About the Boat

VesselManta 40 (Hull # 17) commissioned 1996.
Major factory refit in 1999 due to lightning strike Aluminum Hardtop/Davits/Radar Arch.
Cored FRG (Nida-Core), Solid FRP below water.

Engines
Volvo Penta MD 2040 (2) x 40 HP, Volvo 3 Blade folding props w/weed cutters.
100 Gal Aluminum diesel tank, 2 start batteries.
Electric pumps on each engine for changing engine oil.

Sails
Full Batten Main, lazy jacks.
100% self-tending jib with Camber Spar and battens.
UK Drifter, rigging and winch in cockpit.

RiggingHarken, 44.2 STE-H, Two Speed Electric Winch.
Dutchman, Boom Brake.
3/8 inch 316 SS Rigging, Awlgrip Painted Alum Spar 1999

DinghyAB 13’ Inflatable w/fiberglass hull.
Tohotsu 30 h.p. w/ steering extender for stand-up operation.
Two 6 gal and one 3 gal Fuel Tanks

GalleyStove/Oven, Seaward-Princess 3 burner.
20 lb propane tank.
Solenoid valve with remote.
10 cu.ft. Freezer-Refrigerator, Alder Barber 12V.
Microwave.
Toaster/Oven installed over exhaust hood
propane bbq grill mounted in rod holders.

Communications
Icom SSB with 23' whip antenna
VHF, Standard Horizon with RAM mike.
EPIRB, ACR Satellite 406.

Instruments
Garmin color chartplotter
Wind sp/dir, Depth, Speed, B & G Network.
Autopilot, B & G, below deck, hydraulic ram.
GPS, Garmin 12XL.
Radar, Furuno 1621.
Compass, Richie Powerdamp
C.A.R.D. Radar Detector.
Electrical Meter, Heart, Link-10 on house bank.
NEMA port at helm, Nav center and Salon Table for computer hookup

EntertainmentIndoor antenna
Stereo, Clarion Marine M3170 Radio/CD/Tape.
10 CD changer
Sirius Satellite radio
13 Inch TV/VCR.
Portable DVD player
Glowmex at mast head, 4 Bose speakers.

Electrical
6 Batteries, Lifeline GPL-2C
Battery Isolation, Heart, Pathmaker 100/3.
6 Solar Panels, 75 Watt Siemens.
Inverter Jazz 2500 Watt.
Controller for Solar Panels, Trace C-40.
Charger -Trace
Strikeshield Lightning Protection system.
Air Conditioning Cruisair 26,000BTU.
Nav Lights, Trilight, Combo Decklight/St Lght.
2x30 amp 110 service, Zinc Saver II.
5.5 kw Next Generation Generator w/Kabota 2cylinder – 10.8hp diesel engine.

Plumbing
Washer/Dryer combo
Water Maker, Spectra Gulfstream 400
110v automatic ice machine installed in wet locker
100 Gal Aluminum Water tank, 2x20 Holding.
2 Macerators, Jabsco, 18590-0000.
Water Pressure system.
2 Shower Sump Pumps, Rule 500.
2 Auto Bilge Pumps.
Hot Water Tank, Seaward 11 Gal, F-1200.
2 Manual Bilge Pumps, Whale Gusher.
2 Heads, Jabsco, w/fresh or saltwater flush
Deck Wash Pump, Flojet 4325-143L.
2 TankWatch Holding Tank Alarms.

Ground Tackle
Maxwell Electric windlass.
5/8 nylon 20 ft bridle.
275 Ft 5/16 Inch hi test chain.
Delta 44 lb and 2 Fortress Aluminum anchors

Safety
MOB bouy, Jacklines, 4 Self inflating Life Vests
4 Life Vests, 3 MOB throwing lines.
Sea anchor, 18 Ft Paratech, 450 ft. 5/8 nylon.
Radar Reflector on Mast.
8 man automatically deploying life raft mounted at aft stb side of radar arch

Soldstice!

For those of you in a hurry, let me sum up: after a whirlwind week of work as of 4:30pm EDT today we are no longer the owners of Solstice.

For those of you who are more detail-oriented, let me give a full rundown of the past week's events.

Where did we leave off? Oh, yeah, Thursday and we had just arrived at the marina.

Thursday -- we arrived in the afternoon and managed to check into the marina, go get a rental car, and eat dinner. We halfheartedly started packing up our front berth/junk room. We definitely felt a little overwhelmed while writing out the long list of things to do to get the boat ready for sale.

Friday -- After 30 phone calls, we sold our scuba gear on Craigslist to the first guy who showed up and bought it all. We then found a storage room and began the process of dismantling the boat. At this point, we figured we had until Friday April 30th to get everything situated, since the Catamaran Company boat show did not start until May 1.

Saturday -- After our last night on the boat, we checked into the Sheraton Beach Resort. Our corner room had amazing views of both the Atlantic and the ICW (thanks Teresa!). We spent a full day boxing up items for storage, unloading personal gear, and dropping donations off to St. Vincent de Paul. Late in the afternoon we received word from Michael, our broker, that a potential buyer had put in an offer for us to consider. Their offer was only 6% lower than our asking price. Yippee!

Sunday -- We countered the offer by splitting the difference. By end of day the buyers accepted our counter and we were pretty optimistic. We had a contract! Of course it was subject to their personal inspection, survey, and sea trial, but still -- a contract is a good thing! We knew the buyer would be in town by Tuesday night and would want to have their first look at the boat on Wednesday, so we kicked everything into overdrive and made many trips to West Marine/Home Depot/storage room to get the boat looking good.

Monday -- The buyer (at this point let's give them names -- Don & Diana) let us know that the only available day to do survey/sea trial would be Wednesday morning. Aaack! Don/Diana had never even seen a Manta other than in photos, so not only would they be seeing Solstice for the first time, but they would also be taking her out for a spin and hiring a guy to peer into every nook and cranny looking for defects. For us, panic set in. We had the inside taken care of, but would need at least another person to help wash the decks while we finished the aesthetics.

