Sailing with friends

Had an opportunity to crew for an old acquaintance on passage on their families cat. A 38 foot Lagoon, EYRA. We went from Marsh Harbor in the Bahamas to Wilmington NC. It was about 500 miles of off shore sailing up the gulf stream. Had very nice conditions and a very nice passage. If only they were all that easy.

Some dolphins came to play. Stayed for quite a while. Then came back later for another round. All in all they were with us for about an hour. About 10 of them. It was quite something.

This is John with a nice tuna he battled with. It put up quite a fight. We also caught several other tuna, a mahi, and a couple of barracudas.

All for now.

peace

M

Escape from St Thomas and a home for the summer.

Been a while. Sorry. WiFi not so hot in most of the places we were at. Back home now so I will update.

Joined by the usual suspects, Merc and Bob, we left St Thomas bound for Les Saints. A small group of islands just off of Guadeloupe. And proceeded to get our brains bashed in for the next 48 hours. 30 knots on the nose a 3-6 foot seas. What a bash. No sleep for a couple of days on that one. What fun!

But WOW! Les Saints is incredible. Idilic little french town. Very few cars. All bikes and scooters. Locals were very friendly and there was about zippo english spoken there. Also no locks. Not on the bikes, the scooters, dingies for the most part. I felt like a crud for locking up my dingy. Like I didn't trust anyone. The stores close from noon till about 1:30. But close is kind of a miss-statement. They just leave. The store is open. All the stuff is out. Just no body to take the money. Everyone just goes out and has lunch and visits. This place is WAY CHILL. Absolutely loved it there.

Off season. Cuts down on the crowds.   A lot.    Lounge chair at the pool?   No prob man!

Beautiful little town. Loved it. Going back for sure. I could spend a month there.

Only one problem. We kept getting these drinks that tasted like gasoline. I mean awful stuff. Same bad taste no matter what you ordered. Then finally figured it out. They don't have Rum drinks. They drink Rhum. And they drink it like water. Horrible stuff. 100 proof. And they sell it by the case in the grocery. Stuff will knock you on your butt. Local moonshine really. Made in Guadeloupe. Use with extreme caution.

Scooters everywhere.

So here is how chill this place is. This was a demolition and construction permit that was posted on a gate and a construction site. Just a hand written note. Try that one out in your home town. What a cool vibe.

This was a pretty cool house we went by on the way to the beach.  Which was also very cool.   Am I using the word cool to much?    Its just that this place is SO COOL!!!

OK. Yes. I am a dork. We dingied over to an adjacent island to snorkel and found this swing on the beach. Pretty nice snorkeling as well. Saw some marine life we had never seen before. And I kind of thought I had seen it all.

And she is a dork, too.

So we are exploring this little island. There is a very rugged old beat up cement dock there and a hurricane destroyed old hotel. And, as it turns out, one resident. This french guy comes down the path wearing his best, go to church meeting, banana hammock, carrying these ceramic masks. Sells them I guess. To who? Don't know. Must be maybe 11 people a year stop by.

This is where he lives. He hung up the masks and went back up the hill. No idea what the inside looks like. We just kind of looked at each other and said hmmm. How about that.

Someones pride and joy at one time. A little rough now. No idea how long it had been there. Very typical of the local, hand built, wooden skiffs.

Dawn and Merc were on a mission. Find a place for dinner where we can get an explanation of the menu in english. Bertrand, the owner spoke quite good english and they served up a dinner that gets about eleven stars on a scale on one to five. It was spectacular. Had a blast. And a nice buzz.

Then, unfortunately, it was time to move on. We were bound for St Lucia where Vivo would spend the summer in a marina in Rodney Bay. And got our brains beat in again. This whole season it seems wherever we want to go is up wind and into the seas. 24 hour bash. No sleep. But didn't break anything and got there.

So we go to do the island tour. Not really a whole lot to see on St Lucia. Very nice people though. Here we are in the caldera of an active volcano. Sulfur fumes, bubbling pools of 350 degree water, the works. To bad Paige was not with us. I can just hear her now.......   oh great.....  another pool of boiling water.

