Albuquerque Cay, Columbia to Little Corn Island, Nicaragua- June 10-16 2009

Albuquerque Cay, Columbia to Little Corn Island, Nicaragua- June 10-16 2009

Only about 28 miles from the anchorage at San Andres and out of the tourist fast lane is another lovely, unspoiled cay with an extensive reef system. Thanks to the Columbian government the reefs have been protected and are in fine shape. The four days Sea Star and Windsong stayed anchored at Albequerque with a trawler named Tothill with Glenn and his wife, Eddie, Melina and Wilson aboard, were very full and pleasant with many reef fish seen as well as many of the docile Nurse Sharks and a few scary(to me), sharks and rays seen, but not close enough to identify.

Upon our arrival some of the young men from the army base located there, swam out to our boats, asking to borrow our masks, fins and any spears we might have and they would take us out snorkeling. Tothill understood the message first and agreed, then told us. We agreed to meet the men at 9:00AM in our dinghies as they have no transport on Albuquerque available to them and therefore no real access to the bounty available near their island base. Sea Star gathered our gear and met at the appointed time near the base camp, where four young men joined us in our dinghy to ride out to the reef.


The young men tried hard. It just was not a day for good spear fishing but from the pictures you can see we had fun watching these young men trying very hard to procure enough fish to treat us to dinner on their island. When spear fishing failed-the “big one”, a Hog fish, got away- but many conch were located, cleaned and a cerviche of conch and lobster was served to us that night. The meal was yummy! To reciprocate, the cruisers provided the ingredients and the cook for a special chicken soup meal the next evening, and between the three boats we brought enough to feed the seventeen young men at the camp. The young men appreciated the recipricating gesture especially because a young couple from Tothill who are latinoamericanos and could communicate with them, Wilson and Melina, spent a day preparing the soup.


We felt very welcomed and we would have had a more relaxing time if we could have spoken more easily in Spanish. Oh well, we’re working on it.

underwater photos by Glenn on Tothill-thanks!

Drop Box

After a few days Alison, who had just returned to San Andres from a side trip to visit a scientist friend at the Smithsonian Institute on Gatun Lake in Panama, and Randall on Tregoning rejoined us and we all prepared for an adventure suggested by Dan, to sail to Little Corn Island, Nicaragua where Dan and I and our boys, Steven and Tom visited by plane a few years ago.


The way over from Albequerque provided good sailing. I threw over a fishing line where the water depth came on soundings, and caught myself some kind of tuna. We arrived at the anchorage at Little Corn Island at about 2:00PM after 30 hours. I know it is said that you can’t go back, but sometimes things work out that way just fine. Little Corn has grown in amenities and services since our trip ther in February of 2004. The people are still very friendly and helpful. The resort, Casa Iguana, is still there, though under different management, Elsa’s on the beach restaurant was still there with reasonable prices for lobster and fish, and the number of island restaurants has grown dramatically. There were too many for us to explore in the short time we stayed. Little Corn Island had a number of backpacking and low key resorts and small hotels, and it appeared they were improved and newly discovered by tourists from Europe, China and the United States. Elsie treated me like an old friend when I showed up with pictures for her of our earlier visit at her restaurant. I couldn't resist having grilled lobster, again, and it was fantastic.

Elsa's at Little Corn Island

We walked around the town and up a new concrete walk decorated with messages and pictures of fish and island scenes which made climbing the hill much more enjoyable, and visited the water tower look out from which a marvelous view of the island was available. Little Corn had a new ball park and seemed much cleaner than when we visited before. As cruisers, no one came to the boats to check on us or “officiate”. We decided not to press our luck about being sent to the Big Corn Island to check in officially, and after a visit of three days, which we all felt was too short, we moved on to our goal of Panama at Bocas del Toro.

