Sunday..in the intracoastal waterway..very quiet ride...sure, everybody is north! There is a cold front coming tomorrow with northerly winds...we did not feel like waiting in Lake Worth so we decided to use the ICW. After sailing in the Caribbean, it felt really strange to motor in a canal..today was our second day, 50 miles, and no engine problems. Since we got rid of the heat exchanger, the engine runs smoothly! But it is hot, there are lots of bugs, lots of TStorms and rain in the evening and thetemperature inside the boat reached 35C today! We decided to keep moving until the forecast in good; latest in North Florida, will we do a run for Charleston, The new 2010 Skipper Bob indicated that there is not enough money to keep the ICW dredged in Georgia and South Carolina...although we have purchased a contract with TowBoat US (the first time ever!) we don't really feel like putting ourselves in a situation where we have to use it!!! So, slowly but surely, we are making headway...enjoying the wildlife along the ICW and wondering at the huge mansions now lining almost all the shores of the Indian River. We are anchored at Pine Island tonight, 5 miles North of Vero Beach; the "castles" on the opposite shoreline appear empty but somewhere there is an Internet connection...

We had a pre-birthday celebration for Heiner and left on his birthday for Florida. There was tremendous counter current - up to 2 knots - up to the Gulf Stream! For a moment, we thought that the stream itself would be reversed!!!! Sails changes and the threat of squalls hitting made it difficult to get sleep during the night...when we actually hit West Palm beach, the sun was trying to shine again.

Upon arrival, we had a quick meal and went sleeping! At 6h30 pm, our first guests (Gaby and Lutz) arrived with a bottle of bubbly and balloons and they were soon followed by Carine, Steven, Morgan and Juliette all singing happy birthday and also bringing good bottles along...well, that was quite a post-celebration!

Of course, our arrival in West Palm Beach coincided with Memorial Day and it was a zoo!!! All the ppwer boats of Floprida seemed to have congregated in the inlet and they all drove like mad men in the channels...after a long overnight, this was a bit too much action!

We left Nassau ...its flamboyant trees in bloom and its skyline as pretty as ever. The wind was finally from the east and we headed for the northern Berry islands, trying to escape the squalls as much as possible. The weather was unstable and as we got there very early in the morning, we made it to Slaughter harbour where we met our german friends on s/v SuAn and spent the rest of the day with them. Our deicsion to postpone the Gulf stream crossing was a wise one as too many squalls were lining up in the sky!

We will probably leave the Bahamas (Nassau, Berry Islands, great Isaac Light and Florida) on friday or Saturday. We are waiting for easterly winds ....no sense in heading in westerly winds!

And it looks like we will celebrate the captain's birthday at sea, probably somewhere in the Gulf Stream! Original, isn't it???? After all, he's going to celebrate the big 60 and it is a special one!

We will try to capture this event in pictures...weather and conditions permit!!!

Here we are, still in Nassau...for a week now. Since we left Cat Island, we have had one more oil spill (it appears to be fashionable now...) and an overheating incident, and a Yamaha outboarder problem (our friend's son broke speed regulating cable)...what's the point of recounting all those events in detail? Boooooooring...these things just happen to all cruisers and are part of the crusing life. In the meantime, everything seems to be working well. We will run the engine WITHOUT heat exchanger ...after all, that's the way it was designed to work, originally! And the Yamaha has a new cable...and all the hoses are new!

We met our german friends on SuAn here last week and had a good time with them, barbecuing and savouring Bahama Mamas...Gaby und Lutz had also their share of problems, including a failing of their windlass!

We also found our French family with whom we went to Atlantis to visit the sites, the Aquarium, and the numerous water slides...After a day's work in and on the boat, it proved to be relaxing...just like a trip to Walt Disney !!!!

We enjoy Nassau, it's nicer and better than in the past. Even the anchorage is cleaner and safer, with lots of Police boats patrolling... great to be here again!

