May-June 2010: PASSAGE ON DREAM CATCHER: A Jenneau 42 sailboat delivery from Tortola BVI to Washington NC

Tuesday June 1

We’re on the ICW road now and because of thunderstorm and tornado warnings we decided to travel in shore.  Radar shows the storms are moving northeast—in our direction but so far all we see is distant thunder and lightning, no funnel clouds.

We got into Charleston at 5:30 PM: fueled, watered and found a dock.  We ate out in the city last night and did some window shopping.  Rob and I met some nice hotel guest folks, Mark and Terry, on our marina shuttle bus ride back. They offered us a ride to the local West Marine store in the AM so that we could buy a starboard running light.  It is a little unnerving to find out you are missing a navigation light when you are out in the Gulf Stream with all the night traffic.  Actually there was little traffic so we were lucky. 

Sunday-Monday May 29- 30

Seas and wind abated, we have a mainsail out supplemented with motoring at 2500 rpm. The Charleston breakwater is 25 miles ahead so we will make harbor before sundown. We will enjoy the Charleston Harbor Marina for the night….on solid ground, with hot and running showers, laundry, some internet catch up and maybe a meal out…a nice reward considering the seasickness I had during the last 3 days in passage.

This afternoon and evening we didn’t enjoy the +-30kt winds and lumpy, with confused seas up to 8’; a bit rough on the stomachs.  Things died later giving us a cloudy and sometimes moonlit night with winds from behind. We motored sailed toward Charleston, SC.

We sailed and motored across the shallow banks north of Great and Little Abaco Islands into the Gulf Stream last night. Wind and seas slowly built even though the forecast said light and variable. On the 2-5AM watch we were surrounded by spectacular thunder storms with lightning in three directions. We were sure we would be engulfed in one of the storms, but it dissipated before it reached us, a welcome relief. Winds picked up from the east and we are on a starboard reach doing between 9-10 knots in the stream. If we can keep this up we’ll be in Charleston by tomorrow afternoon.

Saturday May 29

Heading across the Gulf Stream  Weather is clear and winds are calm.  The engine is behaving and we think we have all the fuel filters it will take to remediate the fuel starvation issues.  Four days and three nights should get us to Charleston , and then we will do the ICW to NC.  At least that’s the plan right now.  We stocked the boat with plenty of food; Laura is a great cook, I mostly brainstorm the menu and act as her Sue-chef.  She is right on top of the next meal with prep especially in anticipation of any roily seas ahead that make prep difficult. 

We anchored at Allans-Pensacola Cays with only two other boats in the anchorage for the night. We did a little snorkeling, beach walking and swimming. It was great to swim upcurrent between a couple of small cays and drift back down current. We saw some mutton head snappers, barracudas and almost stepped on a large ray as we pulled up to the beach. The rays like to bury themselves in the sand.

The last time Rob and I came to the Abacoes we hustled into the cut and hunkered down out of 20 kn of easterlies and we didn’t stop to enjoy the cays that surround

Abaco Island

.  This time the weather was wonderful and we enjoyed anchoring in these quiet outer islets.  How wonderful and peaceful.  We will surely make a Mandate visit to Abaco in the spring and spend more time out island rather than in

Marsh Harbor

.  

Time flies!  We did an overnight and two long days to reach

Marsh Harbor in the Abaco Islands.  Our exit from Georgetown was in such flat seas that we could see the bottom for the first daylight hours of passage.  When we were about 20 miles north, the engine abruptly stopped and we spent 2 hours drifting in 2-3 knots of wind while the guys tore apart the starboard aft berth to access the engine.  Many tries to restart failed until Rob blew the fuel line and received a gulp of diesel laced with Biospore, (that didn’t remedy the situation), but it gave them the intelligence to consider that  the clog might be before all the filters they replaced.  Here we are a good 200 miles up the line and maybe 30 engine hours later and all is well.    

Coming in to the Abacoes seemed to take forever.  The wind piped up to 20-23 kn.  at night  and gave us a crazy ride on day 2.  This was a few hours after watching sunset over placid waters:  sunset and moonrise simultaneously.  The water was so calm it was hard to distinguish a horizon line. 

Monday, May 24, 2010

Motored to Georgetown to fuel, water and provision. Of course it was a national holiday and stores were closed.; did manage to get fuel and water. Swam, snorkeled, and walked on

Stocking Island.

