"BOLD" ...... IS A VERY GOOD NAME .............

Just after dark a large ship anchored near us at CULEBRITA and by morning through the binoculars, she was large and "BOLD" ............. A survey ship of sorts .......... We spoke to them on the VHF radio and were cordially invited to visit this awesome E.P.A vessel ............ She is a former submarine hunter, with full ice-breaking capacity now redesigned for scientific and environmental support duties, with the capacity to take subterranean sediment samples, extensive water analysis, side-scan sonar imaging, deep sea diving and trawl-net capture of fish species .......... The ship has a crew of 17 and accommodation for 19 or so scientists, with workspace, labs, minus 35 degree refrigeration and just about everything to make a Ph.D happy ............ One of last year's scientists even discovered a brand new species of coral ........... How does that grab you ....................Ship's accommodation was great ......... Not saying that the "Queen of Florida" wanted to jump ship, but the A/C, the walk in fridges and a few amenities were "discussed' ................ They even have a gym and a one-bed hospital ........And all the medication within arm's reach for coral cuts, jelly-fish stings, head injuries and probably hangovers ............Notwithstanding that "BOLD" is a 'dry ship' ............Someone needs to look into that ............



All the workspace and computer terminals you could want ............... Obviously they don't have to hang out a wifi antenna over the side ...........



But the 'heart' of the ship is the engineering side of things ............ We were fortunate to have Gary, the Chief Engineer do the honors .......... Everything runs on power produced by four humongous Caterpillar diesel generators .......... And we mean everything ............... Air conditioning, reverse-osmosis water makers, septic and sanitation motors, pumps, hydraulic motors ............ Fridges, stoves, anchor winches and capstans, bow-thruster ........... Light, lots of lights, .........Including all the navigation stuff on the bridge with its radars, GPS positioning systems and plotters ............ AND EVEN THE PROPELLERS ................. Each of the two propellers is coupled to a thrust block and then to an 800 HP electric motor, that can turn so slow as to allow the ship to move at only 1 knot ............. And as for fuel, they have a 'little-bitty' tank that holds 250,000 gallons ........ That's enough to allow the ship to circle the World on one engine ............. No wonder they called her "BOLD" .......



You see those beautiful yellow generators, the prop-shaft thrust block and the electric motors here in the engine room .....................Even the propeller shaft runs in a sealed oil bath ......... No dripping stern gland here ....... This was all designed for 'Silent running' in her former U-boat hunting days ........... Not much point in listening for submarines with sonar detectors, if all you hear is your own engines and gear............



After seeing Gary's engine room, with everything so beautifully 'spick-n-span', you feel like not ever showing him ARITA's engine ............... He's bound to say ... "Where is it?" ..............
The crew and the scientists have a beautiful sundeck for a breath of fresh air .......... A place to get-it-all-together, as they cruise from one location to another..............Certainly a job on this vessel would be the envy of most merchant seamen ................ The envy of anybody .............


Our thanks to Doug Brown, the First Officer and Jerry the Captain, Gary, the Chief Engineer, for giving us this great opportunity to see science at work ....... And to Amanda the Chef, for a wonderfully tasty lunch buffet.............. No one will ever die of starvation on 'BOLD'..............



Ah well............. Just another awesome day in the life of us, cruisers ...........

And if you thought that SCIENTISTS and their assistants don't know how to play ............ Well, you got it wrong............

We were left with the impressions that in the bowels of this BOLD ship, there were so many systems, switches, valves and gauges, that the engineers really have to know what they are doing, even when they are asleep ................. Just the electrical 'switch room' alone, with its A/C to DC rectifiers, for the electric motors are DC motors, was something to behold ..............Row upon row of switches , fuses and gauges ........... So glad to be back on ARITA, where things are archaically simple ...........And maybe just a shade more complex than on John Lison's 'miniyacht' seen here taking his dog Lucy, ashore for a donation ............... He might even catch some lunch ............

FIVE SOLID DAYS OF RAIN ................................

And after Day 2 everything slowly begins to smell of "wet" ...............By Day 4 you dare not smell anything anymore .............. All you long to do is open hatches and dry things out ............... But all bad things come to an end at some point............Day 6 is wonderful and the sun is out ............... Time to go to town, check the mail, change books at the library and do some shopping ............
Each time we cross the bridge in CULEBRA, we wonder what's inside this trailer? ....................... We are hanging around waiting now to haul out and repaint the bottom of ARITA ............Our Aussie courtesy flag is indicative of our having been in P.R. a little too long............. Time to get moving ............Oceans and continents are calling ................and so is 'CARNIVALE' in Trinidad ............. And there are still so many islands to see ...................



Now you all know 'Lizard Love',...... That's a head-bopping, aerobic, hip-displacing dance routine, but a lizard 'pooping' is entirely different .............. It requires the Iguana to first raise his/her abdomen as high as possible, by standing on all fours, toes fully outstretched, and then to concentrate like he/she is in labor ........... Look carefully at the photo alongside (double click on it if necessary) ............ What you see was his/her previous dropping that's now all dried out, but we witnessed with great precision how a new one was put right over the top of the old one ........... And not a small one either ........... Nature is interesting, but please don't think we make a habit of watching 'Iguanas doing their thing',....... We just thought you'd like to know ... The exercise must have been pretty exhausting, for shortly thereafter he/she 'crashed' in the mangroves ...........Oh, and on the way back to our dinghy we finally saw the inside of the Island Woman's stall .............. I mean the 'Other Island Woman'....



With the welcome sunshine overhead, we ventured out to anchor off the leeward side of CULEBRITA ........... The swell left over from Hurricane TOMAS is still out there ................. Exploring the island makes you aware that only a few feet beyond the water-line there is impenetrable spiky thicket of vines and miniature stunted trees. ........ Four yards in you are in darkness ................