Touring Cat Island…had been in the plans. We did justy that, starting after our morning chat with Corinne, the lady manning the Post Office. She seemed alarmed when we told her about our plan ..and was willing to lent us her car…We thanked her kindly and just went our way! And it was such fun! Every car stopped by, one heading in the opposite direction drove backwards to check if we needed any help! One of our drivers was working at the Fernandez Bay resort...so we visited it and chatted with the owner. It is indeed a beautiful small resort, tastefully decorated and with a beautiful beach. Our last drive was with three Cat Islanders who were just cruising (in their truck) around...they stopped at a “mall” to buy liquors (we did too) and had a beer while driving…not an unusual thing here in the islands. We figured that the driver had an expensive truck and was used to have a beer while driving..so we enjoyed a nice and long ride at the back of his brand new Ford Truck up to Arthur’s Town, the second largest settlement of the island …supposedly the birth place of the well know actor Sydney Poitier. We had a wonderful view of the coast line and of the hills. We finally had lunch at a little seaside beach restaurant while chatting with the mother of the owner about the bumper to bumper traffic jams of Nassau…where her children and grand children were living at the moment. The Kalik beer was cold and really refreshing…the view idyllic. The way back to New Bight was fun too: we stopped at the Bennett’s bay school and chatted with Mr. Rolle, teacher of the 5 and 6th graders, then we rode on a large truck, and then we had to walk for about an hour in the sun before getting two other rides, the last one with a young police officer who, luckily, was driving directly to New Bight Police station and our anchorage!

So we can say that Cat Island is NOT a touristic island whose charm lies in its very kind people…if we had rented a car, we might have been disappointed as the vistas are repeating themselves and there is no real center of interest...but, having hitchhiked and met people all along the way made it a fun and richer experience!

And as a closure for this fun day, we met the other cruisers at the beach of the Regatta center for a BBQ and a Rape & Scrape session. Bohold, had talked to us a day previous and kindly agreed to play with his little band on Friday night. Bohold seems to be quite a name of the Rape & Scrape music here in the Bahamas (according to our truck driver) : he explained to us that this music is related to the Cajun music of Louisiana’s bayous (indeed, accordion is not an instrument that we heard in any of the Caribbean islands). It was a fun get together with the other cruisers but also a good opportunity to talk to a couple of locals and hear their barracudas stories!

iNTERNET CONNECTIONS ARE SELDOM HERE ON CAT iSLAND..PLEASE BARE WITH US! wE ARE SITTING UNDER A SAPODILLA TREE, IT'S BLOWING 20+ KNOTS, THE NO SEE EM ARE STILL BITING AND THE LIGHT IS...WELL, SUCH THAT I DON'T SEE MUCH ON MY SCREEN! JUST LOOK AT THE PICTURES, READ THE TEXT AND CONNECT WHAT YOU CAN!

Today the wind is blowing…too much to travel to the Exumas and enter a cut. So we are staying here, doing repairs, reading, and visiting the sites…such as this Hermitage built by a Jesuite, father Jerome. He built churches across the Bahamas

We go on land…just letting the dinghy on the beach as here, safety is not an issue. We must check in with Customs and Immigration…at last. We are told that we should have sailed to Smith Bay but as we recount the story of our oil leaking water pump, the official is very understanding…

We go to the main road and hitchhike towards the airport north of New Bight...a lady working for the Utilities Company takes us and makes a detour to bring us to the airport…there, we meet the immigration clerk who informs us that we must go to Smith Bay harbour to clear customs. Ok. He gives us a lift and warns us that usually the officer there wants to see the boat. OK.

At the harbour, we meet the senior office, a very friendly man, whom we tell the story of our leaking pump…with a bright smile, he tells the clerk who brought us in to do the necessary paper work and wishes us good luck! The young man does his job but Heiner notices that he writes $300.00 on the receipt…oops! He has not read carefully that our boat is shorter than 36 feet and thus, puts us in the category of the $150.00 fees. We kindly point that out to him and he “whitens” all the mistakes…He promises us a lift back to the airport and waits for us that we go and check in the produces at the packing plant, just a couple of yards away. The plant is virtually empty…the lady sells us the remaining and a bit tired looking tomatoes for $1.00. The clerk brings us past the airport and let us at the New Bight Store where we buy rum and carrots... That night, I made a huge fish chowder!

