Our past week has been spent in Puerto Rico, starting with the most eastern Spanish Virgin Islands and then moving along, east to west, to finally arrive in Puerto Real on the west coast.  This anchorage will be our jumping off point to head to the Dominican Republic.  In fact, when the early morning rises and you are perhaps reading this post with your morning coffee, we will be arriving at the Cap Cana Marina in the Dominican Republic, having successfully traversed the Mona Passage.
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We arrived in Puerto Rico eleven days ago and our minds have been pre-occupied with two very important things:  Provisioning for the Bahamas and meeting up with old friends.  Our first stop in Puerto Rico was Culebra which is part of the Spanish Virgin Islands. The anchorage there is wide open (lots of room) and is very close to the main town area with restaurants, grocery stores, cafes and great beaches. It is a great spot to rest for several days, only we had alternative plans.  We had a few friends to meet up with over the next few days. 

​In Vieques (part of the Spanish Virgin Islands), we met up with our old friend Matt on Kesh, who is heading south while we are headed north.  We had first met Matt in Georgetown, Bahamas almost a full year ago, and travelled with him (along with Kemana and That’s It) from Georgetown to Luperon, Dominican Republic.  At the time, Matt was newly engaged but doing his travelling as a solo sailor. It was wonderful to see him in Vieques alongside his new bride Charlie.  They are headed south to Grenada this year.

The very next day, we weighed anchor early in the morning and headed to Salinas on the mainland of Puerto Rico.  This was going to be a major stop for us.  Not only were we finally going to reunite with our good friends on Caretta but we would also be able to do all of our provisioning for the Bahamas here by renting a car and driving the one hour north to the city of San Juan.  There we could shop at Costco, Walmart, Petsmart, Home Depot, and AutoZone.  Wow! We haven’t had this kind shopping for the last ten months.  Let the games begin!
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We did our “shopping” extravaganza to San Juan last Thursday.  Wild Horses (including Ocean) rented a van while Caretta and Rode Trip shared a passenger car.  In one wild day that started at 9:00am and ended at about 9:00pm, we drove to San Juan (an hour away), devoured Costco, stocked up at Petsmart, and got a few necessities at Home Depot and West Marine.  We then returned to the marina and unloaded our very full rental cars.  But we weren’t done yet!  The biggest provisioning was done at Walmart in Isabel, just 20 minutes west of the marina.  We even popped into AutoZone for some oil for the boat. Very tired from shopping, we still needed to load everything back at the boat via our dinghies and store it all away.  It was an exhausting but very successful day!

With all of our boats provisioned and fueled up, we left Salinas last Saturday for Boqueron on the west coast of Puerto Rico.  We stayed there one night, which was just enough time to meet up with the crews from Kemana and That’s It, who were a day ahead of us.  They planned to leave for the Dominican Republic the very next day, one full day ahead of us.  The next morning, Wild Horses, Rode Trip and Caretta travelled just a few nautical miles north to Puerto Real.  We will be leaving for the Dominican Republic at 6pm tonight. Overnight passages are becoming very familiar territory for us!
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We are looking forward to spending a few weeks in the Dominican Republic before moving onto the Bahamas. While we continue our journey west, it amazes us as to how chilly the nights are getting.  It was just 21 degrees Celsius last night. While it is amazingly warm compared to January in Canada, it is very cold for us these days. It is a welcomed change though as we are still reeling from our hot, hot, hot days in Grenada.

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Since my last post, a lot has happened.  All good, or at least, mostly good.  We have toured old forts, found great provisioning, had some boat work done, almost lost the dinghy to the sea, checked out some iguanas, swam with a few totally breezy sea turtles, ate some delightful cuisine and watched the Dallas Cowboys implode at their first playoff game (they lost bigtime).  Oh, and we visited four islands and three countries.  Yeesh, I need a nap.

​Yes, all of that happened but, still, the most important was what happened earlier this week, on Tuesday to be specific.  At least it was important to us.
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You see, Tuesday was a weird one.  We had an appointment for Ocean at Critters, Cats & Canines Vet Hospital in St. Thomas.  Ocean is fine but we needed to see a Vet to get a new International Health Certificate for her.  Getting dog health certificates is just a regular task in our life nowadays but what was important was how the day unfolded.  If anyone is out there that wants to know what cruising down here is like, well, this might be the “Coles notes” version for you.

First, this is our experience.  It isn’t “the” experience.  That is lesson one.  Cruising is about being a snowflake.  How it is for us will certainly not be exactly how it is for you.

Second, weather is king but we all pretend, once in awhile, that we carry the crown.  We started the day with a secure and safe (and free) mooring at Christmas Cove.  The easterly tradewinds were sporty (up to 28 knots) and, rightly so, the waves and swell were equally animated, although more southeasterly.   The kicker? We needed to be a mere 2 nautical miles to our west in Brenner Bay in order to have a short dinghy ride into shore for Ocean’s appointment.  Sorry, did you hear that?  Yes, we had a schedule.  Never good.  Ever. In this particular instance we were moving our precious Wild Horses to a lee shore in shallow waters with almost 30 knots of wind, and worse, 7 feet of swell banging at our boat’s hull. Getting ready to set our anchor, we fell steeply from being “uncomfortable” into dangerous territory with our lee shore so close behind us. We knew it and spent an extra 45 minutes ensuring that our anchor was set (it was set – thank you double oversized Rocna!).

