Hola de Puerto Rico

Very quick update/post.  We had a wondefully boring trip across the Mona Passage Mon-Tues.  We're now at anchor in Boqueron, Puerto Rico.  We've had a  few days to relax and celebrate with our friends from the DR.  We are planning to leave Boqueron tomorrow and make our way across the south coast of Puerto Rico.  There's a palpable sense of relaxation now that we are past the north coast of the Dominican Republic.  We are still traveling "upwind," as it were, but the topography of PR makes it easier to make short hops. 

Hasta luego amigos.

Blue Kai

A Free Five Star Week, Oh My!

We arrived in Samana D.R. just over a week ago after about 24 hours underway from Luperon. Because we had heard about problems checking in with the authorities in Samana, we decided to check in at the local marina, Puerto Bahia Marina, which happens to be part of a 5 star resort. We were happily surprised to find that the marina is very reasonably priced so we decided to splurge and spend one night here. Infinity pools, spa, the whole bit. But then it just got better. We soon learned that If we agreed to participate in their first spring regatta, we could have a week of free dockage. Several hours of fevered discussion among the cheap cruisers ensued about WHICH was the free week and whether we could truly stay here for one week for free, but it all worked out perfectly.

So we hung out here for the week, including a couple of days at Los Haitises national park. Had a wonderful time with the 7-8 other cruisers who traveled here from Luperon. Got 3d place in the catamaran category in the regatta and won a bottle of Veuve Clicquot. And to top it all off, we went to an amazing post-regatta soiree out on the point overlooking the Bay with the Dominican high society. Attire: blanco casual. It was truly FABULOUS.

But alas, the weather window is upon us, so we are checking out with the cammandante and immigration this morning and heading across the (sometimes dreaded) Mona Passage later tonight. But the forecast is for flat calm. We expect to arrive in Boqueron Puerto Rico after about 24 hours. Hasta luego, the crew of Blue Kai.

Blue Kai has been on the move - currently in the DR!

It's been a while since we've posted, partly due to a continuing lack of internet and partly due to the fact that we've been moving south fairly quickly.  Not to deny you the dramatic build up of our moves south and east on the high seas, but currently we're in Luperon, Dominican Republic.    Being here is significant for us because this is the farthest south port we traveled on Freelancer on our honeymoon.  We had hoped to travel farther south that trip, but for many reasons, including the weather, we couldn't.  So we are fairly excited to write a new chapter, so to speak, in our experience as cruising sailors. 

So, let's see, where to start to fill you in? (There are pics below the narrative below, as well as more pics if you follow the link to our Picasa site.)

Bahamas - We had a great time in the Bahamas and stayed there until March 5th. One great joy we that we really explored the Exumas as a result of the Casselmans' visit (we went up and down from Nassau to Staniel Cay 5 times).  After dropping the Casselmans off in Nassau, we headed south back to Farmers and, for the first time this trip, farther south.  Because of windy conditions, we decided to take the banks route from Farmers to Lee Stocking Island via the Pimblicos.  This is a very shallow route for shoal draft vessels only.  It was really interesting to see a new part of the Bahamas, and the shoals were fun to navigate through (we touched the bottom just once and caught a huge barracuda - of course, just as we were heading through one of the tricky spots).  We then had a wonderful couple of days on Lee Stocking Island, where there is a marine research center.  While there, we hiked (if you will) to the highest point in the Exumas, which is all of 123 feet.  (We will be sure to add that to our climbing resumes.)

South of Lee Stocking Island we headed to Elizabeth Harbor/Georgetown, Great Exuma Island.  Georgetown is truly a mecca for cruisers and there are literally hundreds of vessels there in the winter.  Unexpectedly we arrived during the Cruisers Regatta (we thought it would be over before we got there), which is a 2 week party/festival held by cruisers.  We were initially excited to arrive during Regatta, since we’d had such a good time in Georgetown during our honeymoon.  But this time we had a difficult time feeling connected to the community.  There were a number of boats in Georgetown that we’d met further north, so we expected to just jump right in with all the fun, but it felt like everyone had already “coupled off” by the time we got there.  We were also facing a weather forecast that was described as the “most significant weather event of the winter,” with winds forecast to blow steadily at 30-35 with gusts to 40 for more than a week.  At first we thought we’d have to wait the storm out at Georgetown (and we were groaning about that), but then, just 3 days ahead of the storm, we were listening to the weather forecast one morning and decided that we had a reasonable window to move south before the storm arrived.  So we literally finished breakfast and got the boat ready to leave, heading to the out islands of the Bahamas.

