La Parguera and Boqueron, Puerto Rico, April 26-May 1, 2009

We left Salinas on Monday, April 20 stopping for the evening at Caja de Muertos, a small island about 4 hours west.  The following morning we left for one of the larger cities on the south coast, Ponce.  The anchorage is not great, so we filled up with fuel and water, anchored for the night and left for La Parguera in the morning.  

La Parguera was cute little town with lots of colorfully painted houses dotting the water.  There are several lovely mangrove islands all along the coast.  In fact, it was challenging finding the route in.  We stayed for several days as we could sometimes get the internet from our boat--always a great find.  Saturday night we ventured down to Club Nautico, the yacht club.  While there, we met some local families who come to La Parguera every weekend.  They were having a dinner and included us.  Most of the men there were doctors, dentists or business men.  The women spoke excellent English and were very gracious.  We thoroughly enjoyed our evening.

Monday, April 27, we motorsailed to Boqueron, Puerto Rico-- about 4 hours from La Parguera.  The wind has just not been cooperating for sails without motors!  Boqueron is a seaside resort with a beautiful beach, lots of cute little restaurants and a great cruisers' bar.  

Met a new friend on Attitude, Larry Higgins, who had rented a car and offered to take us shopping in Mayaguez.  We've had a great time with Larry and enjoyed his hospitality.

So, we're off to the Dominican Republic tomorrow, weather permitting.  Have some pictures I'll hope to add to this soon.

Salinas, April 13-21, 2009

Just an update--We are still here in Salinas enjoying the town with its great empanadillos, deep-fried turnovers stuffed with crab, shrimp, lobster or beef. We've had the good fortune to meet several old friends here such as Wandering Albatross, whom we met in Buenos Aires last summer, Slow Mocean whom we met in Charleston in June of 2007 and Tevai whom we knew from the Caribbean last spring. This seems to be a crossroads for those going south and those going north. 

We rented a car and drove to Ponce about 1/2 hour away. We were there 38 years ago and wow, has it changed. The downtown area has spruced up and is very attractive as a tourist site.

We also drove to San Juan in search of--you guessed it--boat parts. The drive across Puerto Rico was lovely. There are some mountains quite green with several large stands of bamboo. We stopped and had roasted pork at an outdoor restaurant. We were intrigued by the propietor's lopping off some meat with a machete and using a paper plate to catch the grease spills. The pork was delicious.

Our mended sail is now back on the mast so tomorrow we hope to move on.

Puerto Rico April 1-12

Once again weather prevented our leaving Los Roques until April 1. Even then it wasn't perfect, but we thought we could go ahead and head for Puerto Rico. Although it was a rough ride to start with compounded by several boat problems, it did calm down considerably as predicted. We managed to keep going after having to take down our battenless mainsail after only six hours of our 72-hour trip. Our starboard engine clogged up; the newer wind generator collapsed in the middle of the first night in rough seas; then the port engine cable broke. Fortunately, Mike was able to repair the starboard engine and rescue the wind generator. However, we had hoped for a more pleasant sail instead of a motorsail.

We are now in Salinas a lovely, laid back little town where we've had the good fortune to meet up with several sailing friends including Wandering Albatross, Tevai, Child's Play and Ti Punch. We've also discovered carne empanadillas—spicey beef turnovers-at La Barkita, a tiny outdoor cafe near the anchorage.

We also found a wonderful sailmaker who is mending our sails. Hopefully, we will be ready to move on towards the end of next week.

Back to the East, March 16-31

Before leaving Spanish Waters in Curacao, we often saw sights like this—sailing schools for anyone.

The beach bars nearby, though not cheap, had excellent local food like fried mero—grouper, one of our favorites, with morro—beans and rice.

On March 3, we managed to successfully travel to Bonaire where we spent a few days waiting for weather. The trip was not a pleasant one as the seas were lumpy and the wind out of the east made it unsailable.

On March 16, we successfully left Bonair. Arriving in Sotavento, we were thrilled to find beauty and solitude except for the nearby fishermen. They came over at our call and traded a wonderful lobster for a small bottle of rum

and a pack of cigarettes. Such a deal!