Tuesday -- Around 8:30 am, the Catamaran Company sent Flo over, who spent several hours detail-cleaning the exterior and making Solstice shine. I headed to Target where I bought a carload of "staging" decor. Kevin painted the scratches on the black steps, touched up the awlgrip, checked off a bunch of other items from our to-do list. Midway through the day, as Flo was hosing off the deck, our broker called to tell us that the buyer may come over sometime in the afternoon. We calmly inform him that "sure, that's okay, but the boat is still in process of being cleaned. We will try to have the boat ready by early evening if they really want to come by that badly." We frantically finish all cleaning and decorating and manage to be ready by 4:30 pm. We call our broker and find out that it was a false alarm, Don & Diana would not have their first glimpse of the boat until Wednesday morning. Whew! At least we were ready! We headed back to the hotel for a quick shower and then met Don & Diana for drinks (we had previously arranged this w/ them). They seemed super nice and actually have about the same level of experience that we had when we bought Solstice. Which is great, since Mantas are an excellent boat for beginners with the self-tacking jib and all lines leading to the helm. We tried to sleep that night but it was futile. We were too nervous to sleep.

Wednesday -- When we bought the boat, the previous seller was elsewhere so he had hired a captain. Since we were in town, Kevin figured it would be better and cheaper to captain the sea trial himself. Since we kind of have our routine down, that meant that I would go along as crew. We arrived at the boat by 7am and soon after that Don, Diana, and their broker George arrived. From the get-go, we could tell that George was a closer a la Glengarry Glen Ross ("coffee's for closers only"). He complimented us on the condition of the boat and while it seemed sincere it was definitely a bit over the top, I mean the boat is fourteen years old so to ask when we had the floors replaced (they have never been) was a little funny. (The floors were already all scratched up by the previous owners two dogs before we even came aboard). Anyway we were soon joined by their surveyor Jonathan and our broker Michael, and the seven of us set out on our day-long sea trial.

We started out around 10:30 am going under two bascule bridges and out the Port Everglades inlet to sail. While we were topside sailing, Jonathan was below running all the systems (including the stereo, washing machine, etc) and writing down whatever was broken. He was very thorough, much more thorough than our surveyor was when we bought the boat. (If anyone needs a good surveyor, we would highly recommend him!) The sailing part went really well and we had a 1pm haulout scheduled. Running up the New River with its 5 bascule bridges was a little stressful, although I did my best to hide how stressed out I was (I did wish we'd ponied up the $400 for a professional captain though!). Once again Solstice was hauled out into the slings and we ate lunch while Jonathan looked at the bottom.

It was at this point where we weren't sure what would happen next. If Don & Diana did not for sure want the boat, Kevin and I definitely wanted to return down through all the bridges to the Catamaran Company docks so that Solstice would be on display for the boat show over the weekend. BUT, if Don & Diana did want the boat, the two brokers wanted it docked somewhere else so it didn't take up valuable selling space at the show for an "already sold" boat. George, Jonathan, Don, and Diana had a pow-wow in the salon while Kevin and I waited outside with our broker. When they came out, we had an unconditional sale! Unconditional means that they agreed to pay the previously agreed price without asking us to fix any deficiencies found by their surveyor or come down in price. Wooo-hooo! We were able to dock nearby without having to run all those bridges at rush hour, and George had a contract ready and signed before everyone went home. Cool! So now all we had to do was wait until May 17 for the official "close" of the contract. Kevin and I went back to the hotel elated!

Thursday -- Kevin had two outstanding items that we wanted to take care of despite the "unconditional sale" -- he wanted to install a new watermaker feed pump, and he wanted to have a mechanic take a look at the injector pump seals on the Volvos. Technically he did not have to do either of these things, but we had already mentioned them to Don that we would do them before close, so Kevin headed to the boat early Thurs. morning. He was able to replace the pump and pickle the watermaker by himself, but had to wait for the mechanic to look at the diesels. The mechanic took a look and recommended rebuilding both injector pumps. It wouldn't be a major expense but it would take the mechanic a couple of days with the engines inoperable. Kevin was about to tell him to do it when he got a call from our broker telling us that Don & Diana wanted to move the close up to April 30th (ie. the next day). That sounded great to us, but it certainly wouldn't be enough time to get the maintenance done before close. We couldn't very well hire someone to do work on a boat that would no longer be ours, so Kevin kept the guy's card to give to Don with an explanation of what he would need to do.

Friday -- we stopped by the boat a couple more times to label all the keys and make sure all was well for the turnover. By 11 am we had signed our paperwork and by 4:30pm the wire transfer went through -- we are no longer the owners of Solstice. We've had a wonderful adventure but it is nice to be able to move on to other modes of travel and other life experiences. We aren't sure of Don & Diana's future plans but we know at some point they would like to bring the boat to the Caribbean, so if any of our cruising friends see "Solstice", stop by and say hello to her new owners, they are very friendly folks!

So that is officially it for "The Adventures of Solstice" blog! We have had a wonderful five-year journey, and we hope all the readers back home enjoyed following along with us. For our cruising friends we hope you all have fair winds and following seas, and everyone keep in touch!

Excitement on the High Seas -- the Final Voyage of Solstice

The unknown ship had been following us shrouded in darkness for three hours. Displaying no running lights, it stealthily crept up to within a mile off our port side. Then it disappeared. Hours later, that same ship suddenly overtook us and we were boarded by men with guns...

Our final trip from Bimini to the US was an eventful one to say the least. On paper, the forecast looked great for a motoring trip across the gulf stream -- less than ten knots of wind with 0-1 foot seas. We thought it would be flat calm for the entire passage. What fools we were. We left our anchorage at 2am with wind on the nose at 15 knots and very lumpy waves that were increasing up to a steady five feet, with some even higher than that. "Uncomfortable" doesn't begin to describe it, but that has been par for the course for most of the last month of passagemaking! We'd been slamming along for an hour in the dark when Kevin noticed a blip on the radar -- a boat was behind us, something big. It kept coming closer and closer until it was less than a mile away but we could not see anything at all. Clearly the ship was running with no lights on purpose. Our educated guess was that it was a US Coast Guard cutter patrolling the waters off the Bahamas. But after keeping a steady watch on the radar, we saw it zoom off into the night just as quickly as it came. Huh. Weird.

