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What’s our big news??? We have sold our beloved Rosario.

Fundamental to our plans has been the belief that we would/could sell our boat at the end of the year. Being a tiny bit superstitious, I didn’t want to jinx the process by saying anything until everything was finalized. The couple (Guy and Tori) that I mentioned in my previous blog fell in love with Rosario in much the same way that we did. After several weeks of discussions, Guy came to spend the weekend with us aboard the boat to conduct a sea trial and to have her surveyed. The final step was the survey where they took Rosario out of the water to determine if there was any structural damage to her. This was my first time seeing her out of the water. She was just as beautiful and I felt strangely sad. Maybe it’s because I knew this was it. Of course Rosario was not going to have any issues, she wasn’t even a year old and carried us across an ocean without incident. Once the survey was completed and Rosario was given a clean bill of health Guy turned to me and said, I have bad news, I’m going to buy your boat. For the sea trial we were blessed with a perfect day of sailing, and with Guy at the helm it was clear that this boat would soon belong to him. This time had to come…it is what we had planned for…but as you can probably imagine, it was immensely bittersweet. You will be happy to know that, though our lives as cruisers has come to an end (for now), Rosario carries on! She is in the great hands of this very lovely couple from the UK. She is resting up in Palma and will resume a cruisers’ life in a few months when Guy and Tori will sail with her to the Eastern Med.

I can’t believe how quickly this year has flown by. I also can’t believe how much we have seen and how far we have traveled. Rosario has carried us some 7,000 nautical miles. It has been an amazing ride and I am so grateful to have experienced it from the deck of a sailboat next to my favorite captain.

We have not yet decided what will become of the blog so this may very well be our last posting or perhaps it will just take on a different iteration in the future. In any case, I have to say how much I have loved sharing the last year of our lives with so many of you faithful readers. It is with the deepest gratitude that we thank you for your comments, words of encouragement, visits, and support. They have meant the world to us and sustained us as we were traveling so many miles away. And to all of our friends who are still out there…we may be landlubbers now, but we are always with you in spirit.

Until next time… xx

We’ve been getting to know our new home – visiting museums and exploring the island. I include some photos from a trip we took to the birthplace of Junipero Serra.

Otherwise, David and I have been eating our way through Palma. There are two places that deserve mentioning in case any of you find yourselves in Palma one of these days. The first place we stumbled onto quite by accident when we were trying to take Joel to another one of our favorites that happened to be closed that evening. It’s a local spot, a Basque restaurant in the Santa Catalina district where the food was always fresh and uniquely traditional (somehow they make simple, divine!) and the service is the best that we have experienced in all of Europe. Jorge has been our server the three times that we have dined there and his passion for food is evident in the way that he enthuses over every dish that he describes. With the weakness of the dollar, we keep having to swallow hard on European prices, which is why this next place is a most amazing find. Restaurant Living serves a three course lunch for 12 euros which even includes a glass of wine. This is no measly three course meal; it always starts with an inventive first course, followed by fresh fish, and completed with a mouthwatering dessert.

In other news, I ran an exhilarating race the other day! Shortly after we arrived I found out that the Palma Marathon would be taking place in a month. It was not enough time to train for the marathon, or the half marathon for that matter, but I felt more than able to get out there and run the 10k. It was a gorgeous day with just enough of a morning chill to make for a perfect race day. It felt wonderful to get out and race after being out of the game for more than a year. David as usual was the consummate cheerleader, meeting me several times on the course and documenting the occasion with a zillion photos.

The return ferry got us back into town at the rosy hour of 6AM. A few hours later we got a call from Moonstruck inviting us to join them at an anchorage 20 miles down the coast. We were pooped from our whirlwind tour of Barcelona and declined. We really wanted to meet their daughters who were visiting and this was our last chance to hang out with Moonstruck b/c they were moving on to Ibiza and then to Barcelona where they will spend the winter. So we mustered up some spontaneity and surprised them a few hours later. It was great to meet the girls who we had heard so much about and it was nice to delay saying goodbye to our wonderful travel partners for just another day. We don’t have pics of that visit, but you can see it on Moonstruck’s site.

We also received an impromptu visit from David’s best friend Joel. It meant a lot to have these final guests get to experience Rosario, knowing that our days with her are numbered. (I realize that I personify our boat but at this point, after all the miles that we have traveled together, she is practically family!) The best part about having Joel with us was that I spent a solid four days just cracking up. He and David are hilarious together and provided hours of entertainment with their banter. His visit saw us dancing for the second time this month(!), enjoying more touring of the island, and of course, doing more sailing. On the second day we found a nice spot to anchor for lunch and go for a swim, though Joel and I chickened out of the swimming part on account of the jellyfish. Our road trip took us to the easternmost point of the island (and of our yearlong adventure!) with views all the way to Menorca. On our way back we noticed a small cove far below with pristine aqua waters. Intrigued, we decided that further investigation was in order. We discovered a path and hiked down to a spot very reminiscent of Yosemite with pine tree peppered cliffs towering on three sides. The water was perfectly clear and it marked Joel’s first time swimming in the Med. Aside from the dog who swam out to me and decided that he wanted a piggyback ride (Seriously…I thought I was going down! As it turns out this sweet pup just wanted to use me as her own private island), it was a lovely afternoon as a wrap-up to Joel’s visit.

One of the best parts of cruising has been arriving at a new port; there’s always that thrilling moment when we step off the boat and I know we will have a day of exploring ahead of us. So now we are in Palma, a place that offers endless wonderful opportunities for just that. Our arrival here is most significant as it will most likely be our last port of call aboard Rosario (you can imagine this has leant itself to LOTS of reflection). Walking the streets here, it is easy to forget that you are on an island. It rivals any cool metropolitan city that I have been to. My favorite is the old town with its labyrinth of cobblestone streets. David and I bought bikes and love riding them here after the shops close and we virtually have the place to ourselves. This of course always ends with an ice cream at the locals’ spot that we found where they pile it high for dirt cheap.

The cathedral is astonishingly striking inside and out and is a centerpiece for the waterfront. David says it’s one of the most beautiful that he has seen…and he has seen his share. We went to an organ recital here the other day and have been to mass a couple of times. Seeing as how I understand less than 1% of this mass given in Spanish, I sit meditatively mesmerized by the the rays of light streaming through the amazing stained glass. The Seo (as it is called) was built on the site of a preexisting Arab mosque. The story is that one night in 1229, as Jaime I was on his way to recapture Majorca, his fleet was struck by a terrible storm. He vowed then and there to the Virgin Mary that if he survived this fury, he would erect a church in her honor. After the storm had blown over, finding himself safe and sound, he immediately undertook the project. It was a vow that would take from 1230 to 1601 to fulfill!

We headed out from Espalmador for a leisure sail. While out, we figured we’d check out the anchorages around Formentera. We were having such a nice time that we decided to mosey up to Ibiza and have a look at some anchorages on the south end that David had spotted on our charts. We figured if we didn’t find anything to our liking, we could just head back to our mooring at Espalmador. There were two possibilities. The first was a nice spot along a wide, white, sandy beach. But why not check out the other one. As we rounded the corner into the outer bay, it was magnificent. Then further, tucked into the eastern end of this bay was a smaller, completely secluded cove. There were a handful of other boats but it still felt amazingly private. It was three sides of beautiful cliffs topped with pines. And the water…the water was like Caribbean water (the way that we always describe the clearest, bluest waters), so clear that it was not a question as to whether the anchor had hit bottom, I could just watch it.

