Big Fish

There’s a set of fish weighing scales on the Riding Rock Marina dock that resembles a guillotine. The fish caught during the day are weighed here: we saw one that weighed in at 98lb – the fisherman was disappointed because he’s trying to break the 100lb mark.

Sharks in San Salvador

It wasn’t just while we dived that we saw shark! They cruise in the shallows around Riding Rock Inn and the Marina. We could watch them as we ate lunch. Bruce, our dive boat captain, said that they are attracted into the marina by the fish waste from the sport fishing boats.
Pics: Top shark outside the place we ate lunch
Bottom: Playing on the beach in a glorious sunset.

Diving in San Salvador

Chris and I had decided to put San Salvador on the itinerary because it's the place where we have experienced some of our best diving in 20 years. It’s still the best. Jamie, who is 10 and has only been diving since July last year, saw 6 Hammerhead sharks and numerous Caribbean Reef sharks as well as some of the most fantastic underwater scenery, enormous and friendly grouper, turtles, stingrays – as the school instructor, Lynn, kept singing "for a moment like this, some people wait a lifetime". I could go on, but instead we’ve included a slideshow of some of our better underwater pics. Enjoy!

Arriving in San Salvador

We hung around outside Riding Rock Marina until the sun was high enough to negotiate the cut. Getting in and mooring up was all very straightforward and we were parked “side to” with an easy exit and entry to the boat, a beach about 20 metres away, opposite the dive boat and school and a 5 minute walk from the restaurant. This means the kids can roam at will which is such a luxury and really helps them to develop their own self-reliance.

We’ve seen some beautiful seas on this trip, but the waters round San Salvador just take your breath away. With our happy snappy camera, we can’t do justice to the incredible blues – but here’s our best shot (pun intended!)

Whales Again! Wahoo!

The passage from Turks to San Salvador lasted about 39 hours and gave us another and unexpected encounter with whales. We spotted them in the afternoon after about 23 hours (around 4 in the afternoon) and changed course to meet them getting so close that Jamie was quite concerned for a moment or two! It really lifted all our flagging spirits at just the right point in the passage.

Leaving Turks and Caicos

Navigation, in the main, had previously been fairly straightforward. Assuming the wind is on your side, which it had been the majority of the time, set a course and deviate a little to take advantage of the wind direction. We had navigated around the Turks and Caicos bank and engaged the marina pilot to get through the cut on the way in to avoid what’s known as visual piloting. Now we had to bite the bullet and plan when we left, when we arrived, and when we were going across the shallow banks so we hit optimum light conditions – generally between 8 or 9 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon. We decided to leave T&C at around 5 pm -- a little bit out of the window -- because apart from the cut, there weren’t any other obstacles to navigate. This would mean we might have to hang around outside San Salvador for a couple of hours till it was light enough to navigate their cut and marina, but was the best compromise we could come up with.
The pictures show the breakers on the right and left of the cut as well as my scary bug eyed glasses that help me see well enough to give everyone a 10 second warning before we ground!!

Kayaking in Turks and Caicos

Alex was keen to go kayaking with his Dad across to the mangrove park opposite us. Because the marina is situated in a cut, it’s subject to strong current and tide so they had to pick their moment – even then it was quite a paddle back – here they are on the way out. When they returned they were a sight to see – totally in sync!

Iguanas in Turks and Caicos

Just opposite the marina was a park for mangroves, birds and iguanas. We thought we’d dinghy across and take a look – so here we are iguana hunting!

Partying in Turks and Caicos

We made friends with the crew of a boat moored opposite us in the marina. They have been captaining/crewing what we call “stinkpots” for a long time and knew all the best places to go in the Bahamas and were fantastically helpful to us in planning our forthcoming trip. The owners of their boat were coming in for a long weekend with a party of friends and they did warn us that things might get loud. And they did! Fortunately it was mostly the sort of music that we liked too so we just sat outside and played board games using lip reading and mime to communicate! They did however play one particular anthem -- “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” -- on a regular and repeated basis: including when the owners arrived, when they returned to the marina and 4 times in a row before lights out at night.

