varnish as well if we wanted…..

Caves

The one excursion we knew we needed to do from Samana was to Los Haititses, across the bay. It’s a federal park, and it’s described as the Vietnam of the Caribbean. A series of tree covered limestone islands jutting out of the water, it really does look like something more suited for southeast Asia. We not only got to see the bird population (frigate birds, pelicans, egrets, hawks, etc) we also got to tour some of the local caves, which included petroglyphs from early Taino settlers.

Mangroves

Taino carving

Then it was a teeth clenching, bone jarring ride on the motor catamaran at 16 knots (my body isn’t used to that speed) across the bay to Leventado Island for lunch. Lunch was ok (the usual chicken and rice & beans) but I ordered a pina colada that was more of a pineapple smoothie (huge chunks of fresh pineapple) in the actual pineapple shell. Between the pineapple and the avocado I don’t think I will ever eat such delicious fresh fruit again after this cruise. After lunch we wandered down to the beach where we enjoyed a few more beers in the shade while everyone else played on the beach (this body can only take so much sun these days, as opposed to everyone around us on vacation who had limited days to soak in the rays). It was a much quieter ride back to Samana, and we finished off the day with a soak in the infinity pool (I’m getting addicted) before heading to bed early.

Kalyra selected as a backdrop for a local fashion photo shoot!

Santo Domingo

All our new friends had left (catching weather windows, especially to move east safely & comfortably, is critical) and we weren’t leaving for another day so we decided to rent a car and explore a bit. We first drove up to Las Terrenas, a popular resort town on the north coast. We were there a bit too early in the day for drinks, but it was fun to drive through town and especially good to stop at a proper grocery store for some serious provisioning.

Santo Domingo

Though we knew our time would be limited, we then headed south to Santo Domingo. We had hear all about the colonial district and wanted to see it, even if we didn’t have long. I splurged and got a tour guide who walked us through the area and gave us the history behind the city and the island. We know others come to the city for 3-4 days to properly explore, and we barely got a taste, but we now have an excuse to come back.

Santo Domingo

Dodging squalls

We were undecided as to where on the Puerto Rico west coast to stage our departure for the Dominican Republic. However, several cruisers that we’ve met over the last month all had great things to say about Puerto Real, so that’s where we headed. We left early from Ponce knowing we had a full day of sailing, but the winds were in our favor, we were under our usual poled out jib run, and in fact we had to reduce sail to slow down once we rounded the coast to avoid a squall moving through the Puerto Real/Mayaguez area (passed by the time we anchored).

Puerto Real is nothing more than a fishing village and a marina, but it’s a great little spot to sit for a few days waiting for the right weather window. It’s an anchorage that’s nearly empty (three boats total anchored the entire time we were there), and it experiences much less wind than just outside the coast. The marina was kind enough to let us take on water for free, use their dinghy dock, and do laundry despite not taking a slip there. Laundry in itself took up a full day since it had been a while and I don’t care what anyone says about not needing many clothes on a boat – you do NOT want to re-wear a Tshirt that you’ve sweated in and is covered in salt water and/or sunscreen for more than one day.

Puerto Real docks

Full circle on the anchor confirmed by GPS

We walked into town to get breakfast sandwiches at one of the local markets and then ducked across to the other to do a little provisioning. Here I ran into my one and only problem with bugs. Turns out the box of milk I bought (think Parmalat in the tetra paks) was covered in ants. I didn’t discover it till we were back on board and I was putting things away, so it got dunked immediately in salt water and thrown away – whew, infestation avoided.

There’s only one restaurant in town so we ate lunch there twice – Bresas del Mar, just a few doors down from the marina. Puerto Real is known for their small boat fishing industry and you should see the red snapper and lobster that are brought in on a daily basis. I treated myself to a lobster stew in a baked plantain bowl (mofongo) and red snapper filet in a garlic sauce the next day. Neither disappointed. We also made our way to one of the local corner bars where Trip made friends with the bartender and all 3 of the patrons. We were invited the next day to Marina Mondays – an excuse for the locals and any marina transients to hang out for a few hours.

sunset

Monday night was fun – we hung out with the locals as well as some of the new cruisers we met. Of course yet again we came across two Amel ketches in slips – seems I’m destined to continue running across these boats!

