2025-04-27 Heading north up to Key Biscane - Kris hurts her back

We spent all day Monday on the boat just relaxing, doing some cleaning and catching up on sleep and internet stuff.  

Tuesday we headed north, motor sailing 35 miles north up the ICW to Barnes sound, where we spent the night.   So strange to be back on the ICW, although it was pretty deserted, and we did not encounter many boats.   Of course, we did encounter one boat, who was anchored in the middle of a tight channel, anchored right in the middle.  Group of 4 ladies, looking to see some Tarpon, it takes all kinds.

 

Back on the ICW

Boat anchored right in the middle, hoping to see some Tarpon

Wednesday we motor sailed 23 more miles to Boca Chita Key.  We were glad we had gotten an early start, as we took one of the last open spots along the wall inside Boca Chita Key.  The island used to belong to Honeywell - of Honeywell controls fame, but now is a National Park.  You can tie up along the harbor wall for free Tuesday to Thursday.  We did not think Wednesday would be as busy as it was, but it was fun to watch all the boats come in and leave and have parties and socialize.  We moved three times back and forth along the wall as boats came and left to allow room for new boats.

Boca Chita is very small, but had a nice little trail around the island to walk.

 

Decorative lighthouse at entrance to Boca Chita harbor

 

 

 

View of water from the trail

Old building on Boca Chita - the Chapel

Charm tied up along with a lot of powerboats

We left Boca Chita on Friday morning earlier than planned, as a powerboat came in and was trying to dock right in front of us, in a spot that was just barely long enough for him.  To avoid possible damage to our boat, and be nice, we abandoned breakfast, and got underway for a short 13-mile trip up to No Name Harbor.

We anchored on the outside, as you have to pay in the harbor, and there were already many boats inside. 

Kris's back started to hurt in the afternoon, and by evening she was in a lot of pain.   She took some Tylenol, but did not get much sleep with pain in the back and shooting pains in her right thigh.   In the morning, she felt a bit better, so we walked 1.35 miles into town to get groceries, thinking we would get a ride back to the boat with a free ride service called Freebee.   Should have planned better, as when we tried to get a ride back, we got a notice that Freebee was not working on the weekends.  So we walked back, carrying the groceries.  Poor Dean had to carry all the heavy stuff, as Kris did not want a heavy backpack or bag on her shoulder.    

 

Nice walk into town.  Haven't been around "landscaped" roads or sidewalks for some time

We were back at the boat by lunch, and relaxed.  That afternoon and into evening Kris's pain just got worse, but we had stopped and got ice packs, heat packs, ibuprofen and acetaminophen and Kris was using all of it trying to find relief.   Of course, many internet searches were done, and we figure she has a herniated disk which was acting up.   

Sunday was back into land for Kris to walk, -as that is supposed to help with healing.   We took a nice 2-mile loop through the Bill Bags Cape, Florida State Park.    

Nice sunset anchored off of No Name Harbor - Key Biscayne

Quite a few boats inside No Name Harbor

Charm anchored out

Nice path along the shore

Lighthouse at south end of Key Biscayne.

 

Tomorrow we will head over to the mainland, as we found a source for a new batten for our mainsail that we will ship next week.  The weather looks good Thursday for an overnight run to Fort Pierce area.

2025-04-20 Tired of watching the weather, decided to go for it and sail to Florida anyway.

We look at the weather each day, hoping for a 5-day window to sail from Luperon to Florida.  Nothing looks good.   

Monday had a bit of excitement, as a new boat came into the harbor, and was being led by a "friendly cruiser" in her dinghy to an open mooring ball.  Unfortunately, she led them over the large shallow bank in the middle of the mooring field, and they promptly went aground on a falling tide.  Big steel ketch.

We sat and watched the entertainment as several folks in dinghy's and the local man who owns the moorings attempted to get the boat off the ground.   We were getting ready to go help, but could see quite quickly that there were too many bosses and not enough followers and no good coordination to work together, so decided to pass on getting involved.  After a couple of hours of trying various unsuccessful attempts to push it off, everyone left to wait for high tide later in the evening.

 

Around 9 p.m. the local mooring owner boat came out, and easily pulled the boat off the bottom, and took them to a mooring.  No damage done.

Dean decided that it would be a good day to make cinnamon rolls, as we thought we would enjoy them when we finally did leave and have a multiple night passage.  

Hard not to eat them all right away, but know they will be a nice treat on a long passage

Kris got busy and made some removable dinghy registration placards that we need to put on the dinghy when in Florida waters. 

Only Florida has gotten touchy about insisting our dingy be registered, so we registered it in Idaho. 

Tuesday we headed into town to have a meal out, and check out the grocery stores.   If we were going to be here for a couple more weeks, we would need provisions, so the local store or if not we would need to get a taxi or rent a car to head to the larger town.    

