I have been anchored in Marsh Harbour since Bill and I arrived here. I have gotten some of the boat work done and am anxious to be off. So after sleeping late this morning and I listened to the cruiser's net to get the latest weather forecast. It sounded great so I decided to go to, or at least toward, Little Harbour. Little Harbour is at the southern end of the Sea of Abaco. It was bought by an artist and professor, at MIT I think, who basically dropped out of society and moved to Abaco with his wife and three boys. After a few years of living in borrowed and rented houses, and for a while on a boat, he bought the entire harbor. I'd guess it has between a half mile and a mile of waterfront. Land was pretty cheap here back then, seems like it was in the '50s, especially since here were no roads to it. Anyhow, they moved to the newly aquired land and moved in to a cave for a while. Then they setup a small room where they could sleep to get away from the flys and mosquitos. Eventually he got some large commissions from the Bahamian government for some bronze sculptures and used some of the money to build a foundry and a real house. The foundry eventually expanded to include a gallery and sort of an artists colony. As the years went by, he would trade land for the various things he needed, like a boat, and the developement of the property began. Since then a road was been built to the property and one of the boys, Pete, opened a beach bar called Pete's Pub. When I was there several years ago it consisted of two walls and most of a roof but he did a reasonably good business. I was looking forward to seeing how it had changed over the years.

It was one of those absolutely beautiful days and I sailed all the way down to Little Harbour arriving just before sunset. The Sea of Abaco was smooth but when I got to the southern end of it I could see the ocean swells breaking on the reef and sometimes over some of the small cays. I took a little video of it and it wasn't a minute later that one of those swells got through the channel and nearly knocked me on my butt. I guess if there is an opening large enough for boats to go through a swell will get through occasionaly. The entrance to the harbor is too shallow for Bella Vita so I anchored outside around the corner from the entrance. Since it was nearly dark and the water in front of the entrance was a bit rough for my dinghy, I decided to wait until tomorrow to go into the harbor.

A great day of sailing covering 28 nautical miles and making it another 14 nautical miles further south.

Dec 3, 2005

Slept in again this morning and looked out to another beautiful day. I checked the entrance to the harbor and the waves were still breaking at the entrance. I was thought I would just stay there another day anyway so I would go in tomorrow. It's great not having any schedule that I have to follow!

I listened to the cruiser's net again and even though I missed a lot of it being at the edge of the coverage I did get the weather forecast. It sounded great for an easy, although a bit slow, offshore to some of the islands to the south, at least for the next three days In three days I should be a couple hundred miles away and ready to rest for a day or two. So I decided that Little Harbour would have to wait till the next trip and I got Bella Vita ready for offshore. This includes folding up and securing the dinghy and outboard, getting the #1 Jib hanked onto the inner stay ready to hoist if needed, making sure the reefing for the main sail is ready to go, cleaning all the extra stuff off the decks, securing everything below, etc. It took me about two hours before I was ready to raise anchor and go and I left about 11:45. As I went by the entrance to Little Harbour it was as calm as could be. I guess Pete will get my without my meager business although I did miss meeting Ms. Primrose who lives next to Pete's Pub. She is a relative of a friend of mine from Maryland. I'll stop on the next trip through Fred and will try to have some fresh conch for her fritters.

Out through the Little Harbour Channel and I was in the Atlantic Ocean again. It was really smooth with only a slight swell from the NE. Unfortunately the wind was also quite calm and the forecasted NW winds had already clocked around to the E. I didn't get out of sight of Abaco until nearly dark. It was another great day of sailing, even though slow, and so different from the rough passage from NC to Abaco. You had to hang on to something for most of that trip.

Sailing in the ocean is so much easier than coastal sailing. From Marsh Harbour to Little Harbour there were 13 waypoints to follow with some very narrow channels through the shallows. Get distracted for a few minutes at the wrong time and you could be aground. Soon after leaving Little Harbour I was in water that was over 4,000 feet deep. All you see out here is water and sky. I think saw two other boats before dark.

Shortly after dark I was entering the Northeast Providence Channel. That is the route for all the shipping for Nassau to get to and from the ocean. That is when I started seeing boats, or rather ships. At one time I had six of them on the radar and to track and make sure we were not going to meet somewhere. This continued most of the night although it did slack off some near daybreak. The ships were divided pretty evenly between freighters and cruise ships. The cruise ships are lit up so bright that you can still follow them after they go over the horizon. The freighters have one light on the bow and one on the stern and then a red/green lights on the sides. It seemed like there was always at least one on the radar but the closest any go to me was about two miles.