Driving in Turks and Caicos

Actually not so much driving as carting. To give Alex a bit of a treat we went to the local go-cart track. Alex enjoys carting and as soon as he’s in a car has a strong look of determination and focus. He took the person in front on the first corner with a daring overtaking move but after that, he started to hit the sides of the track – very unlike him. Finally, about 1/3 of the way round the first circuit, he crashed big time. Chris belted across the track and helped the poor lad get out of the car and established that the fabric lining of the safety helmet had descended over Alex’s eyes and completely blinded him. Alex was right on the lower edge of the age limit and his head was too small for the helmets – which weren‘t necessarily wonderful anyway. Alex had bruising all over his shoulders and neck and was very shaken up. He’s decided not to become and F1 driver – hopefully not forever.

Diving in Turks and Caicos

The weather continued to be "not great". The wind was strong and in the north and the wave heights were high. This meant that the closer dives weren’t possible and the dive boats were venturing out to French Cay and West Caicos which involved high speed, bouncy loud trips of around an hour. Consequently, Alex couldn’t accompany us and whoever was diving was away from the boat until about 3 or 4 in the afternoon. So Chris and I each did one day with Jamie and we all saw some pretty cool fish including shark! Jamie and I were near the end of our first dive and I had just become interested in a cream and brown mottled fish that had spread its gills right out for cleaning. I was pointing it out to Jamie as she was pointing energetically behind me. Lo and behold a Caribbean reef shark was right there. We also saw a honeycomb cowfish -- the one I saw was iridescent blue – and a huge green moray amongst all the usual blue tang, black durgeon etc., etc., and so on. Diving with Jamie on my own was a big deal for me: I’m not as experienced as Chris and am used to relying on him as my buddy – now I was theoretically the more qualified and experienced!

Unfortunately we don’t have our own photos of the experience – but here are some illustrative images!

Refuelling in Turks and Caicos

We thought the marina had fuel facilities – and it kind of did... If a megayachts wanted thousands of litres of fuel then a fuel lorry would deign to visit. This meant that our tiny 3 or 400 hundred litres had to piggy back on one of their deliveries.

On Monday morning, Alex had a poorly tooth and Chris took him to the dentist (who did a great job at a very low cost!) On the way, the dock master told Chris that a delivery would happen just as he should get back from the dentist. The delivery lorry couldn’t get to us, we had to get to the dockside to meet it. This meant some really nifty manoeuvring out of our berth in 20kt winds – not easy at the best of times, or in a rush in case the lorry decides that your paltry fuel requirements aren’t worth their while. As we approached the dockside, all nicely fendered, it became obvious that we needed fenders some way above our deck to protect the boat from the high, concrete mega yacht wall. So in a tide race (the tide rushes through the cut at about 2kt) and 20kt of wind, we had to reverse into a temporary berth with a post in the middle of it and a concrete wall just beyond it. Jamie and I found it hugely stressful, but Chris managed to get us in without incident – despite our Cassandra like cries.

We refuelled and given the direction of wind and wave, decided to stay put until the weather got better.

Going to the Beach in Turks and Caicos

Time to visit Grace Bay. Chris’ trips to T&C had been to the Club Med on Grace Bay which is a huge long sandy beach protected by a coral reef. Since he’d first visited the island – we think about ’89 – Grace Bay has been DEVELOPED. Fortunately it’s still beautiful and you can still find more isolated spots. It was too cold for me to venture without wetsuit into the sea, but the kids and Chris had a great beachy time! Check out the colour of that water!!

Bicycling in Turks and Caicos

Time to get out the bikes! These had been sitting in the forward holds for about 10,000 miles and were now going to get a workout. For Alex, who had just got used to cycling and then had his bike packed in a hold, this meant relearning some of his skills and learning how to ride on the road. Bikes added a new dimension of freedom for the kids – we could let them go cycling around the hotel and marina without worrying about traffic or security and they could get off the boat, be around the pool and on the bikes. One afternoon, we cycled to a beach – we didn’t stay on it because it was on the north side of the island which was being battered by northerly wind and waves, but we did have a great sense of achievement that we got there!



In the pic, Chris seems to be eagerly waving while he passes a boat called Escape...

Arriving in Turks and Caicos

Getting into Turks and Caicos involved navigating our first “cut”. These are narrow passages through the coral reef and sand barriers to the island itself and they can be very tricky if it’s windy or the sea is high. We had arranged for a pilot to bring us through the cut and into the marina but in the event the channel was clearly marked and it was relatively simple. The only piece of excitement was at the entrance where the strength of waves onto shore meant we were surfing towards the narrow entry at quite some speed and being turned sideways which led to a feeling of being out of control next to a coral reef – but it didn’t last long!

