This fish seemed intrigued by Mike's camera!
Wherever we go here, the beaches are white and long, the skies blue with scudding cloud, the seas clear with fish and coral abundant. A great group of islands, the Virgins!
While we snorkeled, others dove on the Rhone
A big tourist spot, the Baths featured huge rocks and pools.
Here’s a journal entry I wrote on Peter Island, BVI:
Easter, 2012
We are at Peter Island and for lack of internet access, I’m writing the old fashioned way! We are looking at the weather–scattered showers today and Monday. We have had great weather since coming from the USVI to Jost Van Dyke, Tortola, Norman Island and now–Peter Island. We hope to make SKYPE contact with home today and have lunch at the Peter Island Resort in the next bay over. Then it’s on to our next anchorage.
Yesterday we emptied cupboards on the port side to see and attempt to fix a supporting board that had cracked during our easting from Turks and Caicos to the Dominican Republic. Mike bolted it to metal plates and it looks much stronger now. We figured having the fiberglass re-done in Grenada could cost up to $2,000–oh boy! It will need to be done when we’re on the hard in Grenada, and maybe Mike can do it with some advice.
The BVI’s are lovely. Yesterday we snorkeled an area near our boat on Peter Island. Not a huge coral area, but many sea fans, Elkhorn coral and schools of colorful fish. Out of the water, we saw an Oystercatcher with his bright orange-red bill, pelicans, doves and many other birds chirping in the flowering bushes, vines and trees. A lovely spot. Seeing some tan movement on the bluff, we expected wild deer which we had seen on our hike on St. John, but no, it was a small goat and her two tiny twins scrambling up the rocks from the shore.
Out on the bay, chartered boats are heading back to their bases as their weeks are done and it’s time for them to get on a plane home. We are so lucky to just continue and see more each day!
Mike is fixing the babystay as it had weakened at the deck–broken bolts and nuts and bolts needing caulking. It requires hands below and hands on deck. I’m glad we’ve worked on these things now in a calm anchorage instead of in an emergency!
Mostly living in the present and not saving views for posterity….very zen—the now is an abundance of spring flowers, flora, fauna, sea life. Did some cleaning in the galley and my room–am on call to help Mike soon…so won’t dive in right now….later. Could do more work, but it’s Easter and time to be limin’ — just hanging out.
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Finisterre reefed for Spanish Virgin Islands
Since returning to Finisterre from home, we have ventured into the Spanish Virgin Islands–Culebra and then on to the U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands. We have had a number of lovely anchorages and gone snorkeling nearly every day. Finisterre is doing well after a needed repair job involving bolting metal plates to split supports that must have taken an incredible amount of strain during all our travels east into the seas from the Bahamas to Puerto Rico.
Navigation Station on Finisterre
This is our navigation station on Finisterre. We made a great map out of a hurricane tracking map which shows where we’re going and we use radio, satalite, GPS, radar to help us get where we’re planning to go. Often, the winds and swells get us a bit off track, but that doesn’t last long and we keep on sailing or motor sailing. The electrical panel controls all this plus all the electrical systems on the boat, solar, 12 volt and 24 volt. We love having solar and can go without running the motor when we have good solar and are at anchor. The panels can keep the batteries charged and we can read at night and use all our lights and fridge. We also use propane for our stove.
There are over 700 on the island. They bite!The leaves seem to grow quickly enough to replace those eaten!
Due to our daughter’s surgery (everything went great) –we came home for a few weeks. Home to find trees blooming and our garden waiting for winter crops and expansion for May when we return for the spring-fall. Daffodils, quince, flowering plum, but not the splendors of dogwood. A long time ago, a johnyappleseed of dogwoods lived in our town and they have been planted everywhere. There are so many that when we’re home to catch them blooming, we do the Dogwood Walk around the neighborhoods. They are glorious…but not this time… maybe they’ll bloom late and we’ll catch them in May.