Nice lunch out on a restaurant that caters to cruisers - not your typical Dominican Republic fare

Some of the backstreets of Luperon, much cleaner and nicer than the main street

Wednesday, like any other day, we got up, had breakfast and checked the weather.  We both were not looking forward to spending another week or more in Luperon waiting on an ideal weather window.  Kris looked at weather and said - let's go - have to motor sail for one day, and have one day of 30 knot gusts, but all doable if we want to.  Sooo - we got ready and went to town and checked out, and then went to the grocery store to use up the leftover Dominican Republic money we still had.  What do you get  - junk of course, it will last and was some of the higher priced items at the store.

 

What we bought for $1,500 DR - or $25 in US cash

 We got back to the boat and hoisted anchor at 11:00 on Wednesday the 16th. 

Wednesday afternoon winds were light, so we motor sailed for the first 8 hours or so, then the winds built, and the motors went off.  By hour 24 the winds picked up so we put in one reef of the main and kept going around 7 to 9 knots.  By hour 48 the winds built, so a double reef main and jib was moving us along around 7 to 9 knots.  By hour 72 we were seeing gusts to 30 knots, so went to just the jib, and sailed along.  We came into anchorage at exactly 96 hours after we left, averaging 6.8 knots for the 4-day trip.

We do a shift of 3 hours on, and 3 hours off.  Works for us, but it doesn't mean you get a lot of sleep.

Would like to say it was all smooth sailing - but it wasn't.  Had some lumpy seas.  Kris slipped and fell in the cockpit due to salt spray coating everything, making everything extra slippery.   She banged her shoulder had, and her head lightly.  Dean stubbed his toe and walked with a limp for a couple day.  We lost one of our port visors - heavy seas ripped it right off.  We were losing a second one, but Dean was able to reach over the side and save it.     

Kris had an "oh crap"  moment on watch when she heard the kerplunk of something metal falling on deck.   It was night, of course, so a thorough search via flashlight on all critical items revealed a nut had come off the bolt holding the boom vang to the boom.  Dean was called up, and we got the main down and secured, as losing the vang would be a bad thing.  That's when we started sailing under jib alone, and the speed was good enough we just left it that way the rest of the trip.  Next morning we did fix the loose bolt and got the vang fixed.

Some pretty sunsets on the trip.   Passed close to a tug and barge, but not a lot of traffic to worry about on our route.

Kris saw one green "flash"

Tug and barge was the closet we got to any other traffic

Had one brief hour of rain on the first day, but that was it for the whole trip

Day 2 sailing along with double reef main and jib.  Doing 8 plus knots steady in 18 knots apparent

Was not a warm trip - Kris was in pants and sweatshirt most of the time

Pretty much the view for 4 days

It was nice to come into Florida and get into some flat water.  We were tired of rocking and rolling.

We were planning on going all the way to No Name Harbor at Key Biscayne, but it was another 60 miles, and the wind was on ENE, so we decided to come into Lower Morecambe Key as there was one of the few spots we could get on the west side of the Keys for good wind and wave protection.

Approaching the Channel 5 bridge.  One of the few places with a high enough bridge to get us to the protected Florida Bay waters.

 

Once in and anchored, Dean spent the next hour cleaning crusted salt off the boat.  It was everywhere.

Kris checked in to the USA online, and scrubbed the inside of the boat, as we had tracked in salt with our feet and clothes after every shift.

It was time for a nice lunch, and by 1:00 we were sitting down to our feast of pizza.  YUM YUM

 

Fresh sheets on the bed, a nice hot shower, and we are ready to relax and have a good nights sleep tonight.

 

 

 

2025-04-13 Change of plans with the weather - now in Luperon

We were thinking of going all the way from Puerto Rico to the Florida Keys.  Good thing we don't live to a schedule, or firm plans most the time.   

It was a 6 to 7-day trip from Puerto Rico to Key West, and we could not find a long enough weather window for the entire trip.   It seems odd, since usually you would have steady easterly trade winds, but we saw north winds, no winds, and strong east winds up to 30 knots, all lasting more than a day, so we decided instead to take an upcoming weather window to sail to Luperon, Dominican Republic instead.  That would cut 260 miles out of our almost 1,000-mile trip.   

Signpost at Puerto Real.  I think the Galapagos distance is a bit off.

Monday we rented a car in Puerto Real to go to shopping for provisions.  We did a brief drive tour of the Southwest corner of Puerto Rico first, going to Cabo Rojo, and then through San German before heading to Mayaguez to the Walmart, and Pueblo (grocery)  stores.

We were going to go to the lighthouse, but the road was closed to cars, so it would have been a 4-mile roundtrip walk which we were not prepared for, so we didn't go.

Stopped at the view tower for the Cabo Rojo salt flats

 

Viewtower

View of the SW 

Salt flat ponds

After the view tower, we hit the road and drove through San German.  Cute little town on a hill, but the roads were so narrow, there was nowhere to pull off, and Google Maps got us a little lost for some reason, so we did not stop for photos.  Had a quick lunch at a McDonald's near the highway, then onto Walmart and Pueblo for groceries and then back to boat.

 

We did buy a new microwave at Walmart, as our old one was getting a bit rusty on the door and was starting to flake off pieces.