Our new “home” combined turquoise water, white sandy beaches and the facilities of a hotel swimming pool! It was a place to relax – not a lot of sightseeing to be done, but some good diving and beaches.

Pics:

top: our pilot

middle: clearly marked channel!

middle: beach

bottom: our reward!

Chasing whales!

We didn’t get to go on the whale watching tour we’d booked, so we decided to conduct our own on the way to Turks and Caicos. We aren’t as fast as the whale watching boats, so we left a bit earlier than them and then watched where they went and monitored their VHF radio channel. It was a pretty successful strategy because they cluster together in little packs.

We did see whales: just blows and surfacing but it was still exciting because we were part of the whale watching pack. We even contributed when we saw signs of whales, yelling and pointing along with the "tourists". The whales were making their way out of the shallow Samana Bay: because it’s shallow they stay near the surface and, unlike our other sightings, don’t blow, fluke and dive, forever gone, but meander (quite speedily) to the exit of the bay. This behaviour gave us the chance to “follow” them. Some of the pack were tiny speed boats and these always arrived at a sighting first with the larger boats trailing. While we didn’t see a whole lotta a whale, the experience was exhilarating.

Finally and regretfully we had to make our way out of the bay and start the two day passage to Turks and Caicos. And about four hours later we saw a couple of whales on their passage from Silver Bank to Samana Bay. This was even more fantastic than the morning encounter because the whales were engaged in slapping their huge fins on the sea and creating waves – it looks like they have huge fun, but I’m not sure if they’re really playing...

As before, click on the pic to see the little tiny images of whales we managed to get...

Marinating in Marin

Note: This was written in January, but has taken its time to get here -- it's so funny, I wanted everyone to see it. It's written by Chris.

The nights here are hot and steamy which kills my sleep patterns. I have tried about everything to get to sleep and after extensive research I have had to conclude alcohol isn’t a solution regardless of quantity – which is a shame as the rum here comes in five litre cartons for about 4 Euros a litre. So when I got up early today to get some boat jobs done I’d had only two or three hours sleep and it really told. Robbie our boat slave and I got up at seven to de-baton, disconnect and remove the sails ready for North to re-stitch them and replace the reef one block. This went pretty much OK except for the rather random folding up of the Genoa. We ran this over to North on a trolley and then started the generator service which was at best farcical.
The steps for a basic generator service are:
1. Warm engine
2. Drain oil (with a scavenger pump)
3. Change oil filter
4. Refill oil with 7 litres until dipstick shows full
5. Check anode
6. Drain off water from fuel filter
7. Remove rubbish from raw water filter and top up
8. Check V belt tension
9. Start engine and check all OK, then shut down and write up service in manual
Then you are done, total time 20 minutes.
Our sequence went:
1. Warm engine
2. Drain oil, fix scavenger pump several times as oil goes everywhere when it falls apart, realise not enough has come out from sump drain so scavenge through dipstick hole with wrong size pump attachment and lots of duck tape using several bottles for the oil and dropping about half on self and floor
3. Mangle old oil filter with filter wrench then have it fall off depositing hot oil contents into lap, partially fill new filter, reattach, decide not enough oil in filter so do again
4. Refill oil with about 9 litres and dipstick not showing full then realise sump valve still open and tray below engine now full of fresh oil
5. Shut valve, go to chandlers for oil absorbent mats (3) when kitchen towel exhausted, wipe up oil with mats and own body (not intentionally), go to chandlers for more oil absorbent mats (6), mop up more oil, find more kitchen towel and remove some of slime from arms, top up oil until dipstick shows full
6. Check anode, consult manual to make sure empty nut was in fact anode, find new anode and fit
7. Explain to bored family members that delay is unavoidable and absorb abuse
8. Realise new anode pushed plug of old anode or something else into heat exchanger
9. Open heat exchanger cleanout tube, find plug of salt/calcium not old anode, also find lots of bits of impellor, clean out all rubbish and scrape of calcium, look stupidly at worn out rubber gasket
10. Go to generator agents for gasket, none in stock – they say maybe a month, realise this is just a circle of rubber with a hole so try everywhere else in Marin, find rubber gasket with hole of same size and go back to boat
11. Drink 4 pints water to alleviate heat prostration from sitting in generator housing and alleviate incipient oil poisoning
12. Explain to irate marina space owner that can’t move yet because of impellor failure and absorb abuse
13. Open oil pump to check impellor, scratch head for while as impellor is perfect and realise bits are from first impellor that blew up and was cleaned out by delivery skipper
14. Drain off water from fuel filter
15. Remove rubbish from raw water filter and top up
16. Check V belt tension, find it’s much too slack, read manual and discover 2 simple steps to fix
17. Perform step 1 and remove top cover, then side cover, then back cover, realise that engine in nice easy diagram is as seen from behind which can only be accessed by squeezing entire body into impossibly small space while bruises form from sharp protrusions. Attempt to loosen bolt that is impossible to reach without tying a rope to spanner, dropping onto nut and passing rope under engine to pull and loosen bolt. Scrape knuckles and fingers raw
18. Apologise again from inside engine to bored family who are leaving boat for something more interesting to do
19. Loosen second bolt, move alternator to tighten V belt, get help to keep under tension while tightening first impossible one back up, after 10 minutes realise must be not on back revolving so won’t tighten.
20. Dislocate several bones so rubber arm goes through bits of engine to reach invisible unreachable back nut to hold tight while tightening impossible nut with spanner held in teeth.
21. Attempt for some time to disengage tools, arms and body from space using Californian relaxation technique to get muscles unspasming so flexible again
22. Sit confused on floor until red mist clears after head right way up again
23. Start engine to check all OK, realise more rubbish now in water filter, remove and refill, start engine again. Cover manual in oil and scrawled notes, throw clothes away as unwashable and have shower to remove oil.
24. 5 hours and ---- you’re done.

