St. Thomas

Sitting and waiting on weather gave me time to do some last minute laundry along with everyone else. I did my two loads of laundry and then took them back wet to the boat as I didnt want to be gone all day waiting on the dryer. Besides I think they dried twice as fast hanging on the line. While doing laundry I looked outside and this guy plus one smaller one were hanging around. He was a pretty good size but a little skiddish when I walked up to him.

Well hello there

We also had seen many manatees hanging around the anchorage and it must be mating season for them. I think each and every one of us have a photo of our dinghies being molested by them. My photo isnt as good as some I saw but it was getting evening so it was low light.

Mr. Manatee having a moment with our dinghy

The day before we decided to depart Salinas for St. Thomas we headed out to the mangroves in order to stage for an early morning departure. We made some water and Dirk hopped in the water to clean our bottom from sitting idle for over a week. We pulled the dinghy up, had an early dinner and decided to pull anchor at 10pm to head east. We traveled through the night and arrived in Vieques (vee-aye-case) Spanish Virgin Island at 9:30 the following morning. The rest of the rat pack decided to head elsewhere so we had the anchorage just about to ourselves. During the trip while Dirk was on the front of the boat looking out for fish traps I heard and felt an odd thud then we had a terrible vibration in the steering. Dirk went below to check all systems. Everything looked good, had we run over a fish trap unseen? Well it was the middle of the night and there was no moon so it very well may have been but we couldnt do anything about it till daylight. Once it finally got daylight the vibration had eased quiet a bit so we waited to check until we were at the anchorage. I really didnt want Dirk diving under the boat while in the middle of nowhere. As soon as we dropped anchor Dirk dove in and was happy to find, well, not exactly happy but happy to know there wasnt something else wrong. He pulled a liquid laundry detergent bottle and about 2 feet of line from around the prop. Guess that fisherman lost his trap, sorry dude but next time paint it white or put reflective tape on it.

The culprit

Later that evening we were joined in the anchorage by another Rat packer, Victorias Ghost. We had not seen them since they left the Turks and Caicos. We talked on the radio a bit but neither one of us had a dinghy down so there would be no visiting in person. We promised to get together for a drink soon somewhere. The next morning at daybreak we picked up anchor and were happy to find the vibration totally gone and our speed seemed normal once again. Thankfully the fishing buoy did no lingering damage to anything. We knew that there would be a chance of scattered showers as we traveled but we didnt like seeing the squall lines we were seeing in the sky. The day was spent reefing the sail, unreefing it and dodging the numerous cells showing up on our radar.

First glimpse of St. Thomas

Later that afternoon we saw St. Thomas come into view, barely....you can see what type of day we had. We pulled into Charlotte Amalie and found a spot to anchor away from the cruise ship dock but close to the coast guard station and all the ferry traffic.

As we were entering the channel of course the skies opened up and we were forced to close the enclosure which meant limited visability. I spent those moments trying to keep the windows defogged as Dirk watched radar closely. I really dont know how people do it without, you couldnt see past the end of our bow sprit. As we approached the anchorage it did let up just a bit which was nice but I knew Dirk would still be getting soaked setting the anchor.

Our view from the boat

St. Thomas at night

As we heard later they had a record rainfall that day. Just our luck, they haven't had rain in ages and they get records the day we arrive. I have to admit, our first impression of St. Thomas was not the greatest. With all the rain all the trash and muck had been swept into the harbor and it was very murky and trashy. In the next couple days our impression improved but we have to say, we dont know what all the hype is. We went into town the following day to grab a bite to eat and just perhaps do a bit of shopping at the street fair. We took the dinghy over to the town dock and tied up to the concreat wall.

I think this dinghy has been here a while

Looks like its time to replace that cleat.