We waited until 9am to sail out of the Rum Cay anchorage in order to have (moderately) good light and avoid coral heads. We were looking forward to get to Conception Island, a paradise within paradise, as stated in Monty Lewis’ Explorer Chart kit of the Far Bahamas.

Conception Island lies off the mouth of the Exumas sound where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. This island is a National Park. Inhabited...with the exception of turtles, rays, and sharks. The first stunning experience arriving to the island is a band of brightly turquoise water surrounding its purely white beaches…the contrast with the purplish indigo deep waters is amazing. Even Wendy and Ian, who sailed the Pacific and the Indian Ocean, claimed that this is a unique sight! There are several boats anchored here and the conditions are ideal” nice easterly breeze, no swell…perfect for exploring. The beach has white pinkish and ultra fine sand…and the surrounding hilly terrain is covered with small sisal palm trees – typical for the Bahamas. We walk and swim with our friends and days go by…looking at several sunsets, with green flashes included!!

An excursion not to be missed is in the creek of the island interior. Together with Lutz and Gaby, we enter the area around noon, with about 4 inches under our dingy keel!!! And we spend the whole afternoon exploring the creek, surrounded by a very large number of turtles (green turtles) and also sight several sharks (nurse?) in the shallow waters. The mood of this creek is amazing and pictures are the best descriptors!

Having already explored Georgetown and the Exumas, we choose to leave our friends on s/v Remedy and s/v SuAn and sail to Cat Island instead…its description in Pavlidis guide and in the Explorer’s Chart Kit sounded interesting. There was very little wind for this stretch of nearly 40 miles and we motored almost all the way.

And here is a little story for those who are wondering about what cruisers are doing the whole time aboard? Well, there are events like those we are about to tell you that we could do without…

Our water pump was giving us continuous problems since we descaled the engine (in Martinique, last year). While the descaling seemed to have been successful, the engine was eating impellers by the month. We repeatedly drained the cooling system, flushed it and replaced with new antifreeze and in doing so we had to remove the water pump numerous times.

Back to our sailing to Conception Island, everything seemed to be working fine…until we saw a steady stream of oil dripping from the connection of the water pump to the crank case . Well, it was dripping a lot, we had no wind, and another 20 miles to go and approaching a reef. \Heiner opened the engine compartment and added more oil to compensate for the loss.

About 20 minutes later and closing to the reef, the oil pressure alarm came on! We shut down the engine immediately. A sprint into the boat and a look under the floor boards showed a black goowey mess staring at us. Heiner worked desperately to pick up the oil before it runs in the lower bilge area…while we had very little wind and the reef was ¼ mile to the starboard and showing its beautiful Bahamian colours.

The engine compartment showed oil every where and our first assumption was that we had a major breakdown ..not a lood place to have something like that, here in the Far Bahamas.

Trying to locate the problem, Heiner happened to see that the oil measuring stick was missing in the crank case! Yep, after refilling the crank case with oil, and checking the oil level, it looked like Heiner had forgotten to reinsert the dip stick! …which was resting in the bilge. Oh boy!

With a half sign of relief and blackened and dirty all over, Heiner refilled the crankcase with new engine oil ( were we happy to have bought plenty of oil in the Virgin Islands). After this unexpected oil change, we dared to start the engine again...after few seconds the oil alarm went off and everything continued to run fine…except for the oil leak of the water pump! So we continued to advance to a crawl and sail whenever it was possible to the New Bight of Cat Island. A day later, we spent the better part of the day cleaning repeatedly the area below the floor boards, the engine and its compartment and replacing the O ring of the water pump. It looks like the engine survived the dramatic loss in oil and the oil leak of the water pump is now over. Heiner’s back is still recovering from this arduous cleaning job.
.
Oh! Well there are some days like this...they come with the “cruising” territory.