The night sailing was pleasant. The sky was clear with a new moon which sat shortly after the sun did. The sun sat in the normal bright red show and but the moonset was outstanding. There was just a sliver showing but it was bright red and looked like a red sail against the black sky. I don't think I have ever noticed a moonset before but this one was special. Too dark for pictures or video though. After the moonset, the stars were out in force and they have a LOT more stars down here than in Lexington.

By midnight I had covered 45 nautical miles and made it another 25 nautical miles further south.

Dec 4, 2005

Very light winds today. I sure would like to see the 10-15 KT winds that were forecast. I was becalmed for a while today and just bobbed around in the middle, well not quite the middle, of the ocean. A large bird, about a six foot wingspan, seemed to wonder what I was doing out there and circled the boat about 4 times, each a little closer. I thought it was going to land on the deck but it went a few hundred yards away and landed in the water.

Not nearly as many cruise ships today. They must return to Nassau on Sat. night to discharge and refill for the next cruise. I did see one just as I was getting below the north end of Eleuthera and out of the Northeast Providence Channel. It was going really slow and I went by it about two miles away. That seems pretty close when something is that big.

For years I have heard about the "green flash." The green flash occurs just as the last of the sun goes below the horizon and it seems to occur only over water. I have never seen it although I do know someone who "saw" it by watching the sunset through binoculars although I video taped it and saw nothing green. Tonight I decided to try the binoculars. (I guess you get a little bored after being at sea alone.) I can now attest that it does exist and the binoculars do make it easier to see. In fact, I saw it twice tonight. Not exactly sure how it happened but after the flash the sun went away as expected but then it was back again. I had enough time to get the binoculars up and watch it again. I think a swell either lifted the boat enough that I got another view of it or a swell had blocked the sun early the first time and once it went by, the sun re-appeared. Another first for me.

Right after dark the winds picked up considerably. I was doing well over 6 knots with the 150% Genoa, reefed main and mizzen. This was fun sailing but a quick check on the GPS (Gods Present to Sailors) showed that I was going to get to my next destination, Cat Island, a couple of hours before daylight. The chart didn't show any unusual dangers at the north end of the island but they also did not list any waypoints there. It looked like a relatively narrow channel so I wanted to make sure it was light when I entered so I had to slow down. I dropped the Genoa and raised the #1 Jib on the inner stay. While the motion of the boat was better, it was still going to fast so I dropped it also and continued with the main and mizzen. It wasn't well balanced but the autopilot was able to handle it and the reduced speed should get me to Cat Island just after sunrise.

A common problem with all singlehanded sailors is how to keep watch and still get adequate sleep. Some don't worry about it and go to bed normally. They feel that the ocean is so big that the chance of a collison are not worth worrying about or if a collision is eminent, the other ship will take the necessary evasive action. I don't share that opinion. Others stay on watch at night and then sleep during the day thinking that they will be much more visible then and other ships will certainly see them. I don't think that is adequate either. Others take short naps during their watches, short being about 15 minutes. They set an alram to go off in fifteen minutes and then go to sleep. When the alram goes off they get up and check the horizon for ships, squalls, etc. The fifteen minutes seems to be consensus of the time a ship would need to come over the horizon and get you. To me that seems sort of long with the speeds the new ships are traveling. I do the fifteen minute nap process with a difference. I turn on the radar at each check and can thus see over the horizon. I can generally see traffic, or squalls, that are twentyfour miles away on radar but rarely see ships visually before they are within twelve miles. This seems to be an effective was to handle the watch while still getting some sleep although last night I got nearly no sleep and didn't feel too good today.

I covered 85 nautical miles today and made it another 41 nautical miles further south.

Dec 5, 2005

The fifteen minute sleep periods seem to be working much better last night. I got some sleep but had a chafing problem. Chafe is always a problem on a saiboat because of all the lines and the movement between all the differnt parts. This chafe was between my shoulder, back, butt and the sides of the companionway. I had been trying to sleep in a chair I built that hangs in the companionway. This allows me to be protected by the hard dodger in bad weather but still be able to see the radar and GPS which are located under the dodger. The problem is that when the boat is heeled, my shoulders or back would rub on the sides of the companionway. Combine that with the constant pitching as we go over the waves and I rapidly developed some sore spots. I finally started going below for my fifteen minute naps. It was not a comfortable feeling being down there while Bella Vita sailed herself but if I'm sleeping, wheher I'm in the cockpit or below really doesn't matter. Getting the most of those 15 minute naps is what's important. Once I made peace with being below, I got much more sleep and actually felt quite good this morning.

