We're Back

Here we are in beautiful Puerto Rico.Doing boat things and organising our trip back to Oz in March and working hard as we can to improve our spanish.First word .....manana.....don't do today what you can put off 'til tomorrow.Hence a long time since the last blog.

Meanwhile,back in Georgetown,we spent Christmas day on the beach at a deserted resorty type place with our new Aussie mates Stephen and Jody and Bob,a sort of Bryan Brown lookalike who fitted the Oz theme.The rest of the cruisers were a couple of bays up but by this time we'd had enough of the Georgetown 'organisation.It was a very merry day and we finished up with a game of bolle or two.                

Next day looked as good as any to start down the 'thorny path' to the Caribbean.So Boxing morning saw us taking off with Blue Pelican (Stephen and Jody) motoring into the constant easterlies(hence thorny path) up and over Long Island where we managed to have great close hauled sail for the rest of the day and then a night ,a day and another night mostly motoring before we arrived at the Turks and Caicos islands and paid our $100 entry for one week(it was $14 three years ago) and had 2 days,over New years eve in the South Side Marina where Stephen and I played guitar and sang songs til midnight and kept all the other boats up way past cruisers midnight which is officially 9pm.Here's the marina,and the boat coming in is sailed by a couple in their 80's.Figure that gives us another 15 years of this!

We then went out and anchored in Sapodilla Bay until we got another weather window to head to Puerto Rico.Thats us in the distance,behind the wreck.

Just on our week we had 15 to 20knt north easterlies accompanied by 10 ft swells to take us pretty much in a straight line to PR.  A bumpy ride but SAILING all the way.A rare treat on this run.Blue Pelican decided to go to the Dominican Republic so I guess they'll catch us up later.On the 3rd day whilst in the middle of the Mona Passage,between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico we came across Roberto single handing his Dream Catcher.We'd been hit by a couple of 35knt squalls a few hours earlier and his dinghy,with outboard motor,had been ripped off his davits and he was towing it upside down with the motor under water.The dinghy was starting to get ripped up so we went over a couple of miles and circled him while he got in the water and hooked it up again.Bit of fun......for him anyway.

Anyway ,next morning we arrived in Mayaguez and cleared in and went round Boqueron,a lovely little place,even if some of the buildings look a bit wobbly!

Nearly finished.......................hang in there.

A few days later we worked our way round to Salinas via Ponce which required leaving a few hours before daylight for each trip in order to make your destination before the winds come up,pretty much 8.30 on the dot every morning.The Ponce to Salinas stretch we actually SAILED......AGAIN!

And here's the beautiful Salinas bay.

Got here on a friday and Saturday night we went into town(village...pueblo)and were hit by a cacophony of salsa,backing tracks with singers and percussionists actually but that's the way of the world,but more to the point,it was the Three Kings celebration and there were 3,000 yes folks 3,000 Purto Rican cowboys on 3,000 horses charging,well trotting really,all over town.Impossible to describe the action .It was amazing and of course I didn't have my camera with me....but Roberto had his Iphone.......but..............

You had to be there!

Well we're just hanging here and we'll do trips around the island which I'm sure you can't wait for (wake up Geoff)...but I forgot our fishing day with our new amigos Carlos and Isabel on their friend Johnny's boat.

It's amazing how squeemish people like us suddenly get overtaken with the bloodlust and just can't catch enough fish!!

Nevertheless,Carlos got the big one and Johnny assured us that Barracuda is OK to eat.Not that we did.

OK  I'm off...Thanks for your attention.

Dec.23

Too Windy For Sailing

Chicken Harbour

Here we are in Georgetown, Exumas,otherwise known as Chicken Harbour as many well meaning cruisers get this far and then decide that it'll do fine and don't do the final leg (s) down to the Caribbean.
This is our local internet office,where we just met an English couple that are here (in a house ) for the winter and I'm going to give him some sax lessons.Still can't get thesepics where I want them.

Well we had a fairly bumpy trip across the Gulf Stream but an easy day and arrived at North Bimini in the late arvo,cleared in and settled in to our dock ready for the next 5 days of nearly gale force winds.Not to worry ,we hooked up with our friend Porgy from the local band and had a couple nights playing with them again.Good times and walks and bikes around.

If you folks knew the pain I go through doing this you'd send me a petition to cease before I have a stroke or something.I shall now attempt to put pics somewhere near where I want them and a bit of text wherever it decides to go.After all I'm not in charge here.

Definately not in charge.Anyway,after 5 days or so,although the winds were still blowing from where we wanted to go ,they had dropped a little ,so we tacked our way across the Banks to wards Nassau for 2 days ,sailing about 190 miles in order to get about 90 miles east.

Well,as soon as we got to Nassau another cold front came through and we hunkered in there for another few days,but that was cool cos we like Nassau,though we will never take our lives into our hands again and bike around .................suicidal man!

Love the name of the cruise boat.










 

Yes,she's a fine ol' town is Nassau and on the other side of the harbour is Paradise Island,which is  the home of the big,flash hotels,starring Atlantis which is built as a city risen from the sea.Lots of water falls and pools throughout and a section that looks like a cross between Sanctuary Cove and the Gaudi gardens in Barcelona.

