Editors Note: In the past Deb has been the primary keeper of the Early Out website. One day she informed me that it was now my turn. So here goes.

Grenada to St. Thomas - 3/7/03 - 3/10/03
Heading North
We left in the morning not sure whether we would head to Antigua or St. Thomas. We had missed Antigua on the way down and have heard lots of good things about it. So if the wind would have been blowing in a favorable direction to head to Antigua, we would stop there.   Unfortunately it would have been a close hauled sail all the way, so we decided to head directly to St. Thomas instead.  We enjoyed 3 plus days of terrific sailing.  Winds mostly from the beam or aft of beam.  We were visited by a large pod of dolphins. It almost felt like an attack. We saw this pod of about 20 dolphins heading toward the boat at a pretty high rate of speed and then they went straight to the bow to ride the wave for about 15 minutes. It was a very energetic group. Too bad they couldn't stay a little longer.

We fished during the whole trip but had limited success until the last day. We got a hit one of our more shinny lures and sure enough we had about a 10 lb. tuna. At least we can eat for a couple of days. This was probably the most enjoyable passage we have had in all our journeys. The weather was just perfect the whole way.

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

We had to slow down as we approached Charlotte Amalie since our speed would get us there about 4:00 AM. It is never a good idea to enter a port at night, especially one that you have not sailed into before. We arrived just as the sun was coming up, Unfortunately we had a morning squall to meet us as well. Actually in some ways this was kind of nice. On a passage the boat usually gets quite salty from all the spray. The squall brought some rain a helped rinse off the boat. Anyway, by the time we got to the entrance of the channel the squall was gone and the we had no problems getting in this very large well marked harbor.

Right away we saw our friends on Indigo and Silent Passage and we said hello on the VHF.  After a short nap Fred went in to clear customs and immigrations. In every country we've been two over the last 4 months only the captain is required to go to shore to check in. However, wouldn't you know, checking back into our own country they have to have everyone come in for immigrations. So back Fred goes to get Debbie. On the way back to Customs and Immigrations we stopped by Indigo for about a 1/2 hour to see Gus and Carol. After a nice visit we went to leave but our dinghy wouldn't start. Our outboard engine has been very reliable over the last 2+ years. We depend heavily on it to get us to and from shore. Especially in a large harbor like Charlotte Amalie where the distance to the dinghy dock from where we were anchored was almost a mile.

Once again our misfortunes seemed to be timed well. We had planned on going to a marina the next night anyway (first time since early November) to pick up fuel, our mail and equalize our batteries. So we skipped Immigrations and went to the marina the next morning. Crown Bay Marina is a beautiful facility on the western end of Charlotte Amalie.  On the way in we stopped at the fuel dock and filled up. This was the first time we had stopped for fuel in 3 months. It is nice to have large tanks and not worry about where to get fuel all the time.

We had some friends that had taken up residence in the marina, Tom an Christine on Sea Wings. They did not know we were coming in so they were very surprised to see us. We got together for dinner at the marina restaurant and had the famous fish and chips. It is always nice to have a meal out after a long passage, you some how feel like you've earned it.

After a few phone calls we found an outboard repair shop that said they might be able to send someone tomorrow morning. Well the next morning after another couple of phone calls, a young local guy showed up and he looked like he was on his way to the basketball court after he was done with us. We had the engine hanging on the back of the boat which is a pretty good place to work on it. At least is was while Fred and Dick from Silent Passage worked on it for two hours the day before. Well our new buddy said he wanted the outboard on the dink. So we put it on while he went back to his truck for tools. Well he shows up with a book sided box and a can of Gunk carburetor cleaner. We are not feeling real confident at this point. Boy  were we wrong. This kid had the carburetor out the engine in about 5 minutes. He put it on the dock and totally disassembled it in another 5 minutes. Cleaned it out with the spray and piece of wire. He put it back together fired up the engine and spent another 5 minutes adjusting the carburetor and just like magic we are back in business. He did such a nice job we even gave him a tip.

After two days in the marina we said goodbye to Christine and Tom and headed over to the anchorage. We still needed to provision for the last part of our trip. In St. Thomas there is a warehouse store like Sam's called Cost-U-Less. We took the dollar bus to the store and took a 'taxi' back. The store pretty much looked like any warehouse store in the states with one exception, they sold liquor. This was the best place to buy liquor in all our travels. We bought a case of liter bottles of Cruzan rum for $36. That is $3 a bottle! We also picked up tequilla, bourban and kalua. We are set for a couple of years. Oh yeah, we did buy some food too. Since we knew from experience that food shopping was a challenge in parts of the Bahamas, we stocked up. The 'taxi' ride home was interesting. Several guys are waiting outside the store to take you wherever you are going. We ended up in a small pickup truck. It worked fine. When is started raining of the way back we simply put a tarp over the groceries and we went of from there.

