Aboard Lady

Santa Marta, Colombia

Santa Marta, Colombia

November 28th, 2014

I had not done enough research on where we were going - Colombia - I was thinking that we'd be coming into a sleepy little marina in a country something like the island of Saint Vincent. Well, this is certainly not that. 

Santa Marta has a population greater than Tulsa's; taxis and mini-buses are zooming everywhere with horns blowing; the occasional donkey or horse-cart competes with the motor-cycles; it's HOT. From the marina we can see high-rise apartments and office buildings. We are close to the downtown area. The local people are helpful, even those who do not speak English. We are hanging out here for two to three weeks, waiting for good weather to move on. This means we have plenty of time to provision for the next leg of the adventure, which will involve about a month of island-hopping without any grocery stores. It also means we'll have time to be tourists.

We have met up with cruisers we met in June in Bonaire, and are making new friends. On D dock are Maria and Maurice aboard Canadian-flagged Cattiva, Jane (Tony has had to return to UK to assist Mum, but will be back soon) aboard Capisce. Our neighbours, Steve and Cheryl on Emma Louise are also Brits.

After we were docked, I was able to phone Mum at Rock to wish her a happy 91st birthday. She sounded very cheerful.

We met our shipping agent, Dino, and completed his paperwork. Every vessel has to hire an agent to handle the Customs and Immigration process (article 1455 of the Commercial Code of Colombia), and Dino had been recommended by other cruisers from SSCA and Noonsite on-line and by Suzanne and David on Suzy Too in Aruba. We checked out the marina shore facilities and had a nice Mexican dinner ashore.

We changed the ship's clocks. We are now in zone -5, same as the Eastern USA.

Saturday, Maria and Maurice invited us to join them on a trip to the Ocean Mall. We paid 5,000 Colombian Pesos ("COP")for a taxi to take us there - the exchange rate is .0047, so that cost us between $2-$3 US. The mall was similar is some respect to Tulsa Promenade. It had two levels, shops were mostly shoes, ladies' clothes, some mens' clothes, and a cinema as well as a food court, and also a grocery store. The stores seemed to be mostly sole proprietor-ships, rather than national chains, I think. Two hair salons for children, mostly gorgeous little girls having their hair done for a Saturday party. All the Christmas decorations were up! Seems so strange when you are wearing sun-dresses and enjoying the air-conditioning to be looking at Santas, elves, snow.) After walking around the mall, and having a coffee at Juan Valdez (Starbucks' local equivalent!) we left and walked a couple of blocks to Makros, the local equivalent of Costco or Sams, a spent the best part of an hour walking around that to see if there was anything we might need in the future. We did price a 42 liter cooler for $109,000 COP (about US$50, not cheap, but available). Returning to Ocean Mall we had lunch. The only international chain in the food courts was Subway. Other offerings were for pizza, fried chicken, juices, yoghurt. Charlie got a meat platter from El Banano for $20,000 COP. I wasn't as adventurous, and got Subway's Sabado Special tuna sub with iced tea for $10,300 COP (US$5). We purchased groceries and took another taxi back to the marina.

I started thinking about Thanksgiving about three weeks ago when I saw fresh cranberries in a Curacao grocery store and purchased them. Thinking about it some more, I thought I might see if could find a turkey breast to cook. Hadn't found any so far, and the more I thought about having Lady's oven on for long enough to cook a turkey in this heat, the more I was considering finding something else to cook - the closest I'd seen to a turkey breast (I had seen a whole turkey - too large) was a couple of large whole chickens. We are the only Americans at the marina, so the only person who was available to organize a party was me. This is a pretty big city; there are some pretty nice sport-fishing an other yachts here; perhaps there might be catering services? I consulted Diana, our wonderful marina office manager, who doubted there was anyone who could provided a cooked turkey delivered to the marina for Thursday. She directed me to Alberto, owner of Estation Marina, one of the restaurants on the pier near us. Enquiring at that establishment, three very pretty young ladies giggled, and told me Alberto would be there at 4. They did not speak English. Neither did Alberto, when he arrived, but we established that although turkeys were only available in Bogota, if I showed up at his other restaurant in town on Thursday morning with a turkey, he would cook it and deliver it back to the marina. Tuesday I found a 8 kg turkey at Exito grocery store, and put it in our igloo cooler in cold fresh water to thaw.

I talked to our dock friends. I made three hand-written posters, and hung them in the shower rooms and the captain's lounge:

THANKSGIVING DINER
ALL WELCOME
THURSDAY NOV 27
OUTSIDE MINI-MART
5:00 PM DRINKS
6:00 PM EAT
BRING: FOOD TO SHARE
(hot or cold)
YOUR OWN DRINKS AND ICE
PLATES, CUTLERY, ETC.
Ideas for food:
TURKEY
DRESSING
POTATOES
GRAVY
OTHER VEG
HORS D'OEUVRES
DESSERT

Thursday morning we piled ourselves, the cooler and the turkey into a taxi, and met Alberto at this Sandwicheria. It looked kind of like a sports bar. Alberto was surprised to see the turkey. He explained in Spanish that when he cooks a turkey, he has is covered in salt, pepper, oregano and other spices sitting in the fridge for three days before he cooks it. He had committed to cook it, not to prep it. I found the sink, a knife, and cut turkey out of his plastic wrapping, found salt and pepper, spread the stick of butter I had brought with me, set him on the small tray I had also brought. I covered him in foil to protect him from flies until he was put in the oven. I chased away the cockroach I saw on the counter. Not as good as Alberto might have done it, but ready. We discussed how long it needed to cook, pointing to the wrapper instructions, and bid farewell.

We didn't know if we'd really have turkey for dinner that day.  We didn't know if anybody else would come...perhaps Charlie and I would be eating a meal of just turkey on our own.

By four o'clock we had re-christened our six-foot inflatable turkey as Senor Pavo, and had him plugged in outside the mini-mart, when lo, Alberto and his daughter drove up with our turkey!

Done to perfection!

People started gathering. We were an international group: citizens of France, Italy, Canada, UK, Iceland, Finland as well as Colombia joined us.  At least a half-dozen little kids riding their scooters.  Lots of fun making new friends.

