TOMMY'S TRAVELS .........

DAY 2 : SAIL TO ST. THOMAS on " ARITA" ....... Well, that was the plan anyway ..... But as soon as we had travelled half a dozen miles towards St. Thomas in the early hours of the morning, we threw the helm over and headed back ....... The strong winds from the SE have left a terrible sea and knocking the boat around is not our idea of fun ...... We made a detour the CULEBRITA instead and anchored in the lee of the island ..... We have been here before but it is all new to Tommy ....... Finding an anchoring spot proved challenging with sandy bottom at 45 feet and coral reef pieces at 10 feet ..... In the end we picked up a mooring ball to be safe ......



We took Tommy up the path to the light-house ...... Showed him the various cacti on the way up ..... The going was tough in extreme heat snd humidity ........ But from the top on the windward side it was clear that having made a turnaround with "ARITA" was a good call .......



We saw the original dome of the light-house tower lying among the thorn trees way below us .....A reminder that this is hurricane season, and really not a time to be out playing ..... So we looked around to see some more of the grey skies, climbed down and decided to play some more ......... We're really kids at heart aren't we .......



Although this was the second time in as many weeks to visit this relic of the past, you see new things each time ....... Laurie and Tom looking through the window saw the basalt pieces used as filler in the walls ...... Amazing donkey-assisted architecture ...... And the holes in the upper wall are all that remains of the wooden ceiling joists that have been removed or rotted out ........ Good hardwood like that was precious ...... Particularly on islands where things are hard to come by ....... Growth on these rocky islands is stunted at best .....



The spiral cast-iron stairway would probably also be gone but it is set in stone ...... The seas in the bay of CULIBRITA looked calmer and so we dropped the mooring and motored around the island to pick up another mooring ball ...... Again being reminded that the seas out there were still huge .....



Not that you can tell the roughness of the sea from the sheltered lee side .......



The bleakness and the greyness continue as you feel the oppressive humidity and you kind of sense that something is coming ..... Just a question of time ......



Mind you, at this time of the season gray skies and high humidity are expected ..... We are watching as a massive front is creeping across the Atlantic towards us ..... It doesn't have a name yet ....... We've called it " Just Nasty " ...... We are blessed with having the ability to download some amazing weather programs that give both radar and up-to-date weather data which gives sea-state, wind speed and direction and precipitation projections for five days at three hour intervals .... 'Cool stuff' during this 'hot' season ....



Standing well above the high tide mark this palm tree is evidence of the storm force erosion that takes the beach away ....... Amazing to see the extent and the strength of the fibrous root system ...... And more amazingly still the fine-line cut-off point between root and stem ...... Now that too, is art .....



Like weathered volcanoes sticking out of an ocean .....



When we were on top of the light-house the bay was completely empty of boats, but by the time we motored around the island that was no longer the case .... Then again it was Saturday ..... Puerto Rican party time ....



There are all sorts of cacti on CULEBRITA but none as eye-catching at the Turk's head cactus ...... And if you stare at the top of one long enough you are bound to see the swirls of a hurricane right in there .... But its delicate pink flowers are so very, very small ....



There's this place where the Atlantic Ocean waves crash over the rocks to fill a large pool .... The place is known as the 'Jacuzzi' ......But for Tom the most fascinating part was the convoluted boulders and rocks in this hardened lava formation .... Tom is from Florida .... Born and raised in dead flat rock-less Florida ... He told us afterwards that he could have spent a whole day among those rocks ..... Tommy suffers from 'rock-envy' ..... Needless to say he took some home with him ....







Apart from the light-house there are no structures on the island ....... A desolate rocky outcrop inhabited by thorns, cacti and wild goats.......... But the vistas are majestic as are the cactus flowers ...........

DAY 3: 0700 AM TRY AGAIN FOR THE RUN TO ST. THOMAS ..... 20 MILES ...