After tying and locking up the dinghy we walked across the street and were instantly bombarded with people trying to sell stuff. We both noticed that no prices were on anything as they wanted you to ask. They would say it cost this much but I will give it to you for this much. Believe me folks, I know your not giving me a deal and it cost the lower price so why not just say what it cost the first time. After finally getting to a point we couldnt make eye contact with anyone I found one place that was ok and had a cute little cruiser type purse. Just something to throw a camera in, a couple bucks and be able to cross it over your shoulder. Plus it was pretty island colors and looks a bit hippy to me. Five bucks got me that, ten bucks got Dirk a tee shirt then we scooted out of there. I know these people make their money off the cruise ship tourist but Im a cheap cruiser. I buy what I need, not what I want. We then went in search of food and found a little out of the way place called Back Street Pub. After two drinks and two burgers set us back almost $50.00, yikes............20% tip included on the bill, we hopped back in the dinghy and headed back to Renegade before we could spend anymore. While in St. Thomas we ran into a couple that we had met a couple years ago in the Bahamas and went for happy hour drinks in a much cheaper place.

Renegade dwarfed by the cruise ship

Renegade anchored in St. Thomas

Sitting at the bar keeping an eye on Renegade

We would be moving on the following day and were told that once we leave here fuel would be much more expensive. We decided to go ahead and top off at the cheaper price. Going into the fuel dock proved to be no problem at all as we squeezed between the cruise ship and a mega yacht. Actually it was wide open, just seemed that the massive ships would swallow us up.

Refueling

After filling up there were ferries picking up cruise passangers and they basically had us pinned to the dock with their back wash so we waited as they and several charter catamarans picked up customers to shuffle them off for various activities. Finally we made an attempt and had to abort as we couldnt get the rear far enough away to turn before running out of room. We spotted a man going past us in his dinghy and asked him to act as our bow thruster. He grabbed a rope from our bow and pulled us away from the dock, once we were far enough away he tossed me the rope and we made the turn and headed out. Farewell St. Thomas, next up, Jost Van Dyke, the home of the famous Foxy's and Soggy Dollar bars.

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Puerto Rico

We pulled out of the marina in Samana at about 5pm in order for the winds to die down and be able to use the night lee of the island to travel in. Apparently the winds and waves forgot to lay down and we were experiencing some pretty hefty waves. I would say some were 8 footers and very confused. We were all getting tossed about and if it were just Dirk and I we would have turned back. But if we were to make it to Puerto Rico sometime this season we had to bite the bullet and move.

Doesn't look bad but it was. Tehani in the background

Everyone talks about the Mona Passage being this ominous thing and we were worried that if it were that bad now, how much worse would it get. Must say though as we got into it the seas seemed to lay down a bit as I guess the depth of the water helped. Sunrise came and it was not a bad trip at all.

Two flying fish that weren't to lucky and landed on our deck not to be found till morning.

Finally we started seeing Puerto Rico come into view as the day was beginning to prepare for sunset. s/v Jump was in the lead, then s/v Lequesteau and us. Behind was s/v's Tehani, Mythago, Lagniappe, and Glass Slipper. Lagniappe is a couple from New Orleans, so we are keeping good company. It was night by the time we got to Puerto Real and Jump and Lequesteau were already in the harbour and radioed back to us what to expect. I was on the front with a spot light as we knew there were two unlit channel markers to look for. We found the markers and slipped in the channel setting anchor. We had made it and it was 10:15 pm so we were some tired puppies. All in all it took 29 hours getting beat up part of the way but we were here and thats all that mattered.