Ponce cathedral

Our next stop along the Puerto Rico coast was Ponce. The harbor behind the jetty is small, but it’s off-season so there was plenty of room for us. The main dinghy docks have not been rebuilt since the storms, but the fishermans’ coop is kind enough to let cruisers use their dinghy dock. Note of caution – be back before they lock the gates after dark! We had to scale the fence one night (luckily no one even noticed or was concerned) to get back to our dinghy to get back out to the boat.

fountain

Downtown Ponce is absolutely beautiful in its architecture and clearly has gone out of their way to maintain a sense of history of the island. I wouldn’t say it looks classically Caribbean – in fact it has a European or New Orleans flair with its ornate gates and building architecture. We started with lunch at El Barril de Mulata, which had a line going around the restaurant so we knew we were someplace good. After stuffing ourselves with roast pork, rice & beans, and fried plantains, we wandered around town and enjoyed the view.

Even the bikes are cool here

Later we ubered it back to the boardwalk (a long walk that crosses highways – not a good idea) where people were gathering for the start of the weekend. There’s a series of bars along the boardwalk, each with their own drink specialty and music. Oh – the music. Everyone is blasting something different and you pick your preference and hope that you can hear it over the din (the next restaurant/bar is only a few feet away with their own blasting tunes). Good luck at having any sort of a conversation, but it’s a lot of fun. The food is mostly fried but it soaks up the beers as they go down so easily. After a few hours of enjoying ourselves, we headed back to the boat to get ready to move on.

Guess who’s hair is long enough for a pony tail???

We’re still waiting to see the manatees that Salinas is known for, but we’re enjoying this little harbor, despite the recovery still going on.  While out provisioning, we got word that the entire island lost power yet again (less than 2 months before the next hurricane season).  Everyone has generators now, so there wasn’t much of a reaction amongst the locals.

Brisket & pulled pork tacos

The local marina bar featured taco Tuesday and tonight is pizza, so how can we say no?

From Palomino we did a long day run down the coast to work our way south and west. Our original plan was to do the northern coast (shorter), but northerly swells lasting several days are on their way so the south coast it is. The town of Patillas still looked pretty storm damaged so we opted to stay on the boat, but it was a nice quiet anchorage – good place to stop for the night.

Palomino Island

Sunday we got up, set the jib, and sailed out of Culebrita. Another downwind slide, we picked up a mooring off of Palomino Island just outside Farjado, Puerto Rico. This is a weekend party spot and boats and music were still going strong. Though one die hard boat went until well after midnight, most of the boats left shortly after sundown and we had the whole area to ourselves and one other sailboat.

Flamenco Beach

I had never heard of the Spanish Virgins before this cruise but two friends Keith & Ida insisted we not miss it and new friends Kim & Simon were raving about their recent visit. One of the OCC members Trip was chatting with on the OCC net (every morning) had also mentioned Culebra, so off we went. It was only a day sail from St Thomas and though a bit rolly, a beautiful downwind slide.

Flamenco Beach

We had a bit of a ‘who’s on first/what’s on second’ situation with customs and immigration (two different offices who kept referring me to each other). We wound up anchoring in Ensenada Honda in the main anchorage and were told to report to customs (who had sounded pretty grumpy) the next morning. Imagine our surprise when we found the customs agent to be a wealth of knowledge about the entire island and very funny! – she should have been in public relations and marketing rather than customs.

Beached tank

We stopped for a quick breakfast at a little restaurant across the street from the airport/customs office, it totally reminded us of the diner at the airport on Block Island or the old TV show Wings). After that we kept walking down the road over to Flamenco Beach. Flamenco is known to be one of the top three beaches in the entire world with soft white sand and water colors every shade of blue. There was a lot of sea grass left over from the storms, but you really wouldn’t have known that the beach was hit by two hurricanes, it was still so lovely. If you followed the water’s edge toward the end, you came upon a tank sitting right there on the beach. For several decades in the 1900’s, Culebra and neighbor Vieques were solely used for bombing practice by the US Navy (marine charts still list areas of unexploded ordinances). That tank and another up the shore were targets and now historical oddities.

Culebra – The Last Virgin

We had a beer at one of the beach bars and then headed back to town to wander around, followed by dinner at Mamacitas overlooking the canal.

The next day we went back ashore and explored town a bit more. Frustrated that one of the bars wasn’t opening on time, we took the local juice bar lady up on her offer to make pina coladas if I ran down to the local gas station and bought some rum. Lunch was a solid cheeseburger for Trip and a fresh greek hummous wrap for myself, eaten right off the ferry dock. We stopped for provisions across the canal and found the local store that has a great butcher. We hadn’t had steak in months so I treated us to some fabulous hanger steak for Caesar salads that night.