We check our radar at least every 15 minutes or so while we're on passage. It helps us keep track of what's around us even in the daytime (sometimes ships are hard to see with the naked eye until they are really close). Anyway it was now 8am with plenty of daylight, but we hadn't seen another ship for an hour. Then Kevin glanced behind him and was startled to see the Coast Guard cutter right behind us, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. They got close enough to read our boat name and hailed us on the radio, announcing that they'd be sending a boarding party over. Yikes. The seas were kind of steep at this point, but that did not stop the brave boys from launching their inflatable with four guys aboard.

We watched apprehensively as they went airborne over the waves and approached our port side (they had told us not to slow down or alter course so we were cruising along at nearly 7 knots). With a final surge the helmsman rammed up alongside and three of the guys clambered out onto our stern steps. All of them were packing and we heard a clang as something metallic fell overboard from one of their utility belts (Kevin thinks it was a gun but they kind of ignored us when we asked what they dropped).

I took the helm as Kevin showed them around the boat and answered their questions about our flares, lifejackets, documentation, fire extinguishers, etc. They had a checklist and were looking for safety violations (and guns, drugs & illegal aliens too I'm sure but the official reason for the boarding was "safety inspection"). Anyway, they acted a bit surprised to discover that we had followed every regulation to the letter and one of them mentioned that we were the first vessel they'd boarded in a long time that hadn't had any violations whatsoever. They actually gave us a "good as gold" award. Fat lot of good that will do us, considering that it was our last leg of our final voyage ever. Ha!

When it was over they shook our hands, the inflatable came alongside again, and the three guys all lightly hopped back in. It was all incredibly impressive. Just another day at the office for the Coasties.

Four hours later we finally passed through the inlet at Port Everglades and were immediately reminded of how stressful it can be to deal with wakes, bridges and the ICW. The dockmaster at the marina was out to lunch so we had to tie ourselves up (usually there is at least someone to help with the lines but not this time). Luckily we managed to get into the slip without doing any damage to our boat or the megayachts around us. It felt great to get all the docklines tied off and then just sit in the cockpit to decompress a little. Woohoo. Job well done. Mission accomplished.

So there it is. Our final voyage comes to an end. Don't get me wrong, we have a couple weeks of solid work ahead of us to get the boat ready to sell. We'll be moving all our personal stuff into a hotel; cleaning, waxing, and polishing the boat; and then crossing our fingers that someone out there is looking for a new adventure and that our boat is "the one" for them. Our boat brokerage is having a boat show the last weekend we are here, and they are expecting a couple hundred people to see the boat so we will see how it all goes. Wish us luck!

Location=Fort Lauderdale, FL
Lat=26 07.190
Lon=80 06.498

Cat Cay

We left Rose Island yesterday morning and made the 120 mile trip to Cat Cay on the edge of the gulfstream. We're planning to cross the gulfstream tomorrow (Thursday). Only 50 miles to go!

Location=Cat Cay, Bahamas
Lat=25 33.637
Lon=79 16.582

Rose Island, Bahamas

After hearing a decent weather forecast this morning we left Allen's Cay for Rose Island which is about 3 miles east of Nassau. "Decent" is relative, we had 15 knots right on the nose for most the trip and were happy to have it after the crazy weather we've been seeing this whole trip. Tomorrow through the rest of the week the wind is supposed to be very light, probably too light to even sail. Feast or famine. So we'll probably be motoring the rest of the way to FL.

Location=Rose Island, Bahamas
Lat=25 05.031
Lon=77 12.715

Allen's Cay

We dinghied in to the Highborne Cay marina to jerry jug some fuel and hopefully get on the internet. The lady at the marina desk refused to let us pay for internet access, she just pointed at a sign saying the internet was for marina guests only. We had just paid over $100 for fuel (more than a night's dockage would have cost), but it made no difference, she was adamant. I suppose their internet access is the only selling point of the marina, I'm sure they're not winning any customers with their customer service. With no internet access, there was no point staying anchored off Highborne Cay, so we motored the 5 miles north to Allen's Cay where there is better protection from the west. None of the weather services seem to have any idea what the weather is going to do over the next few days (one of the reasons we wanted internet access). We have literally seen forecasts ranging from gale-force winds with water spouts to light and variable winds. They can't seem to agree on a direction or strength. So, we're going to stay here until we can get more weather information tomorrow.

Location=Allen's Cay, Bahamas
Lat=24 44.959
Lon=76 50.219

Highborne Cay, Bahamas

After 3 blustery days we left Rocky Point yesterday morning. We had planned to go 45 miles to Staniel Cay since the forecast was only 20kt, but with about an hour to go it started blowing 25-30 knots so we diverted to Black Point. This morning the wind was only about 15 knots and finally out of the SE, so we went another 50 miles today to Highborne Cay in the Northern Exumas. We're only about 30 miles from Nassau and about 190 from Ft. Lauderdale. There's supposed to be some squally weather tomorrow and Monday, but we're hoping to get moving again on Tuesday and should have a window to cross the gulfstream Wed-Fri of next week.

Location=Highborne Cay, Bahamas
Lat=24 42.666
Lon=76 49.916

Rocky Point, Great Exuma, Bahamas

We left Long Island early Monday morning after getting our first good night's sleep since we'd left the DR. We sailed north to Bailey Cay, which is on the south side of Great Exuma island. We saw only one other boat -- a small fishing skiff -- the entire day, and we had the entire anchorage to ourselves.

This morning we continued northwest to Rocky Point. The wind was up (18 knots gusting up to 22) so we just sailed with the jib alone. Rocky Point is another deserted anchorage -- no homes, no boats or anything. To the west there is nothing but blue shallow water. There's supposed to be some strong winds and squalls over the next few days, so we plan to wait here until Friday.

Location=Rocky Point, Great Exuma, Bahamas
Lat=23 34.542
Lon=76 04.160

Gordon's Anchorage, Long Island, Bahamas

We arrived in Mayaguana yesterday afternoon planning to clear in to the Bahamas and continue onward. But we hit a snag as we walked up to the customs and immigration building - it was closed. Undeterred, we walked into town to see if somebody could find the customs official for us. A friendly guy named Reggie made a few calls and told us to come back in an hour and a half. We wandered around a bit and eventually a car drove up to us and asked if we were looking for him (the customs official). So even though it was a Saturday afternoon we managed to get cleared in and were on our way again by 5pm.

