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…The mountainous Dominican Coast under our jib…

We made the 40 plus hour run (240 nm) from Provo, Turks and Caicos direct to the Dominican Republic where we docked at the beautiful Marina Puerto Bahia in Samana. This is a five star resort with multiple pools, cafes, comfortable lobbies and all for $1/foot which is only $35 a day. We plan to stay here 4-5 days until the next crossing opportunity for the 24 hour run across the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico. Being offshore for 2 nights and with only sleeping 2-3 hours at a time, we all were exhausted when we arrived Tuesday morning. After docking, we all crashed and then rallied for the pool happy hour where drinks are 2:1 at prices of $3 each.

The DR flag left, Puerto Rico flag right

The DR peso is paying 47:1 USD. Yesterday I bought an ice cream bar for 80 cents! We already are concerned that it may be difficult to leave here. Then again, why leave? We have no schedule.

Our passage was in calm seas and light winds of 5-8 knots out of the east, exactly as shown on our Predict Wind app. Our course was 140 degrees placing the wind about 50-60 off the port bow. This was a motor sail with a full main and a staysail with the engine on at 2400-2500 rpms. The boat runs 6 to 6.5 knots round the clock in this situation.

The wind shift as recorded on the Triton2 This is a 60 minute timeframe

Yes you make 150+ miles a day, but you also have to listen to the engine. The nice aspect is that we took no waves or spray over the bow. The sea had a gentle roll of 2-3 feet maybe 10 seconds and the winds never changed for over a day. Then on day two, as forecasted, the wind shifted in a matter of minutes and built to a solid 10-12 knots. It was at this time we finally killed the engine and sailed about 6 hours into sunset and on into the night until around midnight when we turned towards Samana.

Hayden raises the DR flag

There we pulled into the harbor and dropped the hook and crashed. The next day we up anchored at 0630 to get out of the harbor and move around to the marina where we could check into the country properly. Checking in took about 1-2 hours with paperwork and boat inspections and re-tying the dock lines to keep the boat off the fixed concrete docks. We were thrilled to lower the yellow Q flag and raise the DR flag. Right after that, we crashed at around noon. When we got up and walked off the boat, we all felt like we were drunk as we had not been on land for nearly 3 days. Our balance was whacked and we almost fell off the dock just trying to walk off the finger pier. But a few happy hour drinks by the pool and some great times with out team of six made the evening a blast.

Radeen gets to land and is wobbly

Marina lobby overlooking our dock

These are real tropical rain forest leaves

Our facilities tour and we discover the pool

The shallow banks

TherMouchoir Bank

Oh, look a ROCK on the Mouchoir bank! YIKES!

The view from the helm at night

Finally, LAND HO….there were the Dominican Republic mountains under our jib as we sailed into the new winds that finally arrived. This was a sight we have never seen, tropical tall mountains under our own sails as we arrived from sea. We have sailed in Blue Hill Bay, Acadia Maine but even that does not look like this. This is tropical and it felt very cool.

Welcome to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Bahia Marina…..

Don and Meloney one of the infinity pools

Radeen and Meloney

WHAT? Radeen with a celebratory adult beverage at the pool

Radeen, Lauren and Meloney in the pool

Tomorrow, we will tour the local town of Samana by local bus. The next day, we will drive a van 3 hours to the south shore to tour Santa Domingo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Dominican Republic is a very interesting island to discover!

…Destination the DR. This map shows the entrance to Samana…

We are planning our next run from Provo, South Side Marina to Samana in the Dominican Republic. This trip is broken up into 3 main legs. The first leg is 40 nm to run the Caicos Banks and get to sea. The second leg is 27 nm southeast towards Big Sand Cay where we may drop an anchor for a few hours to time our next leg. The third leg is a 180 nm leg to Samana, Dominican Republic. We have several back up plans to divert short of Samana to other harbors in the Dominican Republic such as Rio San Juan or Sousa or Ocean World, if necessary.