Upon arrival, we are struck by the vastness of the bay and sail up to the anchorage in front of New Bight, the (supposedly) centre of Cat Island. That night, we get a gift (not from the sea but from two sport fishermen crewing for a mega yacht). They offer their catch (6 mahi-mahis) to the cruisers of the anchorage…wow! They hoist that big fish on board…45 inches long and at least 25 pounds. And I have to cut it up, fast, because the sun is setting is 20 minutes! And the mosquitoes are there too…I am struggling to do a good job on this huge fish as it is my first time handling such a large beast! And at the same time, trying to keep those bugs away…Grr…

That night, we do eat late but the fish is absolutely sumptuous!

Reefs, turquoise waters, white beaches…we must be back in the Bahamas! Out of Luperon at 18h30 on Saturday night, we have a good breeze pushing us north west. We have planned a couple of useful waypoints in case we wish to stop for a night…reading Van Sant’s book “backwards” in order to use his description of possible anchorages on the stretch between Dominican Republic and Bahamas. His book has only few advices for people going north…the wind at our back (rather than on the nose) makes all the difference. And we also have the North Equatorial current with us, giving us .5 to .8 knot additional speed.

The night proves uneventful, with only one squall of 25 knots although lots of lightning can be seen above the island. We get to West Caicos the next afternoon around 17h30 and decide that it is not worth stopping; we are not tired, the wind is right so we continue for our second night at sea. We have a short communication with Lutz and Gaby on board s/v SuAn who stopped at Caicos for the night. They planned to stop at Mayaguana next day to check-in with Bahamas Customs and Immigration but we chose to bypass this first island of the Bahamas chain: it’s easier to sail by than to enter this reef filled place! And the skies are cloudy! We had never seen so many clouds in the Bahamian sky but as there was a troph over the region, the conditions were different than the one we encountered in our past cruising of these islands. So, we decided to spend a third night at sea and arrived at Rum Cay on May 5th at 8h30 in the morning. We were welcomed to the anchorage by a Kiwi couple – Wendy and Ian on board s/v Remedy – and chatted with them before going to bed. …we met them later that night for a sun downer and had a great time.

Bye Bye DomRep,

we would have liked to post pictures and more details about our travels on the island (Santo Domingo, Puerto Plata ..., riding a motoconch together; jumping on a motoconch and pulling our caddy behind us loaded with diesel ...), but time is a bit tight and pictures and more details have to wait for later.

We had to order a fuel pump from the States (of all places: Clayton, NY, just across from Kingston). It arrived in record time and the engine is working fine again. What a great service from French Creek Marina and the local XMAIL company.

We plan to leave for the Turks and Caicos/Bahamas tonight; it will be a couple of days before we have access again to some Internet.

Hola from Luperon!

On our first night, we had supper at a little restaurant suggested to us by Karine and Stephen: Chez Mimosa. I had calamaris and Heiner had dorado, both dishes tasteful and elegantly served. And we loved the green bananas fritters! On our second night, however, we went out the zona colonial and wandered around the Gazcue neighbourhood and the avenues Independencia and Bolivar. We arrived too late for our restaurants in our neighbourhood – they seemed to close around 7h30pm.., very unlike the other Spanish countries that we know, where dinner is not served before 10pm! It was fun, however, to stroll in less touristic areas, and never felt unsafe; on the contrary, we were always welcome and people went out of their ways to help us when we had questions.

