From The Birds’ Nest

Greetings, from the most recent stowaway aboard Sandy Dreams.  The weather is beautiful, wish you were here. 

So much has happened the last two weeks. Re-uniting with Ryan, Jen, Marilyn & Sissy has been great. They have made me feel welcomed & comfortable. Sandy Dreams is just as I remembered her, roomy, clean, and very sea worthy.  Have met lots of new friends, from Canada, Chris & Jackie aboard “Higheeled”, Tony & Rosemary aboard “English Rose” from Ireland, Nick & Wendy also from the Great White North, in a nice cat, Matt & Mary Liz, from FL & DC, as well as Dick & Jane, Carl from the Netherlands, and a great local named Tony who keeps a nice sloop here in the marina & has invited us over for a New Years bash.  Marilyn has 3 girlfriends visiting this week, Sandy, Debbie & Diane from Texas are enjoying the sun and the stars.  Oh yea, & don’t forget the Geraldo Rivera sightings in the marina tiki bar.  He glides the Hinkley in from his island every couple days for a cold one.

As for high sea adventures, you must be patient, as we are still securely docked in Salinas, Puerto Rico.  Between morning yoga, reading stints, & poolside libations, I have managed to escape for a few shore excursions.  El Yunke Rain Forest, Coamo Hot Springs, several walks/drives to town for hardware items, groceries, & breakfast beers @ the bakery.

The boat is in great shape, we are caught up on maintenance etc. & ready to leave Salinas.  However, we are currently being held hostage by the US Postal Service. One of the three boxes our new water maker was to arrive in is MIA. Must have got held up in one of the blizzards up North, eh?  Oh well, that’s life in the tropics.  No need to have a fixed schedule when you are cruising, in fact, attempting to keep any hard schedule while cruising could be detrimental to health & well being.  Going with the flow, remaining flexible, slightly buzzed and keenly optimistic is the rule.   

So…………guess that’s it from the nest for now.  Hope you are having a wonderful holiday season.  Happy New Year to everyone.  

Cheers, Douglas

aka, “Strangebird”

Christmas potluck, Salinas tiki bar.

 

Sandy Dreams under sail.

 

Ryan rides a Puerto Rican “dog sled”.

 

AM walk to town for supplies. Marilyn, Ryan &  Chris.

 

Local bakery for breakfast and yes……beer.

 

Dingy maintenance.

 

Look out Jimmy B.

 

Doug & Marilyn conquer El Yunque.

 

El Yunke is USFS’s only tropical rain forest……no rx burning here.

 

Sissy relaxes on the forward deck……a dog’s life for sure.

 

Chris & Jackie from HIGHEELED.

 

Captain & First Mate….oh yea & Sis too.

 

Just another day at the office.

Boat Delivery

I got my first boat delivery job taking a Morgan 41 Out Island Sailboat from Luperon, Dominican Republic to St Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Matt and I left Puerto Rico by plane on Dec. 8th and landed in Santo Domingo DR around midnight. Since it was so late and we had to catch a bus at 5 am, we decided to go straight to the Bus station. Once at the station we talked to the security guard and he told us in Spanish that we could sleep on the benches. So we got a few hours of sleep on a park bench, in the ghetto of the Dominican capital, at a bus station, in a Third World country, where I don’t understand the language well. I seriously began questioning my decision making skills.  But everything turned out all right. We woke up bought our tickets and rode a very nice bus to Luperon. My only complaint about the bus ride was that it was really cold, living in the tropics without AC has made me a big baby and I froze on the bus!!  The bus dropped us off in Imbert and we caught a guagua (taxi) to Luperon. We made it to Luperon around 10 am on the 9th. The first thing we did was get a hundred peso breakfast at Steve’s then we got a ride to the boat. Once on the boat we started getting things ready to leave and I started to lower the dinghy from the davits so we could stock the boat and clear customs. So I lowered one side of the dinghy and as I started to lower the other side the rope was caught, so I reached down to untangle the rope and I see the largest snake I have ever seen in my entire life!  Needless to say I &%#@ my pants a little and screamed like a girl. At that time Matt came up to see what all the commotion was about, I told him there was a snake.  He looked at me like I was being and girl and said he would go brush it off the boat but when he saw it he jumped back and screamed like a girl too. While I was cleaning my britches Matt found a spear gun and killed it. When we took it to town locals told us that it was a Boa Constrictor. Matt is about 6’3” and he wasn’t tall enough to hold the snake up and it was about as big around as a wine bottle.

