Preparing and avoiding Ernesto

31st July
5pm: Sat at the Anchorage Hotel, Dominica checking the weather. Front coming our way that looks pretty ugly and NOAA has classified it as a tropical storm for now with 30% chance of it turning into a cyclone. Both agreed to leave the next morning and head South out of its path. Being our first season in the Caribbean, we would like it to be hurricane free!

1st August
7am: Left Dominica for Admiralty Bay, Bequia, requiring an overnight passage of 140 miles. 
10am: 3 yachts go zooming past us heading North, we are the only boat heading South - slightly disconcerting!
4pm: Lost 2 lures already, one from a big strike that took the whole trace and lure with it and another to the wind gen…
5pm: Text Mum to ask her to check the hurricane website for update on the tropical storm. Its a storm with 70% chance of becoming a cyclone now and has been named Ernesto. We read up on the rest of the islands potential for decent hurricane holes if the worst were to happen and both agreed we would stick to our plan of going to Bequia.
8pm: Very light winds in the lee of Martinique so engine has gone on to save our sanity and increase the speed from 1.6kts to 6kts. How we love our refurbished gearbox!

2nd August
8am: See 5 yachts heading North, why is everyone heading North, what do they know that we don't know?? Slightly more concerned...
12pm: Made it to Admiralty Bay, Bequia and immediately went online to check the status of Ernesto. The eye is heading for St Vincent which is only 30 miles away so should miss us but we are going to prepare for the worst anyway.
1pm: Dylan jumps in and I let out the rode for a second anchor which Dylan beds. We then lash the bimini down, put the mainsail cover on, clear any loose lines from the deck and cockpit, take the pegs and washing line down and take off the monitor wind vane rudder.
3pm: Ernesto is downgraded to a depression so we stop our preparation there and don't go as far as taking the sails down that we had intended to do.
8pm: Go to bed and keep the VHF on for any updates from the coastguard.

3rd August
2am: Wake up to hear the coastguard saying the depression has been upgraded to a tropical storm and will hit the Windward Islands around 8am.
7am: Wake up and prepare for the incoming storm.
8am: Nothing happens….
9am: Nothing happens and there is so little wind, Orion is dancing around the 2 anchors doing 360s. Luckily the charter cats that anchored really near us on both sides have left (nutters).
11am: Heavy rain with a couple of gusts that only reach 31 knots.
3pm: Dylan jumps in to check our 2 anchors in case strong winds follow the depression. He gets chatting to a French couple who ask him to help re-anchor their boat. Good job he did as the anchor hadn't been set and if strong winds came though they would have gone walkies.

After all that preparation, the wind didn't come through very strong other than the usual trade winds (20-25 knots). Being our first encounter with a tropical storm we were glad of the practice, learnt a lot and hope that we never have to do it for real!


Goodbye Ernesto and hello Florence. Maybe this one will be for real? For anyone wanting to keep a track of the potential hurricanes, we use this website - http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

Boobies, coastguards and a volcano

Ha made you look didn't it! Of course, I mean boobies of the bird variety and not of the female anatomy...


Heading to Statia from St Martin we were keen to get our hands on fish for dinner so out went the lure. After 15 mins the usual sound of the line starts whizzzzzzing and up jumps Dylan to wind it in. Catching seaweed has become the norm on Orion and this time was no exception but what did make it more entertaining was the blue billed boobie that appeared from nowhere. Swooping down to survey our catch the boobie clocked the lure thinking it was a fish and started circling its 'prey'. Dylan kindly asks the bird to go away but it didn't respond to his polite push so we resorted to shouting at it. Both of us really didn't fancy killing a bird and it ruining our line but Billy the boobie had other ideas, getting more and more excited as the glimmer of the lure drew nearer to the surface. Luckily this time we had an intelligent birdy on our hands who must have recognised the difference between seaweed and a fish so content on missing nothing, it flew off. Phew!

