It’s June 2nd today and hurricane season has officially started. We are currently in the BVI’s planning to head south to St. Martin or if the weather holds we’ll head straight to Guadeloupe or Dominica. It’s time to get south to Grenada and out of the hurricane belt. There has already been 2 tropical storms which doesn’t sit well with us as this is very early for them to start. However…we feel confident about our position and are still enjoying the wonderful places we’ve been.The last I left you all we were just arriving in Puerto Rico. The western coast of PR is great…it feels somewhat like what I thought Puerto Rico would be like. Our travel mates, Double Bruyn and us rented a car to hit a Walmart if you can believe it and I was shocked when we arrived in Ponce (the second largest city in PR). After driving through some really amazing scenery and large ascents we descended into AMERICA….Walmarts, Walgreens, Kmarts, Publics, Burger King, McDonalds…seriously you name it, it was there. I guess I was really not expecting that at all. I found it difficult to feel the culture in Puerto Rico as it is so Americanized, that is not to say that there isn’t culture here, it’s just harder to feel as a visitor. The one thing I noticed about the Puerto Ricans is they LOVE their music and dancing. Everyone knows how to salsa and man, are they good. Us gringos step off the dance floor when a popular Latin song comes on and all the Puerto Ricans head to the dance floor. We try, but to save ourselves from absolute embarrassment we watch in amazement instead.
Puerto Rico has some beautiful places to visit. When we rented the car we made our way to El Yuncae, a national rainforest park and also headed to Old San Juan. The five of us hiked through the rainforest and all took a moment to appreciate and enjoy land. There is nothing like the smell, the feel and the beauty of a thick forest.
We then made our way to Old San Juan and wandered the cobble stoned streets.Our route south took us along the southern coast of PR., and again straight into the winds and the only way to avoid bashing into it we had to use the morning lee before the trade winds would pick up.
So our sailing of the southern coast would consist of the following: waking at 4 am, hailing Double Bruyn on the radio making sure everyone was awake, pulling anchor in the dark, sailing with the land breeze arriving at our destination before 11am covering only short distances. This worked for the first few days as we were able to enjoy the day as our travelling was done early and the trades were a regular 20 knots so to bash it was out of the question. The last portion of the southern coast was a lot easier as the trades had moderated considerably and we were able to put more miles down.
While in a little town called Salinas, we decided to have new rigging put on the main mast. Nothing to severe, we just wanted to “beef” Meggie up a bit and we felt she was safer if we did the rigging. So with the rigging done and the boat provisioned again (thank you Walmart), we were ready for the next 500 miles or so to Grenada.
We left Salinas after a few days of work on Maggie (meanwhile our buddy brothers on Double Bryun were outfitting her and getting her ready to cross the Atlantic to Spain via the Azores). Once ready we headed on a short over night hop to the Spanish Virgin Island of Culebra. During our little overnighter I was awakened by Mike at about 1 am (just as I had fallen fast asleep after my watch). “Kylie, Kylie get up….there is someone beside us”. I looked out the hatch and there not 50 feet off our beam was a black speed boat with absolutely no lights who apparently had been tailing us for quite awhile and then sped up to us and slowed to our speed for what seemed like forever. Mike told me to get on the radio but I didn’t know who to call, so we just waited to see what would happen. A spot light accompanied the slow speed of the boat beside us so neither one of us could see anything and finally they sped away. Holy freaked out! I called Jon and Paul on Double Bryun right away to put it on the radio and to let them know. Navy, pirates, coast guard, drug runners???? We didn’t know. So we continued on and I did my watch and off again I went to sleep. “Kylie…they’re back!” I popped my head out again and sure enough 4 in the morning there is another black speed boat, no lights shining a spot light on us. They didn’t stick around too long, but long enough to freak us out again. So again on the radio I get. We later found out from some locals that it was the government. They see boats transiting at night and because they have such a problem with drug running they send boats to check it out. They must have looked at us looking like stunned deer in head lights and figured we weren’t druggies! An exciting night.
We arrived in Culebra just before noon the next day and were amazed once again at how beautiful these islands are. We pulled in and tucked behind a reef in pretty blue water once again. The island of Culebra only has 2000 people on it, but is a popular spot for Puerto Ricans on weekends and holidays (which happened to be Memorial Day weekend when we were there). I didn’t know that you could actually raft 15 power boats together in a very small anchorage, but apparently you can. It was crazy, but we had a good time.
We went out on the town Saturday night to celebrate Double Bruyn’s last night on land and to wish them well. We had been with them everyday for a month and we were going to miss them terribly (which we do). So Jon, Paul, Kim, Scott, Mike and I hit the hot spots. This is when we realized just how much we all needed some Latin dance lessons, and Jon and Paul assured me that they would learn by the time they reached Spain. So the 2 brothers will be Latin dancing somewhere on the decks of their boat in the middle of the ocean…quite the sight.