The second leg of the passage brought us here to Long Island. The weather forecast is showing 25-30 knot winds sustained for the rest of the week and we didn't want to get stuck in Mayaguana. We originally planned to stop here on Long Island for 5-6 hours so that our departure time would have us arriving at the edge of the Exuma Bank at daybreak. But once we got anchored our exhaustion won out and we have decided to stay here at least until we get a new weather report Monday morning.

Location=Gordons Anchorage, Long Island, Bahamas
Lat=22 51.517
Lon=74 52.310

Back in the Bahamas

We're about an hour away from making landfall in the Bahamas at Mayaguana. It will only be a short stop for us to clear in to the Bahamas and then we are taking off again on another 200 mile passage. The weather is going to become really bad starting Monday, so we want to get as far as we can before the bad weather arrives. The forecast is for 30 knot winds sustained for 4-5 days with squalls to 40 knots across the entire Bahamas. Once it hits we'll have to stay put until probably Frday. From Mayaguana we are heading down to the southern tip of Acklins and then south of Long Island to the South side of Great Exuma. This way when the winds start to let up, we'll already be on the Exuma banks and can start moving immediately rather than wait for a window to get to Rum Cay.

Location=Approaching Mayaguana
Lat=22 12.959
Lon=72 53.545

Bahamas Bound

We are planning to leave the Dominican Republic tomorrow and make the 200 mile trip to Mayaguana in the Bahamas. This weather window is looking a lot better than the last one with the wind out of the southeast for the first time in two weeks. We made some new friends on the boat next to us: Bill and Sue on Unchained. They got here even before we did and have been waiting on both weather and a new transmission which finally arrived yesterday. So, they are ready to leave as well and will keep us company for the 36 hour trip. We are hoping to leave at dawn, but the Navy and a narcotics officer have to clear us to leave first. They are supposed to be at the boat at 4:30AM. We should be in Mayaguana by sunset on Saturday.

Jinxed!

Not sure if anyone was actually fooled by my April Fool's Day post yesterday. Our original intent was the exact opposite -- to leave the Dominican Republic that night (Thursday) and head to Mayaguana in the Bahamas. Well, we didn't leave and Kevin seems to think my post is the reason why.

The forecast for yesterday night was for 12-17 kts with 6-10 foot seas at a 12 second interval. The higher digit interval is important because the farther apart the waves are the more comfortable it is, so even with bigger seas than we usually like this seemed like it might be do-able. And although it rained most of the morning yesterday, we were still planning to leave as scheduled. So we spent most of the day preparing the boat for the two-day trip. Around noon we went up to the office, climbed the stairs to the third floor and took a look at the ocean. We didn't see any whitecaps, and the windspeed was under 15, so we still were thinking it was a decent weather window. We cleared out of immigration just after lunch, intending to get our despacho from the navy and clear out of customs later in the afternoon, closer to our departure time of 6pm.

We went back to the boat and continued our preparations. Specifically, I took off the sailcovers, started the log, and made two nights' worth of dinners and two days' worth of sandwiches (it is really no fun to cook on a rolling boat, so I always do what I can in advance). Meanwhile, Kevin re-adjusted the docklines, programmed the route into the chartplotter, double-checked the weather, did engine checks, and a bunch of other stuff to get us ready. Around 3pm I finally finished cooking and looked around for Kevin but he was nowhere to be found. I went outside and saw him on another dock, chatting with a couple decked out in foul-weather gear. I walked over to find out what was going on.

Turns out that the couple had left the marina earlier in the morning, and after several punishing hours of taking waves into the cockpit they came back. They said that the swells were closer together than 12 seconds and easily ten feet high, plus wind chop that would break periodically and soak them. It was so miserable they just decided to turn around. Well that settled it for us, we weren't going. Kevin had already been second-guessing the weather window, but we definitely weren't about to take ten foot swells/windchop on the beam for hours on end. So we went back to immigration and luckily the lady was nice about granting us an extension -- it's looking like we're going to be here for at least another week. Sigh. On the plus side, we found out we will be getting a tax refund this year, and there's a casino only a few feet from the dock, so...

A Big Decision

After a lot of soul-searching and discussion we have decided NOT to come back to Phoenix as planned. In fact we like it so much here in the Dominican Republic (it is cheap, cheap, cheap! to live here) that we are planning to stay. We are really excited about it! Kevin has been working on his Spanish and can now count to fifteen (making it easier to order fifteen beers at a time). We have priced some homes in the area and a 3000 square foot home here would only cost about 80K, so we would have plenty of space for visitors (hint, hint)! Maid/Housekeeping/Cooking service can be had here for less than a dollar a day so we would probably do that, too. Our only major expense would be hiring the security firm to provide armed guards around the house. Marksmen who are skilled with semi-automatic weapons do not come cheap. As for the boat, we will probably just scuttle it and live like kings here on the insurance money -- that will save us the trouble of bringing it the additional 700 miles to the boat broker in Florida. So this is the last post I will write in this blog, for posts on our Dominican Republic adventures you can check out our new blog http://adiossolsticeholadr.blogspot.com. Also, happy April Fool's Day!

Waiting Out the Weather

Well it's been about a week and the weather has been pretty unsettled, so we've chosen to stay put at Ocean World Marina. It's been nice having air conditioning, reliable internet, and unlimited freshwater (well, it's 25 cents a gallon so we are still conserving!). The ocean park next door has all kinds of exhibits and shows -- dolphins, sea lions, even tigers -- but we probably won't be buying tickets. We did go over to the lunch restaurant in the park, where for free you can sit outside and eat while watching the sea lion interaction show. Pretty entertaining, but still not enough to tempt us to spend 55 bucks each to get into the park to see the rest of it. Besides, we can see the nightly fireworks pretty clearly just sitting in our cockpit.

Kevin has been working on several boat projects this week, fixing the liner under our anchor chain, repairing the icemaker, repairing some nicks in the bottom paint above the waterline. There are quite a few things still left to do on our list before we consider the boat "ready" for sale. But most of those will have to wait until we get to FL and near a proper chandlery/hardware store.

