Rain, and more rain predicted for the next several days. This is the dry season! Anyway, Fred continued his sanding when the wood would dry, while Iris started what was to be about 15 trips to Pueblo and Gourmet Gallery. Pueblo doesn't deliver, and after her last 'cart deposit' experience, Iris figured it was faster to make a lot of trips and stow after each trip. Good exercise too. Amazing how Pueblo became a much more acceptable supermarket after the alternatives down island.... Domino's for dinner and start work on the web site.

Same old stuff - Fred made a first coat of Cetol while Iris continued to provision. Another migraine for Iris - we need to get away from 'civilization' soon. Michele (Chianti) and Iris walk to the nearest ATM for a cash infusion. Our plans are to leave on a late departure tomorrow afternoon. But we really wanted at least one more coat on the brightwork and the web site updated prior to leaving. We had Chianti over for happy hour; then dinner aboard and more Windwalker log updates.

We decided to extend a day at the marina. The forecast is for heavier rain later in the week, so we need that second coat of Cetol. Fred needs to make additional calls to IBM and Village Marine, Iris isn't happy with the progress on her ear and may need to make another trip to Cruz Bay. So rather than extend our departure to 3pm, we opted to stay. Tomorrow we'll fuel up and then anchor out and make the short hop to Culebra the following morning.

OK. We're leaving the marina. Now - do we go to Culebra or Charlotte Amalie? Iris's ear is still funny and she's concerned about leaving without a last checkup. So we decide to move to Long Bay. We said our goodbyes to Syzygy and Chianti, took 'last' showers, cleared out of the marina and moved the boat to the fuel dock to top off our diesel and gasoline. Then we took the Haulover Cut shortcut to Charlotte Amalie and anchored by 11:30. Iris decided to take the 1pm ferry to Cruz Bay, St. John to see the doctor while Fred worked on the watermaker. Iris arrived in Cruz Bay early and waited for the staff to return from lunch at 2pm. Diagnosis: her ear was better however part of the ear drum was still inflamed; time for 5 more days of antibiotics plus Advil and sudafed to relieve inflammation and congestion. And no swimming for a week! On the way back to the ferry, Iris checked our e-mail at Connections and took the 3:45 ferry back. She felt like a commuter. Fred was waiting for her in the dinghy and we were back at the boat by 4:45. Fred finished putting in the new membrane in the watermaker, and we tried it out. The reading of 465 was technically 'drinkable' but a lot higher than other folks are seeing. We watched the cruise ships depart and had dinner aboard. It was our last chance to watch PBS in the USVI...

We brought the dinghy on deck and prepared for departure. As we left the harbor we passed another Valiant 40, Annie's Song out of San Francisco, CA. We'd heard that they'd been out 11 years and were on their way north. They passed us in their dinghy and we briefly exchanged greetings. We had a nice beam reach in perfect seas and winds all the way to Culebra. As we approached Ensenada Honda, the weather turned squally just in time to make the entrance channel buoys hard to see. But the squalls dissipated a short while later and we anchored off of the small island Caya Pirata. We had lunch aboard, lowered our dinghy and searched for a place to tie up. We parked at the Dinghy Dock Restaurant, which didn't look open at that hour, and then sought a telephone with which to call Customs. Everywhere we turned there was a sign stating that all foreign vessels as well as those entering from the USVI and foreign ports, must call Customs! Hard to ignore (but many cruisers chose to). We got our clearance into Puerto Rico via phone, and then found an internet place at which to log on, and also used the pay phone for Pocketmail. We spoke with a young man, Doug, who was also doing his pocketmail. He was singlehanding from the states, and had spent a few weeks in Luperon prior to crossing to Puerto Rico. He was headed south and concerned about his cruising kitty, quite early in his adventure! We stopped back at the Dinghy Dock and had a drink at the bar before retrieving our dinghy. Doug walked in. We discussed places to leave boats in NC, since he came from there. Back to the boat for a quiet dinner and evening. NOT!!! There was some kind of political event taking place in the stadium across from where we were anchored. Music and rhetoric blasted as bright spotlights lit the arena. The lights were so bright that they lit the interior of our cabin. We also couldn't hear anything on the SSB - there was tremendous interference from something on shore. The event broke up around 11pm.