The islands of the Bahamas south of Georgetown are referred to as the “out islands” because it’s quite remote compared to the rest of the Bahamas.  The settlements (i.e., towns) are few and far between as are protected anchorages.  We were a little nervous about heading south to beat a storm, but we were also familiar with the out islands from our honeymoon and from delivery of Blue Kai from Curacao (including a stop in Clarencetown, Long Island on each trip for engine repairs).  We also had come to understand that our boat can travel pretty fast – we often travel around or over 8 knots.  But there’s a reason people call Georgetown “Chicken Harbor,” so we certainly thought through contingency plans if anything happened to go wrong. 

We set out from Georgetown on Saturday March 3rd, spending the night in Conception, a deserted island just northeast of the north end of Long Island.  We dropped the anchor at Conception in the late afternoon, and immediately jumped in the dinghy and buzzed to the beach to give the kids a chance to run around and play before the long passage south.  It was one of those moments that gets locked in your memory – I knew that we were leaving the Bahamas soon and so this might be our last beautiful, clear water beach for a while.  The kids were running and laughing, the water was warm, the island beautiful and only one other boat visible – far south in the anchorage.  We walked on shore a bit and the kids played in the water.  At some point the kids got us all to line up at the top of the beach and run full speed into the water until you couldn’t help but dive forward.  It was really special.  We also had one of those “we’re not in Kansas anymore moments,” when I saw Danny stand up periodically to look around.  The only thing he could be looking for was sharks (sharks like to come out of the deep to hunt around dusk).  Plus, Danny had cut his head exploring on shore so he was bleeding just a bit.  I’d thought about sharks earlier, but once I saw Danny also looking around I decided that I’d stand a little farther up on the beach to be the shark patrol. :)

We left Conception very early on Sunday, March 4^th and headed south.  I can’t say we had a smooth trip, and nearly all of it was motor sailing, but we made it safely to Sapodilla Bay in Providenciales (“Provo”), Turks and Caicos Islands nearly 36 hours later on the afternoon of March 5^th. 

Turks and Caicos Islands:

We were thrilled to have travelled from Nassau to the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) in 8 days.  To put it in perspective, on our honeymoon we spent 7 full days in Mayaguana Bahamas (the farthest southeast island) waiting to cross to the TCI.  Once we got to Provo, we decided to spend a couple of days at a marina so that we wouldn’t be entirely boat bound when the storm that was forecast to hit Georgetown got to Provo.  We got a slip at South Side Marina (the ride over was quite exciting as the winds had already started to pick up), and had one of the most unexpectedly delights on our trip so far. 

We were in Provo for a full month 9 years ago, and we would not have described it as cruiser friendly.  There weren’t many services for cruisers and the island is really spread out, so if you don’t have a car it’s hard to explore or get much done (like grocery shopping).  But now, at South Side Marina, we found a wonderful, cruiser friendly marina.  Charlyn, our friendly host, offered rides to the grocery nearly every day and ran a cruisers’ net every morning.   There was a happy hour every evening at 5 and a cruisers’ barbeque Thursday night.  The marina drives their truck to the Sapodilla Bay anchorage to bring those cruisers to the barbecue.   Plus, we got to ride the storm out at the dock.  We checked the wind speed indicator at one point in the marina, and even though we were protected behind a hill, the wind at the top of our mast was in excess of 41 knots!

We met many wonderful cruisers at the marina, including a couple from Seattle and a family that hails from both Alberta and B.C. Canada.  The family had two young kids and the parents do the typical northwest outdoor stuff, including climbing and mountain biking.  (For our climber friends, they actually live in Canmore just a few houses down from Will Gadd and Kim C., so we enjoyed lots of climber talk about ice routes in Alberta for several days!)  To top it off, our kids were thrilled to be there because they had a perfect slab of concrete for riding scooters, including a steep driveway that Rye enjoyed thoroughly.  But because our budget doesn’t allow for much time in marinas, and because yet another weather window opened up to move east, with some sadness we left South Side marina after 3 nights and headed east over the Caicos Banks toward the Turks Islands.