Little Corn pics:

Little Corn Island

Isla San Andres, Columbia May 30-June 4 , 2009

Isla San Andres, Columbia May 30-June 4 , 2009

The crews of Sea Star, Tregoning and Windsong left Providencia Saturday morning at 6:00AM expecting to possibly need 10 hours for the 60 mile trip to San Andres. The wind was steady and 15 kn. and we were able to beam reach at 7 kn. And at times even pick up more speed. It had been a great sailing day, and very relaxed. Sea Star was looking at the San Andres sea buoy by 3:00PM. The entry to San Andres showed reef all along the coastline but a small area clear into the harbor. Both Providencia and San Andres have been buoyed and so the entry was straight forward although care was needed to approach the buoys from the correct orientation. Sea Star arrived first and was greeted by the Columbian Navy as they asked the usual questions by radio from their open boat pulled along side of us. This time Dan answered and we were understood. He dictated our last Port (Providencia but Zarpe from Jamaica), and repeated our Documentation Number and Zarpe number in Spanish. We wound our way through the fishing boats and found a good sandy spot to anchor in the mostly grass bottomed harbor, and were about to settle in when the radio message came in from Tregoning.


We had communicated with the other boats about the information needed by the Navy and were waiting for them to come in when Tregoning called us and said they had water spraying all over their engine and were about to drop anchor outside the sea buoy and maybe call the marina for a tow into the anchorage. Dan and I hurried then to get our dinghy down and by the time we had it in the water and the motor attached, we could see the sails of Tregoning coming by sail into the harbor.
Dan thought they would have trouble avoiding the shoals while trying to enter under sail only, and so we were off in the dinghy to see if we could pull them in safely. Another boat, Rigga ll, heard our radio communication and they followed us out to Tregoning who was already through the buoyed area and near the shoals under sail. With Rigga ll behind Tregoning pushing from their dingy and Allison and Randall handling the sails and steering, Sea Star’s dinghy passed a line up and began to pull the Morgan 40’ to where she needed to turn to go to anchor. They managed to sail into a deep enough spot to anchor, drop one, play out the line and get the sails down safely. Whue!

While this was all happening, Mr. Rene, the ship’s agent, called and expected us and the three other boats to come immediately to NeNe’s marina for check in, so we hurried to gather our papers. During that process, he called back saying he couldn’t come that day and we were to be in the marina at 9:30 AM the following day. Much better! We all just rested aboard and uneventfully checked in the next morning. By that time Randall had diagnosed part of his engine problem and used Rene to purchase the needed replacement antifreeze and belt. Then we were off to find the places that Rey, the Providencia restaurateur recommended to us. While walking along the coastline and the beach, Dan and I noted that many of the buildings had changed in the last ten years, but it was basically the same; the beach with the ticky-tacky beach shops, women carrying sweets on their heads, a beautiful, white sandy beach with blue tarps to cover sun bathers, and lots of uncovered skin.

We found that Rey’s recommendations were quite close to this area of the beach, and tried the Italian gelato -a wonderful treat in this very warm climate, then in a bit, the excellent pizza at Margarita and Carbonara. We walked some more. As it was Sunday all the stores and outlet stores, banks and duty free shops were closed, but for us who had not seen “stuff” stylish clothing, electronics, kitchen ware, in the likes of Perry Ellis, Beneton, Champs and USA Outlet we had a great time window shopping, knowing if we wanted, we could return when the places were open.

The next day we connected to the internet and it actually works, well, almost always. It is purchased from the Sunrise Hotel, one of many beachfront, gorgeous and probably expensive places where the vacationing Columbians stay, rent jet skis, sail boards, kite surf and blast around the harbor and beach.

We brought our dinghies to Club Nautico where by purchasing the berth for a dinghy, a sailor is given access to the beautiful club amenities such as tennis, pool, showers, bar-restaurant, TV, ping pong and lounging. Club Nautico is cleaner and appears to be a much safer place than the pleasant NeNe’s Marina and quite a bit closer to the town so we have been using the facilities and swimming in the fresh water pool to cool down each late afternoon before hitting another of the restaurants on the list. It’s a tough job but somebody has to try them all! They are a bit less expensive than US prices, a nice meal can be had for $30,000 pesos and less, the equivalent of $15 US. Of course there are more pricy meals, too.

Here is a picture of the transportation we rented for a day to tour the seven mile long island. You start it up and hold your foot on the “Go” pedal and ride around. Hills are a challenge, but the island is relatively flat. Most of the other pictures are of touring the island. The last two are video.

San Andres June 2,09

From San Andres June 2,09

We may have to wait as much as a week for good weather to leave for Bocas del Torro in Panama, perhaps our next stop. We are getting excited that Sea Star will soon have another visitor- our younger son, Steve, in a month.

