Bibi and Wayne's Adventures

JOURNAL OF S/V DISCOVERY

01 NOV 2006 Update Time to go sailing -- to Colombia

Hi all, we are finally leaving Curacao after 5 months. Its a interseting and friendly Dutch island -- easy to stay here. But, its time for another new place.

We will leave for Aruba today, arriving tomorrow morning. Just a short stay  of a day or two and then off to Cartagena, Colombia. We will stop
along the coast most nights and should be in Cartagena in a week or two, depending on how long we stay at each stop. We understand Colombia is a beautiful country although it has its problems.

We will be sailing with a "buddy boat", called Infinity and probably a few  others (for a day or two) that we meet along the way.

A good way to track our progress is to look at the Position Reporter we told you about last week. It will show you our position in latitude and
longitude, a Google Earth satellite photo, plus a map of the area where Discovery is. We will update our location each day that we move. Its
a neat tool and easy to use. Here's a summary of where to look:

- For our most recent position, within the past 10 days: go to www.winlink.org/aprs/aprs.htm  and type in Wayne's HAM call sign (ai4mr)
in the Station Call Letters box.
- To see all of our position reports since Curacao: go to www.shiptrak.org  and enter ai4mr in the upper left hand box.

Finally, pls use our WINLINK email address to contact us, until further notice  ai4mr@winlink.org

Wayne & Bibi Leaving Curacao

13 Oct 2006 Update

As we prepare to travel into a region where the passages will be longer, we sought a program to track our position.  Our e-mail program, Winlink, has a Position Reporter.  If you go to www.winlink.org/aprs/aprs.htm  and type in Wayne's HAM call sign ai4mr in the Station Call Letters box, it will show you our position in latitude and longitude, a Google Earth satellite photo, plus a map of the area where Discovery is.  Every time we log onto
Winlink (almost daily) we will enter our new coordinates.  We are very excited about  this as it is a great way for family and friends to be able to keep track of our progress.

We have some engine problems and as soon as the ordered parts come in and are installed, we will prepare for our next destination Cartagena, Columbia.

Wayne & Bibi  s/v Discovery  Curacao

23 Feb 2006 Update August 2005 to February 2006

Sorry for the length of this update. The last journal update we had so diligently worked on was lost when our computer crashed. The computer was found to be saltwater corroded and was sent to the big microchip in the
sky. So the literary masterpiece we had created will be recreated now on our new laptop with a Spanish operating system. This is a super little computer but having an operating system in a foreign language has proved a challenge.

So, we will proceed with catching up:

While in Curaçao, a Dutch island, we really got to know the bus system and wandered all over the place. We also started watercolor classes via another cruiser.

August proved a very exciting month. As we left Curaçao to return to Venezuela, we received news of the arrival of Bibi's newest grandson - Grant.

Our route was planned to return to Los Aves islands to do more snorkeling and spear fishing. We just can't relay to you just how fantastic the Aves are. At times, we could only see one or two other sailboats over miles and miles of reefs. This area, for us, is what Cruising is all about.
After we left the Aves, we went to the small islands of Los Tortugas (the Turtles).
We anchored in a few different locations and at one island we dug for clams. Eureka!! We got a bucket of those tasty lil critters and made a pot of clam chowder. Tortuga, being closer to the mainland of Venezuela (about 45
miles), is less remote and, therefore, gets a lot of local weekend visits from power boats. Oh, but if only Galveston Bay could have such a super nearby destination.
We were a melancholy crew as we departed Tortuga at 3AM one morning in late August to head back to Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela.
October was a very busy month for us. Most of our time was spent removing the teak deck and replacing it with a non-skid fiberglass surface. Bibi made a return trip back to Houston to welcome the new baby and visit with other family and friends. Also in October, we both studied for the HAM radio license. Bibi passed the Technician Class exam and Wayne took all four exams (Technician, Morse Code, General and Amateur Extra Class) and
passed with 100% on the final exam to receive his Amateur Extra Ham license.

ANGEL FALLS:

The end of October found us, along with 9 other cruisers, heading to Canaima, Venezuela for a 4 day visit to the world's highest uninterrupted waterfall. Angel Falls, named after an American pilot who discovered them,
is 3,212 feet high. The area is located in the Gran Sabana region of southeast Venezuela and has numerous huge, flat-topped, sheer-walled table mountains, many unexplored until the past few decades. It is often called
the Lost World. Getting to & from the falls involved busses, trucks, small airplanes, exciting white water boat trips and a lot of hiking through the rainforest with breathtaking scenery. It is in a very remote area and was a fantastic trip!

We left the marina in Puerto La Cruz at 8:30 in the morning via vans that took us to the central bus station where we boarded a luxury bus for the trip to the small city of Simon Bolívar which is located on the Orinoco River. We were met at the bus terminal by a guide who took us via a truck with plank seats to a boat for an excursion up the Orinoco River to view the fresh water, pink dolphins. The Orinoco is a very murky river about ½ mile wide at this point and runs from Columbia to the Caribbean Sea. It was a nice ride, but the dolphins proved illusive. So, we got back on the truck and a 25 mile trip to Aracaycú, a "dude ranch"-type place. What a great place - small buildings with four guest rooms each dotted the hilly grounds.
There was an array of wildlife on the premises - lots of birds: peacocks, golden pheasants, turkeys, chickens from around the world, macaws and parrots; an anaconda and tortoises. A creek runs through the heavily treed property. Wayne and a few others rode horses for awhile. Since it was not during a normal holiday period in Venezuela, we had the entire complex to ourselves. We were served a typical Venezueloan dinner of meat, rice,
salad and fried plantains and then trundled off to bed early - good thing too because the peacocks and roosters are a noisy lot and woke us up way before dawn.

The next morning we had a breakfast of eggs, arepas (a sort of flat bread) and fresh cheese. We were joined in our meal by a couple of parrots and a male peacock who were fairly insistent that we share our food with them.
(picture #4) We heard Howler Monkeys in the distance and saw some small brown monkeys in the nearby trees.

Next stop, the airport in Simon Bolívar where we boarded 3 tiny planes for the trip to Canaima. Wayne rode co-pilot - comforting. The flight was 1 hour and we saw some spectacular scenery below. We were met at the airport
by a guide and loaded onto another truck (beginning to feel like cattle) for a short trip to our motel. Uh-oh, change of plans....we would not stay the night there as we were told but would leave immediately for the base camp at
Angel Falls. We had to quickly repack our bags to take only the bare necessities on the boats. The boats are long and wooden with a 48 hp motor.
The river was a dark tea color because of all the tannins in the water. There were several times we doubted we would make it up the numerous rapids but the guides masterfully pushed us forward. The surrounding terrain is
gorgeous dense jungle with many types of plants we had not seen before. We were afforded glimpses of the flat-topped mountains called tepuis (the language of the local Pemón Indians) with small waterfalls cascading down
the sides. Spectacular. The trip to the base camp took 4 hours and started raining about ½ hour before our arrival so by the time we arrived we were drenched. The base camp consists of one large tin roof structure with long
tables and benches underneath and a separate bath house. The rain continued but we didn't let it dampen our spirits. After a simple dinner we talked awhile and then off to bed. Bed did I say?? The guides strung up hammocks
complete with mosquito netting and a wool blanket for us to sleep in. Ever try getting out of a hammock in the dark jungle in the middle of the night to go pee?

By morning, the rain had stopped and we could see Angel Falls in the distance - awesome!!! (picture #1) After breakfast, we put on bathing suits, shorts and tennies and took the boat across the river for a hike up to the falls. The hike was about 2 miles through dense jungle vegetation. The trail was covered with a maze of tree roots and was very wet and very, very slippery. We heard the roar of the falls quite awhile before we could see it. The sight from our first vantage point was absolutely incredible even though the top-most portion of the falls was obscured by clouds. We continued our hike down to a natural pool at the base of the falls for a swim. (picture #2) Geesh is that water cold, but refreshing. The view looking up at the falls was amazing and sitting in that pool of water looking across to other tepuis was an experience never to be forgotten.
We were treated to roasted chicken over wood coals on our return to the base camp. Then we packed up and wouldn't you know it, it started to rain as we were leaving and continued to do so for most of the return trip. The
trip back down the river was quite a bit faster - only about 3 hours.

We had a nice dinner at the motel on a covered patio. Our rooms were small and primitive with bed, shower (no hot water) and a fan, but colorful and relatively clean.
Our last day - we ate breakfast, changed into bathing suits and walked down to the nearby lagoon. There are several small falls there - gorgeous. We got into another boat for a tour of the lagoon area with the numerous
falls. (picture #4) We went through a cut in the jungle to El Sapo Falls. We hiked up a jungly path to the falls and were able to walk behind the falls.
Wow, the force of energy took our breath away - literally as we were drenched by the cold water spray from the falls. While we were relaxing on the rocks near the falls, we saw a neat looking yellow and black frog - turns out the lil bugger is poisonous.
All good things must come to an end. We enjoyed this trip so much and only wish we had a few more days to explore the Angel Falls area and the Lost World.

