Tuesday 26 May 2009

Caribbean Style



RUM Cay - Mayaguana for Lizzies Bday
2 tuna, 2 mahi-mahi and a couple of Wahu strikes




All dressed up as girls, bikinis, shelf butts and moustaches.. Mint
Of course the night ended with blood!

Ran out of fuel the next day.. 50 gallons yeah right.. luckily we had a load of fish to give away so managed to get that problem sorted out.

Nothing doing and the wind still having a northerly component we decided to continue to the Turks and Caicos Islands for a little English influence.

We were greeted with a gearbox empty of oil, and very friendly English couple and a very cheap marina!!

Birthday No.2 for the week.. Penny Ropati.
Penny wanted both the boats on the marina and a boozey lunch on the beach (the rumba) and a barby in the evening.

In true penny style she was the first one drinking (Jager and red bull) and leading the charge with tequila all arvo. This resulted eventually in Herby deciding he was a turtle and tying to ill the neighbouring boats guitar with stones (funnily enough we haven’t seen them much since).
Oh yeah for pennies birthday I shaved a Mohawk into my head,, the idea was soon taken up by Herby and Jake… she now had a bunch of complete Muppets to play with!!

Turks and Caicos was the source of cheap wine and some great hospitality by Simon and his wife at south side marina..
Our next entertainment was at south Caicos island
we had a crazy night boozing with the locals and some serious domino training (which I have yet to win a game to-date).. a lot of fun with people who vary rarely se tourists at there little out of the way fishing village.

Via Big sand Cay for a barby on beach and a few final beers in this beautiful country…
Were off to the DR. This little leg of the trip holds a lot of memories and importance for me. Firstly this was the last sail Brent and I did on our original boat the FRENCH TICKLER, this being the originator of the Bahamas missions for our group of mates with myself, brent, Jon boy, Richy, Steph and Kirsty all being involved in a mad learn to sail mission. Secondly WE are sailing with the Lost boys of which one is Pete Vandy,
his and practically my brothers Paul and Jon boy did this crossing in the DOUBLE BRUYN 2 years previously before crossing the Atlantic. SO I have the Double Bryun's charts and marks.. therefore in the sprit of brotherly competition “the race is on”, LOST, CAN’T and the DOUBLE BRUYN.. Exciting stuff especially if you forget all that handy cap stuff .

Staying up all night and a fairly rough and windy ride gave us the chance to beat the DOUBLE BRUYN and LOST, though being that my boat is longer than both and the conditions were in our favour ……..I have to concede that the result was “inconclusive”.. haha great to wind Jon up!!

Our approach to Luperon in the DR was exciting and.. hilarious… sailing into the harbour and picking our way through the reefs and shallows I spotted the FRENCH TICKLER.. and was pretty damned excited… pointing and explaining where it was I ran aground in front of about 100 boats at 5 knots.. needless to say despite my efforts to save face by dragging the boat off we had to sit through an entire turn of the tide….

Luperon is cheap and full of very friendly faces, a great town.

We had about a week to explore the island, surf, party, and drive around the country.

We had some hard case 4 wheel driving missions Jakes (Lost boys) Bday in Santiago on the day we collected Jas Healey and Daniella from the airport, this Bday was the longest extending 2 full days.. 4 wheel driving, fried chicken, nightclubs and piles of booze!!

Whether was on our side again with a great window appearing, cutting our Tour De DR short and allowing us to jump for Puerto Rico in perfect mill pond like conditions. 250 miles up wind was a walk in the park.

Great arrive in Puerto Rico until we woke in the morning realising were anchored in sewerage like water (not a good start… but we had NO IDEA!!) going ashore we found that the visa waiver program does not include private vessels… you have come onto US soil with out a visa, “Sailing in US waters is a privilege not a right” we (me, Ann and Herby) were faced with either being deported and excluded from the visa waiver program permanently or paying the $540 visa waiver charge (EACH).. being that we rely on us for transit we decided to part with the cash.. not stoked SO just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse……

While trying to get the paperwork sorted to be allowed to stay in PR a crazy squall came though the bay… (bad anchorage) the lost boys by this stage had gone to town and we were not allowed to leave.. both boats start dragging anchor towards a large rock wall… “fast” we begged to be allowed to bail to the boats and eventually we were allowed this “privilege” racing out in the dinghies for both boats, me failing to get Lost Boys motor started or find another anchor, managed to beg the help of a great guy with a powerful tender!!

He used his tender (in reverse) along with a bow line between the 2 boats to save the lost boys boat about 2m from being badly damaged.. we managed to get it dragged out to a navigation buoy and tied off. Mean time Herby is on CANT with the engine running and second anchor poised in case of further dragging!!!

HAHA dramas on boats.. we were “in a way” lucky that we were held at customs or the boats may have had decent issues.. and some custom scratch work.

Next and in the same day the engine failed due to biomass in the diesel.. lucky for us by this time the Lost boys are experts in this field and are able to hook us up with the gear to get running on a plastic Tote tank.

Not all Beer and skittles… sometimes you gotta mix it up with a rum punch!!

Were off for new pastures and hopefully better luck.

One bad day in amongst a great adventure is definitely manageable… and what we remind ourselves that people pay $4000-7000 a week to charter boats in these waters… so we are still on top!!

Via Bouqueron where we had a few great days tarpon fishing, exploring and dwelling on our recently reduced budgets we ended up in Ponce after a great upwind sail.

Here we found great provisions, explored the town, anchored in the middle of the party area for the whole city. We got to watch concerts from the boat, entertain the locals with out hardcase attempts at the local dances…oh yeah and some drunkin tarpon spearfishing.

Gotta mention 2 full days at Burger king taking advantage or Free WIFI and aircon……. Love those plastic seats!!

Layne (Herbies Dad) arrived on 19 May, we packed him onto the boat, fuelled, serviced and fully stocked for an over nighter towards the Spanish virgin islands. A couple of short steps over night and we were back in paradise.

Empty anchorages, white sand beaches and amazing mountainous terrain.

We (Lizzy, Ann, Herby, Layne and I) are now in the British virgin islands.

Words Cannot honestly describe this place… All I can advise is that if you ever get the chance.. charter a boat here… don’t be a CAN’T!!

We have sailed in racing regattas, dived among boulders, swum in rock pools, caught crayfish that are just sitting on the rocks (not even in the water)… there are hundreds (probably an ridicules exaggeration!!) of islands to explore, you can see 10 at any time(again!!) sitting (in the boat… just amazing. Hundreds of charter boats.. with a suprisingly proportion of Cats.

All I can really do is add some pics… as my raving is over.
Haha.. i got no pics here.. so will add em next time
Adios