SEA 9; Sailing to Puerto Rico and a moment of expensive idiocy

I spent a couple days in Samana, DR, where there wasn't too much to see. Two cruise ships per day came in and anchored and left at night, so the town was over-touristed. There were supposed to be some nice waterfalls nearby, but when I asked how much to get there (only 8 kilometers) they wanted $150! Once I realized they didn't mean Dominican dollars I laughed and walked away, I suppose they manage to regularly squeeze that out of the cattle coming off the cruise-liners. I met a wonderful young Dutch couple on an Aluminum 36' sailboat that looked more like a spaceship, called "Seagull". I dined aboard a few times with these gracious hosts and they were also kind enough to give me paper charts covering the rest of the way down the Caribbean. We sailed in convoy to the national park across the bay for a two night stay. We walked the trails together, looking at caves and beautiful mangrove lined creeks under the shadows of forested cliffs (see photo with Lexi and the Dutchman). When we parted ways I sailed the Mona Passage over to Puerto Rico and they began to make their way to the US.
I'm in San Juan, Puerto Rico now. The original plan was to take my time sailing along the southern side of the island and ending up here, but the wind was right for coming straight here, and when sailing alone I don't pass up rare weather that makes my life easier. I catch my flight here to Tokyo for my brother's wedding at the end of the month, so I need to stick around the island for a month. I walked around town the first afternoon which was Easter Sunday. All of San Juan seemed to be outside in the sun, flying hundreds of kites, enjoying the beach and using charcoal grilles.

The next day is where my "expensive idiocy" story begins. I was sitting at anchor with heaviest anchor and 50ft of heavy chain down. In a sudden rain shower I looked out the cabin and noticed I was dragging anchor and was now within 5 ft of a sunken sailboat, whose mast was still sticking up out of the water some 20 ft up. No problem, it happens; I started the engine, pulled up enough chain so that the anchor was hanging above the bay floor, and motored to a new spot. This time I let out more line and really made sure the anchor buried itself snugly into the mud. The local immigration officer now returned my call to explain how I could clear into the island. He explained that I needed to come to the marina so that the officers could board my boat. Feeling very clever, I look my largest Styrofoam float and detached the anchor chain at it's shackle which connects it to more nylon line, then I attached the large float to the anchor chain. This way I could leave all that iron down there and just come back later, grabbing the float and hooking back up, without breaking a sweat getting it all on deck only to have to re-anchor later. As I threw the float in the water, I immediately realized what a stupid move I had made. The float, with all that chain on it, was quickly sucked down to the depths. Hundreds of dollars worth of anchor and chain, resting comfortably in the murky depths of the San Juan bay, 5 fathoms down. I noted my position with the GPS and motored cursing all the way to the marina to clear in. I cleared in without incident and had a nice Dutch Family invite me aboard for a wonderful dinner. Their 3 little blonde girls sang at the top of their lungs along with the "Mamma Mia" movie. I didn't sleep well that night, tossing in my rack trying to think of how the hell to get my anchor back. Luckily I have another lighter anchor, I motored back out in the morning, dragging it around the area hoping to snag the chain of the larger anchor and pull it up. No luck. I anchored on the lighter anchor and dinghied in to the marina, rowing straight up to a dive boat. The friendly Captain Orlando decided to help me for a mere $100, a real bargain.
"You lost your anchor?" "No... I know exactly where it is! It's just not, uh, attached to the boat anymore." He immediately took me back the anchorage, deployed his diver, and had a line with a big orange float tied to my lost anchor chain within 10 minutes of splashing in! What a relief. I gave them a bottle of Dominican rum and the C note, and was on my way, quite relieved. I would have spent a fortune having to replace that gear.
Now I need to make use of my time here by getting my wind generator installed and getting a working stove onboard along with other projects.

SEA 8; Village hopping

From Rio San Juan, I left at 0400 yesterday for another village 35nm SE. I anchored in front of a mansion with a private beach with a french couple kayaking beside me. They were residents of the island and I had them aboard for a few minutes, though they didn´t speak much english or spanish, and my french is less than 10 words worth, either way, it was a nice visit. I love the DR´s mountainous terrain which is lush in vegitation, comapared to the Bahamas which was arrid and flat. In Rio SJ I went ashore and had cervesas with a couple guys; Carlo, Joselo, and Robinson. I footed the bill all night, of course, but for a few hours of dinner, drinks, and a couple small bottles of rum I bought to give to immigration officers as I sail, I spent less than 50USD, it was a great night, and I was able to converse surprisingly easily with them, even though it has been 4 years since I was last in a Spanish speaking country. Also, as you can see, I finally got to wear my "caribbean pants." ;). There is a photo of where I am at anchor, and one of the Billiards bar, these people can really play some pool!
I plan to sail to this nice little cove this afternoon, 13nm East of here, then on to Cabo Samana the next day.