We are fortunate to continue to travel with Meloney and Don from California, aboard a Lagoon 38 catamaran named “Fezywig” (a happy character in Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”) and Bill and Lauren from Canada on a Grand Banks 42 trawler named “Sea Star.” Our boats are surprisingly similar in speed and depth. These lively and interesting new friends are a lot of fun. We are delighted to be able to plan our passages together. Many minds are better than one!

As much as we are enjoying Provo and especially South Side Marina, we must leave! This is a very good weather window because the prevailing easterly trades have stalled. The winds are looking calm, 10-15 knots or possibly less. We most likely will need to motor sail to keep the speeds up to make the destination within the weather window. This often seems to be the issue. We wait for weather to be calm enough to go to sea, but then we are usually running before a front which pulls all the air into the approaching front and takes away the winds. Then the frontal system will arrive and we are trying to beat that arrival by getting to our destination before the front hits with squalls and much higher veering winds. It is really a speed, time and distance challenge. This trip is 247 nautical miles and, at 5.5 knots it will take 45 hours. Now we need to plan a stop into the trip to arrive DR in daylight (for visibility) and in the morning (for the lightest winds). We will use Big Sand Key as a stopping point to make the timing work out. If all goes as planned, we will depart Sunday at 0700 and arrive Samana, Dominican Republic, Tuesday between 0800 – 1100.

Here is the route on OpenCPN, showing our 5 legs and the mileage for each on Sun, Mon and Tues.

Using OpenCPN and NVCharts we can plan routes, distances and times on the laptop

Here are some Predict Wind planning images:

The winds for our Sunday morning departure as we run the Caicos Banks to sea

Monday shows favorable winds all day as we run SE towards the DR

Remember, we are running a live tracking map by Garmin InReach. You can check out where we are at any time. https://share.garmin.com/IslandSpirit

Blue shows our routes since November 2017 and red shows this next passage.

Thank you for sailing along…..

…clearing in to the Turks and Caicos…

We sailed into the Turks and Caicos after a great overnight passage from Clarence Town, Long Island, Bahamas……

The approach to South Side Marina near Provo felt a bit scary in the morning light, knowing there were coral heads everywhere, but not being able to see them clearly due to cloudy conditions. Our four days here flew by, with boat jobs to complete and one great day of sightseeing and provisioning. This country is world famous for its underwater opportunities, so we were disappointed that we could not go snorkeling or diving due to the high winds, cloudy skies and storms which arrived the day after we did.

Lucky for us, the dinghy was in the perfect location for repairing a small leak in the stern of her port tube.

Sunset from Bob’s Bar, with a powered hang glider zooming over the marina.

We replaced the impeller after Radeen-the-Diesel-Whisperer thought the engine sounded “hollow.” She has been right on two occasions in the past, with broken blades discovered upon inspection. Not this time, however. To quote the famous lyrics, “Two outta three ain’t bad.”

Ready for sightseeing in a rental van with 3 other boats.

Our first stop of the day was at the Caicos Bakery for good coffee and delicious pastries made by French bakers. So civilized!

Igloos?  In the Turks and Caicos?! The primary export of the Colony was salt. When a drawing was sent to England for making the first flag, an artist interpreted the piles of salt as igloos!! (Note the doors on those igloos.)

Remarkable topography 6,000 ft. from the ocean floor…The Caicos Bank is over 40 miles from east to west. Grand Turk is the larger of the islands across the Turks Passage to the east.

We thorough enjoyed the small National Museum, and were lucky to stumble up on it, as it is onl yopen M- F from 9 a.m.to 1 p.m.

Our docent, Theresa Williams, with the crews of Jeannteau 45 Rascal (Michele and Charlie), Grand Banks 42 Sea Star (Lauren and Bill) and Lagoon 38 Fezywig (Meloney and Don.

Theresa entertained us with stories of history and culture. 90% of the citizens are descended from the 192 people from the illegal slave ship Tourvedore which was shipwrecked trying to avoid British authorities. The captain and crew were arrested and the freed slaves were given apprenticeships for one year to learn how to harvest salt.