We spent three days there in our own glorious paradise, swimming, reading, listening to music, cooking, dinghy exploring, and sometimes doing nothing at all but gazing. I only stepped foot on land once to hike up a trail that led up to the top of a cliff and then along the ridge. I felt like I wanted to stay there forever, in that spot, on this boat, forever. Yes, it was that perfect.

The truth is that I should say that it was “nearly” perfect. Yes, perfect is an elusive word after all… and I suppose not even Conception Island was entirely perfect -albeit just about as close as one might ever come to it – given its impossibly remote location making it difficult to access (though this could actually be an argument for its perfection). And then there’s the fact that you can’t actually live there what with the whole uninhabited national park thing. Anyway, this place really was nearly perfect, and the only thing that kept it from the highest of ratings were the jellyfish. There weren’t tons of them but just enough to keep you aware. We hadn’t noticed them at all at first. I only happened upon one while swimming when, mid-stroke, something grazed my hand. I looked up to see a mauvish/brownish jellyfish right in my path. I quickly swam back to the boat where David and I proceeded to search for and finally photograph the offender. We looked it up to find that their stings are severe. No, not deadly, just extremely painful. Luckily I only had minor contact with its top and not its tentacles. Not that that put the kibosh on our swimming b/c the water was way to inviting for us not to accept each and every invitation.

The fog stayed with us for most of the night and cleared as we approached the coastline of Cartegena. The moon was beautiful and helped us watch out for fishing boats and ships. I noticed cell phone reception was strong so I called my parents on Whibdey Island. It still amazes me how you can have clear conversations across the world while sailing offshore in the middle of the night.

Dolphins greeted us as the sun rose. One treated us to a jumping show just off our bow. By 10:00am the winds were picking up from the southwest. They built to a solid 20-25 knots and gave us a wild ride downwind for the last 11 hours at an average boat speed of about 8 knots.

We raced to beat the sunset, not wanting to anchor in darkness. Moonstruck was ahead of us by over an hour, and Alan offered to send word on the conditions and details of the small island of Espalmador. After they arrived they noticed that most boats were tied up to mooring balls rather than using anchors. We had lost our boat hook the month before in Sancti Petri trying to pick up a mooring in heavy winds and strong currents. As we arrived Alan graciously motored out to lend us their boat hook. We grabbed a mooring and went to sleep for the night.

The morning revealed the full beauty of the beach and water around us. It was a wonderful flashback to the many anchorages we enjoyed in the Caribbean.

We woke the following morning and set out for Almiramar which was to be a 10 hour sail. We started out on a pleasant enough sail with light winds out of the south. About 2 hours into our journey the winds abruptly picked up to 20 knots right on the nose. We tried to push on, but about 20 minutes later, our flat, calm seas turned steep with swells very close together, making our progress a very slow 3 knots and most uncomfortable. So 3 hours out of Vélez, we finally sought shelter in a small cove thinking that it might subside. We had lunch, met up with Moonstruck who also tucked into the cove, and waited. We called ahead to the next marina to see if we might get a slip. No luck. And unfortunately, in these conditions there were no protected anchorages in the area. We finally had to make the disappointing call to turn around and head back to Caleta de Vélez (we hate going backwards). At least the return was a nice, speedy downwind sail.

For the following four days we watched the weather waiting for a new window. Finally, though conditions were still not ideal, we took our chances and were able to angle just enough to make it to Almiramar. It was here that we staged for our overnight passage to the Balearics. It was kind of exciting as this was to be our first overnight since the crossing!

We had had a pleasant sail to get there and were in good spirits, despite the disappointing view. We set out immediately (almost immediately, David changed the oil first and you can witness below how much fun that was) in search of the old town. Well guess what? It was an absolute gem. It was so incredibly beautiful. There were flowers and vines everywhere – hanging from balconies, adorning the squares, and lining the quaint (immaculate!) cobblestone streets. What really struck me was how everyone dressed up. It was actually refreshing to see. Just out for an afternoon or evening stroll, everyone, men and women, all so smartly dressed. It was the first place that we’ve been in forever where the women wore heels…I even almost pulled out a pair of mine that have not seen the light of day in many months and have long since been relegated to the depths of some locker.

While we were there we took in a fashion show that just happened to be taking place one evening in one of the many squares, followed by a fabulous meal with our friends from Moonstruck. I’m sure you can imagine why David was happy to be back in Spain, just two words…jamon Iberico ;) There was a wonderful dirt path that led for miles along the waterfront and joy of joys, I rediscovered the runner in me. We would have liked to have stayed in Marbella longer but alas, we had to plan ahead for our overnight to the Balearics and had to take advantage of our next weather window.

One day we took the cable car to the top of the famous Rock. Signs were posted everywhere warning visitors to avoid touching or feeding the wild monkeys that inhabit the cliffs along the rock. But of course there are those tourists that consider themselves so unique and succumb to a weird temptation to both feed and handle them. We watched one such tourist who managed to get the monkey on his shoulders while feeding it a carrot. Moments later he and his girlfriend were treated to a shower of monkey pee to the amazement (and hidden delight) of the rest of us who couldn’t believe what was happening. I know that’s just the sort of travel story you want to hear, right?

The monkeys were pretty neat, but the view was just spectacular. One direction was spain and the other the continent of Africa.
A few days later we were on our way back to Spain. We couldn’t wait to be back in the land of Jamon Iberico and Vino Tinto, leaving the fish and chips of Gibraltar behind us. On our way around the Rock we circled a sinking ship that had only a few days prior collided with another tanker. We had heard on the radio that the captain was arrested for not filing his departure correctly and failing to follow proper procedures. It was quite something to see the ship with the Rock of Gibraltar sitting behind it.

So remember next time you visit Gibraltar, don’t feed the monkeys and be sure to file your ship’s papers properly! Better yet, place this somewhat unique location farther down on your travel list.

The trip to Gibraltar was terribly exciting. At any given time there were 80+ commercial ships within 30 miles of us. We know this b/c we have something called AIS onboard which allows us to pick up vital data that all commercial vessels are required to transmit. We could see so many cargo/tanker vessels, heading to various ports in the US, who were certain to arrive in a fraction of the time that it took us to travel the opposite direction. However, because you have to time your approach through the Strait of Gibraltar in accordance with the tides as there are tidal currents running from several directions, our trip was SO fast. We were speeding along and the entire time we averaged above 9.5 knots! Just as a reference our average speed is usually somewhere around 6 knots (just below my average running speed!). The whole trip was quite a powerful experience – seeing Africa, the towering vision of “The Rock”, and having made it to the Mediterranean. Now, from here on out our adventures will be in the Med which is yet another milestone that feels so very amazing to have reached.

We spent 3 wonderful days in Seville. After debating taking the boat up the Guadalquivir river to get there, we decided it was too long a journey for how long we were planning to stay and it would be unbearably hot anchoring on the river anyway, so we rented a car instead. Moonstruck joined us for the ride up and stayed in an apartment for a few days longer than us. It was both mine and David’s first time to Seville and we fell in love with it. Our hotel was centrally located, not that it mattered b/c what a great walking city it is. We would walk for hours, which was a good thing with all the eating we were doing. David had jamon Iberica (his new favorite) with just about every meal, we had fantastic paella more than once, and even had great Chinese food (we hadn’t had that in ages!). We were not wrong about the heat. It was no less than a million degrees! During the heat of the day all streets were empty and we could be found siesta-ing in our nice air conditioned hotel…thank god we didn’t anchor in the river! Nevertheless everything about the city feels so alive and full of energy. It’s August and the smell of jasmine was still everywhere. Imagine it in the spring.

