vacation

Puerto Rico’s South Coast

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Now I warn you… my impressions of the south coast of Puerto Rico may be slightly influenced by how unpleasant the sailing conditions were while we traveled there. You know – those 25 knot trade winds I keep griping about. I’ll stop complaining, but you may notice a certain lack of enthusiasm that might not be completely warranted….

The highlight of our south coast crossing was a stop in Ponce, the second largest city in Puerto Rico. Not only because the boardwalk of restaurants and bars is a two-minute dinghy ride from the anchorage. Or because we shopped at the first American grocery store and Walmart shopping center since Florida. The colonial old town of Ponce is delightful. There are beautiful Spanish colonial buildings, piazzas and parks, and a world class art museum.

The flag of the city of Ponce is red and black, honoring its historic fire station. The station has been renovated and it’s beautiful, plus the historic firefighting equipment on display is fascinating.

Did I mention that the mascot of Ponce is the lion? No accident that you’ve seen lions in most of these photos – even on the ice cream truck!

From Ponce, we made a short hop to Isla Cana de Muertos, or Coffin Island. I was looking forward to a beach day, but the weather didn’t cooperate. Instead, the island made us work to discover its treasures. It was difficult to find a safe place to dinghy ashore, and when we did, the trail was overgrown with cactus plants of every shape and size. They were beautiful, and fascinating, but still prickly! I wished many times for a machete for a little DIY trail maintenance. Capt. Mike wished the same after a baby cactus hitched a ride on his leg.

But we persevered, and climbed up to the spine of the island where a lighthouse dating back to the Spanish colonial days holds the position of honor. We did a little breaking and entering to earn the best views of the island and surrounding seas.

Back at sea level, we hiked to the beach where day trippers visit from Ponce, and after the ferry departed, Capt Mike did a little American Ninja Warrior practice.

After a few days exploring on land, we headed east again. Set the alarm for 4:00am and headed out before sunrise to try to catch a period of calm before the daily trades kicked up. It didn’t work. We actually experienced some of the worst weather and roughest seas we’d seen all season. I tell people that I don’t get seasick, but that day, I might have been lying. On the plus side, I got some great pictures of our buddy boat Soluna riding on one hull in the big waves.

We lived to tell the tale, and soon anchored in Patillas harbor for a few days. Since we were here during the week, rather than on a weekend, town was quiet with very few restaurants open. But Paraiso Bar was open, and here Capt. Mike began his love affair with mofongo rellanos – mashed plantains cooked in garlic and oil and stuffed with fried pork or grilled shrimp.

Sensational Samaná

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I’d heard so much about Samaná…..that much of the peninsula is National Park. That the most beautiful beaches in the Dominican Republic can be found here. That this is where Dominicans come to vacation. So I was really looking forward to seeing it for myself! From El Valle, it was an easy trip around the Samaná peninsula to the Puerto Bahia Marina – we even got to sail downwind for a change!

We checked into the marina and took a look around, and I was blown away. This is easily the most beautiful marina Sanitas has ever visited, and at $1 per foot, it’s the cost of a dump in Florida. I seriously contemplated giving up our cruising plans for the rest of the season and moving in permanently, taking up residence by the infinity pool.

But I can’t laze around forever. While staying at the marina, Capt. Mike and I did get some good boat projects done. He equalized the house batteries to improve their charging performance, and I put a couple more coats of cetol on the teak in the cockpit. We also explored the town of Santa Barbara de Samaná, shopping in the lively markets and walking the Bridge to Nowhere. The bridge was built back in the ’70s to connect two small islands to the mainland in support of a restaurant and casino complex. Well the money must have run out, because nothing ever got built. Leaving the most amazing pedestrian bridge I’ve ever seen that provides no real purpose except exercise and beauty. If we stayed close to town, I’d have walked it every day!

We went in with a few other cruisers to share a rental car for the week. On our day to use it, we joined Carl and Ardys of SV Northernstar and went on an excursion to see the waterfall of El Limon. We’d heard that the touts here were aggressive, but the reality was a bit ridiculous. As we approached Limon, a guy on a motorbike latched onto us and wouldn’t let us out of his sight until we stopped the car at his family’s business. I know what you’re thinking – why didn’t you just ignore him? But wherever we drove, he zoomed out in front of us and “led” us to the next turn. When we passed the waterfall and kept on toward town hoping he would get bored and give up, he didn’t. He followed us, explaining the various trail heads and park entrances and tagged along again when we turned around. Oh well, we had to park somewhere, so it might as well be his lot. Ardys loves horses, so she and Carl decided to ride to the waterfall. That looked like fun, although we had to laugh at how huge Carl looked on his little bitty horse.

Mike and I hiked, which was beautiful but somewhat challenging with short but steep ups and downs. Or perhaps we really are that out of shape. At the top, we paid 50 pesos each to enter the park and climbed down a steep flight of stairs to the pool at the bottom of a huge waterfall! Gorgeous! We had a great time swimming in the pool and ducking under the waterfall spray. Although, I couldn’t remember the last time I swam in fresh water – you don’t float nearly as well as in salt water. I almost drowned while trying to take a floating selfie.

