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

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

On the Thorny Path

29 December 2008

We spent just over a week at Cat Island. We stayed a bit longer than we had originally planned waiting for weather - a common pastime on the Thorny Path to the Caribbean. Cat Island is interesting, and it seems that not many cruisers visit here - most head down to George Town instead. During our stay at Cat Island, we didn't see a single other cruising boat (in fact, we didn't see many boats at all, only one or two local motor boats!).

We were anchored just off the settlement of New Bight for most of our stay. Like we had encountered on other Bahamian islands, the town has no obvious town centre; instead, it is spread out along one road which roughly follows the shoreline. The police station and government office are located at one end and the grocery store is at the other, 1.5 miles away. Along the road there are a fair number of houses. They are mostly very small (by our standards) single-story homes. In between the occupied homes there are many ruins of older houses, usually overgrown with bushes and greenery and with the roof missing. It seems that the locals don't bother (can't afford?) tearing down the old homes, so they just build beside the ruins or elsewhere.

Any visit to Cat Island would not be complete without a visit to Father Jerome's hermitage. Father Jerome was a priest/architect who built many of the churches in the Bahamas. His hermitage on Cat Island, which was his retirement home, is the most famous. The hermitage, which is a small building complex with a chapel and living quarters, is built on top of the highest hill in the Bahamas (63m!) with stations of the cross along the steep path leading up to it. What a feat to have built it on the top of this hill without the modern tools we have today!

On our walk up to the hermitage we saw our first Bahamian farm, and it was unlike any other farm we'd ever seen. The farmers had cut down larger trees to about 4-foot tall dried-up slender trunks, and they had left all the rocks in the ground. They simply planted in the small pockets of earth in amongst the rocks. We saw watermelons, tomatoes, corn, and breadfruit growing. During our stay at Cat Island, we met Reverend Johnston, who is a school teacher and a farmer. He spoke of the old days when they would go on horseback to collect bat guano from caves on the island to fertilize the plants. Today they simply buy commercial fertilizer from Nassau. We bought a very tasty and juicy watermelon from Reverend Johnston.

We left Cat Island for Rum Cay on Saturday, December 20th. We left at dawn and arrived just after sunset, anchoring in the dark. It was a long day. We motorsailed the whole way. The wind and waves were just off our bow (i.e. almost from the front), which made for an uncomfortable trip. Things improved during the day as the waves died down a bit.

We spent just over a week at Rum Cay (again waiting for weather), including Christmas. It was really odd being there for Christmas as it did not feel like Christmas at all. There were virtually no decorations, music or even mentioning of Christmas. The island was pretty quiet with only a few people around. Some of the locals were "off island" for the holidays, presumably visiting with relatives and friends. Initially we anchored out in the bay, but after a few days we took a slip in the protected marina as it was pretty rolly in the anchorage with the ocean swell coming in over the reef. Besides, it was Christmas, and so we treated ourselves to the convenience of being at a dock.

While at Rum Cay, we saw our first cruising boat in a long time. 'Zanadu Sea' is a Canadian catamaran with a retired couple on board who are also heading down to the Caribbean islands. We spent Christmas with Cliff and Rosalind enjoying a cruisers' Christmas dinner on the 25th. We did quite well given the limits of the pantry on a cruising boat! It was nice to be with other cruisers for christmas, especially given that when we first arrived at Rum Cay the anchorage was empty, and we thought we'd be spending it alone.

One evening, Ruth saw (Geoff missed it!) the fabled "green flash" at sunset. This is a bit of a rite of passage among cruisers, as it appears to be a rare event and usually requires having sat through many sunsets (where the sun is setting over water from the viewer's perspective) looking for the elusive green flash. We had read that it is an atmospheric phenomenon that occurs under specific circumstances, where a reflection of the setting sun appears as a bright green flash on the horizon. Ruth said it looked like the very last bit of the top of the sun suddenly turned bright green for a second or two before it slipped below the horizon.

While we were at Rum Cay, we watched many a cruise ship go by late in the evening. Holland America has a "private" island not far away where their cruise ships anchor for an afternoon and the guests get to enjoy the beach. We also really noticed how many stars you can see when you are away from all the city lights - just amazing!


