Culebra to St. Augustine - Days 1-3

Day 1 -  1130 nm to go Once again, it was a flurry of activity as we prepared to up-anchor and head out from Culebra to St Augustine. We woke with the dawn, checked the weather again, and after a cuppa and a few more checks, we were off across Ensenada Honda on an overcast morning and heading back into the Caribbean Sea. We'd rigged the pole and removed the sail cover last night to save ourselves from too much morning activity. 1130 nm to go … the first day out, it always seems that the distance is so long, but experience tells us, it goes by quickly. The days at sea seem to blend as we adjust to the passage and before you know it, we'll be sailing into the St. Augustine Inlet and under the Bridge of Lions. In the meantime …

The overcast skies soon burned off, replaced by warm sunshine and big, puffy, linen-white clouds lazing their way through a baby-blue sky. The weather forecast was calling for more of the same for five days out.

If you want to appreciate how wonderful sailing can be, you should have joined us today. Long period, 3-4'(1m) seas, a constant 12-18 knot wind and we were broad-reaching and downwind sailing. There's not much heel. The sails are full out – wing on wing. It's deliciously warm with enough breeze through the cockpit to be totally comfortable. It was an “oh-my – aren't-we-the-luckiest people on earth!” kind of day. The stuff sailing dreams are made of. Fish jumped; noddies, gulls and frigates soared overhead. We cruised along in the low to mid-6s, like the lazy clouds above.

A thought about Puerto Rico. It has all the amenities of the USA … US phones, ATMs, it's reasonably safe and secure, access to all American goods and supplies … but it's distinctly and delightfully a true Spanish culture in a warm, tropical environment. Looking for a place to escape (but not really, totally escape)? Puerto Rico's the place to visit.

Day 2  -  968 nm to go

Once past the islands, islets and outlying reefs, we set a NW course (315M) which would take us all the way to St. Augustine Inlet, skirting to the north of the Dominican Republic, the Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas.

Our first night out was a restless one as usual, trying to get into a sleep pattern of  3 on/3 off. We're tired, but unable to sleep on our off-watch, then sleepy during on-watch.  It all passes quickly and we'll be in the swing of things in another day. On a very positive note, no one aboard has been the least bit seasick thanks to benign weather and seas.

Several ships passed during the night, our trusty AIS alerting us to their presence, but none passed closer than 3-4 miles away. The night offered the same constant trade winds from the S/SE and we made good mileage .We're already less than a 1,000 miles to go. At this rate, we should arrive in about a week.

We're traveling with a buttery yellow, waxing moon as our companion. She lights up the sky till about 0200, dousing the brilliance of the stars surrounding her. No matter, I prefer moon glow.

The day was lovely and primarily spent reading and writing. There's limited chatting since one of us always seems to be napping. By tomorrow, it'll be all good and we'll be on a sched again.

Day 3-  826 nm to go

Another good mileage day under ideal sailing conditions. Neptune is looking out for us, for sure. A favorable half knot current and a gentle following sea have definitely helped our cause. The moon continues to wax and outshine the stars ... except for Venus, her constant companion, who seems to maintain her star-glow in spite of her sidekick's brilliance.

Though there are not many ships (3-4 a night), we see lots of jet contrails during the day. As I watch them, I wonder where the people aboard are heading and why. On vacation to the islands maybe? I wonder if the passengers can look down and see the tiny dot of a boat floating in the endless, surrounding seas and are wondering the same about us. Come to think of it, from 40,000' (12,000+m) up, I doubt we are even noticeable.

According to the charts, the depths here are deep, deep, deep – over 26,000' (8,500+m) and we wonder about the terrain below us and the mountain tops that form the Turks & Caicos and the Bahamas, only 60-70 nm south of us. What critters lurk down there?

A big high pressure system prevails, providing us with the fine weather. The GRIBS and Buoy Weather, however, agree that we'll be windless soon. Sigh! We'll be here adrift in the midst of the great, mysterious Bermuda Triangle.

Ah, yes, we are well into the infamous Bermuda Triangle now and are constantly on the lookout for sudden squalls, not to mention Kraken and other great sea monsters, methane bubbles, waterspouts and especially aliens. So far, so good.

