The Adventures of Francesca

Part 1

South Carolina to Luperon, Dominican Republic

December 7, 2004

Hello to all our friends and family,

Every time we head back to South Carolina after a long cruise the anticipation of seeing family and old friends, having internet connectivity, watching TV, getting caught up with the news, long showers, shopping, etc. have us stoked with expectation.   We ooh and aah at all the goodies in the stores, the new movies, advancements on the internet and so on.  But then, after 4 or 5 months things change.   For sure it is always hard to leave family and friends, but it is then a relief to get away from TV, the dismally repetitive news and the advertising scams.  By the end of summer we have been thoroughly saturated and can hardly wait to get underway again to see cruising friends, visit new places, quietly read books and return to relative isolation.  

For cruisers, progress is not measured so much in miles as in experiences.  This past month has been filled with both so I think we can mark November as having been particularly successful.   Francesca left the dock at North Myrtle Beach the day after the November 2 national election.  Moving south, the daytime outside temperatures in South Carolina and Georgia were moderate, mostly requiring a jacket to be comfortable.  On the fly bridge, however, with sunny days and most of the windows zipped, it was shirt-sleeve and shorts toasty warm.   Then in the evening and at anchor, even though the outside temperature was much cooler, the dissipating heat of the engines helped to maintain the cabin temperature nicely throughout each night.

Last summer, Francesca had been outfitted with a new autopilot, a flybridge radar receiver, two new depth sounders, and lots of other things that we felt would improve our comfort and safety as well as Francesca's reliability for the very long upcoming voyage.  At last we have a full compliment of instrumentation on both the flybridge and lower helm station.  The previous winter, in Cartagena, Colombia, we had lots of other work done to the boat.  It was with some relief that we completed the summers outfitting and ended the  financial hemorrhage.  Now, after a month of cruising, the lions share of those upgrades have been tested with favorable results. 

On this trip our 8-year-old grandson, Johann, is accompanying us for the next several months.  We are carrying on the home schooling that his parents (Sterling and Soon Ae) have begun.   Most folks aren't very knowledgeable about "home schooling" so I'll include a little helpful information.  Home schooling is done in a very programmed way.  There are many companies that provide the books and curriculum for home schooling.  Each day the student covers math, science, reading, spelling and other subjects.  It is a lot of work, but most children excel with one on one teaching and move forward quickly within their own comfort level. I don't think there is such a thing as a bored home schooled student and progress is normally much faster than in public schools.  The student's progress is confirmed by yearly testing.  True, the child doesn't get to do a great deal of socializing with other children their own age, but there are other boats with home schooled children as well as local children to visit with in the various places we stop.   Such diversity has to be developmentally helpful.  Most of the children we have met during the past 7 years of cruising (and there have been many) are more thoughtful, better adjusted and more informed than their otherwise schooled brethren.  Home schooling isn't for everyone and for sure we grandparents fatigue quickly from the never-ending verbal stream of consciousness and questions.   However, we are happy to be part of his young years and for him to experience the beautiful Caribbean and our vagabond life.  So far, Johann has shown extraordinary progress.  In addition to the formal program, he is doing very well learning touch-typing, a little algebra, and his vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds.

We've lost track of the number of times Francesca has cruised the Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW), but the number is certainly approaching twenty, so with the exception of the exceptional, it is no longer very interesting to write about.  Once again we visited all of the best anchorages we've tested over the years.   Francesca progressed quickly down The Waterway to Titusville, Florida where our long time cruising friends Carl and Mary on the sailing vessel Camryka had their boat "on the hard" (dry docked) for their balancing act between boat work and budget.  It was with joy that we spent some time with Carl and Mary.   Mary is a superb writer and continues to have articles published in many of the cruising magazines.   She writes so well that Joan and I are frustrated that she isn't writing a significant novel.  Carl and Mary's boat work is nearing completion, but they have not yet decided where Camryka will go after "splash day".  We hope they will be heading our way or we will meet them again in the western Caribbean when we return to the States.

Adjacent to Carl and Mary's temporary apartment their landlord had a grapefruit orchard that was left fallow.  He told them to help themselves to the wonderful seedless, ruby fruit.  Mary loaded us up with 8 or 10 large bags of fruit, which we could eat and also distribute to cruisers as we moved south.  They also loaned us their car to do some last minute shopping.  Johann needed a wet suit and snorkeling gear and our veggies were running low.   Then, with improving weather, we needed to leave Titusville and get prepared for the Gulf Stream crossing to the Bahamas. 

