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¡Que Viva Puerto Rico!

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SV Sanitas has arrived at our final country for this cruising season! We’ve been exploring for the past two weeks as we slowly cruise east along the island toward our goal of Fajardo for hurricane season. Our first stop was La Parguera, or as I like to call it – the Jersey Shore of Puerto Rico. We arrived on a Friday afternoon, just as things were getting hopping, and we dinghied in with SV Sava to check out the town. The waterfront is lined with colorful wooden house boats that make me want to move to La Parguera. Jose, from the Puerto Real marina, had given us a tip that we could tie up to “Frank’s” dinghy dock (just ignore the Privado signs) so we quietly did so.

La Parguera was a bit of culture shock after a month in the Dominican Republic. CocaCola and Medalla beer signs everywhere, a pervasive smell of fried food, and everyone dressed for fun – in tight clothing and lots of bling. We made a lap of the entire town in about ten minutes, and then gave up our search for culture or history, and just joined the party.

First stop- El Karacol, a world-famous cocktail bar, known for their fresh fruit mojitos. Forget boring old lime mojitos! Our group was evenly split between coconut lovers and passion fruit lovers.

We sat at picnic tables outside a restaurant filled with local families. However, the smell of old fryer grease was a bit overwhelming. I excused myself for a moment, just to check out the menu at Moons Tapas Bar a couple of block up the hill. Oh yeah! Now this is where we need to eat! Apparently, the rest of our group agreed, because soon we left the grease haze below us, settled in on a breezy patio, and tasted six different flavors of homemade sangria before deciding on a pitcher of Arancino flavor. The food here was the best I’ve had since Florida – grouper ceviche, chimichurri skirt steak, lobster tacos wrapped in taro root tortillas…. nom,nom,nom!

Capt. Mike was obsessed with this old fashioned, hand-carved horse racing game called Pica. Because it was all in Spanish, we didn’t really understand how the betting worked, or even how to tell which horse had won – the track was a circle, and there was no obvious finish line. But everyone who threw down a dollar was so enthusiastic, and everyone was cheering, jumping, and shouting, so the game was impossible to resist. After watching a long time, Capt. Mike thought he had it figured out, and threw $1 down on his lucky number 3. The carny slapped a double 3’s domino down to keep it from blowing away – more lucky threes! We crossed our fingers, and held our breath, and cheered and encouraged….. and horse #3 won! Mike’s $1 bet nabbed him $20 and the most excited face I’ve seen in a very long time! We went right back to El Karacol for another one of those delicious mojitos!

After our big night on the town, we kept it quiet on Saturday. Explored the mangrove rivers by dinghy, hoping to spot an elusive monkey, but no luck. We snorkeled a bit too, but there were only a few small fish hiding in the mangrove roots. By early afternoon, we raised anchor to move the big boats east to an anchorage closer to the Bioluminescent Bay. However, when we rounded the corner and caught sight of Cayo Caracoles, Capt. Mike shouted, “We are missing out on one heck of a party!” I poked my head up into the cockpit and saw that he was absolutely right. At least 50 powerboats were moored and anchored in the shallow waters just off the Cayo, some with flags flying, loud salsa music blaring, all with a drift of floating partiers hanging out in the pool formed by the circle of boats. Well what’s the point of being a cruiser on no particular schedule if you can’t change your plans? So we threw an anchor down right there, piled in our dinghies along with Sava, and floated over to join in the fun. We enjoyed meeting local Puerto Rican boaters, including two who keep their boats in the Puerto del Rey marina where we’ll be storing Sanitas. We also had the chance to talk a bit with folks who had lived through hurricane Maria in 2017 to learn firsthand what life in Puerto Rico had been like without water or electricity for months after the storm, and how many villages are still struggling today.

On Sunday, as the weekend was winding down in this party town, Sava continued sailing eastward but Capt. Mike and I stayed put. We had one item left on our La Parguera bucket list – visiting the bioluminescent bay. There are several bays around the world where the conditions are just right to grow a high concentration of microscopic dinoflagellates and therefore, for the salt water to glow at night when agitated. Puerto Rico is lucky enough to have three of these magical bays. We were excited to visit the one near La Parguera, because you are allowed to swim there. So we moved the big boat again, for the third time in three days, close to the mouth of the bay. That turned into more of an adventure than expected. We’d followed a tip on Active Captain (sort of the Yelp reviews of the sailing world) recommending a safe anchorage that did not appear on any of our charts. We discovered the risk of believing “some guy” over believing the charts, because when we approached the coordinates he’d provided, we suddenly found ourselves in super shallow water. So Capt. Mike slammed it into reverse, and we circled looking for a deeper anchorage. I dropped the anchor in a small sandy patch, but the anchor rode immediately fouled on a craig of Rock that surrounded it. Poor Mike had to dive to free the chain and it was almost sunset before we found a safer anchorage nearby.