We couldn't hear the SSB in the morning either. We decided to move to Bahia de Almodovar, highly recommended in our cruising guide as well as e-mail from August Crow. Before departing, we took a last run to the phone booth and to dispose of trash. As we approached the town dock, another couple was getting into their dinghy with their Pocketmail unit in hand. Quite the popular device! Dewey was as sleepy and quirky in the morning as it had been the previous afternoon. On the way back to the boat we stopped by Glory to introduce ourselves. Glory had met The Reach in St. Lucia. Ed and Gloria had been sailing their Hood 56 for the last 3 years. They hoped to meet up with Alan as he moved the Reach to Puerto Rico later that day. We weighed anchor and motored over to the new anchorage, pulling in close to a reef. It was a pretty location with just a few houses and 3 boats on private moorings. Syzygy hailed us as they pulled into Dewey. The Reach arrived there as well, later that afternoon... But a reunion was not to be... We did a little exploring via dinghy, but Iris was getting too much sun exposure with all those antibiotics and went back to the boat while Fred headed out some more. We enjoyed a quiet afternoon, and then a great evening sky with the lights of St. Thomas in the background and the Culebrita light. The salinity is increasing with the new watermaker membrane; we continue to monitor its progress...

We changed the 5 micron filter on the watermaker; it was pretty foul. Then we decided to explore Culebrita - a short motorsail around Culebra. We picked up a national park service mooring. There were 3 other boats there as we arrived. The bay was absolutely beautiful with clear water, scrubland and several beaches. We went ashore for a hike and circled most of the island, including climbing up to the Culebrita lighthouse. While we saw a few birds, the place was silent; we saw none of the myriad of birds that supposedly make the island their home. When we got to the dinghy we met a couple snorkeling to shore. They had been cruising since 1983 and were on the schooner, Whisper, out of South Carolina. They'd spent a lot of time in the Bahamas, including the remote Jumentos, and were headed back to the states, however on a slower schedule than ours. We had dinner in the cockpit and a slightly rolly evening.

After breakfast, we rowed ashore and hiked over to the saltwater pools called the Jacuzzis. Iris lagged behind Fred who jaunted up the rocks, and we became separated. A few anxious moments as Iris imagined that Fred had fallen off the cliffs while he thought she'd headed back to the boat and couldn't find her. Both of us were mad when we finally found each other! We then hiked to the opposite end of the beach where Fred did some snorkeling while Iris huddled in the shade. The anchorage was filling up with motorboats out of Puerto Rico as we departed around 11:30. We planned to circumnavigate Culebra. While we'd hoped to stop at the beautiful Flamingo Beach on the north side, the northerly swells would make that untenable. We had to make do with watching the beach through our binoculars as we passed it. Our next destination was the anchorage at Cayo Luis Pena, another small island national park. When we approached we noticed that all of the boats were huddled on one side of the anchorage. We wanted seclusion so tried the other side. Big mistake; the current and wind had us turned around. We moved to the crowded anchorage but found it too rolly to spend the night. After a brief lunch stop, we continued our circumnavigation, once again entering Ensenada Honda, but this time to anchor in Dakity Harbor. Most of the moorings were taken and the ones that weren't were in 2 to 7 feet of water. Not even the power boats could get to them due to the shoaling that had occured. We kept going and tucked into the main part of the Dakity basin and anchored in about 7 to 8 feet. We were the only ones there, at least briefly. Once power boats saw it was tenable, several came by to anchor near us. So it goes. Tomorrow, on to Vieques We both studied the maps to try and decide which anchorages we'd go to in Puerto Rico enroute to the Bahamas. The clock was ticking. Did we want to stop in the Dominican Republic or not? How long did we want our multi-day passages to be? No firm plans yet.

