On the 7th day of Andrew and Doug’s visit, we sailed down wind to the western side of Culebra. Someone in town had told us about the bongo band that plays every Saturday at the waterfront bar beginning at 9:00pm. We tied up to one of the mooring balls and waited for nighttime. One really nice thing about Culebra is that most anchorages have moorings, a welcome relief to us because the windlass is on the fritz. One of the gears is stripped, so someone has to pull up the chain by hand every time we leave an anchorage. This gear is not something you’ll find lying around on the back shelf of a chandlery. I had custom ordered it and replaced it three years ago, so I knew what the problem was when the windlass quit working. I guess a year and a half of cruising did it in.
I searched the onboard files for the receipt and actually found it. I called up the company in Daytona Beach, Miller Bearings, to order a new gear. The gentleman who answered the phone searched for the specifications by the order number I had on my receipt. Then he asked for my name. When I told him, he asked if my wife’s name is Susan. “Yes, it is” I replied wondering how in the world he could know that. “I’m Gerad” he said, “I rent your house from you.”
A new family moved in to the beach house in the end of November. Andrew had made all the arrangements with them, so I had never even spoken with them on the phone. What are the odds that he was the one who took my call about the gear???? Gerad was terrific. He found a supplier that can make a new gear within a week or so. In the interim, we’ll be searching for mooring balls or be pulling the chain by hand.
The bongo band had the bar jam packed and hopping. We listened until about 11:00pm then headed back to the Adamo to get a good night’s sleep before our sail back to Puerto Rico Sunday morning. The forecast was for the wind to die down early in the week. It had been blowing 30 knots for days. We wanted to time our crossing so that we would have some wind, but not too much. This time everything worked out and we sailed west in 20 knots of following winds and 4 to 5 foot seas.
The boys had a week left before they had to fly back home for school. We didn’t have a solid plan yet, but we knew that we could rent a car from most anywhere in Puerto Rico to get them to the airport on January 3rd. Our first stop was Puerto de Naguabo at Hucares, a small town on the Southeast side of the island. Along the waterfront a strip of 20 or so rustic bars were brimming over with people trying to squeeze in every last bit of the weekend before returning back to work on Monday morning. Street-front vendors were cooking chicken kabobs on barbeque grills while blaring Latin music set a festive tone.
After a very rolley night at anchor, Phil and I went exploring while the rest of the crew slept in. There are several rivers that empty into the bay. We found one that was navigable and followed it inland for about 3 miles where the river opened up into a large brackish lake surrounded by mangroves for as far as the eye could see. Iguanas had begun their morning sunning ritual dotting the mangrove branches with their spiky green and orange bodies. Fish were splashing everywhere and Phil tried his hardest to get one in the dinghy to no avail.
As we headed back out of the river into the bay we spotted Cayo Santiago, a small island inhabited by thousands of monkeys. On the way down-island last year, we had anchored there for a night. It is prohibited to go onto the island, but our dinghy got us within 20 feet to watch all the monkey business on the rocky shore.
When we returned to the Adamo, the rest of the crew was up and ready to go. Sue had cooked pancakes and was ready to get out of the rolly anchorage. The bridle we had set the night before to minimize the rolling was no longer working because the wind had stopped and the Adamo was sitting beam-to the large swells entering the anchorage. After a very quick breakfast, the boys pulled up the anchor chain and we were on our way. We motored for the first few hours, waiting for the tradewinds to pick up. By noon the wind had increased and we were sailing in 2-foot seas on the lee side of the island heading for Salinas. Beautiful!
Salinas has a very protected bay, a welcome relief for the crew after the rolliness from the night before. Many cruisers hunker down for hurricane season in Salinas, as our friend Chris on Christa did. The entrance of the bay is completely surrounded by mangroves. Once inside, marinas, homes and restaurants line the shore. With the end of hurricane season, the bay empties out notwithstanding local boats and a few cruisers who have given up the sailing part of cruising and have resigned themselves to simply living on a boat moored in one spot.