As well as turkey there was the cranberry relish I made on Wednesday, green veg medley (cabbage, peas, onions), glazed carrots, roasted potatoes, potato salad and more. No gravy, but cheese, crackers and fruit, and cupcakes and a decorated cake for dessert.

I found out later that the party did not break up until eleven that night - that was when Charlie made it back aboard - I had faded long before then.  Maria posted pictures on her Facebook page which I shared

We are now enjoying the remainder of the holiday week-end and making plans for land tours of the area for next week.

 

Passage to Colombia

Santa Marta, Colombia

November 23, 2014

Captain Charlie writes:

After the tremendous reception received last year from the Captain's post to the blog, the Captain decided to try again.

After five years of the Eastern Caribbean in the winter and New England in the summer, we were in a rut. Not a bad rut, but one all the same. So, we decided to sail to new grounds while we were still old (as opposed to elderly).  

Aruba was only a day sail from Curacao. Aruba to Santa Marta Colombia was a different story. About 300 miles through waters that had a bad reputation.

Not pirates.

Seas.

If you look at Jenny's map on Google Earth, you will see that the SW corner of the Caribbean Sea has the prevailing east wind and east current driving into Panama with no place to go. Think about it, strong winds from Africa blowing water for thousands of miles!  So, there is a counter current that runs west to east along the Colombia coast to let the water out of the corner. That's not the problem, the problem is when the wind is blowing to the west and the current is running to the east, it set up a situation where the waves are short and steep. Lady can handle any size waves as long as there is a period between the waves, say 20 foot waves with a period (time between waves) of 12 seconds. Short and steep means that 10 foot waves are only 6 seconds apart, not sufficient for Lady to meet the next wave before she recovers from the first. The result is a lot of water on deck and a very difficult ride. Your Captain researched this and decided to make this passage before the trade winds filled in during mid December.

We knew that 300 miles was a two day trip and when we left Aruba was not critical, so we left the dock about 9 am Wednesday (Nov 19) and went to the marina's fuel dock. We had learned that by law Colombia sold only bio diesel fuel, not something I wanted in Lady's tanks. So, we filled Lady's internal tanks (80 gallons) and another 80 gallons on deck in jerry cans. I assume that it was some of that good Venezuelan fuel, the same you get from Citgo. And, we then had to move to the Customs dock to clear out of Aruba (the Customs dock was a concrete dock built for cruise ships, not cruiser friendly).

It was about noon before we left Aruba. Course was dead down wind, so we flew only the main sail (the jib would have blanketed by the main). The test came that night, when we rounded Penisula de la Guajira, this is where the wind would meet the current. We chose to stay close to shore (about 200 feet in depth) to avoid the current and the short seas. It worked, we had an uneventful rounding. We could see car lights ashore, but we had complete confidence in our electronic charts (based on what other cruisers had told us). After rounding the point, the wind diminished. I considered starting the engine, but since Jenny was sleeping (and it was my turn next) I decided not to. The next morning we did motor for about 3 hours until the wind came up. The wind continue to build during the day. We started off with full main and jib, but furled the jib by late afternoon. Mid afternoon, we had the largest pod of dolphins pass us that we had ever seen and we have seen a lot. There were hundreds, young, old and everything in between. They
were as excited to see us as we were to see them. They played with our boat for hours before finally moving on. We were now about 100 miles from our destination, Santa Marta Colombia. We did not want to arrive at a new port before dawn, so on the second night at sea I began slowing Lady down. But the wind continued to build during the night, reaching 30 knots true at one point. By then we had the main completely furled and the jib 70% furled and still going 6 knots. That night we saw numerous cargo ships and two pleasure craft (well, we saw their lights, not the ship). As dawn came we began to see the mountains of Colombia. As the port came into view, we saw a beautiful port with a backdrop of mountains behind it. And we arrive right on time, 0800.

More on Santa Marta and Colombia later.

Curacao - Preparing to Launch Lady - 3 (Sunday)

Curacao

Netherland Antilles

Sunday October 26th, 2014

Are we here?

Pretty much everything is closed in Curacao on Sunday.  We had a big day preparing Lady for the installation of her new rudder.

As usual it was hot - temps have been in the 90s.

There were a number of boxes of boat bits and spares that Charlie spent time stowing where he could find them later...maybe!  

To enable the marina's technicians good access to the steering quadrant, we had to empty the lazarettes.

Fishing gear, ditch bags, cleaning supplies, dolly (used as cart for shopping trips), bag for deck canvas, baby life-jacket, beach toys and a ton of other items were removed from the bowels of the boat and temporarily stowed on the floor of the main salon.  We also removed the emergency tiller, as Tony (Southern Cross) had advised Charlie that when he replaced his rudder, the emergency tiller that came with the boat did not fit the new rudder post, and modifications will have to be made to it.  The only things left down there were the original propeller that came with the boat (been carrying that around as a spare since shortly after we purchased Lady in 2006), the old driver arm for the auto-helm (been there since 2011) and the old mainsail (replaced last year).  

While I worked on cleaning galley cabinets, (we have no water aboard, but vinegar works well), Charlie had to lay on our berth in the aft cabin and remove the ceiling headliner so that access to the back of the steering quadrant was possible.

The bag with the deck canvas would not come un-zipped, despite my efforts with water and lubricant, so we cut it open and moved all the deck canvas to a new bag.  

After another hot, dusty day, Nada and Polde invited us to climb up aboard Nada for drinks.  Most welcome.

Monday will be a big day.  We will need to be at the yard early.

Cruising

Friday, December 20th, 2013

Francis Bay

Saint John

USVI

Well, they say that cruising is doing high-dollar boat maintenance in exotic locations.  That has become true for us.  We thought we were really getting ahead of things after mending all the things that broke on  the passage down, but living on a boat the list never ends.  Charlie fixed the toilet seat the guys broke while I mended torn cushions as we enjoyed North Sound and Norman Island.  I also made some foot thongs for girl-friends.

Charlie had grown a moustache during the passage.  You will be glad to know that his has now shaved it off, since for some reason it came in gray.

We went in to Nanny Cay Marina and spent a few days there using on-shore professionals to help with generator repair, parts for navigation system, fixing fiber-glass dings, inflatable dinghy repair, repaired a hatch that broke on the passage as a fish was landed.  We also were able to visit with friends and shop for provisions, clean the decks with lots of fresh water and dine ashore.  We certainly did our part to improve the economy of Tortola before we left there.  

