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We officially arrived in the United States Virgin Islands when we dropped anchor off Water Island, near St. Thomas. We anchored next to Island Packet 38 ULLR, Cristine and James who alerted us to the fun Sunday afternoon on Honeymoon Beach. With this news our “Team Six Knots” pushed hard and we joined the party and enjoyed swimming, paddle boarding, beach walks and cold beers. What a blast, welcome to the USVI and we all needed this nice break after pushing 1,568nm from Florida to reach here. Now, we will spend 6 weeks exploring the USVI and the BVIs! What a treasure this will be. Here are some photos of pushing east from Puerto Rico to the Virgin Islands as we powered on past Sail Rock and Saba….

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We have spent a few days in the Salinas harbor as we waited out the East trade winds to calm down a bit from 20-25 knots to 8-12 knots. During our stop here, on anchor, we all were able to complete boat chores, oil and fuel filters and cleaning and laundry. Along with these common cruising tasks, we  rent a car/van, and drive into Ponce to explore this historic town. Ponce is a 30 minute drive west of Salinas. Salinas is a fantastic harbor and there are several live-aboard sailors living on the hook in this harbor. It is well protected and very safe. Van Sant recommend this harbor to do a refit because you have access to supplies and good boat mechanics. As we have said before, Puerto Rico is really very interesting with a fun mix of third world scenes mixed in with American franchises and products. Add in a full spectrum of roads and highways to drive, ranging from dirt roads with massive pot holes and goats and chickens to four lane highways with automated toll booths, making Puerto Rico very interesting!

But first we had to sail or, should I say motor sail, EAST from our last anchorage of Isla Caja de Muertos. When pushing east into the trade winds you have to get up early and motor sail directly into the calm winds. By 1000 to 1100 hours the trades rebuild and you should pull into a harbor and stop. The other option is to move at night when the trade winds are much calmer due to the heated island and the winds that now flow down off the islands blocking the trades. We motor into this using our staysail and 2700 rpms on the engine doing 6.5 knots. This is the view looking into the sun heading east…the sun glare can be fierce. This is called “up-wind and up-sun.”

Once we arrived in Salinas, we worked our way into the harbor around many anchored and moored yachts and we found a very nice open area at the head of the harbor. The winds were forecast to blow East at 20-25 knots and here we never felt more than 12-15 knots. This is a recommended hurricane hole with mangroves around the east side. During storms, the yachts are moved into the mangroves and tied into the trees. Here is our boat on anchor with our west facing shade cloth tied into the rigging. The sun is soooooo hot and intense at 1400 to 1700, the shades helps block the sun.

On our trip to Ponce the team, which we now nicknamed “Team Six Knots” or “Team Six Knuts” decided to find the office for the massive wind farm that is between Salinas and Ponce. Sure enough, we did find it and the manager offered us a tour of the office and the wind turbine. This was so interesting. These wind turbines are massive and when you stand under one that is spinning and whipping the blades around you realize just how powerful these machines are. Each turbine is a 2.3 MW and they have 44 turbines installed. The site is rated at 101 MW capacity and it will pay for itself in 8-10 years! Each turbine, we were told, can power 1,000 homes. The 5,500 acre site is all farm land that is leased back to farmers by the Puerto Rico Land Authority. Here are some photos from our tour of the Santa Isabel Wind Farm.

Thank you to Rueben, Santa Isalbel Manager, on the right, for our fascinating tour!

We then drove into the historical center of Ponce, where we toured the Catholic Church, the bright red and black Fire Department Museum, Ponce Museum and the Fine Art Museum. The church is Our Lady of Guadeloupe Cathedral where noon mass was being conducted after we took this photo.

After a fine lunch at Chef’s Creations and a nice break, we hit the road and drove back to Salinas passing Sheep, Horses, Goats, Dogs, Chickens and Roosters on the city streets….

Then back at our very nice marina and harbor we enjoyed the pool and the shaded decks where we all talked about our next leg of moving into the USVI and eventually the BVIs…

For now, we will enjoy one more day here in Salinas and then we will take the calm trade winds and power 50 nm to the end of Puerto Rico. Here is the chart of the Salinas Harbor, you can see why this harbor is a hurricane hole!