We've been watching the weather pretty closely and are hoping to make the 200 mile hop to Mayaguana starting Thursday night April 1st. The forecast predicts winds under 20 knots and moderate seas. Hopefully it is correct and not mother nature playing an april fool's joke on us! As an added incentive for us to get home quickly, our mail service has informed me that I am supposed to report to court in Phoenix for jury duty May 3rd.

Ocean World

We left Isleta Marina in Fajardo early Tuesday to begin our trip to the Dominican Republic. Everything was great the first morning, we were enjoying a leisurely downwind sail congratulating ourselves for having picked such a great weather window. We even saw several humpback whales frolicking in the water. But after lunch we found out why nobody ever sails the north coast of Puerto Rico. By midafternoon, the sun has heated up the land mass of PR enough to cause a "sea breeze" which accelerates the tradewinds to ferocious speeds. We had a forecast for 9-13 knot winds, but got 25-30. Fortunately we were sailing downwind so it was manageable. Unfortunately there is no place to hide on the north coast so we had to stick it out for a good 10 hours until the sun set and the winds calmed down.

After the first night things settled down and went pretty much as expected. We saw more whales on day 2, and had to dodge a bit of big ship traffic. The weather was great, not too windy, no rain at all. The whole trip took 51 hours to go 307 miles. This was our longest passage yet, and we shouldn't have to do any more this long for the rest of the trip home.

We decided to stay at the opulent Ocean World marina instead of the harbor of Luperon (the only other option in the area and where we stayed on the southbound trip). Luperon is not such a nice place, and it's hard to imagine we are even in the same country. Ocean World is like a little piece of Vegas dropped into the DR. They have a casino, spa, broadway-style dinner shows, upscale restaurants, and a massive aquatic theme park along the lines of Sea World. You can even swim with the dolphins if you're willing to spend $165. We plan to enjoy the amenities here for a few days before continuing on to the Bahamas.

Location=Ocean World Marina, Dominican Republic
Lat=19 49.671
Lon=70 43.804

Homeward Bound

For those of you who are still actually checking this blog, an apology for how lax we have been in keeping up the posts. It's not that we've been particularly busy, just that we've been particularly lazy. So...where did we leave off?
Actually we have some fairly big news. We have decided that our Caribbean adventures are coming to an end and are planning to put the boat up for sale in May. We've had a wonderful time, made some fantastic lifelong friends (we hope our cruising friends will keep in touch), made very few enemies (but they know who they are...we're talking to you, St. John Postal Workers!) but we feel it's time to move on to other adventures. So for several weeks we hung out in Culebra, watching the weather and slowly working through our list of boat fixes to get Solstice ready for sale. We also spent quite a bit of time just surfing the internet, ha-ha!
While we were in Culebra, our friend Teresa got in touch to see if we had some availability for a visit. We got back to her with the response "yes but only if you come quick". And she was on a plane within days, talk about flexible travel plans! She took a small eight-seater flight to meet us in Culebra where we did some snorkeling for a few days and then had a lovely sail over to Fajardo on the Puerto Rican mainland. The three of us took the ferry over to Vieques island where Starwood is opening up a new W hotel this coming Friday, so we had a nice pre-opening tour of the place. It is amazing, with two beaches, three infinity pools and rooms with fantastic views. For Teresa's last day with us, we rented a car and did a quick tour of El Yunque (the rainforest) before dropping her off at the Sheraton in San Juan. The Sheraton there is another beautiful property and we enjoyed a delicious lunch with Teresa's friend Julio who is the controller at the hotel. After lunch it was time for us to say goodbye to Teresa, but it was a nice visit and great to see a familiar face from work!
After dropping Teresa off this afternoon, we have been going nonstop (groceries, marine store, last-minute boat fixes, updating blog...sigh!) as we are planning a dawn departure tomorrow (Tuesday) for Ocean World Marina in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. It will take us 2-3 days to get there but we hope to go fast enough to arrive in daylight Thursday. We don't plan on staying long, taking the first available weather window from there to the Bahamas, and then hopefully making our way to Fort Lauderdale as fast as we possibly can. If any of you are interested in having your own adventures, we've got the boat for you!
Location=Fajardo, Puerto Rico
Lat=18 20.324
Lon=65 37.285

Denny on Board

Denny & Suzie arrived late on Monday 2/15 shortly after the marina lost power. Of course, one of the only reasons to be at a marina is to plug in and blast the air conditioning, so not having power at the marina makes things fairly unpleasant. Fortunately, the blackout only lasted a few hours and we were able to sleep in comfort our last night in the marina. Or, I should say, it would have been comfortable if we weren't nervous about getting out of our too-small slip the following day. The marina claims the slip is 23' wide, but that's being generous, I think it's about 20'. The pilings at the entrance of the slip are 23' apart, but they are offset to the left of the finger pier a couple feet (facing into the slip). So from the edge of the finger pier to the right piling is definitely less than 21' feet (our beam). The only way for us to get in or out is at an angle. It took us about an hour (!) of careful maneuvering with the dock lines to get out of the slip. We moved the boat backward a foot at a time, repositioning fenders and lines until the boat was angled correctly and the transoms were between the pilings. It sounds crazy, but we managed to get out of the slip without touching either piling or the dock. Ironically, the marina had plenty of space on the t-head face docks the whole time we were there. They just wanted to put us in the smallest slip possible to keep the face docks open for larger boats (which never came). Thanks American Yacht Harbor! We were so happy to be out of that slip.

After leaving the marina, we headed straight over to Trunk Bay on St. John to check out the snorkeling and beach. This is one of the best beaches on St. John and was packed with tourists enjoying the sand and water. The snorkeling wasn't so good though. The water was kind of murky from a large northerly swell. After Trunk Bay we headed over to Francis Bay to spend the night. Sadly it was not a Friday so there was no prime rib to be had.

On Wednesday we went for a quick snorkel at Whistling Cay hoping to see the shark we saw a few weeks earlier, but he wasn't around. So we headed up to Jost Van Dyke to clear into the British Virgin Islands. We spent the afternoon people watching at the Soggy Dollar Bar. This place has a clothesline behind the bar where they try to dry all the wet money they get from customers. In the evening we went to Foxy's for Lobster.

