The Long and Winding Road (Beatles, 1969)

Sunday, 10 Feb 2013, and Day 4.  That's us waiving up in Staniel Cay (MYES).  We're headed for Vieques PR (TJVQ) for three nights down in the bottom right corner of the map.  Routing is by way of Inagua BHs (MYIG, customs and fuel to get to PR), Aguadilla / Borinquen PR (TJBQ, our first experience with inbound US Customs and a top off with the cheapest gas in the Caribbean at $7), and finally to Vieques (TJVQ).  

We consulted with local aquatic experts on matters of technique.  Although these local luminaries were quite free with their experiences, we ultimately rejected suggestions to dive in this way because we lacked adequate experience.  Lack of floats on the plane was also a contributing factor.  Soon after we got down to some serious flight planning.    

I got up early to make a call from the local pay phone using a card bought at, you guessed it, the bar.  Got through to Lockheed for weather and filed.  We had to leave early because we had several long legs to fly.  Few airports have lights in the Caribbean, and too many delays could put us in a bad position.  

I filed two international flight plans over the phone.  We got off when we planned, headed for Inagua (aka, Matthew Town).    

We have some absolutely magnificent weather for these flights.

The two hour flight down was interesting because there are islands everywhere, lots of them you don't see on any charts.  

Seldom were we out of either sight or gliding distance of an island or a boat.  The sea down here is very shallow, so much so Jim Parker jokingly suggested either getting a life raft or stilts.

The water color is unreal.    

We interpreted some sights along the way as good signs.

The refueling spreadsheet I made was a great help.  I had loaded the distances and prices of gas for primaries and alternates for the entire trip before departing FDK, and used a dip tube to verify fuel remaining in each tank during the flight.  The spreadsheet said I'd get to Inagua with just barely enough fuel to make it on fumes to Borinquen PR.  Even though Inagua fuel is extraordinarily fine (aka, expensive ;-), this was one place I needed to get it.  We added only 18 gals for reserves.  As it turned out, we could have taken less for an hour's reserve since we topped off with 70 gal at Borinquen.  Still, it was good to have figured this out before leaving Waynesboro than scratching portions of my anatomy trying to figure it out on a ramp.  

Inagua was a brief but interesting stop.  Only a customs guy and Rico were at the airport.  We ran in and did the paperwork pretty quickly, then waited for 20 minutes or so while the customs office was kind enough to drive a mile or so into town to get the tanker cart driver to bring fuel to the airport.  

Rico is a friendly, talkative fella.  He was washing the salt off the undercarriage of his truck right in front of the terminal, about 30 ft from the plane.  He said you have to do this or you get the experience of the main company on the island -- their vehicles last four years before they are completely rusted out.  That company, by the way, is apparently in some combination of the desalination and salt businesses.  Rico is comfortable with Inagua, with only 1000ish people on the whole island, and the only settlement being Matthew Town.  I asked about other settlements, but he thought it was good there was only one --  two would lead to folks not knowing each other, and only bad things could come of that.  He seemed to value knowing all the folks in his community -- not unlike living in a small town anywhere, and not a bad life at that.  

After launching from Inagua we had a long three hour leg to PR, and a mildly long 35 minute leg over open water to the island of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  

Fortunately, Haiti / Dominican Republic lies just to the south of a direct route to Borinquen.  This time we did get a flight plan in the air from Miami, but it was a full route clearance (D ALBBE A636 D TJBQ).  It was mainly a direct route, but with a lot of mandatory reporting points.  

Once established on the route, the view was very impressive.  

The wisdom of having a lot of reporting points became clear when, around 100 nm out, Miami Center asks us to contact Port au Prince Haiti, and on reaching reporting point RETAK, contact Santo Domingo DR.  We never did talk to Port au Prince and there was no one to talk to until Santo Domingo.  

We later found it advisable to file with way points and airways because you were going to get them eventually anyway.  That was probably a good thing under the circumstances.  

Direct over the ocean may not be as good as direct over Kansas if one is looking for places to put her down in the event of an emergency.     

Once again, there were signs that favored our trip.  

We finally got to Borinquen PR at the NW corner of the main island.  This is an old Strategic Air Command (SAC) base with an 11.7K ft runway.  It's been converted to a commercial airlift waypoint (FEDEX and others) and does a brisk business.  Fortunately, US Customs is located just off taxiway B at around 3 - 4K ft.  

Customs was a pretty easy process.  We showed passports and a blue Immigration card for the two of us, then on to the baggage X-ray machine and we're done except for the mandatory plumbing inspection.  While we did the bag drag into and out of customs, a line guy rounded up a fuel truck and topped us off with 70 gal of their finest, cheap $7 / gal gas right there on the customs ramp.  

From here we called Borinquen tower to see if they could get us VFR flight following.  By the time we launched and contacted San Juan approach we were in the system.  There were a lot of clouds below us over the island as we crossed from NW to SE, but we were lucky we got a clear view of the Arecibo Radio Telescope, the largest radio telescope in the world, located in the municipality of Arecibo PR.    

We continued across PR, but there was a lot of cloud cover so other sights were mostly obscured.  At the southeast end of the island we had a short stretch over water to La Isla de Vieques.  

The airport is located on the north (left in the picture) side of the island, but our reservations are on the south in the town of Esperanza.  

As long as we're on a VFR flight plan, we take a little detour to see where we'll be staying.

That's the town located on the main island to the left of the string of anchored boats.