Onto Barlovento, the next island in the Aves...The water was beautiful with tall scraggly mangroves harboring lots and lots of birds.

Red-footed boobies, frigates and pelicans swarmed amongst the trees, daring us to get any closer to their sanctuary. They squawked loudly as we snorkeled in to check out the reef close by, and we got the message!

A couple of other boats came in the following day, but still it was a very quiet anchorage. By Saturday the weather seemed reasonably accommodating for our 35 mile push onward to Los Roques. Of course, it turned out to be another lumpy, bumpy motorsail, but we were anxious to move on. Our first night in Elbert Cay was miserable with opposing wave actions rocking the boat every whichway unmercifully. The next day we moved onto Carenero, a lovely spot where we again had the good fortune to find the local lobsterman. He traded us a loster for coffee

which we took back the following day to his wife and daughter.

On to Francisqui , another island in the Roques, to wait for weather and get protection from the 13' swell due over the weekend.

On the Move, March 3-13

Finally, a weather window....and off we go to Bonaire.  It was a rough trip, though, with the wind right on our nose, as they say.  We rocked back and forth for about 8 hours, 5-7 foot waves crashing over the bough pretty regularly.  However, we were glad to finally get out of Spanish Waters, Curacao--not that we didn't like it, we'd just been there much longer than anticipated.

We've enjoyed our week and a half here, reconnecting with friends and enjoying our favorite barbeque at Bobbejan's, the aroma from which wafts across the water to our boat every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll leave for Las Aves; then Los Roques and on to Puerto Rico.  However, it all depends on the weather.  

We're happy to have one more chance to savor the barbequed ribs at Bobbejan's tonight.

A note to our blog followers

Finally, we have added more pictures to our Buenos Aires posts.  Check them out.

Spanish Waters, Curacao, February 2009

         Spanish Waters anchorage

Enjoying sundowners.                                              

                                                                          

      Sunset scene from our "front porch."

Yes, we're still here in Curacao. Who'd a thought???? Why are we still here? Weather and work. Or maybe I should say work and weather. We are having our mainsail and one of our trampolines mended. In addition, Mike has installed one new turbo on our starboard engine and cleaned the other. Major jobs! Many thanks to our recent visitors, the Dariens, for lugging the two turbos from Colorado. We also had our genoa rigged so that it will rollerfurl, which should make a wonderful improvement when sailing in light winds.

And it's Mardi Gras time.

Party boat with rockin' music.

  

           Mardi Gras decorations spring up at the dock.

As time has slipped by, our plans have changed. We had hoped to go west to Cartagena, Colombia, then on to the San Blas Islands. However, there just isn't enough time to enjoy that area and get out of the hurricane zone by July 1, as required by our insurance. Oh, well. Next year!

Meanwhile we are planning to head to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Of course, depending on the weather, we're not sure if we'll be able to go directly there or have to backtrack a bit then go up the island chain. Time will tell.

In the meantime, we're enjoying the cool weather here in Curacao. Because there is so much available in Curacao, we are taking advantage and frequently ride the bus into town ion search of goods. It is almost always a full day by the time we take our dinghy from the boat to the dinghy dock, wait for the bus—often late, walk many blocks to our destination, then ride the bus back to the bus station to board the bus for home. Of course, we often stop at a favorite local lunch spot called Plasa Bieu. It is a series of restaurants under one roof like the food courts in the U.S. That's where we had some delicious chicken satay, which Mike has been trying to replicate at home. We have also had a roti, a combination lunch of green beans, chicken, stewed meat, plantains, and salad placed on something like a tortilla. We sit at picnic benches covered with checkered vinyl cloths. The food is relatively inexpensive and delicious. Our favorite place in Plasa Bieu is called Gracias de Dios. After lunch we wait for the bus which sometimes comes and sometimes doesn't.--at least on time. The other day, for example, after rushing to get to the bus stop, the bus was over an hour late. Apparently the bus driver had had an accident, but of course, there's no replacement bus. By the time we get back from town, the day is usually over for any worthwhile work on the boat. In the evenings twice a week there's a happy hour at the local sailing club, Asiento. On other nights, we often have happy hour on others' boats or our own. Everyone takes their own drinks and a snack or dish to share. Lots of fun! Plus we make lots of new friends.