This is a well spring of 100 degree water. Is it just me or does this make you have to P?

This entire creek was 100 degree water. It looks so cool and refreshing and then you stick your hand in it. The whole area is a geo thermal hot spot. I hope it never goes the way of Monserrat. Their volcano erupted and about destroyed the whole island.

So then we get to the famous mud baths. I had never heard of them and was really not expecting it. They say they are better than the ones in Turkey or Israel. But I had never heard of those either. I guess I'm just not in the mud bath crowd. So the volcano boils up the mud in the 350 degree pools and spills it down hill where it cool to about 100 degrees. Which is still frigging hot. When you put your foot into this pool here you instinctively recoil. Its that hot.

They say that every mud bath treatment will take 10 years off your age. And if you stay to long you will turn into a "Bay-Be". Diapers and all. I think Bob was close to that stage anyway. So we got muddy! Kind of weird and fun at the same time.

Joke was on us though. This S%$T does not really come off. Your left with this film of mud for days. It was in the showers on Vivo. The beach towels were trashed. Dawn still had it on her when she went home. I think I might still have some in a crack or two somewhere.

Check out these babes!

This adventure is all about the places you see and the people you meet. Seen some beautiful places and met some interesting people. To say the least.

So anyway......    meet the Garner family. From Green Bay Wisconsin. In Vivos dingy to go grocery shopping at the next bay over from the marina. This is in St Lucia.

Hmmmm you think. Not the typical family from Green Bay Wisconsin.

So heres the story. Grab a bevy. Its a long one. This 50 foot cat called One World pulls into Les Saints a day or two after us. Kids all over the place. More activity on that boat than the rest of the anchorage combined. By chance met the parents at the dingy dock that evening and they came over for a drink. They are on a three year circumnavigation of the globe with their 4 kids. Three adopted and one biological. The adopted are from Vietnam, India and Ethiopia. They left the next day for Dominica and we never expected to run into them again. Anyway, fast forward, now I'm in St Lucia, Dawn, Merc, and Bob head back to Chicago and I stay to put the boat to bed. That evening who comes passing by my slip? One World. Went to dinner with them that evening at a local restaurant. Had a lot of fun and got to know them and the kids a bit. Next day we took our dingy to the grocery and the local food court for lunch. I am guessing that by now both have recovered from the visit. These kids are a whirlwind. I bet they still talk about it there in St Lucia though.

So, you may know that I like to post about food. So here is one. When we were grocery shopping the kids were scheming up a way to make candy sushi. Make a rice crispy treat, but a gummy bear on it, and wrap it in a fruit roll up. Good plan. Very creative. Would have worked out fine except for the lack of gummy bears and fruit roll ups. So they adapt the plan, like good sailors,  and call for a dipping into melted chocolate. I say its going to look like poop. So later that evening the two girls deliver a sampling to Vivo of their creation. Why, that doesn't look like poop at all does it. They were very proud of it. It was, and remains, one of the nicest things I have ever been given on board Vivo.

They invited me to join them on a sail down island to go to a little fishing village that they knew of that held a Caribbean style fish fry every friday night. They were heading to Grenada and this was a stop along the way. They shut down the whole town for this every friday event. Had a blast. We were the only boat in the anchorage and when we came in in the dingy it seemed like about 1/2 the town came out on the dock to greet us. They are 98% friendly and 2% Bat S$%T crazy. The kids got lessons in net repair from some local fishermen. And steel drum that night. Note the Vivo Tee shirt. I gave them to the four kids and they will sail around the world with them.  Had a blast. It was really sad leaving them. Got to really like that family over those couple of days. Big group hug and tears in the middle of the street. Locals must wonder what the heck that was all about. But, I'm telling ya, they are NUTS!!! But in a good way.

And Garner family, if you ever read this blog, remember.....   Its not my fault, I said to throw poop on her!    Miss ya.   Be safe.

Getting back to Vivo that night was a whole nother issue. They were going south and I needed to get back north. I probably used up a little bit of sailors luck on that one. Caribbean version of planes trains and automobiles. Thats a long one and maybe I'll post it another time.

