Tuesday, May 29, 2018

We made it!

I just want to say up front that seven and half days at sea is about 6 and half days too many for me!  We sailed from the eastern side of Puerto Rico to Marsh Harbour in the Abacos in the Bahamas, leaving early in the morning of May 22 and arriving in the afternoon at the Conch Inn Marina today, March 29.

On Monday, March 21, we left Puerto Del Rey Marina and sailed five miles east to Isla Los Palominos (didn't see any palominos), where we anchored for the night.  It was lovely.  I snorkled after we anchored and I snorkeled in the morning before we left.  For me, one of the great advantages of owning our own boat is access to snorkeling sites.  For Peter, on the other hand, it's all about the sailing, and the boat provides endless entertainment for an engineer.

Sunset at Isla Los Palominos
Enjoying a beer and a meal on deck
We thought we would sail for two or three days and then spend a bit of time in the Turks and Caicos. It did not turn out that way.  The good news is that neither of us became seasick; we seem to have our sea legs back.  Although the seas were 4-6 feet, the waves were consistently coming from the same direction as the wind.  We were on a broad reach almost the whole time (the wind was behind us, you landlubbers!) so we had following waves.  There were times over the week when the waves got up to 8-10 feet, but we were still comfortable.  The wind speed was great, 15-20 knots, sometimes up to 25 knots.  Mantra can handle that easily, even without a reef in the mainsail (although we did put a reef in for safety overnight a few nights).  We easily averaged 8 knots while sailing, and I saw it get above 12 knots! This was exhilarating!

However, I can only stand so much excitement--if you want to call it that.  Even at a good speed, the voyage got monotonous.  The cobalt to navy blue sea stretched in all directions, highlighted by a few whitecaps.  Rarely, another vessel could be spotted, but otherwise we were alone.  I love reading, but I cannot do that for hours and hours a day.  I could play games such as Scrabble or gin, but Peter was only humoring me by playing.  I spent a lot of time sleeping.  At night, on watch, there was a lot of time to think about the ways in which sound is generated by wind and waves and other natural phenomena and other esoteric things.  (If a wave breaks in the ocean and no one is there to hear it, does the sound exist?  Ideas from college philosophy courses and the thoughts of George Berkeley, the 18th century Irish philosopher, came to my mind in the darkness.)

One way of dealing with the monotony
In contrast, Peter was never bored.  He could always find something to contemplate about the boat and sailing if he was not actually jumping up to tweak the sails or rearrange something.  I have no idea how anyone who is not an excellent engineer takes care of his boat.  Peter does not just putter around the boat.  He inspects, he takes pre-emptive action, he maintains, he repairs, he improves, and he spends time examining and learning everything possible about the rigging, the engine, the generator, the sails, the numerous electronics and all the systems.  There is always something that is intellectually and/or physically challenging for him.  I really appreciate his capabilities, his diligence and his hard work.  But, it also means that he is always occupied while I am bored to tears at time.

The view from Mantra between Puerto Rico and the Turks and Caicos
We have definitely determined that I am not psychologically compatible with passage-making.  I will not be sailing the boat to Europe or the South Pacific, although I am more than willing to take a flight to wherever Peter takes Mantra when land is within a day's reach.

We reached Grand Turk after a couple of days and dropped anchor on the leeward side shortly before sunset.  After finishing the log and tidying up the lines, I opened the stern gate, grabbed the snorkeling gear (and Peter this time) and swam around near the boat.  The water in the Turks and Caicos is crystal clear, with different depths revealing various shades and values of blues and greens.  We saw a baracuda, rays, fish and a small turtle missing a back flipper.  It was wonderful to not be moving, and the anchorage was comfortable.  Cockburn Town on Grand Turk looked like a lovely place, and we would have gone to shore, but we could not raise customs and immigration on the radio, so we finally gave up and set sail again the next morning (after I had snorkeled again and Peter had amused himself with the boat).

Grand Turk
Peter altered our plan from sailing to the Abacos directly to include a stop partway there, at Mayaguana in the Bahamas.  The seas became higher but not uncomfortable and the wind stayed constant.  I was able to read and play anagram by myself, but not all my waking hours.  I felt trapped on the high seas!

