Pictures of Luperon

Entering Luperon Harbor view to the west

Just inside the harbor

Entering anchorage

View towards Hurricane Hole Marina

Anchorage

Main St. Luperon

Luperon

Hola from Luperon, DR

Sapodilla Bay from the dinghy dock

Looking for customs on Provo, just follow the signs

3/13/12 – 3/15/12

Went into customs and immigration, met Bill and Julien from the catamaran “Cougar”, their boat was made for them in Trinidad it is all electric, very impressive looking boat.   

Cougar at the dock at South Side Marina

South Side Marina

 Did not do much shopping as everything is unusually expensive.  I was able to get the tax information put together and sent off, did some trouble shooting and found the switch for our bilge pump is “toast”, so hopefully we can find one in DR.  Went to South Side Marina to fill water and fuel jugs to haul back to the boat, took 2 trips, kind of a long haul but it was our only alternative. Stan and I went to a cruisers potluck barbecue at South Side on Thurs. night, they sent a car to pick everyone up at the anchorage (7 of us) and brought us back that night in a pick-up truck that was on its last legs.  We had a good time sharing itineraries with different folks, food was good and the marina treated everyone to ice cream, good time had by all.  The anchorage was to rough for making crème brulle, but I did bake some more bread.

3/16/12

Picked up anchor and headed across the banks, winds were on the nose to start and we made a course change that allowed us to sail for a while until the wind died.  I spent a long time on the bow watching for coral heads as we crossed.  Got to Fish Cay late in the afternoon, the anchorage was very rolly and not very comfortable sleeping.  Fried up the last of our yellow jack for supper, left over potato salad and canned corn, it was excellent.  Starting to use some of the canned veggies which is good as it saves us money when we are in places like the Turks and Caicos that is too expensive to buy anything. 

Fish Cay last stop before Luperon

Rainbow from storm cell as we were headed for Luperon

3/17/12 – 3/18/12

Headed out around 8:30 am with the thought of going to Big Sand Cay as a good place to set up for going to the DR the next afternoon but as we headed out Capt. Stan decided to just go directly to Luperon, we had excellent winds and sailed through the day and night and made the entrance of Luperon at about 7:00 am. As we approached the DR it looked a lot like VT from the distance with the mountains and all. “Mojo” who we met at Sapodilla Bay was there as at the entrance as well, we waited for better light before making our way in.  As we made our way into the anchorage we met Popos who directed us to a mooring at the high cost of $2 a night J, this we could live with.  Of course we had a mooring beer instead of an anchor beer.   The “Comandancia” came out to inspect our boat and then we went into customs and immigration.  Working to recall my high school Spanish.  We walked around town but since it was Sunday we could not exchange our US$ to Pesos, although they will take US$ but exchange rate is not good that way.  There is a great community of sailors here and we found out about an all you can eat barbecue at the Puerto Blanco Marina.  We ended up paying $17 US for both of us to eat and 1 large beer we shared. Food was excellent and plentiful, we sat at a table with a very nice German couple Dieter and Helga s/v Baccara, Helga was helpful in getting $20 US exchanged to 780 pesos, a large beer was 70 pesos.  Helga introduced us to Bruce Van Sant who wrote the book “Gentlemans Guide to Passages South” The Thornless Path to Windward, this book we have been using as our bible along with most all sailors we meet. Spent most the afternoon until early evening drinking beer and sharing stories with Bruce, Helga, Dieter and other cruisers, I don’t think I have ever seen Stan drink that much beer before. Got back to the boat at sunset and Stan immediately went to bed, I hung out in the cockpit and enjoyed the night sky for while before heading below.  We both slept very soundly, as we were rather sleep deprived due to the overnight passage, and not to mention an over abundance of beer.  It was a fun day.

Entering Luperon notice mtn range in background with clouds overhanging

 

3/19/12

Slept till 7:30 which is unusual for Stan but we both felt good after a good nights sleep.  A rather lazy start to the morning, I got caught up with the blog and we reorganized the boat a little, every time we make an overnight passage below decks gets a bit disorganized as anything that can move gets stowed as best as possible but stuff still gets tossed around some. came into town today to exchange $$ to pesos and upload to blog. I will have more pictures of anchorage with next posting.

Stay tuned

Elizabeth

Sapodilla Bay, Provadenciales

Above video is a typical sunset we endure each evening waiting to see the "Green Flash" and just at sunset we also blow the conch horn.