Spanish Virgin Islands - 3/17-21/03
Culebra, Spanish Virgin Islands
The trip from St. Thomas to Culebra was fairly short and pleasant.  A broad reach with 15 knots of wind on a nice sunny day. This was the first leg of many we would be traveling with Peter, Ann and Josephine aboard La Bona Vita and Dick and Bev aboard Silent Passage. We planned to sail all the way from St. Thomas to the Bahamas in a series of 4 passages, then go our separate ways.

St. Thomas to  Culebra 1 day
Culebra to San Juan, 1 day
San Juan to Sapadilla Bay, Turks & Caicos, 3 days
Sapadilla Bay to Clarence Town, Bahamas, 2 days

The weird thing about sailing from St. Thomas, a US Virgin Island, to Culebra, a US possession, is that you have to check into customs. Why we had to check in is still a mystery to me but we follow the rules so hi ho, hi ho, it's off to the airport we go. It was a good mile walk to the airport where customs was located.  But once we got there the customs official was very helpful giving us directions to some of the local attractions and restaurants. The other weird thing was we had to buy a US Customs Sticker for $25 making this one of the more expensive ports to check into. Welcome Home to the USA, again!?

Fajardo, Puerto Rico
While talking with the customs officer, we found out we could take a ferry from Culebra to Fajardo for only $2/person.  Much cheaper than taking the boats.  So we got up early and caught the 6:30 AM ferry.  Ended up being about an hour ferry ride.  What a deal for only $4 round trip.  We passed the El Conquistador Resort, where we spent a few days at an IBM Awards event 6 years before. What a good memory and how different it looked now after all our travels. We arrived in Fajardo and then looked at each other.  What do we do now?

The plan was to visit the rain forest but we weren't sure if we should get a cab or rent a car. While several of us tried to get a cab, Ann from La Bona Vita, walked down the street and found a rental car place that had a van we could have for the day. Problem solved. The seven of us hopped into the van and off we went. Shortly after we got started someone spotted a bakery. Since we got such an early start, no one had really had breakfast yet. This bakery turned out to be first rate. Great coffee, pastries and even some breakfast sandwiches. A great way to start off our trip.

It was a very exciting ride for us to the rain forest. After we got on the main highway we started seeing stores like West Marine, Kmart (a real one) and a host recognizable establishments. We stopped at Kmart and probably spent an hour going through buying household goods, hardware/tools, food and other miscellaneous items. It just felt good to be in an American store again.  The trip to West Marine was the same. We didn't really need anything, but we all enjoyed the familiar surroundings and purchased a number of items after  walking through all the isles several times.
From right - Ann, Peter, Beverly, Josephine, Dick (hiding), with Deb and I
We finally arrived at El Yonke, the mountain where the rain forest is located by 11 AM.  We wen to the visitor center, got the lay of the land and head off to take a hike. The path we  chose was a popular one that led us to one of the water falls. It was a nice hike on another nice day.  When we arrive back in Culebra that evening, we were all pretty pooped after a long day.

The following day we decided to check out the famous Flamenco Beach. They claimed it was one of the prettiest beaches in the world. At this point, after all the beaches we have seen, we were beginning to feel like experts. So off we went. It was a longer hike than some of the group would have liked, but we all made it. When we arrived we all agreed that is was a magnificent beach. The white sand and the turquoise water were stunning on this perfectly sunny day. We all went for a swim, relaxed for a little while then found a cab and headed back to the boats.

Flamenco Beach in Culebra

We looked at our guide books on the Spanish Virgin Islands and we didn't see a lot of anchorages that excited us. So we moved less than 2 miles from Ensenada Honda to another anchorage behind a reef in Ensenada Dakity.  We enjoyed a terrific afternoon of snorkeling. We even got the spear out for the first time on this trip but did not have any luck spotting something eatable.

Culebra to Puerto Rico - 3/21/03
San Juan, Puerto Rico
We left Culebra before sunrise and we were rewarded with a scene below. It was so beautiful that we didn't really mind that there wasn't any wind first thing.  It was going to be a long day and we needed some wind to help us make San Juan before night fall.