Next window we got was a day trip over to Allens Cay ,home of hundreds of iguanas and a nice peaceful anchorage to wait out the LACK of wind ,for a day,and then jump on another northerly blast to Black Point and then back out in the Atlantic and a good days sail to here.Where we've just sat out another 4 days of howling wind. 

I'll attempt to put a pic of Georgetown on the bottom to finish off.Next one should be from Puerto Rico...........................................................

Or from here .Chicken Harbour.

Before I Go

Just a quick one.Those of us in the cruising/boating game are aware of a strange part of our fraternity who like..wooden boats.They accept us to a degree but sneer at our fibreglass hulls,calling them chlorox bottles and other such things.Despite the fact that they have to deal with dry rot ,toredo worms etc. they stick with it masochistically (did I just make up a word?).  We have to admit that their vessels are usually majestic looking artifacts, usually with an interesting history.We admire their dedication and craftmanship,which of course they have to have to keep the bloody things floating!.

One such person is my " little" brother John,who I included a photo of a couple of blogs ago.Unfortunately the photo was a ' before' so I will now post,hopefully, the after and another during and unfotunately I don't have a photo of the lovely Whampoa in the whole but she is beautiful.Which is more than I can say about her captain.
PS.The time it took me to work out how to get that after pic out of the zip file(whatever that is )and on to this page.....I could have cut down a few trees and built a wooden boat.

PPPS And then out of the ether comes a pic of Whampoa.

Any Time Now

Miami Beach,the Art Deco area of South Beach.This diner was actually built inNew Jersey and moved here in the 90's but it really suits the district.We love it and the city ordinance makes sure that plenty of the old facades from the early tourist days survive.

It's so 'Espanol' too which has got us bustin' to get down to Puerto Rico in our Cabo Rico and start getting back into learning spanish again.We've been stuck here (thankfully) for longer than expected,waiting for weather as usual,and have had time to visit our favourite places.

There's a street called Espanola Way which is where a lot of the old Miami Vice was filmed.It's just got a great vibe and we had to stop in for one or two mojitos to wash down the best salads you can imagine.There was even a photo shoot going on next to us.Not sure if it was a professional job or a proud dad snapping his .....daughter.

Anyway,after lunch Gail decided she might be able to pick up a bit of cash and she wasn't on the corner five minutes when........Bingo!

Only jokin'.I was taking a pic of Gail on the corner (a couple of years ago,note the different clothes )when the guy in the Ferrari saw me and stopped.I told him to move up 'cos the car would add to the cool .So he did .......honest. Well that's Espanola Way.

As usual,there's no point in pics of the Miami skyline etc.cos they're all in the tourist brochures and e-nets,which of course are worth a look.I'd like to post a photograph of the anchorage with the views across to the channel where the massive cruise boats drift pass on their way to exotic ports nearly every night as the sun goes down over the city but it just wouldn't be the same as being here,,,,,,,,,which we are........ and you ain't.Never mind,we won't be in a couple of days cos we're off to the Bahamas which also means that internet is going to be sparse so I guess the blogs will be too but we'll do what we can to keep you all informed....all two of you although I noticed we've had 3,000 hits or so.Unbelievable!So adios for now,hasta luego.

OK I'm Back

Well our little passenger was an experiment to see if I can work this new THING!Looks like I can .It's good to be a geek.Can't control where the pics and text actually go but.....hey.

Where was I?...Right.After our little mate left we carried on to Fort Pierce where we arrived at dawn,and popped up to Vero Beach,,arriving at 9.30 and Colin from Mack sails was ther by 12.30 to measure up for our new main and Mackpac.This was Monday and on Friday,after I had 3 or 4 great jams with Eric,they rang to say they were all done.Amazing.So on Monday we had a swift sail(!!!!!) down to Stuart and picked up a mooring Sunset Bay marina.On Tuesday we had a visit from our old mate Fred and then the Mack team swooped aboard(at the courtesy dock)and had it all fitted in about an hour and a half.Now the pics aren't doing what they did last time@#$%$#@Hmmm.Wasn't actually in that order but I'm not a real geek.Anyway there we were ,all sailed up and the next morning we MOTORED straight to beautiful Miami,passing mansions,covered in birds, and beautiful motor yachts covered with crews cleaning them etc.I am a geek.I am a geek.I am a geek.Igam ayeek yeema geek i yam iyam.I give up.So following a string of motor yachts through Fort Lauderdale we made the last leg to the aforementioned Miami.We dropped the hook just on sunset and drank some large scotches.The next night was the Sleepless Night festival at South Beach,an idea pinched from Paris apparently,which was fantastic.Great bands and street performers and thousands of people just having a ball all night ,finished off with free breakfast on the beach.We didn't make that.Got back to Jabiru about 2.30 which luckily was really only 1.30 as the clocks went back during the night.End of daylight saving.
Well it's still doing strange things,but I'm back for the time being.The weather is beautiful but too windy for sailing(!!!!)so we'll stay here a few days and it looks like we'll head to the Bahamas as soon as the waves in the Gulf Stream start dropping from the 15ft or so.Plan??At present head down to Eastern Caribbean and then....................west to Central America or.............way East to the Med.
That's it.
PS.For any of you dodos that don't understand these things,just thought I'd mention that if you click on the pics you can see them full size.Anything else ya need to learn.....don't ask me.