It was worth it though! On a Sunday evening, there were only about three other small boats in the bay after sunset and before moonrise. We anchored the dinghy and took turns jumping in. Mike made “snow angels” in the water, trails of phosphorescence following his arms and legs. I pretended I was Mickey Mouse in Fantasia, shooting streams of sparkles out of both hands like a wizard. And then spinning around in circles, gazing through my snorkel mask, feeling as though I was inside a snow globe. Sorry that there are no photos of this magical phenomenon, but the bioluminescence doesn’t show up in pictures or video. If you see it in advertisements, it’s been photoshopped! (Now you know) So if you want to experience this amazing natural wonder, you’ll have to add a visit to Puerto Rico to your bucket list, and come see it yourself!

Our last stop in the Dominican Republic – Los Haitses National Park

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The whole time we were in the Dominican Republic, we’d been hearing folks rave about the huge, wild national park located on the south side of the Bay of Samana. So although I still firmly believe I could have happily lived the rest of my life in the Puerto Bahia Marina, we tore ourselves away for a couple of nights to sail over to the park. Making it even more fun, our friends Damon and Marcie from Denver sailed over with us on SV Wanderlust.

For the first time in ages, we found ourselves on a broad reach and had a lovely downwind sail across the bay. In no time, we reached the park and anchored next to the sort of dramatic, verdant, craggy island that I’ve previously only seen in photos of Thailand. Thanks for the gorgeous photo of Sanitas, Marcie!

After ensuring we were safely settled in to the anchorage, we all hopped in the dinghy and set out to explore the park’s famous mangrove rivers. Mangroves are an important part of the marine ecosystem. They filter pollutants from the water, protect coastal areas from erosion during storms, and they provide a habitat for many species of animals and birds. And they’re beautiful! This park has a particularly lush mangrove forest that was lovely, cool, and mysterious in the dappled afternoon light.

After a dinghy ride down one of these winding streams, we came across a small wooden dock, and stepped ashore to explore the Cuava de La Linea. Since we came to the park after the busy Easter holiday weekend, we had this massive cave all to ourselves. I toddled slowly across the uneven stone floor in the dark and used my cell phone flashlight to illuminate a huge collection of ancient petroglyphs drawn by the Taino indigenous tribes. My camera didn’t do them justice, but it was awe-inspiring to look upon the artifacts of an ancient people and to try to imagine their lives.

Marcie treated us to a fabulous gourmet meal aboard Wanderlust that evening, and we had a chance to catch up on each others’ lives. We met Marcie and Damon in Denver in 2016 at a meetup for YouTube video blog celebrities “Chase the Story” It was lots of fun to meet like-minded, adventurous people and Marcie and Damon blew us away by sharing that they had already bought a sailboat -IN TURKEY- and they were getting their lives in order and preparing to fly there and move aboard before spending a couple of years cruising in the Med. Wow! So real people actually do this kind of stuff? And therefore, maybe WE could actually do it? At that point, buying a boat and cruising the sea was still just a faint dream for Capt. Mike and me. So basically, they were our first ever cruising friends, and we really enjoyed Seeing them years later in the Dominican Republic and hearing their stories of cruising in Greece, Italy, Spain, and Croatia and then crossing an ocean to reach the Caribbean.

The next day, we set out to do more exploring by dinghy, hopefully with a little bit of hiking thrown in. We saw gorgeous white herons, and heard countless smaller birds singing in the shadows of the mangroves. Eventually, we beached the dinghy near colorful park headquarters and paid 100 pesos per person entry fee.

A park guide showed us around a second cave. This one didn’t contain petroglyphs, but lots of stunning rock formations. Some were natural:

And some formations had a little help from humans (those Taino tribes again)

I’m not sure we understood all of the details from the guided tour. The guide only spoke Spanish, we speak English with a few words of Spanish here and there. But through recognizing a few words and basically playing charades, we got the gist of it! From the mangrove river, we hiked past cow pastures and rice paddies to visit the Eco Lodge Paraiso Cano Honda. This resort looks as if it sprang from the mind of a creative mad genius. All of the buildings are constructed from local golden stones, mosaicked into patterns and swirls and animal shapes. I don’t think there’s a straight line anywhere on the property. A series of “natural” pools flow one into the next via mini waterfalls. We wandered for about an hour, soaking it all in. It would be a very fun place to fly in guests to visit Sanitas!

