Sunday 25 October 2009

Updates

25 October 2009

We thought we should post an update here for all the people we've left hanging for months. We are now set-up back in Ottawa in an apartment downtown.

Over the next months we plan to back-fill the posts and upload photos we were unable to post on our rushed trip back North.

In the meantime Geoff is looking for a Job, know of anyone looking for an Application or Sales Engineer, Technical Marketing Manager or Product Manager committed to delivering world-class customer service?


Sunset on Ottawa River

Friday 28 August 2009

Back in Ottawa

28 August 2009

On Sunday August 16th 2009 we arrived back in Ottawa after the long rush north to get "home".



Back in Ottawa


Home


Geru on the Canal in downtown Ottawa


It's been a long trip home

Friday 6 March 2009

Volcano!

6 March 2009

We left St. Barts on March 2nd and headed towards Montserrat. Because we were tired from the rolly anchorage in St. Barts, we decided to stop in St. Kitts and Nevis on the way. We briefly visited the town of Charlestown on Nevis. When walking around, we visited a local farmers' market, which had a large roof for protection from the sun and rain. To our surprise, a sign on the structure revealed that it had been funded by CIDA (the Canadian International Development Agency) and the European Development Agency. This was the first time we'd seen an international development project. We hadn't really thought about it that way until then, but we were travelling in the second/third world now. The produce sold at the market was (for us) a mixture of the familiar and the unfamiliar; tropical fruits and vegetables, such as plantains, yucca, mangoes, and coconuts, were on display alongside potatoes, onions and cabbages.

When we got to Montserrat, we went on a tour of the island with a few other cruisers. Our tour guide used to be the chief of police! It wasn't possible to walk anywhere, because the only anchorage on the island isn't near anything. As it turned out, nothing is "near anything" in Montserrat ever since the southern volcano erupted a few years ago and buried the capital town of Plymouth. During the tour we saw the construction effort to rebuild a main town from scratch on the north end of the island, safe from the volcano which is still considered active. We really enjoyed the tour. The absolute highlight of our trip to Montserrat, however, happened as we were sailing away from the island the next morning. We were one of the last boats to leave the anchorage heading south. We passed the remains of the town of Plymouth and marvelled at the destruction it had seen. Only the skeletal burned-out remains of some buildings stick out of the thick layer of grey ash - a modern-day Pompeii. As we passed by, we smelled the sulphur from the volcano. We took some photos but stayed two miles offshore - the prescribed exclusion zone around the volcano. As we were passing the southern point of Montserrat, Geoff suggested putting up the sails. Ruth took another quick glance at the island - and noticed an odd cloud forming above the volcano! The cloud was growing rapidly. The volcano was erupting, and we were still almost downwind from it. For 15 minutes or so we didn't know if the cloud of ash would reach us or not - we motored at full speed and watched - there wasn't anything else we could do. In the end, the plume passed a couple of miles behind our stern. We missed being engulfed in it by about half an hour. Later we ran into one of the boats that had left ahead of us - it had looked to them as if we had been caught in the cloud, and they were quite worried about us! Looking at the Montserrat volcano website a few days later, we found out that what we witnessed was actually a full-blown pyroclastic flow event. Needless to say, this was a bit more excitement than we were looking for. Who would have thought that the closest call on our trip so far would have been an erupting volcano!



This was a golf course!


Plymouth, Montserrat


Montserrat Volcano


PDF of Montserrat Sequence #1



PDF of Montserrat Sequence #2

Monday 2 March 2009

St. Martin, Sint Maarten & St. Barts

2 March 2009

From the BVIs, we motored overnight to Sint Maarten in the company of Charlotte. The trip started out poorly as our main laptop with our navigation software on it died. This meant we no longer had electronic information about the freighters and cruiseships we might encounter out there (for the cruisers: no AIS). We didn't run into any issues with shipping, though, and our trip went fine. We started out in rolly seas which got calmer as we travelled. We arrived in Sint Maarten in time to catch the morning opening of the bridge, one of only three openings a day into Simpson Bay Lagoon. We were anchored in the lagoon surrounded by megayachts, both motor and sail. The island of Sint Maarten/Saint Martin is half Dutch and half French. We spent most of our time on the Dutch side which we didn't find nearly as nice as the French side. Unfortunatly, we found this out the day before we left when Charlotte offered us a ride across the rather large lagoon to the French side in their fast dinghy.