So from Culebra we’ve started our way east again via the USVI’s and BVI’s. We are now anchored in a place called Cane Garden Bay which is on the northwest corner of Tortola and has a palm fringed white sand beach, a protected anchorage and a beautiful reef to snorkel. The protected anchorage (with moorings which almost everyone is on except us as it is $25 US for a night). We’re really glad everyone is on a mooring because while we were visiting Jost Van Dyke island in the BVI’s we were introduced to charter catamarans. This is when a charter company hands the keys of a 47 foot catamaran over to anyone and everyone no matter if they have sailed or anchored. I know….scary huh. Well picture this….Meggie, a couple of other monohulls, a few chartered monohulls, and 27 chartered catamarans (all captained by college students), in a tiny tiny anchorage. The attraction to this anchorage is the famous Foxy’s restaurant and bar. Anyway….so around 4 or 5 in the evening just as your winding down with your rum, 27 chartered catamarans fly into the anchorage, drop the hook and start partying. I know….I may be sounding very old and cranky here. So 2 cats in particular anchored pretty close and as we watched from the bow of our boat they knew our concern but we gave them the benefit of the doubt. 4am arrives and a little bit of lightening starts so up we get as we know that a squall is soon to follow. Mike approached the cat that was hovering about 15 feet off our bow and politely asks if they are sober enough to deal with a squall…they assured us that yes they were. So the “squall” hits (which was more like a puff) and the 2 cats we were concerned about start dragging towards Meggie. Now…the one has people awake and aware, the other…not a soul around and it’s comin down on us fast. Mike hops in the dinghy and starts banging on the boat….nothing. He hops aboard and starts banging on the doors….nothing. Finally he opens the door and screams for someone to get the hell up and drive this (a bit of swearing here) boat outta here. So with about a dinghy’s length to spare the groggy drunk youngster (I know…sounding old) drives the boat away. Meanwhile the other cat we were concerned about dragged so much they were fending off another boat. About half of the cats dragged that morning n the so called squall. A bit scary, but mostly very entertaining.
We’ve become anchor natzies and have been referred to as such by friends, but you have to protect your home. I wanted to add this next picture as it is a typical scene in an anchorage for us. I keep telling you that Meggie is always the smallest.Anyway…lots of exciting stuff, but lots of beautiful places and people. We said our goodbyes to the brothers and hope they’re doing ok out there. Our plan is to just get south. We have a window to head to St. Martin early next week so that’s the plan for now.
As always, keep the posts coming…we love to read them and it gives us incentive to write the blog.
Ciao for now.
Kylie and Mike
KEEP READING.....2 FOR 1 SPECIAL!!!!!!!
Leeward Islands
Let me start this out by telling you some news that I am very excited about. Some of you know that I had written an article and sent it to Cruising World for consideration. Well, I found out in St. Martin that they want to publish it along with pictures that I had sent as well. Cruising World is an international sailing magazine and I am honoured that they have chosen to publish what I have written. I am not sure when the issue will be out, but once I know I will let you all know. I believe it will be within the next 6 months. Well…I’ve decided to do a two for one special!!! I had intended to send the above blog a long time ago, but time and lack of internet was the culprit for no blogging. So, I left you in the BVI’s, a beautiful place with excellent sailing, but the charter boats….what can I say.
We left Cane Garden Bay and were determined to sail to Lee Bay (without motor) and to beat the charter cat that was on our tail. As we rounded the north west corner of Tortola we were met with 20+ knots of wind on the nose, gusting stronger. We short tacked all the way to Lee Bay via monkey point channel, a narrow cut between Tortola and monkey point. We debated whether we could get through the narrow cut, but with the cat hot on our tail we sheeted in tight and made it in 3 tacks. A very exciting sail and we beat the cat to the anchorage. Lee Bay is a beautiful little anchorage that isn’t very popular so Meggie got to anchor with only 2 other boats for the night. We snorkelled the surrounding reefs and played on the beach while retiring early for much needed sleep. The next day we made our way to Virgin Gorda sound to stage for the weather window that would take us across the Anaganda passage (also known as “Oh my God” passage). Before we could leave the BVI’s, we had to check out. The customs office was only in Spanish town and funny us thought we would just grad a cab. Well…a taxi to Spanish town from Virgin Gorda sound was $50.00 US there and back!!!!! Crazy!!!! So…we told the taxi driver we would just walk as that was way too expensive for us young cruisers. He sort of gave a funny laugh and then shook his head at us. So we started walking…..uphill. It was extremely hot and for some reason we just kept going up. We thought we had better think about hitching a ride because the road just kept getting steeper, it was never ending. Even though we were drenched in sweat and out of breath, we encountered a beautiful view of the sound.
