West
Bound on Schedule
Friday
1 March – Friday 15 March 2013
Friday
morning we leave the lovely anchorage at Honeymoon Beach to go into
Crown Bay Marina. Without the generator to charge the batteries they
have been getting low, plus it is almost time to equalize them again.
We are docked by 9:30, after checking in Steve goes over to the
machine shop to check on the progress of our part repair while I sort
out 3 loads of laundry. The laundromat is a self serve or drop off,
and I plan on doing my own laundry. I know it sounds funny but
sometimes it is nice to be able to do your own laundry. Not that I
want to spend all day at the laundromat but some things need a gentle
cycle and not a hot dryer that I think I do a better job with. I am
done & back on the boat for lunch just as Steve finished washing
the deck & cockpit. After lunch Steve gets the bus to go to Home
Depot to get new batteries for his drill and some other supplies
while I clean the inside of the boat. Steve makes another stop at
the machine shop and is glad to learn that they are open a full day
on Saturday but still not sure if we will get our part. Friday night
on board trying to finish up my last blog and get pictures posted and
the internet goes down ! Saturday morning internet back working so
finish with blog. After lunch Steve goes to the machine shop and YES
our part is ready. I guess Steve's persistence of stopping by and
pleading with them paid off. They were supposed to fix the old part
so we would have that as a spare but they did not have time for that.
The new part is substantially better built so will hopefully hold
up. Short trip up the road to the grocery store, where Steve
realizes he left his credit card at the machine shop. I had my card
so groceries bought and back on board Steve runs back to machine shop
to get his card. Goes to put new part on the generator and realizes
he also left the new belt there that they needed for sizing. One
final trip back to the shop then he puts the part on and it works!!
Steve starts putting away his tools and we get the boat ready to
leave on Sunday. Sunday we check out of the marina at 10:30 and
leave the slip shortly after making a quick stop at the fuel dock and
are out the channel leaving St Thomas by 11:30. Clouds moved in
making it a gray day but we have a great sail all the way to the
island of Culebra, (Spanish Virgin Island, Puerto Rico) and pick up
one of the last free moorings by 2:30 under clear skies behind the
reef at Dakity, the area just as you enter the bay of Ensenada Honda.
Steve calls to check us in with our local boater option cards, only
this time they ask for the boat decal # (did not ask in USVI's).
Well he had one only it was a year out of date, so they would not
check us in. They told Steve he had to go to the airport to get a
new decal #, and for some reason Steve thought they were telling him
he had to go to the airport in San Juan. Once it was clear, after
another call, that they meant the airport here in Culebra it was
better but still thought it might interfere with our travel plans.
The customs guy made it clear we could NOT leave without getting them
that # or there would be a $5000.00 fine. Steve was able to get on
line with a very slow internet connection and manage homeland
securities web site to pay his $27.50 for the new decal #. We did
not get the decal # , just an order # and when he called back they
accepted that and gave us our clearance #. And we thought other
countries were a pain to check into! We saw another boat we knew in
the anchorage so went by to say HI to Chris & Yani on Magus
then stopped by the boat Orion
to say HI to Sue the lady that does the Culebra Cruisers Facebook
page before going back to the boat for dinner. Monday we take a
dinghy ride then move up to another mooring as it was a little rolly
where we were. Defrost the freezer, have lunch then drop the genoa
sail as it had seams on the sun cover where the thread had
disintegrated and needed to be re-stitched. Even though this
anchorage is behind a big reef there is not many fish or much to look
at just rock but it was a wonderful swim after a hot day. An early
dinner and early night to get ready for a long days sail to Salinas
Puerto Rico. We are underway by 6:45 in drizzling rain and very
light winds in calm seas. Once out the channel the rain stops but
skies remain gray, passing the island the winds pick up and we are
able to sail with full main & genoa up doing 7 to 7.5 knots in
choppy seas with 1-2 foot swells. Even though I had my weathers on
when I released our lines from the mooring & still had them on, I
was cold, so went below to stay warm under a blanket, but Steve is
comfortable in his shorts & T-shirt. We had a few more showers
along the way and several wind shifts causing us to roll up the main
but manage to sail almost the whole way with just the genoa, once in
the lee of Puerto Rico the northerly swells are blocked and makes for
a smooth sail. By 3 the rain has been gone for awhile and the sun is
popping out between clouds so I bring my blanket up on deck to keep
Steve company for the last stretch. By 4:30 we are anchored in
Salinas, we get several Spanish speaking TV channels but NO internet
on the boat. Wednesday we call and make a reservation for a rental
car then go into the restaurant by the marina to use their internet.
I connect right away but Steve's computer will not allow him to
connect. He uses mine for a while then goes out to see if there is
another place open he can connect. Finds a place not open but a guy
is there so lets him use the wifi which he is able to connect with.