At Norman Island we saw Sandcastle, a yacht formerly owned by Tulsa people, and still charted by a number of Tulsa families.  

Also here's a picture of Eye Candy, one of the Salty Dawg yachts that was anchored there with us.  Andrew, Clair and Debbie, all from Tasmania, are aboard her.  Squalls came though every so often.

We cleared out of the British Virgins on December 9th and cleared in to the US Virgins at Cruz Bay, Saint John and moved to Maho Bay the following day, where we stayed on a National Park Service mooring for a few days.  

Between showers, as we snorkeled along the shore of Mary's Point we saw an octopus sitting in the front entrance of his little cavern, with a giant tulip shell that he was busy trying to extract the contents of for lunch.  He was still working on it when we came back by half an hour later.  We think we saw that same octopus a couple of years ago in the same place.

We left Francis Bay, and moved over to Caneel Bay, where we took the dinghy to Cruz Bay to take in my laptop computer that had stopped working.  Then on to Christmas Cove on  Saint James Island for a couple of days.  Budget Marine let us know that they had replacement speakers for the cockpit in stock and so we dinghied over to Benner Bay (rain started again on the way) to pick them up and have lunch ashore.

We moved on to Charlotte Amalie on December 15th and anchored in the harbor there for another couple of days.  KMart was able to separate us from more money - we've not been able to replace the pressure cooker that broke on the passage, but did get new bed sheets, turkey baster, iPad case.  Also a few more groceries and another lunch out.  We got fuel and water as well as doing laundry.  

As we departed Charlotte Amalie harbor a US Coast Guard boat with five officers, all carrying arms, came alongside and two of the officers boarded us for a routine vessel safely inspection.  We passed. They acted as if not many pass!

Departing the West Gregerie Channel, Ocean Of the Seas was entering.  She's huge, and as we passed, we waved, and passengers waved back.  Everyone now has their own balcony; whatever happen to portholes? Charlie observed that the people standing on their balconies seemed to be better looking and wear less clothes the higher up the ship they were. This was especially true of the penthouse deck (remember this the next cruise you book)(Charlie resolves to start caring his telephoto lens on deck). 

We anchored overnight in Benner Bay, next to the Saint Thomas airport.  A lovely anchorage, recommended by our friends on Meander, Wayne and Mary.  Only one other cruiser there and a few local power-boats on moorings.  Dolphins played in the bay and we had a very pleasant evening.

Next morning the anchor windlass failed.  Charlie was able to rig a long line to the chain and I winched from the cockpit to get the anchor up. His back still hurts.

We motored into the wind and picked up a mooring in Francis Bay.

Once the new sound speaker was successfully installed, Charlie spent a day working on investigating the windlass.  This required first removing all the items stored in the front of the boat (once upon a time that storage area was our second shower), removing the cabinet behind that storage area and getting into the cave behind the anchor locker.  Good thing we don't have overnight guests at present as the VIP guest bed is full of coolers, hoses, electrical cables, boxes and buckets of boat spares, vacuum cleaners and lots of other boat stuff.  He has determined that the worm gear was stripped, and phoned the rigger in Saint Thomas, discussing parts needed, and we have decided that as their supplier (in Connecticut) had a replacement gearbox available, we would have it shipped via FedX.  It seems that the last time the windlass was repaired, by FKG in St. Martin last April, one part was put in out of sequence and another was put in upside down. The new windlass may arrive today, so we have booked to go in to Crown Bay Marina on Monday, and hope that the rigging company's technician can work with Charlie on Monday to get the engine off the old windlass and installed.  Don't know how long it will take, so who knows where we will be for Christmas - maybe still in the marina as we fear that all the good moorings may be taken by the time the reparis are complete.  NOT PART OF THE PLAN.

People we met in Grenada, Jim and Karen of Regenero are moored next to us and had us over for drinks a couple of evening ago, and they are coming over to Lady for a meal tonight.  They replaced hatches on their boat yesterday - the first day without rain.  But the squalls and rain have returned today.  The wet season has lasted a lot longer than it usually does.  The Christmas winds came early.  Oh well, we could be back on land and living in the cold.  Glad we are here.

(The computer technician in Cruz Bay finally called back yesterday.  The hard drive has failed on my lap top.  Now I have to get a really good Internet connection so I can get all my data from Norton's on-line backup.  We also have to go back to Cruz Bay to pick it up.  Maybe we'll do that after Joyce and Jep get here on Boxing Day.)

 

Hanging Around in North Sound - Jenny's birthday week

Prickly Pear Island, North Sound, Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands

18 30.18N 64 21.70W

After settling in  and getting good Internet and taking care of some business, the winds came up and it blew like crazy for a few days, so we dropped our mooring and moved to a more sheltered spot in the lee of Prickly Pear Island, near the Sandbox Beach Bar and Grill.  We need to do a number of boat chores, the most pressing of which was cleaning Bimbo's bottom.  She had been in the water a lot while we had been in marinas in Antigua and Saint Martin, and was looking pretty cruddy.  We beached her on Prickly Pear island and armed with brushes, scrubbers and an assortment of cleaners we spent some time propping her up on her side using her oars and cleaning her.  She looks much happier with a clean bottom.

Despite being clean, she still was losing air from the front tube, and we hadn't been able to find the leak while we were cleaning her. After the wind had eased we moved to another spot (that would also give us Internet) and took her ashore again. Just a different Prickly Pear Island beach and finally found the leak.  The location indicates that at some point while we were in the lagoon in Simpson Bay, she got snagged under a dock - or against another dinghy that had raised their engine at the dock.  It could have been at any of the docks for St Maarten Yacht Club, Lagoonies, Barnacles Island Water World, Budget Marine or Marina Royale.

We walked along the beach as far as we could.  The island is a BVI National Park, and the area we were in was by a dried up salt pond and a couple of local goats came by looking for water.  Saw hummingbirds too.  We hear the goats most mornings.

Charlie found a patch and pasted it over the leaks once we were back at Lady.

One evening we went to happy hour at Saba Rock ($3 rum drinks and Carib beer).  A lady down the bar saw my foot jewelry and had to have it, so I sold it to her!  I usually just make these foot thongs as gifts for friends.

