Back to Conchville—

Abraham’s Bay on the island of Mayaguana is one of those great anchorages that has free food lying around on the bottom- conch! Calling our harvest “conch hunting” makes it sound more challenging than it is. “ Conch gathering “ is more accurate since they are about as hard to catch as a pumpkin on the vine. The trick to conching is finding them and finding them large enough to keep. We use the same sizing rules as the park area of St. John, USVI uses: nine inches or bigger is a keeper.

We took the dinghy about a quarter off a mile to windward of the boat and slipped over the side with our snorkeling gear. The water was about seven feet deep with a slightly grassy sand bottom, perfect for conch. Michele and I picked up about 6 keepers in thirty minutes and Delilah found four in half that time. (Jill found a real monster). The easy part was done, now to get them out of the pretty shells and prepare them consumption.

Conch was removed, trimmed, skinned and pounded in assembly line fashion and we all got pretty good at our jobs. Jill took some back to Delilah to make conch salad, which is sort of a cevichi-type dish. The rest went to Crossroads to become yummy conch fritters—it was time for a big potluck. The crew of five boats (10 people) enjoyed a massive dinner.
Jamie brought a delicious Thai peanut pasta dish, Louise brought a yummy appetizer and Lisa brought brownies and Mexican corn bread.

Thanks to the crews of Delilah, Mei Wenti, Carapan and Endra for a memorable evening of fantastic food, great company and lots of sailor stories.

Glenn

Beach Combing at low tide - or - The hundred-yard dinghy drag…

We read that the beach combing was great on the south and east beaches of Mayaguana and since we were to be there for a bit, we decided to check it out. Lots of interesting stuff - both man made and natural washes up on the windward beaches. Hamburger beans, (sort-of flattened buckeye-shaped seeds) make their way across the Atlantic from Africa and all sorts of fishing nets, lines and floats wash up on shore. I was searching for the Holy Grail of beach combing; the glass ball fishing float and Michele wanted Hamburger beans and a good walk.

We set out from Crossroads in our dink late in the morning with a bit of water, a couple beers and a granola bar. A break in the inner reef allowed us to power into the shallow, sandy area that leads to the shore. I tipped the outboard up for shallow running and when that was churning the sand on the bottom, we got out and waded the last fifty yards in foot-deep water.

It has been a long time since we have had to worry about tides. The islands of the Windward and Leeward chains don’t have much tide and the water is usually quite deep until you hit the shore. Not so in the Bahamas, and Mayaguana is in the Bahamas. Forgetting this and the fact that the tide drops over two feet here, we pulled the dinghy to the shore and dragged it up out of the water. We took a nice long walk to the east towards town and checked out a wrecked Bahamian racing sloop on the shore. All the fishing floats were foam or plastic but we did find one hamburger bean. I noticed that the water was receding but assured Michele that it was about to turn and start flowing back in. At least we didn’t have to worry about the dinghy floating away. We returned to the dink and had a little picnic with the meager supplies we had brought. It was hot sitting on the inflated side tubes of our “car” drinking the last of the water and watching the ocean getting farther away. We were now fifty yards from the water and I was sure that the tide should be coming back in soon. As we had no desire to drag our heavy boat across fifty yard of sticky sand-clay mix, we took another walk (the other way) to give the tide time to return.

This walk was, for me even longer than the first one. We found some interesting French fishing floats made of aluminum and some nice green plastic ones from Spain, but no glass- does anybody still use glass? Michele headed back to the dinghy but I pressed on, hopeful that my glass float would be in the next pile of nets and junk… or the next one. I finally gave up and headed back to Michele with my treasures of the sea and one more ‘burger bean. It was after 3:00 as we sat on the sides of our inflatable boat 100 yards from the water, and waited. Hot and thirsty we waited for the water to crawl back towards shore. An hour later we couldn’t take it anymore and decided to start slowly dragging the dingy out toward the water. At least we would be doing something. Our sandals and the boat stuck in the soft clay-sand mix but we managed to pull a few feet at a time. We stopped to rest a lot and eventually got into an inch or two of water. This made the going a bit easier and soon we were floating the boat as we waded along side. With the tide now actually coming in and with us pulling out, we were able to get in and finally drop the motor down when we were 100 yards from shore. We were glad to return to Crossroads for water and shade after our five-hour beach combing expedition. Sailors—watch your tide tables!