Entertaining myself on the journey

Huge tankers off the coast of Statia

No sooner had we dealt with the bird we saw a huge inflatable rib fast approaching. We were now just off the Statia anchorage, dodging oil tankers. The rib turned out to be the Dutch coastguard who had come all the way from St Martin to board our boat. The captain expertly pulled alongside and 2 heavily booted and suited men jumped aboard. This was our first boarding so we couldn't help feeling a little anxious even though we had nothing to hide as they entered our cockpit. One guy got started on the paperwork as the lead guy asked us questions such as where we came from, where we are going, where are we registered, do we have any drugs or weapons on board etc. When the Q&A session was done and our passports and clearance papers had been inspected, he asked for me to give him a tour of the boat. I went below with one of the officials and he instructed me to open a few cupboards and drawers whilst he took a flashlight to look at the contents. O I had a lovely time showing him my wardrobe, my shorts drawer, my pots and pans...By the fourth door opening I could see his eyes glazing over and he announced he was happy we weren't storing anything illegal, ha! We were probably not the profile that deemed a full search would be required. Handshakes all round and and off they zoomed back to St Martin in the rib. All the time this boarding had happened, the Captain of the rib was standing off a couple of metres away whilst Dylan continued to sail Orion into the anchorage. Overall a pleasant, professional ordeal considering the horror stories we had heard of ridiculous fines being paid to the Dutch authorities.

Coastguard leaving us

There is only one anchorage in Statia and its steep to so all boats need to pick up a mooring ball that are maintained by the national park. A habit we have got into is to check the mooring ball and base as soon as we switch off the engine so no sooner had we pushed the button we jumped into the clear water for a much welcomed swim and snorkel. Its a lovely little bay, lined with palm trees and the dramatic backdrop of the Quill volcano. Tucked in close to shore we were out of the way of the commercial traffic going to and from the oil station on the North of the island.

Quill volcano in the background

The next day we were determined to climb the Quill volcano despite our complete lack of exercise for the last couple of months, I was also eager to try out my new Tevas purchased in Puerto Rico. Checking in was a painless process, the customs people work in an air conditioned container at the head of the town dock. The only slight inconvenience was that although we were leaving that night, we couldn't clear in and out at the same time. So it meant we cleared in at 10am and had to go back again before 4pm the same day to clear out.

The containers home to customs

The main town on Statia is reached by a steep old cobbled road leading up the cliff, rewarding us with great views over the coastline. The town reminded us of Codrington in Barbuda, a series of small colourful houses lining the bricked streets with locals just sat outside their houses or shops watching the world go by. Everyone was so friendly, making a point to stop as they passed us and wish us 'Good Morning'. How lovely to be back in a place that makes us feel so welcome, the islands up North are full of tourists and as such have lost some of their community focus we love.

View from the old road

To hike any of the island you need a National Park permit which is valid for a year, costs $6 per person and is purchased at the National Park Centre near customs. With this permit we also got loads of cool little leaflets on the island and hiking trails. Armed with 2 bottles of water, towel and some snacks we commenced our hike to the summit of the volcano. It was a pretty difficult hike just because of the heat and humidity found in the forest and at times the steep incline. We must have sweated out our weight in water. 

The trail

Wildlife was abundant, seeing red bellied snakes, loads of hermit crabs, doves and huge buttress roots as we wound our way up the forested floor. As we neared the summit you get a fantastic view of the crater below and feeling adventurous we decided to go to the bottom of the crater. This involved a 45 min scramble to the base over huge boulders and aided by rope that was strung from tree trunk to tree trunk. With only Dylan for company I felt nothing opting to go down most of it on my bum, shuffling from rock to rock like a spider. 

Anyone home?

The bottom of the crater wasn't much to write home about and we saw nothing that we hadn't already seen on the hike but hey, we can now say we have been inside a volcano crater (no-one needs to know that it has been dormant since 400 AD!) Faced with a 45 min scramble back up the side of the mountain and needing to be at customs before 4pm we quickly retraced our steps and got back to the dock. Dylan obviously not having enough exercise for one day decided we needed to scrub the hull clean of all the noo noos that had made their home there so we changed out of our sweaty walking gear and into swimming stuff armed with scrubbing brushes. We certainly slept well that night!!

Hospital visit, boredom and sun spots

Knowing the passage beating into wind, wave, current and tide wasn't going to be the most enjoyable sail ever – it turned out to be not so bad. Sure I felt sick for most of it but hey, did wonders for the waistline and it taught Dylan how to use the galley without me! A rather frustrating journey we tacked back and forth often feeling that we were going nowhere. We must have kept US VIs in our sights for a good day. Clocking a mere 70 miles in the first 24 hours we came into St Martin after 2 ½ days at sea, anchoring under sail like pro's. In contrast to our trip here a couple of months back, Marigot Bay is now empty due to hurricane season, so we had plenty of space to drop the pick. One positive from the trip was the decent sized dorado we managed to catch and gaff successfully. Our first mahi mahi on Orion and boy did that fish make us work for his meat. He swallowed the lure whole so getting it back out involved a 15 min operation hacking the head apart with our paring knife, trying to avoid being skewered by the spikes. That fish kept us full for a good few days.