We went snorkeling another day, but this isn't a particularly good area for snorkeling.  Despite the gorgeous-looking water, much of the coral has died.  There are the usual interesting fish.  

There are a lot of charter boats in the area.  The private yachts kind of stand out - especially the big ones.  How would you like to have the job of cleaning windows on My Trust Fund? 

  Here is a the stern of a yacht we saw at Bitter End - Charlie thinks we need a logo like the one Tabasco has for Lady.

Friday April 26th was my 65th birthday, my I don't feel that old!  What a lovely day that was.  Charlie let me know that he still loves me, and gave me an over-the top card. 

What a lovely place to spend a birthday this is.  We have water front property with 360 degree views.

Breakfast  consisted of our favorites - yoghurt and Alpen cereal for me, toasted baguette with butter for Charlie After looking at all the good wishes from family and friends that were in my email (THANKS, EVERYBODY!), Charlie and I discussed our change in plan, which I'll discuss in a later post.  Then it was time to get dressed to go out to lunch.  I wore the new dress Charlie had given me for Christmas.  Should I use this picture on my facebook page?  The one I use now is a similar pose taken in North Carolina, USA  (back when I was 63.)

On our way to lunch we passed Party Girl.  Looks like her guests were Having fun.

 

We had made lunch reservations at Yacht Club Costa Smerelda.  YCCS is the newest marina here, and has been especially built for super-yachts.

The restaurant at YCCS is open to the public.  The facility is impressive.  

As you walk up through the property there are beautiful gardens - even a lawn large enough for croquet.

 

Down below, the view of the docks, Biras Creek and Bitter End Yacht Club.

 

Chef Mario greeted us.  We became friends, and he was excited that we were there for my birthday, suggesting the "Tasting" menu with an extra dessert.

We were glad we made reservations as we were the only people there, and perhaps Mario an all the other staff wouldn't have shown up for work that day if we hadn't. 

We were seated and admired the view from our table.  We overlooked a beautiful swimming poll with comfortable chaises and pillows around it.

Joan brought us a basket of asssorted little rolls, slices, bread-sticks to go with the cruet, and took our oders of prosecco and wine.

An amuse bouche of a pate of salmon, ricotta and artichoke was our first treat.  This was followed by stuffed calamari, lobster rissoto, breaded tuna, pistachio ice cream topped with a drop of olive oil and chocolate chocolate (yes, double) cake.  

        

Two other guests arrive just before the cake came, so they joined in the singing and ate chocolate cake as their first course ("life is short; eat dessert first").  We became acquainted as we enjoyed the cake.  Thanks for the good time, Tammy and Tina!

We realized that the leak is still not fixed in Bimbo on our way back to Lady.  

I was a gorgeous afternoon.  We changed into swimsuits and headed out to reef in Eustatia Sound, tied up next to another dinghy put on snorkeling gear and slid into the aqua water.  Some interesting fish and corals, but nothing too exciting to report.

Dried and back on Lady, we napped.  Woke in time for sunset watching, and treated ourselves to watching Rounders, a DVD passed on by other cruisers, snacking on cheesed and crackers.

What a wonderful day for a birthday!

Back to reality yesterday.  Between rain showers the wind backed to the west.  We were in water shallower than our comfort levels, so we hauled anchor, and since we were already on the move, headed out of North Sound about two miles to dump holding tanks in deep water far from swimmers.  Picked up a mooring at Leverick Bay Resort and Marina, and went ashore to dump trash, book a rental car for Monday and purchase a fresh baguette and tonic at the grocery store.  We dropped the mooring an re-anchored by Prickly Pear where we could still get Saba Rock's wifi Internet, and had meatloaf, mashed potatoes and peas for dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

2012 - Another Great Year

 It's been another wonderful year of cruising.

After crossing the Atlantic aboard Jay Sea Dee in December 2011and spending Christmas in Grenada, we returned to Lady in the Virgin Islands.

We spent January in the Virgin Islands.  Particularly memorable we a cruise to Saint Croix with Catalina 470 owners Paul and Lynn on Beaudacious and Larry and Wendy from Comfortably Numb.  

Charlie had a fun 65th birthday at Saint John.  We were also joined by Connie and Jim from Plane To Sea that evening.

In February we went to Culebra (Puerto Rico), Saint Martin/Sint Maarten and Saba, where we hiked in the tropical jungle and had magnificent views of some of the other nearby  islands

Son Mike and girlfriend Meghan visited us in March.  They enjoyed learning to kite-board, as well as snorkeling, watching mega-yachts race and celebrating Saint Patrick's Day.

We left Lady on the hard at Nanny Cay in April, flew to Tulsa and enjoyed Easter, Anna Louise's birthday and my birthday there.  The weather was good for the most part, and it was such fun to see so many old friends.

Returning to Lady in May, Nina and Bob from Moon Dancer joined us as crew for the trip back to the USA as part of the Salty Dawgs Rally.  Stormy weather meant a diversion to Bermuda, where we had a great week on the way to Chesapeake Bay.

 Shortly after our arrival back in the USA, in Hampton, Virginia, in early June we were truck by a tornado.  Mike and Meghan were also visiting that week-end in Mike;s boat, but Artemis II survived with no damage.  Lady had damage to stanchions and canvas, which we later got repaired in Annapolis.  We commiserated with MC and Andre from Dancing Lizard who had much more damage.  We could have stayed in Oklahoma for this!

As we left Hampton, we met Catalina 470 friends on Barra, Hugh and Paula, and anchored out with them at Fleets Bay, off the Chesapeake.  Later in the month we met up with many of the other East Coast Catalina 470 owners for a week-end of visiting.

Bob and Pam of C470 Silhouette kindly loaned us the use of their slip while we got tornado repairs done.  Not only was it fun to see them, but also Joe Rocchio (C470 Onward), as well as Mike and Meghan and Anne and Miles Poor (Karina).

Once repairs were completed we left before it got too hot, and had a good time at Block Island, Rhode Island on our way to Narragansett Bay, where we spent a good part of July.

A number of the boats in the Salty Dawg Rally met at Bristol for the town's historic Independence Day parade.  It was good to see Bill and Linda (Sapphire), Craig and Karene (Il Sogno), Gil and Joy (Joy for All) and we made new friends of Rob and Sarah (Serafina Of Maldon).  We spent about a week there, and new had so much shell-fish and clams before.  Wonderful days!

