A Tale of Two Chemists: Making Tracks – St Croix to Aquadilla Wed 18th

Making Tracks – St Croix to Aquadilla Wed 18^th – Sat 21^st April 2018

St. Croix to Flamingo Bay, St Thomas… Wed 18^th April … 35 nautical miles

The forecast for Wednesday (18^th April) was for lighter winds (10-14) with plenty of squalls. Thursday’s prediction was for “salty sailing” 15-20 kts. After much debate, we chose to use the lighter day to go directly north—more of a broad reach rather than dead down wind. Anyone who had gone dead down wind in light airs knows how hot and unpleasant it can be! Indeed, while our sail to St. Thomas was very easy, it was very hot and sunny in the cockpit. I started to feel like one of those rotisserie chickens at the supermarket! We arrived in Flamingo Cove at about 2:30 pm having left at about 8 am. We had some cold drinks then did a couple of repairs before taking a refreshing swim and shower.

Mike worked on repairing the “captains chair” that sits on the aft deck. After many hours in the sun the fabric that made up the seat had given way. (No, it was not the excessive forces applied by my backside!—The second chair has fabric parting on the back portion, so we’re fairly sure it’s sun damage. ) Meanwhile I attempted a repair on the sun shade/awning. We had noticed a small tear on the port side of the awning (near the dodger) quite some time ago. When we thought about deploying the shade while under way, the 4-inch tear dissuaded us. Using some sail repair tape on both sides, I sandwiched the tear and am hoping that it’s good enough for the time being.

We managed to stay up until passage maker’s bedtime! We spent a disturbed night listening to the creaking and groaning of the ‘anchor snubber’ as the boat swiveled in the 15-20kts of breeze. Eventually we both wound up sleeping in the salon where the noise was somewhat muffled.

St. Thomas to Palominos … Thur 19^th April … 38 nautical miles

We planned to depart at 7am to take advantage of the cooler temps early in the day. We were well on our way by 7:30. Our first way-point was near Sail Rock. That section was a broad reach with some nasty swell action. I was feeling not so chipper despite the sea-sick tablet I had taken. From Sail Rock we turned more westward or down wind with the genoa poled out to starboard and the main on the port side. The swell was then coming directly from the stern and I started to feel better. We passed Isla de Culebra –-an island that we thought would be one of our anchorages in an earlier version of the passage. Eventually neared our way-point for Palominos. A couple of quick gybes got us on a good line for the harbor. We picked up a mooring that is labelled “day use only”. We’ve not decided if we will drop the mooring and anchor or just chance it. We did set the anchor alarm on the GPS while we have some cold drinks and rest a bit.

Palominos to San Juan … Fri 20^th April … 39 nautical miles

After a quiet and pleasant evening off Palominos Island we awoke early and prepared for another day of sailing. It was pretty calm so we raised the mainsail whilst still on the mooring and left about 7.30 am for San Juan. The winds were similar to yesterday, perhaps a little stronger, 15-20 knots from the east with occasional gusts to 25 knots. We sailed with main and genoa on a broad reach for a couple of hour but then headed more downwind. Once we reached the north coast of Puerto Rico the seas seemed quite a lot bigger and with decent wind we opted to sail with just the main, although we did get the pole ready to go wing on wing. Two events dominated the trip. Firstly, the coast guard was conducting a live fire exercise 15 miles north of San Juan with a 15 mile exclusion radius, and so we ended up calling the coast guard on VHF to confirm that our route into San Juan was OK. Secondly, Gloria got a rope burn on her hand whilst furling our genoa. We had blanketed the genoa behind the main and Gloria released the sheet (rope), which went very slack as the genoa luffed. But then we rolled on a wave, the genoa filled and as Gloria struggled to maintain her balance the sheet flashed through her palm and burned her. It’s not too bad, but it was a bit of a shock and a salutary reminder of the enormous forces that we are dealing with here. We turned south into the entrance of San Juan harbor at about 1 pm and were impressed with how beautiful old San Juan looks. However, there was no time for photos as it was blowing solidly at 20 knots and we still had a full main up and no immediate room to turn up and drop the sail. As we rounded behind Old San Juan we were able to drop the sail and motored up into a fairly industrial anchorage area and dropped the hook in 30 feet of water. It turns out to be perfectly pleasant flat anchorage but a little noisy!

San Juan to Aquadilla … Sat 21 st April … 67 nautical miles

When we would study the charts of the Caribbean to plan the return trip, Puerto Rico seemed so far away that I couldn’t imagine ever getting there. After three days of travel from St. Croix, we were in the harbor of San Juan. (A very busy industrial port it is.)

The next leg of the journey was along the north coast of PR to a bay on the west side (Aguadilla) somewhat tucked in behind the headland of Punta Borinquen. As this journey would be a long day, we were up and 6 am and underway shortly thereafter. Leaving the anchorage, the winds seemed very light. We expected that once we were outside the harbor we would be back to the usual easterlies. Mike assured be that we were experiencing the “night lees” of the large island. After about 4 hours of motoring, there was finally enough wind to sail.

We heard many broadcasts from the Coast Guard. After Friday’s ‘live fire’ exercise, we were very keen to listen to these messages. However, the transmissions were so garbled that all we could understand were “US Coast Guard”, “break” and “out”. What if it were another exercise and we were sailing right into it?

The placement of our wind gauge results in low readings when sailing down wind. Our course along the north coast of Puerto Rico was nearly directly down wind. As the day went along, we may have been lulled by the low readings. We chose to gybe the mainsail when we got to the point at the northwest corner of the island. Once we had accomplished the gybe, we were experiencing winds of 18-24kts—quite exiting for the nervous mariner! That last five miles seemed very long indeed. Eventually, we were anchored off the beach and enjoyed a cold beverage, showers in the cockpit and dinner.

Our position was such that we could look at Isla Desecheo (which I incorrectly assumed was Isla de Mona) and into the Mona Passage. Knowing the reputation of the Mona Passage and contemplating crossing it the following day, made for a restless night.