We toured the inside of this traditional thatched hut and interesting gardens of medicinal herbs and barks.

An adventure in dining al fresco in wind and rain on the north shore at the Conch Shack.

We were speechless at this bounty, after 6 weeks of limited shopping in the Exumas.

South Side Marina office and laundry room, with folding table.

A beautiful outdoor shower!

Floating docks and a beautifully maintained property.

Bob’s Bar on the left and Bob’s house on the right.

Our gracious host and marina owner, Bob Pratt, on the right, who made us feel so welcome in this beautiful place he started 40 years ago.

Leaving Provo, heading ESE across the Banks.

Good-bye to the Turks and Caicos!

We had a fantastic sail out of Clarence Town, Long Island in the Bahamas, 180 nm southeast to Providenciales (Provo) in the Turks and Cacios. We sailed the first part of this trip in 15-18 knots of close hailed conditions out to Acklins Island. With the sun rising we sailed into the rising sun and the water reflections were simply amazing. The sea state was 3-4 foot waves with many a bow wave crashing into the close hauled jib. Island Spirit sailed very well and we really enjoyed our New B and G NAC-3 autopilot which sails to wind vane steering very well. We simply stood watches and held on as we sailed. Here is a video I shot showing the scene. I hope you enjoy the ride. This is typical ocean sailing. Enjoy…

Remember, we are running a new Garmin InReach satellite tracking device which is recording map pins of every where we travel. This is building an archive map of our sailing. This is really fun to look at as well:
http://share.garmin.com/islandspirit 

…The Book on sailing south…

Radeen and I have studied Bruce Van Sant’s book “Passages South” and we have made the routes on our laptops and on our B and G plotter and Samsung tablet. We are excited to begin this new chapter in our cruising adventures, which means heading south from George Town, Exuma, to the Eastern Caribbean. We have been to Long Island before and that will be our staging point. The route is well planned by Van Sant and the concept is like this. (He calls his route The Thornless Path to Windward, instead of The Thorny Path. Let’s hope so!) Leaving Long Island and heading east and south, we will make our first major stop at Provo in the Turks and Caicos where we plan to check into the country at South Side Marina. We will spend time in Provo and then wait for the next weather window to run the 50+ nm Caicos Banks. We will anchor for one night at the end of the Banks. The next day we will run south to Big Sand Cay and then onto the Dominican Republic, known as the DR.

The Luperon Harbor

The next option east is called OCEAN WORLD where we would need to take a dock. If you look at this map, you can figure out why they call this place “Motion World” as the east trades and swells come into this harbor as they bounce off the rock wall and reflect back into the marina. We also hear that is the swell is running then this can be a dangerous entrance. This is in contrast to Luperon where you can easily sail in and drop an anchor. We will need to study the swells before leaving Turks and Caicos and then make the call as to where to check in.

Ocean World Marina in the DR

Now that we will be in the DR, the next challenge is motoring east into the trade winds and the current. This is accomplished by motoring at night when the trade winds are blocked by the mountain down drafts, called Katabatic winds, off the DR coast. This makes a calm lee that reaches offshore 5-10 miles off the coast. So, we will motor east during the night and then when the trades kick back in around 9am, we will head back into shore and drop the anchor and wait for the nighttime lee. This leads us to Puerto Rico’s south shore heading east to the Spanish Virgins and then into the US Virgin Islands and onward to the British Virgin Islands. At this point, either this season or next, we will make a turn southward for St. Maarten and the Leeward Islands and then down the Windward Islands. We will haul out the boat and store it somewhere between Puerto Rico and Grenada for May 15 – November 1.

Here are some maps of these plans…

George Town to Long Island to Calabash Bay to Provo. Day hop to Conception (3) Rum (4) to Provo (5A) …. or make one 200nm run to Provo (5B).

The Virgin Islands and south, island hopping or making a full 2 day run.