We were hoping to visit Grand Turk, but when we arrived at South Caicos later that afternoon, we poked our nose into the Turks Passage (a much deeper passage between the Caicos islands and the Turks Islands) to test that the headings to Big Sand Cay (a staging island for Luperon, Dominican Republic) as well as the heading from Big Sand Cay to Luperon.  The wind was from the ENE, and based on what we saw at South Caicos, it looked like we would be able to sail (yes, SAIL) from TCI to Luperon.  We were torn because we wanted to visit something other than Provo, but it’s very rare to get a weather window to sail (rather than motor) to the DR.  We felt like we just couldn’t let that opportunity pass, so we headed south and east.  We got to Big Sand Cay and, using conservative calculations on how long it would take us to get to the DR (you MUST get in as close as possible to dawn to avoid building trade winds), we didn’t feel like we had enough time to drop the sails and rest at Big Sand.  So I quickly made grilled cheese while we were in the lee of Big Sand and we headed on to Luperon.

The thing about sailing is that if you have wind to push your sails, you also have seas.  So, while we were really happy to be sailing to the DR, we were traveling in moderately large seas.  Probably 6-8 feet, and at times with additional wind driven chop on top.  So this was not exactly a smooth ride, but boy was it fast.  We were moving at 8+ knots most of the night.  When we realized we would get in to Luperon too early, we put a reef in, but our speed stayed at 8 or above.  So we pulled in the head sail, but we only dropped down to the high 7’s.  The problem with that is you can’t enter Luperon harbor in the dark, so once we got to the coast of the DR, we literally had to tack and motor back and forth for about 2 hours outside the entrance to the harbor waiting for daylight.  (Wished we’d known that back at Big Sand Cay.).  That delay was a little brutal after a rough overnight passage, and then to top it off, I (Susan) got confused entering the harbor and directed Danny right into a mud shoal in the entrance.  Classic tired, poor thinking.  I still feel sick thinking about how desperate it felt running aground in the entrance to the harbor at 6:00 a.m.  Thankfully Danny was able to put our big engines to good use and motor us back into the channel.   And soon we had the anchor down in lovely Luperon harbor, following by a visit from the Commandante later in the morning to clear us in.

Dominican Republic:
We’ve only been here since Sunday, March 11^th, but it looks like we will be leaving tomorrow (assuming we can get a quick adjustment to our outboard completed today).    There are many boats who have been here a full month waiting for a weather window to leave, so we’re feeling pretty fortunate with our weather windows.  The downside, though, is that we really loved the DR when we were here last and would honestly rather spend more time here if we knew when the next weather window would arrive.  But our next port is likely to be in the DR, Samana, so we may yet get a chance for exploration of the DR.  We’d love to get to Santo Domingo while we are here. 

There are some tricks to traversing the north coast of the DR, which I won’t go into here, but it looks like we've got a big weather window that will allow us to leave tomorrow morning and possibly go straight to Samana (about 140 NM east).  There's a beautiful marina there with dockage at $1/foot (at least for monohulls) and a very beautiful national park, so we're looking forward to exploring that area.  If all goes well, we will then have window to cross the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico a week later. 

There is a bit of relief getting to the DR because, for the most part, we have left behind the places where food and supplies are very expensive and/or unavailable.  I look forward to letting go of the hoarding instinct I’ve developed around groceries and supplies.  And apparently there are even Costcos in Puerto Rico --- I can hardly imagine!

Hopefully the internet will also be easier to find and we will be able to write and post more. 

Pictures:

And, finally, a few pictures of what we’ve been doing over the past weeks.  Hope you enjoy.

Blue Kai lying at Warderick Wells:

This is not the bottom of a pool, but the sandy sea floor Blue Kai at in the Exumas:

The shadow of our sails on the sea floor:

Here's the view of masts when we arrived in Georgetown:

 The beeeeeautiful Mahi Mahi we caught just off Mayaguana en route to the Turks and Caicos (Susan was channeling her friend Chris as she landed this big one!):

Blue Kai at South Side Marina, Turks & Caicos:

Danny and the kids returning to South Side Marina in Turks & Caicos after an outing in the rowing/sailing dinghy:

Wind speed indicator while tucked in at South Side Marina, TCI:

Drying laundry as we cross the Caicos Banks:

Entering Sandbore Channel, TCI, with the bad weather on its way (Denis & Diane - how about that flag!?!):

Cap'n Dan of Captain Dan's Crazy Carribbean Adventures fame:

Rye and Danny (Danny is probably answering Rye's constant question "Can we fish here?"  And, yes, Rye is naked as often as possible.)