After a lovely long sleep at anchor we awoke to a new day and our mission of getting the gearbox out and delivered to a local mechanic to fix. Minding my business in the galley making our breakfast, Dylan disappears into the starboard locker and fights with a spanner to loosen some bolts when I hear an expletive followed by 'going to need stitches'. He wasn't thats kidding, Dylan illustrated a whole new meaning to 'showing the whites of your knuckles'. When wrestling with a particularly stubborn bolt, the wrench he was using slipped and sent his hand colliding into a sharp piece of metal (end of hose clamp), opening his knuckle up like a can opener. Not the prettiest of sights, he started to bleed and go a little pale. Ever the “macho macho man” he was pretending it was nothing although you could clearly see that was a nasty cut. Springing into action, we dropped everything, rigged the dinghy and sped ashore in search of a hospital. I considered taking a book as I was packing a bag but thought, nah, we won't be long. O how
wrong was I!

We get a taxi to the French hospital, scare the receptionist with his wound wrapped in a towel (same one I use to cover bread might I add so I am on the look out for a new one!) and take a seat. Arriving at 10:55 we then wait for 6 ½ hours to be seen. Yes, over 6 hours sat in a waiting room with freezing air conditioning, no entertainment, no food /water and Dylan bleeding into a towel next to me. It was so cold in there we took it in turns to nip outside and warm up, passing the time looking at pictures in the French magazines. I had a purse full of quarters I couldn't get rid of so we had a lovely time eating crap from the vending machines! Finally when we were seen, we got a doctor that couldn't speak English. Soooo they left us in a hospital room whilst he went in search of 'Stephanie', a nurse that could speak a bit of our language. After some translating they diagnosed that nothing major was damaged in his knuckle, he just required 5 stitches to put his skin back together. This is when Dylan turns a little pale when they hook him up to a heart monitor, clean the wound and inject it with saline solution. Although it looked disgusting, I couldn't help but watch as they prodded the gauged skin and flushed out the dirt. By this point they had injected a local anaesthetic so Dylan couldn't really feel anything. Twenty minutes later and he was all stitched up with a tight bandage wrapped around his hand and prescription in other hand to get some cleaning stuff for it. Apparently we will be able to pull the stitches out ourselves so no more going back to that hospital waiting room! 3 people before us just upped and left, clearly deciding their illnesses weren't worth waiting more than 6 hours for. Yes we were waiting a long time but once we were seen the service was excellent and the fee reasonable (80 euros).

Back aboard Dylan starts milking his disability. He can't get it wet = no help with washing dishes, no help with preparing food, no help with making drinks, no help with cleaning up. He kept this up for 10 days before I had enough, dug my heels in and shoved him off his ass. I'm not the most sympathetic person in the world but come on, he has a capable left hand and it's not as if he has lost a limb!!

Back to the gearbox which is the sole reason for returning to St Martin, well that and the cheap food and booze we can stock up on. With Dylan out of action and me not fancying a similar injury, the mechanic comes out to the boat, takes the part and returns to his workshop. Turns out the thrust washer has completely worn so whilst we are waiting for the parts to be shipped in and replaced we spend the next 2 weeks on the island.

With the impending bill for the gearbox coming, we were very reluctant to spend any money. As a result we spent most of our time on the boat chilling out or doing chores. I must have read about 20 books, watched well over 10 movies and baked at least once a day to try and fend off boredom. The weather wasn't that great either with heavy rain and strong winds most days, gusts reaching 45 knots on one particular day! I think this is the first time on the trip so far when I have been truly bored out of my mind, getting cabin fever and crawling the walls. Through no fault of their own the gearbox took longer to fix than expected so each day dragged out as I got twitchy about hurricane season and still being so far north as well as limited things to do to keep my mind active. At least I got all those chores done that I kept putting to the bottom of the list. The lagoon can now breathe a sigh of relief that I won't flash my ass every time I get out of the water. My 3 pairs of bikini bottoms had become uber baggy, so much so they tried to make a run for it each time I jumped in, swam or climbed the ladder out of the water. Can't say its the tidiest of jobs but I'm sure getting my money's worth from those Primark purchases!