We spent three days in St. Maarten and then headed to St. Barts. The island are pretty close together, and the trip over was supposed to take about three hours - it took us five because it ended up being a bash into wind and waves. It was a very rough trip on both the boat and us. The only consolation was that Charlotte was still travelling with us and shared our misery. We arrived at Anse de Columbier (a bay in the north end of St. Barts) feeling beat and with new leaks on the boat that we hadn't had before. We spent the next day resting a bit and enjoying the beach, which had a large surf from the swell rolling into the bay. Late that afternoon we moved around the coast to Gustavia, the main town on St. Barts.

Just before Peter from Charlotte and Geoff returned from clearing in with customs in Gustavia, Ruth heard a loud 'clunk' from the back of the boat. It turns out that this was the sound of the ball-and-socket joint holding our hydraulic steering ram to the rudder tie bar falling apart - meaning a complete loss of steering! We were so thankful that this happened when it did rather than shortly before when we were motoring around in very close quarters looking for a place to anchor. The joint was badly corroded and must have been hanging on by only a hair.

The anchorage at Gustavia wasn't great. It was very crowded, a long way to town by dinghy and rolly due to the swell. Thankfully, for our first few days Charlotte offered to shuttle us to and from town to keep us dryer than our small and soft-bottomed dinghy allowed for. Gustavia has a small but well-stocked marine store, and after a few days of going back and forth with them we sorted out our steering problem. In the end we were able to get a part that wasn't perfect but worked. A new one will be put on when we are back in the US/Canada and have the funds to pay for it. There is a saying that the definition of cruising is fixing your boat in exotic places... which does ring true as we have had a few major fixes in "exotic" places already!

We made it to St. Barts in time for their carnival celebrations. The main festivities were held over two days. On Fat Tuesday, we watched the parade through town, which was reminiscent of the Halloween parade we had seen back in New York City - just on a much smaller scale. There were some of the Caribbean-style costumes we've seen in pictures of the Trinidad carnival, but, for the most part, the costumes were more like Halloween costumes in Canada. It was interesting to see what people had come up with. On Ash Wednesday, the 'Brule Vaval' was held, where a man made made of straw was paraded through town in a funeral-like procession and then hung and burned on the beach. We still aren't sure of the story behind this - we are assuming it is a European French custom.

Overall we enjoyed St. Barts, but we left there rather exhausted due to the rolly anchorage preventing us from getting a full night's sleep.



Port of Gustavia


Port of Gustavia


Cheeseburger in Paradise (from the Jimmy Buffett song)


Carnival in St. Barts

Tuesday 17 February 2009

The US and British Virgin Islands

17 February 2009

On Sunday January 25th we motorsailed from Culebra over to the town and harbour of Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. We anchored just in front of the main town - right where we had seen boats anchored a few years ago when we arrived by cruise ship - what a diffrent feeling arriving on our own boat!

Our friends on Charlotte were in Charlotte Amalie as well, and one evening Peter mentioned a movie night at Honeymoon Beach. Kirsten and Alden had flown home for appointments, so we joined Peter for the trip over in his dinghy, as our dinghy just isn't up for the distance. Upon arriving at the beach we found a sheet strung between two palm trees and rows of chairs set up. Behind the chairs was a row of golf carts belonging to local islanders. Next to all the chairs was a small concession stand selling beer, popcorn, and other snacks. We thought this was quite the event - and it kept getting better. Along with a countdown to the main movie and notices to turn off cell phones (believe it or not, they're prolific here, too, even on more remote beaches!), they showed a short pre-movie 'loony toons' cartoon. The movie itself was 'Vantage Point', which we all enjoyed. Movies on the beach - just what you might think of in the Caribbean.

From Charlotte Amalie we headed over to Great Cruz Bay on St John. Great Cruz Bay is not large, but it is quite deep and filled with boats on moorings, leaving little room for a boat to anchor. Luckily, as we were motoring around looking for a spot, someone on another boat pointed out a not-so-obvious spot sometimes used by catamarans, and it worked out well for us.

Great Cruz Bay was the first - but definitely not the last - of deep, crowded anchorages. In fact, the British Virgin Islands (BVIs), where boats full of inexpericenced charterers are let loose, are thought to be a very easy cruising ground. Ironically, right from day one this is where we encountered difficulties we had not had to deal with before. After a brief stay at Great Cruz Bay we wanted to head over to do some snorkelling at Trunk Bay which is supposed to be wonderful. As we approached Trunk Bay we realized that this was out of the question as a large northerly swell had set in. Huge waves were crashing onto the rugged shoreline making snorkelling impossible.