Seville’s architecture is unreal. Everywhere you turn there is yet another stunning building to behold. Sometimes, it’s a palace and others, it’s a small dwelling on a tiny cobblestone side street in the Santa Cruz district (originally the Jewish quarter). We spent hours touring the Real Alcazar, a Moorish palace begun in 712 with additions continuing to be made for centuries. The tilework was exquisite. There was so much color and texture everywhere. The gardens made me envious of the Sevillanos who live there and get to enjoy them all the time.

The cathedral is the largest Gothic building in the world and the third largest cathedral next to St. Peter’s (the Vatican) and St. Paul’s (London). It was originally a mosque and when it was being rebuilt in the 1400’s, the Castilians decided that they wanted a cathedral so grand that “future ages shall call us mad for attempting it”. Mission accomplished! And it took them only slightly over a century to achieve it. Curiously, its architects are unknown but thought to perhaps be German or French.

And then there was the flamenco show. This is indeed a very touristy thing to do in Seville but we couldn’t help ourselves and were so glad that we took in a show. We selected ours carefully and spent a solid hour and a half completely enraptured. The music was live, played by a rotating cast of about 5. The dancing was both moving and invigorating at once. The performance gave me chills and I couldn’t take my eyes off of the stage. It was like stimulation overload with all of the beautiful sounds and bright ornate costumes. I left there with that familiar giddy, but not entirely common, feeling of when you’ve done or seen something that was just so over the top wonderful that the feeling stays with you for hours.

We’ve been trying to adjust our internal clocks to the European lifestyle of siestas late meals. We kept getting it wrong when we would try to have lunch around noon only to find out that places don’t even open for lunch until around 2. It took a lot of work and a little napping, but in Rota, we finally started to get it right and could be found enjoying a midnight supper. But just as we were feeling sleepy and proud of ourselves for being up so late, we would inevitably encounter families full of old and very young still out strolling the squares and just getting started on the evening.

We continue to meet up with Moonstruck which has been fun. It always feels like this great surprise when you bump into your boat friends in a new port even though it makes perfect sense that you would given that we are all moving east.

Ten miles offshore, I tune into a radio station. It’s playing American tunes. This comes as no surprise, throughout the Azores, Portugal, and Spain, we’ve been listening to radio stations that mix local music with popular American music. What did come as a surprise was when the announcers came on and they were American. We’d forgotten that we had read that there was an American naval base in Rota. Our guidebook for Spain is a little outdated but it did warn that Rota was a bit overrun with “unpicturesque Americans from the largest naval base in the region” (ugghh, that did not paint a pretty picture). This was actually not our experience at all in Rota and strangely, we did not run into any Americans while we were there.

I later got the full low down on the base first hand. Joan (from Moonstruck) and I both needed to have prescriptions refilled. Of course we could probably find them somewhere in Europe but would first have to see a doctor – time, hassle, money. We came up with the harebrained scheme to see if we couldn’t get them from the pharmacy on the base. American base, American doctors, American meds. The guys were dubious. We were optimistic. We were out in search of a flea market that I had bumped into the week prior. We were in the neighborhood so we figured we’d drop in. Getting in was not easy, as I imagine it should not be. It turns out, as explained by our escort Zachary (yes, we were escorted every step that we took on the base), that the base is actually not an American base but a Spanish base that they grant us use of per an agreement that Franco made with Eisenhower in 1953. Apparently, this is the last jumping off point for all military, not just naval, headed to Iraq. Something having to do with refueling needs. It also turns out that as long as the Spanish gave us permission, we were free to enter the base. It took some time, but finally we were allowed entry, not as I said though, without a full time escort. I don’t intend to use this blog as a political platform, but what I can say is that everyone was really nice to us and the doctors were great and perfectly willing to help us out. In the end, we weren’t even charged a cent. I’d never been on a military base before and I think we were both in a bit of disbelief that we actually got on. We couldn’t get the full tour though (not that we didn’t try). On our way towards the exit of the base what should there be but a Baskin & Robbins. Our very gracious escort, a kid not more than 21, took us for a cone.

We anchored out in Portimao. It was a nice anchorage and Laurent enjoyed being able to jump off the back of the boat for a swim. There is a river that runs for miles up from Portimao so we took the dinghy out for some exploration. The next day we set out for our next stop, Villamoura. When David did his delivery from Southampton to Mallorca 12 years ago they had stopped here, in what was at the time, nothing more than a lovely little fishing village. Not so now. Now, as we pulled into the channel the site hurt our eyes. Sprawl…everywhere. The city is one big resort and built around the marina is essentially a huge outdoor mall. It was so depressing and we were so bummed that we had not stopped at the peaceful secluded anchorage that we had passed a few hours back. The next morning, we moved on and anchored off of the island of Culatra which is just across the channel from Faro. Ah…it was good to be there. We were completed transported back in time. This was a true fishing village and you get the impression that everyone knows everyone else…a real tight knit community. The houses are built right on top of sand and I can imagine that sand in your home just becomes a part of life. We crossed the island via a wooden pathway, that was recently built to preserve the flora along the sand dunes, and came upon a most beautiful span of beach. Was it not for the sand flies, it would have been perfect. Laurent left us the next day via ferry. We were sad to see him go but are looking forward to visiting him in France later this year.

It was the first time that we raced Rosario, so initially we were a bit nervous.

I timed our approach to the starting line poorly and thought we would have enough time to eat our lunch. We crossed the line in last place and comically waved to the starting boat. All the boats were headed down the ‘favored’ end of the line, so we chose the opposite, figuring that we had to try something different. As we made the first tack we quickly saw that we had gained almost all of our lost time and a couple of boats were forced to tack around us; we were on the favored tack (starboard). After rounding the first mark we were in third place!

After another hour of racing we found ourselves in first place! It was thrilling. The wind was blowing at about 20 knots and we had to tack about 5 times before crossing the finish line. Tni was amazing; she kept flying across the cockpit to crank in the genoa sheets. We could not believe we were the first boat across the line. The handicapping process pushed us down to third place, but nothing could take away our glorious moment. Someday I bet we’ll do some more racing. We both loved it.

Here’s a photo of the third place price we received at the award dinner.

David’s friend Laurent made a spontaneous visit to us from France which was such a treat! He flew into Lisbon and we rented to car to go up and meet him and take advantage of getting to spend some time there without having to bring the boat up. We got a hotel and it was our first night sleeping on land in eight months! The bed was huge! In truth it was the same size as our bed at home but it felt huge. I had a very long bath and just because I could, also took a very long shower. And to top things off, we watched bad TV in bed! That night we had one of the most memorable meals ever at Restaurant Eleven. It was a true culinary experience that left us swooning.

Laurent arrived and we met up with our friends from Moonstruck and had a nice long, leisurely lunch of fish and many bottles of wine. Ah…got to love Europe! We then proceeded on our whirlwind tour of Lisbon, most of which took place by car, taking in the various monuments. We would have liked to have had more time, but needed to get back to the boat in Lagos. We did manage a visit to the Gulbenkian which had an impressive collection of European, Islamic, Egyptian, and Asian Art. Equally impressive is that the entire permanent collection used to be privately owned and was donated.

