On Reflection, Three Chicken Harbors

Cruisers constantly challenge themselves. Along the way we have discovered Three Chicken Harbors. Chicken Harbors can be found wherever cruisers question the wisdom of traveling many miles in a small boat in open ocean, resulting in a decision to turn back home.

Georgetown, Bahamas. The most well known of the three cruising milestones, also known as Chicken Harbor. The journey to Georgetown is relatively easy and provides opportunities for overnight passage making, gulf stream crossing, the exploration of another country and cruising in some truly beautiful waters. For many people this is enough. Thoughts of heading out into the Atlantic only to beat into the trade winds for a thousand miles is enough to say "enough" and they return back to the safety of the Intracoastal Waterway and home. Whatever the reason, this is the southern boundary for the majority of North American cruisers. Chicken Harbor 1.

Luperon, Dominican Republic. Having escaped the seductive clutches and safety of the cruising community of George Town in The Bahamas and with the challenge of finding a good weather window for crossing behind you, you find yourself safely tucked away in the mangroves of Luperon Harbor. To get here you have had your first taste of the trade winds. The prospect of heading out into these winds and sea for 250 miles of easting, across the notorious Mona Passage is enough to start you thinking about heading west! You might decide you'd enjoy some down wind sailing in the windward passage, or you might decide to stay in Luperon for a while to think about it some more. Chicken Harbor 2.

St. Martin. The most deceptive of the three Chicken Harbors. To get to St. Martin from the Virgin Islands you will need to cross the Anegada Passage. As we found out, this passage can be tough going.  Memories of it's reality can bring you back down from the euphoria of making it through the Mona, relatively unscathed. With good reason, the Anegada Passage is known as the OhMyGodda. It can easily turn into something akin to a whirl in a washing machine. On arrival in St. Martin, feeling tired, wet and exhausted after 36 hours of beating into wind and sea, cruisers may be heard to say: “That’s it, I’ve had enough”. Chicken Harbor 3.

Engaging in any outdoors activity means exposure to the elements and when all goes well, you are at one with nature. At times, you experience some real lows when you wish you were in the safety and comfort of home, however this is balanced by the best of times; those unique and rare experiences that are not possible unless you take the leap of faith and leave the safety and comfort of home.

Bristol Rose is our beautiful home. She is strong, safe and capable. We've made it safely through three Chicken Harbors and look forward to our next big incredible, possibly life changing leap, crossing the Pacific Ocean.

Travels around Puerto Rico, Isla Del Encanto. Island of Enchantment

Porch tiles at the home of Victor and Ruthie, Vieques.

Puerto Rico, its islands, Vieques and Culebra, and its people enchanted us from the start with charm, beauty, history, and most of all, a joie de vivre.  No argument, the US territory of Puerto Rico is the Island of Enchantment!  Fun times were had with Sunny and Blake, Slow Mocean doing some buddy-boating and crossing paths many times with friends on Spectra, Night Hawk and Astarte.

I had a lot of difficulty choosing images to share so as soon as I can I'll update the albums to include more of Puerto Rico.  It's been a challenge in the last few weeks to find strong wifi connections as well as time to spend on the blog so while we have the chance we will do our best to bring it up to date.  

Thanks for your comments and emails.  We love to know you are traveling with us through the blog.  Our friend Barry has joined us so we might just get him to post a thing or two as a guest writer!

For now, here's a look back at Puerto Rico, Vieques and Culebra......

Drive by shooting with Joe, M/V Spectra at the wheel of the rental car.  Those are tree ferns.  We whirled around the bends, 13 per minute, climbing up to San Sebastian from Ponce.  Houses literally cling to the edges of the cliffs and the vegetation is lush.

Dinner aboard M/V Spectra. Mel, Joe, Daisie, Robert, Trish and David (yes ladies, he's single!)

Big, orange starfish, commonly seen in the waters around the islands.

The tarpon are protected in Ponce Harbour.  $1 buys a bag of sardines to feed them.  Pelicans and seagulls compete for sardines but leave the tarpon alone.