We went to Jost van Dyke to check into the BVIs and found it to be a poor anchorage - we tried three times to anchor before our anchor set, but we didn't trust it enough to be comfortable staying overnight, which we had originally planned. We motored over to White Bay which is known for good holding, but, due to the east-south-east winds it had large waves rolling through the anchorage. So we now had to find a new place to anchor for the night that wasn't exposed to the northerly swell and was protected from the east-south-east winds - a tough challenge as it was getting late in the day. Soper's Hole on the island of Tortola looked like the only viable option we could reach before dark. Soper's Hole, however, is another deep and crowded anchorage with pay-per-night mooring balls. We ended up having to take a mooring, which we don't like to do as anchoring is free. To make up for the frustrating day, we found out that Idyll Island was just a couple of mooring balls away. We had last seen them in Salinas, Puerto Rico, and it was quite a nice surprise to see them again.

Ever since we left Ottawa, the BVIs had been one of our goals for the trip. However, our first full day of sailing the BVIs was not at all what we had expected. From Soper's Hole we motored (not sailed!) into the wind, waves and current up to Road Town. During this trip we had our first wave come not only over the bow of the boat, but roll up over the cabin top, drenching Ruth at the helm! What an introduction to the BVIs!

We spent a few days in Road Town, Tortola. The highlight of our time there was meeting Christine and John on Timentide, a Prout 34. They had spent considerable time in the BVIs and had a daughter living on Tortola. They took us on a tour of the island by car, and they not only showed us the sights but also gave us a very different view with insights into the politics and inner workings of the island.

After visting Norman Island, we had a wonderful sail up to Trellis Bay to go to the Full Moon Party (held, as the name implies, on each full moon). We arrived in a throng of boats, and the anchorage/mooring field was packed. There didn't seem to be any room between the boats already there, but it looked like it might be possible to anchor close to the beach in front of a line of catamarans. We were just able to anchor there - in four feet of water! Oh, how nice it is to have a shallow cat. As we sat at anchor, other catamarans would motor towards us and then suddenly hit reverse when they saw the depth as they usually draw four feet or more. Over the next few days we did touch bottom gently in some of the larger waves, but we were on soft sand so we weren't concerned.

The Full Moon Party at Trellis Bay was very well attended. It is put on by Aragorn's art studio, which is located right there. People sat at tables along the beach with torches providing a romantic light. The centerpieces to the party were the fireballs, which are metallic spheres with artistic cut-outs. The fireballs were sitting on supports in the shallow water at the edge of beach and filled with firewood. The fires set inside them illuminated the cut-out designs. They were a beautiful sight at night. The event brought out lots of cruisers and locals. We had a great time in the relaxed party atmosphere.

From Trellis Bay we motored over to the Baths on the south-western shore of Virgin Gorda for the afternoon. Other than having to deal with other boats pushing for the few mooring balls, the Baths were great. They are probably "the" tourist sight in the BVIs - and rightfully so. Huge bolders are perched on top of each other creating caverns and crawlspaces between them. Because they are right at the water's edge, you wade through water in some of the areas. We both loved wandering through the Baths.

That evening, we moved up to Savannah Bay, which was a wonderful anchorage. It is not only relatively shallow but also empty because charter boats aren't allowed to go there due to an outlying reef. We did end up having one neighbour in the large anchorage, a huge mega-sailing-yacht.

We left for Anegada the next day. We had a good sail over. Anegada is a low-lying sand and coral island which reminded us a lot of the Bahamas. We only spent one night at Anegada since we wanted to take the next weather window over to St. Martin later in the week. We did, however, take in one thing Anegada is known for - its lobsters. We had a great Valentine's Day dinner at the Potters by the Sea restaurant, right on the beach.

From Anegada we sailed over to Gorda Sound in order to pick up some fuel. Here we met up again with Charlotte, whom we hadn't seen since St. Thomas. We had to anchor three times in order for our anchor to catch - this should have been a sign to us as our anchor usually catches easily. In the morning, Geoff found it awfully hard to pull the anchor up. Eventually he saw why - we had snagged a thick underwater cable that wasn't marked on the charts! After a few attempts of lifting and quickly dropping the anchor while motoring away from the cable we were finally able to get ourselves free.