Another couple of days brought us to Abraham's Bay on Mayaguana.  I am not sure that I would call it a bay; it was a long reef offering some protection from the sea but not the 20-25 knots of wind.  Even the seas were choppy in this bay.  We decided not to stay.  I would have snorkeled, but there was only patchy sunlight and the chop was not inviting.  Peter fixed a couple of things, we pulled up anchor and set off again, with gray weather around us.

Same North Atlantic, different location
By two nights ago, we were both tired, and in the middle of the night we made a couple of small errors with the running rigging while tacking.  After a couple of attempts of tacking under sail, which should have run smoothly, we turned on the engine to get way.  Then, in addition to our other flubs, such as forgetting to loosen the running backstay, I did not turn the engine off properly.  It was off, but the gearing was stuck in forward.  It wasn't until hours later, during daylight hours, that we realized that this had occurred, when we tried to use the engine again and couldn't move the gear shifter from reverse to neutral.  The prop being stuck in the wrong position most of the night had slowed us down by a knot or two, meaning we could not make it Marsh Harbour during daylight hours on May 28, our goal.  After motoring for three hours yesterday, we did make it into the Sea of Abaco and anchored off Tilloo Cay, but we were still bound to the boat and the surrounding water because we had not cleared customs and immigrations.  When Peter asked me what I wanted to do next, I told him I wanted to catch the next plane out of Marsh Harbour!  It was not a joyous 24th wedding anniversary.

Today is a better day.  We got off the boat!  We are now at Conch Inn Marina, the same marina where we rented a catamaran three years ago.  (That was a great vacation on the water with friends but it convinced us that we are monohull sailors.)  After clearing customs and immigration, we were able to leave the marina.  We had to walk to the Customs office in order to check out immediately after checking in since we are leaving in the morning.  We also had to find an ATM in town to cover the costs of clearing in ($300) and then clearing out ($75).  After all the official business was taken care of, we bought some groceries and then called a taxi to take us to the marina.  The very friendly driver took us to the bakery and the beer store on the way back.  (The grocery store does not have fresh bread or alcohol--or a deli section or meals to go, for that matter)  We could and did buy a case of Diet Coke at the grocery store.  We had not bought any in Puerto Rico, and the lack of my favorite beverage was definitely a hardship for me on the weeklong journey here.  Even though Peter hates that I drink it, even he agrees that it is necessary at this time.

Peter enjoying lunch and a local beer at Snappa's

Monday, May 21, 2018

This is it!

We are really, really setting sail in just an hour or so.  Peter has whittled down his list of tasks, and the boat is ready.  The weather is gorgeous--sunny, wind 10-15 knots, waves at only 4-6 feet.  We are heading to Las Palominos this afternoon and then setting sail for the Turks and Caicos at dawn tomorrow.  That should be a two-day sail.  After a brief rest, we sail for the Bahamas, probably San Salvador Island then Lucaya.  After that, we will probably catch the Gulf Stream for the Chesapeake Bay.  We have reservations at a marina in Baltimore.  Close enough for East Coast people to stop by for a day sail or even a few days on board.

Another benefit of delaying our departure, in addition to an improvement in the weather, is that I saw manatees in the waters of the marina this morning.  Unfortunately, they dove underwater before I could pull out my iPhone, and I couldn't find where they resurfaced.  Thus, no photos!


Sunday, May 20, 2018

We are STILL in Puerto Rico

Yesterday afternoon, it seemed that we would have everything ready to be able to sail on Sunday (today), but by the evening, Peter decided that there were a few more items on his ever-growing list of tasks (which seems always to happen with boats).

While I went to the deli in the marina (for the best Internet service) to research and book a dock at a marina in the Chesapeake Bay for most of the summer, Peter set to work on his projects.  He called me about 1 p.m. to say he needed help and maybe lunch.  This is what I found when I returned to Mantra:


What you see here are the spaces under the sole (floor) where pipes and wires run and where some of the bilge pumps are located.  Peter had ascertained that the bilge pump visible by the bright glare of the tropical sunlight was not working properly because there was a blockage in the line somewhere.  He also discovered some original design flaws and a bad solution to a sump pump problem which had only created more problems!  So, we had to find something that might dissolve the blockage, wherever it was.  The previous owners left a plethora of cleaning supplies, parts, tools and other useful items, but we had not seen any bilge cleaner.  Of course, we had not looked everywhere because the boat, like most yachts, has an abundance of spaces (some of them requiring the skills of a contortionist to access--that would be Peter, not me) for storage.  We decided to look in the aft lazarette.  Peter climbed in and handed bottles and tins of polish, solvents, cleaners, rust removers and other useful chemicals as well as loads of brushes and cleaning cloths and sponges to me, looking for bilge cleaner.  He read all the labels as he handed them over and I made a pile.