Mindless motoring into a moderate swell and we finally anchor in a very empty harbour in Charlotte Amalia, St. Thomas some three hours later ..... No cruise ships, no people to be seen anywhere and we take a long walk to Customs and Immigration that is now located downtown instead of near the anchorage ..... The walk almost kills Tommy who is not used to so much walking ..... He is still in recovery from our hike to the light-house ..... Suffer baby suffer .....



It is Sunday and everything is shut .... Massive Hurricane style doors with hurricane type padlocks ..... We are walking through a ghost-town ...... At least until we find a liquor store and then we load up bigtime ..... Mostly 'Virgin Island Mango Rum' .... That nectar of the Gods .... The only photo record we have is the rainbow and a St. Thomas dairy crate made into a dinghy seat .... That kind of tells you what kind of visit we had ...... Tom had specific instruction not to bring home any T-shirts ..... Hard to find a gift for his "Queen" when everything is shut ....

DAY 4: SAIL BACK TO CULEBRA ...... 20 MILES ......
We leave at 0700 Sun-up but there's no sun ..... And no wind either for that matter or wind at the same speed as motoring which makes sailing somewhat useless ..... The calm before the storm ..... So we once again motor all the way back ..... And drive straight into the mangroves .....That tropical front is moving fast and will hit us within 24 hours ...... A possible 60+ knots of wind are predicted ...... All the other yachts that were in the anchorage in CULEBRA have disappeared into the mangroves .....



We had discovered, quite by accident, that the head of the bay in which we were anchored had six feet of water, instead of one and two feet as marked on our chartplotter ..... It will in future be known as 'Tommy's Hole', because Tom put a paddle over the side of the dinghy and couldn't touch bottom ......... Who knew? ..... Thus our new "HURRY CAN PLAN" was formed before we left on our St. Thomas venture .....



Safely tucked in with lines attached to both sides ..... The lines across the estuary from "SOUTHERN COMFORT" will only be pulled tight when the storm hits, just in case there's a late arrival in the newly discovered "Tommy's Hole" ......... Both yachts are aground in the soft mud and as close in to the mangroves as we can get ......



As mentioned before, 'Mangroves' are the only answer if you want to survive a hurricane in one piece ...... Just look at the way the roots are anchored and you cannot get any lower than at water level ..... There is little tidal surge to worry about in 'Ensenada Honda' in CULEBRA .....



The 'run & hide' technique into the mangroves for the other yachts began two days before we sailed back to CULEBRA ...... Best tickets gets the best seats ....... There's carnival atmosphere about the whole thing, with all the cruisers helping each other tie up the lines ..... And a huge sigh of relief when "ISAAC" goes past ......

DAY 5: TAKE TOM BACK TO SAN JUAN ......
We've put Tommy on a small plane instead, that flies direct from CULEBRA to SAN JUAN ...... Taking him on the ferry and driving him to SAN JUAN would have risked us being stranded on the mainland ...... The ocean swell normally precedes the storm and the ferries will stop running ..... So ... Sir Thomas White, the sailmaker arrived five days ago for some Caribbean memory-making, but he leaves us as Sir Thomas Tanned ...... Great to have had him with us ...... Tom is the sort of guy anyone could model themselves on, including his sensitive side ....... He told us that 'Larry the Lobster' was looking at him from the bucket and that kind of put him off eating Larry .... You see what I mean ...... Thanks Tommy, you're welcome to join us anytime ....



Meantime, we'll sit tight ..... It's all part of cruising ...... The ups and the downs .....

SUCH AMAZING COLOURS ..............

Is it therefore any wonder that they paint the Bailey bridge in CULEBRA in white and bright orange ...... Everywhere you look you see such fresh colours that somehow it almost seems unreal .......



They even make inflatables in these colours ........



But now for that not-so-colourful job ...... THE FRONT CABIN ...... The two front cabins are separated by a central hanging closet with an air coditioner unit hidden in there somewhere, and this is where man's best tool ever, the reciprocating saw, comes into its own ..... Also hidden in there is a glut of wires both 12v and 110V .... And sure enough the A/C unit is unearthed ........