Isla Providencia, Columbia May 24, 2009

Isla Providencia, Columbia May 24, 2009

On Tuesday we headed in the 10 miles or so it took to go outside the dangerous areas leaving Low Cay and into the anchorage in the Providencia Harbor where we called the agent, Mr. Bush, on channel 16. Within an hour or so we were checked in and could raise our Columbian flag, yellow, blue and red. On our entry we noticed some waving banners on the port side of the harbor and discovered when we dinghied ashore and walked across the Lover’s Bridge, walking toward an old fort supposedly used by the Pirate Morgan, that the banners marked a lovely unpretentious “typico” Columbian restaurant. As it was very hot, we stopped for “cervesas frias,” and of course stayed for dinner of fish cooked “as you like it”, with creole, or garlic sauces. Very tasty! We also were served “helados de maiz”-corn ice cream, a typical dessert made right on Providencia. We made faces as we ordered, but gobbled it right up.

By that time it was time to return to the boats, but we planned to rent motor scooters to explore the 4 mile by 2 mile island as soon as Jamie was able to make welding arrangements for his boom.

Wednesday, we walked through the town streets, being careful not to interfere with or get in the way of the motor bikes that are used for transportation on this busy island. Providencia groceries, three different markets, allowed for easy provisioning so that didn’t take long and we had lots of time to play and explore. We hiked up to Fort Warwick in fort Bay and saw some old cannons and walked along the edge of the overlook or Pirates’ Walk to Morgan’s Head, then returned to our dinghies and circumnavigated Santa Catalina Island, this time traveling under the Love Bridge, dinghies almost touching the sides.

The next day we rented motor bikes, with the guys feeling like Marlon Brando. Allison and I just hung on the back of Dan and Randall’s bikes until later in the day after touring the beaches, the mountains, the side roads and byways and having a flat tire or two on Randall’s bike, Allison took me as a passenger. She had really wanted to try driving a scooter on her own, and was very adept! We drove around the island, visiting all the beaches, swimming and people watching.

Later in the afternoon, the sun was beating down unmercifully, and a few drops of rain fell, then a short shower. Allison and I were descending a hill when-WHAT???- we came upon hundreds of black crabs covering the road from side to side, their pincer claws full up and at the ready to defend themselves from passing motor vehicles. Allison carefully threaded her way through and we pulled off the road waiting for Jamie and Randall to appear on their bikes. They worried us as they had stopped to take photos!

Shortly after, when we attempted to return to town by the same road, we found an Army blockade. We happened to be driving on the day the migration of the land crabs to the sea began. I don’t know what kind they are or how long the migration lasts. I got the impression it was a very short time period. The crabs leave the mountain, go into the sea and molt and then if the currents do not sweep them away they return to the mountain. The short rain had triggered the migration; the crabs were crossing a paved road that has lots of truck and vehicle traffic and some hadn’t made it when we passed. We had to return to town the opposite way, since the road circles the island and was blockaded to protect the crabs.

Providencia-2009

The following morning our two ambitious travelers, Allison and Jamie, climbed the highest peak on Providencia, and to celebrate we again went to Rey’s Restaurant for a fantastic meal and she recommended a few places for us to eat in San Andres when we got there. Jamie picked up his welded gooseneck and reinstalled it, then we felt ready to sail on the another Columbian island, San Andres, after checking out with Mr. Bush who was our agent to the Port Captain.

Jamaica to Isla Providencia, Columbia May 14-27, 2009

Roncador Bank, Columbia May 20, 2009
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.

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.

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.

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.

Port Antonio, Jamaica - May 7, 2009

RAFTING the Rio Grande
We continue to hang on our mooring at the sandspit, while we have gone on a few explorations. The first trip we arranged was a one day-really half a day- trip to the Rio Grande River. The crews from Windsong, Tregoning and Sea Star were intrigued by the Pavlitis guidebook suggesting that many visitors to Jamaica follow in the footsteps of Errol Flynn, who used to bring his ladies to the river and using a pole and a 30 foot long, flat bamboo raft, traverse the 8 ½ miles from Barrydale to St. Margaret’s Bay while leisurely floating on the raft. The Rio Grande is fresh water, relatively shallow at the banks and doesn’t have many rapids, we were told and so we could stop the tour and swim along the way in clear, fresh water while gazing up the steep banks and cliffs to watch for birds and see the jungle-like scenery.