We departed Culebra around 9:30 after our attempts to reach Range Control via VHF were met with no response. Vieques is used as a bombing range (and you've probably heard of the demonstrations in Puerto Rico and the squatters on military lands); permission must be granted to anchor in the gorgeous, undeveloped bays. Usually, no response means permission is granted. We tried once more halfway to Vieques. On no! We received a response. We were ordered to stay 3 miles off shore and were not granted permission to anchor in military space. Quick changes to our route plan as well as to our next anchorage. What was going to be a short day ended up being a long, uncomfortable one. The seas were lumpy and mid-way around the south side of the island a shackle on our genoa broke. We furled it until we could come up with a repair at anchor. We heard a drama on VHF. Our friends Tyler and Paula on Another Day were being contacted by the Coast Guard. We could only hear the Coast Guard side, at the beginning. Another Day had snagged a fish pot and was stuck in 50 plus foot water. Tyler was unable to free the prop and dropped his anchor. The Coast Guard offered to call a towing service for him. Tyler requested that they contact the marina at Roosevelt Roads, his destination as retired Navy. The marina was unable to assist him, but while the radio traffic was going on, a Navy mine-sweeper in the area offered to come to Another Day's rescue. An hour later, a Navy diver was freeing them of the pot. Amazing! We sailed into Sun Bay at around 4pm, on the civilian side of Vieques. It was quite lovely, but a bit rolly. We could have tucked in a little closer to the gorgeous beach, but there were a number of PWCs flitting about and we wanted 'our space'. We had the bay to ourselves until a ketch pulled in at around 7pm.

We wanted to check out the beach; never pass up a garbage can! The beach was lined with them and was immaculate. Beautiful white sand encircling the bay. We walked along the beach until we found a telephone. Ten tries at Pocketmail with no successful connection. Then we tried calling Fred's mom. No answer there either. We walked back on the sand, coming across only 2 couples on this sunny Monday morning. We thought we'd sail by the town of Esperanza and if there were available moorings then we might stop. We decided to keep going on to Green Beach, a purportedly beautiful, deserted beach on the extreme west end of the island. Beautiful, YES! Deserted, NO! There were 3 other sailboats, two motorboats at anchor when we got there. The motorboats left by evening, but another sailboat arrived at dusk. Fred snorkeled a bit and saw a lobster, but not much else. We're ready to try conch, but couldn't find any. We had a brief walk on the beach. We plan to explore more tomorrow. We had a beautiful view of the mountains of El Yunque national park in Puerto Rico, across the channel.

We had a lazy morning with a few chores and some trip planning. We heard a rumor on chat that many cruising boats were being boarded by the US Coast Guard as they sailed around Puerto Rico. We spoke with both Another Day and Syzygy, both in Fajardo and planned to meet them the following day. After lunch we walked around the beach some more and Fred snorkeled a bit. More trip planning and tour discussions as we plan to explore Puerto Rico.

We had a rolly night. Dusty was disruptive. It rained on and off all night, the remnants from a passing front. We got hailed by Another Day on chat telling us that they'd come to the marina that afternoon to see us. Syzygy also called us to see when we'd get in. We sailed on all points of sail as we made Fajardo on one tack, most of them, uncomfortable. The winds and seas were predicted to climb over the remainder of the week. As we entered the marina, Ed and Nancy waved to us and were at our slip as we were completing our inelegant docking in 20+ knots. The docks were much higher than Windwalker. Iris dropped one of the fenders while trying to attach a spring line at the same time, and it quickly drifted away. A dock hand ran to retrieve it. Whew! We were secured. Now to attach the phone. No phone??? So much for our internet connection. Iris found a phone to check e-mail and discovered that Fred's mom was in the hospital. Just as we were having a late lunch at 3pm, Another Day called on VHF to say that they were in the parking lot. They came over from Roosevelt Roads in their rental car. We caught up on our travels as we hadn't seen them since early January. Syzygy came over at around 5 and we made introductions. Dinner at the marina restaurant. Tyler and Paula kindly invited us to join them in touring San Juan tomorrow and they also offered to take us provisioning. We declined, as we planned to rent a car ourselves and tour Arrecibo and the Rio Camuy Caves - which didn' interest them. Ed and Nancy were interested, however, and we agreed to meet the following morning.

