Nov. 20/2024: This is getting tedious. First it was my fractured left wrist, nursed through a Caribbean cruise and a solo passage back home earlier this year. Then bursitis of the left elbow, endured through some coastal summer cruising in Maine. Now it is a badly sprained left ankle. Not a boat-related injury (unlike the first two), as I suffered it while walking the dog around town, but it happened just a couple of days before I set out on Lunacy late last month, bound for Puerto Rico.
It’s like the whole left side of my body has declared war on me!
Fortunately, I did have crew for this venture: my old friend Loric Weymouth, seen on the left here, and my half-uncle David Etnier (long story that), seen on the right.
We set out from the Wentworth Marina in Portsmouth on Sunday, October 27, at 0900 hours in a virulently fair northwesterly that only got stronger once we reached Cape Ann. We were through the Cape Cod Canal and anchored at Phinney’s Harbor in Bourne, MA, just 13 hours and 15 minutes later… a fast day’s work, for sure. Next morning we sailed south, exited Buzzards Bay through Quicks Hole, and were clear of Martha’s Vineyard and Noman Land by 1408.
Only to be immediately a confronted by an enormous wind farm, most of which was still under construction.
Leaving aside the fact that wind farms like this are supremely inconvenient for us sailors when laid across commonly used offshore passage routes, I’m not sure they are the best way to generate clean energy. I have both solar panels and a wind generator on Lunacy, and the panels are by far more productive on most days. Factor in the construction of an offshore wind farm, a necessarily expensive and very carbon-intensive process, and the cabling required to get the energy to shore, plus all the ongoing maintenance, and it seems to make little sense. I have an awful feeling that 20 years from now, once superior energy-generating systems are in place, these farms will all be abandoned, nothing more than unsightly, potentially dangerous hazards to navigation.
It took us four days and change to make Bermuda, including almost two full days of motoring, an unusually placid and fast transit to the Onion Patch.
(That arty black & white image of me and Loric comes courtesy of my uncle David, a pro photog who always deserves credit!)
Sights seen in Bermuda.
David, alas, decided to leave us in Bermuda. To keep Loric, a rigger by trade, from getting bored, I hauled him up and down the mast a few times, and we changed out the main halyard, which was looking a bit frayed.
We departed St. Georges at around 1500 hours on Election Day, Tuesday, November 5, in a tight cluster of seven boats all bound south for the W’Indies. Again, we had a fast ride, just five days and change. The first three days saw us making good over 180 miles each day, an average of better than 7 knots.
The last two days saw us involved with various inconvenient rain squalls.
We picked up a mooring off the west shore of Culebra just before midnight that Sunday. The following day, after checking in with the border people, we motored some 70 miles to Salinas, on the south coast of Puerto Rico, and arrived after dark.
This is my first time basing a boat on the south coast, and my initial impressions are all positive. The Marina de Salinas is a small, friendly operation.
Plus there are some interesting restaurants nearby.
But the hike to the supermarket, my ankle was dismayed to learn, is just over a mile!
Hopefully that won’t be an issue when I return later next month.
What’s with the sabotage of old bones mate. Cut that out
I recommend Charlie`s The Sea Is Not Full (2017) as a gift to any sailor this Christmas. Besides the sea lore therein running to over 100 pages in a section he categorizes as “practical matters,” there is a lot of his self-deprecating humour in those misadventures referred to in the subtitle.
Everybody! You should listen to Bruce here. Obviously a very wise man.
I’m glad you like Salinas. It is indeed a secure location. Going out to the barrier mangroves on weekends is always a party opportunity. There are also great restaurants. The only downside is fouling, which is very aggressive. Mangrove water is productive.
We tend to stay at the Ponce Yacht and Fishing Club and drive to Salinas to visit friends there. We do stay when going east along the coast and anchor at the entrance to the harbor since it is too full for our boat.