One really neat place was La Casa del Dulces (or something like that…). They had an amazing variety of sweets, especially Dulce de leche, honeys, cakes, jams, …and rums and cigars (all good things for our health.?). We felt like big kids in a candy store! PIX 3076

Santo Domingo has many “firsts” in terms of cathedrals, hospitals, monasteries…all erected on the American continent in the 16th century. This city was growing on us and we preferred it to Old San Juan (Puerto Rico): although the restoration of the buildings was far from being as exhaustive, the zona colonial was full of day-to-day life and still home to Dominicans…

While the part was being shipped from NY, we felt like escaping repairs, associated worries and Luperon to see something from the country! We planned a visit to the capital, Santo Domingo! Early morning in Luperon is hot, humid and windless…the perfect day to drive around in air conditioned busses! Gaby of s/v SuAn brought us to the dinghy dock so that our dingy can safely remain on La Buena Vida during our absence. First, we walked to the town’s guagua terminal and take one to the mini buses to Imbert, a larger town where busses stop en route to major destinations such as Puerto Plata, Santiago etc…We buy our tickets at Javilla Tours and within 20 minutes, we are sitting in an ‘expreso bus’ to Santiago. This bus (20 passengers or so) is very comfortable, with AC, TV screen, and heavy curtains to keep the sunlight from getting in – it makes sense – but no view of the passing landscape!!!!! The TV shows some Spanish croonie singing soft ballades – well, all well entertaining?! – but alas no meringue or salsa here! It’s totally relaxing and difficult to stay awake! We are let out on some main avenue in Santiago and must buy two further tickets at the Aetra Bus booth for the final run to Santo Domingo: again, fast service! Within 20 minutes, we are on board and open the ever closed curtains to view the final stretch of the trip across the island. Unfortunately, due to the haze, the views of the mountains are not great. But we noticed the large amount of garbage rolling down the hills behind each house along the road. People actually throw everything out of their doors or windows …and it stays there, looking from the road like a like lava flow of plastics flowing down the hill. Anyhow, different country and different ways …bastante on that topic.

Around mid-afternoon, we arrive in Santo Domingo. The streets are full of people, merchants selling empanadas, shoes, watches…like a giant outdoor market! We have no problem finding our way to the “zona colonial” where our hotel is located (Merci Karin and Stephen for the city map!)….Very soon after we enter the historic are where we are intercepted by one of the many Tourist Bureau Guides who offers his help; very nice person but very clingy…although we tell him that we already have an hotel … he insists on accompanying us to the lobby of the Hotel La Colonia, on Calle Isabel La Catolica. We are wondering if these Tourist Bureau guides get paid for every tourist they bring to a restaurant or a hotel…anyhow, impossible to get lost or bored here! Our room is very cold (18C) with AC running full blast…and we reset it to a cool 25C - which still feels cold to us as the outside temperature is probably 32C! No real windows in this room, but we are connected to a large and pretty balcony overlooking the street. DomRep is a tobacco and rum country – accordingly we bought our supplies!!!! And what a joy it was to sit on our private little terrasse with a glass of Dominican rum and a great cigar, listening to meringue music from the neighbouring little bars!

We don’t loose any time: after a refreshing shower, we go to the Parque Colon, a wonderful historic plaza with huge shade trees, in front of the Cathedral Primada de Americas(first cathedral of the Americas). The lovely terrace of the Hotel Conde de Penalba was to become our preferred spot for breakfast, a cool cerveza or a flavourful café …Always animated with strollers, shoe shiners , dogs, newspaper sellers, and domino players, it felt awesome to be relaxing in this beautiful surrounding. We felt so immersed in this place that at times we scratched our heads, thinking: Are we having a boat? Are we really doing this???? It is often puzzling how difficult it is to reconciliate such different worlds!!!

As soon as we put our dinghy together …(after a long passages, we unfold it completely so we can make use of our stay sail), we noticed that the right side was not holding air anymore…and it took a while before we find the leak. We were not at all excited when we discovered where it was either…It took several patches to fix the leak and thank God, Stephen form s/v/ Jemangia had an excellent glue (from France) that he graciously offered us…in addition to their dinghy while they were away in Santo Domingo. Very generous people, Karine and Stephen…merci beaucoup! PIX STEPHEN ET KARINE.