After lunch in Limon, we continued north to explore the beaches around Las Terrenas. The map described a fishing village, but now I think they make their money by catching tourists! We drove through a super busy small city with hotels, restaurants, and souvenir shops everywhere. After a few wrong turns and one-way streets, we finally broke free from town and with relief, pulled over to park on the side of the road at Playa Las Ballenas, or Whale Beach. We had started to get spoiled by the beauty of Dominican beaches, but this one was particularly nice! The perfect blend of soft sand and calm water, with a line of sophisticated beach bars calling to us when we got tired of walking and swimming.

I cheated on my pina colada pineapple with a coco loco. You gotta mix it up every now and then 😀

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!! Emerald Bay and Lee Stocking Island

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Nathan and Micki have been our staunchest supporters: they did NOT tell us we were crazy to sell it all and buy a sailboat. In fact, they threw us a tropical-themed going away party, and even came to St Petersburg to help us do boat projects in the yard. We wouldn’t feel comfortable inviting just anyone to stay aboard Sanitas for several days because it’s basically just camping out on the water (see: sleeping on the salon settee, cockpit showers, composting toilet….). But Micki and Nathan had been on two of our bareboat charters, and had seen Sanitas at her worst, so we knew they’d enjoy a glimpse into cruiser life. But first…. we needed to get ready to host!

We’d been living aboard now for three months, and while in the Bahamas we’d only stayed in a marina for a few days back in Bimini right after crossing the Gulf Stream. So Sanitas was a bit of a salty mess. We exited the cut at Rudder Cay with 3.5 knots of current against us (it took running our 50 hp engine at full power) and then pointed our bow toward The Marina at Emerald Bay on the island of Great Exuma.

All in all, we’d end up staying seven nights at this marina at a bargain rate of $1 per foot, appreciating our access to showers, laundry, internet, and getting a huge number of tasks crossed off our to-do list.

In fact, we worked so hard at Emerald Bay that the other cruisers staying of Dock D must have thought we were completely stuck up and antisocial, because every time they’d walk by headed to the pool or the beach we’d say “Can’t talk now, working.” Between polishing the stainless, stripping and staining more teak, defrosting the freezer, and cleaning inside and out, we weren’t allowed to have any fun!

We did bend our “No fun” rule slightly by sharing travel stories with Fellow Pacific Seacraft owner Ben of SV Loon who showed up on our dock the last full day we were there.

On the last day, we really broke the No Fun rules when we celebrated our accomplishments with some pool time and a delicious dinner out.

Finally, the exciting day arrived! We brought our rental car to the adorably tiny Georgetown airport to meet our first guests! After a Customs and immigration snaffu (who knew our visitors would need a copy of our cruising permit?) we drove to the closest beach so the Denver natives could trade long pants and running shoes for bare toes in the sand.

We spent the rest of the day exploring Exuma by car with a delicious lunch at Tropic Breeze restaurant and a stop at the Tropic of Cancer beach. We finally made it to the tropics – hooray!

Back at the marina, we gave Nathan and Micki the tour, and got them comfortably settled on Sanitas, because we were headed off-grid the next morning.

We used our newfound confidence in navigating shallow waters to cozy in close to Lee Stocking Island where we experienced the most stunning sunset we’d seen in weeks.

Nathan used the shallow sand flats as an opportunity to try out his new fly rod and fish for bonefish while Capt. Mike, Micki, and I explored the research center.

Lee Stocking was the home of the Perry Caribbean Marine Research Center from 1970 to 2012. When the grant funding ran out, the beautiful community was abandoned, leaving a ghost town of research buildings and residences still covered in flowering bushes and planting with stately coconut palms. It is a bit eerie to explore in 2019, evoking the tv show Lost with its dated PCs and file cabinets full of research material and the massive water making facilities and gardens. The living quarters were still furnished with funky 70s brown tile work, and even coffee makers and wet bars intact. I almost expected jump-suited scientists to step out from a well preserved doorway to ask if I’d hit the button, or if we’d seen a smoke monster.

Exploring was good fun, and we walked every road and trail on the island. But the best part of the day was learning to harvest drinking coconuts from the heavily laden trees that lined the main road. I’d done my research and learned there are many varieties of coconut palm trees; some that are just pretty, some good for eating the coconut flesh, and others bred for coconut water. Lee Stocking is covered with drinking coconut palms and even has a convenient wooden ladder available. We took turns harvesting as many as we could reach, drank our fill, filled our water bottles with coconut water, and brought a few back to the boat for future cocktails. The trick to harvesting is not to pull the nut off the tree, but to twist it until the stem separates easily. Then cut a little triangle in the shell and simply pour the juice out the hole. Simple!

We were a big hit at the cruiser’s happy hour that evening. “You put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up. You put the lime in the coconut and call me in the morning”