 Options on this plan:

• Store the boat in Puerto Rico, USVIs, BVIs or Antigua, Jolly Harbor
• This will save time and allow us to explore more northern areas without rushing south
• This will also allow us to start there next year
• Or, simply take a WX window and sail over night for Grenada and store the boat there.

…Hanging the Tuna…

After 5 years of dragging lines behind the boat, we finally have caught a fish we can keep, a yellow fin tuna. Up till now, we only caught barracuda. Now that streak has been broken and we have landed not one, but two yellow fin tuna on Island Spirit. Our second one was while under full sail in 15-20 knots beam reaching at 6-7 knots. When this tuna hit, it ran out a lot of line until we could slow the boat by furling the jib and sheeting out the main, all while Radeen was holding onto the rod and reel and trying not to let it slip out of her grip. It was everything we could do to just hold onto the rod. Forget reeling it in until slowing the boat down. We were under full main and full jib doing 6-7 knots while dragging this 34″ tuna on the Penn rod and reel, line running out, and me adjusting the drag to slow it down. With the boat slowed to 2 knots and still under autopilot wind vane steering, I began to reel this fish to the boat.

This is a 34″ Yellow Tail Tuna

We were yelling ITS A YELLOW FIN TUNA, again, Yahooooo! Radeen handed me the gaffe, and with the leader in one hand I whacked it with the gaffe and some how I hooked it through the tail area! That was cool, so as I lifted the fish, I had a slip knot ready to lasso the tail like buddy John-Michael (J-M) on IP 420, PURA VIDA told me about. This worked out great because I could hold the fish up with the gaffe and the line to cut the gills and bleed out the fish rinsing it with saltwater rushing by. I could lower the head and gills into the water and then lift it out again. We also poured some old rum into the gills but that really seemed to not be needed. I will not be doing that again, as this JM trick was a great way to deal with all the blood.

Under full sail doing 6-7 knots

This fishing adventure was while under full main sail and full jib in 15-20 knots of beam winds. We were sailing from Cat Island back to George Town along with good friends Jim and Cynthia of NEVERLAND.  We estimate the seas were running at 3-4 feet on the beam. The boat was rolling side to side and our bow wave ran from bow to the midship cleat like it does when pushing at hull speed of 7.2 knots. Sometimes we would be surfing down a wave and the boat would hit 8 knots. It was under these conditions that the reel sang out and the rod nearly went overboard. This landing went better than our last landing as we got lucky with the gaffe and we used the slip knot trick over the tail. Landing the fish is only half the challenge, the next challenge is butchering the fish while in these conditions.

My filet work, now time to cut in half and skin

With the fish now dead and onboard, we returned to full sail and back to 6-7 knots of boat speed all the while rocking and rolling as we continued the remaining 10 nautical miles to George Town. This gave us an hour plus to filet out this 34″ tuna. I am a rookie at all of this fish work and especially at the filet work. I try not to waste any fish although I see I am wasting a lot in the head of the fish. I need to work on that area. Once I have the filet off the fish, then I work on cleaning up the meat and removing the skin. I follow the Scott Bannerot book given to me by Chuck and Lynn of sv CYAN who sailed around the world. This book (The Cruisers Handbook of Fishing by Scott Bannerot ) covers every aspect of fishing for cruisers. Thank you, Chuck and Lynn, and thank you for the gear and your gaffe! With the filets dried off, we then packed them into ziplocks and moved them into the icebox ASAP for chilling down. For dinner, it was seared tuna steaks. OMG, what a treat that is. We also share this bounty with others as it is really a lot of meals for two people. The last tuna served 14 meals, this one will serve about 20 meals. Tuna is my favorite fish, I am really glad we caught a yellow fin tuna again. Next, we need to catch a Mahi Mahi…..

