Tuesday 16 Apr, Puerto Rico, day 12: Depart marina after 11 days. Cloudy is tugging at her mooring lines, saying “lets GO!” and we have an exciting sail to Isla Caja de Muertos (Coffin Island).
Early alarm for us, 7:30am. Oana is not too good. She has a slight temperature and sore throat but insists we should still leave today. Maybe the sea air will clear things up for her.
First job is to get all the dock lines off and replace with a couple of slip lines. Because we were away from the boat for several days we had doubled our dock lines and also put on our chains, springs and rubber snubbers to stop the snatching. Haven’t used those for a long time!
Over breakfast we realize this is the longest time we’ve been in a marina since Lanzarote. 11 days! We can almost feel Cloudy Bay pulling at her lines to get back out there for a good romp. Well, she should get it today. A long fast downwind sail in a big sea.
We are ready to go by 9am but our departure is delayed one hour when our credit card is declined for the marina payment. Most of the hour was on a Skype call to VISA, on hold listening to music. Very frustrating. It seems my flurry of Ebay activity last night raised a security flag and the card was blocked. Makes us realize just how much our wellbeing depends on our credit card working correctly.
Finally we slip the lines and pull out of the marina at 10:30. The passage should be 45 miles so still fine to get there before dark.
At first we have a lovely beam reach south along the eastern coast then gradually turn west along the south coast, bringing the wind behind us. It’s lighter than expected, 10-12 kts, which only gives us 6kts speed downwind. But the sky is blue, the water clear and lovely mountain scenery to view as we cruise west about 2nm offshore.
For the first hour the speed log is not working. Not surprising really after 11 days in the marina. I should have been smart enough to remove it. When I do take it out there is a large amount of muddy weed growing in it. More than I’ve ever seen before. Well, maybe in Savannah where hundreds of Bubber-Gump shrimps were jamming it, would beat this time. But at least all the shrimps simply swamp out of the paddle wheel. Not so this weed. It takes me quite a while to clean it. The normal toothbrush doesn’t touch it. It takes a screw driver and some serious prodding. Even when I put it back in, the speed reading is a full knot below SOG (GPS speed over ground). So will have to do some serious cleaning after we arrive.
The watermaker is the next device needing attention. Normally it should be pickled if it’s not run for a week. But we risked it, allowing it to auto-flush twice in the last 11 days. We run it for 2 hours and all seems well. Phew.
All this time Oana is soaking up the sun on the aft deck, obviously feeling better! She missed her tanning days recently. Maybe it was just vitamin-D she was lacking!
By mid afternoon, as PredictWind forecasted, we come into the wind acceleration zone that occurs midway along the island as the thermal wind gets sucked up through the valleys. The wind increases to 20knts true and we are flying along. Full main to starboard, with gybe retainer, and full genoa poled to port. We are running slightly by the lee on the genoa, meaning the wind is reversed across the canvas (leech to luff). This aero dynamic flow produces extra power and soon we are surfing down the waves, hitting 10 and even 11 knots occasionally. We are probably pushing a bit too hard now, with an average speed of over 9knts, but the island is in sight so we carry on, enjoying the thrilling ride, the sound of the bow wave and foaming water passing us. Clearly Cloudy Bay was indeed in need of a really nice sail. So were we!
As we approach Isla Caja de Muertos (Coffin Island) the wind swings slightly south and we have to go with it, heading more north than we wanted, otherwise the poled our genoa is backing. This puts us on collision course with the island. So as the depth comes up we gybe the genoa and go on a broad reach towards the gap at the south end of the island. The wind is now gusting 25kts and we are powered up. The plan at the end of the island is to gybe onto starboard and come up in the lee of the island. But we decide gybing in 25kts, when we don’t have to, is not wise. So it’s engine on and motor ourselves through a tack. Much safer, but very wet as we come into the wind and waves. Definitely sailing down wind and not upwind was a good plan today!
Once in the lee of the relatively flat island the swell disappears but the wind is still howling.
We anchor in 4m water on what looks to be clear sand. What we didn’t know was the anchor got hooked on a small rock ledge. Not normally a problem, but we reversed a bit too fast and when the chain pulled tight there was a massive noise from the bow. I was convinced we must have seriously broken something. Because the anchor had no give on the rock ledge (normally there is “give” as it digs into sand/mud) it had pulled tight violently and jumped several links on the windlass capstan. Other than wear on the capstan though, there appears to be no damage. Lesson learned.
After diving the anchor (where I discover the rock ledge) we have a nice cup of tea in the cockpit and debate if we try to go ashore this evening or in the morning. At the moment it looks deserted but by mid morning it will likely be crawling with tripper boats, given it’s the Easter holidays here. With wind howling and the light fading, we decide on tomorrow morning.
We are not exactly alone anchored here. There is just one other yacht, and surprise surprise it’s a Swedish flagged Hallberg Rassy 43. Not something you see every day around here!
Although the island is shrouded in its usual cloud, we are in blue sky with a nearly full moon. But the sun sets into a bank of cloud on the horizon. No red sky tonight.
Our evening is quiet and relaxed. So nice not to have an agenda for once. No internet, nowhere to go! Brilliant.