After cruising the Bay, visiting Newport and Dutch Harbor, we headed to Cuttyhunk and Woods Hole, and then back to meet IV, Olivia and Anna Louise, who spent a week aboard at the beginning of August.  We got from Newport to Hadley Harbor, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard and back while they were with us.

Soon, it was time to head south.  This time we went down Long Island Sound, and through New York City.

 We left Lady in Annapolis and headed different directions.  Charlie went to Tulsa.

I went to England where I visited my mother, Mary Pain, who continues to do well for a twenty-one-year-old woman well into her eighties still living alone.  Cousin Kerry came by and the Isle of Wight was as beautiful as ever.  

I also visited cousins Janet and Marilyn in Wales, where we enjoyed the scenery of the Gower Peninsula and Worm's Head.  

In Portsmouth, it was fun to meet with former school friends Pam, Diana, Hillary, another Pam and Lesley.

 

I joined Charlie in Tulsa in September, and we had lots of fun with IV, Olivia, Anna Louise and saw lots of friends.  It was lovely to meet Anna Louise's new McNamara cousin, Mary Loretta.

We returned to Lady in early October and spent money at the Annapolis Sailboat Show and had fun at parties with cruisers and other friends we have made along the way.  We renewed friendships with cruisers from Saint Lucia, Salty Dawgs, Catalina 470 owners, and ran in to other cruising friends around the docks.  We particularly enjoyed catching up with Steve and Sue Ormond - Steve has crewed for us twice on our passages from the USA to the Caribbean.

Charlie returned to Tulsa to take care of business, and I stayed aboard on my own, preparing for our up-coming passage by cooking offshore meals and getting them in the freezer.  Son Mike took me racing on his Tartan 10, Artemis, and we had fun.  It was also great that Jay Sea Dee came in to port and I was able to reminisce with John about our trip across the Atlantic, and hang out with Jodie.

Hurricane Sandy threatened, so I prepared Lady by stripping the canvas and getting everything stowed and after Charlie (in Tulsa) declared "Abandon ship!", I evacuated to Baltimore to stay with Mike and Megan for a few days.

We had fun at a Chili cook-off/Halloween party at the Baltimore Downtown Sailing Association.

Charlie returned after selling his business.  Flow Measurement Company was acquired by Precision Fitting And Gauge.  

We finally departed Annapolis in early November; Lady had been at a dock for over two months -  wow - we'd not been ashore for so long since we started cruising - we'd not been apart for so long since we got married.  We were late heading south.  The weather had changed from summer in New England to late fall in the Chesapeake as we headed down the bay, making a stop at Solomon's Island to visit Hugh and Paula (C470 Barra) and plan on connecting in Hampton as Hugh was to crew on the passage to Virgin Gorda, and Paula was to fly meet us there.

Arriving in Hampton, some of the Salty Dawg Rally fleet had already departed.  A nor'easter threatened, so we delayed a few days until we had a good weather fore-cast.  Hugh and Paula joined us and we made all the necessary preparations for a significant offshore passage.  

We finally departed November 9th, with the full cockpit enclosures installed, dressed in sweaters and foul-weather gear. 

We arrived at Virgin Gorda in the early morning over nine days later, wearing summer clothes.  Quite a long passage with light winds, and a lot of engine time.

  Good times with the other Salty Dawgs followed.  Bitter End Yacht Club made us very welcome.  Paula arrived safely and we had fun together.

Our last "official" Salty Dawg event was a great dinner for all the participants, and as it was the evening before Thanksgiving, we took Mr. Turkey with us.  Paula and Hugh returned to the USA Thanksgiving Day.

We invited other cruisers to join us on the beach for  meal on Thanksgiving Day.  Crews from about a dozen boats came, and all had fun.  Here's Charlie carving the turkey breast that had lain at the bottom of the freezer since I purchased it in Annapolis.

We were pleased that the new BVI Customs and Immigration Office in Gorda Sound made departing the country easy, and after clearing our made an overnight passage in one tack to SImpson Bay, Sint Maarten, following Il Sogno with Craig and Karene aboard through the "Dutch" bridge.

It was fun to re-connect with other cruising friends we have made in the last few years.  Besides celebrating Karene's birthday, we had fun with Elsa and Glen from Windara, and made new friends.

In early December we left St. Martin for a couple of days and headed to the next country, Saint Barthlelemy.  Tulsa friends Brenda and Dan were due to arrive aboard  Sea Dream I, a small cruise ship, part of the Sea Dream Yacht Club.  We met them outside the Capitainerie (port captain), and headed for Lady.   Soon the anchor was up, and we sailed for and hour to Ile Forchue, where we snorkeled and ate lunch, before sailing back to Gustavia.  That evening we were their guests aboard Sea Dream I.  What a treat that was - thanks so much Brenda and Dan!

We stopped back at Ile Forchue on our way back to St. Martin, and were thrilled when Farhaven pulled in to the anchorage.  We hadn't see Tom and Lesley for a couple of years and it was such fun to have them over for dinner.  They had been sailing overnight and were ready for a break.

Back on the French side of the Simpson Bay lagoon, we busied ourselves with boat projects and kept busy with cruising friends.  

We left the lagoon, and spent a couple of nights at a lovely anchorage off the north-east side of St. Martin - Islet Pinel.  We departed there before dark on evening, and sailed overnight to Antigua, arriving at Jolly Harbour after daylight.  

After a few days on a mooring, we moved in to the Marina, and Lady got a good fresh-water wash, as we prepared for visitors.

Christmas was uneventful - we went to the beach.

Mary and Steve Snider arrived from Tulsa after awful delays in Dallas caused by weather and minus one of their bags.   They were able to get swimsuits and flip-flops at a store in the marina complex, and we departed and spent a quiet night at Deep Bay.

We headed to Barbuda and were able to get a taxi tour of the island and a guided boat ride around the Magnificent Frigatebird sanctuary.

After a couple of days there, we returned to Antigua, one long tack took us around the windward side of the island, and we anchored in Nonesuch Bay.

We did not celebrate the end of the year, but on New Years Day, Steve and Mary treated us to a delicious fresh wahoo lunch at Harmony Hall - thanks so much!  We had tried to catch wahoo going to and from Barbuda, but only managed to catch a barracuda which we released.

