The LibMarkBerPa Show

Hello families and friends, Well, we thought we had arrived, but there was one more adventure left! We delivered the great San Juan boat one leg further to the beautiful island of Virgin Gorda. What a gorgeous trip, calmer seas and interesting islands. We picked up the owner and his family, after customs and immigration again, and headed over to Tortola, where we stuffed our gear in our bags and headed to the Tortola airport in a taxi. There a Bell helicopter was waiting to take us back to San Juan Puerto Rico airport. It was great to see the islands that we had just boated through, and to see all those nasty reefs that we were careful to avoid. At this writing, we are cooling our jets at the Atlanta airport, awaiting our flight to ... read more

12/18/06 We left San Juan harbor at 0900, having enjoyed being in the United States again, flying our Puerto Rican courtesy flag. Our beautiful San Juan filly, with all her horsepower, left the harbor and bucked straight into large swells (again). She handles them all very well, but it made for another couple of uncomfortable hours. Encountered our first lobster pots, or whatever they were, in one section, and suddenly realized that we missed the flying fish that had accompanied us so many miles of our journey. We continued east to Pasaje de San Juan, itching to go visit Isla Palominos, with its beautiful beaches, and located our destination, the El Conquistador Resort marina entrance. We found our slip, and backed in med style, in much quieter water, with the lasso technique (I’m getting the hang ... read more

12/16/06 Thursday we had some fun watching a 130’ French steel schooner maneuver her way oh so carefully through the surge and swells into Ocean World. She draws 12 ft and the marina entrance is 12 ft at high tide, so she anchored out until they could get in. It was quite a sight. Man of Steel also came in, having come from the Exumas, and Grand Turk Island. A note on the surge at the marina - we chafed partway through two lines while waiting for the fuel truck to arrive at Ocean World….. The staff at the marina, and Harbormaster Pablo were absolutely wonderful, and begged us to stay for the “party”, but…… Paul is on a mission eastward. We left Ocean World 0710, bound for Punta Cana, 182 nm away. Encountered large swells ... read more

Update for 12/13-12/15/06 Paul and I left the Caicos Marina & Boatyard at 0945 on Wednday, 12/13. After breakfast and Mark’s great coffee, Libby and Mark’s bags were loaded into the pink-mobile (definitely NOT a Cadillac), and we had our hugs and good-byes with a few tears mixed in. We’re definitely missing our friends! Our leg across the Caicos Bank, took a bit of time with a vigilant watch for coral heads. The Turks Island Passage (or Columbus Passage) presented us with 5-8 ft seas, some 10-12 ft seas, and long rolling swells. In Grand Turks we anchored overnight next to South Dock, which was a bit rolly. Had a bit of trouble finding the customs & immigrations offices. As an aside, the Grand Turks produces mosquitoes the size of flies……Libby, Paul figures your presence would ... read more

Lots of photos and a few changes... Since we have a good internet connection, we are taking advantage and sending all the photos that we have been saving. We have a good connection because we are weather-bound in the Caicos Islands, so weather-bound that Mark and I will be leaving by plane, not boat… It is 75 degrees outside but there are torrential rain squalls and the winds have been in the 20-30 knots region with big seas as this front comes through, so Paul can’t even think of moving the boat until Thursday, which is our day to return to the quiet drizzle of the Northwest. We did have a very easy trip from Crooked Island to here. We made the first jump to Mayaguana Island and finally were able to enjoy some of our ... read more

And we do this why…..? When we last left you (or when you last left us), we were pleased as punch that we had crossed the big Florida Strait….hmmmm. We have been traveling quite a bit slower than we had planned, making shorter hops so we haven’t made really good time, but we’ve been having a really good time! Our planned route from Chub Cay was to cross down to Nassau, cross the Exuma Banks, on to the Exuma Sound and over to Cat Island. We got part of it right. The crossing from The Berry Islands (Chub Cay) towards Nassau was kind of a mess-two hours of pounding into 5-7 ft seas and 15-20 knots of breeze. We passed Nassau from about five miles out and it looked like something out of a science fiction ... read more

We are on our way! It is Saturday night and I am sitting in Chub Cay-temperature is about 75, water is about 73, it is sunset and just gorgeous! I hear that there are some winter weather conditions in the ol’ US of A, but you wouldn’t know that here. But the deal is, you have to pay some dues to get here…. We began with an intriguing trip about 14 miles down the New River, from our dock at the boatyard to our jump off point at Bahia Mar Marina-a skinny little channel leading into the port of Ft. Lauderdale. We topped off the fuel and Paul had made reservations for moorage. So what can really keep a boat attached to the dock…the computer, of course! We were planning to leave yesterday but the Nobletec ... read more

I am going to try to show pictures of the happy travelers and may try to send photos of the house, too, but this is the first try.... read more