Sunday, May 23,2010

Sailed from Rum to Elizabeth Harbor in the Exuma Islands Georgetown (the winter capital of cruising boats in the

Bahamas) is very mellow now with about 40 boats in the harbor. Managed to dinghy to Chat n Chill for some dancing and beverages on the beach.. Felt good to finally be on the land again after a week on the boat. We anchored in hole #1 for  the night

Friday and Saturday, May 21-22, 2010

Sailed from French Cay to Rum Cay instead of stopping at Mayaguana to make up for a couple of lost days. It was mostly a motor sail with the main straight into the winds for an overnight arriving in Rum Cay in the late PM. Anchored, ate and all fell asleep by 8:30.;real party life! Had to change a fur=ell filter two hours before we arrived at Rum. Engine was starving for fuel. Crew from Texas Two step stopped by to invite us for dancing, but we s=were chasing down a non=working tachometer problems that we didn’t know how to converse with someone other than the four of us….

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Day 2 at French Cay:  Bill is ill with an intestinal bug so we decided to spend another day here.  Winds piped up to 20-30 knots over the night and into the morning along with rain.  The Jenneau  42 is upholding her reputation as being a “wet boat” (inside joke from our 1992 charter), as we discover leaks in overhead hatches.

Our plan is to get up early tomorrow and head out now that Bill is coming around and feeling more human.  We will make a run for Mayaguana Island in the Bahamas tomorrow. After the front passes the winds should lessen a bit. Then on to Rum Cay and to Georgetown

,Grand Exuma Island for fuel and water stops.  After that it is a matter of going up the chain of pristine islands and taking off over the Gulf Stream toward mainland US.

As we approached this tiny island two days ago we envisioned that we would be the only ones anchored in this extremely remote place, but as we got closer we discovered that we were one of six boats at anchor.  Yesterday all boats left us here.  One of the catamarans gave us a whole kit of fishing lures after we conversed with him on the VHF radio telling him that we lost our last fishing lure to King Neptune.  His boat name is Lady Luna, I believe, so we will ask other cruisers about contacting him to give proper thanks.

French Cay has a nature sanctuary established by the Turks and Caicos government so we are not alone today when counting heartbeats; there are thousands of birds swarming the island. We are visited by small sparrow like birds hanging on the lifelines and delicate dark brown seabirds (I think  Boobies?) that daringly dip within two feet of us with a call sounding like cat cries.  Birds arrange by species on the sandy beach looking as though they are on holiday sans cabanas and beach umbrellas.  

Wednesday May 19, 2010

Landed in French Cay of the Turks and Caicos Island group about 3:00PM.  It is nice to be on familiar shallow mid-ocean banks in the Turks + Caicos Islands which are directly south of the Bahamas with bright turquoise waters that are crystal clear when you look down.   We anchored in good holding sand and jumped in for a swim and saw some conch in the sea grass areas.  Wind for the passage was 10-30 with the higher winds near the end of our 3 day, 2 night round the clock adventure from PR.  We were going 6 knots with the jib alone but spent most of the journey with a single reef in the mainsail main and a full jib sail.  Dream catcher gave us a nice ride: not too heeled and cutting the swell and chop well.  We all are impressed with this boat’s performance.  French Cay is a small island in the middle of a sea of ocean on the edge of the Caicos Banks where the water goes for hundreds of feet deep to 12 feet. We anchor on the leeside of the island and are protected from the waves. The winds are blowing from 19 to 24 knots; a bit breezy. 

Monday May 17:

8:24 AM: Good sailing last night in winds 4-18 knots on the beam and then aft of beam.  Saw two ships paralleling us coming and going along the coast of the Dominican Republic .  In the early morning hours I saw a slowly approaching light that turned out to be another sailboat; we ran side by side for about an hour, then it crossed around our stern and sailed north.  Bill spotted it on the horizon and gave them a call.  It turned out to be a boat named Avalon 5 whose captain and first mate we very briefly conversed with in Boquerón PR the night before we left. 

9: 41 AM: Turning at South Rock: 

Southern most tip of the Turks and /Caico outlying islands.   Exciting to see the turquoise waters again and their reflection in the low lying clouds.  

Sunday May 16

4:12 PM: Approaching mid point of Mona Passage:  Caught and released two barracudas within 15 minutes.  Their teeth are as large as a small dog.  Had a bumpy dinner of beef stroganoff with flying salad that liked to blow off the plates—we forgot to buy big bowls for eating out of when in en-passage. 

Friday May 14,

Sailing from Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, currently in the southwest corner of Puerto Rico .  Tomorrow we will leave for Boquerón where, when the forecast is favorable, we will sail up the Mona Passage, past Dominican Republic toward the Turks and Caicos Islands and up the Bahamas Island chain.  Looks right now like the good wind and wave conditions will be either Sunday or Monday.  The passage should be three days long.  We will provision and plan a watch schedule. 