Glenn

Passage, passage, passage- I just want to sleep more than 3 hours, Please!

This is one of those blogs that I know we will not get a lot of sympathy for, but here goes my rant about lack of sleep. Glenn and I love to sleep and boy we can both sleep, 10 hours with out any problem. When we are on a passage and only get to sleep 3 hours we can just hear the other one saying- oh no please don’t make me get up and take my watch.

I know it was just a few short months ago that I wrote a blog about the magic of the night watch, and don’t get me wrong, there are nights that I love the time at sea. That is when the sea is calm and the wind is good.

In the last month Crossroasds has traveled 730 nm, some of them quite rough. This is quite a haul for a boat that only goes about 5 knots. We did all this traveling in 4 hops: one 24 hour from Culebra to Boqueron, Puerto Rico then a 46 hour hop from Boqueron to Luperon, D.R. going across the “Mona Passage, then 180 nm (40 hours) to Mayaguana, Bahamas then another 40 hour- 180 nm hop to Georgetown, Bahamas.

Looking back, I can see why I was bummed out about leaving the Virgin Islands. After all, for 6 weeks we never had to go more than 20 miles at a time from the British Virgins to the U. S Virgins to the Spanish Virgins.

Glenn and I have never minded doing passages but for some reason these last four have made us extremely tired. Maybe we are out of practice from the 6 weeks of short distance sailing but I know I am happy to be at anchor for 2 weeks and I’m really looking forward to coming home and sleeping through the night without taking 3-hour shifts.

Michele

guest blog by jim fain

The mostly Dominican passengers were singing a peppy tune in Spanish as we began our descent into the Santo Domingo Airport. Perhaps I would have understood the song had it been about beer and food. The gleeful crowd erupted into joyful cheers and clapping for the successful landing of the plane. I would only later realize that cheering when one has been successfully conveyed in a motorized vehicle in the Domincan Republic is a natural response much akin to the thanks one would utter after successfully swimming in pirahna infested water with a bloody nose. It was a sunny Wednesday before Easter in the predominantly Catholic country. The inspection of the rental car was a litany of minor scrapes and dings that should also have forewarned us. With Tammy at the wheel we sallied forth into the Zona Colonial section of the city. As far as we can tell these are the rules of driving in the DR. Use all available space for going in your direction if two lanes can fit three cars and a scooter so be it. Honking is use for the purpose of stating here I am and I'm coming through. Lights and stop signs are arbitrary and must be observed only in major intersections with lots of cross traffic, otherwise just honk your horn and breeze on through.

Santo Domingo's Zona Colonial which is probably the oldest city of European descent in North and South America is a picturesque place. Where else can you get a Presidente grande from a little corner shop next to a 500 year old church ruin? The architecture is a beautiful mixture of stone colonial buildings and pre 50s concrete art deco which of course loves Carribean pastel colors. It is quite a mixture of varying degrees of wealth. The place we stayed opened right on the street and the tunes would be going at night at the little place on the corner where we bought Bohemia grandes and the elderly man hung out on the corner rubbing his thumb and forefinger together indicating he was a money changer. I also saw a REAL Dominican, an actual Domincan Benedictine friar complete in the homespun robe, rope belt and thong sandals, Y'all thought I pulled up his robe to see his thong underwear at first didn't ya. The food, Presidente, Bohemia and Brahma were all quite good in Santo Domingo comparable in price to a reasonable and good Memphis restaurant. In fact Memphis is kind of like a third world country in some respects to a New Yorker which is probably why they tip so well they are thinking haha I paid that! for a meal and drinks! You go into Gus' fried chicken and can get the best fried chicken in the world cheap and 40 oz beers that cost the same as at a quick stop. Although I guess you can also go up a few blocks to Chez Phillipe in the Peabody and plunk down a nice chunk a change while you negotiate your bazillion dollar purchase of the Grizzlies NBA team (currently for sale I believe).