Because we enjoyed the Baths so much the first time, we spent the afternoon before our departure to St. Martin wandering through this natural marvel again.



Street in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI


Anchored in shallow water in Trellis Bay, Tortola, BVI
(yes, that's Ruth standing behind the boat!)


Fireballs at the Full Moon Party, Trellis Bay


Anegada Valentine's Day Lobster Dinner


The Baths on Virgin Gorda, BVI


The Baths

Sunday 25 January 2009

Puerto Rico - An Island of Contrasts

25 January 2009

Puerto Rico was one pleasant surprise after another. We knew little about this US territory before we arrived. The surprises started as soon as we saw the island. Puerto Rico is very hilly with lush vegitation and many houses and towns dotting the hillsides - a completely different vista than the Bahamian ones we'd grown accustomed to for so many weeks. Because Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, we had to clear in with US customs. The agents were really friendly, even offering us advice on what to see during our visit to Puerto Rico - this is not typical coming from US customs agents!

After clearing in in Mayaguez we moved to Boqueron on the south coast. Boqueron was a wonderful introduction to Puerto Rico for us. It is a vacation town filled with Puerto Ricans on holiday. When we were there, a lot of the Puerto Rican vacationers we met were actually living on the US mainland and had come "back home" for a visit over the christmas holidays. Every evening loud music wafted over the bay to our boat. Boqueron is where was saw the first of many contrasts. In town in the evenings, people were out in the streets partying, but there were families with kids everywhere in the mix so you felt very safe. An equivalent after-dark street party in Canada or on the US mainland would have felt very different. The locals we met were all very friendly and helpful and often suggested places for us to visit, just like we had seen earlier at customs.

From Boqueron we hopped along the south coast to Salinas. The town of Salinas with its protected mangrove-lined bay is a favourite cruisers' stop as services such as groceries, marine stores, and laundry are nearby and you can safely leave your boat for inland tours by car as the anchorage is very protected. The water was pretty murky, but this was made up for by several manatees swimming next to our boat every day.

We rented a car for two days in order to see Puerto Rico by land. On our first day we went to see the Arecibo Radio Observatory, which is the largest radio telescope in the world. It was featured in the 007 movie 'Golden Eye' and in the movie 'Contact'. The drive to Arecibo was fairly long. Initially, we were on a great four-lane divided highway, as good or better than any in North America. This quickly changed to a two-lane highway that went through towns and was stop-and-go. It was a great way to see Puerto Rican life, but not to get somewhere quickly. Finally, after four hours (we'd expected a two-hour trip!) we made it to the town of Arecibo where we had to turn off the "main" road. On our third attempt (due to poor signage) we found the road up to the observatory. The radio telescope was HUGE and very impressive. There were some informational displays to explain its workings and history.

Because it had taken us so long to drive around the island to get to Arecibo, we decided we would take the more "direct" route back across the island. The trip back was indeed faster, but the roads were rather interesting. The hilly central region of Puerto Rico is a Karst landscape, which is characterized by deep, almost crater-like valleys surrounded by large steep hills, all arranged in a random pattern. The roads wind through and around this landscape. Because they often go along steep hillsides, they are narrow - just wide enough for two cars with a cliff up on one side and down on the other. There wasn't a lot of traffic, but the little that was there was going fast, making for a hair-raising drive around tight blind corners! The scenery was stunning, just so hilly and very lush and green. As we left the center of the island and got closer to the south coast, the vistas changed dramatically to gently rolling and arid hills with sweeping views of the ocean.

On our second day with the rental car, we visited the El Yunque rainforest, which is the only tropical rainforest in the United States park system. We had another great drive there through the hills and up into the rainforest. This time we knew what to expect from the roads, so it was an enjoyable drive seeing the local homes and countryside. In El Yunque, we visited one of its famous waterfalls, which was right next to the main park road. Unfortunately we didn't have time to hike in to see the larger falls, but the one we saw was pretty neat. We then drove on to an overlook tower, which allowed for a spectacular view of the cloud forest in the park and views out to the Atlantic Ocean. Our drive back took us close to Puerto Rico's capital, San Juan. We had visited San Juan a few years ago on our cruise ship vacation, so this time we opted to stop at the Bacaradi Rum plant, which is situated across the harbour from Old San Juan, for a tour. Now we know the history of a 'Cuba Libre' and that, officially, it must be made with Coke (not Pepsi or any other cola) and Bacardi Rum (no other brand)!