When in sunshine I'm ashamed to say I behave like a typical Brit. Least amount of clothing on, least amount of sun protection on and maximum amount of time in the sun. On arrival in the Caribbean I was really keen to get rid of my winter pastiness and soak up the free Vitamin E. I did change my routine slightly and ensure that I wore SPF60 on my face but elsewhere I pretty much didn't bother putting sunscreen on as I rarely burn and it's a massive effort. Especially when you spend every day outside or in water. Oooo not a good idea right, well I agree with you now parents! I found a white sun spot on my chest that gradually increased in number and was seriously ruining my tan. Likening it to a white version of chicken pox, through research I've found its a skin infection (tinea versicolour) caused by excessive sun and humidity particularly found in young people. Well great, that will serve me right for taking my english rose complexion for granted! Luckily it goes away with special creams but it's certainly made me realise how the sun is no longer my friend and I may even consider purchasing a hat. I laughed at Dylan doing the shade shuffle around the cockpit but now I find myself doing it, desperate to keep out of the sun's strong rays.

I still had one sick puppy on my hands. After his trip to the hospital, the special one then gets a chest infection so goodbye to a decent night's sleep. He's constantly coughing all night and its like having my very own (unwelcome) furness next to me as he drenches the bed sheets in sweat. In an effort to make him feel a little less sorry for himself I make bread and butter pudding. O how resourceful I felt finding a use for the stale bread we had so I didn't have to throw ¾ loaf away. I thought it came out alright but Dylan's response was – I now know how the seagulls feel when picking up bread from the sea. O the cheek, he's lucky he was ill else I would have tipped the whole lot over his head.

It seems nowhere we are safe. Anchored a mile offshore in the middle of a lagoon, our watery moat seems inconsequential. Whilst completing chores in the cockpit we look up to spot two kayakers lacking co-ordination appear to be struggling towards Orion. My first thought was that they were holidaymakers blown off course until they got closer and offered us a flyer. Never one for rudeness we gratefully accepted their offering to which it was an invitation to ram Orion with their double kayak. The husband and wife team pulled out a waterproof flyer that mentioned something about a convention, the key words being 'bible' and 'Jehovah'. As I suppress a giggle, Dylan replies 'thanks but we aren't the least religious'. Blowing 20 knots with a good chop on the water, we admired their approach and energy to their cause!

We are hoping to be out of here tomorrow (pending the successful fitting of the gearbox). With it now being late July we are crossing a few return visits off our list and shall set sail and see where we end up although the destination is still Grenada. Maybe we will pull in of an evening and anchor to get a decent sleep or maybe we shall just plough on if the wind is in our favour. Who knows, we have learnt not to make too many plans anymore as Mother Nature has her own agenda anyway. Goodbye excel spreadsheets (and yes, I did used to do a spreadsheet for passage planning) and hello to common sense and winging it. With 6 months of boat ownership under our belts, I think we can now call ourselves 'competent' sailors...

And I would walk...

...one thousand miles. And I would sail one thousand more.

It is a momentous occasion. We have reached the thousand mile mark and probably the equivalent of over 250 sailing hours, including night passages, mishaps and breakages.

To give us our credit where credit is due. From two completely ignorant sailors back in January 2012 who had never sailed alone together, we have now clocked over a 1000 miles in this little vessel. It was rather a nostalgic moment as we set out from Vieques to St Martin sans working engine.

Ironically the passage between Vieques to St Martin represented 25% of the entire distance we had sailed to date. Of course our next large mark will be the 10 000 miler. We may even celebrate that one with a bottle of champagne rather than as we did the 1000 mile mark with a kiss on the cheek and a celebratory slap on the arse.

Within those 1000 miles we have seen 13 different countries with no single one being a dead favourite and a most difficult question to answer when asked.

We write this as we sit in St Martin awaiting our gearbox repair, hurricane season officially began over 2 weeks ago, the winds have certainly strengthened somewhat. We are now aiming to dash back down to Grenada but will most certainly be stopping along the way to revisit some of the places that left an impression on us first time round.

Here's to the next 1000 miles on Orion...

Vieques

Red snapper

The sail from Fajardo to Vieques was not pleasant. What should have been a 5 hour trip took all day, constantly tacking into wind and waves. Although a horrible sail, it was a great day for catching fish. At every inopportune moment as we were about to tack the rod would start its 'whizzzzzzzz' noise. With a fridge stocked full of meat still, I was all for putting the rod below but Dylan was intent on catch and release so we let go a cero mackerel and large red snapper that day. At 6:30pm with the sun starting its descent we eyed the anchorage and put the motor on to try and get there before it went dark. Not fans of entering unfamiliar harbours at night we have made it a rule that we won't. Just as the sun dipped below the horizon, we picked up a free mooring ball in Sun Bay, the only boat in this mile wide inlet. Dylan complained that forward gear wasn't giving us any thrust but we secured the mooring and said we'd look at it the next day.