I’m really glad we made time to stop in this gorgeous park and to explore another off the beaten path area of the Dominican Republic. And the timing was perfect! Our 30-day cruising permit for the DR expired on the day we left. Thanks for the beaches, the friendly people, the yummy food, and of course, the pineapples! We had a wonderful month exploring this beautiful island nation.

The Highlights Reel

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I apologise, Dear Readers. Since my last blog post about Georgetown Great Exuma the Bahamas, SV Sanitas and her crew have sailed to:

  • Conception Island, Bahamas
  • Long Island, Bahamas
  • Mayaguana, Bahamas
  • Provodentiales, Turks and Caicos

and we are now in Luperon, Dominican Republic. But so much time has passed, and so much has happened that I’m not feeling inspired to write about those lovely places. However, I am giddy with delight soaking up all that the Dominican Republic has to offer in terms of natural beauty, culture, and new experiences. So, with your permission, I’ll share a few of the best pictures of the out-islands of the Bahamas and then jump right into stories of our Dominican Republic adventures – the first time in this cruising year that we really feel we are in a new country and a new culture!

Sailing from Exuma to Conception Island was one of the best sails of the season. Truly fair winds and following seas, averaging almost 6 knots!

I never took the “gin blue” waters of the Bahamas for granted, and the waters off Conception Island were some of the most beautiful of them all.

We ate well off the grid in the National Park on Conception Island. Sharon and Drew on Z-Raye had caught mahi, tuna, and amberjack, so we had a ceviche and mojito night with a different recipe for each fish. Then baked gluten free blueberry bars for breakfast. Yum!

So this may sound terrible to land lubbers, but we learned a new way to deal with our glass trash. On the islands, there is no recycling, so everything goes to the landfill. But when you are far out to sea, a glass bottle filled with sea water and sunk will eventually turn back into sand….(Don’t worry. We would never do this with plastic)

Capt. Mike’s first fish! Thanks to Nathan who brought us new lures on his visit, we finally caught a beautiful mahi with enough meat for several meals.

Then even though we had a freezer full of fish, we couldn’t resist buying the biggest lobster ever from a fisherman on Long Island. Soooooo gooooood…..

We rented a car on Long Island with Dave and Michelle of SV Half Baked and explored. Best quote, “I’d forgotten just how long this darn island actually is”. The conch salad at Max Conch stand is the best I’ve ever had. Max is a true artist. And the sangria wasn’t bad either!

We enjoyed the opportunity to visit another of Father Jerome’s churches in Clarence Town, Long Island. Remember Father Jerome who designed his own retirement hermitage on Cat Island? This was a beauty, with twin towers that you can climb “at your own risk” for a windy view of the island.

Dean’s Blue Hole on Long Island is one of the deepest in the world, and the Guinness World Record for free diving (without scuba tanks) was set here. Also, at least 15 people have died here attempting free dives.

The Columbus monument at the northernmost tip of Long Island is very near the spot where the Santa Maria ran aground in 1492. We treated that point of land with great respect! The monument is a memorial to the peaceful Lucayan indigenous people who were victims of the European explorers.

When I come back this way as a rich tourist instead of as a cruiser, I’ll definitely stay at the Cape Santa Maria Beach Resort. It’s lovely, and understated, and peaceful, and at $400 per night, definitely outside my budget.

Capt. Mike and I celebrated our 22nd anniversary on Long Island at the Sou’ Side Grill at a cruisers’ happy hour.

And I fell in love with a baby goat named Billie at the local Farmers’ Market.

I’m a sucker for a good beach bar, and Tiny’s Hurricane Hole is a darn good one!

After our stay in Salt Pond (aka Thompson Bay) Long Island, the islands get farther and farther apart, and the passages get longer. At a speed of 5 or 6 knots, we can’t get there in the daylight, so overnight passages are the rule. I prepped for this passage with plenty of food, so we wouldn’t have to cook underway.

Four boats sailed together from Calabash Bay Long Island to Mayaguana. It’s great to stay within radio contact of other cruisers so that if anything goes wrong, we can help each other out. This was a long one. We started out at 5am and had two sunrises and one sunset at sea, before we reached Abraham’s Bay in good light so that we could avoid the coral reef.