So, in planning ahead, we need to make tracks to Grenada before we come home once again. We are in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, want to visit the Virgin Islands and then on down the string of Caribbean Islands. Luckily, the boat is ready to go once we scrub off the scum on the bottom and we have a new jib which is just waiting for it’s first long sail. When looking at the map, we realize we are over half way there but a month and 1/2 doesn’t give us much time for hanging out in favorite spots. We also need to get Finisterre on the hard in Grenada and that takes awhile, too.
So, here are a few photos of places we’ve visited in the past couple of months. We’ve really enjoyed Puerto Rico and the Spanish Virgin Islands along the eastern coast of Puerto Rico!
La Parguera houseboats on the canalFinisterre at La Parguera anchorage
While the clothes are washing at Ponce Yacht and Fishing Club, I’m recalling the delightful places we’ve seen so far in Puerto Rico. Finally we have had anchorages without swell so a good night’s sleep is assured! We have traveled a bit slower since the first overnight in Mayaguez. Boqueron bay is large and easy to enter with a reef across the middle. The little town is a haven for weekend partyers and the beach has a huge infrastructure for folks to come and stay with their families in cabanas that offer a shower, a BBQ, table and enclosed area for sleeping and storage. A great concept. On my birthday, we took a long walk on the beach and also discovered two four story buildings with much the same concept at the far end of the beach. Families were enjoying the sand and swimming, but not in huge numbers since the New Year holidays were over. For dinner we hiked a ways into the town and found Pico Pica, a Mexican place with great food and also went to Dulce y Sabor, a ice cream parlor which was a great treat. We enjoyed talking with the owner, a young man who had gone to trade school in Miami and now repairs engines for homeland security right there in Boqueron. The ice cream parlor had recently been opened by the couple as a business for his young wife. The young man, who also has a captain’s license, like Mike, was great to talk to. We got some insight into the culture and politics of Puerto Rico.
We met some cruisers while at anchor and then ventured on to the next place a three hour sail away–La Parguera, a lovely spot nestled back from the sea behind many mangrove islands. Along the canal-waterfront, folks had put in houseboats either on piers, or floating. According to Wally, an expat that we met, they are really squatters and the land is public park land and really if you buy one of these delightful buildings, you get just the building. Doesn’t look like anyone has been evicted in a very long time, however! We found the town to be pretty empty, but Mike and Wally took Wally’s old car inland for groceries and I used the sewing machine to mend our jib cover which protects it from the sun. We attempted to see the bio-bay– Bahia Fosforescente — but only found a couple of glowing dynoflagelates on some leaves among the mangroves. We left too late to follow other boaters to the best spot. There will be other bio-bays somewhere along the coast! From La Parguera, we made Ponce, leaving at 5:00 am and arriving around 9 am. Ponce is the second largest city and has a great anchorage near the Yacht and Fishing club—-with laundry! We’ll go into town today and explore.
D.R. fishing boat, partying prior to a night's fishingDorado for dinner!