I digress from the island, from Santo Domingo we battled through the buzzing swarms of scooters with one to five people on them, the belching vans with people hanging off the sides, battered taxis that make ski bum cars and hooptys look like rolls roycesand all the other cars from 70's toyotas on up to brand new beemers and landcruisers. It was good friday and traffic was stiff as we headed across through the mountains to the other side. The Holiday weekend had the slow down brigade out and ambulances and emergency vehicles all over the place. We stopped at a little place and had a six dollar meal of pork chops, plantain and fish stew and Presidente grande that was worth about six bucks. But it had nice friendly rural atmosphere.

From there on into Luperon and Crossroads. There we met another cruising couple Steve and Kim from Lilith Fair or Phylithflide no, wait a minute Anthyllide. It gave us a real taste of what their lives are like down in the Carribean. We even got to help a little with Glenn removing their self steering unit which they sold to Anthyllide which incidentally is an aluminum boat. We partied down and did some merenge on Saturday night and then went on to Miramar and San Isabel (where the first European settlement was and Cristobal Colon landed) Why did we change his name anyway? If we used his actual name that holiday could have become another eating holiday like Thanksgiving or New Years Day. Think about it people would assume a holiday with the same name as part of your intestine must be an eating day. Colon Day. I like it. Well I guess fat America doesn't need another eating day. What is it with changing proper names anyway? Why do we call Suomi Finland? Why do we call Espana Spain?

Anyway, the Hotel Miramar had a great Easter Sunday brunch and an interesting museum of artifacts from the pre European invasion residents. Lots of emphasis on reproduction and fertility. From Luperon back into the mountains and a stay in Jarabacoa at the Gran Jimenoa. Beautiful scenic hotel on the river. Glenn and JIm went for a mountain bike ride and Michelle and Tammy went for a horseback ride. Got to see a nice waterfall and some trash. Saw the country villas of the wealthy on down to the barely held together. Glenn and I had to work on the bikes a little before riding. I'll tell you a bike I sold for $25 was better than those bikes.

We made it back out to the airport and finally saw a crash. A scooter hit one of the phone card sellers right next to us. I was happy to drop the rental back at the airport with no new damage. All in all a relaxing trip (other than the driving) where I put on about five pounds (of Presidente and Bohemia)
-jim

Bus ride to Santo Domingo—

Our original plan was to spend a month in the Domincan Republic however, with the weather and other circumstances we had to change that to a two-week visit. The first few days were filled with getting the boat ready to be left in the Luperon harbor while we traveled in-land to meet our friends Jim and Tammy. They rented a car at the airport and we took the bus to meet them in Santo Domingo. I was amazed at the variety of the crops that are grown in the DR. While leaving the small rural town of Luperon we rode through rolling hills and beautiful lush valleys. We saw rice fields, tobacco, orange groves, corn, bananas, coffee, chocolate beans and many coconut palm trees. It was so diverse it was amazing. With it’s wide variety of topographic and climate conditions the DR has the richest plant life in the Caribbean.

One of the sadist scenes on our bus ride was the realization of how much trash there is in the country. The bus driver’s assistant was picking up the trash in the bus and putting it in a small wastebasket. For a quick second the bus stopped and the man tossed the trash on the side of the road by a beautiful green hillside of sugarcane. I gasped out loud. I could not believe that only a mile down the road was a bus stop and he could have emptied the trash in a trashcan there. This was a real eye opener for me and I started noticing many people throwing trash in the rivers and on the street.

Many of you know, I once put a student out of my car and made him walk home for throwing trash out the window. I really hate litter. It made me think of the U.S. in the 70’s and all the T.V. commercials we watched that discouraged littering. I know it is possible to educate and change habits but I wonder how long it will take for the DR to realize how much the trash affects the country. They really need the crying Indian here.