SEA Update 7: Arrival in Dominican Republic

¿Donde esta un lugar con internet in este pueblo?
After 9 lonely days at sea, singlehanding from San Salvador, I have arrived in a small fishing village just east of Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. That was my first time singlehanding besides in the Chesapeake. PRetty dull, just me and the dog. I had that nice NW wind, but my Aries steering gear doesn´t work when sailing downwind, so I pretty much went very very slowly, then when the wind kicked around to the SE, like it normally is, the steering gear worked fine. OF course, then the winds and current were hitting me on the nose, and I plugged along very slowly hoping to get to Puerto Rico. I caved on day 7 and just decided to head due south to the Dominican Republic. Here I am, in a tiny fishing village just East of Puerto Plata. It is excellent here and the people are very friendly. I had lunch on a veranda overlooking my boat (see white speck in photo) on the bay not 100 yards from where I rowed the dinghy in, kids with big smiles helping me pull the dinghy up to the big coil of cable I locked it to. Now I will hop along the coast, across to the south side of Puerto Rico, stopping every night (no more bashing through waves all night for me as I read book after book on a seemingly endless voyage) in quiet little coves. Also, before I forget, I have caught zero fish, except the one in the photo, which tried to kamikaze me last night, it´s a flying fish and he made his own way onboard!

SEA Update 6: Island hopping; arrival in San Salvador

From the 14th of March
On the 8th of March my friend Clint and I motored out of Nassau harbor, dropping my previous crewmember off on a dock we putted by. We sailed over 20ft deep water the 32 miles to Allen’s Cay in the Exumas, dropping anchor in a great little bay that fit my boat with no room for another. I put out the stern anchor as well to keep from hitting the cliff sides of the bay on either side of us. There were large iguanas to see and a lone palm tree on the little island. The next morning we departed for Conception Island, but realizing that we would arrive at night, I decided to stop at Cat Cay instead. This was my favorite island as of yet. We anchored off a beach with deep caves. Not far from where we landed we found a small shop with ice cream sandwiches and frozen hotdogs (dinner), which was a great treat since I have no refrigeration onboard. Traveling around the island was easy, as any local will stop when you put your thumb out, sometimes they stop and offer rides just because they see you walking. We enjoyed some snorkeling there and a dinner of grilled hot dogs and fresh bread which I made in the pressure cooker.
On the 12th we made our jump to Conception Island, an uninhabited beautiful island with excellent snorkeling. We were the only two souls there. During the passage there we hooked two Mahi-Mahi’s a two footer and a monster 4 footer, both which wriggled out of their lures not 5 feet from the stern!
With deteriorating weather and increasingly uncomfortable anchorage the next day, we decided to head on to San Salvador Island where Columbus made his first landing in 1492. We arrived last night (the 13th) after a very rainy sail and anchored the same spot where they think Columbus did, and dinghied in for some burgers, fries and Rum and cokes. This morning, after getting no sleep in the rough anchorage, we motored into the tiny marina. To my surprise, there are 3 boats here (basically all the boats here) from Charleston, SC, and it was great to talk to some people from home.
The winds in the Bahamas have been unusual lately, coming out of the NW, which has been in my favor. I’m thinking it may be a good idea to ride them on to the Dominican Republic before they change, though I have no crew as Clint flies home tomorrow. Single-handing may be just the ticket and good experience for me. The self-steering unit has been behaving very nicely over the last week, and there have been 24 hour periods where I barely had to adjust it. I finished the book my sister gave me about Joshua Slocam sailing around the world alone while my Aries kept the course for me, and started the book dad gave me about Cape Horn by Mortessier. Unfortunately internet is more and more difficult to come by, and my computer’s wireless has been acting up. There are no computer (or much else) stores on these islands, the locals just order what they want and pick it up from the Mail boat, it is quite a different life.