Our trip began after a few days of trying to see how we could limit the cost for this amusement. We found, well, I guess Reebo found us- an honest river guide who provided the taxi to and from the Rio and the two rafts needed for the five of us to do the trip. We left the marina at noon and were on the water after a fast and curvy ride by taxi to Barrydale, a settlement about eight miles up the Rio Grande. The five of us were jammed into the small wagon-four in the back and the two in the front, and Rebo jammed into the luggage compartment!

At arrival, a few local men approached us to purchase some Red Stripe beer, the common beer of Jamaica and we were glad to buy one for each of us and one for our two river men, Rebo and another very knowledgeable river guide for Dan and my raft. Our chosen day was hot and sunny by the time we arrived at the river. It had rained in the morning, so we were a bit worried about our day, but with the exception of a five minute shower the weather cooperated. We loaded on into the bamboo seats, Dan and I on one raft and Allison, Randall and Jamie on the other. The seat was built with a back for comfort and a raised platform that kept our backpacks up off the raft and our seats dry underway.

The men pushed off and we began our journey! We looked at fabulous scenery; ivies, vines, canopied trees growing flame-red flowers, bamboo, rocks of awesome dimensions and finally the two close rocks called Lover’s Lane featured in the articles about Errol Flynn’s rafting trips. Along the way we leisurely lounged and studied the river birds such as egrets, herons and kingbirds. After about three miles, Reebo turned in behind the shelter of two large rocks and the five of us had a blast jumping into the 60 foot deep emerald pool, then climbing up the rocks to jump again, and again while the rafters rested and ate their box lunch.

Soon we moved on downstream with Reebo and the other man trying to outshine each other in poling prowess and showmanship. Reebo won, hands down. He poled and sang reggae songs, songs he made up about the river and politics, and displayed incredible agility and balance by dancing from one foot to the other. The men worked hard to get us downriver! They were in good physical shape and had to be to control the raft at all times. We stopped for a second rest stop and exploration and continued on. We came to a place where a pile of bamboo was pushed up against some rocks looking like a huge pick- up-stick game. A few days previous to our trip, one of the other Rivermen had lost control of his raft and crashed there. We heard of other tourists whose Rivermen accidently dumped them and their gear into the water! We had no mishaps and our trip went off without a hitch. Yes, the rafting is a tourist trap and maybe Errol Flynn was first to do it, maybe not, but we had a great time rafting the Rio Grande in Jamaica and recommend our licensed river rafting guide, Reebo, who is available in the late afternoons at Errol Flynn Marina.

Jamaica +raft on line

TRAVEL INTO THE BLUE MOUNTAINS- MOUNT EDGE BIRDING
The next off-the-boat travel into the Blue Mountains our three boats did together, too. When sailing in toward Port Antonio, I explained how beautiful the mountains appeared to us. There are the Blue Mountains, that peak at 7200 feet and the smaller Jim Crow Mountains that are near enough to Port Antonio near the eastern part of Jamaica to visit. Alison and Randall are knowledgeable in botany and enjoy bird watching as we on Sea Star do, and with Jamie we arranged to rent a van, not an easy task as there is one rental car agency in Port Antonio. We reserved accommodations at a guest house by the name of Mount Edge whose internet site sounded great, and headed off into the Blue Mountains for a few days.



Well, not quite so fast. Roads in Jamaica are constantly being washed out as a result of the torrential rains. We had been duly warned about road condition and learned the truth of the admonition that it can be best to rent a car and driver, instead of renting a car. We spoke with the owner of the rental cars, showed him on a map where we would go and he felt that we did not need a 4-wheel drive or anything more than the van. We decided that in order to use the car for the time in the mountains, we would be best to rent. The road we were to take had been under construction for quite some time, so we had to plan to drive into the Capital city, Kingston, and double back up the mountains on another road. Jamaica is a British country and the driving is on the left, with the steering wheel on the right of the car. We were lucky that Allison just happened to have grown up driving in England and she drove out of Port Antonio and began the climb toward Kingston, where Dan took over. We were traveling along nicely, bouncing through the pot holes and slamming on the brakes as needed to allow the faster taxies to pass, as needed enjoying the scenery and passing through small villages, people walking the paved road with goats, dogs, etc. We came around one of the many sightless bends … and saw an animal stretched out in the center of the narrow road. To avoid what might have been a live dog in the road, Dan came close to the rock overhang and into a pot hole where we heard a bang, then a thump. When the guys got out to look, they discovered that we had blown a tire. They then retrieved the spare from under the car; the spare was useless.

