It’s time to leave Jamaica behind and keep moving south to be out of the hurricane belt. Port Antonio, Jamaica has been a wonderful stop. Dan and I are rested after 28 days in one place and have enjoyed being in the ,”No problem, Mon!” culture. I am sorry to leave the beautiful mountains and sheltered bays behind. Another time we may explore the north coast of Jamaica by boat, as the officials are trying to turn the tourist trade around. Some boaters report no negative incidents, but there is a high rate of crime. We were fine in Port Antonio. Our only problem was the marine growth- strings of foot long green grass under our boat and dinghy. We hired a young man to clean the bottom before our passage.
I will miss the availability of fresh farm produce and the open air markets. There were so many new fruits and vegetables to learn to cook. The market ladies were helpful and friendly. They got a real kick out of hearing I had never cooked their food. I hope we find callaloo, breadfruit and ripe papaya, pineapple and mango again, as well as the basic salad vegetables that are so fresh and yummy. I will say I kind of prefer the supermarket when it comes to buying meat or fish, rather than bargaining at the open market. It was nice to have the choice.
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| Jamaica market-pole |
While we stayed at the Marina, Jamie from Windsong returned to Miami for a wedding where he also gathered necessary items of repair and boat parts, arriving back in Jamaica with full suitcases three days later. He had checked, parts for a boat in transit do not carry a duty according to the information given. Well, he found out they don’t have a duty on the parts but you must prove to their satisfaction that the parts are for a boat in transit and not resale. At the Kingston Airport his boat items were confiscated by customs, necessitating his return to the airport the following day! The extra round trip taxi ride was $200 US and he had to bring the customs man from Port Antonio to Kingston and pay his salary for the day to retrieve his gear. After the ride, the customs person from Port Antonio (where Jamie’s boat was moored) could verify that Jamie was on a yacht in transit. I give this example of how difficult some countries make basic services for boaters. Dan and I received our mail through the US Post Office “Express Service”. It had been opened and rifled through and was held up by customs for two days.
We exited Jamaica on Sea Star, with Windsong and Tregoning at 4:00AM on May 14th, to travel the Windward Passage. The wind had been low for many days, so after a rolling swell on the beam while transiting the west coast of Jamaica we experienced five foot swell on our run through the passage, and winds of 15 knots allowing Sea Star to give us a great ride. The radar showed some squall activity during the night. One squall caused us to run with it, off course, for a short while. With that came a wind shift and we were having a great beam reach. On the trip between Jamaica and Baho Nuevo Windsong had an uncontrolled jibe during the heavy squall and broke his boom. He called us to inform us of the issue but underway, in the dark, he was able to go on deck, secure the rig and jury rig a system. He sailed under jib and made it to Baho Nuevo an hour after Sea Star.
Over 200 miles, very little engine, water showing phosphorescent, dolphins at our bow and we arrived a little tired and safely. Baho Nuevo, a reef area approximately 211 miles from Jamaica, would be our first stop. After a trip of 34 hours we arrived, threading our way in through the coral in the midmorning to anchor as close to a 40 foot sand island as possible. Our pleasant weather held, allowing us time to explore the reef and the island. We found sand hills that made us think we had found a nesting site for sea turtles. After a good day of exploration and night of sleep we were again ready to move on.
On May 17 after 18 more hours of sailing we arrived at our next stop, Roncador Bank, immediately regretting not brushing up on our Spanish! When we arrived in sight of the Island the radio crackled to life. We knew the Columbian Navy has an outpost on Roncador, and we knew they were speaking to us, but we did not know how to answer. Jamie on Windsong told us after we both anchored that he had heard the communication to Sea Star, the lead boat, and we were told to speak to the “Columbian Navy or they would blow us out of the water!” I’m glad we never understood them. Dan tried a few sentences on the radio and then I did. We were able to inform them of our nationality and where we were coming from and going to. We were then requested to visit the outpost on our way in. The anchoring looked iffy right in front of the outpost so we anchored closer to the reef as the radio crackled again. We tried to explain we would come as soon as we put the dinghy down. By then the Commandante had called a young man who spoke and understood some English, and the Naval officers calmed down. Our paper work was in order and so we were invited to visit Roncador in route to our next major port of call.
Since our initial entry, the young naval officers have been very friendly to us. They are quite young, all are under twenty except for the twenty-five year old Comandante. They borrowed our snorkel gear for a few hours today and a pole spear that Randall on Tregoning has and they all had a blast.
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| Roncador Navy |
Some don’t swim, but with a life jacket on, they tried. They speared five small fish and were proud as peacocks. While the younger guys were in the water, the five of us off the boats sat and talked with the Comandante and the man who was to learn English so the Navy could communicate with boaters, and a few other men. I brought my computer with pictures of New England seasons, our travel to Canada and family. We did our best to dredge up the vocabulary needed to socialize. After that pleasant but grueling morning we were exhausted. The temperature is in the high eighties, as is the water temperature, but snorkeling provides relief and it is fabulous to finally see a place where the reef is still lovely, healthy and full of fish life. Tonight for supper we had lobster, and a Dog Snapper shot by Randall.
Our next stop will probably be Isla Providencia, a Columbian Island Dan and I visited briefly in 1998 on our first Sea Star, a 40 foot Willard trawler. One of the Naval officers has asked to be taken to Providencia when we go, and Randall had agreed to take him but he did not go.
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| From Willard 40' trawler Sea Star in 1998 |
We motored to Low Cay, a reef system ten miles or so from Providencia. Our passage was really uneventful. One huge tanker of 863 feet passed behind our boats, and that was the only company seen in the 18 hour trip. We left Roncador at 6:00PM and within a few hours with apparent wind at 3.0 kn, we motored the rest of the way in seas of just a ripple. Here at Low Cay the anchoring is lovely in sand and the snorkeling is great right off the boat because the reef is near. Dan finally found a fish he was looking for- a Spotted Drum, go to next website to see a photo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fschiettecatte/1243281375/
a dramatic black and white striped fish with a pointed black curved protrusion from its head. There were plenty of varied species to memorize and check their identity in our fish book. Since Low Cay is part of the Providencia protected reef, we made do with homemade Pizza on Sea Star. We waited until Tuesday to enter Providencia and check in to Columbia. We want to explore this hilly island and Jamie needs to find someone to weld aluminum to strengthen his boom. The fix Dan helped him do at Baho Nuevo isn’t permanent. He’s looking for a welder. We’ll see.
We know that to check in to Providencia you use an agent and that when we arrive at San Andreas we will need to complete the whole process again. Tomorrow, Tuesday, we will anchor outside the town, perhaps find a restaurant and see what there is to do on the island.
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