Leeward Islands - St. Martin/Sint Maarten

New Propane valve on left!

        St. Martin/Sint Maarten is beautiful!!!  So glad we decided to make the trip. We had a lovely 28 hour sail to get here and we arrived 1/2 hour after Celtic Rover!  There are three other boats we have been traveling with since many countries ago, plus one more new one (Bella Blue). About the last ten miles before we got here, we caught a nice Mahi. Since we didn't have enough freezer space, we had a big feast and invited six other cruisers over. It was a blast!!

        The dog was not even an issue here so we sailed right by BVI's. We are still considering having a rabies titer done so we can get her clearance for several more islands that we might have to skip for now but can always come back to. 

        It's always something!  As we were checking in, I noticed that our Coast Guard paperwork was going to expire on June 30!!  No problem, we have renewed it - we just have to determine which stack of mail it is in and get it sent to us!  While we have been gone, we have changed our mailing address and it is either on the desk at our house or in Green Cove Springs at our mail handling service. 

        Darrell had been widening his horizons both culturally and in the cuisines. He had bruschetta the other day and loved it!  We also went to a fund raiser called the Taste of Sint Maarten which we enjoyed immensely.  On the way back to the boat he found cigarettes $16 for two (yes two) cartons - if the prices keep going down, I will never get him to quit!!!

        We were FINALLY able to replace a propane valve on our tank!  These tanks just barely fit into the locker that is made for them so we have been looking for a new valve since we ran completely out of propane back in Culebra!  When Darrell got it replaced, he said the company had a bucketful of old valves.  We haven't found anyone willing to get one and put it on our tank in about six weeks of trying!  Whew, now I know there will be coffee every morning!  But hey, it's de islands, mon!  I was so happy I took a picture of it with our new camera.  

        Next weather window appears to be this weekend. We will skip St. Barts along with several orher islands and go to Guadeloupe.  We need to get further south before hurricane season progresses much more. 

Trip to the States

     We got to go to the panhandle of Texas for some family time!  Those trips always go so fast!  Thank You, Stephen for dog sitting and boat watching!!!    
     We were fortunate to watch Lyric on two of the days while Jessica and Craig went to work. Boy, little ones sure keep you on your toes! He is so cute!  And such a happy child.     
     We saw our really great friends a couple of times. We stayed with my dad and had good times with him!  Never seem to get enough time with Darrell's mom, either. We sure had some good laughs with her!! We saw her ornery side!  lol    
     Time went by at warp speed and we left Tuesday EARLY to fly back to St. Thomas. All went well until Orlando - that plane was an hour late. We had a one hour layover in Miami before our flight - yep, missed the flight!  American Airlines put all 20 passengers up in hotels and paid food vouchers because they couldn't hold the plane for us. We were the first in line next day (yep no more flights that day) to get seat assignments. The flight was overbooked so we figured we would take a travel voucher and get the next flight. When you have already lost a day, what the heck. Anyway, we have always wanted to do that but were usually on too tight a schedule to make it happen. We made the best of a bad situation.     
     As I sit looking out the window of the airplane, I am amazed!  In a couple of hours on a plane, we are making a similar journey that took us weeks or months to do on the boat.  When the clouds part, I can identify some of the Bahama islands as we fly over.     
     On St. Thomas, we hiked a little way then caught a Safari (open air taxi) to Crown Bay Marina where we picked up some necessary items at a marine store (none in the TX panhandle). Another safari ride to the ferry dock in Red Hook to reach St. John. Alas, we were back aboard Alibi in 8 days and Roxy was happy to see us!  So the sailing story continues. . . . . .     

US Virgin Islands

     We made it!!  Our ultimate destination to visit our great friends, Stephen, Kelly, and Jake!  We last saw them in 2009 when they left on a similar voyage as we have taken from Key Largo. We have been in St. Thomas, St. John and Greater St. James (Christmas Cove) since leaving Culebra. We arrived a few days before Memorial Day. We have gone snorkeling and sailing on their catamaran and our boat. I took my first car ferry ride and Kelly and I did some shopping in STT. We have had a beach for Roxy to swim and she gets a nice long walk up and down the hills once or twice a day. Life is good!    
     We are on a mooring next to a boat named Highland. We met Tom (a singlehander) in Boqueron or Luperon.     
     We left early in the morning of June 5 for a trip to TX. Stephen and Kelly have been gracious enough to watch the boat and the dog do we could get some family time. We have been trading dog sitting since we both were in Key Largo!    
     Arrived Tuesday in Amarillo. Have been enjoying time with family and friends since our arrival. The grandson, Lyric, is close to walking!  He is so precious. Pictures will follow!!!!!    
     I think we have convinced them to come to the Caribbean for a visit this fall or winter. I want them to wait for hurricane season to be over and a little cooler weather for their sake. Lyric is getting a life jacket for his birthday!  He loves water so I cant wait to show him the ocean!!!    
     When we get back to the boat, we hope to join up with Celtic Rover and continue a journey down the windward islands and leeward islands. I am trying to locate paper charts for that portion of our trip - not very successful, I might add. We like a paper backup to the electronic chart plotter.  In fact, our bags will likely be twice as full as when we left on the return trip.     
     In the meantime, we are getting plenty of Tex Mex and family visiting!