January, 2006

Another holiday season come and gone. Also news of another grandchild - Wayne's step-son Brant had a bouncing baby boy, Sam.
We left Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela in mid-December and headed to Margarita Island along with 2 other buddy boats. It was a good weather window and a nice trip even though the wind was in our face. Part way to Margarita
our friends on Windmiller developed engine problems. They sailed and we hung back with them - the 47 miles went slowly. We decided to pull into the island of Cubagua for the night and see if they would determine the problem
with the engine. About midnight we towed them into the anchorage. Cubagua is a delightful little island and the anchorage had 5 other boats there so we felt fairly secure. We arrived in Margarita the day after and had
a pretty uneventful trip. We stayed in Porlamar, Margarita for a week to provision, to try to find and buy a computer, and to wait for weather.

From Margarita, we went northeast to Los Testigos. We had a delightfully calm sail for that 50 mile leg of our journey. Next day we were off on a overnight sail to Carriacou, a Grenadian island. What a difference a
day makes. It was a pretty lumpy ride. Wind, seas, current were all against us - slooowww going. At times we were only making 2 knots (just over 2 miles per hour). A school of dolphins stopped by to entertain us. They were
a small breed with short tail and long noses. They would jump out of the water spinning. What fun!! Several hours into our trip and we decided to head for the main island of Grenada. Good thing too, because Windmiller's
engine quit and we towed them the last 14 miles into Grenada. We anchored in St. George's lagoon. We had forgotten how lovely the island is and how friendly the people are. Even after taking a direct hit from Hurricane
Ivan in 2004 they have an incredible "can do" spirit and the services are coming back quickly.

While in Grenada, we decided to "take the plunge" and get married. We love Grenada and decided to make our vows here - cruiser-style. It also helps that they speak English in Grenada. We gathered some information about
the process and hiked up to the Ministry office near our anchorage in St. George's. After trips to several locations to get the paper stamped, fondled and blessed, we were ready to set the date. We arranged for the Chief Magistrate of Grenada, Mrs. Marks, to perform the ceremony. Our day arrived and we, along with our friends from Windmiller, took a cab to the courthouse. The bride was fashionably attired in white shorts and blue Tee
and the groom, cut quite a dashing figure in his white shorts and nautical button-down shirt. The ceremony was short and sweet and the certificate duly signed by the Magistrate and witnessed by our cruising buds and we
were presented to the spectators as Mr. & Mrs. Blonn. (pictures 5 & 6)

We were then ready to head up island. First stop was Carriacou. Carriacou is a small, hilly island and we anchored in Tyrell Bay. We had been here before but did not spend much time exploring the island. Hiking is quite a
big cruiser past-time here. There are good roads to use and once at the top of the hills, the views are incredible with Grenada to the south and Union Island to the north. Unfortunately, Wayne broke a tooth and we had to go back to Grenada to see the dentist.

We have decided to stay in Grenada for awhile and do some more exploring - there is a forest reserve that we want to hike in. Plus it is just a great place to be. Next - Trinidad??

Wayne & Bibi         s/v Discovery         Grenada
 

August 9, 2005 Update

Hi everyone, here it is August already! Time does fly. We have just spent 2 months in Curacao, an island 35 miles off the northwest coast of Venezuela, about 12 degrees north and 69 degrees west. We were anchored in a large protected bay and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Also saw much of the island during land trips on bus or with friends. The island is Dutch and a part of the Netherlands Antilles confederation of 5 Dutch islands in the Caribbean. They speak Dutch, English and Papiamentu (a blend of Spanish and several other languages). The main city (and Capital) is Willemstad and it has most anything you might want to buy including a lot of US products -- not common in the Caribbean. The prices are pretty comparable to the US except gas, diesel and water which are much more expensive. While there, we replaced our refrigerator, bought a new portable Honda 2 kw generator (off of eBay & had it shipped down) and bought an aluminum propane tank.

Before Curacao, we were in Bonaire for a week and before that in the Las Aves for a month.
Both are of the north coast of Venezuela.

Well, we liked the Aves so much we are here for another month while enroute back to Puerto La Cruz on the Venezuela mainland for the rest of the Hurricane season. The Aves (means birds" in Spanish), located approximately at 12 degrees north and 67 degrees west, are two little island archipelagoes separated by 10 miles of deep water. In reality, each are just a collection of reefs. The only people on the islands are a small Coast Guard contingent and a small fishing camp for local fishermen, maybe a dozen people in all. Right now there
are only another four boats within view. It is isolated and peaceful -- we enjoy it here. However, a byproduct of the isolation is that there are no stores here, grocery or otherwise -- you can only stay as long as food & water last. Fortunately, we have a water maker and we are catching lots of fish. Also, no boat repair parts, no medical facilities, etc. Need to be self-sufficient.

We arrived here on Aug 1st and have been snorkeling every day -- the snorkeling is great because the fish & coral are very colorful and the water is a beautiful turquoise blue/green. We recently bought an air spear gun and have been able to get enough fish for dinner each day plus put quite a bit into the freezer. The type of fish we get include
several varieties of Snapper, Grunts, Grouper and Jacks. The spear gun sure has improved my hunting/fishing "skills". Sure beats the old polespear I had been using.

It's been almost 6 months since we left Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela and we need to get back in September to do some boat projects before we head back up the Caribbean island chain in December. We don't know our itinerary yet.

That's about all that's happening. We'll write again soon.

While we are here in the Aves, we can only receive emails via our sailmail address.

Wayne & Bibi
s/v Discovery
Las Aves, Venezuela

March 7, 2005 Update

Well, the holidays have come and gone and so too our trip back to the States. We had a fantastic time seeing everyone.

Our return trip to Venezuela was, thankfully, uneventful. We flew into Caracas late, spent the night at a small hotel there and then flew to Barcelona the next day, which is the nearest airport to our marina and about 30 minutes from Puerto La Cruz. We were anxious to get back and check on Discovery. The Dockmaster, Arnauldo, had taken superb care of her and all was in good order.

Venezuelans love holidays; the stores and malls were all aglitter with holiday lights and tinsel. Of course, the cruising community is always "on" for a party and so there were lots of activities at the various marinas.
There was caroling, lots of folks got together via dinghy and motored around the numerous area canals wishing all a Feliz Navidad, we had a traditional Venezuelan dinner, and on New Year's eve, a dock party followed by watching
the many firework exhibits above Puerto La Cruz.

In January, we hauled the boat out of the water to paint the bottom and do some necessary repairs. Eleven days "on the hard" was exactly as it sounds - Hard. The yards are dirty/muddy and all that gets tracked up onto the
boat. The local unskilled workers have to be watched closely or an hour project turns into 3 days. The skilled workers are wonderful and very hard working. It was quite a learning experience for our first haul-out on
Discovery.

We obviously have way too much energy (or perhaps not enough money) as we elected to remove the teak deck on the deck house ourselves and fiberglass it in. The deckhouse doesn't cover much of an area, so we thought it would be a relatively simple process. WRONG! It's been a couple of weeks now, and we are seeing progress but our energy level has been decreasing daily.

We took a break and went into town via the local bus - no chickens on board, but you could see the street through the floorboard. We went to the local open air market and bought some fresh produce and looked at numerous booths selling all sorts of stuff - loads of fresh vegetables & fruit, fresh meat, pet food, clothes etc. After we finished with the market, we trekked over to the bus station to inquire about going to a small folk art town near
Puerto La Cruz. After practicing our Spanish on several people, our request was finally understood and we were told where we would be able to catch the bus. These buses are quite an upgrade from the local bus we took into town.

In February, we got a few other cruisers interested in going to Los Altos to see the artisans. We contacted our friend, Quini, who lives there and arranged a trip to her small town. Los Altos is in the foothills on the edge of the rain forest and about an hour from Puerto La Cruz. The ride up into the mountains was spectacular and we were afforded many scenic views of the bays below. Quini arranged for a van to haul us around the area and she
was our official tour guide. What a wealth of information that lady has. We learned a lot about the history of Los Altos and the surrounding area and developed a deeper appreciation for her Venezuela. We saw houses that are
made in the traditional way of mud and then smoothed and painted (similar to Adobe) - with dirt floors, a home where the lady still cuts her own wood and cooks all her meals over an open fire, and we visited some artisans. The
artisans we saw were: a family of paper makers, a husband and wife team of pottery makers, a metal sculptor, and a water color artist. Each of these artisans work out of their homes and so we got to see their gorgeous
gardens, their pets including some very exotic birds and, of course, fantastic views. We lunched at a Venezuelan open-air restaurant/garden with a view to-die-for - we could see numerous islands including an outline of
Margarita in the distance (about 30 miles away). It is much cooler in Los Altos and a couple of the ladies in our group were smart enough to bring along a sweater as the temperature was in the low 70's. OK, low 70's is not
that cool, but it's all relative and we are accustomed to low 90's.

