St Marteen

Saint Marteen

After 10 days in the BVI we were excited to visit our first French island  ( and Dutch), but that meant making the almost 90 mile passage across the Anagada straits. Its a shallow area that is know for some rough seas and since you are still doing some easting it can get very uncomfortable. We were lucky to catch a good weather window and had a rather pleasant motor sail! we left Virgin Gorda at about 1am and arrive in daylight at the port of Margot on the French side of St Marteen. Margot is a large moderately protected harbor on the French portion of St Marteen, it offers the easiest and cheapest way to enter the island. We cleared in at budget marine for only a small donation to the youth sailing program! At last we were in the land of Baguettes, croissant's, and cheap wine and cheese! Every day we were tempted by the smells of fresh bread and pastries, there is nothing like to taste of a fresh made chocolate croissant made by people who really know how! And since its a French island and the government subsidizes bread , cheese and wine its really cheap like on euro for a croissants and the same for a baguette!

     We took the dink into the lagoon and explored the shopping and  French food that it had to offer, eventually we took the dink all the way across to the Dutch side to ogle the huge mega yachts both sail and power that hang out at the marinas on the Dutch side of the lagoon. Some of the yachts are so large that they barley fit ( some by mere inches) thru the opening bridge!

     St Marteen has the best chandleries in the east Caribbean, both Island Water World and Budget Marine have their flagship stores on the Dutch side of the lagoon. The island is a great place to buy a dink if your in need of one, the duty free aspect means that a top flight dink can be had for thousands less than the states, and its a easy task to sell your old one thru the cruisers net or to a local fellow named shrimpy who buys and sells used dinks!

     Alas we needed to be heading south so our stay only lasted five days and when we got a weather window we were off to the islands of St Eustace's, St Kitts and Monserrat!

 The Drawbidge leading to the lagoon  on the French side of St Marteen

 The Dutch side draw bridge

 View from the Port Louis fort looking over Margot and the bay

 Street scene in Margot

 Sign for the walk up the hill to the fort

Market (better said cruise ship  tourist trap) at Margot

Zipping thru the BVI

After having such a great time in the US Virgin Islands we were anxious to move on to the BVI just a few miles east of St Johns! Back in Arkansas during the 15 years we spent on Greer's Ferry lake friend after friend would come back from chartering with stories of their week in Paradise. We on the other hand would comfort ourselves with the promise that we were saving and moving up to bigger boats so we could live the lifestyle permanently. Finally our time had come and we could not wait! First stop was Soupers Hole on Tortolas western tip, its was the charter boat central for a while in the BVI and is home to Pussers Bar, we took a mooring ball and spent a day and a night soaking up the ambiance! As ever mindful of our need to reach Grenada (some 500 miles south) by June 1, we moved on, next stop was trellis bay and the Full Moon party!
    Every month during the season the bars and restaurant's have a big [arty the night of the fullest moon, the highlight of which is the lighting of the wood filled steel sculptures that are all about the beach and even in the water. it makes for a spectacular sight to see these flaming  balls and other sculptures blazing in the full moonlight.
Equally exciting is the show the charter boats put on in their attempt to take one of the dozens of moorings in the bay. This was our first real opportunity to sample the wild and sometimes very scary show that inexperienced captains put on, both in racing to the ball and then the often times futile attempt to pick it up. These weekend cowboys send us to the rails to fend off the boats or to alert them to how close they are to running over our mooring line (or Anchor chain)! Seeing these 50 foot catamarans racing thru a mooring field at 7 knots to beat another 50 foot catamaran to a mooring ball sends shivers down the spine of those of us who do this full time! we have seen our share of near misses but thankfully no actual catastrophes'!
     After the full moon party we headed off to the next stops in our journey thru the BVI, Jost Van Dyke and the famous Soggy Dollar bar and its gorgeous beach and the beautiful people that populate it! We also hit Foxy's bar another BVI icon and great example of Caribbean beach bar!
We did the snorkeling at the Indians, the Caves where we enjoyed some of the most fishy reefs and walls that we saw anywhere thru-out our first trip thru the Caribbean.