We went on to Falmouth, and walked over to English Harbour, where we specially enjoyed the museum.

Steve and Mary left us in Falmouth Harbour, and after they spent a couple of days in Saint John's, retrieved their lost luggage in San Juan, and returned to Tulsa safely.

We continued to hang on the anchor in Falmouth - a great start to 2013.

What new adventures wait for us?

Happy New Year to all our friends!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recovering In Hampton

Hampton, VA

37 01.32N 076 20.61W

Monday June 4th, 2012

Such a lot has happened over the past month.  I've been able to post using our Single Side Band ("SSB") radio, but wasn't able to send pictures, only text.

We returned to Lady in the British Virgin Islands on May 8th, and Nina and Bob arrived on the 10th.  We provisioned, prepared meals and even went out and spent a couple of days at anchor in Benures Bay, where we did a lot of snorkeling and had fun.

At Nanny Cay, we had a couple of fun evenings with the "Salty Dogs" and made friends with the other boats who were going to make the passage together.

We departed May 15th.

The weather was good, but tropical storm Alberto was forecast as crossing our path, so we diverted north, rather than heading north-west to Hampton, and made landfall in Bermuda on Sunday, May 20th.

After clearing customs, we took advantage of dry weather to explore ashore for a bit, had an expensive lunch at the White Horse, and wandered around Saint Georges, a town established about four hundred years ago.  Here we are in the town hall.

Nina must have been a bad girl.

There was a very interesting park in the area, dedicated to the founder to St Georges, George Somers, who was ship-wrecked in Bermuda, and established the first settlement.

We found a nice grocery store and a laundromat.  There were gift shops and a Post Office. 

We had drinks with the guys on Il Sogno that night.  Thanks, Craig.

The following day it rained.  Not too much wind, but a lot of rain after a pleasant start to the day.  Went to Windward for drinks.

More rain on Tuesday after we shopped for groceries and did laundry.

Russ and Mary from Windward came over for dinner.  

Wednesday was a lovely day.  We purchased public transportation tickets (the only bargain we found in Bermuda, $20 per person for a two day pass, all buses, all ferries) and took the bus from St Georges to Hamilton.  

Every building is painted a different color.  The roads wind around and across the islands (173 of them!) and the sea is almost always visible.

In the city, there was lots of traffic and tourists.  A cruise-ship was tied up at front street.  We looked at shops but didn't buy anything but another expensive lunch.

After lunch we decided to take the ferry over to the dockyard at the eastern end of the island.  We rode past lots of gorgeous homes on the thirty-minute ride.  There were another two cruise ships at the Dockyard - no wonder the buses and ferries were so crowded.  There was also a beautiful tall ship - the Spirit of Bermuda.  She was preparing to depart for Operation Tall Ships taking place in Norfolk VA the second week-end in June.

We explored around the dockyard area - lots of old buildings ready for re-development.

The ferry was an hour late leaving because of all the cruise-ship crowds.  

We were pleasantly surprised to find that the "Harbour Nights" event was going on back in Hamilton.  Vendors set up food booths, art booths, jewelry booths - kind of like a lovely street festival.  Musicians changed every half hour and it was a lot of fun.  It was great to see so many families having a good time.  We found a booth selling chicken rotis for our dinner and enjoyed the music of the Penn Glee Club. We were tired riding the bus back to Saint Georges after such a full day.

Thursday was a national holiday - Bermuda Day.  After having seen all the folks camping out by the side of the road ready for the parade in Hamilton, we decided to stay put for the day.  It was overcast and rainy at times, and not much wind.  The "traditional" dinghy racing in the Saint Georges harbour entertained us.

Thursday was spent preparing for departure.  More laundry and provisioning and clearing our of Bermuda.  

We departed early Friday morning.  No wind, as Chris Parker had forecast.  But what a GREAT job he did with the forecasting.  

We motored.  At times there was not a ripple in the ocean.  We recorded birds we saw, mostly Great Shearwaters and White-Tailed Tropicbirds so that we could report them to eBird once we got Internet.  One day we saw Portuguese Man O'War jellyfish about every two or three minutes for a couple of hours.  We ate well (but not jellyfish). 

Sunday's excitement was Bob going forward to bring the diesel jerry-cans back to the cockpit so that we could transfer diesel to the main port tank.

We looked for a green flash every night, but no luck this trip.

Finally, after two and a half days of motoring, the wind came up.  What a relief it was not having to listen to that (very reliable Yanmar) engine going non-stop.

Dolphins came to visit us.  They seemed to be as pleased to see us as we were to see them.

We crossed the Gulf Stream.

On Wednesday May 30th, Cape Henry was in sight.

 

The Navy was departing as we entered the Chesapeake Bay.

 

We breakfasted on all the remaining eggs, knowing that Customs and Immigration would not permit them to be imported to the country.

Our older son, IV, had made arrangements for us to tie up at the Hampton Public Piers - same place we departed from last November.  Customs and Immigration arrived, and soon we were "officially" back in the USA!

Hampton was having a festival - Blackbeard's Pirate Celebration, so we could only stay at the public piers for a couple of nights.  We did a lot of laundry.  

Pirate ships started to arrive.

Our Caribbean 1500 friends from Dancing Lizard, Andre and Marie-Claude arrived the same afternoon we did.  Such fun to go out to dinner.  Bob and Nina treated us to a lovely meal at Conch and Bucket the first night we were there, and then all six of us went out for sushi the next night.

We ran in to our younger son, Mike, on our way back to the boat after dinner.  He and his crew of Artemis II were at the Hampton Yacht Club for the Southern Bay Race Week regatta.

Nina and Bob left us Friday morning.  What great crew they were.  Always cheerful and willing to do everything needed.  We wish them the best with the re-fit of Moondance and hope to meet up with them again later this year, either afloat or in Tulsa.  Thanks for everything!

Our friend Kate used to be dock-master at Hampton Public Piers.  She no longer works for them, but came by and invited Lady and Dancing Lizard to move over to the docks at her condo - Georgetown condo, between the public piers and the Hampton Yacht Club.  We did that on Friday.  