My happy Tuna #2 photo

Look no blood in the boat, nice idea J-M

Close up, these are beautiful fish

Yellow Tail Tuna

Radeen wants to get a tattoo of this 🙂

Tuna steaks, seared 1.5 minutes in olive oil

Perfection, cool in the center

We tossed out a message in a bottle with cash inside 🙂 $1

Teak work at sea, look, the blue tape is the color of the water! Yes, it really IS!

The view from the helm, notice the fishing rod tied to the jib winch I need a new rod holder, our last big hit broke the rod holder

Selfie at the helm

Making lunch, protein shakes, looking out the galley window

Hayden with his Yellow Tail Tuna #2

Crazy gaffe of the tail….oh well, it worked. Notice jib furling line slip knot around the tail. Now we are back in George Town for a few Cruising Regatta events and to start our preparations for sailing to Long Island and beyond!

This is where we caught our Tuna #1 northbound and Tuna #2 southbound

Cat Island is very special and non-touristy place. Yesterday as we walked around New Bight and strolled along the main road, every single person waved and greeted us. We are so glad we made the effort to come to this Out Island, thanks to Bentley and Jim of sv/Salty Paws who insisted that we sail here. They have told us for years to get out to Cat Island. Day one was New Bight and the hike up Mount Alvernia to Father Jerome’s Hermitage. After that we sailed 1.5 hours north to Fernandez Bay where we dropped the hook right off the beach on one of the most beautiful bays we have ever seen. Look at this view over our bow….

As we walked the one mile beach, we looked back across the bay and zoomed in to take this photo with the rocky point to the northwest of the bay compressed into Island Spirit, so it looks closer than it is. We have our sunshades up all the time because we really try hard not to get too much sun. It is so bright and so intense that we get sunburned very easily. So, up with the shade every day.

http://www.fenandezbayvillage.com/

Hayden working on teak varnish from the dinghy

Radeen enjoying a great lunch

The lobby with reading materials

The “honor” bar where you help yourself and pay later. Great rum punch!

The honor bar

Island Spirit anchored off the beach

The dinghy, “Buns II” is our car, the only one on the beach

View of our boat from lunch

The dining room with traditional thatched roof

Cool art work on the walls

Beach walks with sun hats, it is hot and sunny

We so enjoy this view

The entire Fernandez Beach at low tide all to ourselves, one mile long

The flying gable of the resort’s main hall

So inviting

Swimming time from the beach

One of 14 homes for rent with the resort, some homes are private

Buddies Cynthia and Jim drop the hook next to us

Radeen and Jim at sunset with Neverland in the background

Hayden and Cynthia share a smile

Our sunset lighting up Fernandez Bay

Here is a Google Satellite photo of this location!

…The Hermitage, New Bight, Cat Island…

It has long been a goal of ours to see Cat Island and to hike the highest hill in the Bahamas. Prevailing easterly trade winds and bad weather have prevented us from coming to this Out Island in the past, but this year we succeeded!

Father Jerome was an Englishman who first trained as an architect and a sculptor. In 1903, he became an Anglican priest who built churches in England before coming to the Bahamas for a brief time. After moving to the U. S., he converted to Catholicism and worked as a wagon train driver and a railway laborer. Then he went to Rome and became a Catholic priest in 1915. Next, he designed and built many large churches in Western Australia. Nearly 20 years later, he returned to the Bahamas, to New Bight on Cat Island. In 1939, Father Jerome began building The Hermitage, his residence with a private chapel and bell tower on Mount Alvernia, 206 feet above sea level. He died in 1956 at the age of 79 and is buried on the property. He built a total of 7 churches and one monastery in the Bahamas.

We are fortunate to have already seen two beautifull churches designed and built by Father Jerome in Clarence Town, Long Island, Bahamas. St. Paul’s is Anglican (1910) and St. Peter’s is Catholic (1947).  We plan to go to Long Island again, on our way southward out of the Bahamas.

Archway to Mount Alvernia.

Reliefs depicting the Stations of the Cross are along a very steep path to the top.