From Port Antonio, Jamaica - May 7, 2009


So- what to do next became the issue. Dan had pulled way over, far enough around the bend where we didn’t think we would be hit. Our luck and the caring of Jamaicans had us back on the road with a “new” tire, and a fixed spare in 45 minutes. To make this happen, the three young men who stopped left their buddy on the road with us, drove Randall and Jamie and the two tires to their friend’s tire place in a near town called Castleton where they woke up the proprietor and he did the work. The men returned the guys and the tires, changed the tire and we were off again! Amazing- in 45 minutes and $65.00- $40 for the tires and $25 for ride and tip. We were thrilled to get going again so soon.

Allison took over driving and we bounced along through Kingston where we stopped for snacks we had been missing like chocolate, cashews, and Pringles, bought a sought after birdbook, then continued bouncing up the mountains to around 3000 feet, arriving at Mount Edge around 12:00PM.

Our first impressions were of the incredible beauty that surrounded the guest house! The majesty of the Blue Mountains made the guest house which is also the home of the proprietor, Michael Fox, seem small, but he had plenty of rooms for us and two more couples that were staying there. From the balcony of the main house where we spent many hours of gazing time, the vista was non-ending through valleys and ravines filled with greenery twittering with the endemic bird species we had come trying to see.

We unloaded our gear into our rooms. In our small and modest room, Dan and I had a double bed, a private bath and a mahogany armoire. The highly polished marble looking floors were clean. I noted a black sleeping bag/comforter folded on the side and realized that we were to have cool, comfortable nights when compared to Port Antonio’s sweltering heat.

Everyone was excited to begin exploration and we had been told that the guest house served breakfast and dinner only, so we decided to find a recommended place called “The Gap”.


Allison brought us around narrow, curving roads, blasting the horn as required to allow oncoming traffic to know of our presence and we wound our way further up the mountain, through the army camp and up to a wonderful restaurant. We wondered how it could make a go of it in such an out of the way place! Not only was the food very special; pumpkin-chicken soup, curried goat and chicken dishes, but from their balcony in the midst of fabulous tended flowers and shrubs, hung a hummingbird feeder where we easily watched the otherwise elusive Jamaican National bird, the “Doctor Bird”, a blue iridescent feathered Red- billed -Streamertail with a tail about a foot long, feeding with more species of hummingbirds.

Later we arrived back at Mount Edge for rest and then dinner. We met Malva, the cook and all around kitchen person, and later Carla and her two handsome boys. All of them strove to answer our questions and make us feel at home as we gathered at the large dining table, family style and tasty, plentiful food.
We hiked, we ambled along roads Michael pointed out on our map, leading to private estates or coffee plantations, always going higher and higher into the mountains, Allison daring to drive where roads were undercut by water and ravines, where two cars could not pass and small tour busses appeared around the curve frequently. The temperature up in those cloud forests was comfortable even for the daytime hikes. Allison and Jamie, the more adventurous two, went with the two boys, Johnathan and Nicholus on an exciting river walk down a steep ravine and back up again and out a road culvert. The boys never even had any shoes on.
We had just the kind of trip we envisioned and after two nights and three days away we arrived back at our boats. Here is a recalled list of species seen in various places in Jamaica- mostly in the mountains.

Ring-tailed Pigeon
Jamaican Crow
White chinned Thrush
Jamaican Owl
Jamaican Stripe-headed Tanager
Red-billed Streamertail
Yellow-shouldered Grassquit
Orangequit
Jamaican Tody
Jamaican Mango
Jamaican Vireo
Jamaican Oriole
Redstart
Red-shouldered Hawk Kestral
Sad Flycatcher
Jamaican Woodpecker
Turkey Vultures
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Reddish Egret
Cattle Egret
Great Blue Heron
Little Blue Heron
Green Heron
Tri-colored Heron
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Loggerhead King Bird
Vervian Hummingbird
And many more birds that eluded our sight for identification.

