Change of plans. That's the way it is with cruising. We planned for months to go from Curacao to Aruba and on to Colombia and Panama. However, over recent weeks, we got a little homesick for the USA, and decided to head north instead of west. If things go as planned now, we will head back to Florida and spend 2012 cruising in the States.
The first leg of the journey was from Curacao north to Puerto Rico. After careful consideration, we went NNE to Boqueron on the SW coast of PR, rather than the easier NW to Haiti and the Windward Passage. We figured we knew the territory and would be able to rest and repair in PR and then get the next weather window for an onward voyage through the Old Bahama Channel to Miami.
OK, so the NNE course was a bit more difficult than we had planned. We did manage to make the easting we needed, but not without running into LOTS of squalls and buckets of rain. One memorable moment of the trip found Patti weeping at the helm as she got hit for the third time in one night by storms and was completely drenched, AGAIN!!! It is amazing what passes for tragedy when you are sleep deprived and aching. Oh, forgot to mention... the autopilot quit after the first day, so we were hand steering, 2 hours on, 2 hours off, for 3 days.
On the first day, we had some good sailing even though the water was a little rough. But for the first time, John got seasick. He looked a little green, and Patti was ready to divert to Bonaire, but he was fine after losing lunch over the side. Another milestone. Doesn't sailing sound fun?
We arrived in the beautiful wide bay of Boqueron on the morning of the 4th day. After dropping the anchor (as the only cruising boat there) we sat and marveled that Anhinga got us where we needed to go -- we had done it.
Boqueron, Puerto Rico: 18d01.425'N 67d10.682'W
So the old sea dog finally got sick! Sorry to hear you plans to head to Columbia and Panama didn't work out, but it's the US's gain.Sure you'll make it out that way eventually. If your coming as far north as DC sometime, either by land, sea or air would be great to see you guys!
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