Our projects have come along quite nicely - the deckhouse deck is finished, the engine mounts mounted, the handrail and toe rail painted and numerous other things are finally complete. We made good use of the electricity and water while at the marina to complete all these tasks and Discovery is looking mighty beautiful.

It is truly wonderful here in Venezuela, but we still have so many places we want to see. So, we got out the charts and guide books to plan our departure. We have plotted several different routes to take us eventually to the Dutch islands of Bonaire and Curaçao. Enroute, there are many islands at which we want to spend some time relaxing after all the boat work we have done in the last few months. Our plans include traveling along the Venezuelan coast for a few weeks, then head over to Margarita Island to provision, go to islands of Blanquilla, Los Roques, Avas (all still in Venezuela), then to Bonaire and Curaçao. We have talked to some Venezuelan locals about some of the best fishing spots and you can just bet we will have numerous lines out. We should have some awesome pictures for you in the next update -- hopefully, some of fish we've caught.

One of the greatest things about cruising: making plans and then being flexible to change when things go awry. We planned to leave Puerto La Cruz on 1 March but on our sea trial we discovered a problem with the water header tank (radiator) and sent it off to be repaired. As soon as it is back from the shop, we will reinstall it, provision for about a month and head on our way. We plan to buddy-boat with another boat as there seems to be an increase in the boarding of vessels along the Venezuelan coast. It is also more fun to make passages with another boat or two.

Well, all is repaired on the boat and we are ready to go. We leave on our next 5 month trip in 2 days on March 9th.

More later.
 

October 14, 2004 Update

On It’s mid-June in St. Lucia, we had several days of rain which nixed most outdoor activities, but there were several indoor projects we were able to knock out. Bibi did a lot of sewing and Wayne worked on engine maintenance.

But finally, the rain stopped and our first day off the boat was spent visiting Pigeon Island, now a national landmark. Pigeon Island has quite an active history of fighting for British or French rule. There are 44 acres to explore including ruins of the old fort and a large military complex. The island is dense with flowering tropical trees, which are spectacular.

Saturday we took a bus into the city of Castries to go to the open market to get some fresh vegetables and to check out the town. Castries is a good size and the market was super. The ladies were very helpful and we got some more new vegetables to try.

Ah, another weather window. We left Rodney Bay, St. Lucia and headed down island to the town of Vieux Fort. Vieux Fort is a small, mostly industrial port. We exited Customs there, but had to go to the airport – a couple of
miles away for Immigration. We chose to walk back along the beach and met a couple from Georgia who were taking wind kiting lessons. Wind kiting involves a board to stand on (like a Boogie Board) and a small sport
parachute. We had seen these canopies scooting across the water in other anchorages so it was fun to see a close-up demonstration. They can really move fast with a good wind.

From St. Lucia we sailed down on a good beam reach to the island of Bequia. The islands in this area of the Caribbean are called the Grenadines and are all pretty close to one another. We anchored in Admiralty Bay which has a small but nice town. The bay was very calm with pretty aqua water.  Bequia sports a new  Customs/Immigration/Post Office building and they seemed to be pretty efficient.

Wayne is anxious to catch some fish so we decide to run the “drop-off” line from Bequia to Mayreau. This is the line that drops from shallow water to very deep. We had three lines out – a couple of strikes, but no bloody fish. Bummer.

WE CROSSED THE 12° 40’ LINE AT CATHOLIC ISLAND. 12 degrees, 40 minutes North latitude is important for insurance reasons -- we have to be south of this latitude prior to July 1st (hurricane season). Catholic Island is the closest land south of that latitude. We read in the cruising guide book that fish were bountiful around this island. Well, maybe they are, but they were not interested in being on our dinner table. After great success
fishing during the first few months of our cruising, we are experiencing an equal dry spell.

We put in at a tiny cove in Mayreau called Salt Whistle Bay. This is one of the prettiest spots we have seen. It is a picture postcard type place – what you expect to see in the Caribbean. The island has white sand, palm
trees with gorgeous turquoise water and lots of reefs. Mayreau, just as with several other of the Grenadines islands, are “no fishing allowed” islands. We played there for a couple of days and then headed for what we
thought might prove better protection for the next tropical wave that was scheduled to blow our way.

Union Island. We anchored behind a series of reefs in Clifton Bay, which kept the swells away. This particular weather wave brought a great deal of wind and very little rain. The local town, Clifton, is very poor – a lot of
small grocery stores with little selection but, gosh, are the people friendly. Some islands have a lot of restaurants/bars, this one has grocery stores. We will have to clear out of St. Vincent/Grenadines from this location. But not yet….

We got a break in the weather and headed over to the Tobago Cays (just a few miles away to the NE). WOW, WOW and WOW. This is one awesome place!! We anchored between islands surrounded by reefs. The water is drop-dead gorgeous. The snorkeling is super here. It is like swimming in an aquarium. We have added lots of sighted fish to our list. We are still novices at recognizing the fish, but after a swim, we pour over the fish
books to try to identify them. The problem with identifying fish is they may have 3 growth phases and different colors for each phase. Along with millions of vibrant-colored fish, we saw a very large nurse shark and a huge
barracuda - ugh.

Another wave came through during the night and the weather forecast says we will have another wave in a couple of days. We swear they come at night so you can’t see if your neighbor is dragging anchor. We have been mighty
fortunate so far not to have that happen.

We left Tobago Cays and headed to Petite St. Vincent. It is a small island with a pricey resort hotel being the only business on the island. We wandered around the beach and enjoyed the quiet of the anchorage. We then
returned to Union Island to check out and head down to the Grenada islands (Petite St. Martin, Carriacou, and Grenada). We cleared in at Hillsborough in Carriacou. The Customs and Immigration was rather cumbersome and the “civil servants” were just barely civil. But once we got that task completed, we roamed the town a bit. The anchorage there was very rolly so we opted to head over to Sandy Island which is just a little spit of sand
(about the size of Red Fish Island in Galveston Bay) but it afforded super protection against the incoming swells. We enjoyed the calmness for a couple of days and swam over to the island and snorkeled almost the entirety
of it. We then headed down to Tyrell Bay, still in Carriacou. Tyrell Bay hosts a regatta every year and I guess the town comes alive at that time, but was a pretty sleepy village while we were there. The guide books make it sound like a “happenin’ place”, but we thought it was barely moving.

From Tyrell Bay, we headed down to the large island of Grenada.

Grenada is also known as the Spice Island because of the large amount and variety of spices that are exported, in particular Nutmeg. What a super place it is. The overall terrain is hilly and green. We pulled into St. George’s and stayed for a week in the Lagoon near the town. The Lagoon is close to all sorts of shopping, a marina with laundry facilities, water, fuel, a movie theater etc. We were able to take in a double feature movie – first movie in quite a while. That was sure a treat.

Our windlass has been giving us problems for awhile and while in Grenada, Wayne decided to take it apart and find out what was causing the problem. Wayne has had to hoist the anchor (with chain) by hand – back-breaking work.
It’s dangerous for us too, because if for any reason he is unable to pull it up (e.g. sore shoulder), it is too heavy for Bibi (being the weannie she is) to lift it. He was able to totally disassemble it with the exception of the rope gypsy. He took it to a nearby engineering firm to have it pressed out. They couldn’t do it. (Nothing is ever easy is it?) Back to the drawing board…

While in St. George’s Grenada, we toured a really nice museum, the botanical gardens, the old St. George Fort ruins (yup more fort ruins!) and walked a good portion of the town. We went to the open-air market on Saturday.
There were hundreds of booths selling spices – sure smelled great. The ladies in the market gave us a good education on the wonders of the various spices of the island.

At the market, we also saw another unusual fruit. It is called Skin-ups. It is a large grape-sized green berry. The outer hard covering can be split in half to reveal a golden pulp & seed that you pop into your mouth. You
suck all the juice and pulp off the seed and discard the seed. Very refreshing. We will definitely get more Skin-ups. For lunch we went to a local restaurant and had our first ever Roti. Rotis are meat (beef, chicken or fish) and potatoes cooked in a flavorful concoction that includes curry.
This is wrapped in a huge tortilla-like pastry. Excellent!

When we returned to the boat we realized our anchored had drug!! We had blessedly not moved far, but we were too close to another boat The bottom of the Lagoon is sludgy mud and very poor holding for our type of anchor (a
Delta). We were very fortunate not to have drug sooner or farther. We tried a few other locations in the Lagoon, but couldn’t get a firm hold. So, time to move – up anchor again – windlass was not repaired yet.

We motored down island to Prickly Bay (neat name huh?) There is a large marine store nearby but not much else. The area boasts an active cruising group with a super cruiser’s net on the VHF radio each morning. Grenada has
a very active Cruiser community.

