04/17/2009, Mayaguana
We had finally come to a decision that we were not going to change, and at 6.15am on Tuesday, April 7th we left Green Cay Marina with the intention of making a 24 hour run to Boqueron on the western coast of Puerto Rico. The wind was a light 10kts and was right on our stern, but we were sailing. We made the decision to continue to Boqueron as long as we could maintain a 5kt average speed, but after a few hours underway we were not able to maintain this pace so had to decide whether to motor, or perhaps change our destination.
We had heard the on the forecast that morning that a few days of impending bad weather would force us to hold up in Boqueron, assuming we could get there, until the weekend. In addition, our good friends Tim & Linda (Matsu) were on their way to the Spanish Virgin Islands and a diversion to Culebra would allow us to spend a few days with them. Yet another advantage, we noted, was that, if we could head out directly from Culebra and transit the north coast of Puerto Rico rather than the south coast, we could avoid our nemesis, the notorious Mona Passage. It did not take a great deal of consideration, therefore, for us to change course.
We spent four very pleasant nights in Culebra. The first night we picked up a mooring off of Dewey, the main town here and the following day we sailed around to one of our favourite spots, Cayo de Luis Pena. As on the previous occasion we had visited this spot, we were the only boat in the bay and were able to enjoy the peace, quiet and beauty of this area without any interruption. On Thursday we met up with Tim & Linda, were able to catch up on all the news since we had last seen them in Antigua just before New Year, and had a wonderful meal at Mamacita's a very nice restaurant that we could dinghy to in Dewey. We had decided to leave Culebra at first light on Saturday morning so on Friday evening Tim & Linda made us a wonderful spaghetti dinner and we took our leave of them until we meet again in Annapolis in the summer.
At 6am on Saturday morning we hauled anchor and left Culebra. We were heading for the Turks and Caicos although had agreed that, if we were going well and were comfortable, we would try to get as far as Mayaguana, one of the southern most islands of the Bahamas. We had an uncomfortable morning. The wind was light, right on our tail and there was a 5ft swell which, with the light winds, kept knocking us off course. To make the most of the wind we did have Dave managed to pole out the yankie and we 'goose-winged' (the mainsail on our port -side and the yankie over on the starboard) down wind. We weren't making great progress, but we were keeping up our 5kt average which was our main concern. By late morning the wind has clocked a little and had freshened so we were able to put the pole away and harden up. The seas had also settled down so now we were making really good progress and averaging over 6kts!
We continued to sail well until just before midnight when the wind died again and Dave, who was on watch, was forced to resort to the engine to keep us moving forward. We were still motoring when we passed the western point of Puerto Rico just after 2am and it wasn't until 8am Sunday morning that we started to see the wind freshening again. We decided to see if 'goose-winging' the sails would allow us to turn off the engine, and Dave was manipulating the pole when a pin broke and it dropped down from the mast, hitting him in the face. Fortunately, he was not badly hurt and apart from suffering a nasty gash above his lip and some shock from being hit, he is fine. But the pole was laid aside and we did not try to use it again during the trip.
The rest of the passage followed a similar routine; the wind would freshen and we would sail beautifully making good progress even down-wind, then the wind would die and we would have to turn on the engine, then the wind would freshen again. In lighter winds we tried every configuration of sail including our cruising chute, but every 12 hours or so we were forced to resort to the engine until the wind picked up again. We were also having trouble getting weather information as our SSB radio reception for Chris Parker was horrible and we just couldn't hear him. Luckily for us we were able to speak with Tim on the SSB every evening and he kept us up to date with weather information. A godsend! Thanks Tim.
We reached West Caicos at noon on Tuesday, April 14th and decided to stop for a few hours to have a good meal and a few hours much needed sleep. At 3am on Wednesday morning we hauled anchor and set off for Mayaguana. As before, the wind was light and not in the ideal direction for us, but we were able to sail even though we were being pushed to the east of our planned route. By 11.15am we were about 5 miles from our destination, but had to turn the engine back on again to enable us to get to where we wanted to go. By 12.45pm we were anchored in Abrahams Bay, Mayaguana. We were back in the Bahamas.