During our time in Salinas we met up with two other boats which were also travelling east. Cathy and Derek of 'Idyll Island' are a couple from Vancouver Island who have been sailing in the Caribbean for the last year or so. We had initially met them briefly earlier in Ponce, but we got to know them in Salinas. The second boat was 'Charlotte' with Kirsten, Peter and their 6-year old son Alden from Seattle. We ended up travelling for a few days with Charlotte as their plans matched ours.

From Salinas, we hopped farther along the Puerto Rican coast. Once past the mainland, we headed to the island of Vieques in the Spanish Virgin Islands (which belong to Puerto Rico). As we arrived in Sun Bay, we were hailed on the radio by Charlotte as they were already anchored there and saw us coming in. They had left Salinas the day before us, and we hadn't expected to catch up to them. Charlotte and Geru were the only boats in the huge round bay with a mile-long beach.

We spent two days exploring the nearby town of Esperanza and enjoying the beach. The highlight of our stay at Sun Bay was a nighttime dinghy ride with Kirsten, Peter, and Alden. One bay over from Sun Bay is Mosquito Lagoon, which holds the 'Guinness Book of World Records' record as the most bioluminescent in the world! The trip over in the dinghy was an adventure as we were going through swells of 4-5 feet in the dark. As we motored into the lagoon, we didn't see much until we shut off the engine and swished our hands around in the water - the motion caused the water to light up in a bright glow. Kirsten jumped in for a swim and looked rather eerie with this glow surrounding her entire body as she moved around. When we left the bay, we could see fish darting away from the dinghy leaving underwater zig-zag trails of light.

From Sun Bay we moved to Ensenada Honda, another even larger bay. For those of you that know the BVIs, it was the size of North Sound in Virgin Gorda - about two miles across. We shared it with just Charlotte and one other boat. The bay is surrounded by mangrove swap and completely uninhabited. There were no signs of civilization except for a brightly painted red and white observation tower on top of a hill which used to serve as a base for military training exercises. The main reason that the Spanish Virgins are so undeveloped and have these beautiful pristine anchorages is that the US Navy used the islands for live firing manoeuvres for decades. They have only recently stopped this practice and are still clearing unexploded ordnances from various places. Ensenada Honda has been officially cleared, but our electronic charts still showed a pattern of little explosive symbols all over it!

From Vieques, we motorsailed over to the island of Culebra (still in the Spanish Virgins), where we found ourselves back in the cruising crowd. We spent a few days anchored by the town of Dewey. We met several cruisers there who arrived but never left. We could see why - it was a very pleasant, layed-back town on a small island, but yet it is only a short ferry ride (for a dollar!) away from the major town of Fajardo on the mainland of Puerto Rico. One of the main attractions of Culebra is Flamenco Beach, which is supposed to be one of the nicest beaches in the Caribbean. We took a minivan bus over with Charlotte and we all agreed it was a gorgeous beach but it had too many people on it! We have gotten used to very isolated beaches. Nevertheless, we spent a wonderful day there talking and playing in the sand. There is actually an old rusty tank there, sitting right on the beach around the corner from the main bay!

Puerto Rico has been one of the highlights of our trip so far.



Boqueron


Boqueron


Manatee at Salinas


Bacardi plant tour


El Yunque rainforest


El Yunque rainforest


El Yunque rainforest


Arecibo Radio Observatory


Ensenada Honda


Ensenada Honda on the chart plotter


Beach at Sun Bay


Frigate Bird


Dinghy Restaurant / Bar in Dewey


Flamenco Beach

Friday 2 January 2009

Wonderful Weather Window

2 January 2009

At Rum Cay we finally got a break in the weather - a large weather window of calm winds which looked long enough to get us all the way to Puerto Rico! We left after filling up all of our jerry cans with diesel as well as the main tank. Our first day out was a bit rough as the waves were still pretty high from the previously windy days. Thankfully they did calm down later on as forecasted. We saw quite a few flying fish. In the larger waves, two of them ended up on the boat, one on the side deck and one right in the cockpit! As we had most of our cockpit enclosure up, we realized that the fish must have come all the way from the front of the boat and over the cabin deck, probably as we bashed into a wave.