The people in the D.R. are some of the nicest folks in the world and are very helpful and gracious. On the way back from our stay in Jarabacoa (the mountain village with beautiful waterfalls) we took the guaguas from La Vega where Jim and Tammy dropped us off to head back to the airport. A guagua is a van-like public taxi that is very cheap and loaded with many people and sometimes with chickens and other interesting items. In order to get back to Luperon we had to change guaguas 4 times. On the second change I was distracted and left my nice small backpack with our books and my prescription glasses in the top compartment above my head. As soon as we got on the other van I realized it and got off to try and catch the van. Of course it was gone. A nice young man about college age saw my distress and he went in search of a guy with a radio since his English was better than my Spanish. We tried to find it but had no luck. I had given up and was getting back on the van when I saw him coming toward me carrying the pack. I got off the van and gave him a big hug and a tip. He did not ask for a tip, but I was so happy to have the bag back that I was happy to give him one. This is just one example of the kindest we saw in the country. Every bus stop we got off someone was there to help us find our next guagua. My idealistic dream is for some great student like our good friend Megan Murphy to come to the DR and help educate them about the trash situation because that is one of the only drawbacks to this country.

Michele

Georgetown, Bahamas

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We made it to Georgetown, Bahamas this morning at 9:00 after a 40 hour passage from Mayaguana. We had much calmer crossing than our last two have been. We left Mayaguana at 5:00 pm Friday afternoon. I was a little nervous, I really prefer to leave for a passage earlier in the day, we motor-sailed for about 5 hours then the wind came to the beam of the boat and we had a beautiful sail the rest of the night, we lost some of the wind the next day but the seas were very calm. The wind picked up and
we sailed again and had another dark and starry night. We got into Georgetown, dropped the anchor and went to bed. We were very tired.

We are so happy to stop and stay in Georgetown for a couple of weeks. Glenn's sisters; Jann and Gail will arrive here on Wednesday. We look forward to their visit. We will send photos soon. Happy Birthday to Don Phillips.

Michele and Glenn

Mayaguana, Bahamas

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We made it in yesterday morning to Mayaguana after a two night, one day passage from Luperon, Dominican Republic. We had a great first night, but the next night was really, really rolly and rough, yuck. For once we were going too fast and had to stay outside the reef cut at Mayaguana for several hours to wait for good sunlight to see the reefs. We were exhausted, Glenn went to bed at 3:00 in the afternoon and didn't get up until 6:30 this morning. I took a nap, then went over for dinner on the boat Delilah, who we had not seen for several months. Dean made his homemade pizza crust and I met several of their new friends.

There is a strange series of colds front hanging out in the Bahamas causing north west winds. We will keep you posted, but we have been told we can not leave here to travel up to Georgetown until this weekend. We have another two night, one day passage to get to Georgetown.

We have many photos from the Dominican Republic as well as a guest blog from Jim and Tammy Fain. We would love to share these with ya'll, however, as Mayaguana is one of the Bahamas' out-islands, internet service is not available here. Once we get to Georgetown we will have a ton of stories and photos to post. Thanks for waiting.

Michele and Glenn

The Fast and Furious....

We finally left Boqueron after waiting for 10 days for good weather. Our forecast was for light and variable wind the first day and night and building to 15 the next day and night. Well, let me tell you what we got; light and variable for the first few hours and then by 10:00 pm that evening we got 27-32 knots of wind, with sloppy 10 foot seas. It rained through the night and waves were crashing over the bow. Crossroads was handling this mess much better than the crew was. Moving around the boat or just sitting required a great deal of effort in those rough conditions. We were flying, making 8 knots with a double-reefed main and half the jib rolled up (not a lot of sail).

By 6:30 am we were exhausted and wondering if we should duck in some where and wait or keep going for Luperon, DR. I called Chris Parker (our weather guru) using the single side band radio and asked if this mess was going to continue or lighten up. He assured me it “ should” lighten up. Fortunately, it finally did and Glenn let me sleep for 3 full hours. I was a new person expect for the million bruises I gained on the passage. We made it into Luperon 7:00am, right on schedule after our 46 hour crossing. (250nm) This was 4 hours faster than our East bound trip last year. Yeah!

We were so happy to be back in the Dominican Republic and in a very calm harbor. We did not even mind that we spent most of the day clearing into the country with 6 different officials. We slept like rocks that night for 11 hours. Monday we check in with the last two departments who were not open on the weekend – talk about homeland security.

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