Check out Kathy's photos. A lot are through the car window, sorry.
Some are from Alison and Randall

Mount Edge on line

Errol Flynn Marina and Port Antonio 2nd week April 16-25

Errol Flynn Marina and Port Antonio 2nd week April 16-25, 2009

There are many things to see and do in Port Antonio Errol Flynn Marina. A boater could just sit on board watch the shore and listen to the happenings around the harbor as we do for hours each day. The marina is an isolated place-a gated entrance out to the road.

There are few Jamaicans in the marina itself who do not work there. We hired some of the men to wash, wax and shine the stainless on our boat and they did a great job. It would have been hard to say no, as they are very persistent in their offering and willing to bargain. We hired Hulk and Presley for the wash and wax and Donovan for the stainless. They were professional and entertaining, both. We learned to wash our hull with vinegar before waxing to eliminate the white chalky film that was on it and -they sold us our new reggae CD’s! These guys are entrepreneurs and inventive when it comes to making a few dollars and always seem to be in a good mood with cheery “Hello, M’ Lady” or Hello, Captain.”

Right next to the marina is a small harbor area for the police boats, the worst offenders when it comes to waking (rocking) boats tied at the dock. Behind them is a sparsely treed park with benches and colorful flowers. The park has gazebos where men or families congregate to stay out of the sun after work and toward evening. At breakfast at a two story building right outside the gate, Dan and I were seated overlooking the park. There was a Rastafarian man all dressed in black clothing, barefoot and hair wrapped into a two foot tall turban, straddling a branch of one of the bigger trees and apparently sound asleep, not stirring as hoards of chattering people passed ten feet from him!

Right now, day time, there is reggae music pounding from shore, possibly from the high school that seems to be having a function today. I keep hearing “and there are going---going –going, ah yes, they run!” It could be a track meet or something like that or perhaps a land crab race. I can’t tell from here. Another boater heard music from shore and went to investigate. He saw a parade with the high school band and dancing girls and discovered to his surprise the parade was a funereal procession. Different cultures are fun to explore!

One of those cultural differences is the the use of ganja. There are colorful characters here in Porti and the smell of ganja is present in many alleyways and street corners, shops and entertainment spots as you walk past. Though technically illegal, it is said that if you are not selling it and you pay the cops….
Our boat is on a mooring and behind us is a sandspit that starts in some mangrove trees. There is a Rastaman who said he was forty-seven, a man with long dread locks, who apparently lives in those mangroves and visits the boats to chat each day. He sold us some mangos and told us “goodbye, I will go now and have a J and meditate.” He appears to be a peaceful man but the young men in town apparently give him a hard time. He says the bad ones have killed some of his dogs, and they keep stealing the boards he gets to make himself a proper house. He paddles around the bay areas, even going fishing on his long, narrow bamboo raft. His oars are split bamboo sticks. I read that the Rastas are in tune with their natural surroundings. I feel sorry that this man lives in the open as the rain we have been having lately is torrential. It has raised the water level and the ground is soggy for a long time after the rain. At times it has rained so hard I had to bail out the dinghy with the pump three times in one day! The weather never seems to bother him when he comes around. He was standing at our boat when the Swift US vessel left for sea. (see below) His response, “Goodbye to you, war monger. If no America, no war, right?”

There is music playing mostly all the time in the town of Port Antonio- Porti for short. All night on the weekend there was such loud music I was unable to sleep. Of course we assumed it had to be from a huge and popular nightclub. We found out the sounds were from a one room bar and pool hall on the second floor of a building with the speakers turned toward the anchorage bay-and everybody is just going to live with it because it’s “no problem, mon.” The marina operators listen to the cruiser complaints but they really can’t do anything, and the cruisers move on anyway.

Last night a coast guard vessel left its two week berth at another part of the harbor. The First Mate was a young man from Jamestown, RI and when he saw the homeport on Sea Star he stopped and invited us for a tour of the HSV 2 SWIFT, a 160 foot aluminum catamaran Navy vessel. The tour was informative and the ship space-age! Apparently the motion of the ship underway in large seas is not the most comfortable to these highly experienced seamen. They have nicknamed it the “Vomit Comet” for obvious reasons. The chart plotter and navigation equipment were interesting. The ship doesn’t have a wheel to steer it. I guess it’s like a video game using three toggle switches and lots of computer assist. This is a swift vessel; it can cruise at 46kn! It has guns mounted forward and stern but says Swift wouldn’t have to use them, she is so fast. The crew were about to change after a 90 day rotation and were heading north last Friday.