We were invited to a Dinghy Drift one evening. We all met near a small beach, rafted up our dinghies (18 boats) and shared snacks and stories for a couple of hours. Not much wind, so we didn’t “drift” very far, but it sure
was fun. This may be a good SLV party idea – whether it be dinghy, row boat, kayak – well you get the drift – ha ha.

We still had not resolved the problem with the windlass (poor Wayne), but heard a local business advertise on the cruiser’s net and gave them a call. They said they were sure they could fix us up. We took the windlass in and
lo and behold, they did get the parts separated by heating it with a torch. Now, more work for Wayne – sanding, painting and rebuilding the windlass.

Our dinghy was looking a little worse for wear. After a week in the Lagoon at St. George’s she was growing all sorts of marine life plus the trim was coming off in places. Our “car” was looking pretty ratty. We pulled the
dink up on the bow of the boat and went to work removing barnacles, green grassy slime etc. and then re-glued the trim. Once again, she is a fine looking little dink.

Getting to the stores from Prickly Bay is a little more difficult. It is a short dinghy ride to a dock, then a walk of about ¼ mile to the bus. The local bus is $1.50 which is about $.55 per ride. For that price you can get
to a mall, which has about 30 stores, or to St. George’s for shopping etc.

There are several tours to take here on the island. We went with some other folks and commissioned a taxi driver for a day to take us around. We decided on visiting a nutmeg processing plant, a waterfall, a rum distillery
and a chocolate factory. Our tour started at 9 AM with two French Canadian couples and a French lady. Our tour guide, Erroll, was very knowledgeable seemed to know a great deal about all the questions we pummeled him with.
We drove north on the island, up a scenic beach highway along the coast until we turned off to head into the interior of the island. The scenery was fabulous. We drove through a rain forest area with numerous nutmeg, cocoa and avocado, trees, and thousands of blooming plants. We also stopped at Concord Falls, an average size waterfall – not quite as spectacular at those we visited in the Dominican Republic, but scenic nonetheless. We swam
there for a bit – the water was very soft and, fortunately, not too cold. Next stop was to a nutmeg processing plant. Grenada is the second largest exporter of nutmeg in the world. What an education on nutmeg we received.
Every part of the nutmeg fruit is used. The outer soft shell is used in the making of jam, jelly and ice cream. The inside nut is covered with mace which is graded and used in cooking and/or cosmetics. The nut shell is used
for mulch and the nut meat is, of course, used in cooking. The sweet scent of nutmeg permeated the plant; it was wonderful. After the plant tour, we had lunch at a local restaurant and got to sample many different foods. One
of which is callaloo, an elephant ear-looking plant that is cooked much like spinach. After lunch, we went to an old rum distillery where a water wheel is still used for power to crush the sugar cane. At the end of the tour, we
were invited to sample the rum – we’re cruisers, of course we sampled the rum. They only produce 151 proof rum and none is exported. It was without a doubt the vilest stuff we had ever drunk -- even in our days of reckless
youth. Needless to say we did not buy any.

We then drove through a plantation that is still in use for bananas, sugar cane and a few other crops. We stopped and bought some ‘right-off-the-tree’ bananas. Excellent flavor! We stopped at the Chocolate Factory -- it was
too late for a tour but we did get to sample the chocolate which is made from the local cocao trees. Tasty.

We had a super time with our French-speaking buddies. They were very kind and continually translated their conversations for us.

There are still several places we would love to tour on the island, but we will save them for another time.

We were rather rolly at Prickly Bay and we hoisted anchor and moved east to another bay called Mt. Hartman. It is very calm here and so much more scenic.

The windlass is repaired!! Yahoo. Another boat project that we thought would take a day or two and ended up taking weeks. Works great again!

We wrestled with going to Trinidad or to Venezuela and finally decided upon Venezuela. We have a few things to do before we head out, but hope to leave Grenada around the 15 Aug. (weather permitting).

We left Granada on August 13 along with a buddy boat “Zephyr” for an overnight sail to Los Testigos, a small group of islands in Venezuelan waters. The morning was superb. We plotted a course to average 5.5 knots,
but with the wind and current in our favor, we averaged 7 knots – smokin’. Los Testigos is a great group of islands – sparsely inhabited. The local folks are friendly and kind. We met a group of fishermen and they shared
not only their catch with us, but also a delicious fish dinner. The islands are known for a large group of sand dunes. Enroute to go explore them, we met a Swiss-German cruising family whose young son was delighted to practice
his English on us and act as a tour guide. On one of the islands, there is a small, open air, beach-side restaurant that prepares amazing food and has lots of cold beer all very inexpensive. The islands are so lovely that the one day we planned to stay turned into five.

Off to Margarita. We not sure what exactly we expected to see on the approach to Margarita Island, but a large urban city was not it. After months of visiting cities and towns with limited resources or modernization, we were pretty amazed at the skyscrapers in Porlamar, Margarita. The anchorage there is very large and contains many boats with quite an array of country flags being flown. The locals have made it quite easy to want to stay in Margarita. All amenities are nearby or readily available and the prices are very, very reasonable. The local grocery stores supply free buses to shuttle cruisers to and from their stores. But if you want to venture out on your own, taxis are readily available and very inexpensive. There is also a bus system used by the locals that is extremely cheap, although rather rough.

We opted to go to Spanish language school in Margarita and attended the Cela school for two weeks. We had class 5 days a week for 4 hours/day. We really learned a great deal – just enough to be dangerous. The school
hosted excursions to various places on the island. Most were beaches that we weren’t interested in visiting, but we did go to the National Park, La Restinga. Once in the park, they provide a tour in a small boat through
many miles of huge mangroves and then a visit to an unusual beach. The beach has no sand, only crushed shells. We found some very unusual shells to add to the collection for the grandkids. We really enjoyed getting to
know some of the people in the school. The owner, Sabina who has her doctorate in languages, is German, but has lived in Venezuela for a long time. She and her daughter, Silvia invited us to dinner in their home up in
the mountains of Margarita one evening for a Bar-B-Q. It was quite a feast and it was interesting seeing that part of the island & culture.

During our stay in Margarita, Hurricane Ivan paid a close visit. It actually passed about 75 miles to the north and we were lucky to only have moderate wind, rain and a lot of waves in the anchorage. Before the storm, the boaters positioned themselves so that they would be farther away from each other boat for safety while swinging on anchor & in case they should drag and it was all looking good. Good until local fishing and dive boats nudged their way in between the sailboats. We had winds of about 40 knots and some rain, but the swells/seas were pretty awful. AND of course it was night! Several boats drug, 4 went aground and we were up all night because the bloody fishing boats were way too close to Discovery. But with the swells, we could not have slept anyway. We were so lucky to have had such a small encounter with the fury of Ivan. Our friends in Granada were not so lucky. Granada took a direct hit and the damage to the country and to boaters was devastating. Most of the boaters we know who were still there during Ivan sustained damage and more than a few boats sunk or were wrecked on shore. There is a lot of info re Ivan’s passage through the Caribbean at www.caribbeancompass.com

Most of the provisions we brought from the USA have long since been consumed. Food and such is expensive on most of the islands in the Caribbean, so we thought we would do some re-provisioning here in Margarita.
Unlike the mainland of Venezuela, Margarita is a free port (no duty) and they don’t have a sales tax. We have heard that almost everything is cheaper in Margarita than on the Venezuelan mainland -- the Venezuelans come
here regularly to shop to take advantage of the prices and we found the prices to be very good here. However, our full provisioning will wait until we get back from our visit to the US during November and December.

So many choices of where to go & what to do; time for us to head to the mainland of Venezuela. We are staying at a marina in Puerto La Cruz, MareMares, which is part of a 5 star resort. It is beautiful and we have all the amenities as if staying in one of the resort rooms. We will be here for a month and then move to the more popular marina among cruisers, Bahia Redonda – also very nice. We expect to be at Bahia Redonda until January or
February.

We are really enjoying Venezuela and plan to take several trips inland over the next year. Originally, we only planned to stay in the Venezuelan area for a few months but have recently decided to spend the next year in the
southern Caribbean (Venezuela, Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Trinidad, Tobago plus the smaller islands in the area.

We are traveling back to Texas at the end of October thru early December.
We will hope to see everyone then and we will bore anyone who will listen to us about our adventures this past year. Pictures? We have them!

More later.
 

April 27, 2004 Update

On March 8th we left the haven at Roosevelt Roads Naval Base to continue our adventure down island. The sea state was tolerable at 3-5 but rather choppy – it was a gorgeous day nonetheless. We decided to go to the small island in the Spanish Virgin Island chain of Luis Peña. The first night, there was one other boat there; we had it alone the second night. The water was very pretty and clear. We snorkeled (a fair snorkeling area) and did some
barnacle scraping on the boat bottom.