Friday evening, MIke invited us over to the regatta party at the Hampton Yacht Club, a short walk from Georgetown condos.  The weather was rainy, heavy rain for much of the evening.  The band played great dance tunes, and the hamburger and chicken dinner was delicious.  Despite the wet, everyone was having a super time.  We had got our food when the security guard stopped the band, and told everybody to leave the party tent and move into the club house.  Once in the club house, he proceeded to herd everyone away from the big picture windows that overlook the harbor, and we all squeezed back into the corridor behind the bar.  At one point I looked behind me, and could see all the boats in the slips leaned over at more that 45 degrees.  An emergency exit opened and a gentleman in front of Mike was being sucked out of the building.  Mike grabbed him and Charlie grabbed Mike.  The windows of the club exploded inwards as the tornado struck the building.

Mike found my missing flip-flop.  We left.  The boat yard was a mess.  Boats flung off their trailers and toppled on each other.  Cars with windows smashed.  Trees broken and up-rooted.

Back at our dock, MC and Andre had been aboard Dancing Lizard.  A very scary experience for them.  Their jib was shredded, and the wooden toe-rail was damaged from hitting the dock.  

Lady had a messed-up bimini and dodger, some bent stanchions, the stern-light is gone and the Oklahoma flag was shredded. 

Mike and Meghan came back aboard quite late.

Saturday was spent cleaning up.  Mike's regatta was canceled, so he and the crew were going to take Artemis II back to Baltimore.  Amazingly there was no damage to Artemis II, or to any of their vehicles.

You can see lots of pictures and reports of the damage from Hampton Yacht Club's web-site.

Kate lent us her truck, and we and MC and Andre were able to go shopping for provisions.  We found the missing piece of wind-vane on the way!

The pirate festival continued.  

Lots of visitors to the town, a fireworks display Saturday night and a re-enactment fo a pirate sea-battle on Sunday afternoon.  We wandered around the festival and saw lots of the people dressed up for the celebration.

Dancing Lizard left - headed home to Lake Champlain and Montreal.

Sunday evening we launched the dinghy.  We saw lots of storm damage, but the most important thing was that Sapphire arrived in port.  Linda and Bill were the organizers of the Salty Dog Rally, so we were pleased to welcome them back to the USA.  They had been delayed twice because of self-steering/autopilot issues.

We had dinner with them Monday night.

From here, we are headed north up the Chesapeake, planning on joining a Catalina 470 rendezvous next weekend and stopping in Annapolis next week to repair the damage.  We hope to be in Bristol Rhode Island for July 4th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marsh Harbour, Guana Cay, Green Turtle Cay

Abaco Islands

Tuesday June 7th to Wednesday June 15th, 2011

We enjoyed snorkeling on Sandy Cay so much, we decided to stay at Lynyard Cay a second night, and went snorkeling there again on Tuesday.  

We also got some boat projects done.  The anchor chain tend to get wound up and kinked after a lot of use.  I thought that the way to un-ravel it would be to go out to deep water, let out all 300 feet of chain and let the anchor untwist on its own.  Charlie informed me that although that seemed logical, he doubted that the windlass would be able to handle the weight of all that chain and the 66lbs of anchor.  His solution was for us to motor slowly backwards in about 20 feet of water, laying out the chain on the bottom as we went, back down on it and then to winch it back in.  It seems to have worked to far.  

He also changed the fuel filters and fixed the MOB (man overboard) light and whistle that are attached to the horseshoe buoy that we hope we never have to use.

He lost a bridge on his teeth chewing gum.  He wanted to wait until he got back to Tulsa to get it fixed, but the Medical Officer decided that she did not want to be responsible for working on aching teeth at sea, and found a dentist in Marsh Harbour listed in the cruising guide.  We were out of cell phone range, but Wednesday we managed to reach the dentist by phone as we motored back towards Marsh Harbour, and made an appointment for that afternoon.  We anchored in the harbour without going aground, and found the dentist who was able to cement the bridge back.  We also were able to purchase additional engine oil at the Tru-Value/Napa hardware store.  

Dinner out that night at the Jib Room was fun.  We met another cuiser, enjoyed watching a boat-load of boy-scouts and seeing the locals enjoying barbecued ribs.  A rake and scrape band started up, and the kids enjoyed the limbo competition.

Thursday we moved over to Guana Cay, where we picked up a mooring, and stayed there on Friday when the low pressure area finally arrived.  This weather event had been threatening the Caribbean for a week of so, hanging around Jamaica, The Cayman Islands and Cuba; it had sent friends that we hope to meet in the Abacos back to Florida before we arrived.  It rained and rained, all day.  One station on the Abaco Cruisers' Net reported Saturday that they had received 4 1/2 inches of very welcome rain.  We did more boat projects  - freezer defrost, change bulb in instrument panel, fix struts for solar panel - as we watched the rain.  We have full side-curtains that keep a lot of the weather out of the cockpit, so we weren't cooped up down below, like some of the other boats around us.

Our solar panels don't charge the batteries during that kind of weather, so Saturday after the sun was shining again, we motored through Loggerhead Cut and Whale Cay Cut, anchored off Crossing Bay for a walk on the lovely beach by Treasure Island.  The wind was from the west, a rare direction in the Abacos.  All of the favoured anchorages are to the west of the eastern-most islands, but those were rather exposed with this wind direction.  The forecast was for more wind from west, north and south in the coming days, so we chose to go in to White Sound in Green Turtle Cay where it was calm and sheltered.

We had a drink at the bar at Bluff House, and found out that the resort had recently changed hands, and they they had no fuel at present.  The Green Turtle Club marina did have fuel, so we motored over there on Sunday, and filled up with diesel and water, ready for the trip back to USA.  Monday was the Whit Monday holiday here, so most of the businesses in the lovely town of New Plymouth were closed when we dinghied in there for a walk, but we were able to purchase a few groceries and ice cream and get lunch after our walk.

Here's a picture of a tree that was not doing very well when we were here two years ago.

And a picture of that same tree now!

This week the bank is only open one day.  There is no ATM, so visitors better bring all the cash they need with them.

We walked through town to Gillam Bay and had a nice walk along the beach.  I found some shells on the lovely sand-banks.

It was flat calm so after parking the provisions we had purchased back on Lady, we took the dinghy around the northern end of GTC and anchored on the Atlantic, reef-side of the island for snorkeling.  