Early rise. Fred got the rental car at 8am and Ed, Nancy and we got going at 8:30. Wow, this isn't much different than Miami! Familiar stores, fast cars, highways, traffic jams as we went through San Juan on our way to the Northwest part of Puerto Rico. It took 3 hours to drive to Camuy Caves. What a zoo!!! The place was filled with school kids. The parking attendant suggested that we come back in 2-3 hours. We decided to go in and get the scoop. The ticket guy told us to come back at 1:30. We may not get an English-speaking guide. OK. We took the short drive to the Arrecibo Observatory via back roads through small villages. The terrain was otherworldly. The Karst country has unusual looking rounded hills under which are caverns. Very lush. Arrecibo opened to visitors at noon and we viewed the exhibits, a film and the antenna itself. Arrecibo is the site of many astronical discoveries, as well as SETI research on extraterrestial life (downplayed in the exhibits). You may have seen it as the site in the movie Contact. Fascinating. Now - back to the caves. Still total chaos and a zoo. No one in the ticket booth and looked like the same kids waiting for trams to the caverns. Nancy came across a group of around 10 disgruntled folks from the states. They had been there since noon and hadn't been told anything; they knew less than we did. One of their crowd found the manager and started a rukkus, demanding an English-speaking tour. The manager collected the 15 or so of us and moved us to the side where she then sneaked us into the empty theatre. She didn't want others to see that we were going to be moved in line ahead of the teaming crowds, nor that we were going to get an English-speaking guide. They sold us tickets in the theatre and then 'sneaked' us once again to the head of the tram line. Our guide was excellent. She was able to handle very technical questions, kept us moving, and took the initiative to have us walk to the next location when the next tram would take 15 minutes of waiting. The caves were beautiful and the caverns were huge and pristine. The entire site was immaculate and in its natural state, with subtle lighting and minimal disruption. We were done at around 4:30pm and decided to take back roads back to Fajardo. Mistake. Poor Fred was driving forever and we got stuck in San Juan rush hour as well. The restuarant that Ed and Nancy wanted to take us to was closed. It was 8:30; we hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast. We ended up in a shopping mall in Fajardo with a Ponderosa Steak House! A first for Ed and Nancy who had never eaten at one. Adequate - we would have eaten almost anything! We were back at the boat by 10:30pm. Quite a day!

Lots of chores planned for today. Iris lugged the PC to the marina office to log on while Fred worked on a new problem. Our wind speed indicator was reading zero. No - a more immediate problem - the engine room was flooded with fresh water from Fred's boat washing the previous day. Then we made our shopping lists and headed out. A West Marine had opened in Fajardo 1 1/2 weeks earlier. We were like little kids in a candy store. The store was well stocked despite only one delivery and all electricity was being provided by generators as the new shopping center still didn't have power. We were favorably impressed. We then went in search for a battery pack for our hand-held VHF. We checked out all of the marine stores in the vicinity - no success. Back to the boat to unload our marine-oriented purchases and to pick up the mail we'd had delivered. YEAH! Our boat documentation sticker and our customs decal had both arrived. Now we were all set for the Bahamas and our US return. We informed the marina that we wanted to stay at least one more day and then headed back out to do some provisioning to at least replenish what we'd eaten since leaving St. Thomas. Back to the boat around 6:30. Ed and Nancy invited to join them for a drink. Nope - we had to stow. We didn't eat until after 9pm. And Fred had to return the car tomorrow morning.... Marinas are hard work for us!

It was very blustery all night. The winds were getting up to 30 knots with big seas. We decided to keep the car and do some touring of El Yunque. We also decided to purchase a new handheld VHF radio since the old one was dead without the battery pack, and West Marine was open on and on our way. We then drove to El Yunque (Caribbean National Park) and saw the visitor center, made some short stops and hiked to a newly reopened trail to a tower on one of the highest peaks of the park. Great views! We took some scenic roads back to the boat and decided to return the car that afternoon. We didn't plan to go out and needed to decide if we were ready to leave tomorrow or not. Iris's ear was still pretty iffy, we hadn't gotten fuel nor done our laundry yet. We mulled over our plans while eating ice cream for lunch. Fred went back to the boat while Iris did a book exchange with Syzygy. Ed, Nancy and Iris watched a boat crash into pilings as it docked. We were glad we were staying put...