Thursday we had to hurry over to Norman Island where we had arranged a rendezvous dive for Denny & Suzie. The dive shop instructed us to put out fenders on the starboard side so the dive boat could tie up, which we did. However, the dive boat came in a bit fast and slammed into the forward part of the starboard side where, of course there were no fenders. The divemaster said she must have lost her reverse gear on the way over. I suspect it was pilot error. Anyway, no big deal, there was no damage. But when they left we put out twice as many fenders for when they came back. She approached much more slowly on the return. Denny & Suzie enjoyed their two dives with the dive shop and the dive boat left them two complete sets of rental dive gear and 4 tanks. That evening after dinner we went over to the Willy-T for drinks. The dinghy dock was crowded but we managed to find an empty spot all the way up against the hull of the Willy-T. A few hours later we discovered why the spot was empty. It was directly under the galley sink drain for the restaurant and the dinghy was full of food scraps. Yes, the yachting life is quite glamorous.

Friday we took Denny & Suzie diving at The Indians and Angelfish reef. Normally, Amanda and I don't do more than one dive a day, but we decided to try two this time. Twice as many dives with twice as many people is four times the work and we were exhausted by the end of the day. But we saw some cool stuff so I guess it was worth it. At Angelfish reef we saw three stingrays hiding on the bottom within 5 minutes of going down. We also saw two sea turtles and a spotted eagle ray.

Saturday we decided that one dive was probably enough and headed over to the wreck of the Rhone, probably the most famous dive in the BVI's if not the entire caribbean. It was featured in the movie 'The Deep'. We got there and were surprised to find no dive boats. Usually the place is packed with boats and you have to wait to pick up a mooring, but not today. Amanda jumped in the water with mask and fins to try to locate the bow section of the wreck and found there was a really strong current. We decided that the current was too strong to dive the deeper bow section of the wreck and decided to dive the stern section instead. This allowed us to swim into the current and drift back to the boat if we got too tired. We saw the massive propeller of the Rhone, and followed the driveshaft up to the engine room. The bottom is littered with debris from the huge mail ship. It was a very cool dive even with the strong current.

After diving the Rhone, we headed over to Fat Hog's to return the rental gear. Then on to Soper's Hole for a night to clear out of the BVI's, then back to St Thomas to finish out the trip in Charlotte Amalie. This was the second time we stopped in Charlotte Amalie, and both times we were unfortunate enough to be there with southerly winds. The waves come straight into the anchorage, and there are 2-3 foot waves knocking the boats around. We tried to spend as much time off the boat as possible and took the cable car up the hill to Paradise point where there is an incredible view of the harbour. You can actually see all the way to Puerto Rico and St. Croix from up there. There were three cruise ships in town and it was interesting to talk to the passengers from the different ships. We met a couple from the Oasis, which is currently the largest cruise ship in the world. It has a "Central park" with some 13,000 trees and plants. Another couple from another ship told us about the crazy beverage prices on the ship. All the food is free, but beers are $6, mixed drinks are $8, and if you want Pepsi products, that's $50 a week extra. And they search all your bags to make sure you aren't bringing on any of your own beverages. I guess they must have figured out long ago that free booze means a cruise ship with 3000 drunk people on board. But I can't understand why they won't let you bring a six-pack of Pepsi on board.

After seeing Denny & Suzie off on Wednesday, we got the boat ready to move and left on Thursday for Culebra. We had one of the best sails of the last five years and even managed to sail through the 60' entrance to Culebra's harbor. I put a fishing line out for the first time this season and managed to hook a 30 pound barracuda. I threw it back since they can carry a nasty neuro-toxin which can really mess you up. We're going to hang out here for a while and take care of some boat projects while waiting for a good weather window to continue west.

Red Hook, St Thomas USVI

Last week, we realized (duh!) that if we are in US waters, we should be able to pick up US television stations. Usually we just use the tv to watch dvds and stuff, but we figured it was Superbowl Sunday so we'd see what we could get. Turns out, a whole lot of nothing. Lots of spanish channels, a couple of pbs stations, but no major networks. Lucky for us, we moved anchorages from Francis Bay to the island of St. James. There we ran into Steve and Linda on Seaman's Elixir. We were not only pleased to see them again, but they were nice enough to invite us and another boat, Magus, to watch the superbowl on their boat (they have Direct TV...something we wish we'd installed on the boat...although we'd probably never go outside if we had it). We all had a great time watching the commercials (and, of course the game. Chris from Magus apparently had a lot of money riding on the Saints and was a very happy camper by the end.

We've been having trouble starting the beast (our outboard on the dinghy) ever since we came back to the boat. Kevin finally had it when we were leaving the superbowl party and the thing wouldn't start after something like fifty pulls. Exasperated, the next day he took apart the carburetor and cleaned all the jets. Now the thing finally runs, I won't say "like new" since it is over ten years old. But at least it is less "beastly".

We moved the boat over to Benner Bay to have a canvas cover made for the outboard. Kevin wanted it made with some padding in the back to protect Solstice's hull from the outboard banging into it. The lady took the outboard cover and went to work while we took the safari bus into town to do some shopping at Kmart. We spent all day in Charlotte Amalie, killing time to give the canvas shop enough time to get the job done. When we finally got back, we took a look at the cover and realized she had put the padding on the wrong end and would have to do the whole thing over. So the next day instead of going into town we just hung out at the boatyard bar, sipping rum and cokes and watching CNN. The final product looks pretty nice, at least now we can hide the beast. Next project is to clean up and repair some of the tattered patches on the dinghy...

We are now in a marina in Red Hook, St. Thomas. Getting into the slip posed a bit of a challenge. The slip is 23 feet wide. Our boat is 21 feet wide. Not a lot of room for error. We managed to wiggle in after two tries, but who knows how we will get out. If I had my way, I'd vote for just staying here with air conditioning, easy access to bars/restaurants and a chandlery...but I guess moving around is the whole point of having the boat. So we'll see if we can get out of here tomorrow without doing too much damage!

Back in the USVI

[Kevin's Post]After a few pleasant days in Fat Hog's we had to start making our way back to St. John to pick up our mail. Our new Coast Guard certificate was in the mail and our existing one was set to expire on Jan 31, so we wanted to get back in US waters before it expired. Especially after our fiasco in Martinique a few years ago. We had a nice downwind sail from Fat Hog's to Soper's Hole where we spent the night and cleared out the following morning.

