Hurricane Sandy a few repairs and off to the BVI's

We must apologize for not updating this blog for a while. I would like to say we were too busy, or that the computer wasn't working or that a new thought process was upon us where we were joining the school of anti-narcissism, anti-facebook etc where we were pugistically arguing against the theory we must tell everyone every little thing that we do. But... we can't. We were just lazy.
We finished last season off in the Exumas in the Bahamas and returned the boat to Nassau. A quick trip home and then back to the boat to move it to Fort Lauderdale to have it hauled out of the water. Only the weather didn't cooperate. Lots of boats left for the same trip but we were never confident we had the proper weather window. And having a proper fear of getting pooped (Short for having the sh.t scared out of you!)  we decided to leave the boat where it was and in the care of a couple of live aboard boaters. We returned home to family and friends and all worked well until we heard about Hurricane Sandy heading towards our baby. I flew back to the boat (I was the only one on the plane flying 'into' the hurricane) and with the fantastic help of Brayan, a knowledgeable captain of a giant catamaran tour boat in the slip across the dock from ours, moved it over to The Atlantis Marina on Paradise Island where it would be inland and protected by the buildings. Or so we thought!! All went well except they placed me in a slip with a motor yacht. I felt his lines seemed to be rather lightweight for the size of his boat. I was not able to locate the owner or captain and this observation proved to be true as his lines broke and his boat crashed into ours, holing his boat but only scraping the Slow Dancing sign off ours. It did make us feel somewhat better about the strength of materials of which our boat was made.

We were quite concerned about our friends Tommy and Marianne and their boat Audeasious as they were in NYC harbour with Sandy due for a direct hit. Tommy moved the boat up the Hudson about 25 miles and   lowered every anchor they had aboard. He stayed on board to ride it out and to deal with things as they came up.  The wind and the swell just rolled through and they did fine. Quite a relief.

In early February we returned to the boat via Puerta Vallarta as we wanted to visit friends Ross and Grace in their beautiful new condo. We had a great time. Here we happened to see a sailboat entering the marina directly in front of their building. Holding onto the front forestay, guiding dad in, was this little blonde haired boy. I asked Sharen if that could be Teddy. Teddy was a little 4 year old we met with his parents on their boat Lolo when we were in Haiti a few years before. We walked over to where they entered their slip and yes, it was them. It was great to see them and get caught up on their adventures. Teddy, now 8, had a new little sister named Poppy. Mom and dad named her after the 'popping' lightning storm that was happening the night she was conceived. After a few great days with R and G we flew to Miami to pick up boat supplies. We stopped and visited Tommy and Mariannne on their boat which Tommy had recently brought down to Marina Del Ray. We spent a wonderful few days with them and then off to our boat.
After fitting up (with the help of Brayan who had put the sails on and polished the boat) we greeted our first guests.

Jan and Jerry had purchased a week on our boat at a charity auction in Edmonton. They joined us for the sail down the Exumas to Georgetown in Great Exuma. They were great fun with lots of wonderful stories and laughs. Their boys had ski raced with our daughters years before. They left us in Georgetown and we welcomed my sister Sally and husband Bob back aboard to help us with the overnights thru the Outer Bahamas and on to Haiti, the DR and to Puerto Rico. Our first stop was Long Island. We came ashore onto this lonely road. The first car to come along we received an offer for a ride. It was a Policeman.

This was the first time Sharen has been in the back of a Police Car. He drove us to a car rental place and we motored up to Santa Maria Resort on the north end of the island. The most beautiful pristine bay ever.
Our next stop was The Acklins where we hitched a ride to the local diesal filling station with our jerry cans and then an overnight run to Great Inagua, the southernmost island in the Bahamas. Great Inagua is known for its salt which they gather from salt ponds. This is a huge operation.

The island also has 80,000 flamingos. We were given a tour by a local park warden.Due to its remoteness, Inagua is rarely visited by cruisers. The harbour was filled with Haitian Boats and a few that were confiscated for running drugs.