Our trip from Luperon to Samana to Puerto Rico from our spot tracker

Tehani came in after us and the other three decided to stay outside the harbor and wait till daylight to come in. Showers and then we fell into bed for a glorious night of sleep. The next morning we awoke and saw our friends on Dea Latis sitting on the docks at the marina. We saw our friends on Tangent whom we had not seen sice the Turks and Caicos in the anchorage next to us. Lagniappe also got a slip as they had taken so much water over the bow that their vee berth needed to be hosed out. We also took a bit of water in our vee berth also from a hatch that needs to be caulked but I anticipated it and laid out a couple beach towels to catch most of it. We had the sun shades still stowed in there so the bed was pretty well protected. It was sprayed on the walls a bit so I had some cleaning to do of my own. We would be here a couple days waiting out weather so we decided to rent a car to do some provisioning. Yay, we were in the land of Wal-Marts and fast food again. Also in the land of cheap fuel but american prices. No more cheap meals but we were happy to get some Popeyes Fried Chicken. Wow, this was the first fast food we had since December and it was goooood. Of course we rented the car on a weekend so the stores were crowded. I dont do well in large crowds and by the end of the day I was truly ready to go back to my boat. The next day we took the car again and did more shopping this time hitting a Home Depot and a mall. I can honestly say I dont miss life in a city and actually wished I was back in Luperon. On the 26th everyone had laft and moved on but us. We were the only boat left in the anchorage but we would catch up to the others soon enough. They wanted to get moving. But we needed to return the rental car on Monday. After returning the car we readied the boat to leave that afternoon. It was blowing pretty hard but we felt it would ease up as the day progressed. First we needed to put some fuel in the boat so we went over to the fuel dock and filled up our water tanks with the first free water we saw since the states and fuel. After leaving the dock we continued out the channel and were heading to anchor at Cabo Rojo to stage for the next day but once we got there we decided to stick our nose out past the point and see how the winds and waves were. It wasnt as bad as what we had experienced in recent days past so we kept going, pulling in to La Parguera at sunset right between three of the boats that had left on Sunday. Gavin from Jump helped us pick up the mooring ball and we settled in for the evening. The next morning at sunrise we let go of the ball and headed over to Gilligans Island.

Ariel of Gilligans Island. Red dot is anchor spot

The others decided to keep going to Ponce and 2 of the boats that had gone to Gilligans the day before left to head to Ponce also. We had seen reviews of Ponce and decided if we could avoid it we would. Heard it was a bit of a tight anchorage, holding not so good and the yacht club not being so nice. So we went it alone and headed to Gilligans. Dave and Tanya from Dea Latis were here and they were staying while we had some winds come through. As we were getting close to the anchorge we saw border patrol stopping to check us out. Im sure they heard us on the radio with Dea Latis and checked us out to make sure we were legal, we were as when we entered we called into customs and immigration with our local boaters option number. Apparently they were doing their job which was good. We ended up sitting at Gilligans Island for two more days and spent the days checking out the island, small as it was. It had nice swim areas and a swim through you can see on the arial I have the pic of. You snorkel against the currant one way and float on the return trip down the other side. We saw a couple iguanas, one as we walked across the island and one big one when I put my hand on the mangrove roots surprised the heck out of me. He ended up being startled too and spit before running off. In the evenings we played some Mexican train with Dave and Tanya and talked about weather windows and stops. On May. The 1st we got up at 4am so we could be out of the anchorage and underway before the days winds settled in. We made it over to Caja De Muertos and tucked into a quiet little place under the lighthouse.

Red spot is where we anchored.

Our view of the lighthouse

Since we were leaving in the morning we decided not to lower the dinghy so Dave and Tanya came over and picked us up so we could do some exploring on the island. First we went to check out the little museum and checked out a swimming beach.

Dave and Dirk checking out the beach

Photo op

This little guy sat in the cactus and was not afraid at all of us.

Afterwards we took the dinghy around the island and found the trail to hike up to the lighthouse.

Look at the size of the cacti

Made it to the top

After hiking the long steep trail to the top stopping every once in a while to pull thorns out of our feet that had gone through our shoes we made it to the top only to realize the lighthouse was a bit run down and not in working order. But it did afford some nice views from the top.

Dirks photo op

View of Renegade and Dea Latis sitting at anchor

After the trek down we took a dip in the water to try and cool off before heading back to Renegade. Beautiful little island and being during the week it was very quiet. Apparently on the weekends it can get busy. It would be an early evening as we would have a 5am wakeup to make it to Salinas the next day. Later in the evening it was beginning to get pretty rolly as the ocean swells were wrapping around the island so we picked up anchor and moved to a better protected area not far on the more northern side. About daybreak we made our way out of the anchorage and towards Salinas. We heard Lagniappe and Mythago on the radio headed our way. The marina at Ponce was very rolly and was doing more damage to dock lines and cleats then they wanted so they left. The others seemed fine and stayed. Same thing Tangent had told us also. He had paid for a week of dockage only to leave 3 days later because it was tearing his boat up. As we made our way closer to Salinas there were the customs agents and police boats once again. First up behind Dea Latis, checking them out, then rolling up behind us checking us out. Once they got the ok that we were good they sped off once again. Dang, where are these border agents in the US? These guys were on it.....we pulled into Salinas harbor and were amazed at how many boats were in here. We had not seen so many boats anchored and on morring balls since the states. We drove through the anchorge and finally decided on a spot closer to the entrance. It all seemed pretty protected in here, dropped the hook and set well.