Clearing back into the USA was very easy and required only a phone call to customs and immigration. In St. John we made landfall at Francis Bay, a beautiful bay on the north side of the island lined with white sand beaches. We were excited to be here on a Friday because there is an eco-camp here with a restaurant, and Friday is prime rib night. We met up with John from Sojourn and all hiked up to the restaurant for a wonderful (and cheap) prime rib dinner.

On Monday We took the boat over to Caneel Bay so that we could dinghy into Cruz bay and pick up our mail and some groceries. We had planned to spend the night, but could tell it wasn't going to be a good night's sleep, so headed back to Francis Bay where we knew it would be flat.

We've been doing a variety of mundane boat chores: waxing, cleaning, fixing, etc. But have managed to squeeze in some snorkeling and diving. Most of St. John is a national park and they have a number of dive sites with well-maintained moorings that you can tie off to and dive. One of these, Whistling Cay, is about a mile from Francis Bay. We took the big boat to avoid having to load all the dive gear in the dinghy. Unfortunately the visibility was pretty poor so we didn't see much, but we returned a few days later to snorkel and saw a lot more.

It's Friday again and we're still in Francis Bay. Guess what's for dinner?

Anegada to Fat Hog

After a couple of wonderful days in North Sound on Virgin Gorda we decided to head north to Anegada on Friday. We've been to the BVI's several times but had not yet been there. All the other islands in the BVI are line-of-sight navigation, meaning that you don't really need to use charts or a chart plotter to get from island to island. But Anegada is farther away than the other islands and it is low elevation so you can't see it until you are close to it. Charts or a chartplotter are helpful to say the least.

We had perfect weather for sailing, so we put up the sails and practically flew up to Anegada, doing 8+ knots most of the time (our max speed was 10.1 while surfing, which is really fast for us considering that most of the time we are motoring into the wind at about six knots max.)

Wide stretches of sandy beach skirt around the edge of the whole island. We decided to head over to Loblolly Bay to hang out on the beach for the afternoon. The weather was sunny, but a brisk northerly breeze kept us cool. We snorkeled the reef and saw some interesting coral heads, then hung out on the beach enjoying some rum and cokes. Since Anegada seems to be renowned for its lobsters, we made sure to have a couple for dinner...over two pounds apiece...we were stuffed!

On Sunday we decided to head back. Winds were light, so we motorsailed back down to Tortola. We anchored in Fat Hog's Bay and soon were in the middle of our typical scenario: arrive at an anchorage in the afternoon, the holding is great/water is flat so we wonder "why haven't we ever heard of what a great anchorage this is?" only to find ourselves seasick with rolling waves around one in the morning. Kevin did notice that some of the moorings closer to the reef looked flatter, so we picked one of those up today (Monday) and are breathing big sighs of relief and looking forward to a more restful night tonight!

North Sound, Virgin Gorda BVI

[Kevin's Post]We left Road Town on Friday in the pouring rain. Ordinarily we wouldn't choose to move the boat in inclement weather, but with dockage costing $120 a night the money won out. We had planned to head over to Cooper Island to check out some of the dive sites around there, but a couple miles out of Road Town we changed our destination to Norman Island rather than pound into 25 knots to get to Cooper.

Before we left Road town, we dropped our scuba tanks off to get recertified. Unfortunately one of our two tanks failed and was condemned due to corrosion. We asked the dive shop if they had any used tanks they wanted to sell, and ended up buying 3 more tanks. So now we have 4 tanks total which is great because now we can do twice as many dives between fills. At Norman, we dove The Indians and Pelican Island. We saw an anaconda sized Moray eel on the first dive, and some huge lobsters on the second.

Jim and Amanda (previously of Adventure Bound) were off charter this week so we met up with them at Norman and they dove Pelican Island with us. We also joined them for dinner and drinks Monday night at the Willy T (floating bar at Norman Island).

We had a couple days of horrible weather while we were at Norman and the gusty wind killed our wind generator. One of the slip rings between the pedestal and the generator broke off so there is no electrical contact any more. I don't have a decent soldering iron on board, so have no way to fix it for now. Hopefully the genset will continue to work until I can figure out how to fix the wind generator.

We left Norman Tuesday AM and headed for The Dogs to dive a site there called The Chimney. This site is named for a narrow canyon that is like a rock climbing "chimney". It was a pretty cool dive with several canyons and a large underwater arch you can swim through. We had planned to also dive another nearby site with an airplane wreck, but the visibility wasn't very good, so we called it a day after the first dive.

After diving we motored over to a nearby anchorage called Savannah Bay, it was large, flat and empty. A little too empty, we thought. Around 11pm we discovered why. It started to roll pretty bad and we had another sleepless night.

This morning we headed to North Sound in Virgin Gorda where we found a nice (hopefully flat) anchoring spot and did a little exploring this afternoon. We had beers at Saba Rock, lunch at the Bitter End Yacht Club, and went for a nice walk all the way over to Biras Creek Resort.

And There Was Much Rejoicing

Tim, the magician -- er, mechanic -- arrived around noon on Wednesday to have a look at the port engine. He was a very cheery British guy with a wry sense of humor. He and Kevin got straight to work taking the engine apart. Sure enough, he confirmed that Kevin was right about which part had failed. It was a rubber vibration damper that absorbs vibrations in the transmission and it had shredded in two. Unfortunately the new one that we ordered in December still hasn't shipped from Sweden yet, so we were worried that we would have to keep limping along for several more weeks. Tim, however, was not deterred. He made a few phone calls and managed to find the last one on the island. Within an hour he had it installed and Kevin fired up the engine and was able to test out forward and reverse gear...SUCCESS! We were so ecstatic that we actually opened a bottle of champagne that we were saving for our wedding anniversary a day early. It was the best possible anniversary present we could have received (Thanks, Tim!).

Thursday was our wedding anniversary and we decided to take one of Tim's recommendations and head over to Brandywine Bay Restaurant. It was a beautiful spot, very romantic, and very quiet. I mean really quiet, as in there was only one other couple dining the whole evening. As a result the service was impeccable, since there were two servers working. Dinner was very good...beef carpaccio, lamb ravioli, roast duck and chocolate mousse for dessert. It was pricey, but delicious.