His computer has been acting very strange lately, think it is getting
old and overloaded. Back to the boat for lunch, and Steve gets some
warmer clothes out to pack as we saw on the news about Chicago
getting snow!! Not only has he not been away from the boat for any
length of time he has not been in cold weather in an even longer
time. Thursday we are waiting for the rental car at 10 & Sidney
gets there with the car about 10:20 quickly do the paperwork and
drive off taking highway 52 a beautiful road going from the south
side of the island up and through the mountains to the north side of
the island. First stop is a T-Mobile store as Steve's chip will not
work in his phone. He had called T-Mobile on my phone that did work
and they said just go by and get another sim card, no charge. The
young lady helping us took her time and made several calls but could
not get his phone to work. She did get his chip to work in my phone
so it was determined the phone was the problem. It had worked in
several countries since he got it just not in the US. She
recommended we go to the next town up to a place called Dr. Mobile
and maybe he could fix the problem. We get there and the problem
turns out to be that Steve's phone is just a dual band NOT a quad
band phone that he was told it was when he bought it after ours were
stolen down in Bequia. $32 later Steve has another new phone, just a
little Nokia that his T-Mobile chip works in. Now when he gets to
Chicago he can connect with his brother flying in from Dallas to meet
his sister picking them up. By this time it is 2, and Steve's flight
is at 4. Thought we would have time to stop for lunch but not
knowing the area we decide to just drop him off at the airport. He
can get something to eat there and I can find something when I make a
stop to shop. We had seen a few stores by the T-Mobile store and
also passed a “mall” on the way to the airport. I missed the
exit to the mall so thought I would just turn around, well this
beautiful highway 52 has very few exits and they are far between and
even when you do exit, getting back on to go the opposite way is NOT
just making a U-turn. I finally got back to the “mall” (think
really small version of any US mall) grabbed a big soft pretzel and
spent time looking. Time flies when you are just browsing looking
for things you might need, had some idea of things we needed but
finding / looking for what will actually work takes a lot of time. I
was out of there by 4:30, as I still had a ways to drive and did not
want to be going back to the marina the 1st
time in the dark. Finding the exit I knew would be easy, but the
little back roads to the marina are a little tricky and sure enough I
made a wrong turn and had to have some young men on bikes show me the
way. Friday I go shopping again, and I'm amazed how long it takes to
go through Wall-Mart. Good thing Steve is in Chicago as he would
have no patience for all day shopping. Back to the marina & out
to the boat by 6 again. Saturday morning into the marina for
internet, bring computer back to the boat then take the car to go to
the town of Ponce. Need to go to Customs to get Clearance papers to
go to the DR. Steve had told me it was by the area where we anchored
last time we were in PR, so I found that area with no problem, only
customs was not there. Luckily I had the phone # so was able to call
but his directions were not that clear either & I went to the
wrong place again. I saw a police car so waved them down and they
just said follow us and lead me there. Sure are some nice friendly
people in PR. Got our clearance document then stopped by another
mall on my way back to the marina. Sunday no way can I even think
about going to another store !!! Plus Sidney said since I was not
using the car that day he would not charge me for it. Went to the
marina to use internet then a quiet afternoon on the boat reading
with a couple of Manatee sightings. Meanwhile Steve is having a
wonderful visit with his brother and 4 sisters as they celebrate with
their mom for her 90th
birthday. Monday I head out early as I am going to go by the “big”
Mall of Americas on my way to the airport to pick up Steve. I get a
text from him that he was boarding on time but did not see the 2nd
text telling me there was a problem with the plane so they had to
switch planes and would now arrive 2 hours later. I had enough
shopping so was actually getting to the airport a little early, now I
was a LOT early but did not want to do any more driving or shopping
so just parked the car and went and had a drink to wait. His plane
got in around 4 and we headed back to the boat, stopping at a couple
of auto part stores to see if they had any bearings. Steve wants to
keep extras on hand for if & when we have a problem with the
generator again. Stop at the grocery store and get back to the boat
by 7:30. Tuesday the rental car needs to be turned in by 10 so we
make an early quick run to Wall-Mart to get a few things I forgot.
Back to the boat to get ready to leave on Wednesday. Wednesday we
head out around 8, but first have to go out off shore and drift so
Steve can put the dinghy down and use the snake to unclog the head
that clogged before he left. That lovely job taken care of, we get
on course to head west and have a nice sail to Boqueron for the night
to be in position to do the passage to Dominican Republic the
following day. Thursday morning we get the boat ready for the
passage, take the dinghy motor off, check oil, make dinner to be
heated up later underway, and make sure everything is secure. We
leave at noon and wind is from the SE not E & NE as predicted so
we have a nice sail for the first 4 hours. Then the winds start to
die down and we have to motor sail at first but then wind up just
motoring for the next 18 hours. Would have been nice to have had
more wind BUT the seas were calm so it made for a good passage, we
were at the fuel dock by 10 am Friday. Customs and coast guard met us
there along with the marina personal to inspect the boat for clearing
in, then the marina employee took Steve to immigration to pay our
importation fees and also took him to the bank. We got fuel and
moved over to our slip 3 hours later, one of the longest check-ins we
have ever had but they were all very nice and friendly and helpful.
So glad the weather cooperated keeping us on schedule, arriving safe
& on time. Saturday we will check out the area and see where we
can visit and do some planning for our guests arriving.
link to pictures; https://plus.google.com/photos/103931849054358791487/albums/5855800754643777761?authkey=CJmV1buch86xQw
Sounds like Steve had too much on his mind!
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