Anchorage in Salinas

We rented a car with Dave & Tanya to do a bit more provisioning. This time we drove to Ponce to a Super Wal-Mart once again making the stop at Home Depot and grabbing some Wendy's before grocery shopping. We noticed on the way that mango trees seem to grow wild here and line the roads. Right now they are ripe and just litter the roadways and the shoulders of the road with tons of mangos going to waste. We couldnt let that go unnoticed so we found a good spot to pull over and we loaded up.

Great minds trying to figure how to get some outta the tree

Dave being the tallest deployed the stick and managed to get some greener ones out of the tree

Yummmm, what a good haul and they are so sweet

Afterwards we headed back to the marina to unload grocery items. This would only be the first of two loads as I did not get any cold items nor meats yet.

And I have to put this all away?

After tossing this load in the boat we headed back to the car to visit a grocery store down the street for meats, cheeses, breads and whatever else could not be found. Even the super wal-mart does not carry certain items that I buy easily back in the states. Oh well, certain things I will have to learn to do without. Load number two was taken Back to the boat and these items had to be put away before I could do anything else. Now the real fun of provisioning begins as not only does things in boxes have to be removed, labeled logged and stowed but all the stuff already in those lockers has to be pulled out and rotated and re inventoried. Its a day long process and that process would take place tomorrow, this evening is relax time after all that work. I stowed the bags in the salon area and put what needed to be refrigerated and frozen in the appropriate locations before we hopped back in the dinghy and went back to the marina snack bar for dinner and a couple beers. Wow, what a day...so now we do what we do best, wait. Wait for weather to hop east. Next stop, St Thomas......

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More DR

After getting back to the boat from the busy fun filled day of jumping and sliding waterfalls we settled back onboard. I dont know if it was the food we ate at the buffet or all the water I flushed through my sinuses, but I was feeling a bit queasy and decided to change and lay down a bit when we returned. I ended up sleeping till the next morning not feeling well enough to eat dinner. At least I felt better in the morning. The weather was beginning to shape up to the point we felt we could leave Luperon so we paid Papo to have our bottom cleaned, arranged for fuel and water delivery as I worked to prep meals and tie the boat down for travel. Dirk worked topside removing the sun shades he had deployed to keep us cool. We also spent the last couple days buying a few supplies to get us to Puerto Rico.

Baby seat on the back of a motorcycle

Dirk picking out a pineapple at a great shop

Fresh Bananas hang everywhere

Fresh pineapples, mangos, avocados, and peppers

On the 17th We all decided that we would go as a group to customs and immigrations to do our paperwork so at 10 am we all met at the trailers to begin getting our dispatchos and paying port fees and such. Afterwards we all made the iffy trek up the path, across a bridge Im sure a troll lived under and up to pay the Commandant a visit to hand in our dispatcho request.

Fresh pineapples, mangos, avocados, and peppers

The path leading up to the Commandant

Guess if you can cross this bridge you can leave

Not a ver nice smelling body of water under that bridge so dont fall in

Of course yet again we realized if you carry carbon paper around with you that things go faster as duel copies had to be made. We started the process at 10am and at 1pm the final person was done.

Let the paperwork begin

Finally a second person came to help. Apparently we interrupted a dominoes game

When that was all complete they told us we had to come back at 5pm for our dispatcho, what? Wait, we told them our plan was to leave at 5:00. Oh well, we do what were told and smile about it. One last lunch and Presidente Beer before heading back to the boat to ready things for an early morning departure. The next morning at about 6:30 am the rat pack let the mooring balls go and bid farewell to Luperon.