A few days ago a Transcaribe rally from various islands arrived at Errol Flynn and the marina was a full as it has ever been. The rally brought in 20 sailboats; some cats and some monohulls. The marina operators and owner Dale and manager George were quite excited to entertain all these boaters and hope the Errol Flynn Marina is becoming a destination. There were two nights of special events livening up the marina area. Most of the rally boats have left for Cuba or other islands east, like the ABC’s- Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.

Cruisers need stuff so we venture into town regularly. We are lucky it is so close that walking is easy. It’s always an adventure to go to town. An important fact from the daily newspaper is that the police have reduced crime by 56% in Port Antonio. We want to travel in the country a bit and visit the Blue Mountains so we went into town in search of a roadmap to plan a trip. Where do you get a map? Maybe a book store-“Yeah mon, deas a book store up them steps but they ain’t open no mo, deas downstairs now.” Ok, so we look for the bookstore downstairs at the far end of the market street. To get there we walk on sidewalks and down into the gutters and around poles supporting upper floors of buildings and through the ladies hawking their vegetables and fruits and around the guys selling videos, cell phones and whatever to find the store really has closed, but there is another one back at the other end of town at the pharmacy. That now required a trek back through all the previously mentioned and then, “No, suh we don’t got no maps here, try the shell station down over there.” Finally, Dan did find a map at the Shell station, and a good one, too. It only took about two hours.

It seems by searching and asking around we can get some basic things we need. We are trying for hamburger tomorrow. That should be an adventure. Today Maggie is in dire need of kitty litter so off we went on the same trek as before after getting directions to the “pet store.” That sounded promising, and we did find the narrow kinda hole in the wall store where the sign said “Farm chicks and ducks.” We peered in at a single file line where the clerk behind the counter is told what is needed and she gets the items. “We ain’t got some. Tomorrow. De guy he go Kingston and I call him. Yeah, we get shavings, dey look like dis.” She held up a bag of birdfood. So what were we to do? We haven’t a clue what will show up tomorrow, but I hope Maggie likes it.

There are some clothing stores, grocery stores, pharmacies and bulk liquor stores where you bring in your own bottle to fill or you can walk out with a case of soda. I went into a fabric store today. A cruiser I met is returning to the states for her daughter’s wedding in May and needed a dress. She tried the clothing shops but was not inspired. The stores seemed like mini Walmarts to her and she was getting worried that her daughter would be upset with how tackily her mother dressed at her wedding! While walking on the market street she saw a sign Charm’s Dressmaking. Under a staircase in a tiny shop she found a seamstress named Charm and Charm made her a simple sheath dress -in one day from fabric she selected-for under $15.00. It was cute! I decided to have a few tops made from light weight material because all my clothing is too hot. Charm took me to the fabric store and for the equivalent of $6.00 I selected the material for two tops and a cotton dress. I will have them on Wednesday, she says.

As we learn what is available in the town, we do a lot of walking to explore historic areas and see the views from the highest hills. We have visited an island once owned by Errol Flynn and later turned into an exclusive resort- but the buildings are now closed and decaying though the foliage is lush with wonderful shades of green, especially after a tropical downpour of which we have had a few.
Walking to the Titchfield High School above the bay we find it was built right on and within Fort George, built by the British. The old cannon were there and still pointed at the narrow bay entrance.

Above the market in town about a mile up a narrow one lane road there was again a closed hotel/resort with a 360 degree view of the lovely entrance bays to the Port. That road was great for bird watching as the steep ravines covered in tall trees entwined with vines, ferns and umbrella sized pacas and ivies were lower than the road we walked up so we could look down into the canapy.

Sea Star, Windsong and Tregoning crews are all having similar experiences here in Port Antonio. We get together about once a day to go out to eat or walk or share our stories or the latest information although we have met many other travelers going south or east from here. We took a fun rafting trip on the Rio Grande together and are planning a trip into the mountains. More on these in my next writing.