Not finding what we needed, he set off to the chandlery to try to buy something that might work, and I took on the task of sorting through all the supplies.  I filled a kitchen garbage bag with unlabeled bottles, dried up polishes, brushes lacking most of the their bristles and damp clothes and organized the rest into fiberglass cleaner/wax, metal polish, solvents and miscellaneous.  Low and behold, I discovered a bottle of bilge cleaner that Peter had missed because the printing on the label was faded and scratched.  I called him with the good news, particularly good since the chandlery was closed and the little store didn't have what we needed (although they suggested that barnacle remover might work!).  

As we waited for the bilge cleaner to do its work, Peter worked on other things and I tried out one of the rust removers on the wheel and some of the rails.  It worked!  Then Peter asked me if I had found anything that would clean the sticky residue off the water hose, so I tried out a multipurpose cleaner with instructions stating that it would clean just about anything.  I could clean floors with a 1:60 mixture of cleaner to water or strip paint by using it fairly undiluted.  Who knows what this stuff contains!  Without measuring, I put some in a pan of water and used one of the many brushes I found to meticulously clean about 60 feet of hose.  It seemed better, but, hey, we also have an abundance of mold and mildew cleaner, so I dumped some of that on it also.  Although it is not like new, it is in much better shape than when I started.  

After I made dinner and we consumed it on the table on the aft deck (Peter has been wondering why so much attention is lavished on interior design on yachts when all of us yachties spend as much time as we can on deck.), we got to work on the bilge pump lines.  Peter did some pounding and jiggling of the lines to help dislodge things and then we pumped buckets and buckets of dirty water and gunk out.  Success!  The lines seem to be clear.  

By the end of that task, it was 11 p.m., so we are leaving the floorboards and baseboards off and putting things back together and cleaning up in the morning.  

Then--maybe--we will set off.  At least the weather has calmed down a bit!

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Mantra Photos

Here are some photos of our new boat.  The weather is lovely today!

Mantra in a slip at Puerto Del Rey Marina in Fajardo, PR
Peter lashing down jerrycans on the foreward deck
Mantra's pilot house, bimini and solar panels
Interior of the pilot house
Forward cabin
Dining table in the saloon
Galley, saloon and forward cabin
Galley, nav table, saloon and forward cabin








Still in Puerto Rico

We remain in Puerto Del Rey.  Yesterday, there were intermittent showers, one squall and gusts up to 35 knots.  In a lull, we managed to get the jib on in preparation for sailing.  I thoroughly cleaned the aft cabin and the head, laundered all the linens, and swabbed the decks and the cockpit.  Peter is busy checking all the systems and making some minor changes and repairs. (There are always repairs!)  We are going through our checklist before setting off tomorrow.

I woke up in the middle of the night and then could not get to sleep again, worrying.  I am uneasy about getting seasick again, as the seas from the east are 5 to 7 feet with occasional seas up to 9 feet, with a 7 second interval.  In addition there are northeast swells up to 4 feet!  However, the swells should dissipate by Monday and the seas get down to 4 to 6 feet.  Yes, there is a small craft advisory in effect through Sunday evening, but that hasn't stopped us before!  Besides, Mantra is seaworthy and we are experienced.  I just hope Peter doesn't go overboard!!!

I will take photos of the interior and exterior of Mantra today and post some of them.  She is very similar to our former boat, Epicurus.  At 56 feet, she is just 6 feet shorter and she only has two cabins and one head, but she is still fairly spacious.

Our plan is to sail east (about 5 miles) to Isla Palominos, spend the day or the night there, depending on when we set off tomorrow, and then head straight for the Turks and Caicos, crossing the Puerto Rico Trench, the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean.  So, there may not be posts for a few days after today.  