After a morning spent organising all of our nuts, bolts, washers and screws (what fun!) and Dylan still not happy with the gearbox, we went for a snorkel and found an amazing big helmet shell but it had a nu nu in it so we put it back. Sob. Not before I took a picture of it though. We attempted to set sail for another bay but the gearbox was still acting up and with this being a first, we opted to go back on the mooring and try and fix the problem.

Vieques waterfront

The nearest town was Esperanza, so in the dinghy we commenced a 2 mile wet and wild ride out to sea, around a headland and back towards the town dock. A ride that would put Thorpe Park to shame. Arriving rather dry considering but with every bone in our body shaken, we leapt out of the dinghy and onto dry land. A really small town, Esperanza has a lovely waterfront and relaxed atmosphere. As we walked out of the dinghy dock we bumped into a woman who had some sailing bumper sticker on her car so Dylan inquired whether they knew a good mechanic. She referred us to her husband who proceeded to walk us around the town trying to find a guy who owns a boat in the bay. What a nice guy, went totally out of his way to help us, couldn't find the person in question. We finally hunted him down and luckily for us is a master mechanic, diagnosing the problem as general wear and tear of the clutch plates. Unfortunately he was too busy to fix it so we faced a 250 mile trip to St Martin. As the crow flies its about 160 miles but we would be heading straight into the wind, waves, tide and sea with an awful lot of tacking involved. Sure there are other places to go but we knew someone that could fix it there and also it is a wide easy bay to sail into without an engine.

Talking to other cruisers about Sun Bay where we were anchored, all without exception warned us against being there and advised us to move to the anchorage off the main town. Regular theft due to high unemployment on the island occurs in the bay and just recently a boat had lost two kayaks padlocked to their guardrails. Its a shame as Sun Bay is a pretty bay, isolated and we were the only boat there in a mile wide inlet. Obviously those conditions make us a prime target and the locals swim from the shore at dark. We didn't experience anything, but being on high alert now ruined the atmosphere so we moved.

The rock that marks a left turn to the grocery store

Anchored off Esperanza with other cruisers, we felt part of the community. Greeting the locals when we went ashore and enjoying the local music of an evening...whether we wanted to or not as those locals seem to party every night till 4am, the music echoing across the bay!

We spent many hours in a bar called Lazy Jacks, using the wifi and meeting the other cruisers, most of which were staying in Vieques for the long term. I can see why, its a great island with plenty to do and yet to get hit by tourism like so many of the other Caribbean islands. One day when we were internetting, very loud music started coming towards us. As it got nearer and our chairs and tables started to vibrate we turned to source the sound and found it belonged to a local in his wheelchair with a boom box underneath his vehicle! We weren't sure whether it was appropriate to find the situation funny so we tried to ignore the noise and stared at the laptop. When Crazy Legs (as we came to name him) was running low on juice for his electric wheelie and power hungry 98db audio, his mates would run an extension cable from a lamp pole to charge him up. He came round a few times though so we gave each other the eye and behaved ourselves.

We were in Vieques on Independence Day weekend. Our friend Alex was visiting her parents in mainland Puerto rico so we jumped at the opportunity to see her and went over. Waking at the crack of dawn (5am) we got a lift with another cruiser catching the 6:30am ferry from Isabel Segunda to Fajardo. Hour and a half later we were at our destination and waiting for Alex's parents to pick us up. There was a very festive atmosphere in Fajardo ferry terminal (day before Independence Day) although not many Puerto Ricans celebrate their colonizers independence from Mother England. A steel drum band was playing and loads of people milling around.

Tucking into a big meal

It was a lengthy 1.15 hr car journey to their home near Trujillo Alto fighting rush hour traffic. It was here that we met Alex's amazing mother (Mami) we still don't know her name as I think she was introduced as “my mother”. She is a pint sized woman who is dwarfed by her husband's 6.4 frame. But has the biggest personality we have ever seen. Before we had even made it to their home, she had been on the phone asking whether we had had breakfast and what did we want to eat. We opted for pancakes and just after performing our introductions, were shuffled ceremoniously towards an awaiting table laden with food. Hot coffee awaited us and a fruit platter while Mami prepped the pancakes. The rest of the family did not join us but stood nearby talking away. We soon got over our awkwardness of being waited on hand and foot by Mami and tucked in! Alex had obviously told her folks of all the stories about how we don’t wash in fresh water often etc and as such there had been offers of using the pool, showers even the washing machine. Interestingly the pancakes made for us had a melted cheese slice on top and whipped cream. Added to this was a helping of maple syrup. A interesting concoction, not necessarily Puerto Rican but rather Mami's recipe. A large lunch meal awaited us, so we did not stuff ourselves with too much.