La Barkita, on a corner in Salinas, PR serves great empanidillas (meat filled pastries).

Barbara, S/V Astarte, Robert and I enjoy a drink at an Irish bar on the outskirts of San Juan.  Yep, those Irish bars are everywhere.

We tagged along with Mike and Barbara from Astarte when they had to go up to San Juan to get their dinghy outboard repaired.  Thankfully there's a happy ending to their outboard worries.  The outboard dealer is also the Harley Davidson dealer so we enjoyed checking out the Harleys and got to walk through the workshop (it's laboratory clean!).

The colors of Puerto Rico are generally bright and intense.  A drive around Vieques was a real treat, courtesy of new friends of Sonny and Blake, Victor and Ruthie.

A sad sight along the road beside the sugar cane field in Salinas.

We enjoy exploring the mangroves.  There's always lots of aquatic life to see.

There's fabulous snorkeling right off the beach at Rosario.  There's no escaping the military history or presence throughout Puerto Rico.  The sign educates about protecting the coral as well as warns about unexploded ordinances.  Yikes!

Flamenco Beach, Culebra was once off limits when used by the military.

In a strange way, the activities and management by the military of much of Puerto Rico for so many years has prevented over-development, keeping the area naturally beautiful.

One of those days.

Blake, Robert, Sunny and I take the ferry from Vieques to Fajardo, about 16 miles and a great deal at $3 each.

Girls day out in Boqueron, Mel, Trish, Jenna, Sunny.

Slow Mocean at anchor.

The beautiful ketch Night Hawk built by owners Ray and Genna, sailing in Puerto Rico.

La Paguerra boat houses, colorful and playful.

Bacalao, a Spanish dish of dry salt cod.  Yolanda's in La Paguerra serves this delicious dish!

Jorge Acevedo, painter and drummer in his Culebra Studio.

Jorge Acevedo's studio looks like it sits at street level.  In fact, it rests in the trees.  His backyard drops away quickly to the mangroves where hummingbirds and land crabs live.  

This tank was left in the sand when the military ceased their activities on Flamenco Beach.  Jorge had painted the tank in bright colors, now faded, and it became something of a symbol.  He told us about an organization called Coralations which was founded to promote and protect the land and sea environment of Culebra.

Destination Unknown Journals is a site I just discovered.  The author shares some pictures and info about Culebra.

Oh-My-God-A Passage! This is getting old.

I’m about to indulge myself with a little complaining. That’s right, I have some complaining to do. Easting for months on end is really getting old. I see all the self-satisfied sailors heading west, sometimes flying brightly coloured spinnakers. Show-offs! They’re getting a free ride! The grass is greener, the sea is always bluer heading west with the Trades.

Slogging into the Trades can be tough, wicked even! We pinch a little off the wind where we can but mostly we are sailing 40-45 degrees off the wind and healing enough to get some exciting, splashy action shots.

Photographic proof that even the cars have to tack in the trades.

2,000 miles and we have the Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf Stream behind us, and the Mona (read Be-Moana) Passage from the Dominican Republic, the south coast of Puerto Rico, Vieques, Culebra and the Virgin Islands. 1,000 miles of pure easting and we’re not done yet. Oh My God, Sunday May 10, we plan to cross the Anegada Passage (aka the Oh-My-God-A Passage) 64 miles from Virgin Gorda to St. Martin at 115 degrees (that’s east). Chris Parker, weather guru, gives us a “marginal” window with Sunday/Monday being the best of the bad days.

We could have dropped off the East Coast of the US and headed straight to the Leeward and Windward Islands to avoid so much easting, but we would have missed the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos, the DR and Puerto Rico. And they are not to be missed.

We could have done what some smart sailors do and hired a delivery Captain. A delivery Captain could have had Bristol Rose waiting in the Southern Caribbean for us to fly in and then work our way north and west along our route, and not missed anything. Unlike most of the sailors we’ve met, we won’t be sailing back to the States. So easting we will go.