We still had the rental car the next day and decided to just drive and get lost on the country roads. We stumbled on a cluster of old stone homes and felt like we had gone back in time and were seeing things as they must have been 100 years ago. I really wanted to get a picture of this sweet old couple sitting out on their front patio but didn’t want to be rude. David and I had been seeing these trees whose bark had been removed from about two thirds of the way down. Laurent solved the mystery, turns out this is where cork comes from. Next was lunch and a stroll through the quaint town of Silves. I loved all of the different color painted houses.

I’ll leave it there for now b/c I want to get this posted and I need to download a bunch of photos. Stay tuned…

As you know, we toured many a rum factory in the Caribbean but when I suggested we visit the tea factory it was met with only the mildest amount of interest. Well our expectations were exceeded b/c it was actually very fascinating. First of all, they allow you to roam freely throughout the entire factory. You can only imagine what a liability this would be at home but it really enhanced our experience. The factory was opened in 1883 and they still employ the same techniques today using the same equipment as they did back then. We happened upon a young guy working in the drying room who basically gave us an overview of the entire process. In the second to last room that we visited there were four woman sitting around a table drinking…what else, but tea, and sorting through the final batches leaves to remove any stray stems before it was bagged…by hand. Talk about, “if it ain’t broken, why fix it” kind of a system. And so, as I said, they continue their age old techniques and produce really lovely tea that I’ve been enjoying every morning since. The final room was the tasting room and by the point we were hooked and loaded up on a dozen bags. After leaving the factory we were invited to explore the grounds which were beautiful and serene with their rows and rows of tea bushes.

Something cool that I learned after the fact is that a friend of ours from SF Opera’s family is from this island. That just kind of made it that much more special b/c truthfully I had only vaguely heard of the Azores before planning for our trip and they have ended up being one of the most wonderful surprises of the trip…not to mention a treasure that offered us a much needed sanctuary after our passage.

Oh, and in case you are wondering what that steam is that David is walking through, they are geysers. The mounds are where they cook meat and fish using the steam from the geysers. If you visit the north part of Furnas Lake around 11.30 a.m., you can see the staff from local restaurants collect huge casseroles, where they are placed everyday around 04.00 a.m.

Lagos is a wonderful seaside, European town. The streets are all cobblestone and the cafes are numerous. We spent the first days catching up with other boats and enjoying local fish and beer. We spent one day at the beach and explored the grottos nearby. John stayed a few days before doing some travel in Spain. We took a drive to Fort Sagres, where Henry the Navigator created a school of navigation back in the 15th century. Built on a rugged cliff, we could look out onto the cape we rounded only a few days ago.

Our friends on Moonstruck left for Lisbon, but not before we enjoyed a fabulous dinner at this rustic tavern in downtown Lagos.
After Lagos we’ll move East along the Southern coast of Portugal.
Thanks everyone for your emails and thoughts during our crossing!

And so we are here. And this is the best part of all…we did it! We were a great team and we made it and we will always have this. The strangest part of it all is, at no time was I ever afraid. There are two things that never let us down – our boat and our captain – and my faith in both never wavered. In the big picture even with all of our challenges, we were still very blessed indeed. And now…it is over and we get to resume our lives as coastal cruisers. Unlike the many marathons I have run where at about mile 23 I am swearing them off, vowing never to do them again only to find myself crossing the finish line, endorphins pumping…elated, planning out my next one. For this, the crossing of an ocean, once is enough. I will be eternally grateful for this very unique perspective that I got to have on the world, the vastness of the ocean and the small place that I occupy. It is an emotional feeling that is hard to express. What I do know is that once is enough and I don’t need to try to replicate it, I will carry this one time with me forever.

I spent the morning wandering around the back streets of Horta by myself. The roads are all stone, paved with a basalt type rock and the sidewalks are inlaid with a white stone to create repeating patterns. Different patterns on different streets. Very picturesque. I imagine that rather quickly, you wouldn’t have too look at street names or shops, you’d know where you are by which pattern you were looking at on the sidewalks.

I spent a bit of time in the main church in town. All of the churches I’ve visited so far in the Azores are a bit different than Catholic churches in the US. The patron saint of the church gets center stage behind the altar, rather than Jesus on the cross as is typical in the US. I was the only one in the church this morning. Sunday Mass is at 11:00am tomorrow morning and I might attend, though of course I won’t understand much.

It started raining pretty hard for a brief while and I ducked into a very small market to wait it out. I ended up staying for 15 or 20 minutes along with a couple of other people doing the same thing. I had an iced tea while I was waiting. Didn’t seem polite to wait out the weather in this store without purchasing something.

The arrival here was uneventful yesterday morning. We arrived around 8:00am, having made over 7 knots during the passage from Flores. The weather continued to be partly cloudy and the 7000 foot summit of the island we were approaching was hidden in clouds.

At the customs/fuel dock we rafted up to Leocat and then Sarah Grace, two boats we’d had discussions with over the radio during the last week and a half. Leocat is catamaran from Quebec and had three crewmen aboard. Sarah Grace is a monohull out of Great Britain. Customs and fueling went very quickly and we motored over to our assigned moorage. David had us loading up with water and washing the boat for an hour or so.

While we were cleaning up the boat, someone from Bobo, another sailboat in the rally to Portugal that we are in, came by and invited us to lunch, which we did after finishing up the cleaning chores. The four of us from Rosario, two from Bobo, and one person from another sailboat named Cochise enjoyed quite an amazing lunch. We all sat in the cockpit of Bobo and had a first course of cheese, wine, prociutto, cashews, potato chips, and a small cheese pizza. This was followed by a delicious rice and onion dish (with a hint of curry) and chicken. Dessert was large bowls of fresh fruit.

After lunch, I was finally able to enjoy my first shower in three weeks. We had a couple of stops in the middle of the atlantic during calm seas where we took a dip in the ocean, soaped up, then rinsed off with a small amount of fresh water, but nothing to compare with a nice long hot shower. Flores had public showers, but no hot water, so I didn’t bother there.

For dinner on our first day in Horta we met up with people from several other boats (Leocat, Sarah Grace, Stella Maris) at Peter’s Cafe Sport. In the cruising world, this is a very famous bar/restaurant. I had a meat kabob that had pieces of beef, onions, and peppers on a skewer. They served it hanging vertically from a hook. Very tasty. Chocolate cake and ice cream followed for dessert. The walls are decorated with the flags of boats whose captains have tacked them up on the walls over the years.

Over dinner we all discussed the vagaries of the weather experienced during the passage from Bermuda. Leocat had done the same thing we had in diverting to Flores and spending a couple of days there. Sarah Grace and Stella Maris had both come straight to Horta and so had spent several more consecutive days at sea than we had.

The informal radio nets that boats use to communicate with each other on passage really build relationships quickly. Everyone (and I mean virtually everyone) listens to Herb (see report #1) every night, and then discuss via radio other weather reports (like the national weather service) and Herb’s recommendations, as well as exchanging position reports with each other. As a result, you end up knowing the sound of everyone’s voices and a bit about what they experienced during the passage before you ever meet them in person and it almost seems like a reunion rather than a first time meeting. Lots of fun.