New non-rusty microwave.   It's the small things that make you happy sometimes

Tuesday afternoon we left Puerto Real and sailed to Luperon, arriving midday on Thursday.   Uneventful sail, which is always good, a bit lumpy in 5' seas with a 5 to 6-second period off the stern quarter for the first 12 hours or so, then it got better withe lesser seas, and we could turn more downwind.

 

In Luperon we checked in, first with Immigration where we could pay with credit card for about $65, then to Customs, only $30, then to the department of Agriculture, another $10, then to the Navy, which was no charge.  It was nice, they all took US dollars.   It took about an hour to do it all, even though the offices were all in the same area, just time for everyone to fill out their forms, and stamp them.  Still better than Trinidad, and everyone very helpful and friendly.

 

Across the street, cross the crumbling bridge and up the hill to the Navy office

 

Navy office parking.  Motorcycles are more prevalent than cars here

 

 

After check in - back to boat to relax, as after a couple of nights underway, we were both a bit of brain weary from lack of sleep, so good to just relax. 

Friday we headed into town to see the sights.

 

Statue of General Luperon - where the town got its name

 

Nice tile work outside a pharmacy

Town square

As with most towns, there is part that is nicer looking, and parts that are poorer looking.  In Luperon, they are mixed together, so there is no transition between them.  

Laundry hanging to dry on the side of the main street.  You use the space you have

Across the street is a car wash, with nice cars getting washed.   Everything clean and well-kept.

Right outside the clean car wash, trash in the street, with people picking through the bottles to find ones they can return for money

Make a fence with what you can find.

Luperon does have a nice dinghy dock.

Dinghy dock

 

We had a nice lunch out at a pizza restaurant, which seems to also be a bit of a local hangout.  A 10" round pizza cost 250 Dominican Republic pesos - which is about $4 USD.   We had two pizzas with two large cokes for under $10 USD.    

With the very protected bay, and very cheap cost of living, you can see why Luperon is a place where people stop on their way to the Caribbean from the US or Canada, and never leave.   Many people here have been here more than 2 years, and there is a very active live-aboard community.   We were told you can even get free medical at the local small hospital here.

 

Luperon mooring field

Luperon mooring field

Almost everyone is on a mooring, which cost of $25 USD for a week.  Could have gotten a month for $75 USD.   

A couple of local people cater to the yachts, supplying diesel, water, gasoline, dive services, car rental, tours - any help you need at very reasonable (cheap)  prices.

We will wait here for a good weather window to head to Florida, which looks like at least a week away, but who knows.  Looks like the Keys are out for this year, as we want to make it to Norfolk by first of June.

2025-04-06 Boqueron and Puerto Real

We left Gilligan's Island anchorage on Monday and had a nice but a bit lumpy downwind sail in 5' seas, with about a 6-second period.  Boat was fine, but it is hard to go dead downwind with seas that high, as when we surf down the waves, the autopilot has a hard time holding the boat dead downwind, which increases the risk of an accidental jibe.  Which we did - oops.   Nothing broken, the boom brake did its job.   

We spent a few days in Boqueron.  Boqueron is a touristy town, with many restaurants and hotels, and they have a very nice long beach for all to enjoy.   It is a quiet, sleepy town Monday to Friday, but gets busy on the weekends.

Sunrise in Boqueron

Lots of nice murals, narrow streets

These are all for food vendors that open mostly on the weekends.  We were in at 9 in the morning

Lots of murals and a nice carved pelican

Tree is split up the middle

Small private marina for condo owners accessed behind lift bridge.

More nice murals

Cute bunch of puppies taking a nap.  Looked well-fed

Thursday afternoon we motored the 5 miles up to Puerto Real.  Anchored as usual, and backed down on the anchor and all held well.   We were below, relaxing, when the winds piped up again, as they had every afternoon.  Gusts to 30 knots.   Kris got up to look outside and noticed we were dragging, so went out and had to re-anchor.  Don't have any idea what went wrong, not like we are novice at this - but a good reminder that even with lots of experience things can happen you don't expect - so don't get complacent.

Friday we went into the marina, dropped off our trash and mad a rental car reservation for Monday.  Kris was quite happy to use her Spanish, which she has been working on every day for the last couple of months.

Friday midday we heard a Mayday on the VHF.  The Mayday was from a boat on the reef only 5 miles from us.  They were a catamaran that had hit a reef, and were not in danger as the boat not taking on water.  A local salvage boat went out and got them off and towed them into Puerto Real.   These were folks that had sailed across the Atlantic and the Caribbean, so not inexperienced.  Most likely, they did not zoom in on the charts enough to see the offshore reef.  Again - years of experience no excuse - you just cannot get complacent.

Kris did basic engine checks on Saturday, and worked on cleaning our dodger.  Dean polished some stainless.

 

Puerto Real is well protected from winds.  Very calm morning in the anchorage

Puerto Real anchorage

We are anchored next to this unfortunate boat

 

We are just hanging out, waiting on a good weather window to sail to Florida.  Will rent a car Monday to drive into Walmart and do some provisioning, and drive and see some more of inland Puerto Rico