Pina coladas courtesy of Jaki’s Seas

One of the anchorages we had been told about was Almodovar, right around the bend a few miles from town. It’s an interesting entry through reefs and the anchorage has plenty of mooring balls. The amazing thing is that the moorings are all just feet from a reef that lines the eastern edge. You can sit there on your boat feeling the wind blowing, and watching the waves crash but the reefs cut out all the wave action so it’s as still as a pond on the mooring.

Culebra sunset

We went snorkeling to explore a bit and were immediately met with a dozen or so bonefish right under the boat. As we got close to shore we saw hundreds if not thousands of jellyfish resting upside down on the ocean floor. Trip stirred up a couple with a fin, but most didn’t stray from their resting spots.

With good wind but no waves, Trip decided to take the dinghy for a sail. In the meantime one other boat sailed in and he too put up a sailing rig on his dinghy. Trip and John sailed back and forth chatting away and John later came over for sundowners. Turns out he summers in Florida and winters in Culebra. Most fascinating was listening to him talk about everything he manages with his solar oven – I think I may have to invest in one when we get home!

Turtles in Culebrita!

The next day we headed up to Culebrita. The moorings were really close to shore, so we anchored just a bit out off of Tortuga Beach (coincidentally a sea turtle hatchery). Turtles were everywhere in the water, and you could see the marks from the hatchlings as they made their way to sea. Someone swam over from a local charter catamaran  to ask if we were really from New York and we invited Alex aboard. A Spaniard, he was chartering a boat with his sister and some friends to get a bit more experience before chartering in the Med this upcoming summer.

Lighthouse at the top of Culebrita

The next day we hiked up to the lighthouse for a spectacular view of all sides of the island. We stopped at Treasure Beach (on the windward side, I can only imagine what ‘treasures’ wash up onto shore) and then stopped by Alex’s boat for a drink and some appetizers. We had a blast chatting with them all, but they needed to move on as they had limited time.

We went back to the boat for a bit then went back ashore and worked our way up to the end of the beach. With a little bit of diligence and rock climbing, you get to an area called the ‘Baths’ or ‘Jacuzzis’. A 10 foot opening from the open ocean brings water into several pools that form natural Jacuzzis. Being shallow, the water warms up quite nicely – we spent an hour or so exploring but easily could have stayed all day. Culebrita was definitely one of the highlights of this trip!

Jacuzzis

We went back to Redhook and anchored this time to get a few more provisions before heading on. As we were down below organizing things and opening hatches I suddenly hear “Kalyra, I know that boat!” Turns out John on Clarity, who we last saw in Dominica with Judy & Torben, was anchored right next to us. Unfortunately he was upping anchor and heading to the BVI, so we chatted just a few minutes and he took off.

And wouldn’t you know it, the dinghy outboard wouldn’t start. We opted to sail in to the dinghy dock to run some errands, but then got caught in a hopeless tacking exercise on our way back. Luckily a local came by and offered us a tow. We gratefully accepted and invited him aboard for a drink afterward. Turns out he’s a local charter captain who rode out both hurricanes (?!?!?!?!) on board his boat without issue. The amazing thing is that he knows the local area so incredibly well from his charters but doesn’t know much about the rest of the Caribbean. Since he needs to move the boat for hurricane season, we gave him all sorts of ideas for runs south and different islands to visit on the way. Funny to think this was us on the receiving end back in November when we first arrived.

Trip spent the entire next day disassembling the outboard but finally found a cracked fuel hose that was the source of the problem. Rescue tape applied, and hopefully that will hold till we land somewhere with an outboard shop for a proper repair. The entire day was spent by then so we dinghied ashore for a final dinner at Duffy’s Love Shack (great bar).

Just a few hours after Madeline, Allison & Michelle left, Perry showed up on board to install the new computer for the new autohelm. I went over to Moe’s (fabulous supermarket) to stock up on provisions ( I still can’t get over that I pay more for seltzer water than rum here in the islands). Perry didn’t finish up till the next day, but he was done by noon and we were off to St John for a short run to calibrate and test the autopilot.

We had heard that Francis / Maho Bay was in good shape, so set our course. There were only about a half dozen boats in the mooring field (yet moorings available for 30+ boats!) so we had our choice. I glanced over and suddenly realized we were next to Tourtourelle (Ian & Ann) and Aura (Simon & Kim), who we had last seen on the OCC dock in Norfolk! We had a great little reunion over sundowners that night on Aura and caught up.