The trip across the Mona Passage was pretty endless mainly because we arrived in the afternoon at Bahia Escondido, D.R. and decided not to stay the night, but move on. It was a gorgeous place, but the swells wrapped directly into the bay and we had to anchor very close to the shore. Not very calming! We did need to patch the jib, however as the rips are getting worse each day. Too much sun and wear over many years since we bought it. The patches are stronger than the fabric and stick very well, so far so good! We headed on out of Escondido and made the rest of the trek along the northern coast of the D.R. and then turned the corner south, heading for Samana area, but out into the Mona Passage before Samana and just north of the dreaded hourglass shoals. The shoals would have been deep enough for us to go over, however the great amount of water and current traveling through the Mona Passage flows down into trenches 9,000 ft. deep and then up onto the shoals only about 100 ft. deep and makes for crazy swells and potatoe patch conditions for the middle of the crossing. To make things more dicey, the wind was coming straight from the east most of the time and wasn’t very strong, and the swells were also from the east and north east both and were the kind you have to bang over which almost slow you to a stop with each pounding action. So, we were traveling about 3-4 knots when we’d like to go 5-6, even with the sails and the motor working for us. We just missed the shoals, grazing the edge so we could see what it was like–not too bad on this day. Our trip from the prior anchorage was a day, a night, a day, another night with arrival at 10 p.m. at Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. Coming in at night with aide of charts, chart plotter and gps is doable%
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Rancho Baiguate has beautiful tropical gardens
Luperon TownColumbus established a settlement near LuperonRainy day at Salto (waterfall) Baiguate, Jarabacoa
Luperon anchorage
The day after Christmas, we left Turks and Caicos’ Providencia Island and headed across the banks (average around 15ft deep) to emerge into deep water not far from Ambergris Cay, on to Salt Cay and then out into the passage to Luperon, D.R. Our trip took overnight. Luperon, in the morning, with a few squalls, was an easy entrance, but then things got interesting working our way into the anchorage past reefs and shoals. We definitely touched a few times, and just before grabbing the mooring ball offered by Papo, we ran aground again and he came and pulled us off with his panga. One of those fellows who does anything for cruisers, sometimes loved and sometimes derided for charging more than the buyer wants to pay, he was helpful to us. The mooring cost $5 for a week. A great deal. Checking into the country was wild with more officials than we could keep track of and more nickle and dime charges that eventually added up to at least what we spent in T & C –would have been more sane to just ask for that amount and be done with it! Ah well, it’s their country, we must remember! Luperon Bay was packed with cruising boats, some with folks aboard and some waiting out the hurricane season. We actually did not stay a complete week–explored a bit, got some provisions and also went to a morning yoga class with some expat ladies…fun. The lagoon type anchorage began to get clostrophobic after awhile and we were eager to head out with a good short trip to Ocean World Marina, at the city of Puerto Plata further along the coast. We settled in and met some folks, took a long hike along the coast, Mike rented a scooter and went back to Luperon–got more photos! and enjoyed a day away. The big highlight of our Dominican Republic visit was a three day visit inland to Jarabacoa, in the mountains. We took 2 buses and a van, arriving around 3 and got the advice of an expat at the bus station to go to Rancho Baiguate, which was quite a walk, but after all that bus riding, it felt great. The place was lovely and promised many activities, however it rained on our day there. We made the best of it, hiking to a waterfall with a couple of fellows who we enjoyed greatly, Paul, a trumpet player for the N.Y. Philharmonic and Alan, from Australia, just transfered by Estee Lauder to New York–in marketing. Our hike through the fields of mystery veggies and strawberries, flowers grown for sale and wild jungle foliage and flowers, was fun, but wet! Check out the waterfall… we didn’t jump into the river! Some of the folks at the ranch went whitewater rafting and I think they got their trip before the water got super muddy! We’re back at the boat this evening and plan to leave tomorrow morning for Puerto Rico. Have a great weather window coming up with light winds and favorable directions. We have really enjoyed meeting local people and find them friendly and helpful. A fellow even led us all the way to the grocery store once we got lost! The country is diverse with beaches, mountains, many national parks–it makes for a great place to explore—we just got started, but have so much yet to see. Our trip to Puerto Rico will be a few days hopping along the coast and anchoring and then an overnighter across the Mona Passage…. hope it’s mellow!
Finisterre at anchor in Sapodilla Bay
The Turks and Caicos Cays and Islands are also surrounded by large, shallow banks like the Bahamas. They are largely made of limestone and coral. We explored by car for 1 day, getting to the grocery store, eating out at Da Conch Shack (yum) and visiting the tourist beaches and duty free shops. I completed shopping for Mike! We also explored an old historical site, close to our anchorage at Sapodilla Bay where sailors and pirates of old carved their names and dates.
Sapodilla Bay, Provo, Turks & Caicos
