Moving along the Windward Islands

We've been working our way down the Leeward and Windward Islands. The sailing is becoming much easier as the wind is now more on the beam, which makes for faster and smoother sailing. Since we've sailed in this area before both on charter and in the original Bonanza, we are feeling very comfortable visiting our favorite places and enjoying familar anchorages. We have lost track of most of the other boats that we saw all along the Bahamas and Puerto Rico and are meeting new people - many who are also heading south. Finally we caught up to our friends on Losloper. They are a family from Calgary who are enjoying a cruise on their new boat as well.

They were very happy to find that the flag/fruit man of Martinique had a South African flag in stock. SA is where they are orignally from. Too bad there were no Canadian flags for us to buy. Our very undersized example is blown almost to bits. Too many gales on the way down I guess.





After we enjoyed Rodney Bay in St. Lucia for a couple of days we headed down to the Pitons. This is a spectacular area where the mountains raise up right out of the water. Naturally beautiful with unbelieveably clear water. We had the chance to visit the waterfalls that flowed with heated water...not exactly what you need after hiking in the tropical afternoon sun, but a great muscle relaxer for sure.

Thar She Blows...Whales

Living onboard means you spend many hours looking at the water. Whether you are simply gazing at the never ending blue or keeping a sharp eye out for the plastic floats that mark the tangling lines of fish traps, you are always watching water. Suddenly something exceptional happens - WHALES. Roy spotted them first just off the port bow. Large, black backs just breaking the surface. I counted two, then three, then four of them. The largest one in the lead followed by two others and then what looks like a younger one. We can see them blow water. Then they disappear and reappear even closer to the boat. Then they dive and two slip directly under the boat. We see the disappearing white water patches they leave behind as they plunge beneath us. Next we spot them on the other side of the boat. They continue on and we wonder if they even really noticed us. Finally, we see the smallest one's tail flick out of the water as in swims after the others. Really cool

Look Out!!

Here's a sight that you definately don't want to see. Yikes! Luckily we were safetly anchored in St. Thomas when this cruise ship pulled out of port. The closest that we usually get to any vessel this size on the water is about a mile and sometimes even that feels awfully close.

We've put a lot of miles under the keel since I last updated this blog. From Samana we headed out across the Mona Passage for the trip over to Puerto Rico. This is a 24 hours undertaking and it all went pretty well. We arrived in Boqueron Harbour just as the sun set feeling a great sense of accomplishment. With the Mona behind us, we have the majority of the upwind parts of this journey behind us. Now, most islands are within sight of each other and can be reached in an easy day sail. After the many night sails along the Dominican Republic we are looking forward to being out and about in daylight. By the way, all the night sailing is due to a weather thing...of course. Winds drop significantly at night along the coastlines of large islands - making it much easier to make progress into them. Once we reached Puerto Rico we continued along the South coast in short hops...Cabo Rico to Ponce to Salinas. From there we got incredibly lucky with the weather and we were able to head straight for the Virgin Islands in one go. We stopped in St. Thomas for a night and then continued on to Soper's Hole, Tortola. Now we'll take the opportuntiy to visit a bunch of beautiful anchorages that we know well. Roy already bought the Pussers Rum Painkiller Kit and we are going to have a special toast to the BVI...

Samana

After sailing along the North coast of the DR we arrived at Caba Samana. Here high cliffs rise straight out of the water. You could sail right next to them, if you were that bold because the deep water goes directly to the shore here. We stayed clear this morning...hadn't had any coffee yet.
No, I didn't drive the motoconcho. Roy and I rode in the back all the way up to the waterfalls and back. No taxis in Samana so either it's this or the single motorcycle. No one has a helmut and the drivers are mostly young men who like to go fast. Good thing we went on a Sunday and there wasn't much traffic.
We walked up the last few kilometers to these beautiful waterfalls in Limon, DR. Absolutely Stunning.

Tree Phone

Take a good look at the ficus tree. See that tan colored dot that looks like a telephone. It is one and it works perfectly. This is the phone to call the taxis who park across the street from the tree. I never did see it ring, but I checked the dial tone and sure enough, there it was!

Santo Domingo Express

Santo Domingo, the capital of the DR is easily reachable by bus from Luperon.


We headed out with our friends from Jomaro, Jos and Yamele. The bus had many unexpected stops to pick up people - and animals. We finally reached the half way point and the windshield that was seriously cracked when get got on the bus seemed to suddenly be a problem. An hour later we were back on our way on another bus with equally suspect issues.


The Zona Colonial, or old city of Santo Domingo is beautiful. It has a real European feel with many historic sites like this one: the first hospital in the New World.

And along with the great architecture came the great cigars. Cohibas. I was so inspired by the process of the rolling and pressing and cutting, I bought a couple. Maybe someone who enjoys smoking them will visit the boat one day, but in the meantime they'll be my souvenir of this trip to the Capital.

Nine in the Cockpit

Here they are - the motley crews of our fellow boaters here in Luperon. You've got Jomaro, Starfish, Gap Year, and onboard the Roseline J there's Dan who lives half the time at Lake Macgregor, AB. Roy decided to make a big chicken curry and word got out.