Iris's ear is still iffy; we probably need to stay until Monday and get a doctor's appointment. Calls to Divers Alert Network referred her to several physicians, but the only recourse on a sunday was to go to a nearby emergency room. Not a good plan. Iris got the name of an Ear, Nose, Throat specialist from the marina office. Fred filled our water tanks and did course plotting while Iris did laundry. Fred also replaced the engine hour meter and tried to debug the wind indicator. But the latter was isolated to a problem up the mast, and in the winds we had, climbing it wasn't a good idea. While meeting Syzygy in the laundry room, we were invited for dinner. They also offered to take us to the doctor on Monday in the car they planned to rent. We spent the afternoon on refueling with jerry cans. We had a very enjoyable evening aboard Syzygy and were back at the boat by 10. The boat was ready for departure as soon as Iris's ear got the OK.

Iris got up early to get to the phones. As she feared, the receptionist that answered the phone spoke no English, so Iris had to resort to her broken Spanish to make the appointment. Ed and Nancy got their car and we headed for Fajardo. The doctor's office was right downtown. He didn't speak much English either but Iris and he managed to communicate. His attempts to clear her ear failed. He said that the infections were all cleared up but that the eustachian tube was still blocked. He prescribed decongestants, nose drops and yet another antibiotic (which prescription Iris filled but chose not to take). He said she should feel better in another 7 to 10 days.... and not to swim. Iris then went to a pharmacy where she managed to fill the prescriptions. We then took Ed and Nancy to lunch at the Conquistador Resort and the four of us were back at 12:45. It's time to move on! We quickly got the boat ready. Not again - our cockpit VHF is dead from heavy rains. We're leaving anyway! Iris checked out of the marina while Fred made final preparations and we were out of the marina by 2:05! The winds were over 20 knots and the seas about 6-10'. Our first choice anchorage of Cayo Santiago probably had no protection. So we decided to return to Green Beach. Only one boat was there as we approached the anchorage. A stingray flew out of the water and flipped over several times. Neat! Our first anchoring attempt brought us uncomfortably close to rocks in shallow water so we moved. Iris noted that the big toe on her left foot was badly bruised with what looked like a blood blister under the nail. She'd jammed it while beaching the dinghy a few days earlier, and then again on the boat. Fred worked on the cockpit speaker. The cockpit VHF that had filled with water started a louder and louder squeal until it blew out the speaker. Not a good day... By now the swells were getting pretty uncomfortable and they wouldn't abate all night. While not our worst night, it was quite bad. Tomorrow our target was 45 miles to Salinas on the 'mainland'.

Fred spent most of the night on the settee; he was sleepless due to the rolling. Good - Iris was up most of the night as well, trying to keep her toe from touching anything. We got up at 6. We put the dinghy on deck; it had been too rough to do it yesterday afternoon, and were on our way by 7. Chat and breakfast underway in light winds. We sailed most of the way with all of our sails up. Then the winds died, probably due to land effect, and we had to motorsail the remainder of the way. Salinas really is a hurricane hole. It was totally enclosed and calm; we were anchored amongst mangroves with mountains in the background. We would have loved to explore but the dinghy was on board and we planned to be on our way early tomorrow morning. We're starting to feel time pressure and keeping moving has become paramount.

Once again we were underway by 7am. As we were leaving the bay we passed another Valiant (V42) Avalon from Texas along with a boat called Blue Horizon, from Kemah, TX. We knew of Avalon from Stan and Sylvia and hailed them. We'd last seen them in Newport Harbor back in August, but had never spoken with them. Blue Horizon, it turns out, was from our marina in Kemah. Both headed south. We wished them well and sent their kitty greetings. We had a short sail to Caja de Muertos, another island national park. While the guide spoke of moorings, we only found two. We picked one up and decided to spend the night since it looked like it was pouring on the mainland. Two boats traveling together came from the west and anchored in the afternoon. Fred worked on the cockpit VHF. It was full of water, so he dried it out and soldered some jumpers that had corroded through, but the speaker was trashed. A temporary fix until the states was to route the VHF to one of the cockpit stereo speakers, just as the SSB used the other one.