So today we will check out of the marina (with both engines running, hooray!) and our plan is to head over to Cooper Island to do some scuba diving.

Village Cay Marina, Tortola BVI

After the New Year's festivities, we wanted a change of scenery but didn't want to go too far since we were still waiting on a part for our port engine. So, we followed Seaman's Elixir and Sojourn back over to Lameshur Bay for a few nights to kill time while we waited for an update from Volvo on our part. In Lameshur Bay we went for a hike up Bordeaux Mountain, at 1200 feet the highest point in St. John. We figured we would be treated to an incredible view at the top, but instead it ended at a dirt road with 20 foot trees in all directions. We walked another mile down the road, but still no view so we headed back down the hill disappointed. We did get one decent view, but it was only 1/4 of the way up so we could have just as easily turned around there.

When Monday rolled around I called Volvo to see if they had an updated ETA on our part. They said they would have it on Jan 18th, which coincidently was exactly two weeks from the call. Sounds like BS to me. When I originally ordered the part they said 1-3 weeks. 4 weeks later, they tell me 2 more weeks? So, we decided not to wait for it any more and headed off to Tortola (BVI) to have a mechanic look at it. After all, I'm not even 100% sure that I need that particular part. I figure we might as well have a mechanic confirm whether or not we need the part rather than sit around waiting for a part that realistically may never come. Maybe we'll get lucky and it will be a different part more easily obtained. Or maybe we can have a replacement fabricated here.

The mechanic we had been in touch with on Tortola said he couldn't look at it until Jan 13th, so we cleared into Road Town and headed 5 miles south to Peter Island to wait out the 6 days. Everything is more difficult with one engine, so we've been really keeping our movement to a minimum until we can get this issue resolved. Peter Island is a pleasant spot to spend some time. Our old friends Jim & Amanda (previously of Adventure Bound) were there on a beautiful 58' catamaran they are working on as professional crew. They didn't have a charter booked for the week, so we were able to hang out with them a bit when they weren't working on their boat. Peter Island also has some fantastic walks with incredible views. We were kicking ourselves for forgetting the camera yet again, but we plan to go there again and won't forget the camera next time.

This morning we left Peter Island and headed over to Village Cay Marina to take dockage. We had both been dreading this because maneuvering the boat in close quarters on one engine is extremely difficult. We had a reservation and I knew exactly where the slip was, so my only concern was that the slip might not be empty when we showed up. We circled outside the marina for a good half hour waiting for somebody to respond to the radio. Finally they did and told us we would be in a different slip, A29 instead of B23. Of course all the slips are numbered, but they don't have the letter. So we aim for what turned out to be C29 and barely managed to turn the boat around in the narrow space to get out. By process of elimination we found our slip on the third "A" pier and managed to get tied up with the help of one of the dockhands without damaging the boat. Hopefully we don't have to leave on one engine as well.

The first order of business was to get a SIM card for our cell phone. We haven't had a working phone since leaving St. John and have really missed it. I don't know how we managed without a phone for most of the trip south originally. Just being without one for the last week has been difficult. So now we have a local BVI cell phone and our handy Tracfone for the USVI and PR. We also manage to find a decent grocery store and Chinese takeout. We are resting comfortably in the marina with air conditioning, wi-fi, and stomachs full of Chinese food. Tomorrow the mechanic is supposed to come and hopefully solve our transmission problem, or at least tell us definitively what the problem is.

Happy New Year in St. John!

We are hoping we 2010 brings us some better luck than 2009. We have recently added the generator to our growing list of out-of-commission equipment. The belt is shredding which means we can only run it with small loads, like the battery charger, instead of larger loads, like the air conditioning, microwave, hot water heater, or washer/dryer. I washed a load of clothes by hand last week which really made me appreciate the modern conveniences of a washer and dryer! We've ordered a new belt and hopefully Kevin can figure out why the genset keeps shredding them. In the meantime I just keep telling myself "It's like camping...camping is fun, right?".

On Monday we took the bus from Coral Bay to Cruz Bay, which took us across the entire island. It cost a dollar. Cruz Bay is the main town on the island, and we had gone there hoping to pick up two packages that were sent general delivery to the post office. We waited in line forever. When we finally got up to the front of the line, the guy at the desk was very curt and said "Sorry we don't have it". He wouldn't look any harder for it and basically shrugged and said he couldn't help us. So we had no idea if it never arrived, or if it had arrived and had been sent back, or what. It wouldn't have been so upsetting to us if the mail package hadn't contained several of our last paychecks...a lot of money to lose track of! We walked over to a cafe and ate lunch while Kevin called our mail service who gave him the delivery confirmation number and said it had only just been scanned in on 12/21 (about a week earlier). So we knew it had to be there. We went back to the post office, stood in line for another forty minutes, and asked again. This time the clerk was a lady, and although she couldn't find any trace of the package she suggested we go to the annex building next door and look for it. The lady at the annex was the most unfriendly, unhelpful person ever. I politely said good morning and told her why we'd been sent over. She actually started yelling at me, saying that there was no way for her to find any package in the annex and that we should never have been sent to her. When we persisted, she said "what do you want me to do, look through every package in here? I don't have time for that! Unless it's in this pile waiting to be sent back, then it is probably not here!" We looked at the pile where she was pointing and I am not kidding you, our package was there, right on top, with the name "SALT" in big black lettering. We grabbed it, tentatively asked if she might know where our second package (containing a $200 part) was, and endured some more verbal abuse before beating a hasty retreat. At least we had the important package with our mail. At no point during any of our dealings with the Post Office did anyone actually look up the delivery confirmation number (which we knew) on a computer. And the USPS website clearly says that general delivery packages should be held 30 days so we're still confused as to why they were preparing to send it back so soon. We won't be sending anything else to St. John, that's for sure.

We've had a quiet week since then for the most part. For New Year's, we met up with our friends Linda and Steve on "Seaman's Elixir" and their daughter Katie and her husband Ryan, who were visiting from Colorado. We all went out to dinner in Coral Bay and then went to a bar with live music where we greeted the new year with champagne (yes, we made it to midnight!).