I made it to Cat Island this morning just before sunrise. I came up to the cockpit with my breakfast and there it was. A pretty sunrise and I was past the first two waypoints with no problem. These were ones that I measured and entered and there is always that slight uneasyness that I may have made a mistake. No problems and I was once again sailing in the lee of an island in that beautiful aqua water. I had about 25 miles to go to New Bight where I planned to anchor.

As I reached New Bight I realized that I had only seen two other boats since reaching Cat Island. One was a sailboat that was completely ashore and out of the water sitting on the sand. Maybe someone was using it as a vacation house. The other was a landing craft that they use for inter-island shipping. The anchorage where I am anchored is said in the crusing guide to the best in the island but it was completely empty. It is a great anchorage. Most of it is eight to ten feet deep with a white sand bottom. I could see the anchor set from the deck and I could see about a half a dozen sand dollars from deck.

The trip from Little Harbour to New Bight was 209 miles and took two days and 3.5 hours. I was surprised that I covered that many miles with the light winds. It was so much more pleasant than the trip from NC to Abaco.

I'll probably stay here for a couple of days looking around and of course, working on the boat. Larry Pardy said in one of their books that crusing is hard work. He is certainly right about that but the pleasures make it worth while. I don't think I was much more than fifty miles from land at any time on this trip but it seemed that I was in my own very large beautiful world.

I covered 80 nautical miles today and made it another 47 nautical miles further south.

Dec. 6, 2005

I was a little slow getting going this morning but finally dinghied into town. The cruising guide said to tie up at the government pier but there didn't seem to be too much left of it so I just pulled pulled the dinghy up onto the beach. A brief stop at the police station for some info and I was off to find Idelle, the baker, for some fresh bread. I walked through most of the town and saw all the high points, the Shell station, the telephone company, the boutique (closed), and lots of ruins but no Idelle. There are a lot of old stone house like the one shown here. It seems strange that they don't raze them and use the stone to fill in some of the swamp land. There is not a lot in New Bight but it is pretty and the people are really friendly. One of the local ministers stopped his truck and talked for a while filling me in on some of the island's history followed by a short commercial announcement for his store. Nearly everyone that drove by would wave and I think all but one person said hello as we passed. That guy was involved with his smoke which didn't smell like a Marlboro. I eventually found out that Idelle got sick and is not baking any more and that Olive is now baking bread. Olive's house is almost across the street from where I had the dinghy so the couple of miles I walked were at least good exercise. Olive had one loaf of bread left and three in the oven. I bought the one loaf, dropped it off at the dinghy and took my gas can to the Shell for dinghy gas. I don't think I have paid over $5.00/ gallon before. At least those two gallons will last for quite a while.

By that time it was lunch time and I had a good part of my morning purchase for lunch, the bread not the gas. It was pretty good and I'll have to get some more. After lunch I decided to walk to the Hermitage.

The hermitage was built by Father Jerome sometime I think in the 1940's. He was an architect and priest who spent most of his life in the Bahamas building or rebuilding churches. He designed and built the Hermitage for his retirement home. It is sited on the top of the highest hill on the island and overlooks the Atlantic and Exuma Sound. From the boat it looked really impressive and I was anxious to see it. It turns out that it is only about a half mile from town because it is so small! There are three rooms plus a "guest house" and the largest, the chapel, is about 8 x 10 feet. The guest room is maybe 6 x 8 feet and the other two rooms are smaller that that. I had to duck and turn sideways to get through the doors. It does have a bell tower with a bell that likewise is scaled down. The walk up was not too bad. They have built a road to the bottom of the hill and from there you go up narrow path.

There is an "Easy Way" but it didn't look like it had been used for a few years. I guess sometimes the easy way is not the best way.

The path up, the "Hard Way," is lined with the Stations of the Cross and a replica of Jesus's tomb with the stone rolled away. All are carved in stone and set in laid up stone structures. Part of the path up is hard with very steep, narrow stone steps on the face of the bedrock. All of this was done by Father Jerome, a very dedicated and talented individual.

I have no closeup pictures of it since my camera battery died just as I got there and my backup doesn't seem to work any more. I shot some video and will post some pic's from those sometime.

No Sailing today.

Dec 7,2005

Another day of working on the boat. Today I disassembled the wind vane, cleaned it and reassembled it with new lubricant. I tryed using it on the way down here from Abaco and there was so much friction that I don't think it could have steered in a gale. I also replaced the bevel gears with the ones from my spare unit. A customer of the guy I bought the boat from had an Aries unit that had been damaged but was almost all there. He gave to me to use for spares. This was the first time I have used any of it and was certainly glad to have it. The gears on the old unit had deteriorated until most of the teeth were gone. This left so much backlash that I don't think it ever could have worked well even with no friction. The 'new' gears are stainless and look like new gears. It now moves with a mere breath of wind and I think it should work well. It will be nice to have self steering that does not use power. Since I lost the blade from the wind generator, I have been trying to conserve power since I hate to run the engine just to charge the batteries. I'll try out the wind vane when I leave here.