We have met so many super cruisers and are in the tutelage of a delightful, long-time cruising couple (Fran and Dave on s/v Sorrento) who find all the less expensive ways of getting around, places to go, fun stuff to do, etc.
We like for Fran and Dave to hit an area a day or two before we get there and they will have it all scoped-out for us.

From Luis Peña we headed around the island to another island close-by called Culebra. We put in at a small bay and then found a small cove to anchor in. It is a pretty, popular spot. Apparently, many cruisers spend the season
in Culebra. We didn’t have much time to spend there because the choice for a weather window to get to the US Virgin Islands was either the next day or we would have to wait a week. So off we sailed. We expected the winds and waves to be high, but mercifully, they were better than expected.

We reached an island next to St. Thomas, USVI called Water Island and anchored in a cove called Honeymoon Bay. It was very pretty. There is a neat little beach and we were entertained by all the comings and goings of
the tourist boats. We stayed there a couple of days and then moved over to the bay at Charlotte Amalie, the capital of St. Thomas. Charlotte Amalie was named in 1692 for the Queen of Denmark. Green hills dotted with
red-roofed buildings rise above this natural, deep water port. St. Thomas has numerous cruise ships that enter here daily (as many as 6/day). We were able to anchor near to them and watch the ballet of their entering and
leaving. We never realized how huge those ships are until we pulled along side one of them in our dinghy. St. Thomas has an enormous influx of tourists and, therefore, caters to this crowd; we have been able to find
everything we need here, but it is too populous and expensive for our tastes. Paradise is beautiful, but not cheap. We toured St. Thomas by walking and using the Safari Taxi which will get you a ride for $1 to anywhere on the island.

We had company! Wayne’s brother and wife, Ray and Diane from Illinois came to visit. They stayed at a hotel in Charlotte Amalie which is close to where we were anchored. We took them out a couple of days for a sail to
some of the surrounding islands, St. James and St. John among them. We were able to see a portion of the famed Rolex Regatta which is an annual sailing event that draws boats from around the world.

Ray and Wayne tried to catch some fish for dinner, but the fish were not interested. During their stay, it rained off and on, but just small showers. We did a lot of the usual tourist stuff and just generally enjoyed their visit. They were real troopers.

Our Single Side Band radio was not working (has never worked) quite the way it should and it has been a “pain” since we left Texas. After numerous contacts with the manufacturer, we were told there is an Icom representative
in St. Thomas. We left Charlotte Amalie and motored around the island to “The Lagoon” and took the radio to a local service rep. and found out that there is indeed a problem with the radio and Icom advised they would have to
do the work at the factory and…… we would have to part with our communication source. Yeegawds! No radio for a few weeks!! No morning weather!!! NO EMAILS!!!!

Since we need to stay in this area until the return of the SSB, we decided to check out the surrounding US Virgin islands. We motored over to St. James Island and did some snorkeling and some boat projects. Little St.
James Island is a privately owned island and in the process of being developed. It looks as though it will be gorgeous when they finish with all the landscaping/building work that is being done.

A few days spent at St. Johns were super. About 2/3rds of St. Johns Island is a protected National Park (donated to the Park Service by Lawrence Rockefeller). It is without a doubt a gorgeous island, very hilly and heavily treed. We found some spectacular reefs to snorkel and saw some fantastic aquarium-type scenes with some of the fish very large. We also hiked up a trail to a long abandoned sugar mill (partially restored by the National Park Service) – a relic of a by-gone era.

Next stop St. Croix, a 36 mile trip from St. Thomas. We actually got to sail. This wind was light, but we had a beam reach – yahoo. St. Croix is about 35 miles from St. Thomas and we were averaging about 5.5 knots. St.
Croix is the largest of the USVI islands but was a Danish possession for many years. It boasts a charming city of Christiansted -- we did a walking tour around the old city with building construction in the West Indies
style. Also toured Fort Christainsvaern which was built in 1769 and is now maintained by the National Parks Service. A lot of the rooms in the old fort have very low ceilings – the average Danish man was only about 5’4”
back then. Wonder what the women’s height average was.

Buck Island, an island close to St. Croix, is mostly surrounded by a reef and is also a National Park. We snorkeled quite a bit of the reef area and saw elkhorn coral in a haystack formation stacked up about 30-40 feet. The next morning we hiked this dry tropical island.

We needed to head back to St. Thomas to pick up the repair parts and pieces we had ordered and wait for the return of the SSB. On the way back, we were surrounded by a huge pod of Dolphins. There were probably a good 30-40 of them and about 20 young ones played around the bow of the boat and delighted us with their antics. The more we clapped & slapped the side of the hull, the more they jumped. Kids!

We got the SSB radio back but the factory couldn’t find a problem, so the local rep re-seated all circuit boards, resoldered some internal connections and Wayne re-did all external connections. It works much better now. Our
VHF radio also decided to give up, so we bought a new one via a web site we had used in the past. It arrived quickly (no issues with customs since we were in the USVI) and Wayne installed the radio, ran new antenna wire and installed a new antenna at the top of the mizzen mast. Back in business with our radios!

Haven’t had much success fishing since Puerto Rico. May need to rethink our strategy – maybe some new lures. We did get one Conch in the USVI, but no lobster. Wayne has a new 14 foot cast net for catching live bait, but he
hasn’t used it yet. Seems like there is never enough time to do some of these simple things.

After seven weeks in the Virgin Island chain its time to move-on and we staged at Virgin Gorda, BVI for our sail to St. Martin. Did a lot of boat chores and scraped the barnacles, weed & other growth off the bottom of the boat (need to have new bottom paint applied & plan to do this in Trinidad). Waited for a weather window, as usual, and departed (after a two day wait) at 4PM on April 23rd for an overnight sail to Marigot Bay, St. Martin. The wind was about 15-20 knots and seas were 4-6, with swells at 7 second intervals, both about 30 degrees off our nose – rather choppy ride for 16 hours. The night was wonderfully clear and the phosphorescent plankton was sparkling. We arrived at 7 AM in St. Martin, weary but safe and sound.

St. Martin is a great place – very clean, people friendly, beautiful turquoise water, all amenities a cruiser needs. We planned to stay only a couple of days, but the wind and seas are too high for us to make any passages. It has worked out well to have an extended stay and we have taken advantage of the good French cooking and markets to “pig out”. I can see how we could gain lots of weight if we were to stay here very long. The island is split with 1/2 French owned (St. Martin) and 1/2 Dutch (Sint Maarten). Marigot Bay is on the French side. We plan to take a bus to the Dutch side tomorrow.

We have another mission -- to be in Guadeloupe by May 9 to meet up with some SLV friends -Ed, Cheryl, Aubrey and Lou Ann. We will be skipping through some islands to get there in time. Actually, we have bypassed many islands that we plan to visit over the next several years. Too many islands – too little time! Should have started our Caribbean cruise years ago.

More later.
 

06 March 2004

Before we left Luperon we made one last effort to reprovision and pack in all the cheap beer and rum we could hold. Wayne kept asking around and managed to get the beer for about $9.75 a case. Rum was also extremely cheap -- we now have an adequate supply (is that possible?) of both beer and rum. We were also able to get our prescription medications here without a 'script' and way, way cheaper. Available is also the seasickness preventive med - Stugeron which you cannot get in the States. While shopping, we were in a small, small store called a Comado and a lady came in with a recipe. She purchased the ingredients in just the amount required for her recipe. I guess if you don't have a refrigerator, that is the way to go.

We left Luperon the night of 2/14 (Happy Valentine's ) The sea was not the 4 feet that had been predicted - more like 8. We figured it would calm down with the night lees and it did about 2 AM - whew! Guess you could say we got spanked on that one. We pulled into the bay at Rio San Juan about 7AM and listened to weather, made a few adjustments, changed the fuel filter and were on our way by 9 AM heading for Samaná in delightfully calm conditions (wind on the nose, of course).

We continue to be delighted with the countryside of the DR. The heavily vegetated mountains, white sand beaches, huge cliffs are quite a sight to see. The little fishing village we anchored near was situated in a small mountain-clad cove. We were rewarded with being able to watch the fishermen fish. About 5 guys in a boat would row out and start deploying a huge net while rowing in a large circle. As they began pulling in the net, they called to other men on shore who swam out to the net and started slapping the water to keep the fish from leaving the net. Really couldn't tell how successful they were, but it must work for them.

Separating the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico is the Mona Passage, which is to be respected because of the wind effect of each island combined with the effect of the Puerto Rican trench that runs through it with some of the deepest water in the world . This trench contains shoal areas . No, they are not shallow but they are shallower and cause confused seas in the area of shoaling. Another thing to be avoided.

