San~San Adventures

*Thursday we cast off the dock lines at about 10:30 am, heading out into the wild blue yonder. We, Jenn and I, both got sick. I was tired of being in the cockpit so I went below decks to my berth and found a comfy place to conk out. When I awoke we were anchoring in Salinas, finally. A very well protected anchorage, it resembles Boot Key Harbour, Marathon, Florida; several live aboard boats in the harbor surrounded by mangroves. Marina De Salinas and several waterfront homes with docks crowded by assorted water toys (boats). Since it was a long and strenuous day at sea GR made pasta, we ate and called it a night.

*Friday morning we woke up and casually set up Winny, the wind generator and covered the sails. After we were finished we noticed a boat just behind us, the man on the bow was trying to raise the head sail by himself. GR and Nate decided to go help after watching the poor guy go round for round in a losing battle. In minutes GR was up the guy’s mast helping him fix his roller furling. Later, GR told us while he was up there he saw 2 manatees! About an hour later the boys were back with stories and a boat card, Tom aboard s/v Rock ‘n Roll, is single-handing back to Cancun. His wife Chris was here until just about 3 days ago, they have sailed from from Florida to Tobago and are now heading back. We needed to get to the nearest Marine store, Larry’s Playa Marina, for a mizzen boom block that broke on our journey. The marina is actually over a mile outside of Salinas proper, but there are several shops within easy walking distance. A Bar-B-Q was happening around 5 pm in the marina and we all decided it was the place to be on a Friday night in Salinas PR. Drinks were cheap and the food was perfect!

*Saturday morning, we planned to do laundry to no avail as the laundry was totally gridlocked. Jenn and I went for a run, just about 3 miles. Along the way we saw the actual heart of the town including a Texaco, Post Office, Gym, Car Rental and a large grocery store conveniently named Grande. Salinas is famous amongst Puerto Ricans for its cockfights, which are legal in Puerto Rico. Jogging down the street we saw many homes have rows of cages with cocks in pens. The town is bursting with brightly painted homes and beautiful plants and flowers growing through the gates. Several stray dogs lay right in the middle of the road. Not much traffic on the roads and everyone was happy to give a wave and say Buenos Dias! The marina where we dinghy into has a great pool. So Jenn and I had no problem jumping right in the pool to cool off after our run. It was 80 degrees at about 10 am this morning! We all met up and had lunch at a little Bakery down the street, delicious Cubano sandwiches(lunch meat on Cuban bread). The flavor in this town was more friendly and family oriented than many of the Bahamas. The sense of love in the community is felt all around. Can’t wait to see the beautiful beaches of Culebra!

A Little History

Isla De Culebra

Sir Henry Morgan and other pirates allegedly used this island as a hideout and legend has it that some of their booty is still buried there! Culebra means Snake in Spanish and the name describes the shape of the island, 7 miles long by 3 miles wide. 2,800 acres of Culebra and her surrounding islets are designated as part of the U.S. National Refuge System. Little development here provides a sanctuary for indigenous plants and animals.

Never made it to Culebra!

*Beginning on Saturday, March 17^th. Saturday night we left the calm harbor off Salinas and made our way to completely, uncomfortable, rolling Media Luna Reef to stage before our midnight departure to St. Thomas, shaved about an hour off our time. Ate dinner and planned to sleep from 8p- 12a before our watch from 12a – 3a, when we would be relieved by Jenn and Nate. Hardly slept a wink before it was time to get up and raised the main, pulled up the anchor and set sail. Weather was as predicted a cool 10 knots with 3 – 4 ft. seas. Once daylight broke it was on and off overcast and warm breezes, wind on our nose pretty much the whole way and motored for mostly all 60 miles. Originally we were heading to Culebra but we fear we may be lagging behind a bit much in our time schedule and decided we wanted to get to the Virgin Islands as soon as possible and why stop to anchor eat and sleep just to get up and do it all again in a couple hours anyway, no one got sick so we took off for St. Thomas. Highpoints of our trip were several Barracuda caught on the line, non of which our edible so if anyone was tracking us they just have to follow the trail of dead ‘cuda. We did however catch 2 King Mackerel which are GREAT eating. Jenn and Nate took care of the slicing and dicing.

Arrived in Charlotte Amalie(named after a Danish Queen) anchorage on Sunday evening around 5p, toasted to our hard work with wine and bean dip!

*Monday morning March 18^th. The mountains here are peppered with homes that boast 360 degree views, they look dangerously carved into the cliffs. At least 12 Cruise ships a week come through this major seaport and drop off guests to shop at duty free prices so the town is crawling with jewelry stores, T-shirts, knick-knack stores and restaurants. The town still has many original Danish buildings, stone alleys and historical sights. We toured the second oldest synagogue in the United States inside it had sand floors which replicated the olden times when Jews needed to worship in secret, the sand keeps their voices from carrying. Some of the sights we toured included Bluebeard’s and Black beard’s Castles as well as the Fort Christian, climbed the 99 steps supposedly made of brick ballast from old pirate ships, the Britannia house; an original 1800 home constructed of Dade county pine built by wealthy French refugees from Haiti then it was owned by British Government hence the name.