M/V Spectra, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

One of the beaches looking west of Caneel Bay

Yesterday we said farewell to our friends Joe and Mel on Spectra in St. Thomas and had a great sail to Caneel Bay, St. Johns. It’s a beautiful anchorage and we enjoy a nice meal aboard, ready for sleep and a big day tomorrow. Tomorrow we will “yellow flag” past Tortola (UK) and on to Virgin Gorda where we might get a short rest before going through Necker Passage.

Approaching Tortola, British Virgin Islands

Sunday afternoon and we have tacked back and forth all day into the wind. The islands cause something of a wind tunnel with the prevailing easterly Trades. We take time out to rescue a kite surfer who’s hanging on for dear life having lost his board off Nanny Cay, Tortola. Amazingly, I spot the board with the binoculars and Robert is able to pick it up with the boat hook. We circle back and drop it overboard to him. It takes him no time at all to get back on and take off at great speed with a cheery “Thank you”. Although the sailing and sights have been wonderful on this gorgeous sunny day, our timing is now a little off and we don’t get any time to rest before heading out into the Passage.

We connect with Night Hawk and Anthem around 4pm on the VHF. They are about 4 hours ahead of us and finding the going a little tough. We continue on and hope conditions hold, at least.

The conditions become more difficult and we cannot stay on our rhumb line. We have to do more tacking than we would like and we motor-sail on and off. We’re overly nervous about the repaired engine mount, hoping it will hold, so we limit engine time. It is difficult to know why but we feel we are dragging and should be making better time. Is the current affecting us so much? We may have picked up one of the many fish traps that line the passage and it’s slowing us down. Whatever the reason, we’ve let our timing slip on a marginal window. That’s never good. Monday night and after 24 hours of hard slog, and our most frustrating passage so far, we drag ourselves in to the anchorage in St. Martin in the dark, set the anchor and collapse in a wet, soggy heap. Tuesday we check in with Customs and Immigration and check into a marina. All we can do for the next few days in St. Martin is catch up on sleep, do laundry, dry out and put ourselves back together again. 

We are looking forward to picking up our friend Barry who’s arriving from Australia on Thursday. Before then we'll give Bristol Rose some love. It’s time to get the barnacles and marine growth scraped off the bottom. Maybe that will help with speed.  We enlist help to check our rigging, not because we have a problem but a check after so much easting is wise. The rigging on Bristol Rose is quality rod rigging.  Shannon have over-engineered the rigging with redundancy built in.  We have confidence, Bristol Rose is built to cross oceans, and do our best to care for her along the way as insurance against problems in the future.  The engine mount has held up well.

Spectacular Bioluminescence

Everyone says it's a waste of time taking a camera. There's no way you can get a picture of this natural wonder, especially on a moonless night and certainly not with a flash. Even so, I set out with camera in waterproof bag for the dinghy ride around the couple of headlands to the "special bay".


Where? The secluded bay of Puerto Mosquito in Vieques. When? Some dark night. Why? As Pavlidis says in his guide to Puerto Rico: "If there is something you must do in your lifetime it is to dive on a moonless night into the dark serene waters..... you will see the water splash up in a burst of millions of lights as if fireworks were sent up from the depths".


It is indeed true, "as you glide through the water you develop an eerie glow and when you resurface, thousands of sparkling lights remain on you for a brief moment". Sunny, Blake and Robert seem dazzled by the experience.

We feel as if we are part of a Disney movie! Tinkerbell must have been here.

I'm so glad I took the camera! The spectacle would have been impossible to describe.

Trade Winds

The jump off the East Coast U.S. across the Gulf Stream and through The Bahamas chain of islands is a good training ground for the trade winds. The Bahamas gets you 3 days of calm and then 4 days of 20 to 25 knt winds with the wind clocking like, well... clockwork. A voice in my head says, "Head south young man"! The Caribbean is calling. 

We'll enjoy 20 to 25 knots every day and then as we do our "easting" through the northern part of the Caribbean, we'll really know we're sailing. We're soon to find out about sailing the Trades. We have read the book "The Gentleman's Guide to Passages South" and have been duly warned.

