Late Feb-Early March...Culebra, Puerto Rico!!

What a couple of Months it has been! Yet again, I am searching for excuses as to why we fall so delinquent with such a simple task of keeping a proper log/pictures??  I have decided to catch up by starting off in small batches of dates and pictures. 

We spent at least 2-3 weeks at one of our favorite places in the Caribbean, Culebra, PR!  We have visited this place by plane at least three other times.  Always it was part of our dream to experience the island via our own boat.  I have to pinch myself sometimes to the reality of all of our dreams with cruising have and still are coming true (so blessed). 

Had a wonderful time sharing this experience with all of our buddy boats, Ultra, Sabbitcus and Dance Aweigh.  We all went to the famous Flamenco Beach, played hard in the waves body surfing.  Of course snorkling was top priority.  Unfortunately, most of the water surrounding the island is nature protected...no lobstas for SolMate (though Brandon saw several...poop).  We also got to celebrate Kevin's birthday aboard his boat Sabbitcus, such great company, food and libations!



JoAnne (Ultra), Connor and Dena (Sabbiticus)
looking out abandoned lighthouse on
Culebrita

 Here are some photos from our time in Culebra, as well as the little island South called Culebrita.


Resident of Culebra





View out window of abandoned lighthouse



On approach  to visit Culebrita.
Amazing snorkling to do on this
island!




Best buddies Brandon and Bella going for a
snorkle in Culebrita!!



Lunch at Mamacita's cantina
in Culebra.



SolMate Crew out for a snorkle
in Culebrita







Kevin's birthday party aboard Sabbiticus. Ultra, Dance Aweigh,
Wild Hair and SolMate and Kevin's Dad from Canada (far left corner under light fixture)
all were there to celebrate!  Nice job Dena and thank you (she is center front birthday boy
Kevin directly behind her in back row).

Next up will be a blog for March in St Thomas, St John and BVI's.  We had an incredible time in Culebra and was looking forward to March.  Which included a visit from Carryn's Dad, Brandon's birthday party, BVI's and poor Bella Boo's terrible mishap with her broken leg!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter holiday and we hear the weather all over the states is gorgeous with Spring in full bloom.  Sure do miss the flowers and gardening.  Send us some pictures to enjoy of your yards and or Easter holiday!

Love to All -

Brandon, Carryn and Belly-boo
Aloha for now....



Late Jan-Mid Feb 2011..Breezing on through Puerto Rico and Vieques



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).



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.  



Hello PR!



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!

Connor from "Sabaticus" paddle boarding Bella around
La paguera

We headed onto La Paguera where Jan and Terri actually live aboard their boat and got to play for a couple of days with them, happy hours about their boat, as well as several of hours in the water playing with my SUP!  Thanks again Jan and Terri for the ride into town for a WalMart stop!  A HUGE help!  Hope to see you both on our way back to wherever that is???  A tiny bit scary to admit!



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.



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!

 

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



Beach Party at Green Beach, Viequez













SolMate leaves DR for PR on Friday January 21st!

It looks like our weather window has opened up for us to travel onto Puerto Rico.  We will leave Friday night and arrive sometime Sunday afternoon.  I believe it will be about a 230 mile passage (I will have to check w/my Captain).  At any rate, a long couple of days at sea.  But we will be in good company with 5 other boats which always makes it nice.

We had a wonderful time in Luperon exploring wonderful blow holes and getting to know the locals.  We also went and visited Santiago which has over 800,00 people living in this city alone.

So Monday was a big travel day for us to Santiago visiting the “big” city in the hunt to find some fresh stuff. We left a 7am to catch one of two different bus services arriving in Santiago around 10am. Now for some fun street vendors! Aye de oh! We did manage to find a great grocery store and I was able to load up on a bunch of fresh stuff (haven’t seen that in a while). Brandon received a ligament a haircut and was happy as a clam. Tonight he is enjoying a Las Sirenas especial w/fresh limes...cheers Scott.

After all the lugging around food and figuring out transportation back to Luperon we arrived back at our boat around 6pm! Aye ya ya! No doubt different, but happy to explore1 We also had our buddies on Dance Aweigh come over to our boat  twice today to play w/Bella give her love and cookies! Rich sat over on Sol Mate with Bella for almost 2hrs! What a great couple we are blessed.

Brandon's work is never done filling up our water tanks. Even more so with our new clothes washer!

