|
Updated May, 2014 |
Boqueron |
||
|
Dressed for Easter | |||
| In Boqueron we did what one does in Boqueron, or at least what we do. Most mornings we went up the hill to buy bread at the bakery, and perhaps vegetables at La Haciendita, and perhaps to check at the Post Office for mail. On the way back we would stop at Sunset/Sunrise for a cooling (actually ice-cold) drink and to check on local events with Rita, who always knows what is going on. Aftenoons I'd do maintenance, or build something, or install another piece of ceiling, while Barbara read texts of Sennacherib or someone like that. |
With Lizette at Sunset Sunrise | ||
|
We would often have a swim, and then in the late afternon we'd go ashore for a few beers and socializing. Sometimes we stayed in for dinner, either at La Marea or Terramar, where we always had pizza and a nice bottle of white wine from the Rias Baixas region of Spain.
Sometimes we had company on the boat for dinner: Jon and Kathleen, Carl, Lizette. Sometimes we were invited out. Meanwhile I continued to struggle with the generator. Intermittent problems are always the hardest to diagnose, and it had been fine in Bermuda but would sporadically shut down in the |
Iguana on the Way to the Post Office | ||
| BVI or Puerto Rico, so I began to think the problem was heat-related. I nursed the gen along, turning on the engineroom fans to lower the ambient temperature and finally propping a small baggie of ice cubes next to the electronic governor, which I had concluded had some temperature-sensitive component. As I told a friend: "My generator didn't feel well, so I made it feel better by giving it an icebag for its head." |
The Frame and Actuating Cylinder for the Blue Board, Required for European Canals | ||
|
One Saturday night, as we got close to the Easter madness, we had a party on the boat with lots of our friends, who are always anxious to see what progress we have made and also enjoy the chance to see the sunset from the water. We were very pleased to have Carl and his friend RG stay on for dinner.
Another day two swimmers approaching the boat revealed thenselves as William and Diana, a Dutch couple from the boat Cornelis, whom we had met the year before in Great Harbour, Jost van Dyke. We were very pleased to see them and exchanged boat visits, in which wine figured largely. |
Our Friend the Parula Warbler | ||
|
An Extraordinarily Calm Ocean | |||
|
On Easter Sunday we dressed ship as usual. The winds were so gusty I thought the flags might carry away, but fortunately they didn't. The middle of April was a squally, gusty, rainy period, caused by the tail-ends of the fronts trailing the storms that kept hammering
the northeastern U.S.
One Sunday we went again for lechon to Mi Terruno, and after stuffing myself with roast pork and trimmings I watched the pool players in the back room for a while.The scene reminded me of my army days, when the thing to do after lunch was play 1-15 in the dayroom. I would sometimes practice in the evenings after work (the dayroom was always open and the table was free), and I |
Sunset at Sea | ||
|
developed my game to the point that I could hold my own in the after-chow 'tournaments,' but that was 50-odd years ago, so now I just watch.
Eventually, it was getting toward time to leave. We decided, over a period of time, that we would take the boat to Europe in the summer of 2014, and that meant there would be a lot to do in Maine beforehand, not least renewing our passports, so we decided to leave earlier than we sometimes have. Word went quickly around on the grapevine, and on our last two evenings most of our friends showed up in the late afternoon for drinks. |
A Squall that Missed Us - On the Radar and in Reality | ||
| Lizette took us shopping in her truck one more time. We went by back roads to Home Depot and Pueblo and were delighted to see a little more of this corner of Puerto Rico. As usual we had good sandwiches at El Meson, followed by ice cream from Baskin-Robbins next door. We had one more dinner at La Marea, this time with Carl, and on April 23rd we hoisted the dinghy aboard, cleaned the top 20' of anchor chain, weighed anchor, and with a long blast on the horn headed west out of Boqueron Bay by the Canal del Norte. By 10:30 we were clear of the bay and headed north along Puerto Rico's west coast, dodging the reefs south of Mayaguez. |
Diego Passes Close Astern of Us | ||
| Shortly after we rounded Punta Higuero, the northwest corner of Puerto Rico, we had a visitor. A small bird soon identified as a female Northern Parula Warbler, flew into the pilothouse and seemed to want to stay. All the windows were open, but she didn't seem to want to fly out again. I thought she might be tired, and at first her feathers were all fluffed out, as birds' feathers are in the cold. |
| ||
|
Alongside in St. George's | |||
|
We found from our trusty Peterson's Guide that these birds winter in Central America and the West Indies and breed in the northeastern United States and Canada, so they are surely up to long flights, but we
were wondering if we could keep her alive until we reached Bermuda. We put out a saucer of water, but she seemed uninterested. After a while, perhaps an hour, she became more active, then flew out a window, circled once, and disappeared. We hope she made it.