Here in Curacao, so many people are from other countries. Most speak English so we get by quite well.

We think a weather window might be coming up by the first of next week, so hopefully we'll be off.

 

Above are Esther, Baby Elmot, and Camille of Dutch S/V Al-Um.   They brought us homemade butterbiscuit, a Dutch shortbread, for  assisting them one night at 2 a.m.  They had come into Spanish Waters anchorage under sail hoping to get to their dock, but their engine would not start and they could not sail in.  They radioed for help realizing that maybe no one would hear their plea.  Fortunately, we did and were able to guide them safely to their slip.  

Wow! Wahoo for sale at fisherman's dock.

Fellow boater takes his dog for a "walk."

Curacao, December 23, 2008- Present

We have been in Curacao, the next island after Bonaire, since just before Christmas. It's another beautiful Dutch island in the West Indies. We anchored in an area called Spaanse Water—Spanish Waters. It's a very international community with many Dutch making this their home. We have met sailors from Germany, Australia, Tasmania, Sweden—the list goes on. One can get most anything here from boat parts to food to other supplies which is one reason it's such a popular place. Also there are competent people who can help diagnose and repair boats, a constant issue for boaters.

We celebrated Christmas and New Years with our good friends Jason and Karen on YOLO. Trying to get started on the boat issues was futile as most people were on holiday. We did, however, have one stroke of luck when we ventured to town riding various busses and walking distances between them—the usual routine--in search of “Carlos” who we learned could test our fuel injectors. Although the business looked closed, a walk to the back of the business turned him up, one of about three people working that day. He not only tested the equipment for us, but did it for free since no one was in the office to tell him the charge. A lucky day!!

On January 9th, our friends the Dariens from Marble, Colorado, arrived. We had rented a car from Imke, a fellow who does many things for yachties, by merely telling him our name and giving him $25. No paperwork. No need to show insurance or driver's license. Just the money and a promise to fill the tank to its present capacity. Oh, well. It worked for us.

This was Larry's and Dana 's third visit on the boat so they knew the drill. When the windy weather settled down, we sailed up the coast to Groot Knip. However, anchoring was not permitted there nor were there any mooring balls. (We had had to make a trip to the harbormaster to outline our travels and get permission to go where we intended. However, the harbormaster did not know about whether there were mooring balls in Groot Knip.) So back down the coast we went until we got to Santa Cruz—a lovely beach. Our YOLO friends joined us later on their way to Aruba. We all snorkeled a bit there and visited another nearby beach with a friendly little beach bar. A few days later we moved down to Santa Marta. Another pretty beach beckoned us, but we would have had to pay to use it. It was part of the resort there. We stayed a few days and were lucky enough to find a fisherman who gave us—yes, gave—us four Wahoo steaks. They were delicious. Despite our efforts to get fish, it has been relatively uncommon to find and be able to buy fresh fish. We learned that there are lots of fish 400-600 feet deep, but of course, we don't fish that deep so we don't catch any.
A return to Spanish Waters on Friday, January 23rd, allowed us to have dinner at the highly touted Equus restaurant. It's only open on Fridays! We all loved it—skewers of melt-in-your-mouth steak or chicken with garlic bread is the entire menu, of course, with wine or some other drink. We now knew why our friends insisted that it's one of the best restaurants in Curacao.
Before the Dariens left, we rented the car again and toured the island. True to the ABC climate,

the island is arid with lots of large cactus covering it. It too is a haven for flamingoes. We decided not to visit the normal tourist places and just enjoyed driving around the island.

The bananaquits are plentiful here and the oriole is the national bird.

The Dutch influence is charming and most prevalent in Willemstad, the capital, where old buildings are being restored and painted bright colors.