We arrived at Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos Islands on the third morning, having taken 47 hours to motorsail there. Hurricane Ike had done considerable damage to the island this past fall, including wiping out fuel docks. The fuel was now being delivered to one of the large commercial docks by truck. As the weather was still great, we didn't plan to stay in The Turks and Caisos this time around, and we just wanted to quickly refuel and head out again. However, the fuel truck would not give us fuel until we checked into the country, so we waited for the customs people to arrive by car (their dockside office had also been taken out by the hurricane). As we were sorting out the fuel truck, we heard Zanadu Sea on the radio. They had left a day before us but spent a night at anchor along the way. They met up with us and also got fuel. We ended up spending a total of two hours at Grand turk, which included checking in an out of the country at the same time and refueling. We left just after lunch with Zanadu Sea following close behind. We think we will stop at Grand Turk in the T&Cs on our return trip back north as it looks like a nice place to visit. The water was the clearest we had seen anywhere. As we were anchoring, Geoff saw a ray glide past underneath our boat in about 40 feet of water!

Our trip southeast from the Turks and Caicos started out with some nice slow swell which slowly turned into an oily calm. We realized that, in these conditions, we could make the BVIs with the fuel we had, so we parted with Zanadu Sea, who were still heading for Puert Rico. Ruth was on watch at midnight (Eastern Standard Time) on the 31st, and we were at 21° 03'.880 N, 070° 04'.118 W when we passed into the New Year. Ruth quietly sang 'Auld Lang Syne' to herself as we motored alone on a dark calm ocean with the stars twinkling overhead.

On New Year's Day we had a slightly frightful experience. Both of us had been below for 15 minuutes or so - we were motoring over open ocean in calm weather. Ruth popped into the cokpit for a quick horizon check for any boats and there was a large buoy off our starboard (right) bow, just a few boat lengths away! The buoy was completely unexpected - our charts didn't show any on or near our path. The first thought was that our Autopilot had shut itself off (which it does occasionally), and we had gone way off course - but the Autopilot was fine. Then Ruth looked at the chart plotter to check our current position. This caused another gasp of shock, as the display showed a large-scale map centered on the middle of the Atlantic! It turns out that Geoff had earlier bumped the controls. We recognized the buoy as a cardinal buoy, which are used to mark shallow spots in the water. It was important to figure out where around the buoy the shallows would be. After some frantic fiddling, Ruth got the chartplotter back to where we were - there were no charted buoys for miles around. In fact, we were in 13,000 feet of water! We believe that this was a buoy that broke free from its mooring and was randomly floating around the sea. On closer inpection, the buoy showed some damage. It seemed to be missing its top portion, including its light. If it would have been dark, we would not have seen it at all. As it was, we could have easily run into it in broad daylight on a calm day - it just goes to show that you need to keep a good watch out there at all times!

As we passed north of the eastern tip of Puerto Rico, the winds started picking up and the accompanying waves followed shortly thereafter. They were, of course, right on our nose. We quickly decided that we didn't want to beat into the wind and waves as it was getting uncomfortable and we were tired, and so we changed our course back to Puerto Rico. We arrived at Mayaguez (on the eastern shore, in the Mona Passage) just after midnight, the trip from the Turks and Caicos having taken 41 hours. Making a landfall at night is difficult, and, counter to what one might think, it is made more difficult by a brightly lit shoreline. The city lights drown out the usually much smaller and dimmer navigational nights on the dark water in the foreground. There is no way we would have found the anchorage without our chart plotter. As it was, we didn't see the red and green channel markers leading us into the port until we were right between them! We anchored as best we could next to a few other cruising boats (including Zanadu Sea) to get some rest before checking in in the morning.

The trip overall was long and tiring. It took a day to get at least partially adjusted to the watch/sleep schedule. We then had a few nights of poor sleep as we were beating into the waves. Once in Puerto Rico, it took us a few days to get fully back on our feet from the lack of sleep. It was interesting that we saw mainly cruise ships out at sea on this trip (and mainly on Ruth's watch during the first part of the night), as opposed to freighters or other sail boats. We were very happy we found the weather window we did - we were able to get past a bunch of "thorns" by skipping the Dominican Republic on the way south. The DR will be easier to visit on the return (if we choose to).

For those of you that like photos: we finally have some good wi-fi and have uploaded a bunch. Click over to Flickr for our photos.


Oily calm at sea


Errant buoy


We aren't alone at sea


Flying fish


Cruise ships at Grand Turk