National Park, Dominican Republic

We tried to book a whale watching trip but couldn’t get one till Monday so we decided to go on a day sail across the bay to the National Park because they have ... caves. And wildlife, mangroves and beaches you can use a barbecue on.

We anchored in the park and explored the coastline with the dinghy. In front of the boat was a bird island with egrets and huge black soaring birds flying and landing, flying and landing. Very busy, pretty and tuneful. The limestone rock and cave formations were interesting – we managed to find a number that looked like skulls one of which we’ve included in the photos. Finally, we pulled the dinghy up on a little beach on which there was a Ranger hut, a few palm trees, a couple benches and a sign in Spanish. Surprisingly we had to pay a park fee which was higher than the guide book indicated. This cave system was partly open to the sea through erosion and was extremely pretty: lit from outside, the sea inside rippled and reflected on the red, green, brown and white rock walls and ceilings. Again it was home to bats but also to swifts. We were unguided and alone for much of the time in the caves and could use our torches to explore and watch bats and birds high up in the ceilings. Unlike Camuy, these caves felt like they could have been home to people in the past, though we didn’t see any petroglyphs and signs of old habitation, just some recent graffiti.

Click on the pics for bigger versions!

As we went back to the boat in the dinghy we saw a day tripper boat leaving a little inlet, so we decided to explore that. It was an absolutely pristine piece of mangrove swamp. The Ranger who we’d paid previously was on his way out but turned round and guided us through this next set of caves which were covered with petroglyphs. While these caves weren’t open to the sea and full of light, they did have a couple of sinkholes which allowed light to penetrate. Not quite so homely from my point of view, but clearly someone thought it was.

Back to the boat and over to the beach where another cat was anchored. We’d been their neighbours in Antigua so we exchanged information and war stories. On the beach, the sun came out and we broiled as our food barbecued.

Then it was back to the other side of the bay to ensure we got on the whale watch in the morning. The bay in which we anchored had an egret tree. As the sun set, ones, twos and small flocks of egrets arrowed across the bay back to their tree. Each flock reached the tree, were greeted with great noise by the incumbents and scattered: they flew together but didn’t roost together. We spent 30 mins watching their extraordinary display. I watched the reverse the next morning at sun rise.

Puerto Rico to the Dominican Republic

The weather window opened up —more or less – and we made a break for the DR. This passage was one we had dreaded: our destinations dictated that we travel the north shore of both PR and the DR. There are only two “safe havens” along the north shore of PR if things go horribly wrong in a north wind. We kept ourselves way out from shore and in the event nothing did go wrong -- except that we forgot to “clear out” of US customs and immigration and that, combined with the fact that we exceeded our speed estimates and would reach the DR at 3 in the morning, meant that we headed down the west coast to Mayaguana to kill some time the next morning.