During the same period, we found out that fuel was leaking out of the fuel pomp…so began the saga of having to find a part for our old Volvo MD 11 AND have it it shipped to us in Dominican Republic! Stephen had met a French speaking group of cruisers who had spent quite a bit of time in Luperon and so, we made use their input and experinces. Nathalie on board P’tit Louis, a huge 53’ steel boat, had been in Luperon since June. She gave us a couple of suggestions as to how to go about the problem, i.e. using the services of a local Mail Service linking the USA and the DomRep: CPS Mail. While investigating the shipping avenue, Heiner had found out that the French Creek Marina of Clayton on Lake Ontario (yep! Just across our home port on the US side) had the part ! Wilburt, the owner, did a great job and sent us the part right after Heiner’s call.

Luperon people are used to cruisers, integrate them easily and spot the new ones really fast...on the second day of our stay, a woman came to me and asked how I liked Luperon and the Dominican republic...she has seen me and Heiner yesterday at the local bar. Yaquelina had a list of services that she offered, hair cuts, massages, laundry, and even tried to get a bottom cleaning job for her brother. She sized me up, and I had to agree with her that I did need a hair cut..she took me by the hand, and brought me to her home. This was reminiscent of my cuban experience...people have to survive and are not shy to tell you so! Anyhow, here I was sitting on her veranda, being the object of curiosity for the neighbours, being looked at by all the ninos around...it was fun and my haircut was refreshed!

We met our French friends on Jemangia, Stephen, Karine, and Morgann and the little Juliette! We spent time with them on their boat, Karine had made nice pizzas! Nathalie, a long time Luperon cruiser (since June) on s/v Ptit Louis joined us and gave us precious knowledge on Luperon and the DR! We needed to order a fuel pump and she gave us a couple of tips how and where to order.

Life is good in Republica Dominicana...Brugal rum, great pineapples, and friendships!

After our night in Boqueron, we left the anchorage at 4h30am under a stars lighted sky...the Mona Passage was quite smooth, as the wave action had considerably subsided from the days before (according to our fellow cruisers who had very disturbed seas) and we got to Luperon, as planned, early on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, there were so many grey skies that we did not have a great view of the island when sailing. Upon arrival, however, we were enchanted by the greenery the hills and the vistas of the large island. The anchorage is not as packed as anticipated and the Luperon people are very kind and warm. So far so good...trips to Puerto Plata, and Santo domingo are planned for the next week. Heiner is fixing the dinghy...its tow years are over and it is slowy loosing strength!!!

As we got to Luperon, we found the surroundings very pleasing. The hills, the mangrove coves and its loud white herons (nesting season…) make it a really lovely place to anchor. Depending if one anchors closer to the city dock or further away, there is possibility to swim ..the water is not clear due to the muddy bottom but it is fit for swimming.

Life was pleasant in Luperon: although we stayed barely 2 weeks, we had our little routine. Not having Internet on board, almost all cruisers congregated to Steve’s Place, a local restaurant owned by Steve (ex-cruiser) and his Dominican wife (Annie). The price and quality of the meals this place offered made it very attractive to have breaksfast or lunch there while being connected to the Internet. Specials were 100 pesos (2.25$) ! It was also a daily routine to go to the Panaderia (bakery) and buy bread instead of baking it on board: with the high humidity and heat of the lagoon, this was the logical thing to do! On Saturday mornings, the street was very animated with different merchants offering their specialties: barbecued pork and chicken were cheap but flavourful and so convenient for quick meals!

Sailing along the south coast of Puerto Rico was different than we anticipated; the N-NE winds were much weaker than expected but the landscape was interesting to look at...with cliffs, caves, and the profile of the mountain chain in the background. The lighthouse of Capo Roja Our german friends on s/v SuAn sailed by and took pictures of us...while we did the same thing ! The games that cruisers play...

Before leaving Boqueron, we had a stroll in town, tasting all the delicacies such as empanadillas, oyesters, clams, and pinchons!!! The atmosphere was a fun one, with all locals and tourists mixing and enjoying the sights.

Hasta luego!