Sunrise leaving Luperon

I must admit, when we were going there I had reservations about it due to all the stories I had read. My thought is try it yourself. If your looking for a pristine harbor that caters to the cruiser you will be not be happy. This harbor is a working harbor, it isnt clean, the streets have a certain smell, and the community is poor. But what we found among all this is a wonderful change in culture, and humble people who are very friendly. We did not find the government corruption we were so afraid of and we would love to go back one day.

Beautiful coastline

Puerto Plata

We managed to get as far as Sosua when we heard radio contact between two boats further up talking about the 8 foot seas they were in. Ummmmm no..we and Tehani decided to stop and anchor up waiting for the seas to lay dawn in the evening before continuing. The others continued on. After we set the hook we both laid down to try and catch a nap before continuing on. Right after I got to sleep we hear Hola.....we go topside to find a small fishing boat telling us we could not anchor there as there was coral heads around, we needed to move so we went to pull anchor to move to the right side some when they said there was no anchoring, you had to pick up a mooring. Hummmmmmm, I called Tehani and asked him how much they said the moorings were, he said 500 pesos. Heck thats about $11.00 and we only needed it for a couple hours. They came back to us and Dirk says that we would be leaving at sunset could we just anchor. They said the boss said no. Hummmmmmm, how much he asked out of curiosity. We already knew what they told Tehani but they told us 1000 pesos. What the hey? What because we have a bigger boat your gonna try for twice the money? Dirk told them he didnt have that much, they asked what we did have. He said let me check. A moment later he came back up and said he only had 350 pesos and the guys said what, you dont have a $20.00 on you. Dirk told them we have no money, we are headed to Puerto Rico to get some. They took the pesos we said we had and showed us where to tie up. They said next time we stop there we can pay what we owe. Yea right, I will get right on that. I guess theres those bribes and corruption we were looking for. Oh well we needed to sleep. At sunset we dropped the mooring ball and headed south once again. Dirk had just pulled up the sail and I was setting our course on the chatplotter when we both looked up together to see a faint outline of a man in a small fishing boat. He was yelling and anxiously trying to pull in his fishing net. Holy cow, who is out fishing in such a small boat at dark with no lights. Apparenty lots of these guys. I know we had to of scared him half to death as he scared us just as bad. Im awake....I radioed to Tehani and good thing I did as they didnt see him either and turned away. By that time in the evening the seas had settled a bit and we made our way to Samana arriving at 4pm the following day. We did have radio contact with the others in our group and managed to catch up to them somewhat after they stopped once it got too rough for them. We finally made it to Samana and were the last ones in the marina to tie up. We decided on the marina as we were all very tired from the trip and needed a little R&R. We went in to see customs and immigrations to turn in our dispatchos and check in. Apparently the DR likes to know where you are coming from and where your going to at all times. The Commandant was very nice and helpful, spoke very good english and welcomed us to Samana.The boats were salty and so were all the people so we were happy to have a real shower at the marina even if it was a cool one. We found s/v Tangent whom we met in the Bahamas there at the dock having gotten there a day earlier. We chatted a bit with them before setting off to check out the marina and grounds. What a great place, they have a mini mart right there that has everything I needed and I didnt need much as we were headed to PR in the next couple days and could not take fruits and veggies with us. We bought us an icecream and headed back to relax. While there for a couple days we managed to find pool time and I got several loads of laundry done.

Dirk & I enjoying the pool

Poolside Cafe

The marina also put on a great meet and greet for everyone docked. They provided nice cocktails and appetizers for us in the pool room. The last evening we were to be there we had a rat pack meeting to talk about the trip over to Puerto Rico and a nice lunch poolside before all retiring to our boats to prep them for the trek east.

Meeting time for the Rat Pack

Several large pools like this all around

We would not leave till the following evening as thats when the winds would die down, so at about 10 am we headed into customs and immigrations to get our dispatchos done and all was well with the world. Easy checkout, paid our 20.00 to clear and then all we needed to do was wait. One last meeting to recheck weather and routes then we were off, next stop Puerto Rico.

