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Updated Jan, 2014 |
Mi Terruño, Las Arenas, near Boqueron |
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As April wore on, it began to be hotter in Boqueron, and we were sensing that our time was running out. Until Barbara mentioned it, I didn't realize that while I worked I was whistling a leaving song: Four strong winds they blow lonely Seven seas they run high. . . . We went to one more pig roast at Mi Terruño. We had dinner at La Marea. Ita took us on one more shopping trip, to Pueblo for food, to K-Mart and Home Depot for bits and pieces. Ita, it should be noted, is also called Margaret, and is a Commander, USN (RET). She took us to the commissary, where liquor is for sale at really low prices, but we did not find just what we might have wanted.
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The Usual Suspects at Mi Terruño | ||
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I did a number of maintenance jobs, mostly things that are better done in advance at anchor than mid-trip while the boat is cavorting about; I replaced the house alternator belts and adjusted the valves on the main engine. I replaced the bulbs in some of the navigation lights, which I will probaby change over to LED fixtures when I have run through my stock of bulbs. I also cleaned the upper 15' or so of the anchor chain (the part that hangs in the water column and gets lots of marine growth).
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Villa For Sale in Boqueron | ||
| With the generator running better we were able to run the water-maker and refill our tanks instead of buying water as we sometimes have had to do. |
Bahia de Boqueron | ||
| Mindful that we would be cooped up for the five days to Bermuda, we made it a goal to do some walking every day in addition to the daily trips up the hill for mail and bread. We walked back into the park behind the beach, pretty much for the first time since our first year here. There had been a great to-do a couple of years back about the Pan-American Games being in Puerto Rico, and one of the major venues was Mayaguez. |
Sunset, Boqueron | ||
| One of the Mayaguez venues, in turn, was Boqeron, where the sailing events were conducted in the bay and elaborate beach volleyball courts were built in the park behind the beach. There was a grat deal of fuss about opening these facilities, with speeches by the governor and lots of police presence, but now they are surounded by chain-link fences and comletely unused, although the local schools would love to have access to them. |
The Park Behind Boqueron Beach | ||
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Beach Volleyball Courts for the Pan-American Games -- Now Fenced Off | |||
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Boqueron really does have a great beach, in sheltered water, and I am assured that in the summer it is very crowded, but when we are there the water is "too cold for swiming."
This year is the something-th anniversary of Balneario Boqueron as a state park, and there were to be great festivities (and of course interminable political speeches). |
Boqueron Beach | ||
| We thought we could do without those, but we did go early and see the preparations, which included lots of food kiosks and an elaborate stage for musicians. There were supposed to be kiosks for handicrafts, too but we did not see many of these. There was of course a buzz in town about the undue influence of a particular sponsor. |
Festivities in the Park | ||
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On Sunday, May 5th, the temperature was 90°, and we took this as a sign. Carl came for dinner that night, and there were good stories and lots of wine. On the Monday I struck the Bimini below, hoisted the pram, and ran the water-maker some more.
Tuesday, May 7th, was movement day. We hoisted the outboard and dinghy, stowed all the gear that had been sitting around loose, and at 10:00 we started the engine. We weighed anchor and by 10:30 we were clear of Bahia de Boqueron and on our way north. |
Sunset |
We have had better trips. We had a heavy sea initially and slowed to ease the motion, then a long series of little squalls and overcast. In the middle of everything the gear oil pressure dropped. I added oiil, but the problem was clearly the heat exchanger, and we could not do much about that except keep on topping up the oil. At 1500 on May 9th, Barbara made a log entry: "Seas steeper. Made bread."
On the 11th we finally came out of the overcast, the squalls went away, and we saw a few stars. |
Landfall -- Bermuda |
| We began to hear Bermuda Radio on the VHF, and on the morning of the 12th we were close enough to call them and check in. We were through Town Cut and in St. George's Harbor by 11:00, but there was a lot of traffic, many boats circling and waiting for their turn, and it was not until 1430 that we were cleared in. |
St. George's Harbor Jammed with ARC Boats | ||
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The harbor was jammed with boats involved in the ARC, which is (as I understand it) a trans-Atlantic "rally" in which boats band together, lemming-like, and sail across the Atlantic. We did wonder whatever happened to the idea that cruising is an exercise in self-reliance and in getting away from other people and outside constraints.
Whatever the merits of this new cruising model, and clearly it speaks to many people, the net result was that there was no possibility of berthing alongside in St. George's, and precious little anchoring room. We did find a place to anchor more-or-less across the harbor from the town, and that was fine, but with the town so full and our friends so busy dealing with all the business these boats brought, we were little disposed to linger. |
Yarn Bombing in St. George's | ||
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More | |||
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On the 15th we weighed anchor and headed off to the west end of Bermuda, to the old Naval Dockyard. Even here, however, we found life complicated. The Department of Marine and Ports were using all the spaces we had used in other years, and Doug was jammed up at West End Shipyard as well. We went from pillar to post, but ended up at the Pier 41 marina, actually paying for a berth, which we don't usually do.