I went ashore for lunch to the brand new Resturant Row. That is the group of small buildings along the beach in the picture at left. Each building is about 12 x 12 feet and mostly open on the road side. These have been open for about two months now and was quite the event when they opened with the Prime Minister coming to speak. I had some chicken curry, rice, vegtables and salad which was all very good. I ate at one of the little tables under the palms with my new friends Peter and Carly. Peter was putting away the Guiness pretty quickly and Carly had put away plenty of something already. They were natives of Cat Island and still love it there. I'd guess they were in thier early fifties but it's hard for me to tell ages. Had a great lunch and enjoyed the conversation. The large building to the left of the small huts is the sailing club. It seems like they use it during August when they have a big regatta here. I have yet to see a sailboat here although I did see a runabout yesterday. The red things on the beach are bags of conch shells they are shipping to Nassau. The John Bull chain makes them into lamps and sells them in their stores.

Bella Vita is still the only boat in the harbor. This is certainly one of the nicest anchorages I have seen. The water is so clear I saw a starfish and a bunch of sand dollars on the bottom from the deck of my boat. It's so nice and yet so deserted I keep thinking I've found my way into a Steven King movie and that something wierd is going to happen. Not sure when I will leave here. Maybe tomorrow if the weather report looks good. I think my next stop will be at Conception Island which is being preserved in it's primitive natural state by the Bahamas National Trust. There are no people or facilities of any kind but great snorkeling and dinghy exploring. It is an easy days sail from Cat Island.

No sailing today.

Dec. 9, 2005

I got up this morning thinking that I might be able to leave today but after listening to the weather forecast, thought better of it. The forecast was for gale force winds and high seas. I think I'll wait antoher day.

I did get the wind vane hooked up. I had cleaned the unit a couple of days ago but did not get the lines connected until today. I really like the unit. It is a true Rube Goldberg contraption. It is an Aries that was made in England. I think they are still in production but made somewhere else in Europe now. From what I have read about windvanes, it sounds like the Aries and the Monitor are the two best. I ran new lines and replaced the blocks so the whole system is now very free moving. I'll try it out tomorrow if the weather co-operates.

Didn't do a whole lot else today. Went to the grocery store this morning, a little over a mile each way, and went back ashore this afternoon for a loaf of Olive's coconut bread. Other than that, it was a pretty quiet day. It's a little windy in the harbor but still in the upper 70's and sunny. Actually it's really windy and there is a pretty stiff chop. The dinghy handles the rough water better than I thought it would. I made it to shore and back twice without getting wet. I would like to have more power on it. Two HP is just not quite enough to get it up on a plane.

Wed night right before dark I was sitting in the cockpit when I was buzzed by a helicopter. It was going up the shore but when it saw me in the harbor, it turned and came out to check me out. It appeared to be a military unit of some sort but I couldn't see any markings on it. I assumed it was US on loan or working with the Bahamian government for drug running control. It came by again tonight but didn't bother to detour out to see me. Still couldn't see any markings and it was flying without any lights on.

I'm planning on leaving tomorrow morning so I got the boat ready for sailing tonight.

Dec. 10, 2005

On the road again! Well at least on the water. I left New Bight this morning about 7:32. The weather forecast was for 10-15 knot winds and 5-8 foot seas. That sounded really good except that the wind was from the E-SE which is where I want to go. As I left the winds were very light, closer to 5 knots than 15. I'm hoping that they will improve once I get out of the bight and into the open seas. It's about ten miles across the bight so I had plenty of time to play with the wind vane. The winds was just too light for it to work reliably, at least I hope that's what the problem is.

As soon as I got around the SW point of the island, the winds picked up nicely. I motorsailed across the bight and and still motorsailing to charge the batteries and so I can point higher. I setup the Aries after I was clear of the reefs along the southern part of Cat Island. I have never used one of these before so I'm not real sure how they should be setup. After a few minutes of fiddling, it was steering the boat. I used rolling hitches to connect the lines to the tiller and once I got them tight enough, it started to work! It steers much better that the autopilot although it does require that the boat be well balanced and it also needs a pretty good wind. I think it can be improved and I'll keep tweaking it. The winds were generally in the 10-15 knot range with about 6 foot seas as forecast and I had a great sail reaching Conception Island in one tack. Conception island is a lot different that what I expected. It is much more substantial with some high limestone cliffs and some much taller hills that I thought there would be. The chart of course just shows the plan view so it can't convey the height but it looked like the island was mostly swamp on the chart. There were three other boats in the West Bay where I anchored. I was expecting to have it all to myself! Maybe they will leave tomorrow to go back to work.