We were taken on a tour of the house (which is lovely) and almost stereotypical of an American house. Alex's Mami speaks little English, where as the rest of the family speaks good English. As such all conversations were via Alex who interpreted for us. We were shown how to make the perfect Pina Colada's and whilst sipping away on them and eating more snacks of salmon and meats, Alex mother was insistent that I learn how to cook rice for Dylan. I was led into the kitchen whilst Alex and Dylan sat outside catching up. With limited English Mami proceeded to teach me not only the finer points of rice making in a rice maker, but taught me a whole bunch of Spanish words too. I walked away with a rice maker of my own to cook for Dylan. Not sure I agree with waiting on Dylan hand and foot but hey, he can get a treat every so often.

Add caption

A typical Puerto Rican dish, usually made at Christmas is pastelles. They take a full day to make and the process involves, grating and peeling loads of veg, cooking meat, blending the ingredients, putting dollops into plantain leaves and boiling them. They are an acquired taste so there was great concern that we may not like them. Needless to say we sat down to lunch and tucked into the Puerto Rican spread of rice & peas (pigeon peas), fried plantain (both ripe and green), roast pork and don't forget the pastelles! We were to just try a single pastelle and if we liked it we could have one each. I tried it and loved them, although not the same ingredients, they reminded me of the mince and potato dish that Dad makes back home. Dylan tries them and makes a big show of almost throwing up. The expression of horror on Mami's face was priceless. Big joke all round.

Add caption

Completely stuffed with food and confronted with a huge cake, we rolled off the chair, declined dessert and sat in front of the tv, fighting the overwhelming desire to go for a nap. Their back garden looks out over the town as well as the rainforest of El Yunque...it also has a swimming pool which we took full advantage of. From the pool, I went to have a hot shower. Wow it was wonderful and as I stepped out of the bathroom, Alex's mami was waiting for me to blowdry my hair. Such pampering! She lead me to her bathroom where she had already laid out the blowdryer, a stool and a brush. Tutting at the state of my sun and salt ruined hair, she proceeded to blow dry my hair straight. Having not done this since December it was heaven. Back downstairs we tucked into a slice of cake and then accepted a doggy bag full of pulled pork, cake, 2 more pastelles, bags of sweets and a rice maker. Wow!!

Alex's Papi drove us back to the ferry and we jumped on the 8pm return. Very tired by this time we arrived in Vieques looking for a publico to take us back to the boat but there were none around. Dylan enquired with a police man how to get back and he said he would take us! We had our first ride in a police car whilst the 2 officers in front talked away in Spanish as if we weren't there, ignoring the radio traffic coming form their lapels. What a fantastic day.

375 year old ceiba tree

On our last day in Vieques we went ashore to Lazy Jacks to check the weather for the next couple of days and then enquired how to get to the airport to clear out. Barman referred us to 'Jug' (who knows if that is his real name...) who took us there and back for $30. A fair ride away Jug got chatting about the island, knowledgable guy as he had lived there for 20 years. Customs at the airport was the quickest yet. We caught the officer just as she was about to leave and she doesn't normally work in Vieques so didn't know where any of the papers were. So she grabbed a form, filled our name and boat name, stamped it and told us to fill in the rest. We were in and out in about 3 mins. Much to Jug's amazement as he had never known anything like it and opted to go for gas 15 mins away. Whilst we waited for Jug to return we saw a bar in the middle of the car park that we went to get a drink at. Very odd, run by a Louisiana hick he only sold Louisiana beer and his other 2 customers also came from the same place. American country music blasted out of the stereo, the guys looked like Harley Davidson fans with long thin hair, leather jackets worn in 90F heat and bandanas. All going on whilst wild horses were strolling about the car park, nibbling at the grassy verges. Surreal! On the way back to the boat, Jug stopped off at a 375 year old Ceiba tree. Most impressive, the buttress roots alone were a good 3 x the height of me.

Although we planned to go to St Croix and Saba, we are going to skip these islands in favour of heading straight to St Martin to sort out our gearbox problem. A 2 /3 day trip, this will be our longest yet at sea without stopping overnight. Eeeek!