     Racing thru the BVI we finally reached our final destination, the island of Virgin Gorda, home of the Bitter End Yacht Club, this is another center for chartering and a really wonderful place to finish our time in BVI. This would be our jumping off point for our sail  across the Anagada passage to St Marteen. We had a great time exploring all the neat bars and eating places that populate this protected spot. The Bitter end Yacht club is not to be missed, but we were looking forward to missing the 30 bucks US that it cost for a mooring ball every night! Next trip thru here we now know that we can anchor in many of the areas and have just as good a time so hopefully we can do the BVI with out so much pain to the pocket book! Oh well on to our first French Island ST Marten

                                                Anita getting read to snorkel the Indians

 Bob at the Famous Baths

Discovery on a ball in the BVI

Hanging at the famous Soggy Dollar

 The beach behind Soggy

The iron sculptures at Trellis Bay for the Full Moon

Another sculpture to set a blaze tonight!

Anita snorkeling the Indians

US Virgins Finally!

After what seemed like a Eternity we were finally in position to make the short windward leg to St Thomas and St Johns from Culebra! The wind was on our nose as usual and blowing around 20 but we knew we only had 20 miles or less to reach the protection of St Thomas! It was a spirited motor sail but in no time we were anchored up in Linbergh bay and drinking libations at the beach bar there. Linbergh in just south and a bit east of the airport, actually the runway goes parallel to the bay, so lots of jet noise on takeoff!
     We spent a couple of days there did some shopping, as it turned out they had the cheapest rum prices of any of the islands in the entire Caribbean! Cruzan was 7 dollars a fifth, Pussers was 12 bucks! a couple of days here and we were ready to move on to honeymoon bay, a neat little anchorage just south of Red Hook. had a wonderful two day stay here, lots of snorkeling and the pizza boat was really cool! there is a sailboat anchored in the bay that was outfitted with a pizza oven and they make and sell  great pizza!

After our stay here we were off  the 3 miles or so to cruz bay St Johns, this island is fantastic, it might just be the most beautiful island in the Caribbean if you are judging by the beaches! The island was owned by Rockefeller and he gave it to the US on the condition it become a state park, so its got very few developments and lots of prestine undeveloped waterfront! Another great thing about this island is the senior discounts on mooring balls, 62 or older us citizens get a mooring for $7.50! that sure beats the heck out of the 30 bucks in the BVI! Francis and Majo are our fav anchorages, we stayed at Majo for two weeks!

Cruz bay is just kinky enough to be interesting, and just big enough to get most of what you need in the way of provisions etc! Caneel bay is the site of rockefellers resort and its the nearest mooring field to Cruz bay, just a short dingy ride in! the bay was way to crowded to find a spot plus the all the other bays are way more cool!

We really enjoyed our stay in St Johns but it was time to keep moving east, some of our last eastng til we finally get to sail south. Next up, just a 5 mile sail to famous Sophers Hole and the BVI!

Cruise Ships at St Thomas

Cruz Bay, St Johns

Approaching Francis Bay in St Johns

The ferry from Cruz bay to St Thomas

 

The busses that ran from Cruz bay to the beaches were like thrill Rides up and down the mountains at breakneck speeds!

Looking down on Majo Bay! Discovery is in the center!

East down the Puerto Rico coast

After a enjoyable time in Puerto Real and topping off our fuel tank with every drop of cheap fuel we could take on, we needed to begin our passage east toward the Spanish virgins! Unlike our other passages we weren't going to get a unusual beneficial weather window, forecast was the normal one for this time of year, wind out of the east 20-25 knots.


Reality hit us as we rounded the point at Cabo Rojos and the lighthouse guarding it, bam 4-6 ft waves and 20 knots on the nose! So we started a seemingly endless series of tacks out to sea and then back toward shore, motor sailing our way east carving out eating careful to stay just enough off the wind to avoid the bashing and the filling loosening battering that heading to close to the wind produced with our flat bottom production boat!