The Venezuelan floating market in Punda was a draw for its fresh, delicious vegetables.

Now, we are waiting for sail and engine repairs hoping to move on within the next couple of weeks.

Bonaire, December 15-23, 2008

After a 6 a.m. start, we arrived in Bonaire at about 2:30 p.m. On our way we celebrated leaving Venezuelan waters and an unusual time zone, ½ hour off of Atlantic Standard time--a Chavez thing.
Tom and Rose from Sojourn greeted us as we pulled up to the dreaded mooring buoy. It’s always a challenge to catch the loop on a mooring buoy with the boathook before the boat drifts over the buoy or away from it. But Tom and Rose held the loops (two in this case) for us making simple work of it! It’s nice to have friends!!
Though a tourist haven for scuba divers, Bonaire is a cute little Dutch island with the same crystal clear water we’ve been finding along the Venezuelan coast. Yes, this island is only 50 miles from the Venezuelan coast, but has ever so much more to offer. We are finding grocery stores that have the food we need. (In Venezuela, they were frequently out of cereal, coke, eggs, you name it!) Not so here. Because it’s small and touristy, prices are on the high side. So we will wait for Curacao, our next island, to do the badly needed stocking up.
We have enjoyed meeting our sailing buddies and, of course, snorkeling. Friday, we rented a car and toured the island which is very arid and sprouts cactus everywhere. There is a donkey sanctuary where old, hurt or orphaned donkeys are cared for. Donkeys were used greatly in the 1800s when workers carried loads of salt to and from the town. Bonaire produces great amounts

of salt and great mounds of salt are seen as one

drives around the southern part of the island. In the 1800s, slaves were brought over from Africa to work in the salt pans. They lived in the tiny huts pictured here and led a hard life until they were freed in 1863. (I am sitting in the tiny entryway of one of the huts that was often inhabited by 4 people!)

There were also beautiful pink flamingoes grazing in the shallow waters.
A highlight of our trip was a visit with s/v Pizazz, a couple from California, who, after sailing for 14 years, built their dream home in Bonaire. They had a lot of information to share on sailing to Colombia, our goal in January.

Las Aves--December 7-15

The next islands we visited, approximately 30 miles west of Los Roques, was Las Aves. These are two islands, Barlovento and Sotavento, that are beautiful with crystal clear water, great white sand beaches, and wonderful reefs to snorkel. We traveled not only with YOLO, but with some new friends, Tom and Rose on s/v Sojourn from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their refrigeration had gone out so they divvied up their food between YOLO and us until we could reach Bonaire where hopefully they would be able to repair or replace their refrigerator.
We had been advised by some long-term sailors we met in Barlovento, Barry and Candy on s/v Syrius from Cape Town, South Africa, that the coast guard would check us in by radio in the Aves. Sure enough, as we rounded the corner into the Aves waters, we got a call asking us our name and our intentions. They were very nice and that was that, we thought. However, the next day we all got in our dinghies and went to a tiny island about a mile away where we were planning to snorkel. As we strolled around the island, we noticed a boat coming our way with six uniformed men aboard. They motioned to us. Sure enough, it was the coast guard and they wanted to do an inspection on each of our boats then. We quickly understood that we couldn’t do it later when we got back, so off we went back to our boats. It turned out that they indeed were very nice, but went through a long list checking off what we had aboard such as medical kit, flares, weapons (of course, none) etc. They went away happy.

Later that day we all got together on our boat for dinner and games! Tom is a big gamer so we played Sequence and Dominoes--Mexican Train, a very popular game with sailors. Though not our thing, we really did have a nice evening although the dinghy ride to and from was a wet one for YOLO and Sojourn.

Sojourn left a day ahead of us in order to get to Bonaire on a Saturday instead of a Sunday. The other four of us spent our time on Saturday, snorkeling looking for lobster and fish. Voila! Indeed we found them--i.e. Jason and Karen. Jason stalked a lobster and managed to spear it with his trident.

Karen speared a flounder and a grunt. That night we added our fresh catch to our dinner. Yum!