From there we sailed 2 and 1/2 days (and nights!) to Ilse a Vache, a small island off the south coast of Haiti. We were spooked our first night as we entered the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti. An absolutely huge vessel was going to cross our path in the blackest night we had yet seen. We couldn't tell its exact direction and hailed them. The Spanish speaking radio operator responded they would be passing in front of us, a mile off. This was way too close so we stopped and waited for them to go by. It was a very weird feeling. When you are out there being alone is much more comfortable.
Here is a photo of sister Sally on watch!! We had planned the sail to take advantage of a good weather window and everyone was fairly comfortable except when we rounded the south west corner of Haiti in the middle of the second night. Due to the corner effect the seas were somewhat bumpy and the captain did take some unjustified criticism. On the way along the south peninsula of Haiti we came upon this ocean going Haitian transport vessel. It basically transports only charcoal. One of the few products they export. The charcoal is derived from burning down most of their vegetation. This leaves the country almost totally barren. And they only get pennies for it.   

In Ilse a Vache it was great to see everyone again. It was 3 years since we were last here. Here we are being greeted by a number of dugout canoes who are coming out to welcome us back as we sailed in. It really was a great feeling.

We did find that we had been hoodwinked by a local. We had sent money down to this gentleman we had met during our last visit. He is the leader of the local fisherman's association.  It was for the purchase of water purification pills and money to build a public washroom to help control the cholera. It appears his brother had accessed his email and stole the monies we sent. They were not happy.  A lot of people had died who might have been saved. We did bring down a new supply of solar lights sourced by our son-in-law Aaron. There is no electricity on the island.  We also left them an old sail which we had been carrying with us for 2 years waiting to get it here. They use the old sail cloth to build sails for their fishing boats.
This is Karma (yellow t-shirt)

  who we assisted by purchasing the wood required to build a beach Tiki Bar. He is calling it Karma Chillin'. The other is Samuel who is the local representative of "Friends of Ilse a Vache", a charity from Ontario. He is the all around good guy on the island. While on the mainland purchasing the wood I was stopped by these little guys to have my sandals polished. I love young free enterprisers.

In a hardware store I sliced my little toe open and I was sure I was going to lose it but a local vendor had some alcohol swabs and a bandaid and although I have a scar to remember the visit, I never had an infection.

We met the French couple on Bella Ciao. They told us they were approached by some fishing boats in the middle of the night as they rounded the Southwestern Cape of Haiti on the same route we did. The fishermen (potentially pirates)  were trying to stop them. They said they actually hit one boat as they continued on their way and were easily able to outrun them. They were much closer to shore then we were when we passed the same area.

From Ilse a Vache we did another overnight run to the southwestern most point of the Dominican Republic, Isla Beata. We anchored off this beautiful unending sandy beach called the Bay of Eagles and enjoyed some sleep.

Then with a good weather forecast we set off to do a full day run to Bara Hona where we checked into the country. A bit of shopping and we set off for Boca Chica which is nearby Santo Domingo, the historic capital of The DR. All this was a repeat for us but new to Sally and Bob and we enjoyed experiencing it again with them.  We did do a naughty. We stopped into an anchorage called Las Salinas at a beautiful hotel/restaurant for a night without getting a permission slip (despacio) to do so. A despacio is required for every stop. We were searched out by some immigration guys and I explained that we were tired and needed some rest. He said ok and that was it!! Whew... The thought of spending time in a DR prison was not nice.

The place we were most  looking forward to getting back to was Casa de Campo.

We were shocked to find the marina was packed and we had a struggle to get them to find a slip for us. It seems they reduced their prices and the marina, which was always only 1/3rd to 1/2 full and very nice was now continuously packed. We were thrilled to meet up with Capt Alvaro Acuna who was the source for everything when we were last there with our entire family. He came on board and was finally able to source out the gremlin in our new Balmer charging system. We had spent 1000's to have it installed and further 1000's to have it repaired and all for naught until Alvaro took over. He sourced it to a non functioning heat sensor wire. He pulled it off and it has not been a problem since.  Thank you Alvaro!! We also toured Sal and Bob thru Altos de Chavon, a village built in the 1970's to look like it was from the 1500's.