So back at the marina.....   They are having sailboat races. These little guys are darting all over the place. Pretty neat. Watched them for hours. They do use a wee bit of sailor language though. "Room at the mark MotherF$%er" "Yield! Yield! MotherF$%er". I love sailors.

I have seen some really strange things people float around on down there. And this is one of them for sure. This is at the dingy dock in Rodney Bay, St Lucia. They came putting in one afternoon. From where, I have no idea. Would have loved to have met them!

All for now. Actually this will be it for a while I think. Probably not back to the boat till august or maybe even November. Hope she is still there!

peace

M

Been a while. WiFi in St Thomas is so slow that its really not possible to post pictures. Also not to good for Paige doing school work. But I'm at home for a couple weeks and bored out of my gourd so I will kill some time and get this thing up to date.

So......    Look at the coconuts on this gal!!!

Hanging out with the Ex Pats in Puerto Rico we were introduced to one of their favorite drinks. Coconut water and scotch on the rocks. So good, and so good for you, was the running joke. But it turns out to be true.

10 Reasons Why Coconut Water is Good For You

1. It has absolutely no cholesterol – this is in addition to being a low-calorie drink.
2. Coconut water is identical to blood plasma. In World War II and even today in very rare cases in countries, coconut water has saved lives by being used as an intravenous hydration fluid instead of the standard IV fluid.
3. Despite being naturally sweet, it is extremely low in sugars.
4. It is low in sodium compared to energy drinks and high in chloride compared to sports drinks.
5. Regulates and controls the body’s temperature and boosts the immune system.
6. It boosts your metabolism, which is an important step in a person’s weight loss process.
7. It is a natural isotonic beverage i.e. is the perfect drink to rehydrate your body and replenish lost electrolytes.
8. It cleanses and settles the digestive tract by actively killing intestinal worms that makes for easier digestion and less chances of digestive illnesses.
9. Coconut water controls vomiting making it extremely important for those suffering from ailments that cause vomiting like typhoid, malaria or fevers.
10. In case you haven’t noticed a distinct connection between the last few benefits –coconut water is an excellent drink for hangovers.

The last one is particularly applicable if you hang out with the Ex Pats in Puerto Rico. I miss those guys! 

Number 8 is interesting. Kill the worms and catch a buzz at the same time. Does it get any better than that?

So did you learn something new? I did.

Another food picture.....

Made these lobster quesadillas and they were so pretty I just had to take a picture. And pretty tasty as well.

After Puerto Rico we hung out on At John for a few days. Most of the island is a national park and it is criss crossed with hiking trails. We really like St John.

View from the top of Canneel Hill. A very steep hike. Did it every morning. Vivo is the catamaran on the left of the three cats in this picture. Spectacular 360 deg view of the islands.

Drop a few granola bar crumbs and you have a St John chicken as a friend for life. I was going to invite her to (be) dinner.

Had some friends and family down for a couple weeks. Had a blast. Did the BVIs. No wind so no sailing but we hit a new island every day.

Some of the crew on Jost Van Dyke. Home of the famous Foxies. Little beach front town. And I mean little. 10 minute walk from one end of town to the other.

Kayak got a workout on this trip.

Some of the more adventurous of the group and I went snorkeling in the caves on Norman island. You are swimming with tens of thousands of little silver siders in a cave. Its like a cloud of fish. Very cool.

Captain Jacki at the helm. Youngest skipper in the history of ViVo.

So....  Back in Crown Bay Marina I'm in the cockpit one afternoon when I hear a very loud POP! Like a gun shot. Then a whirring like the sound of twirling a rope over your head. Looking over my shoulder I see a crane that was off loading freight containers come falling down. Its lifting cables had snapped. Dropped a container and the boom arm onto the pier. I felt the concussion. 

This is the view from the cockpit on Vivo. Its about 150 yards to where the crane came down. The red roof building at the lower left end of crane boom is the fuel depot. Missed it by maybe 70 feet. A three foot section of a cable winding landed at the marina office. Thats a couple hundred yard flight. One of the office staff went to pick it up and it was so hot it burned them.