We left DR and made our way across the Mona Passage, plotting our course around the shoal areas. Wind and seas were higher than predicted and a couple of squalls were thrown in just to make things interesting. The trip was long, bumpy and tiring, but we made it across and put in at the town of Boquerón on the western coast of Puerto Rico. Boquerón is a neat little town, very clean with lots of friendly folks. The anchorage was large and a lot of boats coming across the Mona put in there. The only downfall to being there was we had to rent a taxi to take us to the town of Mayaguez to clear Immigration. Mayaguez is a very modern town and we were overwhelmed with all the US-type stores and fast food places. Raul, our taxi driver took us to Immigration and then dropped us off at a mall. Yup, a real, honest to goodness MALL. We wandered around like we hadn't seen a mall in years and there was even a Baskin Robbins to satisfy our sweet tooth.

We left Boquerón and headed east around the south side of the island. Puerto Rico is beautiful and we were privy to see the lovely mountains and many coastal towns. Because the places to anchor are abundant, we took little short hops along the southern and eastern coasts and stayed nights at many quaint places. The forecasted weather was pretty grim, so we pulled into Roosevelt Roads Naval Base Marina. When we entered the marina, we had to go through the drill of getting tie-up lines out that were buried in lockers. We had not had to use them since Florida. The naval base is in the process of closing, so not a lot of activity going on here. But the marina is cheap and we have full use of anything that is available. We have been making good use of our time here. Wayne finished the fuel polishing system and Bibi has been designing and sewing an aft awning.

We wanted to see some of the island so we rented a car to do some tourist-type stuff. We went to San Juan and toured the old city and fort that was built in the 1500's. It was very impressive. We also toured the nearby rainforest, El Yunque. The interpretive center was first rate and the rainforest is truly awesome. There are ferns 20 feet high and bromeliads grow like weeds. We hiked up to an observation tower and could see all the way to the coast. Of course it was cool and we did get rain - it is a rainforest afterall. Being a US territory, the influence of OSHA is evident here more than the other countries we have visited. It is still not as strict as in the US and so you can actually get close enough to observe. All and all, we think Puerto Rico deserves a visit. A great spot to vacation and you certainly have diversity.

We are playing the weather game and at this writing and it appears we may have an opportunity to leave PR and head toward the Virgin Islands on Monday.

More later.

05 February 2004

We enjoyed our time in George Town and the area was filling up rapidly. By March, there will be close to 500 cruisers there to participate in, or just celebrate the annual Regatta. Having so many knowledgeable cruisers in one
location can be a plus. With the help of other cruisers we were able to get our single side band radio working properly. We are now able to receive transmissions and transmit to others. The transmitting problem has plagued
us since installation.

Interesting: In talking to a long-time cruising couple, they asked what our boat name was and we said Discovery and they said “Oh, you’re from Texas”. We asked how they knew that and were told that they had seen our Texas flag on our boat (which we fly proudly) and that the only people who fly states flags are Texans. Well, we are a proud lot ya know. Come to think of it, we have seen other country flags, various burgees, but no other state flags.
We will keep our eyes peeled for this now though.

We were anxious to head south. We had a great forecasted weather window, the laundry was done and we had reprovisioned with groceries and fuel. So, up with the hook and off we went. We did an overnighter to Mayaguana
Island, which is one of the most southern islands in the Bahamas. The passage was very calm with winds about 10-15 and not on our nose (finally) so we could actually make use of our sails for something other than
stability. Caught a nice Dolphin fish (Mahi-Mahi) -- see the picture on the web site. Also caught 4 nice Blue Fin Tuna. This leg took 30 hours -- we were pretty pooped and ready for some rest.

Upon leaving Mayaguana the next day, we headed for the Turks and Caicos – another overnighter. We did not clear customs there as we intended only to pass through and not go ashore. We put in at Sapodilla Bay for the night
and then picked our way through a copious amount of coral reefs to cross the Caicos Banks. We saw in the distance what looked like a low water marker and a large reef (we were in 30 feet of water) but as we got closer to it, we realized it was the topmost part of a sailboat mast. A grim reminder to be very, very cautious when crossing the Caicos Banks. All the guide books say NEVER NEVER CROSS THE CAICOS BANKS AT NIGHT. We can see why. As we gingerly picked our way through these waters, one of us would be at the helm and the other on the bow guiding us around the coral heads. The water here is incredible. It is so clear, you can see your anchor, even when anchored in 20+ feet. This area will definitely warrant a return trip for some serious snorkeling.

Our passages have been uneventful and enjoyable and we have really focused on picking good weather windows. We use our single sideband radio to receive several different weather forecasts each morning, spending about an
hour every day on weather. We have also begun using a personalized weather forecasting service to give us a specific weather forecast for our next planned journey. The service is by Chris Parker on Bel-Ami and he is very
good. This takes some of the guess work out of it, but you know how inaccurate weather forecasters can be. In the end, we still have the responsibility to select the timing of our passages. And speaking of weather, Cruisers have their own language when talking about weather. In the Bahamas, there are several stations you can tune into for up-to-date weather information and people from various anchorages call in and give a report for their area. Understanding what the heck these people are saying has been quite a challenge for Bibi. Basically the information given appears to be pretty straight forward – air temperature, water temperature, wind speed, etc. BUT there is more verbiage and it is given in a rapid-fire “secret” code. You’ll hear things like Alpha Charlie, November Sierra,
Charlie Uniform. And cover of 1 over 8. NOAA never mentioned any of these things. What they are talking about are the cloud formations, i.e. alto cumulus, nimbostratus, cumulus, etc. and the amount of cloud coverage is
broken down into 8ths. (Why 8th’s?). Still so much to learn.

The crossing from the Turks and Caicos to Luperon, Dominican Republic was uneventful (but another overnighter) – actually, it was a very calm passage. The anchorage in Luperon is in an extremely protected bay (a great
hurricane hole) and as we rounded the corner going thru the channel, we were enchanted with the sight of the countryside. Very lush vegetation and huge mountains. We were also surprised to see so many boats at the anchorage (probably about 75). The water is a tad cleaner than Clear Lake - no chance of seeing your anchor here. The town of Luperon is small and reminds us of a small pueblo in Mexico. But, it is very inexpensive here. The exchange rate fluctuates a lot but has averaged about 50 pesos to the dollar. Beer is $.80 a bottle and food is cheap. The language in the DR is Spanish and we have been pouring over the books we brought trying to learn some of the language. We try to speak Spanish as much as possible while on shore as most locals do not speak English and thank goodness they are very kind at our crude attempt of communication. We have a long way to go to be able to communicate well, but we sure have been enjoying it.

We have met many cruisers that came into the area here in the DR for a couple of days and have never left. There are many ex-pats who own businesses here and live on land or boat. Bruce Van Sant, author of “A Gentleman's Guide to Passages South” (the Caribbean cruiser's bible) lives here. He is not in town right now, but we met his lovely wife, Rosa. We have had such a good time exploring that our boat chores have gone by the wayside. Darn

Wayne and I arranged for a van to take us and 8 other folks into Santiago, DR’s second largest city. We left at 8:00 in the morning. Santiago, about a 1-1/2 hour ride from Luperon, is big, crowded, and noisy. We did get to a Home Depot-type store and to a huge super market and walked through the old section of the city. Santiago is the closest place to re-provision well and probably get whatever you would want or need.

We also took a tour up into the mountains to some waterfalls. There were 7 levels that we swam, climbed, were hauled up to. On the return down, we slid or jumped down into the next lower pools. That was so much fun. The water was very cold and Wayne and I were very happy we had talked to one cruiser who advised wearing a wetsuit. The most interesting thing about the trip was a gutsy lady from Canada who could not swim. The guide towed her through the deep water, plucked her out and up to the next levels of falls and pulled her above water as she slid or jumped into the lower pools on the return trip. It was so tropical and lush – a virtual rain forest.

The diesel fuel in the Bahamas was very expensive so we only bought a little there. So, when we got to Luperon we needed about 150 gallons. Unfortunately, there isn't a dock we can pull-up to and fill our tanks. Wayne hauled the 150 gallons of diesel fuel in 6 gal Jerry cans from shore to the boat and poured the diesel into our tanks through a fine mesh filter which filters out both water and debris.

The potable water is very cheap here so we elected to “pickle” our watermaker and buy the bottled water, but you guessed it, we had to schlep that to the boat as well – 130 gallons in 5 gal containers. Things are not always easy in paradise.

We have been doing a great deal of walking. Of course, our trips into town, but also in the nearby hills and the beaches. This has been a great way to see the countryside. We have found several resorts that were started and now defunct. With the devaluation of the peso, it is hard to make a living here. Have found a lot of “sea glass” – broken pieces of glass scoured smooth by the sand and washed ashore.

We are now waiting for the wind & seas to calm a bit before heading to Puerto Rico. We plan to leave on Thursday, Feb 12th. Should arrive on Saturday with a one day stop enroute.

More later.

 

04 January 2004

The watermaker installation is now complete and it had its test run while we  were offshore heading to Ft. Myers. Good, sweet water.

