Subject: wieder gechafft-made it again

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 14:14:15 -0800

From:

To: dear friends, libelle is now at anchor in puerto real on west coast of puerto rico. we knew our passage from the keys was going to be difficult and tried to prepare for every contingency, but were still surprised. It started off easy enough, after a two wk wait for window the gulf stream and gentle sw breeze pushed us over 8 knts, most of the night to isaac lt.,bahamas. as we entered the ne providence channel expecting a north wind from passing cold front, we got calmed and motored most of the next 60 hrs. glad alphi the auto-pilot had a miraculous cure in the keys. when wind finally arrived we celebrated with fresh veggi pizza,ital music and toasted it with red wine as we sailed fast in flat water with pc windpilot steering. unfortunately it later built to over 20 kts. on the nose. we haven't experienced this kind of upwind pounding since wolfgang was with us w of the bay of biscaye.furling line jammed on forestay during tack, jim bouncing in and out of waves on the bow, failed attempt to heave-to with too much sail forward, end up drifting at 4 kts. back toward bahamas, food and books covered the cabin sole, constant banging and crashing made sleep and meals impossible.fortunately the 2nd half of the easting and all of the southing was relatively comfortable. total distance = 1001nm, time sailed=11days,8hrs we have heard and read so many good things about cruising the west and south coasts of PR that we intend to stay at least into jan. if any of you want to jump on a last min flight to san juan we can arrange to anchor within two to three hr publico ride. if you don't want to stay on libelle, we can help you find one of the reasonable paradores. next stops ca. mid jan isla culebra and the virgins. working on getting a place to receive postal mail down the coast. will inform Yvonne in the next few days so she can post the address on the website. warm greetings to y'awl for the holidays,Jim & Rosi