Adventures on Beannacht

People may deny it, but in my view a little piracy goes a long way! We left Luperon under the cover of darkness on Saturday 9^th January having given the local Comandancia enough of our hard earned dollars in our three previous bureaucratic encounters and set sail, or rather fired up the motor, with Puerto Rico in our sights. Judgement abounds from the long termers in the harbour, but contrary to their belief that paying the bills keeps greases the wheels for everyone else, in my view it only serves to encourage more corruption. The DR is a developing country with limited services, and being asked to pay more than the fee for an entire year in the Bahamas, more than anywhere we’ve been infact, doesn’t wash. The other problem with paying is that it convinces the officials that poeple on boats are loaded, which we clearly aren’t, and they just come up with more ways to screw you. The other irony is that the long termers in the anchorage (cruisers doesn’t seem to describe the stationary folks who spend more on Bohemia  than they do on their boats) are all buying residence cards in order to get out of the harbour fees anyway.

So, suffice to say Luperon had got very old, and we were both relieved to finally pick up our anchor. In the end my work there dragged on for a full month more than we anticipated, and friends left the anchorage ahead of us themselves on eastern courses. We did of course maintain the normal Christmas customs, pancakes in the morning, big feed in the evening. Gifts tended towards the creative, rather than the valuable! I bought Kel a 2000 piece jigsaw for her 32nd birthday (right old bird), not knowing anything about puzzles, and we spend the best part of two weeks trying to get it done without success. In the end we packed it up in chunks and will restart it when we’ve stopped moving.

In record time we made it to Puerto Rico, where we pulled in to pick up an extra 20 gallons of diesel, before rounding the south western tip of the island and motoring though the night to the Spanish Virgin Island of Los Palominos off the eastern coast. The next day we motored the final 20 miles to the US Virgins, and pulled into the port of Charlotte Amalie, dropping our anchor just beside Alicia and Brian on Sarabande. We had an amazing time with the guys and also caught up with Mike on Gaia, and Sussura.

This week we arrived in the BVIs, and became legitimate citizens again. We’re currently anchored by Village Cay Marina in Roadtown. We were here in July with mum and dad, and it’s been nice to get some familiar drinks, and chinese food – what a luxury! We’ve got online and touched base with the families, and generally relaxed knowing that we’ve done the hard part already in getting this far.

Our next plan is to move to St Martin, the next island down the chain, to look for some more work. Sadly our work in Luperon didn’t turn out as planned, both of us earning less than we agreed at the beginning of our contracts, and we don’t have enough in the kitty for our planned trip to New Zealand. So we’ve re prioritised and plan to work for the next 4-6 months in St Martin in preparation for an 18 month cruise to New Zealand. Our boat needs a few extra pieces of equipment before we cross the Pacific, so our budget includes a mix of those things along with our living expenses – we’re currently managing to live off about $700 a month.

Kel and I remain astounded by the incompetence of the British Government’s naturalisation department. Kel applied to have her citizenship ceremony in the BVIs last summer and was given a date at the end of September. She was due to be in Panama at the time and was unavailable for the ceremony, but was told swhe would be contacted in the new year when a new one was scheduled. She went to the office this morning to discover that they had one last week and didn’t contact her! Hopefully they are going to provide her with one on her own next week to get it finished. We’ll believe it when it happens.

So we’re planning a weekend of snorkelling and reading, followed by a citizenship ceremony and then a trip to St Martin. Beats Luperon anyday.