We decided after 6 hrs of this beating to tuck tail and head for a he safety of a anchorage about 19 miles from Cabo Rojos called Gilligans island! Protected from the waves by mangroves and reef it would allow us to rest and rethink our plan to sail the south coast of Puerto Rico toward the Virgins. But before we made it a combination of a gust ( around 25knts) and a big wave, was too much for the sun rottened straps attaching the clew car on our deeply reefed roller furling main, it blew out sounding like the report from a shotgun! We took here up into the wind ( easy because we were motors ailing like usual), we quickly rolled the sail up and continued toward our next anchorage.

We huddled with our buddy boats and mapped out a new strategy, we would take advantage of the catabatic winds coming off the mountains at night that knocked down the east wind and waves, this should make for a tolerable motor sail overnight to our next anchorage Salinas.

Set the alarm for midnight and we snaked our way out the anchorage and we're happy to encounter much better sea state than the day time. This made for a beautiful motor sail down the coast with the lights from the shore only a few miles away!

We arrived early the next morning at daybreak with plenty of light to find our way into the salinas anchorage, and a busy one it was, but as usual there is always room for a few more boats and morning found us well hooked and beginning to look for a sailmaker to repair the damaged mainsail!

Light House on the far south western corner of Puerto Rico!




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The busy anchorage at Salinas with the mountains in the background!




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DR to Puerto Rico Via the Mona Passage!

Anita and I at the outfitting shack at the  Dominique Cascades Waterfalls!

Anita taking the plunge at one of the waterfalls we could not slide down! This was not the tallest waterfall we jumped!

 

We had a great one week stay in  Luperion the people and the waterfalls really made it special  and would have enjoyed a longer stay but a weather window presented itself, a mild cold front predicted by Chris Parker would give us beam seas and brisk but safe wind conditions so off we went!

We left Luperion at first light and managed to negotiate the tight channel out of the harbor with no issues and found the conditions off shore to be as expected so on we pressed, sailing on a beam reach under full main and staysail for almost 24 hrs! we reached the eastern point of the DR and turned south til we were around the hourglass shoals. We were able to sail all the way til we reached the red sea bouy marking the entrance to Samana bay! We motored the rest of the way until we reached our destination Bahi Puerto Marina!

 

We had a great stay in Samana. I would highly recommend the Marina over staying in the harbor at Samana. Very safe and great accomodations! Five star resort and only 75 cents a foot! We had heard about issues with theft and such in the harbor which is too bad, but the town is delightful and the Marina is the best choice.

 

Again were were on a tight schedule and another weather window came up that promised a quite passage across the Mons passage so we had to take the shot, but the down side was only staying in Samana 2 days!

 

We arranged for the commandant to meet us at the boat at 6 am so we could get a early start. You must  be aware you pay to get into the DR and you will pay to leave, it was the most expensive of all the Caribbean countries we visited, we paid about 125 US to clear in at Luperion, and 20 US to exit Samana.

 

Our trip to Puerto Rico was another great one . We were treated to a whale watching fest on the way out Samana bay, its noted as a great place to see whales and it sure lived up to its reputation! The 100 miles or so to Puerto Real was very uneventful, we arrived mid morning and dropped the hook and enjoyed a peaceful stay in this great little town! Besides the normal stuff its got the cheapest diesel fuel in the Caribbean!

 

 We took a field trip to Ponce , its a city with perhaps the best examples of Spanish architecture in the Caribbean. The girls are standing in front of the firehouse in Ponce this is one of the oldest structures on the Island!

 One of the beautiful beaches on the Island!

 Another shot of down town Ponce!