We motored around the bay for a while and found a good anchoring place right in the middle. The boys dropped the hook and our sailing day was over. The next morning, while the wind was calm, I wanted to put up the headsail we had repaired in Marina del Rey. At 8:30 a.m. we began the process of changing out the sail. It was another trip up the mast for me to align the track on the roller furling. What a pain that thing has become. When we return stateside it will be coming down to be re-machined and aligned. In the meantime, changing out the headsail will have to be a slow, arduous process.
By 11:00 a.m. the old sail was down, and the repaired sail was lying on deck ready to be hoisted. We tried raising it, but the wind had picked up and the slides kept getting jammed. So the plan was, wait until the next morning and hope for calm winds again.
The boys decided they would take out the dug-out canoe. As you can see from the pictures, things did not go as hoped.
I searched the onboard files for the receipt and actually found it. I called up the company in Daytona Beach, Miller Bearings, to order a new gear. The gentleman who answered the phone searched for the specifications by the order number I had on my receipt. Then he asked for my name. When I told him, he asked if my wife’s name is Susan. “Yes, it is” I replied wondering how in the world he could know that. “I’m Gerad” he said, “I rent your house from you.”
A new family moved in to the beach house in the end of November. Andrew had made all the arrangements with them, so I had never even spoken with them on the phone. What are the odds that he was the one who took my call about the gear???? Gerad was terrific. He found a supplier that can make a new gear within a week or so. In the interim, we’ll be searching for mooring balls or be pulling the chain by hand.
The bongo band had the bar jam packed and hopping. We listened until about 11:00pm then headed back to the Adamo to get a good night’s sleep before our sail back to Puerto Rico Sunday morning. The forecast was for the wind to die down early in the week. It had been blowing 30 knots for days. We wanted to time our crossing so that we would have some wind, but not too much. This time everything worked out and we sailed west in 20 knots of following winds and 4 to 5 foot seas.
The boys had a week left before they had to fly back home for school. We didn’t have a solid plan yet, but we knew that we could rent a car from most anywhere in Puerto Rico to get them to the airport on January 3rd. Our first stop was Puerto de Naguabo at Hucares, a small town on the Southeast side of the island. Along the waterfront a strip of 20 or so rustic bars were brimming over with people trying to squeeze in every last bit of the weekend before returning back to work on Monday morning. Street-front vendors were cooking chicken kabobs on barbeque grills while blaring Latin music set a festive tone.
After a very rolley night at anchor, Phil and I went exploring while the rest of the crew slept in. There are several rivers that empty into the bay. We found one that was navigable and followed it inland for about 3 miles where the river opened up into a large brackish lake surrounded by mangroves for as far as the eye could see. Iguanas had begun their morning sunning ritual dotting the mangrove branches with their spiky green and orange bodies. Fish were splashing everywhere and Phil tried his hardest to get one in the dinghy to no avail.
As we headed back out of the river into the bay we spotted Cayo Santiago, a small island inhabited by thousands of monkeys. On the way down-island last year, we had anchored there for a night. It is prohibited to go onto the island, but our dinghy got us within 20 feet to watch all the monkey business on the rocky shore.
When we returned to the Adamo, the rest of the crew was up and ready to go. Sue had cooked pancakes and was ready to get out of the rolly anchorage. The bridle we had set the night before to minimize the rolling was no longer working because the wind had stopped and the Adamo was sitting beam-to the large swells entering the anchorage. After a very quick breakfast, the boys pulled up the anchor chain and we were on our way. We motored for the first few hours, waiting for the tradewinds to pick up. By noon the wind had increased and we were sailing in 2-foot seas on the lee side of the island heading for Salinas. Beautiful!
Salinas has a very protected bay, a welcome relief for the crew after the rolliness from the night before. Many cruisers hunker down for hurricane season in Salinas, as our friend Chris on Christa did. The entrance of the bay is completely surrounded by mangroves. Once inside, marinas, homes and restaurants line the shore. With the end of hurricane season, the bay empties out notwithstanding local boats and a few cruisers who have given up the sailing part of cruising and have resigned themselves to simply living on a boat moored in one spot.
