R is for Rock and Roll and Rainforest Too

This is a map showing our journey up until Salinas, Puerto Rico. I will be updating the map as I post blogs. I came across this amusing article on the scale of rolling at anchor. Many of you have heard our stories of taking sea sick medicine while anchored so you will appreciate this scale. I have modified it to Celebrian's experiences. 1. Rock a Bye Baby-Gentle movement that is comfortable and might even rock you to sleep; however we put the fine wine goblets away and use our tumblers. 2. Pesky-Periodic rolls that cause unmanned objects to unexpectantly fall onto the cabin sole. A pesky roll can wake you up at night, but usually won't keep you awake. Pesky rolls cause things on deck to make unusual noises that sometimes keep the crew awake. 3. Annoying- Dishes start clinking. Objects roll off un-fiddled spaces. You tend to lurch and walk into walls. Annoying rolls will wake you and might require minor changes to sleeping arrangements. The person on the outside of the berth often feels like they are going to tumble out onto the sole. Using the head becomes difficult because you can't let go. 4. Really Bad- The inside of the boat becomes noisy with stuff rattling and clinking. Unsecured objects become missiles. Sleeping arrangements must be re-arranged from fore and aft to athwartships, or across the berth necessitating one of us sleeping in the pullman berth and one of us sleeping cross ways in the salon. Misery and whining is permitted. 5 The Death Roll/ Also known as The Big Sand Roll -We will take any kind of motion but the dreaded death roll which is akin to a cork screw followed by a rolling that is resonant and intermittent. Just when you think it has stopped it starts up again. It is almost impossible to cook and usually the crew doesn't feel very hungry. If you can not escape just take drugs and go to sleep. Perhaps the best advice comes from an ancient mariner who said," If you feel sea sick....sit under a tree."

It was nice to take some time for a paddle in Salinas Harbour. We watched the pelicans dive for fish so gracefully for such big birds.

Today is Friday April 13th and we are anchored in Luis Pena, a small island next to Culebra in the Spanish Virgin Islands. The Spanish Virgin islands are part of Puerto Rico and a day sail away from both the United States and British Virgin Islands. Of course you still have to wait for the right weather but at least we don't have to do any over night sails for awhile.

Back in Salinas we rented a car with John and had a great day shopping and touring. Puerto Rico is very mountainous and has the only rain forest in North America. The rain forest was wonderful and we wished we had had time to do some hiking. It was a whole different world up in the rain forest...average temperature of 18C (66F) and lots of rain and lush vegetation including bamboo. The houses were perched on sheer drops in places and must have presented some building challenges. We finished our day with a shop at a supermercado that had fruits and vegetables....it had been a great day.

The next morning we left at 6am for Las Patillas. We travel in the early morning or at night where possible to get the lee from the island of Puerto Rico. We spent the afternoon doing a little paddling and relaxing in our reef protected anchorage. We were up at 3:30 am for our trip to Vieques in the Spanish Virgins. When we were at Vieques we realized that the wind was favourable and that we could continue on to Culebra. We arrived at Luis Pena near Culebra by the middle of the afternoon and had time for a nice snorkel in the anchorage. The coral is much healthier here and the water much cleaner than along the coast of Puerto Rico. These islands are about 10 miles off the eastern coast of PR. John came for an early dinner as everyone was ready for an early night to bed. From Luis Pena we motored the couple of miles across to an anchorage off of Culebra's western shore and awoke in the night to number 4 on the Rock and Roll scale. After listening to Chris Parker's weather forecast we dropped the mooring ball and headed south to Ensendad Honda, a large protected harbour off the small and quaint town of Dewey. Rob managed to make breakfast this morning but we had coffee grains from one end of the galley to the other courtesy of number 4 rock and roll.