3/12/12

Got a request from a faithful follower to show pictures of our surroundings while at anchor and other local photos so I will do my best to get some good photos and videos.  Below are photos of Sapodilla Bay in Providenciales called Provo for short.

Great sleeping night last night with calm water.  Today is sunny warm and beautiful with a nice 15 kt breeze.  I pulled apart the V-berth this morning as the cushions needed airing out and drying.  When we went to make the crossing I had forgotten to close one port and just as I thought of it and headed to close it a big wave gushed a ton of water into our v-berth, amazing how much water can make it through such a little port hole.  At least all our cloths are kept in plastic bags so no problem there.   Stan repaired the dinghy yesterday and decided to let it cure an extra day (as advised in the directions), turns out today is a bank Holiday so it best we stay in quarantine until tomorrow and not have to pay overtime fees to customs and immigration. 

Today we also spent catching up on business from home and need to the tax thing really soon, we may be in paradise but we still need to keep Uncle Sam happy.  We are reallly fortunate to have such a great wifi connection, spoke to many friends on Sykpe and used magic jack to make phone calls and right here from the boat, no doubt this wifi antenna has paid for itself. 

View from "Dream Walker" Sapodilla Bay, in the distance what looks like a rock on the right side of island is a steel hull upside down with waves crashing over it.

This photo and the next few are a continuation for a series of photos across the bay from the previous photo as in a panorama from right to left.

Please be sure to e-mail or comment any requests for more info on the blog.  Tonight I am cooking cracked conch steaks (not that we are tired of lobster) canned corn and some kind of potato dish as we have plenty to use.  And I am hoping for a calm enough day soon to do a coconut creme brulle using the coconut creme, stay tuned as always.

Elizabeth

Turks and Caicos

Stan and his 2 prize spiny lobster, just call Stan the Lobsta Man

Stan had quite a battle with the big one on the left, it lost an antennae and a few legs in the process.

3/1/12

Great seminar on free diving, will put to use several of the tips to increase my down time.  Went to say good-bye to John, Susan, and visiting daughter Kate and Checkers on “Smooch”.  Early night as we plan on an early departure.

Checkers gets a treat from Stan, Susan Checker's mom looks on.

3/2/12

Anchor up and underway by 6:30 am. Clear skies wind about 15 kts out of the southeast, all sails up.  Found a nice secluded anchorage at the northwest end of Long Cay just north of Calabash Bay, arrived about 1:30 pm.  Went snorkeling, saw a big lobster which Stan tried to obtain for supper but no luck, it went too far back under this undercut rock and no way to reach it, ended up having the last of the spaghetti for dinner. Another spectacular evening sky, a view I shall never tire of.

3/2/12

Up early again, this time we were underway around 5:30 am, still dark.  We sailed quietly off anchor, although winds were supposed to be same as yesterday we found once we rounded the point the winds were a steady 20 kts with higher gusts, furled in the jib and left main full as it would have been very difficult to reef, we averaged  around 6 kts.  I put out a lure thinking it may be a little too rough and fast but not so, I hooked into a mahi-mahi and what a fight, very strong fish and likes diving deep, took some time getting it in, what a prize.

Got into Rum Cay just before dark, anchorage is a little rolly with the swell coming in over the reef but our anchor dug in nicely and feel safe for the night.  Had a wonderful meal of grilled mahi-mahi and fresh broccoli for dinner.

3/3/12

Although we felt safe all night, the swells caused enough rocking and rolling to make it a bit uncomfortable sleeping. Did some boat chores today, not able to get the motor on the dinghy for exploring because it is still a little too rough, maybe this afternoon.  Made up ceviche with some of the mahi mahi which will be an easy meal when we head out tomorrow as we will be doing an overnighter to get to Mayaguana for Monday morning.   This will be a good place to be as there is a front coming through that requires good protection and we may have to hole up there for several days until everything blows through, time will tell.  Our group “the southern crossers” appear to have split up, at this point we are traveling alone, 2 other boats are taking off for the Turks and Caicos from here today and the rest are still back in Georgetown unless they are headed this way now. Georgetown is also nicknamed chicken harbor as many people who originally planned on going further south never get past Georgetown.  Which is fine if it is because they are concerned about readiness and safety, it gets a little desolate for awhile and trickier for obtaining safe anchorage within a days sail.  There are less facilities available as well, such as fuel, we have enough fuel to run our engine for 48 hours before requiring refueling, we conserve as much as possible and use our sails whenever we can.

