March 21, 2008
Alec and Jean combined forces to overcome my anxiety about sailing in dubious weather conditions. But they were right; we had a lovely sail from Teague Bay all the way to Esperanza on Viequez. It was 60 miles in just over 9 hours – beam or broad reaching all the way. The seas were variably lumpy but any hazardous conditions would be on beaches or surf. There was 1 knot of easterly current which helped us along but kept us below the rhumb line the whole trip – at least until the end, when we made landfall about two miles east of Esperanza. Not surprisingly, the entrance to the harbor looks different from the sea than Alec imagined it from seeing it from shore.
There was just one empty mooring ball just off the dinghy dock, so we picked it up on our second pass (due to the diesel acting up again).
We rowed ashore, and Alec was shocked by how many people were here and how active it was compared to his visit last year. (Of course it is Easter weekend and spring break as well). There are campers on the beaches just like St. Croix although the music is less loud. We stopped at the first tourist place where a fellow tried to sell us a bio-bay tour and suggested that we forget about paying anybody for our mooring. Nobody does that. We walked along the waterfront (called the Mercado) which is reminiscent of Frederiksted – smaller, older, seedier, but also more alive. Alec was right – it is very charming.
We barbequed steaks on the boat for dinner, and Alec and I went to “Bananas” for a nightcap after washing dishes. We had a very quiet night interrupted only by the mooring bouy as we drifted together in the calm water.
This morning Alec is off on a bike ride and Jean is sleeping while I’m exploring the town in search of coffee, ice, and a place to dump our garbage, in that order. We’ll have a shore day today (and thereby hold our mooring) and Alec made reservations at the “fancy” restaurant for dinner tonight. Tomorrow we’ll move to one of the eastern bays, staging ourselves for the sail to St. Thomas or St. John as the wind directs.
March 22
Our lay day in Esperanza was a success. I found coffee, ice and a place to dump garbage, and Alec had a five hour bike ride covering most of the open roads on the east end of the island. There are still many others that are still closed by the navy. Jean and I found the lady who does fused glass beads – she and her husband had moved their shop from Key West “after the billionaires chased out the millionaires and it wasn’t a fun place to live anymore.” After lunch on the boat and a little rest, we visited the local museum which had a very interesting aquarium. We cleaned up for supper and had dinner at “el Quenepo”, which was excellent. The chef has a taste for Thai cooking which Alec recognized in the preparation of his lobster – the smallest one they had, 2 ½ lbs.! Surprisingly most of the other fish on the menu were farm raised – there are a lot of fishing boats here, but maybe not so many fish anymore?
This morning Alec took off to the western end of the island and visited the only (?) black sand beach in the Virgin Islands. We restocked with ice and beer – beer was expensive but the “Don Ron de Bardelito” rum was only $20. We left Esperanza at 10:24 and arrived at the eastern most bay, Bahia Salinas del Sur at about 1430. There was only one other boat in the whole bay, and they left.
We anchored behind the small reef as recommended by our old cruising guide, setting a stern anchor to hold the boat steady. We took the dinghy ashore to walk the beach. The whole area is still off-limits due to risk from unexploded naval ordnance, which is a pity because this is a spot even I would enjoy hiking. On the other hand, Alec and I saw what appeared to be an unexploded bomb while we were snorkeling, so maybe it really isn’t safe yet.
It’s still quite breezy at 1720 and our plans for tomorrow depend upon the wind. We’ll make for Rams Head – 35 miles – but find an anchorage closer if it’s slow going – or maybe head back to St. Croix if the wind is NE. Alec has suggested that we put the dinghy on the foredeck, and we’ll see how that works out.
March 24
Yesterday was a too long day. We left Bahia Salinas del Sur about 8:30, shortly after a Horizon’s charter yacht “crowded” us out of our secluded anchorage. We deflated the dinghy and dropped it down into the cabin on top of all the other gear. That didn’t give Jean too much space to make herself comfortable below deck, but it was a good idea because we had about 20 knots of wind, large and somewhat confused seas for the first five hours. The dinghy would have acted like a sea anchor, and we might have lost it. As it was, we were able to make about 5 knots of boat speed to the NNE. The winds clocked south until a squall passed by as were off Charlotte Amalie. After that the seas calmed down nicely but the winds shifted to the east, forcing us to tack our way to Rams Head off Coral Bay. The GPS said it was only 35 nautical miles, but that route would have taken us over land, much less discounting the tacking distance.
We had the hook down by 1730 behind a sandbar at the SW edge of the bay. Alec took the dinghy and discovered a beach bar not too far away, but we need ice, beer, and a place to dump garbage, so all three of us rode the dinghy up to Coral Bay proper. Unfortunately you can’t beach your dinghy there and the only dock we could find was a mile on the other side of town. It was crowded full of dinghies, so that must be the place.
We decided against the walk to town however and dinghied back to the beach bar Alec had found earlier. The “Smuggler’s Cove” was much nicer than his first impression, and we hand a nice meal with live music in the background. We all commented on how different the place seemed from Viequez or even St. Croix – much more up-scale touristy, although there were a few (white) locals hanging around outside the bar, listening to the music.
We got wet again riding back to the boat, and Jean discovered that the V-berth cushions were wet. I suspect water came in through the Nicro ventilator on the cabin top – we were taking that much water over the deck! Some plastic garbage bags and dry beach towels gave us a comfortable enough place to sleep however.
It stayed breezy for most of the night and we’ve had a few brief showers this morning. We’ll see what the sea and weather gods have for our sail back to St. Croix.
March 25
Yesterday was another hard day, again proving the saying that the most dangerous thing on a cruising boat is a calendar! We left Coral Bay about 8:30 after a brief shower passed by. The weather forecast was for 15-20 knots of wind from the SE and 4-6 foot seas. Not the best conditions for us, but certainly manageable.
Well, those were the conditions when we finally arrived in St. Croix’s waters, but shortly after leaving St. John, we were in confused seas of up to 10-12 feet. There was a left-over NE swell mixing with wind waves from the SE. We watched a very large power yacht pound her way toward St. Martin, and that didn’t look like any fun either. We were able to make better than 5 knots of boat speed with a loosely trimmed main and 110 jib. We discussed reefing the main, but the helm was pretty well balanced, and neither Alec or I wanted to leave the cockpit. I’m sure we sailed more than the 35 nm to St. Croix if you counted all the distance up and down the waves.
Jean mainly stayed below nursing her bruises from yesterday. She complained that the boat leaked all over – not too surprising given the size of some of the waves that were breaking over the deck. Alec said he’d never seen a 7.9’s cockpit so full of water! Spray reached the second batten on the mainsail and water came in through the Nicro ventilator on the cabin top.
Still Ambivalence held all together and we made it safely inside the reef at Teague Bay by 1530. Not too long after, the bilge pump started sending out large gulps of water every time we tacked to starboard – worrisome, but I’d checked the stuffing box (the usual suspect for a leak) before we left St. John, and there wasn’t much we could do before tieing up at the dock at the Yacht Club anyway.
We unloaded everything wet, which was almost everything, crammed it into the van, and headed for the Cohiba restaurant in C’sted. Showers felt good when we got home, and now I have 2-3 weekends of boat chores to get everything washed, dried and put back together.
Lessons learned were that 60 miles is about the effective cruising range of an S2 7.9, we should have taken 7 days instead of just 5, and cruising is much more comfortable if you can tie up to a dock with facilities every 3-5 nights. A charter cruise from Fajardo to Viequez and Culebra would be a very easy, very lovely trip. Maybe next winter?