Not a good picture, but a good story…. pretty darn sure this “package” is drug smuggling. A bale about the size of a sofa cushion, wrapped in white plastic and in a green net, with a line dangling off it with a float marking it. We sailed right by to take a closer look, but it was too heavy to hook and bring aboard without losing the boat hook. Plus, I didn’t want drugs on the boat as we cleared customs. But now I wonder….what if it wasn’t drugs? What if it was millions of dollars in cash? Only Neptune knows.

There’s not much on the island of Mayaguana, but it’s exciting because it’s our last stop in the Bahamas.

We cleared out of the Bahamas, got our paperwork and everything. But no one seemed to care if we actually left. So we took a tour of the island first. What do you do when the restaurant doesn’t open for another hour? You buy all the cold beers that the next door neighbor has in his fridge.

Then you admire Freddy’s super bling Huffy bicycle.

Our explorations of Mayaguana also included a trip to see the wild Flamingos. They stand knee-deep in the waters of a shallow bay until we get too close. Then, they walk away from us, through the water, grumbling in annoyance in a sort of slow speed chase. When the water gets deep enough to wet their bellies, they finally lift off in a group and fly.

After flamingo viewing, we stopped at “The After Work Bar” so named because Patrick only opens it after he gets home from his real job. Capt. Mike celebrated his birthday here with dominos and tequila shots.

Finally, we got good weather to head south. Goodbye Bahamas! Another long overnight passage from Mayaguana to Turks and Caicos with another beautiful sunrise at sea.

Arriving at Turks and Caicos, we cleared into a new country for the first time since January 8. Good thing because our Bahamas courtesy flag is in tatters. Captains went ashore to clear customs, and we are official!

We had to enter the channel of Southside Marina at high tide to have deep enough water, so we all headed in at the same time in a line like little ducklings. We don’t usually sail so close to our buddy boats – I promise!

The Southside Marina was lovely and “islandly” Only $50 a night (reasonable in pricy Providenciales) and we had to tie up with a Mediterranean mooring. The showers were open air and built right into the cliff.

We had a great group of cruisers staying here, including the crews of: Willfull, Half Baked, Tanda Tula, the Orange Boat, and Zoe. Had a lovely music-filled happy hour on the waterfront, and a farewell drink at Bob’s Bar. After this stop, our group will split up and sail off in different directions.

We didn’t have much time to explore Provo, but the north coast is lovely.

Finally! Another good weather window allows us to leave Turks and Caicos and continue our journey to the Dominican Republic!

Social Butterflies

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We were certainly sad to see Micki and Nathan go home to Colorado. But we consoled ourselves by leaping into the Georgetown social scene with both feet. Did I mention we were there during the Cruisers’ Regatta? This is basically two weeks of boat races, games, competitions, and socializing…all revolving around the hub of Volleyball Beach on Stocking Island. It’s been taking place for over 30 years, and several of the cruisers we met had attended every year. It seems to be a particularly big deal for Canadian cruisers – they sail south from their home marinas on the Great Lakes, arrive in Georgetown in time for the festivities at the end of February, and then start the long trek back home. Unfortunately, we missed registration day, so many of the games were already fully booked. But Capt. Mike managed to snag a spot on a bocce ball team.

And we had the opportunity to meet cruisers from all walks of life. One afternoon, the Women Who Sail Facebook group held a meetup at the Peace and Plenty beach club. It was great fun to share stories and experiences with such a varied group of women of all ages, backgrounds, and levels of experience.

On another afternoon, the captain of Bel Canto announced a get together for Colorado cruisers. Super fun! I think there were twelve boats from Colorado, and we enjoyed hearing how all of these landlocked folks discovered sailing and a passion for the water.

And then of course there was the ARG (Alcohol Research Group) happy hour on the beach. Seemed like the perfect time to break out the last of our coconuts and bring them as our “research material.” This event even boasted live music – a jazz band of fellow cruisers. Also had the biggest, best potluck spread of the season.

As I write this, even I’m amazed at how many social events were squeezed into one week. You can start to understand why Georgetown exerts such a gravitational pull on cruisers. There’s so much to do, so many people to meet, and if you’re there for even a short time you start to make plans and commitments: “Next week starts a new Texas Hold-em tournament.” “Saturday is a concert at the Peace and Plenty.” “There’s a fundraiser for a new roof for the library coming up. We’d better stick around for that.” Next thing you know – a month has passed by.

