Back to the U.S. ! Yippee !

July 9, 712 hours, 8:15 AM

We leave the Dominican Republic and head for the good ‘ol U.S. of A.

San Juan, Puerto Rico our next destination 130 miles due east. Of course none of our trips can be smooth sailing as y’all are hoping for us and this is no exception. Leaving Punta Cana we have to cross the edge of the “hourglass shoals”. Now this shoal is not something you would normally think of as being a shoal. The shallowest spot is 40 feet deep and much of it is around 100 to 140 feet. The problem is the surrounding area is 400 feet or deeper with heavy undersea currents. There is a warning on all the charts that says “Tide rips and heavy swells may be encountered along the edge of this bank at anytime.” Well the chart makers didn’t put that on the chart to fill up space, it definitely lived up to its’ reputation for the 30 miles we traveled to traverse the bank. We encountered many steep sided twelve foot waves and even a few times a breaking 8 footer on our bow. Not for the timid but not nearly as bad as our passage from Turks. Just prior to leaving Punta Cana we had tied the palm with a three way tie in an effort to keep it from tipping over again. But in these seas, it was futile effort.

After we cleared the bank, we had a relatively nice uneventful ride for the next 30 or so miles. However when we reached the west end of Puerto Rico the waves bounced back up to the 6 to 8 foot range for the next 70 miles and we had to slow our speed once again. At one point I ducked down into the cabin to try and call the Club Nautico Marina we were going to but I couldn’t get thru and when I finally did I was getting Spanish. The noise of the boat made carrying on a phone conversation extremely difficult so I decided to call Coral and see if she could get thru to the marina to tell them we would be late getting in. She reached Roger who made the call for us and so all I had to do was call the marina for a slip assignment when we got into calmer water. Around 6 PM we entered the outer harbor of San Juan, called Israel at the marina and received our instructions. We docked and after a bunch of phone calls with Coral, Roger and Kemuel we finally got a number to call for customs and immigration to come and clear us back into the U.S. In the meantime, Bobby checked the engine room and to his and our astonishment we had a foot of water over the floor boards ! A few quick checks and we found the bilge pumps mid and aft weren’t working automatically. Only the front bilge was working automatically, we pumped out the bilge with the manual switches for nearly 20 minutes and decided tomorrow we’d lay up in port to check things out, again. We finally got customs down on the boat and Alphonso quickly and professionally cleared us back to the U.S. Not wanting to leave the boat because we were so tired and sweaty, we looked around for what food we had and found some pasta along with a packet of Knor Pesto and some dry packaged bacon. What a feast. No, really ;)

The next morning was the usual, our good old trusty coffeemaker purred up a nice hot pot of coffee while we sat and pondered the cause of the water in the bilge. It must have come from the constant river of water that was flowing down our gunwales. We couldn't find any other cause. Satisfied with our conclusion I decided to hop into the shower since one of our biggest helpers and champion in these parts, Kemuel was coming into port to meet us. I stood in the shower soaping up and after a few minutes the water started to drizzle out of the head. I thought Gina must be doing dishes or something. Then all of a sudden it stopped. No more water. and I was full of soap, I tried shutting it off and turning it back on but to no avail. I hollered out to Bobby my predicament and he checked a few things but told me the water pump was now terminally ill. Great. I asked him to hand me the hose thru the port window so I could rinse off .

Bobby headed down to the bilge, again, to find and cure the cause. Around this time, Coral and Myrna, Kemuel's daughter and wife showed up to greet us. They wanted to take all of us to lunch. I suspected this wasn't going to happen knowing what Bobby was going thru right then but I asked anyway and he emerged hot and sweaty from the bilge to greet our guests. I asked Bobby if he would mind if I went to lunch with Myrna and Coral and he graciously said" Of course not, I have to check things out here but you go ahead."

I normally wouldn't abandon Bobby but in this circumstance off I went with them to a fabulous lunch in Old San Juan. I will have to make it a point to come back and visit when I have time. Meanwhile the bilge monkey was hard at work finding out that the water pump burnt out from being underwater. So, he absconded the raw water pump and jury rigged it into the fresh water system. Meanwhile I returned and we all met Kemuel and his good friend Roger. We have many thanks for their help and guidance. We offered Kemuel to come to dinner but he declined and it might have been a good thing because the only thing we could find near the marina in walking distance was a Sizzler. Yeah, we didn't realize it till after but it is the same chain found on the mainland. Some of our food was pretty good but the wine was horrible. Oh well, off to our final destination tomorrow.

Here I am practicing my best Germaine imitation to serve drinks to Gina..


Bidding goodbyes to customs, navy, security and dockhand
Leaving Punta Cana. On the left side is the developed part on the right side is all new buildings going up and we couldn't find many people occupying what was already built. Strange. Sorry for the dirty lenses, gonna have to sparrow cap'n Gina.



Yet another mess from the rough seas..
Palm tree didn't survive on a three way tie.