We motored around the bay for a while and found a good anchoring place right in the middle. The boys dropped the hook and our sailing day was over. The next morning, while the wind was calm, I wanted to put up the headsail we had repaired in Marina del Rey. At 8:30 a.m. we began the process of changing out the sail. It was another trip up the mast for me to align the track on the roller furling. What a pain that thing has become. When we return stateside it will be coming down to be re-machined and aligned. In the meantime, changing out the headsail will have to be a slow, arduous process.
By 11:00 a.m. the old sail was down, and the repaired sail was lying on deck ready to be hoisted. We tried raising it, but the wind had picked up and the slides kept getting jammed. So the plan was, wait until the next morning and hope for calm winds again.
The boys decided they would take out the dug-out canoe. As you can see from the pictures, things did not go as hoped.
Doug did finally get the hang of it when he got the chance to go on it alone. By the end of the trip he was looking like a native!
That evening we went to dinner to get a break from cooking and doing dishes aboard. We wondered around town looking for the ideal place. We found a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant that served tacos and other local fair, and sat down at one of the small tables outside. The waitress took our drink order and gave us the menus. The prices were surprisingly really high. Then came the mosquitoes. “Abort, abort! Let’s go somewhere else.” The waitress only spoke Spanish. Poor Andrew had to explain to her that we were going to be eating somewhere else. He was not a happy camper.
After a hasty but not so smooth exit, we went back to the dinghy to try one of the restaurants on the other side of the bay. Phil, Doug and Sue ordered steaks cooked rare. When the steaks came out they were charged and dry. Andrew and I got a very fishy tasting, deep-fried seafood turnover. It was official; we had just had the worst meal of the trip. We should have braved the mosquitoes at the hole-in-the-wall place.
The next morning, in calm winds, we gave the head sail another try. It went up without a hitch and we were out of there. Salinas was not our favorite destination. We were off to Ponce.
The wind was almost non-existent as we motored west along the coast. We knew we needed to refuel in Ponce and refill our water tanks as well. It occurred to me that it was New Year’s Eve and that the marina might close early. We called ahead, and sure enough they were closing at 12:00pm for two days. Our ETA was 1:00pm. Here’s the surprising part. They kept the fuel dock open just for us until 1:30. We were thankful and very appreciative. We have found that the people in Puerto Rico are extremely helpful, friendly and welcoming. They take pride in their island and culture, and wish to share it with visitors. It reminded us of Grenada, Dominica and Anguilla.
While in port we checked emails and the weather forecast before setting out for Gilligan’s Island. We arrived just after sunset and gingerly entered among the coral reefs in poor lighting. We were all beat so after couple of games of Scattegories we wished each other a Happy New Year and went to bed early.
As the morning sun illuminated the bay, the beauty of the surrounding mangrove islands came to light. Phil and I motored around the bay between mangroves on the dinghy. You can see a pattern developing. The big boys slept-in again while we checked out the anchorage. Gilligan’s Island looks very much like one of the Florida Keys, where clear ocean water flows through shallow creeks between the mangrove roots.
There was no rest for the weary though. We had one more sail to go to reach Boqueron. On our way down last year, we rounded the south tip of Puerto Rico in the dark at 3:00am and had bypassed the Western end of the island altogether. We had heard from other cruisers that Boqueron is a great place and wanted to see it together with the kids.
We motored on a calm glassy ocean for hours before a puff of wind finally began to blow. Arriving in Boqueron by 3:00pm we were happy to be able to drop the hook for an extended period of time, or so we thought. Everyone but Doug wanted to go to shore to checkout the town. We took the dinghy in to find a small water-front area of town that had been cordoned off and was full of people celebrating New Years Day. Street vendors were selling shucked oysters and fresh clams. The smell of chicken on the grill filled the air. Souvenir shops and bars were spilling people into the street and the ubiquitous beat of Latin music pulsed in the background.
As the morning sun illuminated the bay, the beauty of the surrounding mangrove islands came to light. Phil and I motored around the bay between mangroves on the dinghy. You can see a pattern developing. The big boys slept-in again while we checked out the anchorage. Gilligan’s Island looks very much like one of the Florida Keys, where clear ocean water flows through shallow creeks between the mangrove roots.