Heading to St. Augustine, Florida

I know, I know … we were supposed to head over to San Juan for a few days and hang out, but surprise! We've changed our minds. We're looking at the calendar, feeling pressed to be moving north more quickly than we'd prefer, but hurricane season is soon upon us and the further north we are, the more relaxed we'll feel. So … instead of a leisurely island hop north, we're heading to Florida all in one passage, then head north to the Chesapeake from there. This passage looks to be 1100+ nm. The GRIBS show good winds and, of course, we'll have the favorable Gulf Stream to help us on our way once we make the Florida coast.

We decided upon St. Augustine as our first Florida destination because 1) it's a good point of sail; 2) the inlet to the bay is not far from the sea and the entrance is easy; 3) we remember St. Augustine fondly as a friendly, easy to get-around kind of town with lots of amenities within walking distance; 4) it's America's oldest city, founded by Spanish conquistador Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565; and 5) we have a mooring waiting for us at the Municipal Marina just inside the Bridge of Lions.

We've finished all the #1s on our to-do list and actually completed a few #2s. Since we're already technically in the USA and since we're heading to Florida directly, there's no need to check-out with officials or file a float plan. We're already good to go. We visited the two little, but oh-so-well-stocked grocery stores today to stock up on a few freshies and the few items on our provisioning list that we can't live without. (Note: Never run out of TP or PB.*) We've left the last of our trash at the dock receptacle. I've stowed and lashed and prepared for a week-long passage. David is doing engine and deck checks as I write. There are two Stugeron tabs sitting on the saloon table, waiting for bedtime consumption. Time to move on and as always, we're humming “On the Road Again” as we make the final preparations to leave at first light tomorrow. We love arriving and we love leaving.

NB: *Everyone probably realizes TP is toilet paper. Non-Americans might not deduce that PB is peanut butter, a necessity no American cruiser would opt to live without.

Tarpons, Seagulls and Cold Beer

Despite all the very appealing local restaurants we've seen, we really haven't eaten out at all since we arrived in Culebra. Each morning we agree “Let's have dinner out tonight” and every evening, it's “Feel like going in to shore for dinner or shall we just make something aboard and watch a movie?” It's not the budget so much as “what can we get at a restaurant that we feel like eating that I can't make on board?” Reliable internet and cold beer was the answer this evening and we headed in to the Dinghy Dock Restaurant.

The Dinghy Dock does indeed have a dinghy dock allowing us to tie up right at tableside. It couldn't be more convenient. It wasn't too crowded when we arrived and the view was stunning.

We noticed a small school of huge fish hanging out at the dock … about 3' long (1 m), with pronounced scales and a lovely iridescent blue-green color shimmering through the water … tarpon. Evidently they regularly get fed here and hang out in anticipation.

Internet on the boat is sketchy at best. Even with our super-duper antenna, the shore signal is not strong enough and we lose it as often as we have it. So we lugged the laptop to shore with us and figured we'd sip beer, do internet, then have a pleasant dinner. First things first … David ordered two cold beers at the bar.

Someone threw some bread scraps in the water and there was a mad dash and a battle between the tarpon and the local laughing gulls to get their share.

I set up the laptop, we sent some photos and blog posts to Gentry, sipped some cold beer and did a little research, but mostly we just enjoyed the early evening breeze. The place was beginning to fill up, the music got a little louder and the buzz of patrons increased to compensate for the louder music. We could hear fragments of cruisers' conversations … complaining about insurance rates, bemoaning refrigeration problems, comparing harrowing sea stories … not unlike cruiser bars everywhere else in the world.

It appears there was a shortage of wait staff and table service was very, very slow. We looked at the menu. It had reasonable offerings with okay prices, but nothing really appealed to us. We didn't want to just settle for something for sake of eating out. We didn't want any more beer and … well, you guessed it. We left the restaurant, trotted over to Colmado Milka's bought some chicken and salad makings and headed back to the boat for dinner and a movie.

Going out to dinner should be a treat, not a trial. Maybe another time.