Meanwhile, we had ordered a reverse gear oil cooler and it was duly shipped, but getting it became an issue. We were informed that the government (HM Customs) had placed a hold on the shipment, but when I called them they knew nothing about any hold. |
Our Anchorage on the South Side of St. George's Harbor | ||
| Several phone calls by Liz, at West End Yachts, did not get us very far, so we decided to see for ourselves.The local FedEx contractor was open on Saturday morning, so we went by ferry into Hamilton. At first the young lady at the desk said "Oh yes, that usually means the paperwork is not quite correct," but at my insistence she went back to their storage area and lo and behold, there our package was, sitting on a shelf. |
Norwegian Breakaway at Dockyard | ||
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My interpretation is that the customs hold was fictititous; the local FedEx agent simply did not want to send a truck all the way out to Dockyard.
Our return ferry trip was similarly colored. The next scheduled trip was in maybe 1-1/2 hours, but we knew the ferries were running pretty much non-stop because there was a large cruise ship in Dockyard. So we asked at the terminal, and sure enough were told the next ferry was in 1-1/2 hours. But we hung around and in 10 minutes a ferry arrived, and a question to the deckhand revealed that it was headed back to Dockyard as soon as the passengers were all off. So we boarded, and were home in a short time. |
The Clocktower, Dockyard | ||
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That afternoon I replaced the cooler -- of course the new one was not a bolt-in replacement, so it required some reorganizing of hoses, etc, but in tme it was done, and we were no longer leaking oil.
"Boat repair in exotic locations," indeed! We did enjoy the ferry ride to Hamilton, though. |
Dockyard, The Forbidding East Wall | ||
| After our traditional Sunday breakfast at Café Amici we filled our water tanks and set off. One advantage of our berth in the marina was that our nearest neighbors were Al and Ilona, old friends whom we first met the year we were stuck in Dockyard waiting for a new rudder. Ilona cast off our lines and just after noon we slid out of the Dockyard basin and headed for St. George's. |
Front Street, Hamilton | ||
| This trip (it was Sunday, after all) we had to dodge a sailboat race, and then we had to hang around waiting for a cruise ship to get clear of the Narrows channel. Eventually we made it, however, and this time there was room for us at Hunter's Wharf, so we did ot have to anchor out. |
Villas Over Hamilton Harbor | ||
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Steve and Suzanne (of Ocean Sails) came for drinks, and our neighbors, a very pleasant Breton family, paid us a visit.
While we waited for good weather, which meant waiting for a low to get on up to the northeast, I replaced the ball and O-rings in the galley sink faucet, so it no longer dripped. Friday the 24th was Bermuda Day, and this meant dinghy racing in St. George's harbor. These races are always fun to watch. |
Barbara at Pier 41 | ||
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Finally it seemed that there was a chance to leave, and on Sunday the 27th we cleared out and headed north toward the point where we expected to encounter the Gulf Stream.
Conditions were generally quite good, although Herb warned us that we could expect strong south-westerly winds north of about 40°. 30-knot winds are not too much of problem for us, however, especially when they are with us, so we kept going. |
St. George's | ||
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Somers' Garden, St. George's | |||
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We had a paretty uneventful trip, the kind we like. A few dolphins paid us a visit, and the big sailing yacht "Wild Horses" was a few miles off on a parallel course for a while, but she soon overtook us.
Off Boston a late afternoon haze cut the visibilty down to perhaps a mile, and we threaded our way among several draggers, a couple of cargo ships, a cruise ship, and a research vessel. |
St. George's | ||
| As we approached the Portland sea-buoy (used to be a lightship) the wind and sea were calm. Two tankers were anchored near the buoy, presumably waiting their turn to unload. We called Customs, and at first the person on the phone seemed to have no idea about anything. We found later that they were in the middle of some kind of exercise. We were a little concerned, because we didn't really want to go into Portland if we didn't have to, but the point where we had to make that choice was getting closer and closer. |
Our Neighbor, An Aluminum Sloop from France | ||
| Finally we did speak to a real person and were allowed to clear in by phone (just as in Puerto Rico or the Viorgin Islands) so we could bear away for Chebeague. At 20:17 on May 31st we were anchored off the Stone Wharf on the northwest dise of Chebeague and stopped the engine. |
Post Office, St. George's | ||
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We stayed aboard the boat for a few days while we opened up the house, started the vehicles, and so forth. Once we had things running we went alongside the wharf a couple of days running and took off clothes and gear -- all part of the process of moving back to our land home.
I raised our mooring, which had spent the winter down in the mud, and atached the ball and bow-piece, so Barbara could return to her proper home, and I set the haul-off so we could leave the dinghy on the beach |
The Road to Fort St. Catherine | ||
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The Unfinished Church, St. George's | |||
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Transept, the Unfinished Church | |||
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Cannon at Fort St. Catherine | |||
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Fort St. Catherine from Fort William | |||
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Fort William | |||
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Fort Wiolliam | |||
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Contest, the Fitted Dinghy Representing the St. George's Dinghy Club | |||
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Barbara Dressed for Bermuda Day | |||
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Corwith Cramer Next to Us on Penno's Wharf | |||
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Bermuda Dropping Astern | |||
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A Squall that Missed Us | |||
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Sunset at Sea | |||
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Tankers Waiting at the Portland Pilot Station | |||
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Almost Home, the Cliff Island Shore | |||