If we get bored with monotonous easterlies, we can spice up our lives with some "cape effect" sailing, which is sure to provide an opportunity to drop into the washing machine. Waves bob and skip as the wind tries to counter all our tacking efforts, trying to make forward progress towards the next island. The wind will persist in all directions to come at us straight on our nose. Then to top it all off, why not throw in a little treat; an early morning squall with a 30 knot gust or two. We are learning fast about the Trades. What we wouldn't do for a wind-less day.

Easting in the Trades can be a challenge. So what is there to like about the Trades? "Like" being a relative term.

• Mosquitoes get blown all the way to Mexico.
• After a day in the sun the gentle gale blowing across the deck helps soothe the sunburn.
• The wind chop gently rocks you into an afternoon siesta and suddenly builds to wake you for dinner.
• The bbq grill stays clean due to the fact the wind blows out the flame before you get a chance to land the chops.
• The wind generator keeps those batteries topped up.
• You can hone your sailing techniques by tacking endlessly to windward.
• Wind and waves create humorours moments getting in and out of the dinghy.
• Guaranteed dinghy butt (as in wet duds) with every outing - the signature of a real cruiser.

Bristol Rose Crosses the Mona Passage

Thorny Path Part II - Bemoaning the Mona

The prospect of sailing against current and trade winds for 250 nautical miles is a daunting one. Add the crossing of the notorious Mona Passage between Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, and we expect this passage will test us and Bristol Rose.

Out of this world avacados and papayas.

Luperon provides safe harbour for Bristol Rose as well as provisioning and social interactions. The Dominican Republic is a poor country by western standards however people seem to live contentedly in the truly beautiful island. The people of Luperon are wonderful, smiling faces greet us will “hola”, men and women play dominos, children play outdoors, dogs sleep in the streets, and chickens and goats free range. We purchase the Dominican coffee for just over $2 per pound! We can understand why some cruisers make it to Luperon and go no further.

Bruce Van Sant is without question The Expert on sailing this passage. His book The Gentlemen’s Guide to Passages South is packed full of useful information for the east bound cruiser. However, he is no travel guide writer. Information is often conflicting or so it seems and layout is "loose" resulting in the reader having to flick backward and forward through the text to plan a passage. We find planning our passage is close to impossible. That said, in gentle defense of the book, the author is attempting to accommodate various routes in limited space.

Each morning Robert listens to Chris Parker’s weather forecast on the SSB Radio, downloads Offshore Weather Reports and GRIB files. Bruce Van Sant provides weather forecasts on Wednesday and Sunday on VHF in Luperon, where he resides. Robert is becoming a weather junkie, a real sailor!

There was movement in the harbor for the word had got around that Monday is the night for cruisers to get away (apologies to A.B. (Banjo) Paterson, borrowing from his poem The Man From Snowy River). We prepare to leave with last minute provisioning, checking-out with Immigration and Port Authority, getting our despacho or permission to leave harbour from the Commandancia, stowing the dinghy and securing the outboard on the stern.

As the sun sets radio chatter builds along with our anticipation and excitement. The first boats leave harbour, radioing back reports of 25 knt winds and high seas. A familiar voice booms over the VHF radio “do not leave harbour until the wind dies, period!” Sunny on Slow Mocean asks “who is this?" Another voice responds “God”. We heed Bruce's warning and decide to sleep for a few hours.

11:00pm, the winds have dropped to below 5 knts, Slow Mocean is on the move. We join them and leave Luperon harbour. Buddy decides to hang tight until 4:00am.

Buddy is a Trimaran designed and built by owner John. We first met John in Provo. He is legally blind yet led us into Luperon Harbour like the expert he is.

Buddy is a remarkable sailboat capable of speeds well over 20 knts. John has sailed Buddy through these waters many times and we are all comforted to have such experience traveling with us. We are seeing a pattern with Buddy; last to leave and first to arrive!

