Category: 06: Cruising: The Caribbean
Mar 23
Historic Hike on Hassel
Taking advantage of the “cooler” day and a little buffer from the sun, we dinghy over to Hassel Island. Steve’s been hiking the trails on this island for a few days and we’ve heard good things, so, let’s go explore! Hassel Island has a lot of history. It was home to the British, then the …
Mar 21
Paring Down
Three piles: Goodwill, Colorado, boat. Pants, t-shirts, bedding, socks, jackets, and shorts fly between one pile and another, hoping to make the cut: the bag that will be flown back to Montrose. Thinking we’d done a really good job of downsizing our wardrobes before leaving Colorado, we were surprised with the amount of clothing that filled …
Mar 19
Sailing Lessons
We met Jason in St. Thomas – our first showing of Free Range. Jason had just bought a Whitby 42 but was looking to downsize to a smaller, more manageable boat because he’s a single-hander. Stéphane and I visited him on his boat one night, grilled some chicken wings and burgers, and checked out his …
Mar 17
St. Croix
We’re currently in Christiansted, St. Croix. This place is neat! There’s a boardwalk all along the water with wooden siding (instead of concrete – much nicer for the boat) and pylons all along. We anchored out in the harbor last night but brought Free Range up to the boardwalk this morning to show her off …
Mar 14
Priorities
Our buddy boat friend, Steve, on Slow Flight, busted a piece off of his forestay (that’s the metal wire that runs from the bow of the boat up to the mast; it helps support the mast and is what the jib sail flies from). So we are all anchored in Redhook, east coast of St. …
Mar 11
A Rare Bird
We have Free Range for sale on Craigslist and Sailboatlistings.com. If you’re curious to see the ads: http://virgin.craigslist.org/boa/4890379030.html http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/48540 Anyways, since posting Free Range for sale, we’ve been contacted by a fair number of programs/people – some scammers (the programs), some tire kickers, some pretty serious. Through the course of interacting with these potential …
Mar 10
USVIs
We’ve been poking around the US Virgin Islands, killing time, waiting for Dan to come (he arrives later this month). We are REALLY excited for my brother’s visit and are exploring different spots we’ll take him when he comes. So far on the list we have: Mayo Bay, St. John Jost Van Dyke (Soggy Dollar …
Mar 10
Still Working…
Although all the real major refitting was done on Free Range before leaving Oriental, there’s ALWAYS little projects that need to be done along the way. The other day we found ourselves anchored at Redhook – an anchorage on the east coast of St. Thomas – because our buddy boat had broken his forestay. Within walking distance …
Mar 07
Adjusting the Sails
Until the money runs out or it isn’t fun anymore. Our canned response to those who asked how long we’d be gone on our sailing adventure. Surprisingly (to us anyways), the “it isn’t fun anymore” came first. And, it’s come much sooner than anticipated. We thought we’d be sailing for at least a few …
Mar 03
St. Thomas: Tourist Paradise
We’ve spent most of our time in quiet, sparsely-populated anchorages. Because we prefer it. So in St. Thomas, we thought it would be a fun change of pace to go where all the crowds go. So we went: The Inner Harbor. Getting into the inner harbor was interesting – we had a giant cruise ship …
Feb 26
Speed Tourism
It’s the latest trend, created by and us and practiced probably only by us: Speed Tourism. Because you can’t see everything and some things require less time than others. 10:15am – snorkel 11:35am – praise Stéphane for the amazing photos he took atop the crumbling walls of the lighthouse. …
Feb 26
Culebran Creatives
There’s got to be an artist colony on Culebra. Either that, or there’s one really creative, overly-ambitious Culebran artist because art is all over the place here. It’s on the most mundane things, which makes it even cooler. Culebra is a small island just east of …
Feb 19
Puerto Rico catch-up
We’ve been in Puerto Rico for almost two weeks with NO posts on eeeeeep! Time for a photo catch-up:
Feb 19
H2O
Back home in Montrose our local water supplier, Chipeta Water District, charges each home $23 a month for 10,000 gallons of water. We flush our toilets, stand under our hot showers, run our baths and dishwashers and water our grass all without a second thought. So that’s 10,000 gallons of water per household each month (to …
Feb 11
When Rice & Beans Go Bad…
Just in case you were wondering about the life expectancy of black beans and rice… For future reference, after said black beans and rice have been prepared and eaten, leftovers will serve you best in the refrigerator, not in the pan on the stove in the 90 degree 90% humidity on Free Range. Just in case …
Feb 11
Crossing Mona
After a week of waiting, our patience is rewarded with a weather window that will allow us to safely cross the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico. We check out with immigrations, check out with the navy (who board our ship and bring the DR-equivalent of the DEA). We give them twenty dollars and the remaining cold …
Feb 11
In search of chicharones
We spent a day exploring the town of Samaná. Actually, searching is a better term – we were searching Samaná: our mission was to find Bob this certain delicacy he has been talking about for the last three weeks: fried pork. Problem is, it’s not just any fried pork – you see, it’s fried pork rind – basically, fried fat. …
Feb 11
Cascades de Limon
Before leaving the Dominican Republic, we checked out the waterfalls of Limon. To get to the waterfalls, you could spend mucho dinero and get on the large, “modern” (for the DR), air-conditioned gringo tourbus OR, roll out with the locals for 70 pesos ($1.50). We decided to blend in with the natives and used the local …
Feb 03
Los Haitises National Park
We’ve swum in the infinity pools (both). We’ve checked e-mail. We’ve poked around Samana. We’ve had pizza at the marina restaurant three nights in a row (good but not Colorado Boy good). And we keep waiting for our weather window to Puerto Rico. And we get antsy. So… Time to go to Los Hiatises National …
Feb 03
Don’t F with Mona
You can’t just go from A to B whenever you feel like it. Well, I suppose you can – free will and all – but you wouldn’t last very long. For the more prudent sailor that bows to the will of the weather (which really seems to be most sailors I’ve met – you get …
Jan 31
The DR Bubble
The Marina de puerto Bahia in Samana, Dominican Republic: Quiet. Calm. Clean. Posh. The music is playing at a soothing decibel. No honking. No garbage. Where are the stray dogs? We still in the DR? Doesn’t feel like it. Shiny, glazed white ceramics – in shape of coral; sea anemones – sit atop white ottomans; …
Jan 31
It’s Loud in Luperon
The countryside around Luperon is beautiful: lush, green mountains, waves exploding against craggy cliffs; the people are kind but oh-so poor. Everyone wears US baseball hats, basketball jerseys; Ambercrombie and Fitch and Old Navy shirts. The Dominican Republic is completely different from the Bahamas: it’s not about the water anymore – it’s about the people …
Jan 30
HAPPY Birthday Sara!
Happy Birthday Sara! Today is Sara’s birthday! We made it to Samana yesterday and it’s time for a little pampering! Our first few nights at a marina since Jacksonville, except this is not just a marina, it’s a resort! Sara’s getting some time at the Spa today, there are infinity pools, great restaurants, real showers. …
Jan 25
The DR
We left the Bahamas under cover of night, raising anchor from our Mayaguana anchorage at three in the morning on Thursday. Saying goodbye to the Bahamas and its amazingly clear, clean water, we head east and then south to the DR (Dominican Republic, for long). This was our longest sail yet, about 35 hours and …