A taxi truck stopped us part way up an ascent and asked us where we were going. We told him Spanish town and he laughed and told us to get in. “No, no we can’t afford you”. “ Just get in, you can’t walk. I won’t charge you”. Thank the lord. So we got in the canopy covered bed of the truck, owned by a 25 year old local, who we believe thought he thought he was some sort of rally race car driver. Well…the truck continued up and up and up. We would have never made it. We would have first collapsed from dehydration if not from exhaustion. This truck was a little Mazda, manual about 20 years old and the gears and brakes sounded very worn and odd. After all the ups we had to go down and the brakes made very funny noises. I kept gripping the canopy and muttered “Oh my god….Oh my god” the whole ride. When we finally arrived in Spanish town I wanted to kiss the ground, but thought I would insult our driver. On the way back…we were picked up by a Jamaican woman named Jackie who insisted on showing us the “back road route”. A lovely woman who spent part of her day off showing a couple of Canadians the beauty of the island.So with our head sail changed, our water tanks and diesel tank full, we headed out of the sound at around noon to cross the “Oh my God” passage. The passage started out OK. We were to have a current against us the whole way so our strategy was not yet decided. We started heading on our course and luckily we were able to hold a decent speed and the current was not noticeable. So the day started out not too bad, but as the sun began to set, the winds began to build. Because of the current and wind direction the seas were confused. It felt a bit like a washing machine, but we pressed on. We encountered 3 squalls, 2 not so bad and 1 with higher gusts. We were close hauled the whole way (something we are very used to now), and neither one of us got much sleep and I stayed down below too long in the confused seas and felt ill the whole trip. Meggie pounded into the waves, but performed great. She has been beating into the wind and waves so much on a port tack that the paint on Meggie’s starboard side is gone in places. A haul out in Grenada will be a welcome sight.
We had planned to stay in St. Martin for about 5-7 days to take a break and stock up on booze (as this is the best place to do so as it is cheap cheap cheap and duty free). The next morning after arriving in St. Martin we planned to check in and explore the island, but after listening to the weather guru via ssb, my decision was made. I told Mike we had to prepare and leave that evening by 7pm for a 130 mile sail to Guadaloupe. He was a bit shocked, but we have to move with the weather. It is very important at this point to take whatever window is available to get further south, even if you don’t want to. So we checked in, got some much needed items from the marine stores, stocked the boat with booze, cleaned and stowed Meggie, and had anchors up by 7pm. We had another close hauled sail to Guadaloupe and Meggie once again pounded into the seas and wind, but we were fast. We arrived much earlier than we had expected and anchored around 2am in Guadaloupe.
Guadaloupe is a French island and my French was tested right from our arrival. When I say it is a French island, I mean very French. Little English is spoken, but it is amazing how quickly all those French classes come rushing back. We spent about a week in Guadaloupe and while there we rented a car with Scott and Kim from Anthyllide. We had an amazing stay in Guadaloupe.
We first went to the Souffriere (the volcano). There is a hike that takes you up through the mountains to the top of a volcano. The hike is awesome. The higher you get, the more difficult the trail becomes, but an absolutely great hike. The visablitly at the top was very foggy and misty and very very windy. We got to the summit where the wind was so strong you could litterally lean your whole body into it.
While at the top we could hear what sounded like a plane, so I asked another hiker what the noise was and he told us to follow. He told us that if the wind switched that we had to get out of there fast. So we ducked behind the fenced off area and to our amazement we were approaching a live volcano. We didn’t even know it was there. The plane noise was the volcano spewing sulphuric gases into the air. Because of the wind direction we were able to sneak right up to the edge of the volcano..
It was lined with bright yellow rock and hot hot gas spewing out the top. The hiker that brought us here (who was a local) signalled that we should go as the wind was changing…and it changes fast. We ran back to the trail with mouths covered and eyes squinted as the gas was so strong. We couldn’t believe what we had just seen. It was sooo cool, we were ecstatic.
After the volcano hike we made our way to another hike. Although this hike was a bit more tame the end result revealed a beautiful waterfall amongst a landscape of lush rainforest. When we got back to the car we were met by a poet, that was just hangin out. He had just had his french poetry book published and he graced us with one of his poem from his book. It was very surreal.
We got back to the boats exhausted and content.
We left Guadaloupe yesterday and had a beautiful fast sail covering 42 miles to Dominica, an independent country between Guadaloupe and Martinique. 40 miles and a world of difference, but more on that next time. Dominica is where we’ll sit until the next window to head to Martinique, which looks like it will be Monday. So the next time I write I imagine it will be when we finally arrive in Grenada where we plan to stay for awhile.
Again as always, keep the comments coming.
Au revoir,
Kylie and Mike