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…a lifetime goal reached…

We crossed into the Caribbean Sea on Friday March 31, 2017. A lifetime goal reached and accomplished, that being buying a sailboat, learning how to run it and then taking it to the Caribbean Sea. It has been 1,410 nautical miles since we left Stuart Florida after out refit work. From Stuart, we moved down to Biscayne Bay where we broke in the Spectra Watermaker and enjoyed great friends, Freddie and Gail onboard. Then on Super Bowl Sunday Feb 5, we sailed out of Miami bound for the Caribbean Sea and now, we finally reached that line where the North Atlantic ocean touches the Caribbean Sea. This point is Cabo Rojo on the southwest corner of Puerto Rico.

Small but mighty, Island Spirit pushes on to the Mona Passage

We crossed over the Mona Passage direct from Samana, Dominican Republic, with an overnight rin of 150nm in about 20 hours. We arrived at Puerto Real, which is on the west cost of Puerto Rico, there we checked into customs via a phone call and enjoyed the quet little fishing village. From there we moved only a few miles around the bays to Boqueron, another fun small local village where we worked over the local beers and had another fun night.

Then finally we left there and powered on around the SW corner and reached the Caribbean. Radeen and I were so happy and proud that we actually made it and NOW we will base our boat in this beautiful  sea for the next 4 – 5 years.

Cabo Rojo Lighthouse where the Atlantic meets the Caribbean Sea

For now, we need to power east into the trade winds and work our way down the south coast of Puerto Rico. The normal process is to up anchor at 0600, daybreak, and motor sail into the lighter trade winds until about 0900-1000 at which time the winds build to 15-20 knots and the seas come up. So, we turn into land, find a place to anchor, maybe a cool town, and drop the anchor around 1000. This process is detailed and explained in the book by Bruce Van Sant, “Passages South, the Gentleman’s Guide to the Thornless Path.”

Powering into the East trade winds early in the morning using the engine and staysail

Then, we have the day to discover this new spot, dinghy into town and explore….

Taking a break and exploring the local towns and drinking the local beer. Hayden’s hat is sporting the logo of the local beer, Medalla.

Then we get up and do it again. If we want, we could head out in the evening at 1700-2100 when the winds drop and then motor sail all night into the light east trade winds until the AM. We plan to do that to reach the Spanish Virgin Islands of Veiques and Culebra. After cruising these, we will then push into the US Virgin Islands of St. Thomas and St. Johns, and then finally the British Virign Islands. For now, we are enjoying our short hops to the interesting small towns and state parks along the coast.

We really like Puerto Rico….it is very interesting

Overall, we are very impressed with Puerto Rico. We thought we would just blast on by here, but now we are finding all these very interesting villages and harbors with mangrove islands. Very fun!

Just look at Radeen’s very happy smile as we rounded Cabo Roja and reached the Caribbean Sea. Radeen loves to travel more than anyone I have ever known. We both love to sail and live on our boat, so, it was only natural that we now travel using our sailboat. We will rediscover the islands of the Eastern Caribbean, many of which we have chartered to before, but this time we will have no schedule and no timeframe and that should make this really very special.

Beautiful Radeen, happy Radeen, traveling Radeen

Welcome to the Caribbean, it is going to be a very exciting time ahead for us. This map shows each day of our passage along the coast. Thank you for sailing along…..

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…Goodbye DR, hello PR…

With a serious low pressure storm north of us, the normal east trade winds have been pulled to south flowing into this storm giving us a nice motor sail 150 nm from Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico where we planned to enter the USA at Puerto Real. This crossing of the Mona Passage is well known in the cruising circles to be difficult and always rough, with confused seas and unpredictable currents. Lucky for us, this passage turned out to be relatively calm with a 5 foot swell of 9 seconds with a wind blown chop of 2-3 feet.

motor sailing out of the DR for PR

The beginning of the trip was flat calm with main and jib and 2500 rpms motor sailing at 7 knots out of Samana harbor and past the capes. By midnight, we reached our point in the 1,000 to 2,000 meter waters well off the “hourglass shoals” which is known to have confused seas and crazy currents. We found the seas were a bit confused and the current was not too strong. We had a NE swell, and NW wind blown chop, and a S current, all making for a strange sea state. But overall, it was a relatively calm passage. We then turned SE for the Puerto Rican coast, aiming for the SW corner where we could check into Puerto Real harbor.