OCC sundowners

Ian & Ann left the next day, but we stayed to clean the bottom of our hull. I scrubbed as much as I could from the water’s edge with a snorkel and then Trip followed with the Mantus to finish the entire bottom and prop. Of course He had extra company when two remoras came to investigate. Creepy looking things –they look like small deformed sharks, but are quite harmless.

Simon and Kim came over for a quick sundowner and it was an early night for all.

Charlotte Amalie

It’s bittersweet to be back.  Four months ago we made landfall after our offshore run just on the other side of the island.  I’m happy to report that they’ve made huge progress on storm recovery and the general mood of the people is much better than our first visit.

Shaving before company arrives

Though a little noisy during the day, the anchorage right off Charlotte Amalie is rather nice.  There’s a dinghy dock at the Coast Guard station, and two marinas readily available for fuel, water, trash disposal, and good restaurants.  Of course only one (Yacht Haven Grande) hosts mega yachts and has a Gucci store right at the docks).  We also had a chance to wander around Frenchtown, just around the bend from customs with great little bistros and a bit of French history that I had never known about the island of St Thomas.

Always something to fix (waste basket in this case)

And then our company arrived!  Trip’s niece Madeleine flew in with two girlfriends, Michelle & Alissa, for a couple of days in the sun before back to dreary NY/NJ.   They were excited to get on board, and we headed over to Christmas Cove off Great Saint James Island.  We had been there in November, but with one major difference – the Pizza Pi boat had not yet returned.  This is a small sailboat that’s been refitted as a takeaway pizza joint.  You place your order by VHF radio and dinghy over to pick it up.  We found out later they were hosting an underwater easter egg hunt, but our company had already gone for a loooooooong swim and were too tired.   So instead we sat in the cockpit and scarfed down two huge pizzas while the sun set.  Between long flights, long overnight layovers, lots of sun and swimming, everyone on board was in bed by 10, with three 20-something bodies piled on top of each other with blankets & pillows in the cockpit.

Looking for my next painkiller at the Soggy Dollar

Scurvy crew

The next day we sailed up to Jost Van Dyke for a final taste of the British Virgin Islands this trip.  Again, the recovery they’re making post hurricane makes me happy – new bars and restaurants are popping up again and people look so much happier.

Christine’s Bakery at the dock is back – killer cinnamon bread to keep on board for toast every morning. But Foxys was our main destination.  Trip got everyone dancing (“Uncle Trippy dances??????”) to some good music and we hung out for a long time before finding out that Club Spice, at the other end of the beach, had karaoke going on.  Trip performed his legendary (and only) karaoke song “Chantilly Lace” and then we made our escape before we could get roped into anything else.  Though before we left Trip was smart enough to sweet talk the owner (I mean place an order) for pates (similar to empanadas, filled with chicken and curry – fabulous breakfast treat).

Pizza Pi boat pickup window

Allison, Michelle & Madeleine

The next day we piled into a taxi and headed over the hill to White Bay (we would normally have dinghied over but 5 people would have been a little bit too much in our little dink.)  There we made our way into the infamous Soggy Dollar Bar for painkillers which we took down to the beach and into the water for a little soaking and drinking time.  We took a bit of a break for lunch and then Trip and I wandered down the beach to Coco Loco and some of the other local bars, where we ran into Leon, one of the former bartenders from Foxys.

Madeleine at the helm

After our bodies had gotten all pruny from the water and a little pink from the sun, we cabbed it back to Great Harbor.  Though we had planned a final night of drinks at Foxys, Trip couldn’t get the outboard started on the dinghy, so we put on our pajamas, had another cocktail and some appetizers on board and then crashed.

We got up the next day and sailed back to St Thomas (the ladies rocked and took over the boat including the helm).  This time in Red Hook, at the eastern end of the island.  We got a slip at the same marina as we did in November so everyone could enjoy showers, we could top off our water tanks, and the NY/NJ crew could have an easy early exit to the airport their final morning.  First was a stop at the Tap & Still for some good Jack Daniels, beer, wings, grilled cheese, and hot dogs.  Once we were scrubbed clean it was upstairs to the Island Time Pub, where we sucked down drinks and devoured a chicken alfredo pizza at one of our favorite places in the USVI (interesting how pizza has become such a trend for us – completely unintentional).

Uncle Trippy and new dance partners

Our crew left this morning, I did laundry and reorganized the boat, and as I type we’re getting the final piece of the autohelm replaced.  Fingers crossed, if all goes well we’ll be able to test it out with a day sail to St John tomorrow!

We’ll miss you guys!