San~San Adventures

Thursday, March 8^th, 2007

7 pm our time, 6 yours. Just sailed into an anchorage for the night. Did 10 hour today and only made about 25 miles toward destination, Salinas. We probably tacked about 70 miles, we were flying. I was not ready to add this yet but we have Internet here and I am never sure when we will again so here it is. Have tons more to say but will try to get it out from Salinas in a day or two.

Tuesday, March 6^th 2007

Well we made it to Puerto Rico. Much sooner then planned. I figured we would average 4 knots over approx 250 miles. Well we could not sail because we could not make the wind on our nose work. We motored and back winded the main which kept us from rolling all over the place, helped stiffen things up. We averaged just over 6 knots and arrived here 10 hour ahead of schedule but we burned 40 gallons of fuel pushing through the seas and against the wind. Fuel has averaged around 4-5 dollars US per gallon so that will hurt tomorrow when we get fuel.

We left Luperon Harbor at about 6pm on Sunday the 4^th. Beat through the night with about 3-5 foot seas the occasional 6 footer or so, winds blew about 22 and gusted to 28 many times and like I said, right on our nose. Arrived in Escondido, Dominican Republic at about 2:30 on Monday afternoon. Weezy thank you for the recommendation, unfortunately we only were about to stay long enough to get a bath eat some early dinner and catch an hour nap and off we went.

Escondido, this is it. The pictures once again just don’t capture what this place has to offer. I felt like I was in the South Pacific the 2500 foot mountains that drop right into the ocean straight down. The two beaches had coconut palms and caves. I am so excited to go back and actually spend some time there. We anchored and let the anchor back so we were 300 feet from the beach. Next time we will get closer. You can sail 30 feet from the cliffs in 40 foot of water. Next time we are here I will get better photos.

Sadly we did have to leave, about 6:30 we hit the sea again, much calmer this time. Again motoring with the main sail back winded. With the wind on our nose the way it was we could not use James so we had to hand steer the entire way, almost 45 hours. Fortunately the boat is a very good sailer and is well balanced so we could lock the wheel and only had to make minor adjustment every half hour or so. Still LONG nights. Tonight is a much deserved nights sleep. We made a big plate of pasta and some garlic bread to ensure we would pass out.

Tomorrow morning we will get the dinghy off of the deck and into the water and go to clear customs. Then off to Salinas by way of La Parguera, and Ponce.

Wednesday, March 7^th, 2007

Sailing, government, never try to make plans. Slept in this morning, felt great. Got up got moving around, went in to clear customs. Well the guard says, customs is busy you will have to come back at 11:00 and look for me I will see if they are free yet. First plan change. So off we go walking around before we have cleared in. We found a great little place to have lunch then we find a place called “Customs House” we go in and clear customs afterward the man tell us to go back to the other place for immigration and agriculture. We show up the guard is gone and we wonder in anyways. The guy looks at our passports and and takes some info and tells us to go to the customs house we tell him we have been there already he says okay your done. So I had to ask, what reason do we do both of these and he tells me no real reason but he is not going to complain he needs a job. I thought that was great. All that amounted to about 5 hours of wondering around. So much for an early departure. Finally we get out to the boat and are ready to pull up the anchor, up no problem we have the sails out and the motor to get out of the anchorage. The wind picks up a bite after we get away from the land and the motor dies. By now there is a bit of chop and the wind is howling pretty good so we are going to have to find an anchorage on the coast that we can sail into and get anchored with out the motor. Boqueron looks good, we barely make it in at dawn. Out come the tools and in we go. It seems that there is nothing wrong with the engine at all except that it needs fuel to run. Hmmmm who would have thought that an almost empty tank of fuel would be a problem on a boat heeling over 35 to 40 degrees. Good news is there is a fuel dock about 1000 feet ahead of us in the anchorage. We will visit them and take off in the morning.

It’s the little things that make this trip interesting. We learn new things every day. As I am putting the engine compartment together a Jimmy Buffet song came on and summed it up just perfect, “Just another shitty day in paradise”