*Tuesday morning March 19^th. Gia caught her first fish bright and early at 7:30 am an 18 inch Red Snapper. I also cleaned my first fish. When she first cast I went down below because usually she just flings the pole around until it gets caught in the anchor chain. Well I wasn’t even in the companion way and she was screaming that she had a fish and her pole looked as if it was going to snap. I jumped up and told her to reel him in it took some fight but she did it all by herself she was so excited. So she also ate her first fish for dinner last night complete with her own choice of seasonings, Creole extra spicy! She loves that spicy stuff!

Trade winds are cranking so Winny is keeping our batteries at 12.8 volts or better even with everything running! We left the boat open today for the first time since there is a drought in the area we didn’t even think about rain, but of course during lunch today the old flood gates opened up for about an hour! We ate lunch and moaned about how sad we were about our wet San~San! We took a 2 hour island tour by way of Chevy truck with 3 rows of seating in the bed. Maggie our tour guide explained all the areas and interesting facts but it was so much I don’t think I could regurgitate that much info in one entry! There would be more pictures but to our dismay our camera broke just minutes before the tour began, needless to say we bought another camera today thanks to duty free shopping!

*Thursday, March 22^nd. Moved anchorage to Christmas Cove catty corner from St. Thomas and just a hop skip to St. John. Local claims to have good snorkeling, I didn’t see anything extraordinary though. Very calm compared to Charlotte Amalie! We’ll sleep good tonight! Dinghy across about a mile to St. Thomas Yacht Club to inquire about the Rolex Regatta that starts on Friday. Of course the location of the races are top secret because they don’t want any sailors to have a leg up but we know that at least one of them will be right in front of where we are anchored. After a stop at the Yacht Club we were off to the next bay to find a Marine store with a block for our mizzen mast and some charts of the Leewards and the Windwards. About $400 later we have successfully stocked San~San with all the charts we need to go to Grenada and back. WE ARE SO EXCITED!

Lunch - For lunch we found this awesome little tiki bar & restaurant called Duffy’s Love Shack(duffysloveshack.com), When you walk in you get laced with necklaces and cool drinks like the Shark Tank that is a BIG fishbowl full of liquor complete with extra huge straws and rubber sharks! We ordered burgers that were the best we have had in months. Truly I was stuffed and didn’t eat anything else all day or night. I recommend it to everyone! We skipped on the super huge mixed drinks and stick to beers, we’d have never left! HA! Anyhow, We met these great kids that worked on a cruise ship as entertainers and I could tell it was definatly there passion because hey wee entertaining us with out even trying, singing along to all the great tunes Duffy’s played. And like only Gia can she made fast friends and we took pictures and wish them all the best of luck on there life adventures!

*Friday morning March 23. Ate breakfast a St. Thomas Yacht Club, complimentary yogurt, apples, oranges and bagels, pastries, croissants, cereal, coffee and oj, delicious! All around the energy is flowing. At the front lobby an information desk has been set up, a message board with several small scraps of brightly colored paper scream WILL CREW FOR RUM OR NAKED LADIES! Another bulletin board lists the various names and classes of each race. A booth has been set up to sell Rolex Regatta merchandise, all colors & sizes of t-shirts & hats. Along the beach Hobie cats are being prepped and officials are leaving to set the marks of the course. After our indulgent complimentary meal we pile into the dinghy and make the trek across to San~San.

Christmas Cove has provided many sleep filled nights and pleasurable snorkeling & swimming right off the boat. Once back at the boat we receive an invitation to dine on Ooh-la-la with Captain Pete & Barbara. 11:30 am on Ooh-la-la Barbara introduces us to a new drink like a White Sangria. Recipe calls for Sprite, a bottle of champagne, brandy, orange, lime and splash of cranberry. Delicious! The perfect view of the races was complimented by the VHF radio on channel 72 where contenders and officials communicate injuries and false starts. So over cocktails we enjoyed the regatta as well as Pete’s fine collection of music including steel drums, Spanish guitar and classics like “At Last” by Etta James over a delectable lunch of grilled King Mackerel and spinach salad! Do we feel like royalty or what!

After lunch G and I swam over to a secluded beach to find not sand but a collection of large and small dark colored rocks. Green and black stones peppered the shoreline, I notices they were rather hot and similar to the ones used in Hot Stone massages. So I plopped right down in them and G covered me from neck to toes ! What an awesome experience I think I found my new “happy place”!

Later the night, at the Yacht Club all the sailors(including us) were getting free drink tickets courtesy of Patron (a very expensive tequila). At the merchandise booth I splurge on some items for us. Next on a big screen played the highlights of each race. It was a hoot to see all the teams cheering an jeering one another. To top off the night we danced away all our worries and cares to the Ah We Band complete with trumpet, trombone and 2 vocalists! Life IS Good!

*Sunday morning 6 am. Make ready for sail to St. Croix 34 miles with James our steering wind vane, like an auto-pilot that uses no power. A terrific day full of sunshine and no need to trim the sails made us all fall asleep and get sunburn. Boo! We pulled into St. Croix Marine for fuel and tied up for the night. It was so nice to turn on the a/c after a long hot day. Also the bar was just a hop skip for the dock and a nice cold beer topped off the day!