 A typical scene in the Exumas, Bahamas:

Danny navigating the shallow Pimblicos (and, no, there is no darker water underneath the boat):

Hannah hanging in the cockpit:

Rye eating (with our shell collection in front):

Little Farmers Cay, Exumas

This is a very quick post to say that we dropped our friends, the Casselmans, off in Nassau 2 days ago and are heading south again.  We had an incredible visit with them and it was really hard to see them go.  The day the Casselmans left, we caught a mild cold front to head back southeast, and after 2 days of sailing (2 half days, really), we are in Little Farmers Cay.   [By the way, this is incredible progress - we are very much appreciating the length of our hulls and that we have 2.]  We're now 1 day from Georgetown (a major location for cruising sailors) if we get a favorable weather window, but it looks like we won't get that window for a week or so.  So the current plan is to make small jumps as much as possible this week (staying as close to the islands as possible to get a lee effect) in order to continue our progress south.  If the current forecast holds, we should have a good window to head south on Sunday.  If we're lucky, we will be in Georgetown before then and head south from there when that window arrives.  

And in the meantime, we are very much still enjoying the Bahamas.  Lunch and internet today at Ocean Cabin in Little Farmers, a trip to the BaTelCo office to make a couple of phone calls, and a totally undeveloped beach about 100 feet off our bow where we're anchored.  Not much to complain about down here. :)

Enjoying the Bahamas

Quick post [via Susan's sister] that we're still in the Exumas of the
Bahamas. And although showers and fresh food remain few and far
between, we're really enjoying our time here.

We got as far south as Farmer's Cay for the 5 F's Festival and are now
heading north to meet our friends, the Casselmans, in Nassau on
February 11th. At this moment we are under way and can see Bell
Island on the starboard side of the boat.

After our friends leave, we will be heading south again and working
our way toward the Dominican Republic and points farther south. We'll
be moving south as quickly as possible at that point because weather
windows can be few and far between to cross to the Turks and Caicos
and the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The issue is that until
you get to the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean, you are essentially
heading into the prevailing tradewinds. So the "window" to do those
crossings occurs when the typical weather (fairly brisk wind coming
from the southeast) is disturbed somehow.

We will provide more detail and pictures when we get an internet
connection, which may be in Nassau.

In Warderick Wells

Hi everyone.  For a short while we have a little internet (very little as it turns out, so maybe no pictures just yet) and so wanted to say hi.  We are in Warderick Wells, which is the headquarters for the Exumas Land and Sea Park.  The anchorage is a very distinct channel between otherwise very shallow water, so the colors are really stunning.  We'll post pictures as soon as we get more bandwidth. 

We are once again among other people, but there are still no services just yet.  We're getting down to the last of our fresh food - a few carrots, cabbage, cheese, butter, 3 tomatoes, potatoes and garlic - so we have broken out the canned food finally.  The kids have decided that they LOVE canned fruit.  :)  Canned asparagus, not so much.  Personally, I've started to day dream about restaurants in Seattle.  Yesterday, it was the new(ish) french restaurant on lower Queen Anne -- beignets and french coffee, yum!

The wind is forecast to blow hard over the next few days - 20 knots or so - so we are probably going to stay here until it dies down.  We are then headed to Farmers Cay for the 5 F's festival (First Friday in February Festival at Farmers).  We will then start watching the weather to head north.

We were here in Warderick Wells and at the 5 F's Festival 9 years ago for our honeymoon.  I know it shouldn't be surprising, but things have changed here at Warderick Wells and, strangely, it makes me a bit sad.  As one example, last time, you could do volunteer work at the park to offset the cost of the mooring ball.  Back then (with our smaller boat), the ball was $15, and I think we put in 4 hours each of hard labor to offset that fee, including hauling and making concrete by wheelbarrow/hand.  It was really hard work, but it was also fun and we got to meet many of the other cruisers.  This morning, we asked whether we could volunteer this time - our mooring fee is up to $20 (egad!) - but they don't really have the volunteer program in place.  And there's are now t-shirts and souveniers to buy at the park office.  Which makes it all feel a bit more formal and impersonal.