Still with good weather forecast we set off for the overnight across the dreaded Mona Passage. Of course we took the southern route which has always proven to be wonderful. Alvaro directed us to a nice marina we had not heard off, to check into Puerto Rico. We rented a car and toured the NE section of PR which we had not seen before. This is the high surf area and we spent a lot of time watching the surfers do some very crazy stuff. We also spent some time driving through the rain forests of NE PR. Quite amazing. Sally and Bob were leaving us here to return to visit family and we welcomed friends Fran and Glen from Edmonton. They flew in from their place in Phoenix. Sal & Bob and Fran & Glen and Sharen & I all spent a wonderful few days enjoying Old San Juan, the fantastic beach and a visit to the El Conquistador Hotel where the opening scene of Goldfinger was filmed. It is still a very beautiful resort. We also spent a wonderful evening at the El San Juan dancing to the music of a wonderful musician.

We rounded Cabo Rojo, the south eastern cape of PR and pulled into a little seaside village called Parguera. This was an unbelievably beautiful place with a waterfront row of houses which we dinghied slowly past talking to the locals on their decks. I thought at least someone would have invited us in for a beer but it was fun anyway.  There were a number of little islands with only one or two houses on them with huge verandas out over the water.

Fran and Glen proved to be wonderful shipmates. Glen is an amazing chef and loved to fish, even catching our dinner. And as you can see he is a food romantic!!We sailed over to Culebra and dinghied to Mamacita's restaurant on the canal. This has to be one of the world's most beautiful spots.  The huge 4' long carp swimming about waiting for a diner to toss in some food. (or possibly fall in!!).

Onward to St Thomas where we met up with our niece Heidi and her family who have bought the boat and left life. Mark is a lawyer and he and Heidi had always dreamed of going off sailing. Now with 7 year old Willow and one year old Sully they are in full adventure mode. Especially Sully!! They purchased a 47ft Canadian made steel Kanter yacht and had spent a lot of time getting it ready before they left. We spent a few days with them and then left for the BVI's as we wanted Fran and Glen to experience these islands.

In the BVI's we had a number of terrific day sails from island to island. We returned home with Fran and Glen. They were great fun and after 2 weeks of Glen's wonderful gourmet dishes, Sharen would have to learn to cook again.
(If we can jump forward here.... We were surprised to learn that Fran and Glen purchased their own sailboat while in Nova Scotia last summer. They had always thought a motor yacht was what they wanted but we are proud to say we converted them. They plan to spend the next few summers gunkholing around Nova Scotia's shores. Some of the world's best sailing grounds.)

Our daughter Becky and husband David and our grand daughter Elle joined us on our return. We met up again with our niece Heidi and family and had some great sails and visits. Elle is a great boater and enjoys every minute.

We traveled with them for a couple of weeks. Becky and David enjoyed jumping off the bow into the warm water.

We stayed for another few weeks meeting some new good friends. Jan and John from England. They had recently returned from a trip around the world with the World Arc on their 52 ft Jeanneau. They were great fun and we sailed together for a week or so to one beautiful beach after another. They had made arrangements to do the 3 day sail across the Caribbean Sea to Curacao to have their boat hauled for the hurricane season. We hope to see them when they return to the BVI's in February.
We chose the much more civil route of leaving Slow Dancing on the hard in Virgin Gorda which is where we are presently. We have an extensive list of repairs and upgrades to be completed. We have spent some time sailing around to various anchoring spots we had not yet visited and are now back in the marina waiting to get pulled out again while we go home for December and January. We are looking forward to returning in February to sail down the Caribbean Islands to Grenada.  

We are also spending a lot of time planning on joining the World Arc across the Pacific in Jan 2015. We are out seriously shopping for the boat that we feel comfortable will be the right one for the trip.