From left to right, the residence, the chapel and the bell tower

Looking west to the waters of Cat Island Bight. Jerome’s tiny bedroom is on the extreme right.

The roofs look recently whitewashed

There is debate whether or not this is Father Jerome’s final resting place.

The chimney on the right is for the kitchen.

The entrance to the chapel through a narrow door. Notice the thick, sloped walls.

The spartan bedroom

Arches were used often throughout the buildings.

The inscription over the chapel door means “Shrine of the Holy Spirit”

The altar with a glass window to the east, over looking the Atlantic

A carved Celtic cross

Steep paths in all directions lead from the top of this hill.

Island Spirit viewed through the arch beside the bell tower.

There is a surprising amount of large vegetation on Cat Island, unlike other Bahamian Islands.

Resting in the shade on the beach after our hike

Walking with an umbrella to see Father Jerome’s church

The Catholic Church of New Bight Cat Island built by Father Jerome

Stone benches on the beach across King’s Highway from the Government Building. Island Spirit on the horizon.

A squall on the horizon that fortunately did not reach us.

…Yellow Fin Tuna….

We decided to take this calm weather window and motor over to Cat Island, one of the far islands we have visited in the five years we have sailed to the Exumas. Cat Island has zero protection from west winds, so you need to go there when it is calm, and you can easily stay there when the east trade winds are blowing. Well, we had the calm today to motor the 50 nm over to Cat and tomorrow it will begin blowing from the NE then East so we can anchor safely anywhere on Cat. We plan to explore New Bight, and Frenandez Bay and they maybe Hawks Nest marina before sailing back on the East trade winds to George Town for more Regatta fun.

On the way over, I finally landed out first tuna, it was a 28″ yellow fin tuna. We both were so excited. How wonderful to finally land a really nice fish on Island Spirit. We have trailed fishing lines for thousands of miles and today, we finally landed a nice proper sized tuna, and a yellow fin as that. One of the best. We estimate that this created 16 meals at least and we will share with other boaters. What a great treat!

Island Spirit 1, Fish 1,002, so let the games continue. Right now, the fish are winning 🙂

Here are some photos of the adventure.

The day started calm in Kidds Cove Elizabeth Harbour, George Town

It was a calm motoring day, no sails

I set out out the lines before we went around the reef and out Conch Cut to sea, but it was not until 7 to 8 miles offshore that the rod dipped and the reel started running out. We had to stop the boat as I could not reel in the fish. After 5-10 minutes. I had the fish along side, Radeen handed me the gaff . I gaffed the fish and landed it into the cockpit. Now the chaos began, We sprayed the fish with fresh rum and that calmed it while I proceeded to knock it out and then bleed it out. Lucky for us, we were also running the watermaker and we had a full tank of water, so we used the fresh water to clean the fish AND the cockpit. All in all, it was exciting, but Radeen was not quite as excited about the entire landing as I was. So, we now have procedures to work out and improve. 🙂

I caught this tuna on a Cedar Plug

Yellow Tail Tuna

I tried to get every piece of meat to not waste any

Chipped gelcoat repairs. I hit this corner with a winch handle…

Well….I got so excited during the landing and the taming of the tuna, that I actually damaged our gelcoat as I was swinging the winch handle and knocking out the fish. What??? Errrrrr, Well, I chipped the gelcoat as I hit the corner with the winch handle. I did not even know I hit the step. All of it was truly was a Chinese fire drill. We really need to get better at this fishing game. Right now we are newbies. Here is proof of the excitement….errrr….and the damages to our boat….Oh, the price of Tuna!

No problem, tape it and paint it…got it covered

Every IP needs to carry some ivory paint, got it…spray, spray…fixed

Done….what fish damage?  It is gone.

Tonite on anchor, we thought we might actually see our first green flash, but the sunset did not produce one. Still, look how beautiful the sunset was. It was a really great day on the boat. Something new all the time. We have lots to learn about fishing, that is for sure!

What a perfect day….

Tuna Steak seared

Red in the center, perfect