Some Random Shots

Dream Walker, Highland, Alibi, Celtic Rover, and Kolibrie Crew Members

Captains Kevin and Darrell on Memorial Day Sail

On Board Off Cay Sailing Memorial Day 2012

Jost Van Dyke, BVI in the background

Off Cay (Kelly & Stephen's boat)

Ann in the market in Samana

Spanish Virgin Islands

           Culebra is a laid-back little island off the east coast of Puerto Rico.  It was used by the US military for bombing practice for a number of years.  When we arrived on Friday, we were told that “if they don’t have it, you don’t need it” by someone who has been coming here every year for ten years.  The only thing we have found that we REALLY need that we have been unable to get is propane.  We hooked up our second tank on Friday and on Saturday, there was none to make coffee!  BAD start to the day!!  LOL  Anyway, there is only one man who fills tanks on the island and he has yet to return our phone calls.  We went exploring on Saturday and found a very nice little library – run entirely off donations.  The librarian was super nice.  They have WiFi available for free and that is where we had some copies made (since the only office store is now closed).  There is a small airport on the island near the anchorage where we have been staying.  There are very frequent commuter flights coming and going.  The pilot has to navigate between two small peaks, bank a turn and be dropping altitude all at the same time to land – talk about task-loading!

            This is a place that I could spend a little time!  No loud music, a ferry back to PR three times a day for $2.25 if you need to go get something, a day from St. Thomas……paradise!  We need to get all of our chores done so we can go do some snorkeling and maybe even some diving!  Roxy is missing her beaches but I understand there are some beautiful ones just around the corner. 

            Yesterday, we learned that Lyric (our grandson) has viral pneumonia.  We sure hope he gets better quickly.  I’m sure Jessica and Craig hope that much more than I do.  This is the little fella that we are anxious to go back to Texas to see!  Of course we want to see Jessica and Craig too – lol!  He made a full recovery in a few days – boy kiddos are resilient!! 

            After a week without propane, we talked to the librarian who said “he never returns phone calls”.  You just have to leave your tanks there – WHERE IS THERE??  She gave us directions to his house/business and that afternoon, we dropped off our tanks there with contact information.  Next morning, Darrell went there and the tanks had been moved but Mr. Perez was not there.  I was on one end of town and he was on the other, we started looking for the truck we had seen there the day before.  I flagged down Mr. Perez near one of the hardware stores and asked if he could kindly fill our tanks that day.  We made arrangements for him to bring them to a local business in ½ hour.  That afternoon, voila!  We had propane!!!  In the week long interim, we had borrowed an adapter to use the one pound cans (for our barbeque) to get our morning coffee!

            We had need of some mail to get to us soon as some credit cards are expiring.  Jessica and Scotty were kind enough to mail them to the post office and they made it in lightening speed.  In fact the two pieces of mail that we have sent and/or received have made it faster than we were used to in Key Largo!  Thank you two!  We are in the process of having all our mail transferred to a mail service in Green Cove Springs, FL.  They can scan important things and send digitally to us – really cool!  Now, we just have to remember all the places we need to change our address!

            We have enjoyed our stay in Culebra but we are getting antsy to move again.  We hope to move on the St. Thomas in the next 3-5 days – a 20 something mile trip.  After that, we will be going to St. John for an unknown period of time.  We are thinking that we will fly to FLL or MIA and pick up our car in Key Largo to drive to TX for a visit.  We save a LOT of money that way and we have more time than money these days, lol.  We have several boats here that we have come to know over the past month or so that are all heading the same way.  In the meantime, we are each reading about one novel per day from the library!  Ready to find a new anchorage and do some something!

Puerto Rico South Coast

We left La Parguera on the afternoon of May 1 to be outside the reefs for a nighttime departure for points east.  Our plan was to go to a little island that has been nicknamed Gilligan’s Island because it resembles the one from the old TV series.  We bypassed that because it was close and we had great weather for sailing.  We continued to Ponce but got separated from Dream Walker because we sail much slower.  They went on to an island off the south coast called Caja de Muertos.  We arrived in Ponce at about 10:30 AM just as the showers kicked in.  Time for a nap!!

            Next day, we got our bicycles down and went to the fuel dock at the Ponce Yacht and Fishing Club for dinghy gas.  While we were waiting on the attendant, a lady came out of her catamaran at the dock and struck up a conversation with me.  She gave me directions to all the places that we wanted to go for a major shopping excursion.  In the course of our discussion, she decided that she would just take her rental car and haul us all over town for our spending spree.  It was GREAT!  Tanya was so kind and patient with all the shopping we needed to do.  We went to Sam’s Club, Santiago Cash & Carry, Auto Zone, and Pueblo grocery store.  I was in heaven!  We didn’t go to Wal-Mart (the only store I missed).  She and her husband leave their boat here full time and they live in Canada.  They hope to retire and cruise in a couple more years.  They have a beautiful Catamaran.  To repay the debt, we had them over last night for a Low Country Boil (like we had in the Carolinas last summer).