The last stop before leaving the States was at Lake Worth Inlet.  There, we topped off the tanks with 150 gallons of diesel fuel.  Normally, taking on fuel is as interesting as eating dry toast, but on this occasion it was a feature of the trip that was more like recurring heartburn.   The fuel was so dirty that the fuel filter required changing every 15 to 20 hours with no end in sight yet today.  We left South Carolina with 10 filters that should have lasted the entire trip.  Instead, including buying additional filters, they may only last through getting to Trinidad.  It is ironic that after 7 years of buying fuel from dozens of third world pumps we should get bad fuel in the States.  It happens.   Fortunately there's no danger of Francesca loosing power from this bad fuel while underway.  Last summer we installed a day tank.  The day tank holds about 8 hours run time of filtered fuel and has a warning light when a fouled filter reduces the fuel supply.  Then, there is plenty of time to change the filter which can be done while underway even in heavy weather. 

We left the Lake Worth Inlet bound for Gun Cay in the Bahamas at 2:00 AM on November 18.  The weather was forecast to be good, but you never really know about the conditions in the Gulf Stream until you are there.  As it turned out, the seas weren't too bad, but we found ourselves bucking 2.5 knots of current for about 12 hours.   From our previous experiences, the main flow of the Gulf Stream in this area is usually only about 20 miles wide.  That night, we didn't get out of the stream until we had gone east well over 40 miles.  It was a tough slog punctuated with the surprise of having to change the fuel filter.  Happily, Johann slept well throughout the night up on the flybridge.  He takes rough water in stride; like it is a fun ride.   Joan and I have always adhered to strict procedures to insure our safety at sea and Johann's presence helped to put a fine point on it.  

In recent years the Bahamas has taken a singular position regarding cruisers.  The check-in fees have gone from $100 to $300.  Since our schedule was tight and we had visited the Bahamas several times before we opted to fly the "Q" (quarantine) flag, not check-in and pass through the Bahamas as quickly as possible.  Since we also found that the water was colder than usual, diving wasn't very attractive there and it was a doubly good decision.  Our path through the Bahamas had us anchored on the banks one night, one night at Rose Island, another at Norman's Cay, then Adderly's Cut and Georgetown.  Upon arriving at Georgetown, we saw some old friends on "Joy Bells" and gave them a bag of grapefruit.  But, there was a great weather window waiting for us, so we only spend the night in the Georgetown area.  Our plan was to go to Rum Cay and hang out for good weather.  However, after leaving Georgetown we found the weather and seas to be so ideal we just kept on going with another overnighter.  Two fuel filter changings later and after 34 hours of perfect smooth conditions we dropped the hook at Sapadilla Bay on the south side of Caicos Island in the Turks and Caicos Islands.    In the morning check-in was easy and cost only five bucks.   

The north side of Caicos Islands is the tourist Mecca with gin clear water and excellent diving, but certainly not the south.  The south side faces approximately 40 miles of shallow banks and is somewhat murky water.  Once again, swimming and diving wasn't very attractive and we were concerned about getting weathered in and not getting to the Dominican Republic for Christmas to meet our daughter, Andrea.  So, after only three days we checked out of the Turks and Caicos and made our way through the coral strewn banks toward the south.  The weather was supposed to be ideal and the seas were calm until we cleared the banks at around sundown.  Then, we began to get hit with squalls.  The seas were quartering the bow and while that helped, sometimes we were in breaking seas with gale force winds.  Suffice it to say that it was a long night with yet again another fuel filter change.  Francesca came through without a scratch and Johann slept well.

So, here we are at Luperon in the Dominican Republic and here we will stay through the holidays.  From South Carolina to Lake Worth Florida was about 700 statute miles and we made the 800 statute mile trip from Florida to the DR in only 15 days.   Overall 1500 miles were traveled in 30 days including several multi-day layovers.   After Florida we bucked moderate to strong currents most of the way using about 25% more fuel than expected, but there is still have enough fuel to make Puerto Rico sometime in January with ample reserves.    We've been told of a good clean fuel distributor at Ponce, PR and where the price is reasonable.

Luperon is an interesting place.  The harbor has a skinny neck that leads to two similarly sized secure harbors.  The eastern harbor is unused because there is no land access.  The western harbor is about 1/4 mile wide and 3/4 mile long with about 80 boats here at this time.  The town of Luperon is rustic, but certainly upscale compared to many of the Western Caribbean towns we have visited.  Everyone is very friendly and the cruising community is probably the main source of income for the town.  Therefore, the harbor is a very safe place to be. The water is warm and there are lots of inland travel things to do.  We are planning our itinerary.

Joan, Johann, Ben & Maggie

In general cruisers sometime reminisce about past shared experiences, but mostly the conversations are about more recent happenings, future plans or technical problems.   Politics is only an infrequent and briefly visited topic for discussion; mostly because nearly all cruisers are similarly minded on the subject.  Still, the discussions are usually spirited, never dull.