I just woke up from a couple of hours of sleeping for the 12:00am to 2:00am watch, my first watch in four nights. It was awfully nice to sleep through the night in a largely unmoving bed for the three nights we were anchored in the harbor of Lajes des Flores.

We left Ihla de las Flores, Azores yesterday at about 1:00pm local time, which is also 1:00pm UTC, since we’re in the same time zone of the prime meridian. That’s plus eight hours from Seattle.

It should be about a 20 hour passage from Flores to Faile, the next island in the Azores chain that we’re stopping at. The Azores are divided into three groups: east, central, and west. Flores is the largest island in the west group and Faile is the most populous island in the central group.

Its mostly cloudy, but Cassiopiea is visible on the horizon off the port side of the boat. As you would expect, the milky way is spectacular from out in the open ocean, especially right now with the moon being in the new phase. The bimini that provides rain and sun protection to the cockpit of the boat makes it a bit hard to star gaze. You have to sort of hang out the side and twist your next to look up.

Bio-luminescent plankton is sparkling in the boats wake. It mostly sparkles in the white froth at the leading edge of the wake. Its not really bright, even the glow from the laptop LCD screen is enough to decrease my night vision to the point that I can’t really see it. But if I close the laptop, there it is again. It varies from area to area. The highest concentration thus far was a week or so ago during a time when we were in the middle of a glassy sea with no wind, though I have no idea if the two are related.

Back to Ihla de las Flores….

We arrived on the evening of the 11th and were able to anchor close in near a small beach at back of the harbor, not too far from the quay and completely inside the protection of the breakwater.

Tni opened a bottle of wine and we toasted our landfall, after 18 days at sea. All much relieved to be finished with the long passage.

David and Tni went ashore to clear with the local customs office. Jeff and I stayed on board. I ran up the quarantine flag and scrounged up the Portugal flag. You’re supposed to fly the quarantine flag until you’ve finished with customs and then you’re supposed to fly the flag of the host country. The quarantine flag lets everyone know that they should stay away for now, their might be plague on board.

Once finished with customs, we all piled into the dinghy and got ashore to have our first dinner on land since Bermuda. Lajes de Flores, the town in which we found ourselves, is fairly small and not really a tourist town, but it has a couple of restaurants and we went to the one recommended by the cusoms officer. I had a pretty tasty fried fish dish with a side of boiled potatoes. It was already getting late, so we headed back to the boat after dinner.

The first night in almost three weeks without night watches lead to everyone sleeping in. I don’t think anyone got out of bed before 10:00 the next morning. By the time we had some breakfast and rowed to shore, it was noon.

We spent the rest of the day walking and exploring. The town stretches up from the harbor for a mile or so and has mostly white stucco buildings with red tile roofs. There is one gas station, two small grocery stores, a couple of restaurants, one bank, and the usual municapl services.

Interspersed with the white stucco houses are a few older buildings with stone walls. Some of these are occupied, but many are tumbled down. Throughout the town, small plots in between the houses are planted in vegetable gardens. Many of these were planted all in potatoes, but quite a few also had onions, cabbage, corn, and a few other vegetables in smaller quantities. A good number of homes had dogs tied out on a rope or chain. Virtually all of these barked at us and did not seem overly friendly, but then we didn’t test this theory.

As you get out of the town of Lajes in the direction we were walking, it becomes mostly a series of small pastures separated by rock walls. Many of these pastures were empty, but some had cows in them. We ran across a field hand in one pasture that was milking the dozen or so cows there. They had a small but reasonably modern looking milking machine connected up to one cows udders. She was chewing away on her lunch as she was being milked while the other cows waited their turns.

The hillsides with their rock wall separated pastures reminded my very much of the south of Ireland, though a bit more hilly. Also, whereas in south Ireland a lot of the rock walls and roadsides are covered with a species of fuschia, Hydrangea fills the same niche on Flores in many places.

We walked out to a beautiful small park at the top of a cliff where a trail lead steeply down to the beach. It was getting a bit late in the day, so we passed on the walk down to the beach. Jeff continued up the hill while David, Tni, and I sat in the park chatting for a bit before walking back into town.

It had been foggy and misty all day and also rained a bit now and then, so the roads were wet, and as we got back into tow, I slipped on bit of mossy pavement at the margin of the road. Unfortunately, there was an inconviently placed un-convered drainage hole right there and I basically fell into it and hit my thigh against the side of it in the process. Needless to say, this hurt. I hauled myself out of the hole (around 4.5 feet deep), and managed ot hobble over to a rock wall and sit down. I guess I experienced a bit of shock and blacked out momentarily, scaring David and Tni ( and me too, I suppose). They waved down a passing police car and they called an ambulance. By the time the ambulance arrived and they finished doing their thing, I was feeling better, but all concerned felt I should go ahead to the health center and see a doctor. David and Tni were afraid I might have hit my head or hurt my back.

So, David and I enjoyed a 20 minute ambulance ride on an impressively bumpy road to Santa Cruz, the largest community on the island, where a doctor asked me a few questions, poked and prodded a little, gave me some Ibuprofen, and suggested a restaurant for dinner.

I got to speak a little french with the nurse who didn’t speak any english and I was very impressed with the fact that I didn’t have to fill out a single form or do any paperwork of any kind. On top of that, they didn’t charge me a dime. I think the nurse-in-training who took my temperature and blood pressure and put a bandage on my leg must have been something like sixteen!

The doctor called us a cab and we made the reverse journy back to Lajes where we met Tni and Jeff at the 2nd restaurant in town where we had some pizza for dinner.

Diverted by a strong low pressure system, we managed to sneak into Flores. Flores is about 130 miles from our original destination of Horta. All of us feel incredibly lucky to arrive here ahead of the strong wind and waves. It´s also a treat to visit one of the islands that most skip enroute to Horta. We anchored in Lajes last night; it´s a wonderful little village with cobblestone streets and tile roofs. We just visited the local church named: Senhora de Rosario. Enough said.

Our plan is to rest before heading onto Horta or San Miguel, then onto Lagos, Portugal.

Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts and notes during our passage. It was an unusually long one and we are so happy to have arrived safely.

We did some quick checking and figured we could also get into Flores before the heavy winds and we fairly quickly made the decision and changed course. Later, on the radio net with other boats that we’ve been travelling near, we were able to get another boat to read from a cruising guide the description of Flores and its anchorages. The anchorage sounded well protected from the anticipated westerly winds and the description of the island made it sound well worth spending a day or two at, even if it wasn’t somewhat out of necessity.

This morning, we’re in the time zone of the Azores and Greenwhich, England: UTC . Herb’s broadcast this evening and all the VHF net broadcasts are now even later. Herb will be at 8:00pm local time and the ad hoc VHF net we’ve been participating in most night will be at 10:00pm! Time to suggest an earlier start time for that.

Tni made corn muffins with some blueberries thrown in that were left over from some other source. Very tasty.

The island of Flores was first spotted at about 1:00pm by Jeff and everyone rushed into the cockpit to take a look. Not much to see yet, just a dim outline mixed in with the clouds, but everyone is might excited at the prospect of stepping onto solid land.

Unfortunately, its looking like we won’t get there until after 5:00pm and may not be able to clear customs today, which would technically mean we shouldn’t leave the boat today. We’ll see.