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11/11/2008, St Croix
The celebration for Tim's birthday started on Saturday afternoon with a cricket match on the beach at Sandy Island. Unfortunately the batsmen soon realized that whacking the ball out to sea put the fielders at something of a disadvantage, so new rules had to be introduced with regard to where the ball could be hit, and with how much force. Fortunately the rules seemed to work and the match progressed during the afternoon on more of a level playing field, literally if not in reality!
During the late afternoon we brought the food ashore. The party was a BBQ and 'pot-luck' and everyone bought a dish to share. Pot-lucks are a great favourite with cruisers and we have experienced some wonderful food as a result. This occasion was no exception, and by early evening with the bonfire going well and the wine and beer flowing, everyone was relaxed and having a wonderful time. It was late in the evening (by cruising standards anyway) when the party broke up and we all headed back to the boats.
Over the next few days we all spent lot of time on the beach, swimming, snorkelling having BBQs and generally relaxing. Dave & I, and Tim & Linda donned our diving gear and made a dive off the end of the island. The water still hadn't really cleared from the bad weather we had experienced a week or so before, but we still had a wonderful dive and were impressed with the amount of life on the small reef. Dave was particularly thrilled when he spotted and managed to catch a large lobster, but was very good about putting it back when he realized that she was 'berried', (a female with eggs). This was Dave's first lobster catch in months and only served to whet his appetite for more hunting.
But we had no more time to spend in Carriacou and on November 11th we hauled the anchor and headed to Hillsborough to check out of the country. We had all decided to spend Christmas in Antigua and needed to be moving north. We also wanted to spend some more time in the Tobago Cays on our way, so our next destination was to be Clifton Bay, Union Island where we would check into St. Vincent and The Grenadines.
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Teresa
11/07/2008, St Croix
Back in Grenada after the wedding, we set about putting Magic back together once again. We really enjoyed our stay in Clarkes Court Bay and our time in the marina. We had watched a local regatta featuring Grenadian fishing boats, had attended all of the Wednesday 'burger nights', had jumped onto the local bus to go shopping and had snorkelled the reefs around the bay. We had celebrated Peter's (Keesje II) birthday at the local 'Little Dipper' restaurant and had made plans for Tim's (Matsu) 40th birthday party. Daniell Story had also caught up with us and we were all eager to get moving again. But we had to wait for a break in the weather. It had been blowing hard, creating large seas on the windward side of the islands which were in turn creating large swells in the passages between the islands. But finally on November 5th we left Clarkes Court Bay and motored around the south coast to St Georges where we again anchored in The Lagoon. Here we finally managed to do a tour of the island.
We have been very impressed with the guides who have accompanied us on our various tours of the islands, and Grenada was no exception. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the history, flora and fauna of the island. As in Dominica, he stopped at the side of the road and pointed out plants, trees and herbs, in many cases explaining their medicinal qualities. We stopped at the local Three Rivers Rum Distillery, the only one remaining on Grenada, and the Grenada Chocolate Factory which produces the island's dark, organic confection. Here we watched the drying cocoa pods being turned by foot, and Dave couldn't resist having a go himself. Our last stop was Leapers Hill when in 1651 the last Carib Indians on Grenada had jumped to their death rather than surrender to the French invaders of the island. Our all-day tour ended just after 7pm and we just managed to get to the grocery store for some last minute provisioning. We were up early on the morning of November 7th to head north to Carriacou.
We motor-sailed up the leeward side of the island and mid-morning picked up a mooring in Dragon Bay. We had been told about some statues that had been positioned at the bottom of the bay and we wanted to snorkel and take a look. Just after we got into the water a dive boat arrived and the guide pointed out where the main sculptures were. Because of the recent bad weather the clarity of the water wasn't good and it was disconcerting to see figures slowly appear out of the gloom as we dived down. The statues were quite something, but Dave also managed to amuse himself by snorkelling down and tapping unsuspecting scuba-divers on the shoulder to say 'Hi'. This wasn't the first time that he has scared the living daylights out of divers in this way, and I have a strong suspicion that it won't be the last!
We dropped our mooring just before lunch, and because the wind had now dropped totally, had to motor all the way to Sandy Island. We had arrived by 3.30pm and dropped the anchor in our favourite spot. The following day we had an important engagement; it was Tim's 40th birthday celebration and a party was planned on the beach.
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