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More Sightseeing in the DR

Sunday after our tour of the countryside we headed into the tiny marina for lunch. On Sundays they have a BBQ for a good price. We sat down and had forgotten that this Sunday Bruce Van Sant, the writer of Gentlemans Guide to Passages South was going to be having lunch here. Van Sant, for family and friends not familiar with cruising the islands has cruised the islands and finally settled in Luperon when he fell in love with the island and the people. He has since moved to Puerto Plata from what I understand but comes back fairly often and seems to enjoy the company of cruisers. We bought his book so many years ago that it is tattered and dog eared very badly from reading it and referring to it over and over again. He has lots of useful information and explains how Island lees work, why one should move along at night here rather than daytime. Good info on lots of topics, especially how to work your way through the Dreaded Mona Passage to get to Puerto Rico. We enjoyed a nice chat with him when we realized he was sitting at the Rat Packs table before having lunch ourselves and returning back to Renegade for the evening.

Dirk & I with Van Sant

Chatting about boats

We also wanted to do the 27 Waterfalls that we had read about and heard about so much. Since the rat pack was ahead of us they had all done it and told us it was a must do. Since we couldnt find enough people to get an organized by Papo trip done we had to go it alone. We hired a taxi for the morning and Nino came promptly at 9am to pick us up at the marina. He then drove us the half hour or so to the outskits of Puerto Plata and walked us in to make sure we got set before leaving us. He spoke very good english and gave us rundowns on the areas and answered so many questions we had about the country and its people. We checked in, paid our 500 pesos a person plus decided to do the buffet they offer afterwards for an additional 250 pesos. We got our lifevest and helmet and met our guide. We were lucky as we were the only two so we had our own guide for the trip. We started out on an easy walk over a long suspension bridge then a small path that soon started an upward trend. You can choose to do say 7, 12, or all 27 waterfalls. We wanted to do all so we got to the 12 mark and took a nice rest downing plenty of water and seeing if I could put my lungs back in my chest after carrying them the last 20 minutes. Geeeeze, Im outta shape. Every time you would ask how much further the guide would reply 5 more minutes. Hummmmm 45 minutes to an hour later we finally made it up to the top fall. The first jump was not really a fall but a leap into a deep pit. Im guessing it might have been a test to the guide to make sure you could swim and take care of yourself. The water was a bit cold and took your breath away but felt refreshing after that long hike. As the day progressed it felt downright great. Some of the falls you jumped from others you slid down. The limestone is carved smooth from the water and surprising slick. We jumped and slid our way down to the biggest one which was about a 25 foot jump. I was hesitant at first but I figured you only live once and this wasnt too bad of a place to die. Actually it wasnt that bad, the guide told you exactly where to stand and where to jump. Our guide even took my camera from me and videoed and snapped photos for us the whole way down. What a great bonus. They do have the people you hire to record your trip but ours did it for us. We finally reached the end which I thought might be close to the starting point but I was sadly mistaken and we had a bit more of a hike to get us back. We turned in our gear tipped our guide and went and had a so so lunch. I know those chickens that were wandering around us were probably on the menu and clucking about getting their last meal. One thing seems certain, all the meat we ate while here has got to be organic and free range. Even Dirk thought the meat tasted a bit gamy. Oh well, its gotta be better for us then what we eat in the states. Below see a couple photos from the day.

On the suspension bridge

Jump

Neat areas to explore

Slide

Will post more pics and maybe a video when we get better internet. When we got finished with lunch we walked outside and there was Nino waiting for us. We got the backpack from the car, yea I could see again. I had to leave my glasses in the car, we changed and then headed back. Nino was gonna take us to the cheese factory and anywhere else we wanted to go but we were pooped and just wanted to head back to Luperon and the boat. We basically sat in silence the whole way back as I think we were tired, very tired. The ride back although only about 30 minutes felt like a lot more. Nino dropped us off, we paid and tipped him. For the taxi, the waterfalls, the guide, the food and tips we spent a mere $75.00 give or take. What great fun were having, stay tuned for more.

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