We got up fairly early and slowed down our start to listen to Chris Parkers weather, which changed during the night from nice to not good. We were looking at squalls all morning with seas to 6' and winds to 20 knots out of the east which is where we are going. Knowing we were going to be hammered if we left, we decided to head out anyway since we only have two more days till Sally's sister arrives and we need to meet her. Before y'all start sending me messages about how Davy Jones locker is filled to the brim with people that had to get somewhere, this is not our first adverse conditions rodeo nor will it be our last. This is only a tack hammer and we have been hit with a sledge before!
We upped anchor at 0630 and headed out into the rain. The wind soon got up to 18 knots gusting to 24 and eventually made it to 26 gusting to 32 and the waves up to 8' at about 5 seconds. It never once was uncomfortable cause the waves were always with the wind. It the height of the squall I looked over and saw a fisherman running his lines in what could only have been a 12' rowboat and I'm worried in a 41'! Has a calming effect.
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| fisherman running lines in weather. Pic is him on top of wave, 2 seconds later he disappeared for 10 sec. |
When the wind peaked we saw an anchorage called Gilligan's Island (swear fo God) and we decided to head in and wait it out since we were now down to 1.3 knots forward. I looked at the time and it was 0930 exactly 3 hours since we left so I decided under no circumstances was I going to Gilligan's Island for a 3 hour tour, so we headed right back out. Besides I want to keep Ginger in my fantasies just as they are, not with her 55 years older, double ugh!
Within 5 minutes of turning the wind and waves calmed to 14 knots and 3 ft waves so we had a smooth ride till noon when it started picking back up. We headed over Caja De Muertos Island to anchor in a very protected anchorage at a state park. Now Sally tells me this island is called coffin island by the locals!
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| anchorage at sw end of coffin island |
We got off at 0630 and headed east into what looked like a waiting squall but it rained itself out before we got there.
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| wasn't meant for us |
However, mother nature was paying close attention to our apprehension and released the 1100 winds at 0800. It wasn't a bad ride though Sally didn't enjoy it and pointed out every anchorage on the chart just in case I wanted to stop and wait it out. We saw a shut down nuclear plant, a recycling incinerator/generator, a wind farm with 45 huge windmills and the cleanest coal burning generator in the USA, all in 8 hours.
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| one of four wind farms on P.R. |
Google says the windmills cost an average of 10 million each so it was some expensive swamp land. I thought they were foolish to mount them down at sea level instead on the mountaintop. When I got east and looked back I realized the wind would flow through them and be forced up the 2500' mountain behind them, probably doubling the effective force of the wind. We arrived at our destination about 1330 and dropped the anchor in a quiet (during the week) little town Puerto Patillas where Sally found an apartment to rent for her sister, courteous of her mentor Ed Carter. I started not to mention him cause his head is close to exploding already but you got to give the devil his due!
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| Anchorage at Don & Janis', their house is aqua with purple trim & seawall. just behind 1st sailboat |
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