Zoomed in shot from Vivo. A miracle no one was hurt. Red roof is the fuel dock. The cage looking projection on the crane is the operator. Bet he had to change his drawers after this one. All the cables came crashing into the cage. The boom jumped out of its attachment pivot points and slid down destroying the ladder that the crane operator uses to go up and down. Not sure how he got down but I'll bet we went straight for a coconut and scotch on the rocks!

Destroyed the shipping container. Blew the sides right off of it.

Took a couple of days and two cranes working in tandem to get the boom down. All shipments to and from St Thomas were on hold till they got this straightened out.

Got lucky this time. Look at the stack on the left. See the silver cylindrical tank in the middle of the stack? Don't know what was in it but I'm glad its not the one they dropped. It had some mean looking hazardous contents decals on the end of it.

All for now. Next up will be a trip down island to St Lucia. Vivos summer home for this summer.

peace

M

                                            ESCAPE FROM PUERTO RICO!!!

Made it out. Winds died down saturday so the seas laid down a bit. Made a run for it sunday. Had 30 knots on the nose. 3-5 foot seas. Made it to St Johns where we are happily swinging on a mooring ball. But we really liked PR and will be going back some day.

Sunset over St Thomas looking from St John.

Really slow wifi I'm stealing from shore here. To slow to download any more.

                 WE ARE NEVER GOING TO GET OUT OF PUERTO RICO!!!!!

Woke up this morning to sustained winds in the upper 30s. Saw 48 knots at one point. Thats 55 miles per hour peeps! Force 10 on the old Beaufort Scale. Its literally blowing the coconuts out of the trees. We are fine hunkered down here but I am certainly concerned for anyone out there on anchor. There must be boats dragging all over the Caribbean today. Seas are getting to about 10 foot.

But tragedy did strike. It with with a heavy heart that I inform that one of my flip flops made a break for it last night. Blew off the dock and is probably 100 miles from here by now. Sunning itself on a beach in the Dominican Republic. Big old grin on its little flip flop face. Made it to freedom. I walked with a boat hook for hours around the marina hoping to find it afloat somewhere. Tears welling up. Going to put up some posters but I really think its over. That was a really good flip flop, too. It will be missed.

Poor quality pix but you get the idea. Crap load of wind! Didn't catch the 48 knot show on film but we have been in the 30-40 range all day. The rigging is a howlin!!

Other that that not much going on.    So lets talk about one of my favorites.....    Food.

Puerto Ricans really like their food and they are very good at it. Actually I don't remember a meal here that was not at least good if not excellent.

This is Ceviche. Raw fish and veggies cooked by the citric acid of lemons and limes. Delish! Order this at Fat Rosies (RIP) and you would get about 1/2 cup of it. This must have been over a pound of fish. Pretty cheap, too. Just a few bucks.

This is a local specialty I have never seen anywhere but Puerto Rico. Mufungo. Cook up some plantain or yucca, mash it up, add lard and spices and deep fry it. Did that make your arteries winch. It should. Its that good. Makes a nice bowl for any and all kinds of different fillers. Every place does it a bit differently. Its very good, and only about 13,000 calories per serving. If you eat to much if it you get Mufungo Butt. And then you go to Walmart. Its like a convention there.

But remember. Your on Island Time Mon. The place where we had those two aforementioned dishes was kind enough to provide some rest areas where you can nap while waiting for your lunch. And then catch a second nap while your waiting for your check. But what else does an old retired fart have to do with his day anyway. Little slice of windy paradise!

And for my buddy Bob. Met a local named Richard who sailed tornados in the 1979 olympics representing PR. If we ever got you two hooked up.....   oh boy.   Does he have some stories.


All for today. Going out to see what has blow off the boat now.

peace

M

Maybe, instead of Sailing 101 we should call the blog....   Sitting in a Marina 101.  

Write your plans in the sand they say. Then sit, and watch them blow away.    Old sailing adage.      Means make whatever plans you want but the weather is going to be the boss.