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Puerto Rico

We spent most of Wednesday, May 16, traveling from Sacramento to San Juan, arriving around midnight.  I had reserved a car for a couple of days so that we could provision the boat.  When we arrived at the rental counter, things went quite slowly (after the agent finally located our reservation in the system!), not just for us but for other customers, for unclear reasons.  Finally, the agent leaned over the counter and whispered to us that they were trying to find a car for us as there were no cars left!  Did I freak, demand to know how that was possible when I had reserved a car weeks before?  No, believe it or not, I did not.  We are in the islands where everyone is chill.  Finally, we were told a car was ready.  We went outside and waiting for us was a brand new Ford F150 four-door monster with a sleak dark bronze paint job!  Not the economy car we had reserved, but we were happy to have a vehicle.

We arrived at Puerto del Rey Marina well after 2 a.m., went to our slip, unlocked Mantra and collapsed.  Today, we ran errands.  First we finished the application process (fingerprints and photo) for Global Entry Status with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.  Luckily, we didn't have time to make any comments when the agent asked if we had heard of San Juan's mayor, because she immediately trashed the mayor and made positive comments about Donald Trump.  We kept our lips sealed!  We received emails this evening stating we, silent subversives, are approved!

We loaded up on food and paper goods at Costco and Walmart and then returned to Mantra where I spent a couple of hours transferring everything from cardboard to plastic containers (to keep roach eggs out of the boat) and arranging the galley cupboards.  After dinner, we came to the marina terrace as there is no Internet service on the docks.  We've checked our emails, I've written this post and Peter has checked the weather for the next couple days. The waves are predicted to be higher than we would like, but the wind is perfect and we must move on.

Here is a photo showing the difficulties Puerto Ricans are still facing with electricity months after Hurricane Maria.

Vegetation has sprung back but the electricity infrastructure is still suffering

Now it's time to be rocked to sleep by the gentle surge in the marina.


Tuesday, May 15, 2018

We Sail Again!

Peter on the foredeck
Peter and I took the plunge and purchased another sailing yacht in March.  She is a boat designed by Steve Dashew, as was our beloved Epicurus.  Her name is Mantra of Glasgow, which explains this blog's name--in case you were thinking we were referring to a new interest in meditation.  Actually, sailing can be meditative under the right conditions.

These were not the conditions we experienced in late March, when we sailed her from Rodney Bay, Saint Lucia, to the U.S. Virgin Islands and then on to the Spanish Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.  I had never been seasick before, so I was surprised when I began to feel nauseous after the first couple of hours at sea.  The waves were not high, but they were coming from two different directions.  I probably would have been fine if I had not gone below and spent too much time down there.  I should have come back on deck the moment I started to feel queasy, but there were things to do.  Unfortunately, once seasickness sets in, it takes quite a while--hours or days!--to feel better.  After my first rush to the leeward side, I slapped on a scopolamine patch, but it took almost a day before the drug completed eliminated the nausea.  The boat didn't need much tending, but I was unable to stay alert (or even awake) much for watches, so poor Peter slept very little on the 48-hour passage.

After that, the trip went smoothly.  After a brief stop at St. Croix, we continued on to Culebra, where the anchorage was calm, the snorkeling was good and the sunset was gorgeous.

Sunset at Culebra
We ended up in Puerto del Rey Marina in Fajardo, where we left Mantra after a few days.  We had to be back in California the first week of April because my dad, my sister Beth Ann and my niece Rachael were coming to visit.

My dad stayed with us for four weeks.  I flew back with him to the east coast and then spent a couple of days with a good friend in Washington, D.C. before jetting home again on Thursday of last week.  Meanwhile, the kids have arrived home for the summer from college.

Now it is late Tuesday evening, and Peter and I fly to San Juan in the morning.  Over the next couple of weeks, we will sail in the Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas and, hopefully, get past the northern border of Florida by June 2, before the official start of hurricane begins, in order to avoid higher premiums on our boat insurance.  Our goal is to get her to the Chesapeake Bay before mid-June so that we can be home right before renovations on the swimming pool begin.  That will also give Peter a month and a half to finish his kayak training for the Great Eppie's Triathalon on July 21 and allow us to spend some time with Matthew before he flies to the UK in early July to visit relatives and then do a four-week course at the University of Glasgow.

We still have to pack our stuff in addition to books I have collected from neighbors to take back to Puerto Rico.  In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, because lack of electricity meant lack of air conditioning, many books in public and school libraries mildewed and had to be discarded.  I am hoping to contribute in a small way to rebuilding their collections.