3/4/12 to 3/5/12

Up early, left around 6:00 am, put a single reef in the main, winds out of the Southeast about 20 kts.  Another beautiful day, we were disappointed we never got to shore at Rum Cay, Stan had been there before when he moved a boat from Martinique to Ft. Lauderdale.  Another beautiful day in the Islands, we will be crossing the tropic of cancer on this trip which puts us officially in the tropics.  The winds died down as the day went on and by 5:30 pm we had to start the engine which we ran until we got to Mayaguana.  Went with our usual 4 hour shift routine, I really missed not having Whoopi around on the midnight to 4:00 am shift as she would help keep me alert.  There was a fair amount of boat traffic to keep me on my toes although the radar unit was doing a good job.  A big cruise ship came within 1.5 miles of us, pretty impressive to have a floating city go by you all lit up at 2:00 AM.  There were tugs hauling barges and a container ship and several other sailboats to keep your eye out for, the moon was bright and the skies were clear.

Got in to Mayaguana mid-morning, Abrahams Bay is a large bay on the south side that is completely surrounded by a reef except for 2 openings, we used the western opening which is wider and easier.  Here again we had to keep a close look out for coral heads which are easy to spot when the sun is shining from anywhere other than in front of you.  The bay is 5 miles long and 2 miles wide, initially we anchored on the west side in front of the reef, later moved to the east side as the winds were picking up from the east and we really did not want to have another rolly night onboard. Before we moved we went to check the reef and grasses and sure enough there were lots of conch and Stan finally speared a fish,well almost anyways, he hit it twice with the spear dazed it enough the fish started to swim off and Stan chased after him and grabbed him by the tail, it was a nice size Yellow Jack.  We have lots of food to last awhile with today’s catch of 12 conch, the yellow jack and the mahi mahi from the other day.  Turned out to be a very long day by the time we were done cleaning the fish and conch it was after dark, sunset is around 6:00 pm here. Decided on yellow jack for dinner, I did and egg milk mixture and dredged it through a seasoned flour mixture, very delicious, served with a salad.

3/6/12 – 3/9/12

Slept very well last night, both Stan and I were pretty wiped out.  Even had a mid morning nap today which is unusual for me but it felt good. Winds have picked up to 20 kts, sunny beautiful day, need to make sure everything is buttoned up as tomorrow there are squalls with up to 40 kt gust coming our way, and the strong winds will be here for several days so we won’t be going anywhere for a while.

The winds in fact have been strong and relentless so much so that we have not left the boat.  We have been doing boat maintenance, baking, reading and keeping an eye on our position to make sure we are not dragging anchor.  We had a nurse shark come by and hang around our dinghy for an afternoon and most of the evening, decided not to go swimming while it was about, I think it was smitten with our dinghy.  We came up with a new phrase tonight, as we were sitting enjoying the scenery from the cockpit I saw what initially looked like a coral head and was concerned as I was careful when we anchored that there were none around.  Well, as it turned out the coral head was moving and was actually a big sting ray, so know when ever we see a moving object in the water we call out “moving coral head” until we can identify it.

 The front brought numerous squalls and lots of rain finally the boat really needed a good fresh water rinsing.

Ended up heading back out to the west end as there was not much in the way of lobster or conch where we were. Once anchored we went out in search of that elusive lobster and lo and behold Stan actually speared 2 big ones, 5+ lbs for one and 3+lbs for the other he also managed to spear our inflatable that now possesses a small leak (Stan made note to self, keep spear away from inflatable). We have a repair kit somewhere on board. Ate just the bodies that night, have at least 5  meals worth left.

3/10/12 – 3/11/12

Time to move on out of here, sailed to the east end of Mayguana to set our selves up to sail to Sapodilla Bay on Provo in the Turks & Caicos with full food locker. Nice sail in 15 to 20 kts east wind so we tacked back and forth. Had baked lobster tail for early dinner, yummm. Went to sleep around 6:30pm as we needed to get up at 10:00pm to head out. Just after I got done doing dishes I saw a whale in the distance, it was sooo cool, I woke Stan but did not see it again but as we settled down below you could hear them communicating, sounds resonated through the hull, there must have been a pod and there were very distinct differences in the sounds. There is a big migration of whales taking place now and hope to see them again (from a distance).   Anchor was up by 10:30 pm winds were due to be 20+ kts so we full reefed the main and had the jib furled.  Got in this morning put up the quarantine flag and had what we call an anchor beer, which is what you get when you drop anchor after a night or two out sailing.

So I am glad to finally have a connection to update everyone I know it has been awhile. Not sure when our next window will be to work our way east to a good place to jump off to the DR but we will keep you posted.