Leaving Luperon we head east, into the wind and short high seas created by the cape effect of Punta Patilla. This is an uncomfortable start on our 50 mile journey to Rio San Juan. As the night progresses the conditions improve however we are wondering where are the calm seas and night lee winds that enable one to sail, as claimed by Bruce Van Sant, and how is it that Bruce never misses his Sundowner Gin and Tonic? We are starting to believe that there is a connection between the SG&T and the perception of smooth seas and sailing. We are finding the reality of sailing this coast a little different.

You gotta watch for these guys after the sun goes down. Small boats, no lights.

In the early hours of the morning, Buddy is hailing the group of boats heading East. Buddy is on the move.

The approach to Rio San Juan, DR

By early morning we drop anchor, off Rio San Juan, to rest while the trade winds build. We will leave latter this evening for another 50 nm trip to Escondido when the winds have died down again. As we doze off we are awakened by the now familiar visits by the Dominican Republic Navy/Coast Guard. We now know the drill and complete the necessary formalities and get back to sleeping. We are thankful we followed Van Sant's tip of buying a case of rum to help ease our passage with the DR Authorities.

11:00 pm we depart, dodging small fishing boats in the dark and turn to round the cape Cabo Frances Viejo. Strong winds and short high seas make for another uncomfortable start to our passage. Buddy decides sleeping is the better option and is last to leave the anchorage.

Bowl shaped rocks mark the enterance to Escondido

Early Morning Arrival At Escondido, DR

Slow Mocean

Escondido emerges from the clouds in the early morning light. Wow how quickly we forget, 100 nm of motoring into pounding waves and winds all through the night. We are in awe and excited by the spectacular view before us. The rising cliffs of Escondido reveal themselves through cloud and rain. We are sure there are Dinosaurs roaming the land and one of those caves has to be the home of the Phantom. We anchor off a rain-drenched beach lined with coconut palms.







Suddenly three men appear from the tree line and walk towards some caves just as one of our fellow cruisers lands his dinghy on the beach to walk his dog. Given the warnings of potential difficulties with authorities at points along the coast and the US and DR concerns about drug and people smuggling between these countries and Puerto Rico, the appearance of the three men carrying bags and a machete raises our curiosity. Their presence is still a mystery to us and no harm was done.


True to form, as I take the picture, the donkey turns his butt to me. Elliot and Owen will appreciate the joke with memories of my bison butts photos in Montana!

Small fishing hut on an idyllic beach.

Anthem

We are concerned about our timing and feel we need to move on very soon if we are to get to Puerto Rico in daylight. However leaving now will mean missing the night lee effects of the Dominican Republic landmass. Conflicted, we pore over charts and guidebooks, plan routes and alternate routes, discuss options with fellow cruisers.

Night Hawk

We seek Chris Parker's advice on moving forward for an overnight crossing of the Mona Passage; he gives us the weather thumbs up forecasting E winds at 10 to 12 knts with mild sea conditions at 2ft. Encouraging news as he had previously described the conditions for traveling east along the north coast of the Dominican Republic as marginal. The sea and wind conditions over the past two nights could not be described as ideal. It sounds like it's improving.


Crossing the Mona Passage is a 150 nm mile trip south east from Escondido. The prevailing trade winds from the east, and a west bound Equatorial Current moving massive volumes of water across the passage, all together make for a challenging passage in all weather conditions.


Critical to the passage is to make a way point north east of the Hourglass Shoals, known to create exceptionally rough sea conditions as the current pushes water from the second deepest hole in the oceans (Puerto Rico Trench) over a 200 ft shoal. John from Buddy has warned everyone numerous times, no matter what, do not be tempted to cross the Hourglass Shoals. He is speaking from personal experience.

This baby flying fish hitched a ride with us overnight.

2:30pm, we decide to chance a potentially wild ride around Cabo Samana to ensure we can arrive in Puerto Rico at a reasonable hour and depart one of the most beautiful anchorages we have experienced in the Dominican Republic. This time Bristol Rose is the first boat to leave. Predictably Buddy will be waiting and has no plan to leave just yet.