We had intended to leave for the BVI after Dawn got back on Wednesday. Had last dinner with neighbors. Returned borrowed GPS. Said last good byes and......    next morning....   30 knots on the nose...  6-8 foot seas.   No go.  Christmas winds have come late and stuck around. Its been 20 knots constant with gusts up to high 30s. Seas are going to get to 10 feet. Or as my friend Bob would say...   she's blowing stink out there!   Were here for a few more days at least.

But, there are certainly worse places to be blown into. We really like it here anyway. Kind of running out of things to do though, and with Paige being home for the next couple of weeks, we don't need the wifi and we were looking forward to getting out and actually doing some sailing.

So we set off to explore more of Puerto Rico. Got the east end down pretty well.  Heard about a surf town called Rincon on the west end. Supposed to be laid back, good vibe, like Malibu 30 years ago. Its about as far as you can go to the other end of the island without hitting salt water. So off we go. GPS, (the re-borrowed GPS), says 1 hour 45 minutes. So 3 hours later we arrive. Have I mentioned that driving here is a bit hazardous to ones health? I think I have. Anyway the center of town, which is not quaint at all, is under construction, and it is complete chaos. We finally find our way out to the surf areas. With no help at all from the virtually useless GPS. Nice spot. No waves. They need a north swell and its from the east right now. Had a not very good lunch at a beach bar and wandered into  couple of surf shops. Not much there that's for sure. Went to find our hotel.  We had reservations in the 5th ranked place in town. Top 4 were booked. Seems the rating scale drops off pretty quick here. It is a not very nice looking place in a not very nice looking neighborhood. Abandoned cars in the next lot over. To far from the beach to walk. To far from town to walk. Safely anyway. Cant even see the water. So we bag the whole plan and set off on another. Didn't even take any pictures of the town to post. Sorry.

So we hit "home" on the GPS and start following the route. Realizing at some point that it is taking us down to the south to get home. The route there was along the north side. No idea why it changed its mind. We didn't use the circumnavigate button! We were going to go to some caves the next day so to try to salvage what we could of the original plan Dawn starts looking for a hotel somewhere near where the caves are. Well, there are none. The caves are in the boonies. But along the south shore... Hilton. Score. Very nice. Great food. Very nice staff. Stayed there the night. They place is owned by the family that owns Don Q rum. A pretty decent local distillery. Happy hour with free rum drinks. They would pour you a bath of it if you asked.

Here is our "Ocean View" balcony. Look between the railings, just to the right of the center rail, yup, thats it. The ocean. That is literally all you could see of it. But it was a really nice place. Highly recommend it.

Set off next morning for the national park cave complex. Looks easy enough on the map. INT 2 to PR 128, up the hill, swoosh, your there. Well 128 will not even register in the GPS. Should have been a clue there. We find it and start up. Its gets very rural very fast. This is the most winding curving road I have ever been on. Road to Hana is nothing. This is 1 1/2 lanes wide and there is not a stretch of straight road more that 100 feet long. Most places you couldn't see a car 50 feet in front or behind. 20 MPH max. 2 hours of the most white knuckle driving I have ever done. And that even counts racing school! This road was really not meant to be driven. Kept thinking were almost there were almost there. We weren't. Going 20 miles an hour makes for very slow progress. We went up over the top of PR through some spectacularly gorgeous mountains. Sheer cliff down one side. Side view mirror a foot from the cliff wall on the other. Beautiful and terrifying at the same time. I was sweating bullets. Only met a couple local cars coming down the other way and thats a good thing. There is no room to pass. Cant believe we got through it with no damage on the rental car. The vistas were spectacular but there was no place to stop and take a photo. You would get plowed into if a car or truck came by. Its like the death road in Peru. We were totally spent by the time we finally found the cave park. Seems everyone gets there by coming down from the north side. NOBODY drives up from the south.

The caves were quite something. Not worth the death ride but quite impressive. Caverns that you could put a 17 story building inside of. 5th largest underground river system in the world. Seemed odd to find that on an island thats 40 by 100 miles.