Puerto Rico is lush, mountainous and breathtaking.  Cities are along the coast in the flat areas; mountains in the central island are cloudy and misty.   Life in PR is simple but complicated with modern conveniences like Walmart and Home Depot in larger cities.  There is a middle class community in larger cities, but for the most part, homes are simple cement structures tucked in jungle foliage along a pot holed one lane road.  Villages are small with a grocery store, a bar/restaurant or two, a fishing pier, a dusty community park space.  The park in Salinas

had two horses grazing, unfettered and waiting for their owners to return from an outdoor gathering.   Very quiet and hot, wandering feral dogs and crowing roosters, and occasional friendly passersby who know we are visitors.

May 9, Sunday

Landed a Bonita Tuna while we were underway from Culebra to Puerto Rico .   The fish caught us unaware and in the chaos of fetching rum to kill him, he flipped off the transom deck.  We are passing Isla Vieques and heading for Salinas Puerto Rico for a dock to receive and install a new anchor windlass for the boat: the current one is unpredictable and makes successful anchoring chancy. 

May 7, Thursday

The best coral reef I have seen!!  Fan corals are thickly growing, and brilliant with color.  We are in Culebra, a large island just east of

Puerto Rico

, mountainous, sparsely populated with beautiful beaches.  This reef was along the beach, about 50 feet out.  I was amazed.  We spent lots of time watching colorful fish dart in and out of the fern, brain, and elk horn corals while swimming in 85 degree water temps.  The PR Department of Natural Resources installed first come mooring balls around the island and harbors. Makes for a safe night sleep.

May 4-6

We had a few days of familiarization and provisioning with Dream Catcher, the boat and her owner, “Uncle Ed”, my sister-in-law’s uncle; he is a kind and generous man and a delight to spend time with.  Dream Catcher will be transported by our friends (Captain) Bill and Laura along with Rob and me as crew, to

Washington NC

. The boat has spent a strenuous ten years in two

Caribbean

sailboat charter businesses.  For Rob and me, crewing will give us the chance to experience new parts of the

Caribbean

than the three charter trips we took some 10-15 years ago.  Bill and Laura sailed this route three years ago and they are anxious to share with us some of their favorite anchorages and snorkeling spots. 

PASSAGE ON DREAM CATCHER: A Junneau 42 sailboat delivery from Tortola BVI to Washington NC

 Tuesday June 1

We’re on the ICW road now and because of thunderstorm and tornado warnings we decided to travel in shore.  Radar shows the storms are moving northeast—in our direction but so far all we see is distant thunder and lightning, no funnel clouds.

We got into Charleston at 5:30 PM: fueled, watered and found a dock.  We ate out in the city last night and did some window shopping.  Rob and I met some nice hotel guest folks, Mark and Terry, on our marina shuttle bus ride back. They offered us a ride to the local West Marine store in the AM so that we could buy a starboard running light.  It is a little unnerving to find out you are missing a navigation light when you are out in the Gulf Stream with all the night traffic.  Actually there was little traffic so we were lucky. 

Sunday-Monday May 29- 30

Seas and wind abated, we have a mainsail out supplemented with motoring at 2500 rpm. The Charleston breakwater is 25 miles ahead so we will make harbor before sundown. We will enjoy the Charleston Harbor Marina for the night….on solid ground, with hot and running showers, laundry, some internet catch up and maybe a meal out…a nice reward considering the seasickness I had during the last 3 days in passage.

This afternoon and evening we didn’t enjoy the +-30kt winds and lumpy, with confused seas up to 8’; a bit rough on the stomachs.  Things died later giving us a cloudy and sometimes moonlit night with winds from behind. We motored sailed toward Charleston, SC.

We sailed and motored across the shallow banks north of Great and Little Abaco Islands into the Gulf Stream last night. Wind and seas slowly built even though the forecast said light and variable. On the 2-5AM watch we were surrounded by spectacular thunder storms with lightning in three directions. We were sure we would be engulfed in one of the storms, but it dissipated before it reached us, a welcome relief. Winds picked up from the east and we are on a starboard reach doing between 9-10 knots in the stream. If we can keep this up we’ll be in Charleston by tomorrow afternoon.

Saturday May 29

Heading across the Gulf Stream  Weather is clear and winds are calm.  The engine is behaving and we think we have all the fuel filters it will take to remediate the fuel starvation issues.  Four days and three nights should get us to Charleston , and then we will do the ICW to NC.  At least that’s the plan right now.  We stocked the boat with plenty of food; Laura is a great cook, I mostly brainstorm the menu and act as her Sue-chef.  She is right on top of the next meal with prep especially in anticipation of any roily seas ahead that make prep difficult. 