And beneath the parquet flooring, or in this case the lack of it, lies that terrible diesel tank ...... We knew it was leaking diesel into the bilge when we first bought "SOUTHERN COMFORT", but part of the plan had always been to turn the two front cabins into one ...... And now we have it .....Or almost ..... The floor is now cut out to the width of the tank ...... And here's our new plan ...... Cut the top of the tank out ...... Get a new tank made that will fit through the door and the main hatch and let it sit inside the old one, and never have to cut a hole in the deck ....... THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION .......



O.K...... So we are now a long way from those beautiful flowers we started with ...... That was just to get you in ....... With plastic bags on my feet I need to cut out the internal baffle plates ..... Fun stuff .... Slipping and sliding with a metal power saw ... But we are moving forward ..... Sliding forward on 30-year old diesel slime ............



It is done ........And there were four holes in the tank, caused over time by salt water being trapped in the foam that held the tank in place and slowly eating up the aluminium tank ...... Still it has been in there for thirty years ...... We had ordered a new tank to be manufactured in Fajardo on the big Island .....



Just a smidgen too big for the main hatch and a 1/4" too wide for the doorway, even though all the trim has been removed ....... This is where the language becomes incredibly colourful ...... But never say die ..... A little here and a little there and Paul and I got it below ......



There's nothing to it, if you only believe that it can be done ...... Someone once said that ...... Now that the tank is in the front cabin, all we have to do is let it do a double somersault with a pike twist and it is in ........ ' VIVA LA TANK ' ......



Tom White is our champion sailmaker from JACKSONVILLE, Florida who has been an avid blog-follower and for whom the temptation to assist us became just too much ....... He jumped on a plane to spend five days with us to help us on 'projects' ....... But we screwed him up 'bigtime' by not working at all, and showing him the sights instead ...... DAY 1 ---- SNORKELLING at MELONES BEACH and LUIS PENA Island to be followed by a late lobster lunch ..... I mean that's the way to punish the guy, right?



Talk about 'Culture Shock' .......... Straight out of suburbia and into our new aft cabin for his beauty sleep, then next morning a fast dinghy ride to blue water and swimming with turtles that are feeding casually on the sea grass bottom ..... Way to go Tommy ......



There something so very serene about turtles ....... Their languid movements ..... Their beautiful eyes, and the symmetry of the shell backs ...... And the gentle way in which they invite you into their world ......



Laurie has this knack of slowly swimming up to them and with her little underwater camera and catching the moment ....... Paul and Lynn from the yacht "KIANA" had also joined us with their dinghy ....... Amazing stuff .... You could spend hours just gazing at them ......



MELONES BEACH has this large area of sea grass and is a favourite haunt for the turtles ....... Tourists rent kayaks to spot them from the surface .... But it is so much more beautiful to swim with them .......



And it is not just seagrass that they feed on ........ Look at the one on the right gobbling up a whole jellyfish ......







It wasn't just turtles and fish that were amazing ...... A bird took pieces of banana right out of my hand ...... Tommy filmed it and when i wasn't looking the bird flew off with the whole banana skin ....... Laurie saw him later rummaging inside our food bag inside the beached dinghy ...... Don't know the name of the bird but we think he's called "Cheeky-something" .....




Finally got a photo of "CHEEKY" ....... Now as to the other photo, well you can just frame it and put it on the wall and call it "TRANQUILITY " or "JUST PERFECT" ...... We all thought it was .......



And if you ever end up being shipwrecked on such a perfect island as this one, then don't forget to bring some cold beers ....... That would really make it the ultimate .......



You don't get to do this in a seafood restaurant ...... Tommy will never be the same again ..... All his sail stitching is going to be crooked .....



Pedro the fisherman calculates what we owe him ............. We really cannot show you how we feasted ......... All that dripping garlic butter and the succulent ...... Never mind .... You'll have to be content with the thought and the visuals of the AMAZING COLOURS ..... Tomorrow is DAY 2: SAILING TO ST THOMAS on ARITA ...