Today’s treat was cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Tni had a tube of ready made pillsbury cinnamon rolls hidden away in the fridge.

We’ve had a fast day of sailing, but a slow day on the boat with a lot of napping and reading. We’re expecting to hit the edge of the gale conditions late in the day and through the night tomorrow and so we’ll be doing two hours on, two hours off for watches with two people on at all times. So, everyone is trying to take a nap today to be fully rested for tomorrow.

Thankfully, the clouds have given way and its been mostly sunny all day, giving the deck and everything else a chance to dry out.

We’re at 38 deg, 53 min N lattitude and 34 deg, 36 min W longitude this afternoon.

Our conditions are largely the same as yesterday, moderately heavy seas and very cloudy. The wind is very damp and nothing dries out once it gets some sea spray on it. Once again, its hard to do much of anything except nap and watch the ocean due to the rolling of boat.

As we start to get within a few days of the Azores, we’ve been trying to pick a target arrival date and time. According to the current plan, if we maintain 6.5 knots, we should arrive in Horta, Azores four days hence on Tuesday morning. That seems a bit optimistic, but we’ll see.

I finished the second book of the trip today: Aloft, by Clyde Edgerton. Its a personal memoir about the author’s experience learning to fly, joining the air force, flying in Vietnam, and his flying experiences after leaving the Air Force. A pretty good, fairly quick read.

We’ve been seeing more Dolphins lately. The most recent groups we’ve seen swim by have included a couple of dolphins jumping completely out of the water as they approached the boat, just spectacular. Gets the whole crew on deck every time.

The evening of the 9th gave us a big disappointment as the weather forecast from Herb indicated that a low pressure system had stalled north of the Azores and would bring gale force winds into our path during our final 18 hour approach to Horta, Azores. Herb actually suggested boats in our area revers course or heave-to in order to stay west of the influence of the low pressure system. This looked to delay our arrival in the Azores for at least another couple of days.

Much wailing and wringing of hands ensued upon receipt of this news, let me tell you!

We finally decided that moving ahead through the night and delaying our final decision until the morning would leave us a full 24 hours to retreat if necessary and so we all hit the sack (except me, as I had the first watch).

Its sure easy to see where sailors in the old days would have found this tough to endure. Glassy seas, no wind, no movement without the motor.

The calm seas made it easy to see more wildlife. We saw many more sea turtles and even took a slight detour at one point to circle one and take a few pictures.

We stopped for 1/2 an hour at one point for a quick swim and rinse with fresh water. Two showers in almost two weeks!

With the engine running, power consumption isn’t an issue and so we watched a movie in the evening. David and Tni equipped the cabin with a 17″ monitor attached to the chart plotter to make it easier to work with the digital charts. A side advantage is that it can be plugged into the computer for watching DVDs and they brought a supply with them. We watch Inside Man with Denzel Washington. It was a pretty good movie.

On the second day of this two day doldrum, I took advantage of the calm seas and made pancakes for breakfast. I had to ad-lib the recipe a bit, but it came out fairly tasty. I didn’t have milk and used water instead, with a bit of non-dairy creamer to add some creaminess :)

Some time during the 2nd night of glassy seas, the wind finally picked up out of the north and we switched back to sailing.

Today has been a pretty relaxing sail overall. We’ve been close hauled all day, but the winds haven’t been too strong and we’ve made 5 to 6 knots towards the Azores all day. The wind is supposed to move more towards the south, which would be better for us, but it hasn’t happened all day. Maybe this evening.

For breakfast this morning we had left over irish soda bread that I’d made for my second meal of the trip the day before. It came out quite well, considering where we are and all. It went really well with the fish stew at dinner and made a good breakfast toasted with raspberry jam, also made by me, to toot my own horn :) .

This morning I pulled out my bag of knot tying and whipping materials and went back to work learning the ‘turks head’ knot. I’ve been fiddling with this off and on for a week or so and finally got the hang of it. They’re often tied on stanchions for decorative purposes or on the helm to mark when the rudder is centered. I made a turk’s head bracelet for Tni instead.

I guess some would question whether its a good thing or not, but I managed to put in a couple of good hours of work today and got one small project to the point where I can review it with the client when I get back. Relatively calm seas are great for working on the computer. Very much rolling and/or pitching makes it too hard.

We saw a couple more sea turtles today and two new species of birds that we hadn’t seen thus far. One of the sea turtles was quite small, maybe six inches across the shell. We also saw dolphins several times, mostly at a bit of a distance. On one occasion a couple of dolphins jumped completely out of the water about 150 feet from the boat.

David and Tni are down in the cabin listening to today’s weather information from Herb. Turns out I was incorrect in my first log. Herb doesn’t charge a thing for his daily weather briefing. Many dozens of boats, all across the Atlantic call him or just listen for weather advice every day. It probably takes him a good two or more hours every day just for the broadcast, not including whatever time he spends analyzing the weather up front. Very generous of him to put it mildly. I think I’ll try to send him something from Seattle as a thank you, maybe some smoked salmon or a 747.

I finished my first book of the trip today: The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan. It is an historical work, including first hand accounts, about the dust bowl era in the 1930s in the great plains region. It was a pretty good read.

I’ve managed to do a bit of work and we’ve played a few games.

We’re eating amazingly well on this trip so far. My sister in law, Tni, is in charge of the cooking for the most part and she’s done a great job. In addition to preparing some excellent meals like Pad Thai and a roasted butternut squash pasta dish that was delicious, she doesn’t have any seasickness symptoms at all. So, when the rest of us have occasionally not been feeling too hot, she’s still been able to do the meals. I’m in charge of two meals and made a garlic and red pepper fettucine dish for my first one. Today I’m going to make irish soda bread this morning to go with a fish stew I’m going to make this evening.

I spotted a sea turtle yesterday, the first one we’ve seen. He was a dark green color, but I didn’t get too good a look at him as we cruised by at 6 or 7 knots. Jeff had the good fortune to see a pod of dolphins swim by the boat during his watch the night before last. A full moon was out, so he had good visibility.

This morning everyone is asleep as I man the last watch of the night, the 8:00am to 10:00am watch. Sky’s are cloudy and we’re sailing along under full genoa and main sails at about 5 knots, heading about 50 degrees towards true north (towards the northeast). We’re at 35 deg, 2 min N Lat and 49 deg, 24 min W Long.

We’re heading a bit north of our desired course to try and prepare for an unfavorable change in winds forecast to hit us late tomorrow. We’ve been downloading weather data over the single side band radio, and it shows us running into this wind shift. We listened to Herb’s daily weather broadcast yesterday evening and he recommended the northerly heading for boats in our area. We’ll see throughout the day today how things develop.

After writing this log entry, I’m going to do few other things on the computer, then pull out the gennaker and try to find a small tear in it we noticed when we took it down yesterday. We might need to do some field repairs on it.

Ok, I guess that’s it for now.

I’d originally planned on sending out an email about this trip every few days, but its turned out to be difficult to work on the computer. For obvious reasons, I can’t really use it up in the cockpit. I’ve been drenched more than once by a stray wave in sailboat cockpits. In the cabin however, with the boat heeled over strongly or bouncing around from heavy seas, its very uncomfortable to do much of anything that requires concentration. A bit of seasickness lurks just around that corner.