We left Caja de Muertos early - we were up at 6:15 and gone by 6:45. We had absolutely no wind and motored all day. We had our first checkin with Another Day, enroute to Bermuda. Dolphins rode our bow as we approached the reef to enter La Parguera. We worked our way into the anchorage, took the dinghy down after lunch, and went for a ride to explore this cute town with its houses on the water. Each small home had a one or two boat garage. We searched for a public dock in vain, until someone pointed it out to us. We walked around town, found restaurants, public phones (for pocketmail!), and a little supermarket and shopping center. It was the Thursday before Easter and people on holiday were starting to arrive. The land-based activity hadn't picked up yet, but the canals sure had, with PWCs and motorboats zooming by us all afternoon, and evening. Back at the boat, we were visited by a guy on a dinghy who handed us a listing of the local resources. He and his wife were anchored in the trawler next to us and arrived from the states two years ago and never left! He now had a business in town. They loved it here. This was definitely a place we'd come back to, to explore further!

After our check-in with Another Day, we decided to head to Boqueron. We motor-sailed although we had more wind than we expected. It still looks like Monday will be the best day for us, weatherwise, to depart for the Turks and Caicos or Bahamas. We were accompanied by over 10 dolphins as we rounded Cabo Rojo on our approache to Boqueron. We listened to VHF conversations between a group of around 40 boats who had departed Luperon for the passage across the infamous Mona Passage for Boqueron. Many were expected that afternoon and evening. Boqueron is the Myrtle Beach of PR, a real party town for college students. The bay was huge and there was plenty of room for the many boats there. After lunch we went ashore to explore. The place was hopping! Street vendors, streets blocked off, bars and restaurants packed and the pretty beach was mobbed. Not quite Key West, but close. We also walked by the construction site of a new marina/resort. We're sure that'll do well as the cruisers desperate for amenities after weeks in Luperon, finally reach "the Caribbean"! We went back to the boat, intending to return ashore for dinner. Iris finished making a Turks and Caicos flag (doctoring up a British courtesy flag). We craved Mexican, which was a stupid thing to do. Of two restaurants, we picked the wrong one. Chile con Queso was a few chips with melted Velveeta. Fajitas were kind of strange too. We would have been better off at the street vendors! Tomorrow we'll go to the fish place that was packed when we passed it. Several bandstands had been erected in the streets while bands readied themselves to perform. We got to the boat. The anchorage was quiet but music continued into the wee hours of the night ashore. We once again listed to the VHF as boats helped their arriving compatriots into the anchorage with spotlights and directions.

Iris's toe isn't looking too good. She is soaking it in warm water, cleaning it with hydrogen peroxide and applying antibiotic. She'll probably lose the nail. A dolphin swam around our boat at sunrise, before the action began on the water. We saw a turtle later in the day. Altho' a manatee area, we didn't sight any. We made a garbage run prior to chat, before the beach filled up. We did our check-in with Another Day. Oh oh. They've had another incident. Their engine shaft separated from the transmission. The prop isn't working but they can still use the engine for battery charging. We up our contacts to twice a day. Tyler plans to continue on to Bermuda which may take another 6-8 days. After all - it's a sailboat! We listen to the weather and consult with Misstine. David suggests that tomorrow, Easter Sunday, may be the better day for us to depart for Provo. So time to rev up. Forget dinner ashore tonight. We've got a lot to do to prepare for our three day passage. A dinghy came up to us, the guy asked us if we had any charts of the Dominican Republic we could loan or sell to him. We said no, since we were headed west, but suggested that he try the multitude of boats that had just arrived from there. We made a few quick trips ashore, to buy a few food items, get some ice, and a couple of trips to the marina to buy more diesel to top off our tanks. Back to the boat for final passage preparations, bringing the dinghy on board, jacklines, etc. While dealing with the dinghy, Iris's blood blister exploded. Blood everywhere. Yuck!! But with instantaneous relief and additional bandaging to prevent infection. Early dinner on board with the intention of getting a good night's sleep. Another Day was unable to contact Pacific Seacraft, since it was the weekend.

The music was very loud and continued until 2am. Three bands played, each several blocks apart. On shore we'll bet it sounded great. But the cacophany of sounds was a mess and we got little sleep. We were underway by 7am across the Mona Passage. Another Day was still making progress. We were having little wind. No wild-life sightings, no fish, only a couple of boats. We motor-sailed all day except for about 6 hours at night when we sailed at the rip-roaring speed of 3 to 4.5 knots. But so far, the passage hasn't been difficult and we're well rested.