Entering the Okeechobee Waterway, just past Ft. Myers Beach, there is a serene anchorage tucked behind Cattle Dock Point. It is very deep water surrounded by mangrove banks. The Osprey are constant companions and have a melodic whistle. We were the only ones to anchor there. Fantastic.

The Okeechobee Waterway is a peaceful, albeit slow route from the west coast of Florida to the east coast. There are numerous bridges (one very low one) and 5 locks to go through along this route. These locks have a greater water level variation than those in Louisiana. In one lock, we were lowered by 15 feet. The water reminds of us home - brown. Actually because of the level of tannins, it is even a darker brown than Clear Lake. Part of the route passes acres and acres of dead trees. The Corp. of Engineers eradicated Casurina trees for whatever reason. Once we got over the eerie feeling of being in a "dead zone" and started looking around, we were constantly pointing out more species of birds than we had seen on the entire trip. It is quite a breeding ground apparently.

We finally got to see an alligator, and there was a family of manatees where we anchored one night. Yahoo, finally!

The weather window we thought we had for a good crossing the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas disappeared, so we headed south toward Miami. We passed some mighty incredible homes (villas?) and yachts in excess of 80'. Mighty impressive. There are high-rise condos galore in the Ft. Lauderdale area and we were flanked by numerous huge buildings. We were amazed at the wealth of the Ft. Lauderdale area. Incredible. There were multi-million dollar villas with multi-million yachts parked outside. Beautiful. We got fuel in Hollywood (catchy name - nothing like the California version) at a marina reputed to be the lowest priced diesel in the area. It was $1.35/gal. Everything is more expensive here, but still cheaper than the Bahamas.

We found a secluded anchorage near Key Biscayne and anchored there - away from all the other zillion cruisers vying for anchor space near the shopping areas.
Ah---peace.

We headed across the Gulf Stream when we heard there was a weather window. The Gulf Stream is a large and very powerful current that flows from the Caribbean straight up the Atlantic coast. We followed a group heading to Chub Cay. The crossing was uneventful (thank goodness) and relatively mild. An exhausting 21 hour trip nonetheless. We are getting pretty good at spelling each other for night watches. We put in at Chub Cay Club to clear customs. The custom agent had to come from the airport to clear the boats that came in that day. There
was a great deal of paper work to fill out and pay the steep entry fee of $300 and we were free to cruise, fish and stay for 90 days (this was our Christmas present to each other). Of course if you leave and return, you have to pay $300 all over again.

The Marina at Chub Cay is very small and reminded us of a bungalow-type resort from yesteryear. The water and white sand beaches are so very beautiful. The vibrant turquoise blue water is amazing. We spent the night in the marina where we took hot, long showers in restrooms that had the windows open and uncovered - the guys had the door open as well. That evening we had a potluck. We were going to do laundry, but found out it cost about $6.00 a load. We decided to wait.

The next morning we headed over to an anchorage nearby at Frazer Hog Cay. We dropped the hook pretty close to a small white sand beach. We snorkeled with our wetsuits on as the water was still pretty chilly. Wayne speared two lobsters and we both collected conch. Other cruisers came to join us, and soon we had an impromptu beach party and cooked and ate the conch right there on the beach. We have since eaten the lobster (fantastic!) and gathered more conch and periwinkles and ate most of those. Sure not going hungry on this trip.

Another cold front passed and it was pretty rolly in the anchorage at Frazer Hog Cay. As the front passed, another weather window opened up and we boogied over to the Nassau area. Enroute, Wayne put out fishing lines and pretty soon had hooked a nice sized colorful Dorado (Dolphin Fish). We set anchor at Rose Island where there was only one other boat. We are protected from the north wind and it was very calm. From Rose Island, you can see Nassau.

We elected to go down south to the Exumas from here - mainly because of the cool weather we have had. Close to us are the rest of the Berry Islands (Chub Cay is a part of the Berry Islands), the Abacos, and the Eluethras but warmer climate is the deciding factor in our decision to head south.

We picked Norman's Cay as our next stop. What a great place. There is an old, mostly submerged airplane (from a drug lord years ago) in the center of the anchorage. The winds really ripped there. The anchorage was secure and so was our anchor. We always set the anchor alarm to alert us to dragging or severe wind shifts. At this anchorage, it is critical. There are numerous other boats, shallow areas and rocks.

From Norman's, we went to Warderick Wells Cay, which is the headquarters for the Exuma Land and Sea Park. The park is about 20 miles in length and comprises numerous small islands. It is strictly forbidden to fish, take lobster, conch or anything living or dead from the islands there. We spent several days there - all the way through Christmas. Hiked and snorkeled - huge amount of sea life. We participated in the volunteer work program and park personnel were not bashful about working our tails off. We sure enjoyed it though. Christmas eve there was a bonfire on the beach and everyone sang Christmas carols. Christmas day the park supplied turkey and ham and cruisers supplied the rest for dinner. There were about 16 folks in all. We had a great time and, of course, ate too
much.

We said our goodbyes the next day and moved on down the chain to Rudder Cut Cay. Rudder Cay is another fantastic anchorage. We really had to take it slow as the going was pretty shallow in spots and littered with coral heads. This island is privately owned as are many along our route. We spent 5 days there and picked-up quite a few more conch.

New Year's Day brought the unquenchable desire to get to GeorgeTown. We exited the Bahama Banks just past Rudder Cut Cay and went out into the Exuma Sound. The wind and waves were too high to make the move just yet. They were better (not great) the next day and we headed down to GeorgeTown along with 3 other
boats. The waves were 4-7 feet and wind about 15-20 kts on a close reach. We put up the reefed mainsail and hunkered down for a rather rolly ride.

We feel like we made a major milestone in our trip plans. GeorgeTown is a great place to re-provision and just hang out for a couple of weeks before our head south again. We have been pushing pretty hard to get here (actually just to get to warmer weather) and plan to spend a couple of weeks here. The anchorage at GeorgeTown was pretty rolly, so we pulled hook and headed to Red Shanks Island (very close by) and put in at a cove that is another drop-dead gorgeous spot. There are underwater caves and a 'blue hole' nearby.

The majority of boats socialize at Volleyball Beach or Hamburger Beach in the GeorgeTown area, but we appreciate comfort & nature rather than crowds. Now, with the weather window now opening for additional cruisers to cross the Gulf Stream, the GeorgeTown area will fill up quickly - there were over 100 boats in
that anchorage. Many folks come here specifically to spend the winter and then will head back to the States or Canada in the spring.

Some of you have asked just what we do all day long. Well, a great portion of our day is spent checking on weather which entails listening to weather forecasts and collecting weather faxes that come across the single side band radio. Then we have to compare the forecasts to charts to see what direction we can head or if we can leave our safe anchorage. We pour over charts and cruising guides to determine where to go and how to get there. Most of our route in getting to Florida was pretty easy and straightforward. Now we have to factor the tides, current, weather, and coral reefs into our route planning. We have "The Cap'n Voyager" (computer mapping & navigation program tied to a GPS) and numerous charts and books to make this job easier but not necessarily less time consuming. After that, if we are not under sail to a destination, we do a couple of boat projects and then head out for reprovisioning or now (since we are further south - warmer) we will more than likely be in the water hunting/gathering/enjoying. Also, we have a good library of books onboard. Somehow, we stay busy and go to bed shortly after sundown every night and are up at sunrise.

As always, please send us an e-mail, we sure want to keep in touch with you all and hear about the holiday activities.

More later.
 

21 December 2003                              HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all from the Bahamas! We hope this finds you all in the spirit of the season. Hope your stockings are full and you will get snow, if you would like it. Our snow is the white sand beaches, but it is definitely winter here in the sunny south. Our temps have been in the 50-60's at night - 70's during the day and the wind has been howling. Very little rain though.

We are at the Exuma Land and Sea Park in Warderick Wells Cay which is about 40 miles south of Nassau. The park extends for 22 miles and is a no fishing, no taking of any kind sanctuary. It's an incredible place, really beautiful here. The park area comprises about 15 major islands and numerous smaller ones. Over the next week we will work our way down to Georgetown. Not sure where we will spend Christmas but won't have phone capability like we thought we might.

We miss you guys and wish you could be down here with us.

Love,
Wayne & Bibi

01 December 2003

While in Apalachicola, we went to the local library for an internet fix and checked on weather. Between the information gleaned there and through the SSB radio weather information, we decided to leave Wed. at first light. Leaving Apalachicola just before sunrise, we crossed the Gulf of Mexico to the Tampa/St. Petersburg area. The morning was clear - a good start. The area just into the Gulf was pretty choppy and then, yikes, the engine temperature alarm went off. Wayne got down in the engine room and checked the water filter for blockage. Nope. Drat, may be the impeller (water pump) which is, of course, harder to get to. It definitely was the impeller - it was in pieces. Amazing we got as far as we had. Wayne fixed it in no time and we were on our way. The Gulf crossing from that point is about 30 hours. The weather was in our favor and the crossing was smooth. We put in at a lovely anchorage at DeSoto Bay near Tampa on the Manatee River. A trip ashore was warranted and we dinghyed over to the State Park. The park is worth a visit if you are in the area. We learned a great deal about the local flora and
fauna. Did you know there are three types (colors - red, black, white) of mangrove trees?

