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| Date |
Day |
Miles |
Hrs. |
Speed |
Arrival
Port |
Comments |
Departed |
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Nettles Island, Jensen Beach, Florida |
Left my home of the last three months where I attended the Chapman School of Seamanship. Now it's time for the final exam. |
4/15/00 |
| 4/15/00 |
Sat |
33 |
7.0 |
4.7 |
West Palm Beach, Florida |
Departed Jensen Beach with full West-Haley crew, Doug, Deb and Marina, their puppy dog. Turned into dreary day with seas against us. Boat bounced and fought its way south, Deb got sick. Starboard engine died, Port overheated trying to do all the work, so we crawled into Rybovich-Spencer Marina in Palm Beach. Tough day. |
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| 4/17/00 |
Mon |
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Chilling out and watching the weather |
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| 4/18/00 |
Tue |
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Old Bahama Bay,Grand Bahama |
Forecast was favorable for a crossing so departed at 5:30 am and arrived at 2:30 pm. Cleared customs, including animals, visited old friend Reg Smith, local Bahamian, had dinner at the Harbour House in the Settlement. |
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| 4/19/00 |
Wed |
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Chillin' out |
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| 4/20/00 |
Thu |
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Great Sale Cay |
| Departed at first light and spent the day sailing to Great Sale Cay, an uninhabited island, former U.S. Missile site. Good anchorage and only decent stop on way to Abacos. Dinghied dogs to small beach to romp and do their doggie business. |
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| 4/21/00 |
Fri |
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| Village kids flocked around the puppies. Lots of potcakes. Made a telephone call and split. Village trashy; dinghy storage precarious. |
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| 4/22/00 |
Sat |
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| Tried to anchor inside; no luck. Moved out to edge of bay and anchored. Explored mangrove creeks next morning. Left dinghy for seaside stroll and it drifted to center of bay; had to wade out to retrieve. |
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| 4/23/00 |
Sun |
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| Fuel at Bluff House. Lunch at Green Turtle pool bar. Cocktails at GTC and Bluff House; could not get in for dinner. |
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| 4/24/00 |
Mon |
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Hung out and chilled. Were all set to explore the island when the wind kicked up and we started dragging anchor toward the marina. Had we departed…scary. Spent next hour finding better spot, dived on it but still maintained anchor watch for awhile. Boats were dragging right and left. Hurricane Floyd must have stirred up the bottom of what has traditionally been a good anchorage. Had a nice, formal, dinner ashore (have to give the wife a treat now and then; heaven knows she earns it considering who she got hooked up with!) |
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| 4/25/00 |
Tue |
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Weather not good for departure. Set second anchor. Lunch at GTC. Dinner at Bluff House. |
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| 4/26/00 |
Wed |
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| Short sail to Great Guana Cay. Anchored in Baker's Bay, pretty spot with only one other boat. The dogs had a ball playing on the empty beach. Starfish galore, big as dinner plates. |
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| 4/27/00 |
Thu |
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Marsh Harbour, Great Abaco |
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| Cruised down to Marsh Harbour, the major town of the Abacos. Grocery store, restaurants, banks, etc. Anchorage jammed so anchored near the ship channel, laying down 2 hooks for security. Spotted a couple of turtles swimming around the boat. |
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| 4/28/00 |
Fri |
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Lounged and dined. |
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| 4/29/00 |
Sat |
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| Sailed down to Hope Town, a picturesque little village with a great striped lighthouse. Blamed Katreena for missing the mooring ball only to learn the last boat untied it. Apologized with Sunday brunch the next day. |
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| 4/30/00 |
Sun |
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Explored the little bay by foot and dinghy. Took the puppies to a nice beach for a game of chase the tennis ball. |
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| 5/1/00 |
Mon |
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Little Harbour, Great Abaco |
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| Took a chance that Laughing Moon could actually get into Little Harbour. The entrance was barely wide enough and deep enough. The depth alarm kept complaining all the way through but we made it, thanks to high tide. Means we'll need another high tide to leave it. Little Harbour is the refuge of a well-known sculptor whose sons still maintain, with a small gallery and pub. |
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| 5/2/00 |
Tue |
