On my return from Dominica i had a few days living back on my nice familiar Tortola beach, where i found all the chickens had had new families of chicks, the goats had had babies, my compost heap i created 2 months previously had nicely composted, i caught up with friends, and got my hands back in the soil with a few days work back on the farm. Then i finally got the word for where i should meet my Bermuda boat. So, i headed over to St Thomas (a few islands away) by ferry, and met Ted, the skipper, and Restless, the boat – 40 foot ‘Cape Dory’. It turns out Ted was not in such a hurry to leave for Bermuda, after all my anxiousness to reach him in time, and we sailed back to his home mooring in Culebra, an island of Puerto Rico, where we have now been for the last 10 days! Ted is retired and into enjoying life in a very very relaxed way, which i have been happy to adapt to as well. We have been preparing the boat little by little in between food, siestas and dips in the ocean, whilst keeping an eye on the forecasts for the perfect weather window that will give us a nice comfortable ride Northwards. We’ve been snorkelling and scuba diving to scrub the hull clean of algae and barnacles (that’ll give us an extra few knots!), sewing sails, oiling the wooden bits of the deck, cleaning windows, provisioning the boat with food, water, fuel and propane, all inbetween little sails round the island, snorkelling the lush reefs (the most spectacular huge swaying purple and yellow sea fans i have yet seen), practicing saxaphone and fiddle (that’s Ted), singing sea shanties (both of us), learning the tin whistle (me), exploring the tiny sleepy island (one day on a hired bike, back on two wheels, yey!), and marvelling at the recycling bins all over the place – the first i’ve seen in the Caribbean. I am in US territory here, but it doesn’t feel like it, it is all very hispanic, i’ve been singing Spanish hymns (at church – always good for a sing song and welcoming community wherever i go!), dancing to salsa and cuban drums, and the Culebran / Puerto Rican people range from white to Spanishy brown, to black as they are all mixed up descendents of Spanish colonisers, Tainho Indians (the indigenous people) and African slaves.
To bring us right up to date, my latest news is that i have, slightly embarressingly, NITS! I don’t know where they came from but i do think it is a bit of a faux pas as crew assets go - bringing itchy jumping parasites on board where we have to live in such close proximity! However, luckily Ted has not chucked me off the boat, and has even gone beyond the call of duty of a skipper to his crew, and helped me combing them out of my hair!
Anyway, we hope to actually set off on the 6-7 day sail to my final destination (for a year), tomorrow (7th May) evening when there are some nice consistent Easterly winds (which are good for sailing Northwards). We will be sailing along one side of the Bermuda Triangle, all the way…… but i’m feeling pretty confident and safe on this nice little boat, Ted has done this passage several times, and i am obviously very excited to finally on the last leg of my journey to Bermuda!
By the way, anyone interested can follow our progress from Ted’s website, we can update it mid-ocean – this boat’s high tech! (And also wind and solar powered, hooray!): www.bluewateroffshorecruising.com