Here are a few pics!

errol flynn

Great Inagua, Bahama to Jamaica April 11-15, 2009

Great Inagua, Bahama to Jamaica April 11-15, 2009
Four boats, including Sea Star arrived at Port Antonio through the Windward Passage leaving Great Inagua about 2:00PM and arriving in Port Antonio the early morning of Easter Monday, a legal holiday in Jamaica, under quite calm conditions. We had traveled within sight of each other; a very nice sail under a moonlit sky for the first hours of our 47 hour trip. For another 8 hours or so we had less than 6 knots of wind and were traveling very slowly. Finally, one of our flotilla, Navy Blue, suggested maybe we should GET there, so we turned on our engines and traveled at about 5 knots. Having had favorable current of about .5 knot the current opposed us toward Jamaica, but the seas were calm-perhaps a four foot rolling swell- very easy. Our AIS system had informed us of as many as nine ships traveling along our route, but because of the traffic separation scheme none of them were a threat to us, well, maybe the one that came close to Windsong was a bit scary. Another bloat of our flotilla, Tregoning, saw a marlin swimming around their boat! Sea Star was the only boat of the four who had its own private raincloud for awhile. Thankfully, the rain washed away some of the trip salt.
Beautiful and majestic were the inadequate words that came to mind when the Blue Mountains and the coast of Jamaica appeared in front of us on the horizon, and a few hours later the mountains appeared lush, green and tree covered as we passed Navy Island and Errol Flynn, the 1930’s actor’s old estate. After the low, sandy islands of the Bahamas Jamaica was a delight to approach and our excitement grew as we skirted the West Harbor and then motored to the East Harbor where Errol Flynn Port Antonio Marina was located.
At the end of our travel we looked forward to resting in Port Antonio. The marina was full and we took a mooring in the mooring field. We understood we couldn’t get off the boat until we had cleared in. I just wanted to sleep. We thought, “It’s a holiday, so no one will want us to check in today.” We were wrong. The Quarantine officer was basically waiting for our little flotilla. To go ashore to the marina required lowering the dinghy, putting on the motor and ferrying the official to examine the boat . He checked the boat for produce, meat and contraband then quickly allowed us to take down the Q flag while waiting for Immigration and Customs. The charge was $25.00US. No problem, mon- you’re in Jamaica!
So here we sit after a full week now. The warm sunshine wakes you in the morning and the reggae beat reverberates from the nearby shore throughout the night and into the wee hours. There is friendly service and amenities at Errol Flynn and a wonderful restaurant with lovely frozen drinks on the property. The US and Jamaican Coast Guards have been practicing maneuvers this week from the nearby dock.
We have ventured out into the town of Port Antonio for site seeing walks and marketing. Excellent fruits and vegetables, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, peppers, bananas, plantains, apples that had not been so readily available throughout the Bahamas are available as well as many fruits and vegetables that we have never encountered. At a local breakfast spot Dan and I had stewed chicken,(yes, for a typical Jamaican breakfast,) with sides of steamed yellow yam, bammy (a bread made from cassava), a corn meal dumpling called festival, and another tuber I can’t recall the name of.
Our first outing into Port Antonioa was to the ATM for Jamaican “Jays” and to scout for jerk chicken. As we arrived at the square a young, street hustler introduced himself and stuck like glue to the new gringos. He just took over, leading us around-to the bank, the jerk chicken on the street (just happened to be his uncle’s street stand)-chicken cooked with wood in a half of a 50 gallon oil drum and served in tinfoil with hotsauce poured onto the already spiced meat. Ok! This is going to be a wonderful town for eats! We ambled back to the marina and began to figure out what we had been letting slide on our boats. I needed to do wash, clean the fridge and freezer and basically make the boat look like a home again.
The next day we again choose to have a meal out. We were greeted at the square entrance by the same hustler who had seen us coming from wherever he was hanging out. He knew we had two vegetarians in our group and he led us to a wooden building containing Mr. Dickson’s wonderful vegetarian restaurant. Inside it was tiny but a very popular place with the Rastafarian population, many of whom are vegetarians. Customers selected what appealed to them from the cases and ate upstairs where there was a nice breeze. We tried various dishes such as hot Jamaican Patty, curried tofu, fritters, fried yellow yam- we loved everything we tried- and topped it off with a homemade ginger soda drink that was very potent. We will surely go back during our stay in Jamaica, which will probably be until mid May.
Hopefully you can see the pics and watch the sunset on passage!

Jamaica