The weather forecast calls for a cold front to move through here late Sun night and to stall out over the Turks and Caicos. That would be ideal because it would give me two days of N to NE winds. In two days I can be at, or at least near, Mayaguana Island. That will probably be the last of the Bahama islands I go to this trip so I can clear customs there and head for the Dominican Republic. I'll probably stay there for a couple of weeks to reprovision and pick up a few things for the boat before heading on south.

Another great day of sailing. Bella Vita is quite comfortable at least in moderate seas like I had today. She has enough displacement that waves don't tend to slow her down and she is relatively dry. Today was a swim suit sail so what little spray there was didn't matter. The winds behind the island were so light that I was worried that the anchor wouldn't set so I dove to check it out. From the track in the sand you could see where the anchor had landed on it's side, turned over and buried both flanks in about six feet.

That is the first time I've been in the water this trip and it is almost warm enough. A couple more degrees and I won't need a wet suit for snorkling.

I covered 47 nautical miles today and made it another 25 nautical miles south.

Dec. 11, 2005

I got the dinghy together this morning and explored a little bit of Conception Island. Near the north end where I am anchored, the island is very narrrow and there is just a small limestone cliff between the Atlantic Ocean and the West Bay. There is a large reef that goes several miles north and is supposed to have really great diving and snorkling. I didn't want to take my dinghy through the beaking waves, or that far away, so I snorkled on the closer part and the coral is the nicest I've seen in the Bahamas. Further south the island gets much wider and there is a large mangrove swamp in the middle of the island. A person could spend several days here and not get bored.

With the expectation of great sailing weather for the next few days, I got the dinghy aboard and mostly ready to leave in the morning after I catch the weather forecast on the SSB.

No sailing today.

Dec. 12, 2005

During the night the front came through and the winds swung through almost 360 degrees. The cruising guide warns against waiting out westerlies here. Several boats have been washed onto the beach since there is no protection from the west. The winds last night just swung through the west and did not blow long enough to set up westerly waves. I got up early and caught the Caribbean weather net on the SSB and he said the front was expected to stall over the Turks and Caicos giving N to NE winds of 10 to 15 Kt through Thursday. That sounded great so I got under way about 7:30. The winds were really light during the morning, as forecast, so I motorsailed for a while and then turned off the engine and sailed.

As I was planning my route I seemed to remember that it is not necessary to clear out of the Bahamas if going south or to the US. I researched this some and decided that it was the case and I did not have to stop in any more of the Bahamas. With the forecasted N to NE winds it looked like I could get to Luperon in the Dominican Republic by riding behind that front so I planned a course that would take me north of Rum Cay, Samana Cay and Mayaguana (Bahamian islands) and then past the Turks and Caicos. I would take advantage of the N wind and get directly north of Luperon before turning south.

The winds picked up nicely during the morning and I was soon past Rum Cay. Most of the southern Bahamian islands are undeveloped and sparsely populated. Also their anchorages are not very good or are very diffucult to enter with lots of coral heads to dodge. So I had no reason to stop at any of them.

About the time I passed the eastern reef off Rum Cay I saw something in the water directly in front of the boat. Thinking it was either a large dolphin or a whale, I grabbed the cam-corder and waited for it's reappearance. I saw it a couple more times but I didn't get a good look so I could tell what it was and them it came up right beside the boat. It was definetly a whale. I'd guess it was 25 to 30 feet long which I guess is not really big by whale standards but it certainly looked big enough to cause some damage if it wanted to. I was shooting some video of Rum Cay when I remembered reading somewhere that Feb is mating season for whales near some of the southern Bahamas and that maybe I could see some whales. This one started swimming back and forth under the boat and I was getting a little nervous. It was not acting agressive, although I'm not sure what an agressive whale would act like. I have read about whales attacking boats and sinking them so I was read for this guy to leave but he seemed pretty interested in Bella Vita. I started the engine thinking that the noise would bother him and cause him to leave. He stuck around for a while but did soon disappear. It took quite a while for me to get comfortable that he was gone. Even though I couldn't see him, he could still be swimming under the boat.. I was glad that I was able to see him but would prefer that future sightings have a little more space between us. Other than a few flying fish, that's the only living thinkg I saw today.