We anchored at Allans-Pensacola Cays with only two other boats in the anchorage for the night. We did a little snorkeling, beach walking and swimming. It was great to swim upcurrent between a couple of small cays and drift back down current. We saw some mutton head snappers, barracudas and almost stepped on a large ray as we pulled up to the beach. The rays like to bury themselves in the sand.

The last time Rob and I came to the Abacoes we hustled into the cut and hunkered down out of 20 kn of easterlies and we didn’t stop to enjoy the cays that surround Abaco Island

.  This time the weather was wonderful and we enjoyed anchoring in these quiet outer islets.  How wonderful and peaceful.  We will surely make a Mandate visit to Abaco in the spring and spend more time out island rather than in Marsh Harbor.  

 Time flies!  We did an overnight and two long days to reach

Marsh Harbor in the Abaco Islands.  Our exit from Georgetown was in such flat seas that we could see the bottom for the first daylight hours of passage.  When we were about 20 miles north, the engine abruptly stopped and we spent 2 hours drifting in 2-3 knots of wind while the guys tore apart the starboard aft berth to access the engine.  Many tries to restart failed until Rob blew the fuel line and received a gulp of diesel laced with Biospore, (that didn’t remedy the situation), but it gave them the intelligence to consider that  the clog might be before all the filters they replaced.  Here we are a good 200 miles up the line and maybe 30 engine hours later and all is well.    

Coming in to the Abacoes seemed to take forever.  The wind piped up to 20-23 kn.  at night  and gave us a crazy ride on day 2.  This was a few hours after watching sunset over placid waters:  sunset and moonrise simultaneously.  The water was so calm it was hard to distinguish a horizon line. 

Monday, May 24, 2010

Motored to Georgetown to fuel, water and provision. Of course it was a national holiday and stores were closed.; did manage to get fuel and water. Swam, snorkeled, and walked on

Stocking Island.

Sunday, May 23,2010

Sailed from Rum to Elizabeth Harbor in the Exuma Islands Georgetown (the winter capital of cruising boats in the

Bahamas) is very mellow now with about 40 boats in the harbor. Managed to dinghy to Chat n Chill for some dancing and beverages on the beach.. Felt good to finally be on the land again after a week on the boat. We anchored in hole #1 for  the night

Friday and Saturday, May 21-22, 2010

Sailed from French Cay to Rum Cay instead of stopping at Mayaguana to make up for a couple of lost days. It was mostly a motor sail with the main straight into the winds for an overnight arriving in Rum Cay in the late PM. Anchored, ate and all fell asleep by 8:30.;real party life! Had to change a fur=ell filter two hours before we arrived at Rum. Engine was starving for fuel. Crew from Texas Two step stopped by to invite us for dancing, but we s=were chasing down a non=working tachometer problems that we didn’t know how to converse with someone other than the four of us….

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Day 2 at French Cay:  Bill is ill with an intestinal bug so we decided to spend another day here.  Winds piped up to 20-30 knots over the night and into the morning along with rain.  The Jenneau  42 is upholding her reputation as being a “wet boat” (inside joke from our 1992 charter), as we discover leaks in overhead hatches.

Our plan is to get up early tomorrow and head out now that Bill is coming around and feeling more human.  We will make a run for Mayaguana Island in the Bahamas tomorrow. After the front passes the winds should lessen a bit. Then on to Rum Cay and to Georgetown, Grand Exuma Island for fuel and water stops.  After that it is a matter of going up the chain of pristine islands and taking off over the Gulf Stream toward mainland US.

As we approached this tiny island two days ago we envisioned that we would be the only ones anchored in this extremely remote place, but as we got closer we discovered that we were one of six boats at anchor.  Yesterday all boats left us here.  One of the catamarans gave us a whole kit of fishing lures after we conversed with him on the VHF radio telling him that we lost our last fishing lure to King Neptune.  His boat name is Lady Luna, I believe, so we will ask other cruisers about contacting him to give proper thanks.

French Cay has a nature sanctuary established by the Turks and Caicos government so we are not alone today when counting heartbeats; there are thousands of birds swarming the island. We are visited by small sparrow like birds hanging on the lifelines and delicate dark brown seabirds (I think  Boobies?) that daringly dip within two feet of us with a call sounding like cat cries.  Birds arrange by species on the sandy beach looking as though they are on holiday sans cabanas and beach umbrellas.  

