Lazy Days and Boring Days

Lazy Days and Boring Days

Sunday 16th and Monday 17th February 2025

After our rough sail from Culebra to Vieques on Saturday we spent the whole of Sunday lazing around on the boat. We had a leisurely breakfast and then Gloria got out her sewing machine and worked on her latest quilting project, whilst I transferred photo files from my laptop to a portable hard drive, as back-up. In the afternoon, Tammy and Jerry from What Knot, anchored nearby, came over to visit. Later we ate Thai green curry for dinner and prepared for our long passage the following day. A lazy day indeed, but not boring.

On Monday we were up before dawn and on our way by 6.30 am. We motored carefully around the reefs and once in clear water we deployed our foresail (Genoa). The winds had certainly lightened up compared to the previous several days, but the seas were still a little over 5 feet, although substantially improved from our previous passage. We realized that the foresail alone wasn’t going to be enough sail so raised our full main sail and connected a ‘preventer’ line to stop an accidental gybe as we proceed in a downwind direction. When going dead downwind the mainsail blocks the wind for the foresail, as well as increasing the chances of an accidental gybe, so we tried to sail at about 20 degrees off downwind so we could keep both sails functioning. Despite our best efforts it was clear that we weren’t going to make adequate speed without running the engine and so we ended up motor-sailing with the diesel running gently for the entire 55 nautical miles. As such the journey took us 9 hours, but it would have been 12-14 hours without the engine. 

Overall, it wasn’t the greatest passage, but not the worst either. Mostly it was pretty rolly, hot and boring! The conditions prevent us from doing the activities we might normally do if just pottering around on the boat and there’s only so many new topics for the the two of us to discuss. (We mostly avoid talking about DDR and his band of suppositories whilst on passage because we might be tempted to unclip our harnesses and jump overboard !) We did fish but didn’t catch anything … which I’d also like to blame on the government … but that might be a little unjust !

The most interesting thing to happen during the passage was a sea-rescue that we heard in real time over the radio. The US Coast Guard announced over the radio that a 31 foot foot vessel (powerboat with outboard motors) had been hit by a wave and the captain was feeling ‘unwell”. They gave the GPS position and asked mariners to keep a look out, report any information and assist if possible. The USCG then call ‘Two Tickets’, a catamaran about two miles away from vessel in distress, and asked them to go over. On arrival at the scene ‘Two Tickets’ reported that the captain was lying in the cockpit and appeared to have broken his leg. They were unable to maneuver alongside because of the sea state. A third vessel (we didn’t catch the name but presumed it was a private powerboat) then arrived on station and were able to transfer the injured man to their boat. The USCG then thanked ‘Two Tickets’ and told them they were free to proceed and signed off. There was only one person aboard the vessel in distress and we have no idea what happened to the boat itself.

We arrived at our destination a little east of Salinas shortly before 4pm. Once again it’s a beautiful flat anchorage with mangroves all around, albeit with a large power station clearly visible a mile away. We had saved ‘left-overs’ for dinner and went to bed long before boaters midnight.

Mike

17 55.899 N, 66 14.376 W

The anchorage on the south coast of Vieques

Sunset in the anchorage just east of Salinas

We are the only boat here - it reminds me of the Alligator river in North Carolina

There appeared to be wildfires on the hills of the south coast of Puerto Rico - unsure if these were prescribed burns or not

Early morning looking westwards - the way we came in to the anchorage