And the hillsides are covered in cactus stands that even goats might have trouble with ..........All the vegetation is spiky....................




So grateful that when Tom Hanks' FEDEX plane went down, that it crash-landed in FIJI and not Culebrita ............What a mess that would have been .............. Still, it remains somewhat of a mystery why we keep seeing images of "WILSON" wherever we go ........... Even here on Culebrita .............

TO PORT,........TO STARBOARD, .... AND IN BETWEEN ........

Rumor has it that one of AMERICA's biggest legal battles began right here in this dinghy, tied to the Government dock in CULEBRA P.R. ................



With HURRICANE TOMAS hovering over HAITI, where there is already nothing left to take, the winds in CULEBRA P.R. are being sucked into the vortex at 20-25 knots (30mph), ....... We have the 'hook' down in Bahia Honda, and riding it out like a "cowboy on a bronco"............. The little red boat anchored in front of us last night, is behind us this morning ........... Small shock for us, bigger shock for him ............ But on the PORT side of us, is another classic wooden yacht called "FLYING CIRCUS", whose people we had met previously ............ Suddenly there appear to be new people on board, and we soon discover that they are the real owners and the others are care-takers ............ The owners LON and ROSIE, go at it from sun-up till dark, despite the tremendous wind and grey skies, doing repairs and restorations .......... They have ten days to do the upgrades, before flying back home to "FRENCH POLYNESIA" where they manage a huge superyacht for charter work in MOOREA, the island of dreams............... Captain Lon (that's Capt. LON, not Capt. RON)........has owned this beautiful ketch since 1975 .............. She was built by William Albury in MAN-O-WAR CAY in the BAHAMAS, of Island pitch-pine on oak ................ And in the conversation with them over 'sundowners', it comes out that their crew-member sitting back in Polynesia, spent a considerable amount of time being the caretaker of the yacht "ARITA" when she was in CAPETOWN, SOUTH AFRICA............... So much so, that he is currently busy restoring a JOHN ALDEN yacht himself .............. Says "he fell in love with ARITA's design" ........ We all know how that feels ............. So why then, when the wind is blowing so much, does the wind generator on the mizzen mast refuse to do its job? ...............



Built in 1956, 'FLYING CIRCUS' is in remarkably good shape .............And has some really traditional features, like this rack and pinion steering gear, all cast in bronze, attached to a transom-hung rudder, and a 'bumpkin' on the stern, to hold the rowing dinghy, (No joke in this weather), and no life-lines ......... Not sure if that's traditional .........But in the category of 'sensible', are these fiber-glassed decks, the envy of ARITA's crew .......... Great people, kindred spirits, who we hope to see again during our Pacific crossing to Australia...............



Which brings us to "THE IN-BETWEEN" .......... There are many things on a yacht that mostly go un-noticed ................ This little hold-all, just inside the cabin has the tools and lights that you grab from the cockpit for "what's wrong now........" type situations, and the yellow EPIRB (emergency-positioning-indicating-radio-beacon) is for the "beyond what's wrong now........." situation ..............There is also the pair of long-nosed pliers for pulling out fish hooks and the flame-thrower for lighting the bar-b-que and burning rope ends ........... Stuff you just have to have ............ But way more important than any of that, is VENTILATION AND MOVING THE AIR .............No point 'In searching for palms' in the tropics, if you don't have fans and hatches ...............That little round stainless steel deck sky-light has a solar-powered fan beneath it, sucking in the air to ventilate the "Queen's" hanging closet .................Queen's closet....... Most important ..........



The sunshade cools down the deck and the cabin top, but the hatches and especially the tent over the forward hatch, works wonders in bringing air below ........... Drop that tent down a few degrees and it makes it rain-proof, so that even during rain we have air down below ................And the stainless steel mast-rail is another blessing .... Holds lines, fenders and is a great place to hang on to, during heaving seas when reefing the mainsail and pulling on halyards ........... Don't know how they manage it on those beautiful polished fiberglass production boats ........... Where would you tie up your pony? ........... Then again on those production boats they have their electrics neatly bundled and labeled, not like our 'spaghetti' but then again, look how much we need to get into that small space ............. When the lid comes down, you won't see any of that .............. So glad........



Now to the STARBOARD SIDE of us, in the anchorage ............ The land side, on which there are iguanas, flowering trees with giant seed pods, and water-edge restaurants, and on the hill is a closed-down factory............ The 'DEAD-RAT FACTORY' ............ This was the factory in which they produced rats for the U.S.NAVY ...........For years, Puerto Ricans wanted the NAVY to leave ......After all, who wants to live next door to a bombing range .......... Eventually they did ......... In return, they stopped buying rats ........... The rat factory is now DEAD ........



Not sure why the U.S.NAVY wanted rats ....... I know they use canaries in mines, and I know that rats won't stay on a sinking ship .............. Oh, no, ........ Say it ain't so .......




And maybe I should retract what I said about fiberglass boats, for look what just anchored beside us, on starboard.............. Seven miles of sailboat, worth at least the deficit of a depressed country ................ And just a little too close in 25 knots of wind ...............

Should I go over there and tell them that they are exactly where the little red boat ended up this morning? ................ Nah .............Lets wait and see if the yacht lives up to its name ................ " SUNDOWNER "






And because we have two new underwater cameras coming from EBAY, we just had to include some 'fishy' underwater video that "The Queen of Florida and the Bahamas" took while swimming with the 'Heiress' at the island of LUIS PENA near Culebra P.R. a week or so ago ...................... Size is everything ............... Don't let anyone tell you otherwise ...............