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Our "rainbow" Miss Belly Boo |
I am going to try and recreate the last month since we last had a chance to post a blog. Which it appears we left everyone hanging back in the DR??!!! We do LOVE our spot messenger as I know it keeps people posted to our whereabouts even if we fall short on blogging. I will do my best using pictures to create the story (my usual attack plan).
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| Chillin' in Marina's infinity pool |
We left Luperon late Jan. to cross the Mona Passage into PR. Planned to leave at 3am and take advantage of the calm seas and avoid the nasty trade winds. Our plan was to go all night and arrive early the next day in Mayaguez, PR. However, one of our buddy boats developed engine troubles and all five of our buddy boats, Sabbaticus, Southern Bella, Dance Aweigh, Eclipse and us made a decision to stop in Samana, DR to allow Ultra time and support to resolve their engine issue. We treated ourselves to a MARINA!!! Yep first one in a long time called Marina Puerto Bahia which had very reasonable rates considering all the wonderful amnieties (5 infinity pools!).
We had to wait for another reasonable weather window to cross this daunting Mona Passage to PR so it wasn't until Feb. 1st that we landed in Mayaguez, PR.
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| Hello PR! |
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| Carryn's Mahi |
The ride was long and fairly lumpy, but doable (it can always be worse), and our sea state was about 6-7foot high, very short intervals in between allowing for little recovery time. The best news was the Carryn caught her first Dorado (Mahi Mahi)! I did yell for the captain to wake up and assist because I am a HUGE pansy when it comes to 'killin' a catch.
Okay, as you must know by now, our style of travel is move, move, move and boy did we book it on through PR to Viequez. But don't be mistaken by this level of sticking and moving. We have full days everywhere we stop and make the most of each place and or boat we have the pleasure to travel with.
I will try and hit our highlights through PR once we arrive and checked in at Mayaguez, PR. Left eary in the morning to again avoid trade winds and arrived Feb 2nd Boqueron, PR. Cute town and nice place for curisers it is also the place we hooked back up with our good ol' marina buddies from Sail Harbor, Savannah, GA Jan and Terri Bogart from M/Y Vixen! Haven't seen them in two years! They have lived in PR for some time and offered excellent local knowledge for our whole group of boats!
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| Connor from "Sabaticus" paddle boarding Bella around La paguera |
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| Me and Terri from M/Y Vixon |
After a few days in La Paguera we headed to Gilligan's Island!! Yep, I did the same thing you must be thinking right about now; however, no sign of Gilligan's gang. Honestly, we couldn't even figure out how this place arrived with this name??!! But, it sure was a cute place after all and once again we had a ball with all of our buddy boats. It happened to be Dena's 43rd birthday on Feb 5th so we had a big celebration aboard Sabatticus for cocktails and dinner. Then Rich and Margaret from Dance Aweigh treated us and Ultra to a wonderful dinner at the local resort in Gilligan's Island. What a big treat that was, thanks to Dance Aweigh for a terrific evening.
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| Margaret and Rich "Dance Aweigh" dinner treat at Gilligan's Island Resort |
On to Ponce, PR.... Once again with a 3am leave time to arrive before the winds pick up. I keep mentioning the trade winds, but this is a real deal here in the Caribbean. Sometimes by 10am the winds will reach 20-25knots sustained! The winds can really wear you down and put a kink in travel plans! Different animal here than it was for us in the Bahamas, but I am really proud of Brandon and how well he prepares for the weather and never puts us at risk. Thank you Lover!
Next stop Salinas, PR for more provisioning etc... once again what a fun time this town was for all of us. We rented a car with Ultra, it was a van for super cheap and the four of us tore it up! What a fun filled day this was to Sams, Costco, WalMart, Home Depot etc.... and if that wasn't enough we booked it on up to San Juan, Brandon's old stomping grounds! We ate at Brandon's favorite restaurant and went to check out the famous Old San Juan Hotel, simply gorgeous! Our pockets were feeling fairly empty so it was time to get out of dodge!
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Bill and Brandon...something's never change! Even at the Old San Jaun Hotel!!! |
We staged ourselves from Boca del Infierno, PR for the next windo opportunity to do the crossing and visit Viequez, PR. Viequez is a really neat island with a ton of history, if you have time and interest look it up to familiarize yourselves with this place. It might be a next vacation spot for some of you.
We arrived in Green Beach, Viequez early in the morning. But on this crossing we arrived with some bad news aboard the SolMate. We filled our water tanks up (170 gallons of water) in Ponce and even had to PAY for this water, poop. Only to arrive in Vieques to discover that a faucet ran throughout our crossing and we lost all of our water. What a sick feeling because we were at least a couple of days away from our next place and ONLY place to jerry can (hauling your own water jugs to and from your boat) in a town called Esparanza. We are so blessed though to be traveling with such a wonderful, thoughtful group of boats. They all have water makers aboard their boats and are self-sufficient to make their own water. Each one of them offered and Sabatticus actually gave us 20 gallons of water plus we carry 20 gallons on deck in jerry cans this bought us a couple of extra days without worrying too much.
Arriving in Esparanza meant water for SolMate...and once again how blessed I am to have such a hard working, thoughtful, wonderful husband/captain. He jerry canned 100 gallons of water back to our boat in the heat with a head cold/temperature! What an amazing job he does keeping this boat running like a top and all of us safe and happy.
Last stop in Viequez, Isla Chiva in beautiful Sun Bay. Sad to report we did not get off the boat to enjoy due to Brandon's fever/head cold. Good news though we only stayed one day left at 6am for Culebra!!! Our favorite place. We have been to Culebra by land 3 other times, our first via SolMate and boy we are super excited to be here. But I will save that for our next blog. Perhaps Brandon might write that one???
Here is to Spring for all you land lubbers!!! Boy don't we know you have earned this season! Love to all, and post or email us we LOVE hearing from family and friends. You keep us connected. Yay!!
Aloha
B, C and B
SolMate
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| Beach Party at Green Beach, Viequez |