 

Discovery on a mooring at Culebrita, a great little Island off of Culebra, Spanish Virgins

Anita posing in front of the old fire station now museum in Ponce

 Walking thru the rainforest state park in Puerto Rico

 Anchored off the south Puerto Rico coast on our way east

Record Shop in downtown Ponce

Turks to the Dominican Republic

After a week or so in the Turks we headed off for the passage to Luperion and the DR. We had a good forecast, 15 knot winds from the NE and mild seas! Also a full moon to boot! Left big sand cay in the Turks at 6 pm so we would arrive at daylight after a expected 25 hr trip.

Had one of those magical night time passages, warm air, full moon and a gentle ride all the way til daybreak. We arrived off shore at luperion at about 6.30 and the smell of cool air, first and the mountians was almost entoxicating!

We could see the 3 thousand ft high peaks in the distance and the Palm tree covered hills surrounding Luperion are spectacular. I was not prepared for the assault on my senses that was the DR!



Our first look at the DR close up


Luperion harbour


Girls waiting outside the immigration building(shack), second from the fight was Gladys, see just sat down and became part of the group, following us to lunch, sitting next to us and was brought a glass by our waiter and ended up drinking some of our beer! Ends up she Aldo showed up as part of the agriculture party and asked for 20 bucks! Learned after the fact that she moonlighted doing more sexy pursuits😫


Waiting on the guys



Discovery on her ball at Luperion harbour


Wendy's was our place to sample presidente and also it had good Wifi



Anita strolling the streets of Luperion.

We took our time negotiating the narrow entrance to the harbour, and once in were surprised how crowded and small the anchorage really is. We eventually took a mooring ball from our boat guy, his name was popi and he was the jack of all trades we had heard about, water taxi, delivery guy, enterpter, rental car, waterfall trips, you name it Popi had his hand in it!

After spending a few hrs with the litany of people coming out to the boat in the clearing in process, or should I say the cleaning out process, as everyone had there hand out! First 93 bucks for immigration, then 20 bucks to the tourist guy, then 20 bucks to the "agricultural" people (at least they took our trash). Then the port authority wants 20 bucks for being in the harbour. After finally filling all the hands with cash it was time to go into luperion and have a beer!

And what kind of beer, El Presidente of course, the national beer of DR! And what a beer it is, first they come in the grande size, approx two reg beers, second they cost only 100 peso, or about 2 bucks American, third they serve their beer at freezing or just above! Many Presidente's were consumed during our stay!

Then there were the two main staples of life, rice and beans and plantains! They have the best rice and beans here, but the plantains are my fav, green, yellow, ripe, smashed, fried, it don't matter I love me some plantains!


The DR was great, the people are poor but happy and friendly. The countryside is spectacular, the sights and sounds are too, on the roads you see people finding ponies, donkeys, they carry metal milk jugs on their donkies, you are likely to see a roadside butchery, fresh vegetables every where and sweet potatos the size of footballs!

The motorcycles, everywhere, loaded with people or stuff, we saw a guy blasting down the road with a bail of hay the size of a refrigerator on the back of a 125cc cycle.
Any trip on a highway in the DR is like a thrill ride, people pass you on the right side, two cars might be traveling abreast on the same side of the highway, motorcycles flit in and out of traffics like Mosquitos! There seem to be no rules of the road in the DR just guidelines like they say I'm the Pirates of the Carribean!

The highlight of Luperion was the trip to the waterfalls. The Cascades! We took a van about 35 miles up into the rainforest and then donned life jackets and helmets and were led up a trail by our two guides to the start of our 12 waterfall adventure. There is a very narrow gourge carved out of the rock in the mountain side by a stream. It had rained the night before do the stream was really a raging mini river! This area had been know to the locals for hundreds of years but recently opened to tourists. The water was cold eventhough it was 80 plus degrees. The initial falls required us to sit and slide down into the pool that forms below the fall, like natures own water slide! The current was so strong that the guide below had to make sure you didn't end up slushed all the way down the mountian. Eventually we came to a fall that we could not sit and slide do we waked out the edge of the gourge and stood and jumped 30 feet down into the pool! You could never do this in the states, there aren't enough release forms in the world to make this work in America ! But it was the most challenging thing I have ever done and so proud Anita did it with me!




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