Samana Cay is considered by many to be the first place that Columbus landing on his first trip. That is its only claim to fame and I was not interested enough to stop, actually I did not even go close enough to see it.

Dec. 14, 2005

I sailed all day and night yesterday and today. Conditions were great with nice winds, 10 to 15 Kt, and calm seas. The only problem was that it got cold. It was down to about 72 and I had to get a long sleeve shirt on to keep warm. Shortly after dark, the winds picked up and the seas soon did too. I hadn't reduced sail in the evening becasue of the mild forecasat so got ready to do it in slightly rough conditions. I dropped the Genoa and mizzen, hoisted the # 1 Jib and put one reef in the main. Speeds soon dropped to a more comfortable 6 to 7 Kt but the 6 to 8 foot seas made it uncomfortable. However there was a full moon. I was really surprised at how light it was. I didn't check the output of the solar cells but it wouldn't surprised me to see some output!

I thought that as soon as I turned south around the Turks and Caicos, I would no longer have the seas on my beam and that the ride would get more comfortable. About the time I made the turn, I hit the front edge of the stalled front and the winds shifted to the east putting the waves on my port beam again. Oh well, at least I was making good time.

The only one of the Turks and Caicos I saw was Grand Turk which I passed right about sunset. The bumbs on the horizon are the island. The remainder of the sail that night was uneventfull and by morning I was approaching the coast of the Dominican Republic, or at least I thought I was. There was a series of storms that completely hid the island. The DR is mountainous but the storms didn't clear enough to see the island until I was within about twenty miles. I had made a few miles of easting during the night in preperation for the east winds and the westward flowing current. It turned out I didn't need them and ended up sailing west to get downwind of the harbour entrance allowing me to turn upwind to drop the sails. There was still a large swell running and I wasn't sure that I would be able to enter the harbor. Bruce Van Sant in his book "Passages South," said not to enter after 8:30 in the morning but no reasons why. It was about 10:30 when I reached the entrance but didn't see anything that should be a problem. As I approached the harbor the swells stopped, thanks to a nice reef on each side, and the ride in was easy. Well, almost easy. The inner harbor where the boats anchor, and where all the facilities are, is through a deep but narrow channel. In the chart in Van Sant's book, there are posts marking the channel. I mistimed my turn in and ended up on the mud shoal, quite well attached to the bottom, right about where one of the marker posts was supposed to be. I couldn't power off so I started to put the dinghy into the water to seek out some local advice. About that time one of the cruisers saw me and dinghied out to see if he could help. In a matter of minutes, there were about half a dozen dinghies around me pushing and pulling. We tried pulling on the main halyard to the top of the mast to heel the boat but nothing worked. It was currently about low tide so I decided to wait and let Mother Nature get me off. About 5:30, I started to float but was still stuck in the hole in mud my keel had made. A call to the harbor and I was soon surrounded by dinghies again. This time heeling the boat with a halyard was enough to free me and I was soon back in the channel. I was guided into the harbor and to an anchorage where I dropped anchor for the night. The cruisers here are incredily friendly and helpful. I've talked to one who has been here for 6 years and shows no interest in leaving. Others have been here for a few months on thier trips south but again don't seem to interested in leaving.

This is a beautiful anchorage. Van Sant says it looks more like a Swiss lake than a sea harbour. It is surrounded by wooded hills with very little of the town visible from anchor and through the entrance channel (see photo) all you see is more hills. This is where Martin Pinzon anchored after he stole the Pinta from Columbus. I will clear customs in the morning and do some exploring.

Since I left Conception Island, three days and 4 hours ago, not counting the rest on the shoal, I covered 379 nautical miles and made it 243 nautical miles further south and one time zone to the east.

Dec. 16, 2005

I went into Luperon this morning to clear in. This consists of Customs, Imigration, Agriculure (?) and the Navy. Of course they all have their fees. Overall the process wasn't too bad. The people were friendly and the only problem was the language. I need to learn some Spanish. Not many people here speak much English.

Luperon was a bit of a surprise to me. It has a definite third world aura about it and was a bit of a flashback to some of the small villages I saw in the far east. The streets are narrow and busy, a lot of the shops are very small and look like they are in someones house. I don't think I have ever seen people riding horses through town before. I haven't seen all of the town yet and was planning on a shopping trip this afternoon for some basics and to checkout some of the stores. Across from the town dinghy dock, there is a group of mangroves that is home to a whole flock of egrets. I have no idea why they all choose this particular ares to roost. They eat insects mainly from the local farms so their food intake is not dependent on the harbor.