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Evaluating weather from all sources because our next sail is a long, open sea voyage. If all goes poorly we'll arrive in Eleuthera in the dark. Having never been there that is quite dangerous. So I did not wish to depart without knowing the weather and seas. |
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| 5/3/00 |
Wed |
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| Left at first light, carefully navigated around the reefs, headed out into the Atlantic. Seas were busy but favorable. Long day but made our destination safe and sound. |
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| 5/4/00 |
Thu |
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Wish we had more time to explore Eleuthera. This is one of the islands that British Loyalists fled to during the American Revolution. More white folks than most of the Bahamas. Spanish Wells has a lot of pretty cottages with well tended gardens. Quite a lot of hurricane damage but the people keep going. |
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| 5/5/00 |
Fri |
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| Long sail to Hatchet Bay, a once-inland lagoon that was opened to the sea with dynamite, in hopes of development which hasn't happened. We slid our 23 feet of beam through a 40 foot cut in the rocks to enter the sheltered bay. Not much there but we found a little conch snack bar in the tired village. |
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| 5/6/00 |
Sat |
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| A pleasant sail down to Rock Sound, a large sound off of a fair size village. Cash machine, phones, groceries and beer. What else do you need. A friendly local helped us get our provisions to the dock and shared some local history. From here the islands get more remote so we needed the provisions. |
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| 5/7/00 |
Sun |
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| I always wanted to visit Little San Salvador, from pictures. Little island with a fantastic beach, but was purchased by the cruise ship folks as a recreation stop. But we got lucky. No cruise ships, or apparent life of any kind so we took the dogs ashore and had a puppy party. Gorgeous beach. The kind you see on postcards. On the way I hooked a big dolphin (the fish, not flipper, known out West as mahi mahi). Got the big beast right to the swim step before the line broke. Oh well, we have lots of canned tuna. |
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| 5/8/00 |
Mon |
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| Long sail down to Cat Island (where Sidney Portier is from). Tucked into a little marina in a creek. |
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| 5/9/00 |
Tue |
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| Long sail (they all will be from here) to Rum Cay. Small island located strategically along the passage. Two young Americans and one wife have been building a small marina here for the past few years. We stopped here in '98; this is where Doug and Deb's dog, Marina, came from. One of the guys is a master chef and puts together a dinner worthy of Manhattan. After he helped us with our lines he put our name on the reservation list. For such a small remote island the restaurant stays full (a dozen people is full). |
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| 5/10/00 |
Wed |
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Clarence Town, Long Island |
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| All day sail to Long Island. Anchored, took the puppies to a small deserted beach, but did not visit the nearby village. Need our rest for the next leg of the journey. |
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| 5/11/00 |
Thu |
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| Set sail at first light for the Turks and Caicos. Nothing else in the Bahamas we needed to see and have a friend meeting us in T & C on the 14th. |
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| 5/12/00 |
Fri |
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| Arrived in the Provos (Caicos) after 32 hour sail. The family is ready for land, I think. Unfortunately, we were stuck on the boat another 7 hours waiting for customs clearance. I was fit to be tied, but what else is new? Wedged ourselves into a tight slip in Turtle Cove Marina for a few days of R & R. |
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| 5/13/00 |
Sat |
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Chillin' Out. |
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| 5/14/00 |
Sun |
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My old friend Brad Fisher from California and his Puerto Rican girlfriend, Nydiana, joined us. They'll stay for the next week as we head for Puerto Rico. |
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| 5/15/00 |
Mon |
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Provisioning and planning. |
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| 5/16/00 |
Tue |
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| Departed at first light for a long passage. |
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| 5/17/00 |
Wed |
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| Arrived in Dominican Republic after 28 hour sail. DR is not a cruiser's haven but Luperon has geared itself up to the task, with a protected lagoon and a busy little town. The town looks like one of those third world villages you see in the revolutionary movies. Nydiana's Spanish may have been more trouble than my bad Spanish; customs and immigration was still a chore. |