Another Day is worried about a potential gale. We worry for them too. Tyler was able to reach Pacific Seacraft via WLO/SSB connection and PS assured them that the shaft won't fall out. We're within sight of the Dominican Republic and will be along it but offshore throughout the day and night. Tomorrow we'll have to decide if we want to divert to Luperon or continue as there may be a front in the area. Nautilus departed St. Thomas this morning enroute to Provo, so they'll probably catch up to us in their larger boat. We heard two other boats - Abel Lady and Meridian who we'd met in Deep Bay, Antigua, also enroute to Provo.

Nothing significant occurred. There was considerable tanker traffic. In the middle of the night, Fred was hailed by a tanker we passed that was drifting in the water off Puerta Plata with very few lights. In several languages the guy hailed us saying 'yachtie, yachtie, are you alone on your boat?' Fred didn't respond. The question sounded fishy. We're feeling good. Another Day is doing well as the gale didn't affect them. All is well. We expect landfall early in the morning.

The passage part was great. Our longest with just the two of us. We could have kept on going which made us feel good about even longer passages (e.g. like C1500). But landfall ruined our rhythm and plans. We'd hoped to find dive moorings off of West Caicos if we arrived in the middle of the night. This would allow us to sleep a couple of hours prior to negotiating the channel through the reef to Provo. West Caicos is a national park and anchoring is only allowed on sand patches that would be problematic to find in the dark. Iris took her 2am watch and Fred went back to sleep til 3. We then both stayed up as we made landfall. Couldn't see a thing. We turned on the radar to identify the shoreline and searched under a bright moon for the elusive moorings. Two dive boats, with anchor lights on, were on moorings, but search as we did, we found no other moorings. After over an hour of circling around, we decided to just kill time until daylight. Fred took the helm and Iris crashed. At 6:30 Fred started the approach through the reef. We were really tired for the first time in the passage. We anchored at 9:30 in Sapodilla Bay. Fred took a nap while Iris cleaned up. After showers and lunch we dinghied ashore, with Iris's toe wrapped in saran wrap to keep out the sand upon beaching the dinghy. Customs was extremely pleasant. Fred loaned $5 to the boat anchored next to us as the captain had arrived at customs sans his wallet. We used the phone booth adjacent to the customs dock for pocketmail for safe arrival notes. When we returned to our boat we noticed that China Doll, the boat next to us, was gone. We were pleasantly surprised to find $5 in a ziplock back clipped to our backstay. We stopped by Abel Lady, who had just pulled in a short while earlier. Back to the boat for drinks, snacks and homemade pizza for dinner. We chatted with August Crow on SSB. We expect Nautilus in the morning.

We spoke with Another Day. There was significant interference but we made out that they'd be in Bermuda by Thursday morning. We spent the day on board. Iris checked the cruising guide, planning a suggested itinerary for getting to the Abacos by 5/13 to meet Rod and Ann. Fred changed the oil on the engine. Nautilus arrived mid day and we went over there for drinks at 5. We returned to our boat at 8:30 and had popcorn for dinner. We agreed to meet Ron and Joan the following morning to tour Provo. Iris would call a cab at 9:30