The Agriculture inspector is coming to the boat at 3:00 today to check my provisions. Not sure what to exect from him. Maybe there will still be time after that to get into town. It sounds like everything closes from 12:00 to 2:00 for siesta. I think I'll fit in here.

The Agriculture inspectors did come today. It was the same people I talked to in town this morning but they had a different set of forms to be filled out and a couple more fees to collect. The inspection consisted of looking at the onions I had left over from the Bahamas. Oh yea, they also took my garbage to make sure it went into the "International" garbage container instead of the "Domestic" container. Again the people were very nice and we made it through the language problems.

After they left, I was starting to go into town when a squall came through. I decided to take my siesta instead of shopping. Better late than never and I can shop "maņana." I think there is a place where I can get online and get this uploaded.

Dec. 24, 2005

I'm still here in Luperon. This is a great anchorage. The town of Luperon leaves a little to be desired as far as getting the necessities for life on a boat. Things like food and milk can be a little tough to get. Milk is available as UHT, or shelf milk, or as powdered milk but I haven't found any skim yet in either type. I guess the reason milk is not sold much is because the power is not very reliable. They seem to get between 10 and 12 hours of power a day. I have not seen anyplace that is airconditioned here although I have seen AC units on various buildings. Just because they have an AC unit doesn't mean that it works. I walked over the hill to the coast this afternoon. On the way I passed two deserted hotel complexes, one quite large. There is a large resort on the ocean that looks really nice if you don't look to close. There are two big pools and lots of facilities but it just had a look that it was mostly empty although the pink flamingos are real. There are a lot of little maintenance things that need to be done but somehow never seem to be finished. The landscaping was nice but again could be really nice with a little more effort. There is also another yacht club that was started but never finished. The story is that they failed to get clear title to a key piece of land for the project and the owners were asking way too much for it. There are a lot of things here that just do not work and a lot of businesses that have failed. But the people have all been friendly. I have a problem since I don't speak Spanish and very few of the Dominicans speak English. I went into town today and there were pigs being roasted everywhere. That seems to be the traditional Christmas dinner here. They certanly smelled good.

The cruising population here is quite large and active. Some have been here for up to six years and many have been here for over a year. Some have basically become residents and bought homes but even then they stay involved with the cruising community. Last night we had a reading of "The Christmas Story" at the yacht club done by the cruisers. I even had a couple of parts. It was a lot of fun and turned out really well. Tonight there is a candlelight service and then carolling from the dinghies followed by a hot dog roast on the beach. It's hard to remember it's almost Christmas when it is in the mid eighties. Tomorrow the Luperon Yacht Club, where most of the activities take place, is having a Christmas dinner aimed primarily at the cruisers. In the afternoon there is a "concert" in town with three bands. It's mainly for the local people but the boat people were invited.

Not sure how long I'll stay here. It sounds like there is a good weather window starting Monday to go to Puerto Rico. Not sure that I'll take it but I'm getting the boat ready just in case. Today I dove and cleaned the growth off the prop. Those nasty little things grow pretty fast. This is a Mangrove harbor which means that it is basically lined with mangrove swamp. Therefore there are a lot of nutrients in the water and stuff grows fast.

Dec. 25,2005

I guess I could say Merry Christmas but it would be sort of silly since it is way past Christmas if you are reading this. Regardless, I hope you had a great Chrsitmas and will have a happy 2006.

Christmas morning I went to town to use the phone to call family and friends. There was a surprising amount of activity for Christmas day. It was, as normal, in the mid eighties.

I went to the yacht club for dinner with some of the other boat people. The term "boat people" somehow reminds me of Vietnam. The other "cruisers" and I had a great dinner with caviar, pate, roast goose with apple stuffing, roast turkey with stuffing, roast ham, potatoes, squash, fresh rolls and nut bread, pie and coffee. Janet at the club worked for days and did a great job.

I started to get the boat ready for the sea since the weather report continues to look good for a Monday departure. I'll catch the morning wather report on the SSB before deciding.

Dec. 26, 2005

I got up early this morning to catch the weather just as the nearest boat was raising anchor to leave for Puerto Rico. After listening to the weather I decided to go too but customs didn't open until 8:00 so I would be making a little later start than I would have liked. By the time I went to town, bought some bread and other stuff, cleared customs, immigation and the Navy, it was about 10:00. I finally go under way about 11:00.