Fajardo

Quote from Dylan – Fajardo, the place where boats go to die. Now it could be because we went there in hurricane season but we found Fajardo soulless, not cruiser friendly and void of people. There are wrecks everywhere, as we motored into the anchorage of Isleta de Marina, a fishing boat was busy pumping out a sunken vessel similar to their own from a nearby reef. As you look around, there are high rise buildings everywhere blocking your views to the rest of the island. We had 4 loads of laundry to do as well as internet connection to find having not been online for about a week so we got in the dinghy and went over to the marina on the island we were anchored off. Greeted by an obese man with no teeth who claimed to be the bar manager I eyed up the 'dinghy dock' that was swarming with louse and made our conversation brief. We couldn't use the laundry unless we brought the boat into the marina, they didn't have internet and berthing was $1 /foot /day. Yes it may be cheap but I had been doing rather well keeping bugs at bay from our boat so despite the bargain I was not staying in that ropey place. Luckily Dylan agreed so we went back to the boat and vowed to dinghy half a mile to the mainland the next day.

Motoring in the direction of a bunch of boats, we found ourselves in Sunbay Marina which is the only place that lets boats at anchor not connected to their marina, tie their dinghies at their dock. Wanting to stretch our legs we went for a walk into the town which provided us with more views of high rise buildings, a couple of interstates and a dodgy liquor store. On the way back to the dinghy we made use of the open men's room and both went for showers. Had no towels so we came back to the boat dripping in our clothes – was worth it though! Dylan went to go and charm the ladies on reception and we got to use the laundry with the promise we would bring the boat in the marina the next day. So that night was spent sweating away in a windowless laundry room doing load after load of washing.

The next day was a new experience logged - the first time we had brought Orion into a marina. We were up early going over our plan and at 8am we called ahead for a line handler to be at the berth to help if needed. There was 15 knots of head wind to add to the challenge, I threw the lines whilst Dylan was on the helm. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, we slid into the berth and secured the lines like pros. Phew, that was one worry over, now to slip into the world of the American consumer....Walmart!!

Our Walmart receipt

Leaving Orion at the marina and with a long list of provisions to get, we rented a car from Thrifty's ($50 /day including insurance) and spent 3 ½ hours in Walmart Superstore much to Dylan's horror. Filling 2 trolleys we brought the goodies back to the boat and completely filled our cupboards with provisions and toiletries to last us a good few months. That day ended with a shower that must have lasted 30 mins, I've said it before and I'll say it again – never again am I going to take a fresh water shower for granted. I came out with hair feeling like hair rather than straw off a scarecrow. What luxury!

North America has not been kind to the average Puerto Rican physique. As we drove down the interstates there was chain after chain of fast food places – Wendy's, Taco Bell, Burger King, KFC. Almost at every light the same logos greeted us.

Marina day 2 was spent doing chores and making use of the unlimited fresh water. By dusk Orion was sparkling inside and out, had fresh oil in the engine and my hair was a new colour (why dye hair in the cockpit when you can take full advantage of someone else's bathroom!).

Two days was all we allowed ourselves in the marina so we left just before night fall and anchored back in the same place off Isleta de Marina. Before we left Fajardo I wanted to go and check out Old San Juan so we hired a car again and persuaded (or rather charmed) the ladies in Sunbay marina to let us leave the car there over night. Old San Juan is beautiful, full of history and brightly coloured Spanish architecture. We parked the car in a multi storey and paid a visit to Starbucks, our first one since Seattle in December. I ordered my favourite Chai Latte and Dylan a mocha frappuccino. Going back into the 95F heat we walked to San Cristobal Castle and drank in the local history opting to pay a little extra and take a 20 min walk to the next historic sight, El Morro. El Morro is a very pretty fort on the top of a hill covered in grass. Here the locals were flying their kites, looking out to the ocean and a colourful cemetery on the cliff edge. Spending all morning looking round old forts, we wandered through the narrow streets checking out the old fashioned houses and bayonet balconies overlooking plazas lined with weeping willows and elderly just sat about watching you watching them. After stopping for a picture of the Government mansions we went for lunch at Cafe Del Punto. What a place! As you walk in you are greeted with a long narrow corridor lined with craft shops and at the very back is the cafe. We chose a sampler which came with traditional Puerto Rican food such as beef turnover, stuffed plantain with crab and chicken and falafel. It all tasted amazing but was so starchy, we both felt extremely bloated afterwards. From lunch, Dylan nipped into Yuto where he bought some Puerto Rican hand rolled cigars (yuck) which he likes to smoke on special occasions. On to the Paseo de la Princesa which is a tree lined walkway leading you down to the sea and the Raices fountain. By this time it was 3pm and having walked all day we were tired, full and ready to head back. Definitely the highlight of our Puerto Rican adventure so far!