Customs House at Smith Bay, Cat Island


Geru off the beach at New Bight, Cat Island


Geru off the beach at New Bight, Cat Island


Houses on Cat Island


Old Ruin on Cat Island


Entry to Father Jerome's Hermitage


Second Station of the Cross on the way up to Father Jerome's Hermitage


Stations of the Cross on the way up to Father Jerome's Hermitage


Father Jerome's Hermitage


Pew for One at Father Jerome's Hermitage


Farm on Cat Island


Farm on Cat Island


Some Ingredients for a Cruisers' Christmas Dinner

Merry Christmas!

24 December 2008

We wish you all a merry christmas and a very happy new year from Rum Cay in the Bahamas.

Back in the Bahamas

12 December 2008

On Friday, December 5th, we moved down to Key Biscayne to be closer to the ocean for our crossing over to the Bahamas the next day. On Saturday we left for our fifth crossing of the Gulf Stream. Thankfully, it was uneventful and we were back in turquoise waters on the Great Bahama Bank at Bimini just before sunset. As we continued on through the night, Ruth, who was on watch, had an unnerving experience. As we were approaching Mackie Shoal, which is a very shallow area on the bank, there were two boats anchored close to the lit shoal marker in a way that forced us to pass between them and the marker. Because it was night and depth perception is poor in the dark, Ruth had very little feel for how close we were to those boats, so she motored along, anxiously keeping an eye on them. When we finally passed them, she could see the hulls in the ambient light, and we ended up motoring just a few boat length in front of one of them.

The next morning, just after we left the bank, we were approached by a large motor boat of the Bahamian Defence Force who asked to board us. After one of their officers stepped onto our boat (not a small feat in the rolling seas!), we were informed that we should have cleared in at Bimini, our first possible port of call. After informing them that this was not mentioned in any of our guide books and that we were planning to go straight through to Cat Island, the officer said it was okay - this time. Later on that evening (we were now on our second night of non-stop travelling), as we were passing south of New Providence Island, Ruth was sitting in the salon when the whole boat was lit up by a strong search light - another Bahamian Defence Force vessel! This time they did not board us, but took the paperwork from our last boarding and copied it. Papers were passed back and forth between our boat and theirs, again in rolling seas and with their boat coming dangerously close to hitting ours. Most people never even see the Bahamian Defence Force, and we had them visit us twice - we guess this is what happens when you travel at night where most innocent cruising boats don't!

We were pushing to get to Cat Island but the weather started deteriorating. We ended up stopping at Highbourne Cay on Monday morning, and we immediately went to bed as we hadn't slept well during our night passages due to the waves rocking the boat in a rather uncomfortable manner. We spent four days in the Highbourne/Allens Cay area waiting for weather to cross over the Cat Island. The night before we left Allens Cay, a squall came through at about 4am. Just before the squall hit, Geoff had woken up because the boat started moving differently in the changing winds. He looked outside and saw that we had rotated 180 degrees on our anchor with the veering wind and that we were getting quite close to two other anchored boats. There was still enough distance so Geoff wasn't concerned. Then the squall hit and we tugged on our anchor, extending our rode to its full length. Geoff checked outside again and was a little alarmed - we had slid backwards to sit exactly between the two boats, each one being only a boat length away! It was really lucky that we didn't run into one of them. The boat to our right was swinging a lot at its anchor (some boats have a tendency to do that - it's called "sailing at anchor") and was getting awfully close. Ruth awoke to shouting on deck in French, as the boat did get close enough that they would have hit us from the side had Geoff and the other owner (who only spoke French) not physically pushed the two boats apart. Because we were the boat in the middle and were too close to both, we started our engine, picked up anchor and re-anchored a few hundred yards away for a rough rest of the night as we were closer to the inlet now and the waves were much larger. All of this happened in howling wind and pounding rain in total darkness! Two hours later at dawn, we left for Cat Island. Our trip over was a smooth but fairly long one - we arrived at 8pm in the evening, anchoring in the dark to the lights of some houses on shore.

South on the ICW

5 December 2008

Between November 12 and December 5 we worked our way south on the ICW passing by many of the places we'd seen last winter, but it felt quite different this time around. We were more relaxed as we "knew what we were doing", but we were also pushing hard to get south quickly so we could leave for the islands sooner. A few notable events from the trip include:

One evening, we were heading for an anchorage we had picked out on the chart. As we passed a little bay off to the side of the ICW, Geoff suggested we try it instead - it looked very calm and beautiful. It was charted at only 4 feet deep, so we slowly nosed our way out of the channel and towards shore. Well, it turned out to be 13 feet deep, which was deeper than the dredged ICW beside it! It was a great spot - fully sheltered from the wind, in the middle of a gorgeous golf course, and with wifi access!