We started across the Mona Passage in the early afternoon. Initially things were fine but the wind picked up to a gusty force 6, the sea got “big” and the waves were in the wrong direction for us. Despite the Stugeron, I was reduced to incapacity and abject misery. But I was rewarded. I was on the 4am to 8am watch and at around 7:30 before anyone else had risen, I was scanning the horizon and saw amongst the white horses an extreme white top – clearly not just a wave breaking normally. It was evidence of a whale and seconds later, the whale itself breached, coming right out of the water and slamming back down creating the spume I’d seen earlier. Chris also saw some blows before 8am and we were confident we’d see whales in Samana – even got the kids up to help watch. Unfortunately, just like the turtles, they didn’t get to see any that day...

By midday we were anchored and cleared into the DR. “Clearing” here involves a visit from a couple of friendly officials who do the paperwork on your boat and require a couple of “gifts” to keep things sweet...

Rincon, Puerto Rico

From our own personal theme park, we moved onto Rincon for some whale watching. Poor maps and behaviour meant we arrived late, irritable and not in the mood to take a 50% chance of seeing whales with good grace.

Rincon is on the west coast of Puerto Rico, separated from the Dominican Republic by the Mona Passage. Whales migrate along the passage to and from the Silver Banks which are north of the DR between December and mid-March. We were heading for Samana Bay in the DR as soon as the weather and were using the opportunity of whale watching in Puerto Rico as a kind of insurance policy in case we couldn’t get to the DR in time.

We spent the first hour or so, utterly convinced that we wouldn’t see whales and that the trip was called whale watching on a very tenuous basis! But we did see whales – probably 2 or 3 travelling together. The boat was fast enough to be able to track their progress north towards Silver Banks: everyone kept a lookout for the telltale “blow” and we dashed it – staying a respectable distance away to ensure we didn’t disturb them. Although they “fluked” quite often, we really only got one representative picture because it was sunset – very beautiful but not something our camera can cope with.

Jamie was quite scared because, as you can see, the boat we were on was quite small and the whales are quite a bit bigger than it! She saw one of the whales with its mouth open showing its baleen plates quite clearly.

It was exciting and fun and really lifted our spirits. There’s the “thrill of the chase” when you’re with other people. But it’s quite a different feeling when you see a whale, or a dolphin, from your own boat: when that happens, there’s excitement but more of a sense of communication and the feeling that we’re not alone on the sea.

Fun park, Puerto Rico

To compensate for the previous day’s serious sightseeing, we had promised time in the local fun park. Because it was a Monday out of vacation time, it was deserted. We and one other party were the only people in the park. Instead of opening all the rides, the organisers assigned us our own personal guide and ride starter. It was weird – our own personal fun park. We did have fun, even though it was a surreal experience!

Double click on the image to make it big enough to see!

Arecibo Radio Telescope, Puerto Rico

I was excited by our next destination. There’s nothing I like more than planetariums, observatories and science museums and this is the world’s largest radio telescope and home to the SETI project not to mention some of the most important astronomical discoveries.

Kids weren’t so thrilled. It’s a long way up to the observatory especially when accompanied by moans and groans. To make the climb interesting, the curator has put the sun and planets at their scale distances along the path with loads of interesting info all related to earth measurements. I couldn’t work out how they’d fit the whole solar system in until I realised that they stopped at Jupiter. The kids could not have cared less.

But it was a different story once we started to go round the visitor centre which is packed full of great exhibits and information. I found an exhibit that charts solar lifecycles and the formation of the elements. It was just like the one I had in the first astronomy book I had when I was just a bit older than Alex and which inspired me. I took each member of the family through it exhaustively and they got so bored, they found the other exhibits – particularly the cloud making exhibit – absolutely fascinating in contrast. We also watched a film, “A Day in the life of Arecibo Observatory” which really brought the whole thing to life. And, of course, went and exclaimed over the actual telescope itself.

I loved it and in the end, I think the kids did too.

Rio Camuy Caves Park, Puerto Rico

After a short dip in the hotel’s cold pool, it was off for the first of today’s sightseeing sites – Camuy Caves. I think we may be closet troglodytes!

These subterranean caves are here courtesy of the underground Camuy River, were carved out over one million years ago and now form the third largest cave system in the world.

Once we were hard-hatted, we were taken to the cave system on a Disney-like tram. This travels through some beautiful forest trails before descending about 200ft on a scale version of the Nailsworth ladder into the sinkhole that’s the entry to the parts of the cave system we’re allowed to visit. Currently only a small part is open—three sinkholes and two caves.