|
St. George's - Bermuda Radio at the Top of the Hill | ||
| The first night after leaving was busy, as always, with the ship traffic between San Juan and Jacksonville and the cruise ships coming out of the Caribbean and heading for South Florida and the Bahamas. In the night there were sparks just below the surface as we looked out from the pilothouse; tiny sea creatures disturbed by our passage and firing their phosphorescent assertions. |
An Imposing Oil Platform Supply Vessel | ||
| Both the NOAA Ocean Prediction Center and Passageweather had forecast a period of light winds and little sea for our trip, and so it proved. For the first four days our motion could only be described as stately as we climbed one long low sea after another. There was just enough gentle undulation to remind us we were on a boat and the wind stayed under ten knots. I have never seen such a calm spell in these waters; a sailboat would have hated these conditions, but we loved them. The last day we did have a few squalls and sometimes spitting rain, and then conditions settled down to a 15-20 knot west wind,but we were soon in the lee of Bermuda, and in any case that is not a lot of wind for us. |
St. George's | ||
|
At 12:08 on Monday the 28th we entered Town Cut and went alongside the Ordnance Island Wharf for Customs. There seemed to be no room for us to lie alongside, but Sandra Soares, the Dockmaster, asked two boats to move farther apart so we could squeeze ourselves in, which was very nice. That evening, Steve and Suzanne Hollis came to the boat and we drank a little wine together. Revisiting old friends (and Steve and I have been friends for almost 30 years) ) is a major advantage of our nomadic life.
|
Lunch on the After Deck | ||
| Two days later Jon Faulkner, the wonderful potter from Dockyard (who is also an experienced saior), came over for lunch with his wife Beatrix and their new baby Lillian (Lilly), along with Doug Sutherland and his friend Gina. We had a nice lunch on the after deck under the bimini -- it is possible that a certain amount of wine and beer was consumed, but I cannot say for sure, as I was not counting. |
A Tour Carriage in St. George's | ||
| We were shocked - and that is too weak a word -- to hear that Doug had been fired from his job as manager of the West End Shipyard. He is so capable and experienced that it simply made no sense. Steve Hollis said: "I don't know where I'll send people who come in with problems," and I am in the same situation. While I have recommended West End Shipyard warmly in the past, I would be hesitant to recommend it at all now. |
Our Berth in Dockyard | ||
| On Friday we shifted over to Dockyard, on the west end of Bermuda, where Doug had arranged with the Department of Marine and Ports that we could berth at their wharf. Spirit of Bermuda arrived shortly after we did, at the end of her week's cruise, in her berth just astern of us, and after helping with her lines we borrowed her hose to fill our water tanks.That night we had dinner at Cafe Amici with Doug and Gina and Doug's daughter Kaitlyn, and our friends Joanna and her daughter Bella dropped by, which was very nice. |
The "End-to-End" Party in its Early Stages | ||
| Saturday turned out to be "end-to-end" day in Bermuda, a day of events including bicycle and foot races, walks, and swimming and paddle-board races, starting from various points but all ending at Dockyard. Some 3,000 people took part (it is a gigantic fund-raiser for an umbrella charity like the United Way in the US), and they all ended up in a big party with lots of food and drink available just across the camber from our berth. Later there were power-boat races; they were off and on all day because of the weather, but eventually they did get to race. |
The Little Beach Behind the Keep at the Dockyard | ||
| Sunday morning we had our usual breakfast at Amici (I about always have a chorizo omelette) with Doug, Gina, and Kaitlyn, and that evening we had a splendid Thai shrimp curry at Jon and Bea's house. |
In Back of the Victualling Yard | ||
| Monday we got up relatively early and moved the boat over to South Basin to fill up with duty-free fuel. Then we ran back to St. George's for the night. Steve and Suzanne turned up with another bottle of wine that evening, and after they left we went to the Tavern by the Sea for pizza. |
A Boat Waiting to Race | ||
| Monday morning, May 6th, we cleared out and headed out Town Cut for home, That first night we passed two cruise ships headed for Bermuda and a cargo ship headed for Ireland. |
And Another | ||
|
The word for this leg of the trip is "squalls." No serious wind, not much sea really, but overcast, rain, variable winds. There was often distant spooky lightning on the horizon, but we saw no real storms. There were several sailboats on the AIS heading from Bermuda to the northeastern US, Newport or Boston.
|
St. George's | ||
| There is always something. On one engineroom check I saw water where I didn't expect to, and investigation showed that the bilge pump had failed. So, we dig out the spare from under our bunk and I take the old pump out and replace it. This took about an hour, but then all was well. We determined that the main engine raw water strainer was weeping, but figured that could wait until we got home. |
St. George's | ||
| We did not hit the Gulf Stream quite where we expected it, but by now we are accustomed to this. When we did find it, it gave us a nice lift for quite a long time, with 8-9 knot speeds, and the weather was very mild. We did have winds of 15-20 knots, sometimes gusting higher, but really not much sea, and sea conditions are the main concern for us. |
Dragon Door, St. George's | ||
|
On Saturday, May 10th, we entered the Portland traffic lanes at 09:00, with draggers all around us. The day was overcast, damp, and chilly, so I fired up the heater. Off Cape Elizabeth fog shut in, so we started the sound signal, which continued to startle us every two minutes.
As we came into Casco Bay we called Customs and Border Protection and received clearance to proceed on to Chebeague, a nice change from some previous arrivals. As we came between Cliff and Hope Islands the fog scaled enough that we could see them both, and we happily secured the foghorn. By 15:18 we were anchored off the Stone Wharf just northwest of Chebeague Island. The next day we went ashore and opened the house, turning on the water and evicting the one mouse we found. On the Monday the tide and wind served and we went around to our mooring, picked up the chain and shackled on the ball and pennant. Although we did not really move ashore for two more days, the boat was moored and we were home. |
An Old Friend - the Schooner Roseway | ||
|
Chebeague from Our Anchorage | |||