A few days later, as we left an anchorage just south of Lake Worth at Lantana, the engine started having an odd - and rather violent - vibration. The engine RPM at which the vibration occurred seemed to be changing. We had a rather worrisome two days of motoring, trying not to run the engine at an RPM that would vibrate. Once in Fort Lauderdale, Geoff searched the web and both of us brainstormed on the possible causes - our biggest fear was that it was the transmission. After much more thinking, trying things out ("what happens if I push here while we rev the engine ?"), disassembling and reassembling things and cursing the boat builders, we believe it's a misaligned/loose connection between the transmission and the outdrive. We have fixed it to the point that it only vibrates above our normal operating RPM - we can live with that until we have the time, tools and location to look into this further.

Just north of Miami we had our best encounter with dolphins yet - they we jumping out of the water ahead of us when we first saw them, and, as we approached, they came over to check us out. Standing on the front deck, Geoff had a great view of the dolphins playing between the bows!

We spent a week in Miami Beach and just loved it. Of all the cities we have visited on our trip, it is one of our favourites. South Beach has everything in a small area, from grocery stores to restaurants, from art galleries to cinemas, from art deco boutique hotels to luxury condo towers. Each day we would wander the city picking different ways to walk to the beach and back. We loved the eclectic mix of people - there are the affluent, the artsy, the alternative, and the good-looking, to name but a few. The beach is one of the nicest and largest we have seen - it's huge, both in length and depth, and there was no lack of interesting people to watch.



ICW Lawn Ornaments (!?)


The "golf course anchorage"


The "Vote Boat" seen in Fort Lauderdale


Dolphins just north of Miami


Flowers on Lincoln Road, Miami South Beach (in December!)


Miami Beach


Miami at night

The Long Way South

18 November 2008

Mid-morning on Sunday the 9th we left Brunswick heading toward the British Virgin Islands. On our first day out we had a great sail in calm wind and seas. We crossed the Gulf Stream overnight and on Monday morning. By Monday afternoon we got unexpected weather reports of rapidly increasing wind and waves (up to 35 knots) in the area we were going to be sailing in. As the wind was supposed to be kicking in from the north/northeast, we would have been "trapped" on the east/offshore side of the Gulf Stream (huge waves build in it with northerly winds), taking away our option to return to the Eastern shore of the US. The remains of hurricane Paloma over the Bahamas took away Plan C - heading there for cover. So we made the decision to turn around and head straight back across the Gulf Stream before the winds set in. Things stayed pretty calm until about 6am on Tuesday morning when the wind and waves began building rapidly. Thank goodness we were out of the Gulf Stream by then. As it was, by the time we got to Fernandina Beach, Florida, at around noon, we had 20+ knot winds and waves of 6-10 feet. We were moving along at 7 knots with down-wave surfs up to 9.5 knots. We actually had a nice sail back, but it was on the edge of our comfort zone and certainly not anything we'd want to do overnight or for an extended period of time. We had now travelled 100 miles out to sea and back again to make it 30 miles south!

After getting to Fernandina, we looked at the weather, thought some more, and decided that we would head down the ICW (and potentially down the coast "on the outside" for some sections) until Miami. From Miami, we plan to cross the Gulf Stream once again into the Bahamas. We expect to continue on the "thorny path" threading our way Southeast along the island chain. Depending on the weather, we may go from island to island or we may do longer hops by going farther out to sea and stopping only every few days, perhaps in the Turks & Caicos and Puerto Rico. As usual, this plan is firmly carved in Jello!

Looking at what the weather has done, we are very glad we turned around. It looks like most of our passage would have been in 25+ knot winds and the accompanying waves. In talking with friends who were out there, we made the right decision as they had a very, very rough trip! Although we are glad we avoided that, we are frustrated that we are still in the US and that, by the looks of it, the weather is keeping it that way for a while longer.



Some of Dock 10 saying goodbye in Brunswick


Gulf Stream currents


Sailing under spinnaker