Wednesday May 19, 2010

Landed in French Cay of the Turks and Caicos Island group about 3:00PM.  It is nice to be on familiar shallow mid-ocean banks in the Turks + Caicos Islands which are directly south of the Bahamas with bright turquoise waters that are crystal clear when you look down.   We anchored in good holding sand and jumped in for a swim and saw some conch in the sea grass areas.  Wind for the passage was 10-30 with the higher winds near the end of our 3 day, 2 night round the clock adventure from PR.  We were going 6 knots with the jib alone but spent most of the journey with a single reef in the mainsail main and a full jib sail.  Dream catcher gave us a nice ride: not too heeled and cutting the swell and chop well.  We all are impressed with this boat’s performance.  French Cay is a small island in the middle of a sea of ocean on the edge of the Caicos Banks where the water goes for hundreds of feet deep to 12 feet. We anchor on the leeside of the island and are protected from the waves. The winds are blowing from 19 to 24 knots; a bit breezy. 

Monday May 17:

8:24 AM: Good sailing last night in winds 4-18 knots on the beam and then aft of beam.  Saw two ships paralleling us coming and going along the coast of the Dominican Republic .  In the early morning hours I saw a slowly approaching light that turned out to be another sailboat; we ran side by side for about an hour, then it crossed around our stern and sailed north.  Bill spotted it on the horizon and gave them a call.  It turned out to be a boat named Avalon 5 whose captain and first mate we very briefly conversed with in Boquerón PR the night before we left. 

9: 41 AM: Turning at South Rock: 

Southern most tip of the Turks and /Caico outlying islands.   Exciting to see the turquoise waters again and their reflection in the low lying clouds.  

Sunday May 16

4:12 PM: Approaching mid point of Mona Passage:  Caught and released two barracudas within 15 minutes.  Their teeth are as large as a small dog.  Had a bumpy dinner of beef stroganoff with flying salad that liked to blow off the plates—we forgot to buy big bowls for eating out of when in en-passage. 

Friday May 14,

Sailing from Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, currently in the southwest corner of Puerto Rico .  Tomorrow we will leave for Boquerón where, when the forecast is favorable, we will sail up the Mona Passage, past Dominican Republic toward the Turks and Caicos Islands and up the Bahamas Island chain.  Looks right now like the good wind and wave conditions will be either Sunday or Monday.  The passage should be three days long.  We will provision and plan a watch schedule. 

Puerto Rico is lush, mountainous and breathtaking.  Cities are along the coast in the flat areas; mountains in the central island are cloudy and misty.   Life in PR is simple but complicated with modern conveniences like Walmart and Home Depot in larger cities.  There is a middle class community in larger cities, but for the most part, homes are simple cement structures tucked in jungle foliage along a pot holed one lane road.  Villages are small with a grocery store, a bar/restaurant or two, a fishing pier, a dusty community park space.  The park in Salinas

had two horses grazing, unfettered and waiting for their owners to return from an outdoor gathering.   Very quiet and hot, wandering feral dogs and crowing roosters, and occasional friendly passersby who know we are visitors.

May 9, Sunday

Landed a Bonita Tuna while we were underway from Culebra to Puerto Rico .   The fish caught us unaware and in the chaos of fetching rum to kill him, he flipped off the transom deck.  We are passing Isla Vieques and heading for Salinas Puerto Rico for a dock to receive and install a new anchor windlass for the boat: the current one is unpredictable and makes successful anchoring chancy. 

May 7, Thursday

The best coral reef I have seen!!  Fan corals are thickly growing, and brilliant with color.  We are in Culebra, a large island just east of Puerto Rico, mountainous, sparsely populated with beautiful beaches.  This reef was along the beach, about 50 feet out.  I was amazed.  We spent lots of time watching colorful fish dart in and out of the fern, brain, and elk horn corals while swimming in 85 degree water temps.  The PR Department of Natural Resources installed first come mooring balls around the island and harbors. Makes for a safe night sleep.

 May 4-6

We had a few days of familiarization and provisioning with Dream Catcher, the boat and her owner, “Uncle Ed”, my sister-in-law’s uncle; he is a kind and generous man and a delight to spend time with.  Dream Catcher will be transported by our friends (Captain) Bill and Laura along with Rob and me as crew, to Washington NC. The boat has spent a strenuous ten years in two Caribbean sailboat charter businesses.  For Rob and me, crewing will give us the chance to experience new parts of the Caribbean than the three charter trips we took some 10-15 years ago.  Bill and Laura sailed this route three years ago and they are anxious to share with us some of their favorite anchorages and snorkeling spots.