Docked in Puerto Rico

We had made reservations for all three boats at Marina Pescarderia in Puerto Real, where the the fee is $1.20/foot. This marina is in a fishing village and the people are extremely friendly and helpful, though most do not speak English. From here, we plan to make small, easy, short, early morning hops along the south shore of the Puerto Rican coast, discovering all the great towns and harbors this island has to offer. It is GREAT to back in the USA after sailing out of Florida on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb 5.

Our lobby where we enjoyed relaxing

Island Spirit in the shade, Radeen heading for a walk

When in the DR, drink the local and smoke the local

Heading to sea with Cape Samana in the distance

The DR coast line falling away on starboard

Along the DR coastline there were many floating fish nets and traps!

Sunrise over Puerto Rico, welcome to USA

Our B&G Zeus as we motor sailed in to Puerto Real

First item, call into USA Customs and check into the country

Next, raise the Puerto Rico courtesy lag on the starboard spreader

A short walk up to town we found the bakery

Flan for Radeen, WOW was that good!

The local waterfront houses and fishing boats

Our local store with fresh MILK and EGGS! yahoo

When in PR, you drink the local beer

Not bad for a light beer

P A R T Y on

This is the Overview of the course from DR to PR

You have to go out 25 NM off the DR to clear the Hourglass Shoal where waves and currents are bad

The turn around the reefs and then into the coast of PR where we made Puerto Real

Crazy Fish traps all along our course

Our buddy boat FEZYWIG a Lagoon 38

Lagoon 38 FEZYWIG in the ocean waves

Island Spirit in the Mona Passage heading to Puerto Rico Photo Credit: Meloney on sv/FEZYWIG

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…Another Large Storm helps us…

We are checked out of the Dominican Republic and we have our exit paper work called a “Despacho” which will allow us to legally leave the country. This all took about 4 hours with customs, marina office and the navy officer to check out our boat. Once all was signed, stamped and approved, we were given the proper paperwork. Next task was predict wind app which we now spend an hour a day on as we study the winds and the swells. As it looks tonight at 1900 Sunday, with a planned departure at 0700 Monday, it all looks good to cross the Mona Passage. This is a 150 nm run all into the east and with the current storm up north of us, once again we have the winds pulled from east to southeast and then flipping to northwest. The storm has the ocean really kicked up into a 10 foot to 15 foot swell but that is north up in the Bahamas. For us the swell is predicted to be 5 feet out of the north east which will put the swell on our port beam. The winds are to be on our stern at 10 knots. We plan to check into Puerto Rico at Marina Pescaderia in the town of Port Real Tuesday at 1200-1400. Here are the captures of the predict wind app.

Samana 0700 when we depart port

Monday Midnight as we push onward

Tuesday 0800 as we approach the coast of Puerto Rico

Tuesday 1400 we should be docked at the marina, ready to check into the country

5 foot swells on our port beam. Not a bad ride, we hope This shows the ocean swells for the entire 24 hour trip

This being our first crossing of the Mona Passage, of course we are looking at all data we can access. While here at the DR marina, we have had intermittent internet access making it difficult to get our weather information, let alone blog.  We do feel that we have a good weather window to cross the Mona Passage, once again, a strong storm far away from us has pulled the trade winds south and then north and has given us a passage opportunity. Sometimes cruisers wait for weeks to cross this passage, we waited 4 days! OK. We will see you in Puerto Rico…..