After presenting our deadly trophy to everyone in the harbor, we had Papo clean the bottom of the boat, did a little engine and electrical work, got our exit papers, got groceries, ate one last 100 peso dinner and left the DR around 10 pm all in the same day.  That HAS to be some kind of world record!!!  We had a great sail along the North coast of the DR and PR to St Thomas the whole trip took us 67 hours motor sailing. We had very few problems and I got to spend 2 days in St. Thomas before catching a flight back to San Juan where Jen picked me and Doug (our newest crew member) up.  Even though the boat did really good I missed my own boat and crew.  I am very glad to be home even though I have lots of work to do before we head to the Virgin Islands. But I hope to have it all done in time to leave right after Debbie’s visit. Hopefully we will be there in time to see Robert & Liz when they visit the islands.

Ryan is a SLACKER!!!

Well, it has been over two weeks of nagging and Ryan still hasn’t wrote a blog. So I am skipping him. Puerto Rico has been fun. We have already made friends and visited a few places on the island. It seems like every other day we are making a trip to San Juan to meet someone, pick them up from the airport, or take someone to the airport. It has been fun having all the visitors and we aren’t done yet!

Phoebe came and ate Thanksgiving with us.

My parents came on a cruise ship and celebrated my 30th Birthday with me. (Pictures will have to wait. Marilyn has the camera.)

And Del and Dave have flown in to spend a week just because. (She still has the camera.)

And during the lull we have had several Karaoke nights on the boat, painted the deck, made new friends, and played.

Coming up will be Ryan and my First year anniversary and 1 year since we left Houston. Time is flying by!

It seems so weird to think about all we have seen and done since seeing Del in June. My parents hadn’t seen Ryan since we got married. And Phoebe and Marilyn were celebrating Thanksgiving in California last year. Odd thing, time.

In other news, our swab Matt, has abandoned ship. Matt joined us in Luperon to make the crossing to Puerto Rico. He came to play with the dog and eat all the leftovers.

Ryan and Matt left yesterday to go back to Luperon and bring Wayne’s boat across to St. Thomas where Matt lives. It has been a pleasure having Matt aboard. Always full of smiles and laughs. We sure are going to miss you.

Good thing that we have a replacement Matt on the way… Doug you have some big shoes to fill. (Literally - Matt has big feet.)

We are looking forward to having Doug join us and we know we will see Matt again when we get to the Virgin islands.

We are also looking forward to Debbie’s visit at Christmas. And meeting Robert and Liz in January.

Well that updates you for now.

Maybe Ryan will have something to add when he gets back.

Until then, Merry Christmas everyone.

A look back at Luperon

I know that you all are ready for a new update and I am excited to announce that we have safely made it to Puerto Rico, but this blog isn’t about Puerto Rico. Ryan has asked to write about our “Escape from Luperon” and since he is taking a nap right now I thought that I would sneak in one last look at Luperon.
Below are pictures that I have received and or stolen from some of our friends. I will try to acknowledge you all but may not get all the sources correct. Sorry, send me an email and I will fix it. Oh and Thanks for the Pictures!

The Commute into town.

One of the many Jam Sessions.

Wakeboarding in the Harbor

Dumb Rednecks!

  My TURN!

Preparing for the 1st Annual Dinghy Drift Race

  Everyone in their positions….GO…

Our secret weapon – Sails!

We had first place until right up until the end when a sneaky Brit and Canadian out smarted us.

Yoga Classes

The vegetable Market on Tuesday Mornings.

The Luperon Harbor as seen from Double Eagle’s Mast.

Sandy Dreams is the boat on the left.

A Luperon sunrise.

Goodbye Luperon!

My how time flies

Well it doesn’t seem like time is passing until one day you accidentally look at a calendar and realize that the year is almost over. Where did all those days go?

We are currently still in the Dominican Republic, Luperon to be exact. We are waiting out the weather and getting ready to cross over to Puerto Rico. Luperon has been fun and we will never forget all of our great new friends here but it is time to move on. Hopefully we will see some of you later on in our travels.

We haven’t done much here that is news worthy. The Internet subscription on the boat is up so instead of having to wait for a signal and my turn. Now I have to make a list of the things that I want to accomplish on the internet, pack up my computer, haul it all into town, and then wait for a signal and my turn. Yippee! Not terrible just the way that it is, so please be patient with me on email responses.

Shaggy’s Bar had a Halloween Party and we dressed up and attended that. It was a lot of fun and the creativity of the costumes was amazing. The stuff that you can find on the boat! It was a good time and lasted until the wee hours of the morning. Marilyn went as a Punk Rocker, Ryan and I went as Popeye and Olive Oye. We almost won the best couple but was narrowly beat by “English Rose”. Congratulations you two. In my opinion it was no contest, you had it from the start! WOW!!!

 

 

 

 

Not much else to report here. Just tidying up the boat and waiting for the weather to change. Looks like the storm Tomas is going to delay us for a little longer.

Miss everyone back home, hope that your Halloween was a good one.