A beautiful sunrise over Culebra

A nice Spanish Mackerel we caught off the coast of Puerto Rico on our way to San Juan

We arrived in San Juan and had several ideas of where to anchor but none of them looked very protected. Anchoring in a busy harbor like San Juan, you want to make sure you are out of the way. So we found a quiet corner in front of a couple marina's. It was kind of tight channel with some very large tires tied up along the sea walls. But we didn't really think any big ships would come down this little channel. Well in the middle of the night not one, but two huge cruise shipped silently pulled in. I just happend to be up when one of them came in and you could not hear a sound and they were only a few hundered yards away. Another one pulled while we were sleeping and the bow was only 20 yard away from Silent Passage. When Dick woke up and looked outside his cabin first things he looked away from the big boat and waved at us. Then he turned around and saw the monster and just about fell off his boat. It was a priceless moment.

We toured El Moro and Old San Juan. It was fun to see these sites again, but after a couple of days we had a good weather window and we were off for the first long leg of out journey back.
 

The coastline with Fort El Moro in background
 
 

San Juan to Turks & Caicos - 3/23/03 - 3/26/03
Sapadilla Bay, Turks & Caicos

The three day trip started off with the wind coming from a marginal direction (almost on the nose) and about 10 knots stronger than predicted. We banged away for a short while and decided to see if things got better. They did and we had a very pleasant passage. The wind shifted around and we had to motor some. We even got the spinnaker out for a while. All and all a very good trip.

We timed the enterance to the banks that lead to Sapadilla Bay so we would have good light to come in on. It is a very shallow and unmarked enterance for about 10 miles across the bank. Silent Passage and La Bona Vita had never sailed in such shallow water and were very concerned. We were concerned since we hadn't made this particular entrance before, but after spending the previous winter in the thin water of the Bahamas, this looked like a peice of cake. It was, but just one of things that you get stressed out about and in hind site was no big deal.

La Bona Vita  and Silent Passage following behind us on the way into Sapadilla Bay
 

Homes off Sapadilla Bay

Turks & Caicos to Long Island - 3/27/03 - 3/28/03
Clarence Town, Long Island

As with the approach to Sapadilla our exit was also across a fairly shallow bank with a few coral heads showing on the charts. Early Out took the lead again with La Bona Vita and Silent Passage following close behind. We had  a nice sunny day but just a few clouds here and there. We had forgotten how the shadows from the small clouds could look like a reef. So we saw a lot of dark patches on the water but after a while we began to ignore them since they all seemed to be clouds. Then finally we noticed that one of the dark patches right in front of us was not moving like a cloud does. HARD TO PORT! Just missed that one.

As we exited the banks we noticed another boat going the other way but we were too busy putting up our sails to really look. Then we get a call on the VHF "Early Out, Early Out, this is Kindred Spirits, over." It was Jim and Ally,  one of the first cruising couples we had ever met. We got to know them in Beaufort while we were commissioning Early Out. We had a short chat and wished them good luck with their journey to the Caribbean and promised to share tales when we hook up again.

The trip to Clarence Town began fairly well. However, the wind was directly behind us. None of the three boats sailed well dead down wind so we all took angle of about 30 degrees off our course. There was a group of islands directly between us and our destination which we planned to go north of since that would be the shortest route. However, after several hours of heading south of our intended course it became shorter to go around the southern end, so we did.
Deb with a Mahi Mahi
Passage turned out to be a good one which we sailed nearly the entire way. When we got to the entrance for Clarence Town we noticed a lot of  breaking waves so we looked at the chart a little closer and noticed a little note saying, "Do not attempt this entrance with northeasterly swell", which is what we had. We knew there was some bad weather coming and we really did not have any good alternatives at this point. So we called the Flying Fish Marina on the VHF and asked them about the entrance. The owner of the marina, Mario, came on and said if you follow your waypoints it shouldn't be a problem. Easy for him to say sitting inside the nice calm harbor.

Well we took the leap of faith and once we started maneuvering through the 3 turns to negotiate the entrance it was not as bad a it looked.  Once we got "inside" we looked for a spot that would protect us from the north. Then we all tried several times to get our anchors to hold but had a very little luck. Finally I put on his mask and fins and went down to check out the bottom. It was mostly hard but their were a few small patches of sand that looked deep enough to set the hook. So after some precise maneuvers, we dropped the anchor right on a sandy spot and got it to set, yeah! So I jumped back into the water and directed La Bona Vita where to put their anchor and with a little push we got them set. In the mean time,  Silent Passage decided enough of this crap and went over to the marina for slip. Not a bad choice given the three day blow we were about to experience.

Back in the Bahamas!!!!  Arrived in Clarence Town, our first island of the Bahamas after a very nice/uneventful overnight passage.

The Catholic Church in Clarence Town