There was no rest for the weary though. We had one more sail to go to reach Boqueron. On our way down last year, we rounded the south tip of Puerto Rico in the dark at 3:00am and had bypassed the Western end of the island altogether. We had heard from other cruisers that Boqueron is a great place and wanted to see it together with the kids.
We motored on a calm glassy ocean for hours before a puff of wind finally began to blow. Arriving in Boqueron by 3:00pm we were happy to be able to drop the hook for an extended period of time, or so we thought. Everyone but Doug wanted to go to shore to checkout the town. We took the dinghy in to find a small water-front area of town that had been cordoned off and was full of people celebrating New Years Day. Street vendors were selling shucked oysters and fresh clams. The smell of chicken on the grill filled the air. Souvenir shops and bars were spilling people into the street and the ubiquitous beat of Latin music pulsed in the background.
........................Boqueron at Dawn
Meanwhile, Doug was aboard playing his PS2. He heard someone shouting: “is anyone in there?” He popped out of his cabin to see two boats going by. He then went on deck to see what all the commotion was about. It was then that he realized that it wasn’t the boats going by him; it was him going by the boats. The anchor had begun to drag and the Adamo was heading for a collision with a third boat. The two guys, Mike and Charlie, who had alerted him hopped on board and headed for the windlass to raise the anchor. Doug started up the engine. Then came the question: ”How to do get the windlass to work?”
“Uhm, it doesn’t” came the reply. So Mike and Charlie weighed the anchor by hand . . . three times before she held. None of the guidebooks had mentioned the poor holding. When we returned from town the decks were covered in a soft, gray, gooey clay. It didn’t take us long to figure out what had happened. Doug was pretty good about it and took it all in stride. It’s a good thing the boys know how to handle the boat. We thanked Mike and Charlie and invited them for a drink in town later that evening.
As it turns out, even the local boats that have been anchored up for quit some time break free from the muck from time to time. A trimaran began dragging the very next day and was rescued by the same duo.
In Boqueron, we were blown away by the friendliness of the locals. During our first evening in town, we met Jorge and Kirby. They had a friend flying in from the States on Saturday, the same day the boys were going to be flying home. They offered to take Doug and Andrew to the airport since they were heading there anyway. The next day a waitress gave us admission tickets to a space observatory that her brother works at. The following day, the owner of the restaurant presented us with a gift-wrapped bottle of Puerto Rican Don Q rum, because we had never heard of it or tried it yet. Later that evening, the rum distributor was in town and invited us for a Mojito, a delicious rum drink garnished with fresh mint leaves. They were fascinated to hear about our sailing stories and quizzed us about the experience and shared their own boating stories as well. Overall, Puerto Rico ranks high in our growing list of favorites.
“Uhm, it doesn’t” came the reply. So Mike and Charlie weighed the anchor by hand . . . three times before she held. None of the guidebooks had mentioned the poor holding. When we returned from town the decks were covered in a soft, gray, gooey clay. It didn’t take us long to figure out what had happened. Doug was pretty good about it and took it all in stride. It’s a good thing the boys know how to handle the boat. We thanked Mike and Charlie and invited them for a drink in town later that evening.
As it turns out, even the local boats that have been anchored up for quit some time break free from the muck from time to time. A trimaran began dragging the very next day and was rescued by the same duo.
In Boqueron, we were blown away by the friendliness of the locals. During our first evening in town, we met Jorge and Kirby. They had a friend flying in from the States on Saturday, the same day the boys were going to be flying home. They offered to take Doug and Andrew to the airport since they were heading there anyway. The next day a waitress gave us admission tickets to a space observatory that her brother works at. The following day, the owner of the restaurant presented us with a gift-wrapped bottle of Puerto Rican Don Q rum, because we had never heard of it or tried it yet. Later that evening, the rum distributor was in town and invited us for a Mojito, a delicious rum drink garnished with fresh mint leaves. They were fascinated to hear about our sailing stories and quizzed us about the experience and shared their own boating stories as well. Overall, Puerto Rico ranks high in our growing list of favorites.
We are off to the Dominican Republic, or the Ragged Islands Bahamas if the weather is agreeable. We may be at sea for a few days. If we make all the way to the Raggeds then updating the blog will be difficult, but keep checking.
Adamo Out!