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…as least we had a car…

We rented a car for the six of us using Oliver at the marina excursion office and we received a mini van with a seriously cracked windshield and bald tires with a boom box and several amps. It also had a commercial taxi sign on the side door, so we could have offered rides as well. We are not sure where they got the car but no one asked questions. The rate was $90 US for the three couples to drive south to Santo Domingo to the colonial section of town. Meloney drove and did an unbelievable job weaving in and out of city traffic avoiding motorcylces, horses, broken down cars and trucks. We only were pulled over once for making a left turn like a pro at a 4 lane interesection where no lefts were allowed. She got out of the traffic ticket by showing Google Maps on the cell phone which had told her to make the turn. None of us could understand Spanish, he spoke no English, and so he shook his head and let us go with a stern look and a clear gesture to keep our eyes on the signs.

Fuel stop, look at the prices

Our first task leaving Samana was filling up the car which arrived on fumes. We stopped at the closet station 10 km away and we filled it up. That cost us $60 US and we ended up leaving about $20 of gas in the car at the end of the day. With wages averaging $10 per day here, this was a real win for the owner of this car. Notice the sign for the gas station prices. RD 210 per liter. The exchange rate is $1 to RD47. That works out to $4.46 per liter. One US gallon is 3.75 liters. So That means this is $4.46 x 3.75 equals $16.75 per US gallon! No wonder everyone is running around on small Honda Z3000 motorcycles. They must get 50-75 miles per gallon.

The next challenge was driving 3 hours from Samana to Santo Domingo and then finding our way around town. We crossed rice fields, rolling hills with cattle, river valleys, rugged mountain passes and finally into the metropolis of town. Once in Santo Domingo, it was C R A Z Y….like driving in NYC. Cars cutting us off, multiple lanes of traffic, signs in Spanish, treacherous culverts on the sides of the streets, children sprinting across the divided highways, few traffic lights and “Una Via” streets everywhere.

Thank goodness for Don’s LTE chip on T-Mobile, so he was able to navigate for race car driver Meloney as we quickly threw ourselves into the crazy flow.

Once in the city, we stopped at a super market to secure funds from a Western Union where buddy boat Sea Star needed some serious cash to fix their bent prop and prop shaft damaged while we all crossed the Caicos Banks. They hit a coral head in the low angle morning light where none of us could see the massive coral heads as we powered at 6 knots into the sunrise. The Caicos banks are dangerous due to these large coral heads. You can not see them until it is nearly too late. Unfortunately, Sea Star caught one prop on the edge of coral and took damages. Lucky for them, here in the Dominican Republic, they hired divers to replace the shaft and prop while in the water! WOW, amazing workers like this are needed, since we have heard there are no haulouts anywhere in the DR.

After a quick stop at the very large store, we moved on to the colonial section of town. Here are some photos of the Carrefoure Store. It was a food store and a Walmart type store.

Radeen and Meloney had a funny exchange with a young employee as they tried to find a small cooler. They pantomimed “cold” by shivering, then drew a box in the air and pretended to put something in it, while saying “leche.” He sent them to the aisle with jackets and sweaters! After wandering around, they found the coolers and brought one back so he could see it. They laughed together as he shook his head as if to say “Now I understand!” Part of the problem was probably the fact that milk here is all UHT milk in a box that does not need to be refrigerated until opened.

20 eggs shrink wrapped, unwashed and unrefrigerated. They will stay fresh for weeks.

Driving into the colonial section of Santo Domingo, we enjoyed seeing the street vendors’ carts of coconut water drinks and fruit stands. The DR people are so hard working and everyone has a shop, a cart, a stand, or some crafts to sell. It is really a bustling city and it was very exciting. Especially when compared to the Bahamas or Exumas.

Coconut water drink cart

Typical fruit stand

We parked the car and walked into the colonial district where we bought a very valuable English audio tour of the Cathedral Primada de America Catholic Church, the first cathedral in the new world. Construction began with the consecration of the land in 1514. Over the next 200+ years, they continued to add twelve small chapels onto the sides of the main sanctuary. The church is in amazing shape and was very impressive.

 After a full day in town, it was time to hit the road and drive the 3+ hours back to Samana where we arrived around 2030 hrs. What a fun day of touring the countryside of the Dominican Republic and the city of Santo Domingo. This country has so much to offer and it seems like the people are very hard working and proud of their country, as well as very friendly. The DR is a must stop place on the sailing cruising tour.

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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!

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…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…..

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…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!

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