            Saturday, we were finally joined by Kolibrie and Celtic Rover.  They have been having problems with clogged fuel filters so they hope to stay here and get that taken care of.  We first met these characters back in Turks and Caicos.  Their problems make me feel grateful that our only big trouble was a stolen dinghy motor.  I’m still not ecstatic about the new one (still learning it’s idiosyncrasies) but it beats rowing!  In fact, there is a whole group of boats all going the same direction as us that we keep seeing along the way. 

            On Sunday, we left Ponce for points east.  We sailed and motor sailed to Salinas.  There in the anchorage were several boats that we have come to know through this trip.  After taking Roxy to shore, we were visited by multiple cruisers that we know.  Early Monday, we left again heading east.  About noon, we anchored at Puerta Patilla.  We had entertained thoughts of going farther but the tradewinds showed us different!  Time to return to the proven methods of Bruce Van Zant – author of Passages South The Thornless Path to Windward.  It is THE guide that most of us have been using during our travels down here.  The anchorage is quite rolly so we will probably be on the move again as soon as the winds die down (sometime after dark). 

            We had decided we wanted to go to Fajardo but after Darrell thought about it, they probably wouldn’t have the items we want to purchase and we don’t want to wait a week or more for them to order them.  We will see which direction the wind is blowing in a few hours and decide where we want to go. 

            Well, turning the corner of PR made making Fajardo possible.  We called the West Marine there to be sure they had the main items we needed.  We took a slip at Puerto Del Rey – a nice marina there.  A short taxi ride to West Marine and a few hundred dollars later, we were ready to go!  We got the eastern Caribbean upgrade for our chartplotter – nice not to have to look at the paper charts all the time while at the helm. 

            That afternoon, we departed for Isla Palomino.  A beautiful little island only about 4-6 miles east of Fajardo.  EARLY the next morning, we headed east again for Culebra.  A few squalls kinda kicked our butts on the way here but we made it in about 8 hours.  The bay is full of great anchorages and some former cruising friends of ours (Jack and Sue) rode out a Cat 5 hurricane (Hugo) here many years ago.  Anyway, this is the Spanish Virgin Islands and we have met some cruisers who have been coming back here for about ten years.  We are not sure where we will spend hurricane season here or farther south but we are very much looking forward to a reunion soon with our friends Kelly and Stephen (St. John USVI).  If she was really serious about dog sitting, we intend to let her so we can fly to TX and see that grandson again.  If she can’t or won’t watch Roxy, we know our brother & sister-in-law:  John and Jenny had a good veterinarian who boards dogs so we don’t have to pay the huge fees to fly Miss Roxy home with us.  At any rate, we have almost reached our “destination” – now what?!?!?!

Puerto Rico Explorers

Alibi underway to La Parguera

We left Boqueron on Thursday at 3 AM to make a smooth passage around the SW corner of Puerto Rico.  The trip went very well until the last hour – then we started doing the Puerto Rico Two-Step:  two steps forward and one step back!  We made it just as the trade winds were beginning to get cranked up.  The people of PR are so nice!  We went looking for the pharmacy the other day and got rides both going and coming back.  The ride coming back was a very interesting local – introduced us to half the town!  He is a boat captain, retired USAF, and has rental properties in La Parguera.  Antonio (nickname Splendid 24/7) was a hoot! 

We have been traveling with a boat named Dream Walker a 36 ft Islander.  Stan and Elizabeth are the couple on board.  We went snorkeling here (looking for dinner) and enjoyed the reefs.  We have enjoyed meals on their boat and ours.  Roxy is sure enjoying their company – their dog died on this trip (Staniel Cay) and they have a lot of loving to give her, LOL. 

We are hoping that a boat named Celtic Rover can catch up to us.  We met Bruce and Jan first in the Turks and Caicos area and have traveled with them off and on.  They sail a 41 ft Morgan.  Both boats are good travel companions because they sail at approximately the same speed as we do.  We sure are enjoying having a dinghy motor back again! 

We are trying to get to Salinas, PR by the first week of May to rejoin with another boat we were traveling with, Azaya.  They have gone ahead to Virgin Gorda in the BVI’s to put their boat on the hard and return home to Alaska for a few months.  I’m not sure if Mother Nature is going to cooperate with our deadline.  The trade winds have increased to the 20+ knot range and we’re not sure if we want to battle the increased waves that go with that much wind.

Hopefully, the next stop or the one after that holds a lot of shopping opportunities.  Ponce is the second largest city in Puerto Rico and has all the stores that we are used to in the US for major provisioning stops.  I could use a Wal-Mart shopping spree and Darrell has a list for NAPA or some marine/auto parts type place.  I will say, though that we have done really well with the stores that we purchased before we left.  AND it has been fun trying new things along the way.  I would like to find a market that has local fruits and vegetables though because mangoes and avocadoes are supposed to be plentiful here.