Puerto Rico

Puerto Del Rey was a good stop, did some needed maintenance on the boat, met some great people.

Compensating for something...

Farewell Puerto Del Rey

Porto Del Rey

About this far from land, I went diving to clear the Prop..

13 April - Porto Patilla

I set off at 0600, Torstein was up to lend a hand, unfortunately, leaving at that time it was not possible to say later(never goodbye) to Jim and Ellie. The undocking went quite well, but it took me 3 manoeuvres to exit the docks, they are quite tight if one doesn't have a bow thruster ;-)..

I left the harbour and immediately felt vibration from my prop.. I motored for about 1/2 an hour and stopped the engine, tied myself to the boat and went for a snorkel. There was a bunch of seaweed on one of the blades... After clearing that, we were off again...

I motored most of the was as the wind was 3-4 kts, the last hour or so, I got the sea breeze.. I anchored at 14h30, went for a swim.. Waited for a later afternoon rain, then. I had Braai'd pork chop and veges for dinner a movie..

To Porto Patilla

14 April
I weighed anchor at 0600, hoisted the main and was off, got a nice bit of sailing for an hour( used the land breeze) that died after an hour or so and it was like being back in the Med - calm seas and no wind, so I dropped the main and motored. About 1100, the wind picked up and I hoisted the sail and off we were, 5kts from 8 kts of wind.. The wind then became a steady 10-12 and we were doing comfortable 7 kts.. Dropped sails, motored into the anchorage.. Did a bit of maintenance, the knot log sensor would no read relaiaby below 5kts, so I decided to replace the crimped connections with solder.

 Track to Ponce Yatch Club

Anchorage at ponce Yacth Club

15 April Boqueron

Same routine, off by 0600, hoisted main, sailed for a bit, then wind dies.. Wind picked up, wind died.. The knot log behaved itself, which was good... I arrived at anchorage and took a swim and went ashore - plan was to stay there for two nights..  

Route to Boqueron

 If you look carefully, you can see Wobblyolly.. Yep *THAT* stalker beer again ;-)

 There were these big fyshe and pipe fyshe close o the restaurant, there was a sign inside - "Feed the fish, not the birds" - classic example of cupboard love - water cats...

 Having last drink and back to the boat..

16 April - Mayagues Porto Real

The plan was originally to spend two days at Bqueron, but after breakfast, I decided that I would go to Mayaques as I could clear out and get to see another town.. So I set off, motored all the way... On route, I was expecting to see a bouy(i was on the chart) and on AIS.. At about 1NM, I stared looking for the buoy(I didn't wan to be *THAT* guy that crashes into a buoy) - nothing... At 1/2 NM and off the beam, still nothing, even thought it was showing up on AIS... So Virtual buoys, cunning!  I motored into Mayagues, yes expecting fuel and other boats - nuttin... So called Porto Real, where Nordic Belle was due to arrive the next day.. I could get in, my initial reluctance to go there was based on the chart showing not much depth, fortunately, the chart was wrong on the good side.. So back I go... Luckily the wind picked up and I managed to sail most of the way, with 1kt of current against...  I entered the port slowly, dropped anchor and filled up with diesel using jerry cans as I had been told that a boat of similar draught had briefly grounded while going for fuel. I then used the ducky to refill the jerrycans. The fuel consumption was back to normal(just over 2 l/hr, as opposed to 3, prior to my having the hull cleaned)

There and back again

Quick fix for the backlash on the helm/autohelm, under motor, the autohelm hunts a bit when - with the bungie applying a bit of force, the hunting is gone... 

 Managed to get some sailing, got as high as 40 deg to true wind, before I started pinching...

 By the time I took the shot, he wind had shifted to closer to 50..

 Boat speed wasn't too bad..

 Almost properly trimmed, the top tell tale, breaks just slightly before the lower...

17 April

Nordic Belle arrived and filled up.. Discussed the route an tactics... Tomorrow, we head off for the Bahamas, first stop will be Turks and Caicos... So there won't be an update for a week or so. I'll be using the spot tracker as I'll be away from shore...