Spectra with Annie II under tow after she lost her mast.

We set sail along the 8 nm coast to Cabo Cabron. Steep mountains drop into deep blue waters. Palm trees go on forever skywards. Blow holes boil along the water's edge and numerous caves reveal themselves. This is the land of Jurassic Park! In a protected bay we see fishermen's huts and a small fishing boat.


Robert hooks a fish, a rush for the rod, but there's no fight in this fish. Why? When the line is retrieved all that is left is the head. Sharks have to eat too I guess.


When we clear the cape predictably the winds pick up and so do the seas. A Cruise liner passes us off the cape. The first few miles don’t seem too bad. The other boats decide to follow and are on the move. Buddy is still resting.

The winds shift to the ESE, not good as this is our rhumb line to the Hourglass Shoal. The swell builds with short steep waves from the east. As Bristol Rose powers up the face of one wave she pounds into the face of the next. We know she is tough and will come through but we don't like these punishing conditions.  This is a new kind of sailing for us, beating into gusty trades.

Our progress is slow and the 75 hp diesel is working overtime to push us across the Mona. The night is long. The crew of Spectra keeps tabs on all 10 vessels in our group. Radio chatter between vessels keeps the night watch alert, and each takes a keen interest in the safety and security of the others.



Many of the sail boats become concerned about fuel. We all are using more fuel than expected as we pound into 20knt winds and 4 ft seas. We've emptied the main tank and are now running on the smaller starboard tank, with the port tank in reserve.

In the early morning light Bristol Rose’s engine starts losing power and winds down to a stop. No problem. We have emptied our starboard tank. We switch over to our final Port tank and the engine roars to life. We are now very close to the Hourglass shoal and 50 nm from Puerto Rico. We don’t have enough fuel to get us home if we run the engine in these sea conditions.



The early morning light also reveals the identity of the sail boat tacking behind us for the last few hours. The now all too familiar outline of Buddy is clear. She is gaining on us. We hail Buddy on the radio, John is busy preparing breakfast and tells us he has torn his mainsail during the night and has had to resort to using the engine. Buddy flies past us!

The plan is to clear the Hourglass shoal, then fall off the wind so we can sail some of the way to Puerto Rico and save fuel to ensure we can make safe harbor with some fuel in reserve.

At long last we are clear of the Hourglass shoal. 100nm of beating to weather under power, all attempts to get any assistance from our sails have failed. Beating into wind, "easting" is what sailors do if they want to travel along this string of beautiful islands in the Eastern Caribbean.

We set our sails now for a close haul, falling off the wind and rhumb line and give the engine a well earned rest. We keep adjusting our sail trim and course. After passing the Hourglass shoal the swell direction is on our beam, we are able to sail the rhumb line. This is great!  We should be able to sail the final 50nm to Puerto Rico.



Conditions continue to improve, Bristol Rose is sailing at 7 knts with our friends Slow Mocean and Night Hawk on either side of us. Isla Desceheo is clearly visible, the mountains of Puerto Rico can be seen in the distance and the sun is shining.


John from Buddy tells us that the lee effects of Puerto Rico create flat seas and light winds for many miles west of the island. We anticipate these lighter conditions, our speed builds and we start to bury the rail. Seeing our Genoa dip into the water, Blake from Slow Mocean calls to tell us it looks like we have found the island lee conditions that Buddy was telling us about.

Eventually the winds and seas abate, we continue to conserve our precious fuel supply and sail all the way. The sailing is exhilarating, making for a great finish to a difficult 3 day passage from Luperon.


8:30 pm, we drop anchor in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. Elated! Already anchored is MV Spectra with Annie II in tow, Inspiration Lady, Night Hawk, Slow Mocean and of course Buddy. Still underway was Double Dutch and Anthem who arrived safely later in the evening.



We have crossed the notorious Mona Passage and enjoy a well-earned celebration with fellow cruisers!

Daisie is exhausted after three nights at sea. She's a great night watch dog!