Tuesday (Flag Day!) we did boat projects in the morning, and took dinghy around to snorkel off Pelican Island.  We found a pretty reef there which at one point had two moorings on it, but only the lines remain...the floats seem to have been gone for quite a while.

We have been checking weather on the Internet (Passage Weather is a favorite) and on our Sirius weather, and it looks like we have favourable winds forecast for tomorrow for a few days that will enable us to depart the Bahamas and sail to the United States.  We have off-shore meals prepared and we'll go to town today to clear out of the Bahamas.

We expect to depart Green Turtle early tomorrow (Thursday) morning, so that we can get out of White Sound at high tide, exit the Sea of Abaco at Whale Cay, and head north for Beaufort, North Carolina.  We should arrive there Saturday or Sunday.

 

 

Conception Island to Marsh Harbour

The Bahamas

Thursday June 2nd, 2011 to Friday June 3rd, 2011

Completion of voyage from Providenciales, Turks and Caicos

We awoke early after a great night's sleep, and at 0635 Charlie was pulling up the anchor and we motored out of the bay, past the Southampton Reef.  By shorty after 0700, sails were pulling and motor was off.  A rain squall threatened us, so first we reefed the main, then as we saw gusts up to 28 the main was furled some more.  It rained heavily for a while, but by 0800 the rain was ending, and we were back to sailing under full sail.  Soon the sun was shining brightly.

We saw a single dolphin that morning, but it didn't stay around long enough to get its picture taken.

Our noon position was 24 30.330N 075 12.621W, east of Cat Island with a COG of 339 and SOG 7.2 knots.

It was an ideal passage-making day.  At times our speed was over 8 knots, and we had sunshine all afternoon.

Hajin Nagoya passed us at 1445, She was headed for the Panama Canal.

Half an hour later, Tropic Sun appeared on the AIS, destination St. Thomas, and a couple of hours later he headed up 10 to give Garnet Ace a wide berth as she headed for Cartagena.

We reefed again; our speed remained over 8 knots, so before dark we reefed more, and as the sun set at about 1945 our speed was still 7.5.

Again , we took turns napping during the night, the person on watch alone wearing their life-jacket and tether hooked to the boat.

Lady slowed as the wind lightened up around 2245 and Charlie shook our the reefs unaided, leaving me asleep.

It was another moonless night, but there were lots of stars, an occasional shooting star, and the occasional lights of air traffic.

Next morning, we headed in to the North Bar Channel way-point.  The tide was rising, so with wind and current in the same direction, it seemed safe enough to enter through that channel and we still had waypoints in our chart plotter from entering this channel 2 years ago. We had come 182 natuical miles in 25 hours all under sail except when leaving the anchorage. Not bad! We motored around a couple of sand-banks, and dropped anchor off uninhabited Tilloo Cay, where we had another nap, swim and brunch, before heading to Marsh Harbour.

It was Labour Day, a national holiday in the Bahamas, so the usual dock hand at Harbour View Marina was off.  The person who assisted us was confused about the tidal situation, and at 1400 we were stuck in the mud, trying to get into our slip.  We eventually got in, with the help of other cruisers on the dock, long lines, using the windlass to winch us into the slip together with full power on the engine. 

By 1730 Customs and Immigration officials had come by to separate us from $300 and admitted us to The Bahamas.  The officials were imoressed that we had sailoed from Turks and Caicos to Abaco in three days.  The boat was washed, as was the laundry.

A lovely dinner ashore, and an early night in bed.

 

Western Puerto Rico

May 17th to May 19th, 2011

Parguera to Boqueron (click to see map)

While we were anchored in Gilligan's Island earlier this week, we noticed a white blimp in the sky (1,000 feet?).  I had thought it was near Ensenada, but as we sailed to Parquera, it was obvious that it was a lot bigger and a lot further away than that. We think that this is part of our national defense system, and also used to monitor potential smugglers of people and drugs.  We've seen similar blimps in Key West and El Paso, TX.

Tuesday morning when we  left Parguera it had been raining all night, and more storms were forecast for the day.  I noticed that the blimp had been lowered to its ground tether, so after pulling the anchor, we motored over to see if we could get a better view.   If you zoom in on the Google map link above, you can even see it there!  You can also see its shadow and the docking station.  Here's a link to an article on  contemporary blimps.  If any readers find others, please let us know!  Charlie thinks it was grounded because of the weather. So, if you want to smuggle anything, do it in a thunderstorm when the blimp's "asleep".

Anyway, after delaying our departure waiting for another storm to pass, we took off.  The weather came in again, and we had a very rainy ride.  Great sailing, but we needed the foul-weather gear as well.  We anchored in Boqueron harbor about 1400 and watched more rain fall all afternoon.

Wednesday dawned bright and clear so we headed ashore.  One of our guide books refers to Boqeron as the Key West of the Caribbean.  I don't think so.  This "fixer-upper"  looks to me more like a "knocker-downer".  

Looks like the local catholic church is predicting the end of the world next Saturday.

Boqueron has a lovely bay and a very nice beach.

The village is supposedly a popular spot for Puerto Ricans to party.  On Wednesday morning, however, most everything was closed.  We saw lots of empty roadside stands, and most of the dining establishments were cerrado.  Hardly anybody walking around.  

We were finally able to get some lunch at Mr. Mofongos.  Three men were working on make a new concrete floor for the Bar/Grill across the street, and a small boy was busy with his truck in their sand-pile.

All the street poles in Boqeron are painted with this attractive sail logo.

We ended up at El Shamar, adjacent to the dinghy dock, where we met another cruiser.  This latest part of our cruising we have met very few other cruisers.  Most of the people we met in the other islands are either on their way to Grenada and Trinidad, or already back in the USA.

We shared the dinghy dock with about three other vessels that day.  This local fishing boat's decorations caught our eye.  

On our way back to Lady, it was amusing to see that each of this abandoned pier's piling has been taken over by a tern.  

Later in the afternoon it poured with rain again, but after a couple of pretty rainbows, we had a lovely sunset.

Thursday, May 19th we'll leave Boqueron, and go about 20 miles north to anchor off Punta Ensenada.  It looks quite remote.  The next day we'll head west and north around to the north coast of the Domincan Republic.  That'll probably take another couple of days.