The weather forecast was for a cold front to stall just past DR. This would give me N to NW winds so I could reach most of the way to PR. It was very calm when I left and unfortunately stayed that way until late Wed morning. I got about two hours of sailing in by then and motored or motorsailed for nearly two days. As I finally got around the eastern end of the DR, the winds started to pick up and I was able to sail. They were still light and I only averaged about 4.5 Kts but it was so nice without the engine running. Not only do I not like to motor but I wasn't sure how much fuel I had left. Bella Vita has two tanks, the top one of about 38 gallons that drains in to the bottom tank of about 30 gallons. Like most sail boats, there is no fuel gage so the only way to check the amount of fuel left is to stick a stick into the tank and measure it. That's OK for the top tank but the plug in the bottom tank will have pressure on it until the top tank is empty so you need to be carefull when checking the bottom tank. One time I had a leak at this plug. It is worn and difficult to assure that it is sealed so I avoid removing this plug if possible. I calculated that I had fuel to run for about 50 hours which should be plenty but I wanted to be sure I had fuel to enter the harbour in PR so I motorsailed slowly, between 4 and 5 knots, trying to conserve fuel. Well, I made it here with no problems. Today I checked the fuel in the bottom tank and found that I still had about 23 gallons left. I don't have enough data yet to know what the fuel consumption is although it looks like it is less than 0.5 gal/hour at least while motorsailing. I have enough left to get to Poncee even if I have to motor all the way.

As I approached PR, where the lee of the island is supposed to ease the winds, it picked up to about 20 Kts. I was doing over 7 Kts much of the last few hours and saw over 8 once. But then at about 10 miles from the harbor the wind died and I had to motor the rest of the way. What should have been about a 48 hour sail took about 59 hours and I pulled into Boqueron harbor on the south-west corner of PR at about 10:30 pm. The moon was not up yet and it was very dark. I could see reflections on the water from the lights along the shore so I could tell there were no boats in front of me but could not see much else. Suddenly an anchor light came on about 100 feet to my right on a boat that I had not seen. I went a lttle past that boat and dropped my anchor because I did not want to get caught in the midst of a bunch of anchored boats in the dark. In the morning, I found that I was still about a half mile from the shore and the other boats that were anchored in the normal anchorage close to shore. The boat with the anchor light must have come in late and anchored out like I did. It's nice out here but it is a bit of a trip in the dinghy to get to town. If I decide to stay here for a while, I'll probably move closer to shore.

I got the dinghy assembled, the engine mounted and grabbed my papers to go clear customs. Bruce Van Sant, that's him reading in the picture above, says that you can do it via the phone if you have a Homeland Security decal, which I have. This was one reason that I came to Boqueron since I would not have to go to customs which is further north in Mayaguez. I called them and was told that of course I would have to go to Mayaguez to clear. So, I was off to find transportation to Mayaguez, about 10-15 miles. I had no small bills for the taxi, they use American money here, so was trying to find a place to brake a $100 bill when I ran into Abdulio. He was doing some work on an apartment and said that he would take me there, wait and bring me back for $20. PR has public transportation that goes from one town to another and to one stop in each town for only $1.50 per leg. It would be three legs each way plus waiting and trying to find the Customs House once I got to Mayaguez. Abdulio was about twice what the publicos would be but there would be no waiting so I agreed. On the way up I was beginning to wonder what I had gotten myself into when he turned off the main road onto a narrow, quite isolated, road along the shore. He said he would give me a tour of some of the pretty areas of the island. Lots of thoughts were going through my mind, most not very pretty, until we came into downtown Mayaguez. He was right about it being pretty. There were what I would assume are million dollar plus houses overlooking the sea. Of course, almost next door are the "normal" houses. Th contrast was pretty extreme. He waited over an hour while I did customs and changed my DR money to American and brought me back to the dock. Needless to say I was quite relieved to be back 'home.' I grabbed a quick lunch of a couple of empanadillas, one lobster and one chicken, and a cold beer. Quite good.

Boqueron is sort of like a Luperon that has progessed about 50 years. There is a fair amount of traffic and a lot of tourist type things but it's still a very small town. This is a picture of the main "square" which is right at the dinghy dock. It's where I got my empanadillas and they are selling raw oysters or clams or something like that. The man under the white awning paints T-shirts with your picture, you supply a picture and he will paint it on a shirt. He said he had been doing it for 16 years and had done over 12,000 shirts. He has gotten quite good. The necessities are not easily available although there are large stores and all the American fast food places not too far out of town. There is what looks like a very nice condo developement with boat slips and water access thru a small drawbridge. I'm not sure what they cost but they look expensive and Abdulio said that things are very expensive in PR. On weekends the town is swamped with college kids here to party on the beach and I assume that it will be more so this weekend since it will be new years eve. I was thinking of moving closer to town but maybe I'll stay out here.