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| 5/18/00 |
Thu |
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Day of rest |
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| 5/19/00 |
Fri |
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| Long sail and tucked into Sosua, not sure if we're legal. In most countries you clear customs and immigration for the duration of your visit. In DR, cruising boats may have to clear in and out at every port, only where there are agents. Sosua is not a clearing port, but oh well. |
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| 5/20/00 |
Sat |
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| Another pretty anchorage off Rio San Juan. But the had the neatest mangrove creek which led into a lagoon straight out of Apocalypse Now. Kids swimming, small boats rafted together, rock steps leading into a plaza of a small town. Great spot. Let's just hope men with badges don't start asking tough questions… |
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| 5/21/00 |
Sun |
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| Last DR anchorage off pristine El Valle. Stayed on board this time. |
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| 5/22/00 |
Mon |
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| Early departure for last of the overnight sails. |
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| 5/23/00 |
Tue |
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| Arrived in Puerto Rico after 30 hour sail across the infamous Mona Passage. Rough and tumble but safe and sound. Tracked down our taxi driver, Raul, from our '98 passage and trooped up to Mayaguez to clear in. One last dinner with Brad and Nydiana and they headed for San Juan. |
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| 5/24/00 |
Wed |
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Tourists. |
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| 5/25/00 |
Thu |
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| Attempted to head East but hit a few hurdles. The winds and seas were beyond the forecast, howling and bumpy. Both engines and all sails were barely able to fight the seas rounding the cape at the SW end of PR. As we were making the turn an engine alarm came on. (I had made several engine repairs along our journey). The loss of the port engine caused us to veer to port, causing our jib to stall against the spreader; in short, it tore and caught itself on the rigging. One look at Katreena's eyes and I decided to abort the day's mission, returning to Boqueron. Spent the afternoon making repairs. Turned out to be the alternator. |
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| 5/26/00 |
Fri |
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| Attempt number two, made it this time. Long sail into Ponce, PR's second largest city. I'm hustling our way to the Virgins now, knowing my crew needs land time. So we didn't explore, but will in the near future. Lobster dinner for Mrs. West, for being the best crew and sweetie there is. And for not leaving me yet. |
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| 5/27/00 |
Sat |
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| Cut it close, but got to Palmas Del Mar before dark, barely. Brad and Nydiana drove down and joined us for dinner at the little resort. |
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| 5/28/00 |
Sun |
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| Another long sail to Ensenada Honda, Isla de Vieques. Vieques is a pretty island which has been the center of a lot of protests of late. It is mostly owned by the US Navy and the area surrounding it is used for war games, with live shooting. I knew I was in Navy territory but, according to my guides, if I try to contact them by radio and get no answer all is well. We tucked into this great bay, all alone, went for a swim with the puppies, and settled down for a quiet dinner. Then the SP's showed up, toting guns and telling me I am on government property and must leave at once. After extensive negotiations and an hour of radio calls to authorities at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station on PR, they gave me permission to stay the night. Nice to see our tax dollars at work. |
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| 5/29/00 |
Mon |
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| Made it to the USVI's! Tucked into Crown Bay Marina on St. Thomas for Memorial Day. |
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| 5/30/00 |
Tue |
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Our 1st Wedding Anniversary and I promised Katreena we would celebrate in our new home. I took delivery, by prearrangement, of our new Suzuki Grand Vitara (like a small Cherokee), loaded up the entire crew and headed for the ferry dock. Arrived in St. John, delivered the crew to the new home (which we've named Casaluna), rounded up a couple of lobsters and cooked our anniversary dinner. |
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| 5/31/00 |
Wed |
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Lazy day at Casaluna. |
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| 6/1/00 |
Thu |
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Coral Bay, St. John, USVI |
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| Went back to St. Thomas to bring our baby to her new home. Laughing Moon is safely anchored in Coral Bay, within view of our new home. |
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