On top of that, the satellite phone I’m trying to use for this purpose isn’t working as well as I’d hoped for sending email. Its very slow (think mid 80’s era modem speeds) and even a few spam messages clogs things up enough to make the $1.30/minute cost really start to climb. Add in a few dropped calls and I’m 3/4 of the way through my pre-purchased minutes in the first week.

Ok, enough complaining!

We’ve been at sea out of Bermuda eight days as of this writing. If you looked at our GPS track, you’d wonder where on earth we were going. We had to divert south for a low pressure area, and have ever since been working our way back north and east towards the Azores. Good winds have been elusive. The normal south westerly trade winds that make this the best time of year for sailing from Bermuda to the Azores have been interrupted by a series of unusual low pressure systems. As a result, we’ve been motoring from here to there to avoid bad weather and to look for wind. A partial result has been that almost all of our sailing has been close hauled, not the most comfortable point of sail. Right now, we’re motoring to get out of windless high pressure area to try and find some favorable south westerly winds on its northern margin.

We’ve settled into a reasonable pattern of watches. We’re doing two hours on, six hours off at night, and then just informally making sure someone’s in the cockpit during the day. We’re rotating the watches so that in a four day cycle, my watches are:
Day 1: 8:00pm to 10:00pm and 4:00am to 6:00am
Day 2: 10:00pm to 12:00am and 6:00am to 8:00am
Day 3.: 12:00am to 2:00am and 8:00am to 10:00am (or whenever someone else comes on deck)
Day 4: 2:00am to 4:00am

Last night the moons and clouds on my 8:00 to 10:00 watch were gorgeous. The moon was full and the clouds were making all kinds of interesting shapes. I listened to my iPod, enjoyed the moon, and decided what each of the clouds were shaped like.

The wildlife count hasn’t increased much. We see a lot of jellyfish, flying fish, and one species of bird, a Petrel I think (will have to look this up later).

The flying fish seem attracted to the boat for some reason, at least at night. We wake up every morning to usually find one to three have landed somewhere on the boat and died.

The Petrels (if that’s what they are) are fun to watch. They skim the water just inches above it, looking for food I presume. They swoop in and out of wave troughs, temporarily disappearing and then re-appearing. It always look like their wingtips are just about to touch the water. They must spend a huge part of their lives in the open ocean as we see them constantly even though we’re currently 500 miles from any land.

The channel out of the harbor is a very narrow cut, after which you’re in the open ocean. There are a series of four navigational buoys marking the channel through the reefs. As soon as we got a legal distance from the shore, we threw out our fishing line, but didn’t have any luck before the water got too deep.

As soon as we were away from the island, the swells increased to about 8 feet. Despite being told that these were relatively calm seas and the fact that I’ve never been particularly seasick prone, I spent the better part of the day not feeling too well and visited the leeward rail twice (to put it delicately).

In between not feeling too well, I saw my very first flying fish and we really enjoyed a pod of dolphins that briefly surrounded the boat. It looked like one of them was very young, only a couple of feet long.

Into the afternoon the winds died back a bit and the seas calmed somewhat. We were getting pushed south of the desired heading, so we cranked up the engine to move north a bit.

At 5:00pm we listed to the weather on the single side band radio. The boat has two radios: a VHF radio for short range communications of under 25 miles or so and the single side band (SSB) radio for communicating long distances. I’ve learned in the last couple of days about this guy named Herb, who broadcasts weather information on the SSB to subscribers of his service. The subscribers call in and ask about weather where they’re located and everyone else in the area listens in. Everyone know what you’re talking about if you say ‘Well, we’re going to follow Herb’s advice and avoid the low pressure area’ or ‘I think Herb was wrong, we’re leaving this evening anyway’.

So, we listened to Herb at 5:00 (he broadcasts from somewhere in eastern Canada) and learned about fairly strong low pressure area developing in front of us. He suggested vessels in the area either head due north and wait for the low pressure area to get out of the way, or head southeast and do the same thing.

David got on the radio and talked to a couple of other sailboats in the general area that were also heading for the Azores. All of us ended up deciding to follow the southern route and proceeded to navigate towards the waypoints recommended by Herb. As a result, we’re now part of an inormal network of cruisers headed towards the Azores via the same general route. There are five of us: Pilgrim, Chardonnay, Busybee, Stella Marris, and Rosario. Apparently, informal networks like this are pretty common amongt the cruising set. They guy from Busybee is by himself. Don’t think I’d want to do this by myself.

It currently just before 9:00am, when we’re supposed to check in with our little group (already nicked named BAR for Bermuda to Azores Rally by the guy on Pilgrim). Only one of the other boats is actually in sight at the moment. We’re curently at 31 degrees 27 minutes north lattitiude and 62 degrees 23 minutes west longitude.

Despite having the 2:00am to 5:00am watch, I feel reasonably well this morning and hope I’m all acclimated to the rolling of the boat now.

Its turning out to be harder than I expected to use the computer on the boat. Its not too bad right now, since the seas are very calm, but with ‘normal’ winds and swells, the boat is just rolling and pitching too much for using the computer.

Well that’s it for now.

John

John and Jeff arrived a few days ago. Boy are we looking forward to having the additional people for the crossing. The thought of sleeping more than two hours at one time just sounds like a dream. We’ve been having a great time at the various ARC activities, getting to know those who will be our neighbors at sea, and exploring the island. Today we will spend the day taking care of last minute details to get ready for tomorrow’s departure.

I was so sad to see Jim go and only managed to mask my tears long enough to walk away from the departure lounge.

We climbed a hill and watched the start of the first day of the race with Pam and Charlie, a couple from San Juan island who I liked immediately. What a joy they are to be around…radiating with positive energy and man oh man, she is quite the sailor having crossed several oceans. Raine and Sean happened to be visiting at this time as well and one afternoon David and Sean went out in the dinghy and got the most amazing shots of the start of the race. How exhilerating! It’s always refreshing to have guests and to get to see what you have been looking out through their eyes. They bring renewed enthusiasm and even though you think that you’ve not taken any of this for granted, you are reminded of just how fortunate you are. Thanks for coming and vacationing with us you guys!

The racing festivities culminated with an impromptu, intimate concert by Jimmy Buffet. He has the sweetest little daysailer that he keeps in the marina. I’m no Jimmy Buffet aficionado, which among the cruising and sailing sect is just short of a crime, but lucky for me I have Paul (from Aurora) who set out to educate me in this area and I now have several songs in my arsenal. The show was a blast, and what treat to be able to see him so up close and personal (yes, I just said that when a mere 5 months ago, I barely even knew who he was).

Back at Colombier, on the hill on the south side of the anchorage was a cool Frank Lloyd Wright looking house that was originally owned by Rockefeller and was recently purchased by Donald Trump. The scandal here is that while the current mayor (?) is praised for his strict building laws and for his commitment to preserving the island’s green space, he granted Donald the permit to build a road to his new property.

Well one thing that has surprised me is our ability to capture rainwater. One day we had spent the afternoon doing internet and by the time we were ready to head back to the anchorage that evening it was verging on a torentrial downpour. We made it back to the boat getting completely soaked with blurred vision. Just as we pulled the dinghy up to the swim platform, it was buckets and buckets of rain on us and the boat…sheer comedy as our clothes clung to us. David could not let this opportunity pass, so out on the deck in his boxers he rigged a system to collect the rain into our tanks. He managed to capture 40 plus gallons of water over the next few days. You gotta love self sufficiency!

