January 31
Since we arrived in Puerto Rico (PR), we welcome the day with calls from the neighbourhood roosters. These colourful birds are everywhere: on sidewalks, alleys, parking lots. Some of them don't have their internal clock well programmed; they call the new day at any time of the day.
When we left Bahia de Jobos, PR, our itinerary was hopefully travel all night to Vieques Island (South shore). However, by midnight, we had to stop at Patillas, PR due to a leak from the water pump. Frank, my favorite handyman, figured out that a good cleaning was the only thing required. And, indeed, after now a week we didn't find another leak. I love my handyman! He's good with his hands ... (remove your mind from the gutter, you!)
Patillas to Vieques (village of Esperanza) went very well. What a relief! Again, we travelled at night when the winds/waves have lessened. About the winds this year in this region, we've been talking to a few locals because they are so strong (often 20+ knots and 23-28 knots gusts on top of the winds) and unrelenting or barely. They all say that this pattern is unusual; 10-15 knots has been the standard at this time of year. And, they say that the temperature is much cooler; ie 21-23 degrees celcius at night. Being from Canada, we don't mind the cooler temperature at night; we sleep better. But we hope the wind pattern is not the new normal.
In the village of Esperanza, you can rent ATV's and scooters to discover parts of the island. Also, in Mosquito Bay, a few miles from our anchorage (Sun Bay), there are bioluminescents. Again, you can pay for a night tour on see-through kayaks to see them. Bioluminescents are planktons that lit up when disturbed. As we night sail, we see them in the waves made by the boat. The waves looked like lace studded with diamonds.
Sun Bay has a long beach of fine white sand. There are many wild horses on the beach that love of piece of your picnic if you're not careful; but that otherwise leave you alone.
The following leg of our journey from Sun Bay to St. Thomas was one of the most frustrating sail. We had been waiting for winds that would be at least 30 degrees from our bow; 40-50 would be even better. For many days, no good direction was possible. We had to continue our trip; we decided we would zigzag our way North East to St. Thomas. The wind/waves directly on our bow slow us down considerably (2-3 knots/hour). The winds at 70-90 degrees (on the side of our boat) make us fly to a fun 7-8 knots/hour; it makes me smile from ear to ear. So, for this leg, the winds/waves (18-20 knots wind, 1 meter wave) were no more - often less than - 30 degrees and the swells (1.5 meters) were on the side. We could only double-reef our main sail; forget the head sail. The first stretch of 12 miles along the South shore of Vieques took us 4 hours. On a good day, this distance would have taken us a bit more than 2 hours. A few times, the bow dipped completely in the water. As we were motoring along a channel to our destination, I was at the wheel, a seaplane flew beside us no more than 400 feet away and landed so close. As I didn't hear it coming I jumped and, after the sail we had just experienced my nerves were a bit frayed, my heart skipped a beat I'm sure. Anyway, we were glad when we dropped the anchor at Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas mid-afternoon.
Yesterday, we treated ourselves: had our 3 meals in different restaurants/bars, walk the town (17,000 steps of it). Dinner at Meson Amalia was a perfect ending of a perfect day. The food was beautifully presented and sooo delicious. We had a great conversation with a local cruise boat owner Keith (he has 14 of them) about his enterprise, the unusual weather, our journey. Because of covid, many of his skippers and crew have left the island or found other jobs; so he's scrambling to find replacements. If we didn't have our own boat, it could be a job we could do. We've been looking for a boat insurance company that covers the Caribbean. We find that our current insurance company from Canada is skittish about insuring boats that travel down South. Keith graciously gave us the name of an American company that covers many boats in the Caribbean. We'll look it up.
Now, we have 2 more legs to reach St. Maartens before Feb. 6. Today, we'll sail to Coral Bay, St. John, USVI for one night. Tomorrow, starting at 05:00, we'll head North to Ginger Island to get a better wind angle then turn South East to St. Maartens. We should arrive early Thursday.
