Anchors Aweigh!

As a preamble, let me apologise for having been somewhat remiss in keeping this blog up to date. Once I have caught up (hah!), perhaps you will find it in your hearts to forgive me…assuming anyone is still reading.

When last we met, WW and I were in Boquerón. At about 8:30 a.m. on Monday, April 14, we raised anchors. Yes, plural. When raising anchor, my job is to stand at the bow, manage the winch, and gesticulate wildly so WW knows which way to aim the boat. I felt the winch was behaving oddly. Perhaps it, like me, is not a morning person. Metre after metre of chain rolled slowly into the (warning: technical term) chain locker, a.k.a. the place where the anchor chain goes when it’s not out. Then the reason for the winch’s sluggishness was revealed. Our anchor chain had become well and truly fouled in another, much larger anchor. Ours is about 40 lbs, this one WW guesstimates was about 75 lbs. With a lot of boat hook action, muscle strain, a good deal of grunting, and (of course) hanging head down, WW managed to free the anchor and it’s resident crab. Both plunged back to the seabed to await the next unwary anchor chain.

Once the anchor was aboard, I completed my post-anchor-raising task, that of binding Tramp firmly to the tramp. In some of the seas we’ve been seeing, she’d be a gone kayak if she weren’t tied down hard. And Lady would get lonely. While I was busy tying multiple little tight knots, WW was steering us through the small opening in the reef and out to the open seas.

We cruised down the coast towards Cabo Rojo, which is unjustifiably confusing, since it is the name of both the cape and the region. To add to the confusion, the cape is also called Punta Jagüey. It was only a few hours run, and we tucked ourselves into Bahía Salinas, on the west side of the punta/cabo. This took considerable tucking since the bottom was bad and our hook wouldn’t hook. On the bay’s edge lay a wrecked yacht, just to keep us on our toes. It took us about half a dozen tries before WW was satisfied that we might not drift into the rocky shore. Still, he was out of the berth about six times that night, making sure we were where we thought we were.

Lighthouse at Cabo Rojo

Once we had a chance to look around, we found ourselves with a wonderful view of the Faro de Cabo Rojo, a lighthouse built in 1881, warning ships as they enter and leave the Mona Passage.

Although we had now been on two Caribbean islands, we still weren’t in the Caribbean. It lay just around the corner.