Third, cruising is precarious. At that anchorage, Mike, Ocean and I had to board our severely bouncing dinghy.  It was a feat that had me yelling “move people, this is not a drill!” as both Mike and then Ocean had to manage around swells that horribly slapped the dinghy against our stern, alternatively creating violent waterspouts and dangerous boarding gaps.  We then tolerated a salty (meaning we got soaked) 5 minute ride to protected waters.  Returning back, we were faced with the same problem.  A misguided step and someone could have been injured or in the drink.  Not good.

Weighing anchor wasn’t much better.  We were struggling against the wind and swell.  I was at the bow (untethered, sorry, not my finest decision-making moment) holding on like it was a bucking bronco.  Okay, a little poetic license here, but it was pretty bouncy and unsettling!  The key for me was that at the moment that our anchor was released, Mike needed to be in control at the helm.  We were that close to shore.  Yuck.
 
Spoiler alert: We are fine.  We bounced our way back to Christmas Cove, picked up our favourite mooring and got two beers stat.  Then we chatted about what went wrong.  A schedule, mistaking “close by” with “easy”, and swells that were worse than forecasted.

The precariousness of sailing is real. From one moment to the next, you are not entirely sure that something won’t break down, that your sail will go smoothly or that you will find the tools/parts/provisions that you need when you next land your boat. But that uncertainty is worth it to us to have long walks on unspoiled beaches, to explore different cultures, to meet so many wonderful people, to enjoy beautiful sunsets and to be rocked gently to sleep with the waves lapping against the shoreline. Yes, the delightfulness of this lifestyle is just as real and, thankfully, more moments of our days are filled with that.
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Today we arrived in Puerto Rico, after spending the last seven days in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI).  We plan to spend a few weeks here while we await a good weather window to transit the Mona Passage on our way to the Dominican Republic.

It was just a few days after Christmas when we got our outboard motor back from its urgent freshwater servicing at Xtreme Marine in Jolly Harbour, Antigua.  Not only did the team there get it running again but they gave her a real once over and she is even better than before our capsizing adventure. With our outboard motor ready to go, we immediately started making plans with our friends on Rode Trip to depart from Antigua and to make our way to St. Martin for the New Year celebrations there.
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We weighed anchor at 4:00pm on Friday December 29th for a very easy 96 nautical mile overnight motor sail, under a bright full moon, to Marigot Bay, St. Martin (French side).  We arrived at the anchorage just before 8:00am, cleared in by 9:00am and were sitting in the Chez Fernand bakery eating croissants and drinking americanos by 9:30am.  What a great start to the day!

​The New Year’s celebrations on the island were fun, capped off by several incredible fireworks displays. During the day we had a wonderful ad hoc picnic with several of our boat buddies, including our friends on Kemana who were docked on the Dutch side of the island.  It was a special time with lots of chatter about what we all have accomplished over the past year, as well as our future sailing plans. 

Ah, sailing plans. This has been a big topic on Wild Horses for the last several months.  It is easy to dream of far away destinations and big voyages, but the world that is more real for Wild Horses includes so much more than just sailing and exploring.  It contains our family and our friends back home.  Every phone call is an emotional tug at our heartstrings to go back to Canada, even just for a quick visit. The longer we are away, the more we are realizing that we need to have more of a balance between sailing the world and being home for family. 
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Before we started this trip, the plan was clear.  We would sail the Eastern Caribbean for at least two years and then decide where else we wanted the wind to take us. We would go home, of course, but the plan was to make separate trips (Mike goes one time and I would go the next time) so that Wild Horses was never unattended.  And the dog?  We knew we didn’t want to subject Ocean to airplane travel.  Our dear pup, we thought, will just stay on the boat with either Mike or myself (whoever wasn't travelling).

Our plan was solid…until we had to put it into action. We have learned a lot about ourselves on this trip and one of the biggest is realizing that we only want to travel as a pack.  We are the three amigos and, well, it just will not do to leave an amigo behind 😉. By the time we departed Grenada, we knew we had a problem to solve. We wanted to go home for a visit with family but we wanted to keep our little family intact while doing it.

Just this past week, the final pieces of our new sail plan have come together. We will be sailing back to the continental United States over this winter, visiting the USVI, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas along the way.  We will then make our way to Green Cove Springs Marina near Jacksonville, Florida by the early summer months. There, Wild Horses will be hauled out and stored while we drive back to Canada over the summer months for our much-needed visit with family and friends. When Fall descends upon us, we will re-launch Wild Horses and sail the Bahamas over the winter.

What will we do after that? Not sure but being in the Bahamas will keep us closer to home and also to other sailing destinations like the Eastern Caribbean, Guatamala, Aruba and so much more.  We will have built in flexibility to decide on next steps. 

Perfect.  Freedom but also being able to hug mom and dad once in awhile.  I think we may have found our balance 😊.