We talked with Another Day. Great news! They'd arrived in St. Georges last night at 8:15. Their attempts to sail into the harbor during strong winds were unsuccessful. But a passing fishing boat gave them a tow and they were safe and at anchor. Phew! We were thrilled. We spoke with Misstine to check on weather. Looks good for heading north altho' winds may be very light. Iris hailed a cab by vhf and agreed to meet him on the beach. Nautilus and we beached our dinghies and carried our trash ashore. First stop would be the island's dump, 2 miles away. The cab dropped us off at Town Center. Not much there. We found an electronics shop and logged onto the internet. Joan and Ron used the store's phone to do pocketmail. We made a brief stop at a supermarket (Iris bought catfood and bagels). Then we roamed in search of something to do. We stopped at a gas station to ask where all the stuff was. Everything was a cab ride away! The person explained that the cost per person depended on the size of the van. The larger vans cost more. He pointed out a small one that had just pulled in at the station and we ran to it. Can you take us to Turtle Cove Marina? Off we went. The driver was from Haiti and had been in Provo 13 years. After a long ride, he dropped us off at Port of Call. We said, is this Turtle Cove? Yes. Where is the marina? Over there, he pointed and left. Nope. We went into one of the pretty shops and asked. We'd passed Turtle Cove several miles back. But this was the nicest shopping center on the island. OK. We had some iced coffees, relaxed a little, picked up some brochures and then set out to hail another cab. This one took us to Turtle Cove - a nice complex with an very protected marina, shops and restaurants. We stopped for lunch at the Tiki Hut. Now to find another cab. Ron walked up to a guy in a van (probably not a taxi driver) who said he'd take us back. We asked him to drop us off at the road to Customs while Ron and Joan returned to the beach. We wanted to get our clearance out of Provo for our planned departure in the morning. Ron and Joan made the trip by dinghy later. Back at the boat, we worked out a plan to exit the reef in the morning, anchor by West Caicos until nightfall and then head direct for Conception Island, around 200 miles away. Nautilus was heading for Mayaguana and then the Acklins and then Rum Cay. A young man from the boat anchored near us, Sea Hero, stopped by to chat. He and his wife and children were on a one year sabbatical as well. They purchased the boat in Ft. Lauderdale last May, sailed up as far as Boston, then sailed down as far as Luperon and were on their way back to Florida by 6/1. He wanted to check on the weather forecast since he'd heard Iris talk to David in the morning. Nautilus stopped by before dinner. We showed them some charts and guides we'd discussed, shared our respective plans and said goodbye until Georgetown! We wondered if August Crow, Between the Sheets and Sea Duty had had any part in the rescue of over 200 Haitians in Flamingo Cay in the Jumentos. We'll try and reach them tomorrow morning. No dinner - we're stuffed from our enormous lunch. While several of our materials said that Provo wasn't cruiser friendly, we enjoyed our experience there.

We left Sapodilla at 8:30am. We saw that Nautilus had already departed. Iris spoke with Hal on Sea Duty, who confirmed that they hadn't had any part in the Flamingo Cay incident. In fact, they bypassed Flamingo Cay as a result, but listened to operations on channel 16. We moved the boat to West Caicos and tried to find a good place to anchor. Everywhere we looked we saw coral. We did find two dive moorings (the ones we couldn't find in the middle of the night) and picked up one of them. But as a result, we had to stay with the boat since a dive boat could kick us off at any time. We had a lazy afternoon, snorkeling a bit with good visibility. It was the first time Iris had snorkeled since Deep Bay back in March. There was a big barracuda parked under the boat! We'd planned to leave at 11pm but changed our plans slightly. By leaving at 7pm, just after dinner, we'd be able to make a lunch stop at West Plana for a couple of hours the next day, and then keep on going through the next night. It sounded like a nice diversion mid-passage. We had good winds for a few hours, however we mostly motorsailed in lumpy, following seas and had occasional tanker traffic. We had what looked like a tern ride with us most of the night. Iris had to ask a tanker to change course as he approached from behind - no problem.

We're still motoring. We spoke with Nautilus; they decided to keep going as well when they reached Mayaguana and were headed for Rum Cay and then Georgetown tomorrow. But they motor at 8knots and have 400 gals. of fuel, so there was no way we'll see them until later in the week. We're doing around 4.5 knots to curtail fuel consumption on our 100 gal. tank. We'll be in Conception mid-morning tomorrow and Georgetown on Tuesday. We got to West Plana Cay. There was one motor yacht and a ketch. The ketch waved at us and hailed us on the radio. They thought we were Windwalker Michigan. Later, they stopped by and introduced themselves - from Wasabi, just having completed a 6 yr. circumnavigation. They bought their boat in Florida but were from Canada. Later, Fred dove on the bottom to clear the refrigerator through-hull. It was filled with 'stuff'. We rested a little and then departed for Conception at 2pm. While listening to Herb... oh oh... the weather was predicted to deteriorate rapidly as a front was ahead of us. We stored the electronics in the microwave (with a BIG note this time reminding Iris not to use it!). Most of the night was quite stormy with 20-25 knot winds, with much higher gusts and confused seas. Uncomfortable for all of us, but we sailed all the way. We had another convergent course with a ship at 3pm; Iris hailed him and he said he'd pass us about one mile ahead. It sure looked a lot closer when he finally passed and she wanted to make sure he saw us.