But it's still stunningly beautiful.  We'll take lots of pics and post them down the road somewhere.

In the beautiful Exumas

We are currently anchored on the west side of Shroud Cay (pronounced
"key") in the Exumas Land and Sea Park in the Bahamas. Danny is down
below working to set up a wind generator that we bought in Ft.
Lauderdale and the kids are running all around the boat with Hannah
playing the "mommy" and Rye playing the "puppy." We are slowing
settling into our life on board. We are losing track of the day of
the week and are adjusting to having no cell phones or wifi. [This
post was posted by Susan's sister, who received the post via a high
frequency email account that transmits data at speeds calculated in
baud.] Instead of days of the week, we track our time out here by the
weather (including the 6:30 a.m. forecast we get by radio), where we
want to go next, and tracking our use of resources like water, power
and food. In some ways I feel like we're living a water based version
of homesteading. We wash our clothes by hand (well, with a plunger in
a bucket), generate our own power, and as of yesterday when Danny got
the reverse osmosis water maker working, make our own water.

The list of things we "do" each day is pretty small, although we are
busy most of the day. Tracking the weather, meals, exploring, boat
work, playing and a bit of homeschool now and then keep us quite
busy. We all go to bed around 8 every night and usually sleep until
6:30 or 7. In our free time, we are still trying to work through a
substantial list of boat projects (like installing the wind
generator), but none of the projects are super urgent.

We've met nice people on several boats to date, but haven't really
bonded with many boats yet because it's hard to get on the same travel
schedule. There is one boat we've met up with twice now, Pura Vida
(also a catamaran), and we are both planning to make it to at least
the Dominican Republic, so we may buddy boat with them that far if our
schedules sync.

In some ways, it's hard to see the changes our family is going through
since they are happening subtly, but we seem to be settling in well to
life together and on the boat. The kids seem to be getting along
better each day, and they can keep themselves busy and happy with
their few toys for longer periods of time. And there seem to be much
fewer tantrums and fits and the kids are following directions better
with each passing day (there are MANY new rules that we've had to give
kids so that they will stay safe and not damage the boat or its
systems). It also seems like Hannah's speech is more clear than it
was a month ago, but I'm not sure whether that's really the case or
whether we're just more in tune with her and what she's interested in
each day so we are better able to anticipate the context.

The only real deadline on our horizon is that our good friends, the
Casselmans, are coming to Nassau on February 11th. So we will island
hop in the Exumas until we get closer to that date. I think it's
helpful that we can't really travel farther south for now (given our
deadline to be in Nassau), because it prevents us from trying to have
a "schedule" for heading south. As some of our friends might find
shocking, we are truly slowing down and enjoying these beautiful
islands. [By the way, since I can't post pictures right now, I
encourage you to get on the web to look at pictures of the Exumas and
the Exuma Land and Sea Park, which is where we are right now.]

It's also an interesting time on this trip in the sense that we are
aware of the external changes in our lives -- losing track of the day
of the week, losing the internet and having only rudimentary email,
not having many other kids around (our kids haven't played with other
kids for a month or more now), living in bathing suits or nothing at
all.... Soon this will be the norm and we'll forget that we used to
jump on the web every 5 minutes to look something up.

Today we plan to travel to Hawksbill Cay, which is quite close, where
there are many loyalist ruins (loyalist meaning English loyalists who
fled to the Bahamas from the colonies following the Revolutionary
War). I'll write more about that later, but there are ruins
throughout the the Bahamas, both from a long time ago and more
recently. The ruins - whether recent or much older - are really
powerful to visit. It's been hard for us to put our finger on just
why, but I think the ruins are both a reminder of the transience of
time and illustrate the contrast between how beautiful but rugged this
place is. Although many people can now visit these islands for
"vacation," without modern technology like water makers and solar
panels (and even with those things), this incredibly beautiful place
is one that is harsh and in many ways inhospitable. There is no water
to speak of on the islands (except rainwater caught in cisterns)
basically no soil to support crops.

I'll sign off by saying that Danny just headed to the bow of the boat
in nothing but his sun hat and glasses. Rye accompanied him in
nothing but his life jacket. Good thing there is only one other boat
in the anchorage... :)