But I’m an introvert. And after a while, all that socializing gets to be a bit too much. So then I turn to my favorite thing about Stocking Island – climbing the hill to the pristine Ocean Beach, and hiking for hours at a time. I measured it using my Garmin GPS watch. It’s 1.75 miles from the rock cliff at the south end to the north end of the beach. If this gorgeous place were in Florida, it would be covered in Condo high rises and sunburned tourists. Here on Stocking Island, I never saw more than five or six people and a couple of dogs.

And there’s a climb up to Monument Hill at the north end – just to get the blood pumping.

A little solitude, a bit of exercise, and I’m ready to be social again! We were finally reunited with our buddy boats Elixir and Leef Nu. Better yet, it was Trish on Elixir’s 30th birthday! So we celebrated in the best way – another night of Rakin’ and Scrapin’ at Eddie’s. The kitchen was not at its best that night. Between the eight of us at our usual patio table, only three plates of food ever got delivered. But the band was rocking, and we all had a fabulous time. I don’t think Trish will ever forget this birthday!

Speaking of reunions with old friends, Drew and Sharon of SV Z-Raye arrived in Georgetown from Key West while we were there. So we had a fun time catching up and making plans to travel together to Conception Island and Long Island.

Our First Guests, Part 2 – Georgetown, Exuma

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After a couple of days anchored out and living off the grid, we sailed south to the (relatively) busy port of Georgetown on Great Exuma, catching some big shiny barracuda along the way.

It took us three tries to find the perfect spot to anchor, and Capt. Mike and I just might have gotten a bit testy with one another. Micki and Nathan discretely used that time to prepare a lovely charcuterie platter and fresh coconut water cocktails to celebrate anchors down.

Last year, when we visited Georgetown, we got a good feel for the “summer camp for adults” vibe of this cruisers’ mecca. This time, the energy was even higher because we arrived during the Cruisers Regatta – two weeks of races, games, challenges, and events augmented with daily parties. I admit, it was a bit of a shock to the system after the quiet days on Lee Stocking Island! After our delicious snack, we headed ashore to make sure that Chat ‘n Chill on Volleyball Beach was just as much fun as we remembered. Never fear – it’s still a lot of fun, and the de-facto gathering place for the cruiser community.

The beach life is fun and all, but we decided to mix things up a bit and hit some nightlife by dragging Micki and Nathan to a traditional Bahamian rake ‘n scrape. This Monday night tradition at Eddie’s Edgewater is a ton of fun. After eating a big plate of chicken plantains, and rice and peas, and after drinking a couple of Sky Juice cocktails (gin, coconut water, and condensed milk) we were ready to dance. The band included everything from guitar to horns to the saw – that’s what makes it a real rake ‘n scrape as opposed to just a boring old band. Micki loves music and is always ready to learn something new, so she got a quick saw lesson, mostly in how to hold it so you don’t cut yourself, and then she joined the band. We pretty much closed the place down, dancing until we couldn’t handle the heat and the Bahamian volume of the music, then catching our breaths hanging out with other cruisers on the patio, then dancing some more. Eddie’s is always a great night!

All too soon, it was time to say goodbye to Micki and Nathan and wish them a safe trip back to snowy Denver. Things got a little bit tricky on that last day. They’d spent a lovely night at the Peace and Plenty hotel ashore (and shared their hotel shower with Sanitas’ crew – hot showers are delightful!) but then we’d anchored back out on Elizabeth Harbor for the final night. The wind was up, and the harbor was very choppy that last day, we weren’t sure our little dinghy, Bug, could get four people ashore safely and keep the luggage dry. So we devised a complicated plan. Capt. Mike took Bug across the harbor by himself. The remaining three of us called Elvis’ water taxi and reserved a ride across the harbor at 10:00 so that we could pay for a safe, dry ride. However, nobody ever explained which boat was the water taxi, or how it would find us out at anchor. So…to make a long story short…. they didn’t find us. I hailed the water taxi on the VHF radio on channel 16, channel 14, and channel 68 and called them on the phone. I stood on the bow of the boat waving a bright shirt and yelling at any boat that looked remotely like a water taxi. And as it got closer to the time of their flight, I started waving at any old fishing boat that looked like it might get us across the harbor in time. Eventually I flagged down a water taxi a whole hour later than the original plan. The driver said, “I saw you waving at me, but why didn’t you hail me?” Hello!?! What did you think I was waiving that bright shirt and yelling so frantically for? Just to be friendly? It was quite the fiasco. But all’s well that ends well, and we had just enough time to grab a quick lunch from the jerk chicken shack and walk to the yacht club to catch a taxi to the airport. I hope Micki and Nathan enjoyed their visit! Thanks for the gift of the Peace and Plenty beach bag!