After the tram ride, it’s on foot for about an hour through the Cueva Clara and its neighbouring cavern. The caves are home to bats (thankfully asleep), a unique species of blind fish and some kind of spider. The incredible stalactites and mites are beautifully and artistically lit, but there’s no spiritual element like the feeling we experienced in the Caves of Diros or the caves near Karen. The sinkholes are awe-inspiring: eye achingly bright after the gloom of the caverns. We oohed and aahed at the height of the ceiling but didn’t appreciate how high it really was. Apparently there’s an optical illusion called the twilight effect which makes it look smaller than it is: Cueva Clara is about 170’ high, the height of a 15 storey building. To see the underground Camuy river rushing through, perhaps 100’ below, we had to lean over a vertiginous drop holding hard hat and glasses.

The kids were unimpressed after the first 15 minutes and perhaps the tour could have been shorter and perhaps we have visited enough caves for one lifetime...

El Yunque, Puerto Rico

El Yunque (pronounced Junkay) is a rain forest and another US National Park which makes it easy to explore. It covers a range of mountains on the east of the island that reach 3500’ high (1067 metres if you’re metric) and is said to be the home of the kindly Taino spirit Yuquiyu. 100 billion gallons of rain fall here every year – making the average Brit feel right at home!

We expected to do some serious hiking and duly gathered together walking shoes and socks, rain gear and loads of other heavy stuff. In the event, our visit was dry and the National Park trails could probably be attempted in stiletto heels (only kidding). (Our last rain forest walk in Dominica had been on a park trail but was pretty challenging and very wet!)

We visited the El Portal Visitor Centre first, the entrance to which is a canopy walkway which gives you a bird’s eye perspective on the forest. The Visitor Centre is architecturally beautiful and a pleasure to wander round. We sat through a short video about the rain forest: the species, including the endangered parrot of which there are about 40 left and whose numbers were halved in the last major hurricane; the archaeology, including the petroglyphs and artefacts left by Taino Indians; and the importance of the water to Puerto Ricans.

But eventually we couldn’t avoid hiking anymore, so we got back in the car(!) and headed for the first interesting looking landmark on the road through the forest. This was the Coca Waterfall. We parked, got all kitted up and then discovered that there was no actual hiking to be done – you simply walked up a pavement to the waterfall which is by the side of the road. The kids and Chris did scramble up the rocks beside the fall to fulfil a photo opportunity, but we still had to go find a real trail.

We did. This was a short hike of around 1.5km down to another waterfall which you could swim in (if you could tolerate Arctic chill). It was a beautiful trail with a thundering waterfall and fast flowing stream as a reward. We were working on the senses in Alex’s English-- sight, sound, taste, touch, smell -- and here’s the result of our work.

Sight:
Smooth roundness of a snail
Light and shadow, bright and dark
Big spider
Roots lying on the surface
Huge leaves, lush green, broad and fern
Bright red soil
Boulders that look like they’ve been thrown by rock giants
Steep edges
White water, scattered like running deer

Sound:
The call of a frog that sounds like a bird -- Co-ki
Birdsong
Rush of water
Rush of wind
Trees creaking

Feel:
The sharp sting of spray in your eyes
Water as cold as an Arctic wolf’s nose
Soft, mossy rocks and cold hard rocks
Rubbery leaves
Slimy snail

Taste:
The moisture in the air as you got nearer the waterfalls

Smell:
The scent of wild ginger
Musty smell of decaying leaves

The waterfall pool was breathtakingly cold: we scrambled down to it and the kids took off shoes and socks to go in but it was even beyond them to stay in for more than a few seconds at a time!

We started the hike back and Alex went on ahead. About 1km later and with no sign of Alex, we started to get a little anxious – not that he could get lost but he could fall off the trail which had pretty steep sides. We started calling and calling to no effect and even Jamie (older sister and therefore arch enemy) got a bit panicky. Chris eventually took off and hot footed it up (really quite up) the trail. Jamie followed him and I followed behind more slowly (did I mention I managed to break my little toe in Antigua and it was still wasn’t runnable on?) I emerged from the trail to find red faced, exhausted husband and cool looking kids with Alex gleefully telling me how much quicker he’d got to the top of the trail than I had. Hmmm.