Government buildings

San Cristobal

El Morro grounds

Pretty streets in Old San Juan

Looking over to El Morro

Culebra

Sailing from St Thomas to Puerto Rico is an easy day sail and we got into Ensenada Honda (main anchorage in Culebra) with plenty of daylight left. A huge lagoon, Ensenada Honda is home to loads of local boats and free moorings. Not the prettiest of places we have seen but there are plenty of spaces to spread out away from anyone else or anchor right near the town as you so wish. Once the boat was secured, we jumped into the dinghy and set off in search of customs. We had read somewhere that there was a guy sometimes available to clear boats in located in the main town of Dewey (locals call it Culebra) which is near the dinghy dock. A boiling hot day we walked a mile or so and couldn't find anything that resembled a customs hut but we did find a police man who called his mate and sent us on our way to the airport. And there was our first indicator of how friendly these Puerto Ricans are, whether they can speak English or not they will go out of their way to help you.

Stepping into the blasting air conditioning, we spent a few minutes waiting for the sweat to stop dripping from our foreheads, unsticking our clothes from our bodies (nice), and located the customs official. Boy was this guy bored, with it being hurricane season and a very small airport that only caters for internal island hops he didn't see many people each day and it showed. We must have been there for 2 hours chatting away to this guy who told us everything we ever needed to know about Culebra including where to find the best Pastelas, cheapest food, best bar etc – ringing each one for us on a map. We were a little nervous coming into Puerto Rico on a boat as we had heard all sorts of horror stories about $1000 fines for hazardous waste disposal etc. Please don't believe any of it, we made sure we had eaten all of our fruit, veg, seeds, meats and beans before we came and we didn't have anyone board our boat and he just told us if we did have anything off the banned import list, to throw it overboard.

Example of the Puerto Rican culture

Formalities out of the way we hunted down a grocery store and filled our basket with meat. Thinking about it, we dined extremely well the whole time we were in Puerto Rico. Filling ourselves with meats and American produce (not the doughnuts though). I call Dylan the chicken monster and he certainly came out to play, devouring chicken wings and carcasses complete with Frank's buffalo sauce in one sitting. Hopefully he has put on a bit of weight!

At the edge of the lagoon is a bar /restaurant called Dinghy Dock where you can tie your dinghy up to the table you are going to sit at, unfortunately service on the day we were there left much to be desired but it did give us plenty of time to check out the local sea life. As we sat eating our fish quesadillas right below us was a school of tarpon circling us. Most unnerving to see these beasts so close but gave us something to take our mind off the 45 minute wait for our drinks.

The top place to see in Culebra is Flamenco Beach, rated one of the world's best by Conde Nast. We walked there from the dinghy dock, slightly underestimating the distance so by the time we arrived the first thing we did was jump in the sea. Its a very long pretty beach with white sand and clear water...but it is packed with people so for me, its not the best I have ever been to but it definitely gets 10/10 for scenery. There were families everywhere, set up for the day with wind breakers and portable BBQs cooking up meat, the smells wafting out to us in the water. Dylan decided to teach me how to body surf and after a few times of loosing my bikini top and bashing my head on the bottom we called it a day and went in search of food. Behind the beach is a cluster of stalls serving all sorts of local dishes and drinks, we tried out a Puerto Rican version of a pasty stuffed with fish and it was great, so much so we had a second one. Not wanting to do the walk back and with Dylan complaining of a 'walking rash' we found a guy wearing a bright yellow shirt with 'TRANSPORT' emblazoned across it. Turns out here in Culebra, taxis and buses are the same thing so we paid him $3 each to take us back in his bus to the dinghy dock. Money well spent whilst we watched the dry dirt roads whizz by in the comfort of an air conditioned vehicle.

Another anchorage we tried out whilst here was Ensenada Dakity and we'd recommend that more than the main lagoon. Its a small area with free mooring balls tucked in behind a reef that looks out to the open ocean. No facilities around here and you would need to dinghy the length of the lagoon to get ashore but its prettier. Unfortunately on this side of the island the water is really murky so snorkelling was no fun. We stayed only a few days to stock up then headed to the main land...