Also this morning, we watched a dolphin who circled our boat several times. I was surprised to see him so close to the shore as we are only about 25 meters out. David managed to get a few shots of him.

This afternoon I (finally!) learned how to dive! It may sound preposterous that a person who has spent a good deal of time in the water should not know how to dive, but I guess I never got around to learning. David taught me today and it was exhilarating diving off the side of the boat.

The simplicity of the process and ingredients were fascinating. They start with sugar cane stems that are pressed for their juice. The juice is boiled in a copper pot before distilled in giant pot-still. It’s then aged in oak for two years. We’ll save a bottle to share when we return to SF.

Listen to the audio report with images: Distillery (m4a)

UPDATES:

Boqueron
We spent our time in Puerto Rico in Boqueron, Parguera, and Ponce. I was sick for most of Boqueron so while there a charming little town on this beautiful bay, I don’t have much else to report except of course that thankfully I was well in time for the Superbowl.
Parguera In Paquera we spent hours touring through all of the small islands of mangroves in search of monkeys, who ended up eluding us – but the search was still worth it for the experience of cruising through these tiny islands, some of which are so close together that they create a canopy overhead and there is scarcely enough room to pass through by dinghy. Also in Parguera we took a night tour to the phosphorescent pools. Very cool – and several from our group even dove in.

Happy Birthday David
David and I moved on to Ponce from Parguera to fill up on fuel and water before heading to Culebra. We woke at dawn to get an early start on the six hour journey. We were sent off by Crux coming out on their deck (and mind you, they are not early risers) to sing David happy birthday as we sailed out of the bay. Very sweet. On our way down, David was to receive the wonderful birthday gift of catching his first Mahi…the ultimate prize! For David’s birthday dinner we splurged and went to this wonderful Argentine restaurant. On a cobblestone street in the center of Ponce you could easily have been in a European village.

The Rain Forest
While on Culebra, we took a ferry to Fajardo and rented a car to go and explore El Yunque, the only tropical rain forest in the US park system. We opted for the long, strenuous hike up the El Yunque trail to the top of the mountain (3500 feet!). The trail was lush and we were shaded the entire ascent. Once at the top the views were absolutely breathtaking.

Thank you SO much Joel and Leslie! That was such a special treat.

Initially us along with our cruising companions, Crux, Aurora, and Kaleidoscope had hoped to get comfortable for at least 5 days of exploration and relaxation, however, after listening to Saturday morning’s weather report, it became clear that we would either need to head out for our next 3 day passage (part of which included the Mona Passage between DR and PR and requires just the right conditions) or wait for our next weather window which was not in sight. As much as we all really wanted to stay and spend more time in this lovely country, we could all agree that given the narrow windows of the winter we could not ignore this opportunity to have a safe and easy passage en route to PR. With this in mind, we basically had all day Saturday and Sunday to experience whatever we could with plans to head out on Monday afternoon. A big part of cruising life is provisioning. The Dominican Republic is known for its great prices and selections so we knew that we should not miss out on an opportunity to restock our boats, which was our plan for Saturday. We hired a van and 8 of the 9 of us headed to Puerto Plata. The trip took us through the Dominican countryside and our driver Jaime was an excellent guide. He took us by a cheese shop where they make local Luperon cheese, we had a delicious lunch in the oldest building in Puerto Plata, toured the amber (DRs national gem) museum, a cigar shop and of course, the supermercado. That evening Crux hosted everyone for a generous feast. Both Crux and Kaleidoscope had had incredible luck in catching lobsters, and we were the lucky recipients of their bounty. Sunday was to be one of the most fun days that I can remember. We had arranged for a tour to the waterfalls where there are natural water slides. You are required to have a guide to maneuver up the various levels of falls. Our itenerary included climbing 7 of the falls. We had two guides who were as agile and monkeys and who would help to pull us up through what sometimes felt like rapids. Other times you were just drifting on your back looking up at the cliff faces, surrounded by soap stone and floating in tranquility in fresh water (a cruisers dream…no salt!). Hiking up took about an hour and the trip back down was fantastic and utterly exhilarating! The rocks have been worn smooth and you get projected into the cool emerald pools, knowing that you get to do it again. Apparently, this is where they filmed a portion of the movie Anaconda. We decided to extend the fun and rented motorcycles when we got back. What a way to see the countryside! No, I did not have my own bike, but David was an excellent chauffeur. Again, we noticed just how friendly everyone was. Most people would wave as you passed through the little villages. We rode out to La Isabella the first city of the New World. The view from the edge of the cliff was awesome and you could see Haiti in the distance.

We got great photos, some of which I’ve shared here but I’ll post more once we get our waterproof camera shots developed.

Today’s broadcast included a special note about a crazy event that happened to us last night. As we headed back to our boat in the dark after the Colts game at a local bar we were approached by another dingy. “We can’t find our boat!” Basically, it’s every boater’s anchoring nightmare. These folks were circling around and could not figure out what happened. I offered them our portable VHF (a good thing to bring onboard the dingy) to ask around. Someone down the harbor spotted the anchor lights about a mile or more across that channel. It was blowing around 20 knots, so we offered to keep them company in our dingy as we raced to find their sailboat. It was a little wet but we arrived at the boat about 20 minutes later as we talked on the VHF with other boats who were helping to keep watch. These folks were amazingly lucky; the boat was about 5-10 minutes away from rocks and some serious damage. We rode back with them in their boat and helped them anchor again.

Let’s hope we don’t have to deal with any such mishap on Rosario!

Listen to the Georgetown Cruisers VHF net: Audio File (m4a)

We next got the dingy in the water and the outboard installed. Everyone was eager to find the pigs on a beach nearby that were rumored to swim out and great visitors. We spotted the beach and saw a few of them strolling the sand. We all boarded the dingy and motored toward the beach. At about 100 yards out one them entered the water and started swimming. It was a fascinating and peculiar sight to behold. We tossed the little fellow a tortilla, but he showed no interest once it hit the salt water. We were so fascinated watching the leader that we didn’t notice the armada approaching from the shore. One in particular, a brown pig with long ears, was a quick and hungry swimmer. Once he arrived at the dingy the entire innocent excursion turned into what Jon called the Bay of Pigs. We drifted to shallow waters at the corner of the beach along a rocky wall as we became encircled by our new friends. For some reason we missed the tip in the guidebook suggesting we get out of the boat early and feed them on land. The brown pig began climbing on the back of the boat, where his hooves scratched away at our inflatable boat; the crew had a mixed reaction of laughter, shock and, let’s just say it, terror. I had shut the motor off as we got into shallow water; i grabbed an oar to push us out, but the paddle came off in the sand. Marilee helped to distract the pigs by shaking the bag of cereal we brought over there heads and into the the air. This further induced the boarding attempts as well as the laughter from Tni and Jon. I raced to get the motor started again. It was propped up so the propellor was now thrusting water into the air, making an enormous amount of noise; there left little doubt at this point: all the boats in the anchorage were now getting a show they could talk about for days. We eventually outran them and made it to deeper water where I could lower the engine. We lured them down the beach so we could race back to get the paddle sticking in the sand.

After making it back to the boat–all of us stunned, amazed and amused at what had just happened–we enjoyed some drinks and lots of laughter. About an hour later we looked over to the beach where young kids were petting and dancing with these ferocious animals who almost sank our dink.