SolMate's newest addition".... A brand new "Cinderalla" washing machine with spin dryer!  It fits in the front head and it only cost $98!  Works like a charm and I am having a ball keeping up with all of our clothes.  Bye, bye to expensive washateria's and paid people (who only lose our clothes)! 

Outside of that big news we have had a wonderful time every night visiting one another's boats for happy hour and amazing food. But we are all ready to move on.  This will be one of the most difficult passages to date for SolMate the Mona Passage is a very tricky crossing and can be unforgiving.  But once we get that behind it should be smooth sailing.  Brandon is busy working away repairing our head sail on the back deck of our boat getting us ready for another big crossing!  Such a talented guy!  Hats off to SolMate's Captain!

 

 

 

 

 

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and can track us on our spot messenger page.

Until then Aloha and Happy Belated Birthday to VG Evans (knock, knock, knocking on 50's door almost!!!). Miss you Evan's Family!!

Love

SolMate Crew B, C, and Belly Boo

SolMate enters the Caribbean- Luperon, Dominican Republic

Hello Friends-

We hope all is well and your New Year has been prosperous so far.

SolMate has been putting on the miles and we are now in Luperon, Dominican Republic.  (As a note, we have put about 6500 miles since we left last year-Savannah to Bahamas to Maine to Bahamas to DR).  We blasted back through the Bahamas this year, leaving Miami on Dec 16 and exiting Mayaguana on January 5th.

We had a great New Years eve, celebrating with our buddy boats- Sabbaticus, Southern Bella and Ultra, in Long Island, Bahamas.

We left there on New Years day and headed up to the north end of Long Island and anchored in Calabash Bay, staging for a departure to head south. We spent two days there, spearfishing, exploring some blue holes inland and generally enjoying some beautiful weather.

Dinner for Two- Fresh Lobstah!!

We left on Jan 3rd at 3am and did a 32 hour passage to Mayaguana, the southeastern most Bahama island. We hung out there for a day, scrounged around for some diesel fuel(not as easy as pulling up to the Chevron station) and got some rest. A couple more of our friends caught up to us in Mayaguana- Dance Aweigh and Magic Inspiration

We then left on Wed the 5th for a two night passage directly to the DR. Normally, one would make a stop in the Turks and Caicos, but due to a good W-NW wind from a front passing through, we left the T&C’s to port and rode a beam reach all the way to Luperon, rolling in on Saturday morning around 10am. While the wind was a real blessing, the seas were quite steep and closely spaced, so we really rolled and wallowed around. It was less than comfortable, but we got it done and are now enjoying an extended stay in Luperon Harbor.



Clearing into the DR at the Commandancia's Office

I must say, this place already feels like home. Having spent much of my childhood in rural Texas towns and on our family ranch only miles from the Mexican border, I am really loving this place. The dirt streets, friendly people and plethora of street food and cheap beer will make it very difficult to leave.

Raising the DR courtesy flag

Many of the folks(mostly old cruisers that came for a week and have stayed for years) that we talk to, all contend that this is the most livable spot in the Caribbean- good people, beautiful land and dirt cheap cost of living. I can’t make that assertion yet, but I am already trying to figure out how to make a home here in the future. More on that later.




Dirt streets in a one-horse town

For now we will explore and immerse ourselves in the Dominican culture, trying not to drink too many El Presidente beers(70 pesos:$2 for a 24oz bottle). Yesterday we went with all our buddy boats- Sabbaticus, Ultra, Southern Bella, Dance Aweigh, Magic Inspiration and Vicarius- on an organized tour into the mountains, where we learned about the soap stone carvers, Dominican coffee and cacao, cigars and several other local crafts.

We finished the day with a trek up into a place called 27 Waterfalls, where we climbed up through canyons and crevasses carved by mountain streams.



Geared up for the waterfalls



The water was chilly and blasting down through the cuts.   Quite exciting and a real workout to get up the falls- especially with Bella in tow.



We ascended through 7 of the falls, taking about an hour.  Then we turned back, getting to slide down and jump off into the pools to get back to the base.



Bella's up for the challenge



 It was amazing, and even Bella met the challenge- she had a great time and was the real rock star of the day. According to our guides, she is "perro primero" (the first dog) to go all the way up the falls.



We will work to keep the stories coming.  (We're committed to blogging again, we may or may not do the blogs to fill in the adventures down the East coast).

Remember- you can track us on our SPOT Satellite Messenger page at:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0tgVepGQE8MMKoOWlKFePfycj6Wkf2JrT