We left the park and headed west to Arecibo for the next day’s sightseeing. This involved navigating through San Juan, finding ourselves static in a traffic jam to do with a big game of some sort, surrounded by heavily armed police and noisy supporters, and arriving at a very unprepossessing hotel right on the highway with no visible sign of life. However, don’t judge a book, as they say, the hotel was clean, comfortable, had TV (kids ecstatic) and high speed wireless internet, a small pool, friendly staff and great accessibility to everything we needed.

Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

Old San Juan is the town on a small islet that’s connected to the north mainland or Puerto Rico and guards the port of San Juan. It was of great strategic importance to the Spanish because it was the doorway for the gold, silver, jewels and treasures they brought to Spain from Central and South America. Naturally it was attractive to English, French and Dutch governments as well as pirates, so the Spanish built some fortifications. We visited Castillo de San Felipe del Morro or El Morro. Morro means promontory In Spanish.

The fortifications were started in 1539, 20 years after the first Spanish settlements, and were used by various militaries until the US Army handed over the forts of Old San Juan to the National Park Service in 1961.

Drake attacked El Morro in 1595 but was unsuccessful and lost his friend Hawkins in the encounter, and the only time the fort was ever taken was in 1598 by the Duke of Cumberland who held it for about 6 weeks until dysentery beat him.

The entrance to the harbour is really quite narrow and looks absolutely treacherous in the force 5/6 we had the day we visited. There’s a small island opposite El Morro which was also fortified and ships just didn’t have a prayer of avoiding the cannon cross fire made possible by the two forts. It was a very effective fort and very impressive. Six levels taking it from sea level to 44 metres high; immensely thick walls – 6 metres thick and apparently constructed in the early years with a “soft” interior to absorb cannon impact; narrow walkways to impossibly suspended sentry boxes called garitas and huge cannons covering over 180o round.

We had a great time exploring this site and you can see the pics in the slideshow called Old San Juan.

Marina Del Rey Puerto Rico

We've decided to stay in Puerto Rico for a bit because of the weather -- windy and grim -- and because (surprise, surprise) we need something dealt with on the boat.

Although we were all keen to get out exploring (life having been a bit uneventful for a couple of days!!!!) by the time we had managed customs clearance and been drenched a couple of times, we in fact decided to retreat hermit like into the boat to catch up on some school work. Alex finally finished his St Lucia project which is excellent and sent an email to school. Jamie is working through two books this term: “Why the Whales Came” and “Kensuke’s Kingdom” and doing some very thorough comprehension/creative writing around them.

After school, Chris and the kids went to the local shopping centres and picked up some Chinese Takeaway and a couple of new DVDs – so it was film night!

USVI to Puerto Rico

The passage to Puerto Rico was fairly calm but rainy. We watched a couple of nasty squalls that didn't reach us but the one sitting over the east coast ignored the wind and just sat getting bigger by the minute on the radar. We got v wet.

This little rock stands alone in the sea battered by waves and covered in guano. We saw another “blow” from a whale quite a way from the boat.

BVI to USVI

We spent a couple of days doing very little except for preparing for the next big stage of our voyage: Dominican Republic via Puerto Rico. We returned to the USVI and visited St Thomas’s main port – another cruise ship destination. We did some blogging, provisioning and chandlerying... not much to report... Oh, except that the bottom of the dinghy got a puncture and running around in a dinghy with only the thin outer shell between you and the drink is not amusing!

Here's a pic of Soper's Hole, BVI -- v. pretty port.

Thar she blows!

We went back to Soper’s Hole, so we could check out of the BVI, via the RMS Rhone – it was a good dive, but the vis apparently wasn’t as good as the day before. Very large puffer and a nice barracuda. I was "attacked" by a blue sergeant major fish protecting his eggs. He's about 8 cm across. He also attacked a very large queen parrot. Plucky fellow! There's a new slideshow of some of the photos we took

On the way back to Soper’s Hole we saw whales! Jamie was the one to spot a “blow” and we could then clearly see their backs in the water. They blew a few more times and then one of them fluked as they dived and disappeared. Fantastic. No pics – I wasn’t about to miss the action going to get the camera!

At Soper’s Hole we eat at a dockside pub and were entertained by a huge number of extremely large tarpon, their eyes lasing red in our torchlight.

We also went to Soper’s Hole so I could get internet access and we could check Jamie’s secondary school allocation on line – they are available at 12:00:01 on 02/03—8pm our time. I had a bit of a panic centred around the fact I couldn’t remember my password but eventually we found she got her first choice – wahoo!

This time our mooring held all night!!