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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (18174)	5/20/2005 1:19:53 AM
From: elpolvo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361232

stockster- i think you're right. we DO need to take control of the conversation and that sorta leaves out the stories in the headlines. i think some pendejos already have control of those, eh? here's a story that arrived today from my friends sue and rick sailing La Vie Dansante: 5-16-2005 Written from Culebra, Pr We are in Culebra Puerto Rico waiting for our generator to be repaired and for a few odd parts to be sent to us. This is a fine place to be stuck waiting for things. The island is a $2.00 ferry ride from Fajardo and has about 3000 regular residents. It is 15 days before the official start of hurricane season and we are 500 miles from Venezuela, but we also are 1000 miles from Miami so we have made lots of progress. I find it hard to write about our travels for some reason. I really don't like to read diary form reports yet that is what I find myself doing. But I do need to record something of our travels and send it to you our family and friends. A short summary: We left Naples in June of last year and went to the Abacos, Bahamas for about 6 weeks. Engine and generator problems sent us back to Florida for almost a month. When we were ready to depart, Charlie showed up and we headed north. We stayed ahead of each subsequent hurricane and found ourselves in the Chesapeake. We spent 10 wonderful days in Washington DC and wound up in Annapolis for the boat show in Oct. Very exciting to watch the show being put together and we loved Annapolis. Good friends from Florida joined us for a few days and that made it extra special. Our next objective was to be in Melbourne FL the second weekend of Nov for the annual SSCA gathering. We were there 2 days prior having spent many more wonderful days on the west shore of the Chesapeake learning how to catch blue crabs and visiting great little sailing communities. After SSCA we worked our way down to Islamorada Florida in the Keys for Thanksgiving with our good friends on Tango. We tied up at their dock for almost 4 weeks! We didn't mean to stay so long, but weather, boat projects, a trip to Naples and a visit to AZ for Sue added up. We'll never be able to repay Debra and Richard for their hospitality... We crossed the Gulf Stream on Dec 23rd and were in Nassau on Christmas day. It was our first winter in the Bahamas and we thought the weather great, but according to old timers, it was colder and more windy than normal. We traveled around the Exumas until almost the middle of March. We have never seen such beautiful clear water and stunning beaches. We met many other cruisers and made several good friends whom we have traveled with off and on ever since. We arrived in Luperon DR on Mar 21st, my 60th birthday. We spent 3 weeks there which I wrote about previously. On April 10th we made a 43 hour crossing to Boqueron PR, not difficult, just long. We traveled the south coast of PR in short hops in the early mornings, usually had the anchor down by 10 am before the trade winds kicked up. We stayed in Salinas for several days, rented a car and did major shopping in Ponce and San Juan, I never thought I would be so excited to go to Wal-Mart and Home Depot! In two days we got our fast food fix at all the regular spots. We did learn not to go thru the drive up because we never got what we thought we ordered! I like lots of PR, everyone is very friendly and helpful, they love to give directions, and almost every one we meet speaks some English, usually better than our Spanish so it's hard to practice here, not like the DR where we spoke Spanish a lot. The cities are like a Spanish-speaking mini-USA, we like the small towns better. More and more we gravitate toward minimal or non- populated areas, only stopping in towns when we need supplies. Our very favorite parts of PR are the Spanish virgin islands of Vieques and Culebra and Culebrita. Just off the east coast of PR these are just gems. Our generator is currently on Jose's bench awaiting parts and hopefully his repair knowledge. When it is fixed we will be able to leave PR. Until then we are enjoying the close-by islands. We spent 2 nights on the south shore of Vieques, the largest of the islands. After dark one night we motored in the dinghy to Mosquito Bay which has one of the finest bioluminescence displays anywhere. This small dog-leg bay is home to billions of algae that emit light when stimulated by movement. Any fish or bug in the water leaves a bright trail; the dink appears to be lighted from underneath, enough to read by. When we dove in the water it was like being covered with little Tinker bells in a Disney cartoon. Haven't had so much fun in years!! There is a great web site called www.biobay.com that has some wonderful photos of the bay we were in. We've spent most of our time on Culebra in the town of Dewey and on Culebrita, 2 hours away. It is a national park so there are no buildings only an abandoned light house in ruins except for its solar panels and the working light. The northernmost bay has 12 mooring balls and no limit on your stay. The first 2 days we were the only boat there which allows the no-clothes rule to be in effect, very nice in 90 plus degree humid weather. We found a beautiful reef to snorkel and some pools that fill up when the tide comes in and acts like a whirlpool. We came back to Dewey to make phone calls and check on our various parts on order, also, we are in a 2 week period of lows and rain squalls and Ensenada Honda is a very large but protected bay. Great anchorage with a nice breeze but no roll. Several of our friends are here, so once again: life is good. Tomorrow we'll take the ferry to Fajardo on the mainland, rent a car for the day and do some shopping and pick up 2 of our packages. We've decided to do the same thing when the generator is done: take the passenger ferry over and bring the generator back on the cargo ferry, easier and faster than taking La Vie Dansante back to Fajardo. We just need help carrying the 250 lb generator, what are friends for!!! We splurged this week and signed up for a week of wireless internet, so we've been surfing on the boat day and night, lots of fun after so long without. With all our rainy days we've watched lots of new movies thanks to my daughter Mandy who copied tons of new flicks for us. I have been amazed at how one can fill a day so completely doing relatively little. However, so many simple mundane jobs take a lot of time and energy living aboard. Doing a few loads of laundry at a Laundromat on shore can take half a day. Sometimes it's only a few blocks to walk with my cart, other times I take a bus. I have done major laundry by hand on the boat but when we only make 8 gals of water an hour with the water maker and have to run the engine or generator to produce it…I rather go to town, besides you meet interesting people in Laundromats. Grocery shopping is time consuming also and usually most of the list remains untouched at the check out. But that gives you something to buy next time. Not having a phone is always a problem but our MCI card works all over PR which is very nice. It didn't work in the Bahamas or the DR. So we are used to using pay phones now. It just takes a lot of time to find phones that work, try to find places to have mail and parts sent to. We like scrounging around little ferreterias, (hardware stores), to find the odd items we always seem to need. Actually days without boat projects are rare unless we are sailing somewhere. Old boats always need something done, and of course we try to do as much as we can ourselves. Bad times: Our steering went out one evening just at dusk about an hour out of an anchorage. We had to find the emergency tiller at the bottom of the lazerette, set it up and sail into the anchorage, took us an hour to set it up as we'd never practiced it before! A few days later in almost the same spot we caught a huge fishing net that fouled the prop. Rick had to go into rolly seas to cut it loose. Good times: Catching Mahi Mahi, and Tuna and lobster. Spending an evening with friends playing Pass the Pigs. …Until next time. Sue and Rick groups.yahoo.com