Its difficult to capture in a photo. The inside of this was massive.

Thought this formation looked like the pirate captain in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. The guy with octopus tentacles for a face.

The river is down at the bottom of this sink. Those are tree roots that hang down over a hundred feet. They look like climbing ropes.

The place is also home to over 1/2 million bats. They sleep during the day. Dawn was glad to hear that. They used to export bat guano from PR. All kinds of usefull products made from it including cream for facials.  

Nice huh?     Hey hun, got you something for our aniversary.   Some bat poo to rub on your face.       Oh yeah, you'll get you some luvin 2 nite fo shur!

All for now. Just waiting on a weather window.

peace

M

Cast off the dock lines friday and went to the next island over. Vieques. Went over with a family that are liveaboards here at the marina. They have a 65 foot expedition trawler. Its a stinkpot but they are very fun people. Their daughter is Paiges age.

James on the left already in the water, Paige in the middle and Alicia on the right. It looks like she is standing on a ledge but they all jumped from the top deck. This is the Harper family boat, Buccaneer.

Paige and Alicia relaxing after a tough day at the office.

Caught a little grouper night fishing.

The next night at sunset I was tossing a line off the stern. Tossing a lure the kids gave me for Xmas. I could see the lure coming to the boat when WHAM! Something really big and FAST hit it. Its rather light gear. 10 lb line and such. It ran off about 100 feet of line in about 1 second. I tightened up the drag a bit and POW, broke the line at the reel. The pole was completely bent over double. I cant believe it didn't break. Dawn was doing dished and she though we were shooting off fireworks it was so loud when it broke. I have no idea what I hooked into but it was big and very fast. Whole thing was maybe 3 seconds from start to finish. There is some monster out there with my brand new lure and about 150 feet of 10 lb line trailing it.

Now here is a good one........

We were snorkeling on Sunday. Trying out our spiffy new swim fins. Pretty nice. Lots of trutles and rays and such. I was hovering over a ray and yelled for Dawn to come over. She looked at it and said she was not a fan. When she looked up and was kicking down she kicked a manatee. We were in about 10 feet of water. The manatee was just sleeping I guess. I hadn't even noticed it. Looks like a giant boulder. And let me tell you something about manatees. THEY ARE HUGE! So this thing that looks like a giant grey minivan is right below Dawn as she puts he head back in the water. Its maybe 5 feet down from her coming out of a sand cloud it had kicked up when Dawn booted it. Dawn is screaming through her snorkel wa izz ii wa izz ii!       Bloody histerical!     A mannanee!    I yelled back through my snokel as the thing went right under me.  (You tend to lose the Ts and Ss when you comunicate through snorkel gear.)  Its easly 8 foot long. If you were to hug it your arms wouldnt even go 1/2 way around. Must weigh 500 pounds or more. Dawn is  flipping out at this point. The manatee just goes lumbering along.  I was laughing so hard I though I was going to drown myself. It was about 1/2 hour before we got Dawn peeled off the ceiling!

Paige snorkeling after the manatee incident. Also afraid of barracudas.

Sunset over Puerto Rico. This is about when the big fish stole my gear.

So now its Monday and were cruising back. Paige was in the saloon lying on the couch and Dawn is up front getting set to get out all the lines and fenders from the anchor locker. We are approaching the entrance to the harbor which is very narrow and ugly. I do not like going through that pass. I yell for Paige to come up and help Dawn with the gear. She got up to fast, and low on blood sugar. She comes out to the cockpit and faints dead away. I heard a thud and looked down and she is out cold under the table. Eyes open, glassed over, staring up. I am pretty much committed to the pass at this point. I doubt I could have turned around without grounding. I yell for Dawn to come back, that something is wrong with Paige. She starts to come around and Dawn gets her going on some juice. We surf 5 foot waves into the harbor. We are both shaking. Scared the @#$$# out of us. And still had to dock the boat which is enough of a hand shaker on its own.

Crash landed safely. Wasn't pretty and I lost a couple points on style but didn't break anything. Back on the dock for now.

M