We stayed in the Tampa area for a few days to meet up with a gentleman who is a guru of Single Side Band radios. Dick Bishop was immensely helpful and got us a lot more knowledgeable on the radio. We made a few changes to the radio installation and we can now download weather faxes and communicate on the SSB fairly well.

Amazing how you can start getting the wanderlust after just a few days in one location. We headed south on Wednesday after a front and rocked our way back to the ICW. We had a very windy night and rolly anchorage
near Sarasota. The next day our passage took us through 11 bridges - all required total concentration. One particularly hazardous bridge only opened one side of the draw bridge and there was a work barge on
that same side to be maneuvered around. Capt. Wayne did a fantastic job getting us through that tight space.

There is a fantastic anchorage near Cabbage Key that we took full advantage of (along with several other boats that had the same idea). We, by the way, are getting pretty good at the "anchor dance". As we were having a sundowner on the bow of the boat, looking at the beautiful mangrove island and watching the water birds, Wayne struck up a conversation with some nearby fishermen. When they left at dusk, they gave us their entire catch. Six speckled trout (we found out later they were illegally caught as the season was closed). Another super dinner
aboard Discovery and some fish for the freezer too.

We left a little after dawn and pulled into a very crowded anchorage at Ft. Myers Beach. This anchorage probably had 100 boats in it and we felt a little claustrophobic. We were, however, within dinghy & walking
distance of a library and nearby grocery store. A $0.25 trolley car took us to a West Marine store for some marine parts.

We left there the next morning and went offshore to Marco Island. This area is south of Naples. We stayed the first night in that area at The Marina at Factory Bay which is a new and very posh condo resort where a friend, Alf Fischer, is the marina dock-master. The next morning, we went up the Marco River - very cautiously and at high tide - as the charts show a water depth of 3 feet in some places. The tide changes are much greater here than in Clear Lake - about a 4-5 foot variation. We anchored at a delightful spot close to Mangrove islands across the
river from where our friends live in GoodLand, FL to await the arrival of Bibi's brother and sister-in-law. Many of you have met Ed & Barb - they are land cruisers now (from boat trash to trailer trash) and they were in Florida and able to visit us and good their friends the Fischers for Thanksgiving. We will stay here until the scheduled cold front
blows through and then head south again. To prepare for the front, we will put an additional anchor out to keep us out of the shallows. Local knowledge tells us that when a front comes through, the water blows out (like Clear Lake). We may be high 'n dry.

We continue to complete projects we brought with us. Sometimes it seems like an endless list, but we knock-out a few each week and the list is shrinking. We recently completed the Water Maker, the deck wash-down pump and staining/varnishing our new freezer. We've also made significant progress on refinishing the teak deck. Plenty to do yet.

We still haven't seen a manatee. There are numerous manatee zones in the Florida waterways, which require minimal or no wake passages. The No-seeums are horrid, vicious lil' buggers here. The water birds are a joy to watch as they swoop down after a fish. It must be a good feeding area here in GoodLand as we are fortunate to watch numerous pelicans splash ungracefully down after a fish.

Have I mentioned the stars? Wow, we have seen some incredible displays of constellations and numerous shooting stars. Having lived in an urban area for such a long time, we marvel at the heavenly night show. Sure helps to have crystal clear nights.

Now it's Monday, Dec 1st already. Had a great visit with Ed & Barb and our new friends Alf & Elaine, but, we are ready to move on. Due to a slow moving high pressure area, the winds are predicted to be strong for the next 5 days - so we are going to go back up to Ft Myers and through the Okeechobee Waterway to the Florida east coast (rather than down to Marathon in the Keys). Should get to Lake Worth (near Palm Beach, FL) on Saturday or Sunday to wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. With luck, we will be in the Bahamas in about a week.

More later...

NOTE: This email was delivered by an HF private coast station in the Maritime Mobile Radio Service, operated by the SailMail Association, a non-profit association of yacht owners. For more information on this service or on the
SailMail Association, please see the web site at: http://www.sailmail.com

11 November 2003

WHO WE ARE: Wayne Blonn – Co-captain and Bibi Petersen – Co-captain and Cassidy the boat cat - Princess

WHY WE ARE DOING THIS
We both love sailing, the outdoors and adventure. We have had our dreams of a long cruise at various times in our lives and the timing now seemed to be as right as we could ever expect. We have talked to so many older people who waited until their 60’s to retire and fulfill their dreams only to find their health to be a problem and they can no longer pursue the dream. We pooled our resources and by being cautious with our money, we can begin our dream now.

We will keep a log of distances and the ICW mile markers of each nightly stop while in the US. Once in the islands we will keep the lat and longs of islands visited and anchorages. We won’t bore most of you with this much detail but we will gladly share it with anyone who would like it.

GOALS
Our short term goal (first few months) is to cruise from Kemah, Texas to the Bahamas. We will spend time visiting some of the islands, slowly working our way south towards the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Longer term, we will continue down the chain of Caribbean Islands to reach Trinidad by the hurricane season in June, 2004. The next half year will be spent cruising the coast of Venezuela and its offshore islands.

Long term, we hope to cruise for 2-5 years, exploring the many islands in the Caribbean working our way up and back between the Bahamas and Venezuela.

OUR BOAT
A 1984 Nauticat 36’ Ketch rig, motor sailer with a pilot house. We bought her this year in March and have been outfitting her since for the trip. So far, we have installed (with the help and advice of many) a freezer, wind generator, solar panels, battery management system, propane shut-off solenoid, single side band radio, had her re-rigged, had the sails examined and re-stitched, acquired additional charts for the Captain (our computer navigation system) plus additional paper charts, and numerous maintenance projects. You know how those projects go, you start one thing and that opens up an entire new can of worms.

We have the parts and supplies for additional projects to do along the way such as install a water maker, sump pump for the shower, deck wash-down pump, repair the teak deck, fuel polishing system and the fluff stuff – curtains and the like.

THE JOURNEY
Our journey was to officially begin Saturday October 25th, but was delayed because of an impending storm but we were able to leave Sunday October 26, 2003. This is an example of the WOW factor (waiting on weather) which we will practice diligently. We left Marina del Sol along with two other boats who were heading for Lake Charles, La. We rocked and rolled our way across Galveston Bay until we entered the Intracoastal Waterway or ICW or lovingly? called the ditch. It is amazing how much calmer the water gets in the ICW. Our first stop was at Steve’s Landing which is close to Rollover Pass. For $20 bucks they let us tie up to their dock. No electricity or water.

For the first few days, the wind was blustery and right on our nose, so we motored our way along. The next couple of nights, we found secluded anchorages. One of the stops we made in Louisiana was in Morgan City at the City Dock, where shopping and laundry was within an “easy” walk. Walking becomes a necessity when you no longer have a car.


Travel along the ICW until past the Mississippi can be an adventure and produce some anxious moments because of the heavy barge traffic (many barges are called six packs which are six huge barges cabled together being pushed right at ya), the bridges that have to be radioed to request an opening, be they lift, pontoon or swing bridge, and, of course, the infamous locks in Louisiana. Locks are used to control water levels on waterways and keep salt water from flooding the farmland. We were lucky with the first few locks because they allowed us to go right through, but near Harvey, La. (on the Mississippi River) they locked us through. This consists of opening a ‘door’, letting you come in to a very high cement channel and then closing the ‘doors’ at each end of the lock to raise or lower the water level within the lock to match the water level on the other side of the lock. The change in water level creates turbulence. The first lock was OK because they allowed us to tie up on the starboard side of our boat, but the second lock required tie up on our port side where our wind generator is mounted. Wayne had to fend off mightily to keep the wind generator from being bashed up when they flooded the lock.

We have been averaging about 52 miles a day. We head out just at dawn and try to be at our destination by 4:00 p.m. Using the computer navigation program, our chart kits and some cruising guides we are able to make pretty good decisions about where to stop for the night. We have found some fantastic, tranquil anchorages and some not so fantastic but we were happy for each of them nonetheless. Generally, we plan to anchor rather than put in at a marina. As of this writing we are anchored in Apalachicola, Fl. – well, actually across from the town. We will go in to do the laundry, shopping and eat something other than Bibi’s gruel.

That’s another thing about cruising. When you anchor your boat you still need to get to shore. The boat is your house and the dinghy is your car.

Next week we will cross this corner of the Gulf of Mexico from Apalachicola, FL to Tampa – about a 30 hour trip, depending on wind & seas. Plan to leave Tuesday morning (Nov 11th) and arrive at our anchorage early Wednesday afternoon.

More later.