Antonio Rivera Rodriquez is a nice little airport on the north shore.  There is no tower but there is a small commercial terminal.  It's Sunday and although there is actually a lot of scheduled service, no one comes out to suggest where to park.  We find a spot on the west ramp (about 70 yards from the terminal) and chock her into the wind (there are neither tie downs nor the rings for tie downs at most airports down there).  Turns out that location is great.  

It's about 1730 so while Ann is starting to unload, I run off to find our rental car.  Our first obstacle is the front door to the terminal.  The guard and TSA lady don't quite seem to know what to make of a guy scratching at their door with no commercial aircraft in sight.  We get that worked out and we're directed to Maritza's Car Rental.  George, a former Army guy, is manning the rental post.  He notes how lucky we are because he was about to close up for the night.  While we run through the procedure, George and I chat about how expensive it is to shop on Vieques, so tomorrow is a shopping day for his family.  He and the wife (his wife, not mine) will board a ferry in the morning and load up with groceries on PR.  

We eventually walk downstairs to get to the Jeep and I bring her round to the drop off area.  Parking is almost non-existent, but George chats up the security gal in baggage claim on our behalf.  I get to park for a few minutes in a vaguely legal location while I run out to get Ann and the bags.  More confused looks from TSA, but my pilot license seems to be enough to get out and back in with the bags.  A quick load and we're off to Esperanza on the south side of the island.

The roads here at Vieques are interesting.  Except for a few, most seem to be one lane (reasonably sized for a single lane) but handling two way traffic.  Few lines are painted on these roads.  You also get to share the roads with wild horses that roam freely all over the island.  Almost everyone has fences and gates so the horses don't get in and eat their landscaping!  With Ann navigating, we wound our way from the north side to the south side of the island.  Our hotel, the Malecon House, is on west end of the main drag of Esperanza. 

This is a very nice place.  It was apparently only a year old, owned and operated by Robin and Marsha Shepard.  There is a great view of the bay right across the main drag from our balcony.  

It turns out Esperanza is very tiny, but features some terrific restaurants.  We walked to one recommended by Robin on the east end of town.

The walk along the bay is a wide and very well maintained path called the Malecon.

I have to apologize in advance for the picture below.  I thought I had a shot of the Malecon walkway, but apparently not.  I got this one from www.vieques-island.com/ showing the recently remodeled Malecon.

OK, back to my pictures.  While walking along the Malecon we enjoyed the view, and a little bit of the history of the coast.  We would find in the next few days there is a lot of this kind of history strewn about Vieques.

This being Sunday, there seemed to be a party in the central part with a fella playing loud music from a big stereo system.  There was a good crowd of local families (with and without kids) and a smattering of tourists talking, dancing, drinking a beer or two, and generally enjoying themselves.  

We strolled back to the other end of town (maybe 5 minutes) and finally hit the rack after a long day.  

Helpful tip when traveling in the Caribbean.  Get yourself some of that insect repellant without Deet.  Before going out (or right after a shower, or anywhere else for that matter) spray yourself liberally against mosquitos.  Most restaurants and bars have a can somewhere close.  Before going to bed it's not a bad idea to spray the covers as well.  

More later.

The Next Day at Staniel Cay

It's Saturday, 9 Feb 2013.  After a great night's sleep, we're ready to spend an entire day within 100 feet of sea level.  Naturally, based on our rise up the learning curve yesterday, that means we need to head back to the bar / restaurant for a quick breakfast before tracking down our Boston Whaler.  While we're there we sit next to some young Canadians who are also going to take a boat out for the day.  This is his first time, but we learn she's been there before as a youngster with her family and is enthusiastic to be back again.  She suggests a number of places we might want to visit that are particularly interesting.

Spending time at breakfast kills a little time.  We need to do that because almost all the staff boats over to the Yacht Club from another island, arriving around 0700.  Once there the staff swings into action pretty quickly, informal but efficient.

If you recall the first picture yesterday from the front porch of our cottage, there are docks right out in front with boats hanging from motorized slings.  Our boat is one of these, a few docks down from ours.  An older fella walks us down, makes sure we understand how things work, and cuts us loose.  We head out into the bay to the west of the island and start exploring.  From out here the number of boats anchored in the area becomes clear -- there are a lot of them.  

Once out on the bay, we're in no hurry.  We amble around getting the lay of the land, so to speak, and seeing the sights until Ann spots a beautiful beach no one had been on that day.  We had it all to ourselves.  This is the view to the west . . . 

. . . and to the east.

We set up shop and did a bit of exploring on this small bit of beach.




















The view from our little patch of sand was beautiful.  If you look closely at the horizon in the picture below, you can see the masts of the small armada of boats at anchor.

Ann heads off to see what she can see, and comes back excited about her frog.  This is actually a small bit or rock in the sand, but the resemblance is clear.

There is also a wind farm to the north of the main island -- a good move on their part since fuel is extraordinarily expensive, requiring shipping to get there.

I've mentioned how clear the water is in the BHs.  You can see this again in the forefront of the wind mills.




Ann waded just past our boat when she spotted a large star fish on the bottom.  She was uncertain whether the camera would get this clearly, but we decided to give it a try.  Mind you, there is about 4 feet of water where she took these pictures.  You decide.

After a few hours on the beach we head back out to explore more in the area.  On the way we pass another beach where there were swimming pigs - really, we have pictures to prove it!  

They come up to the boats for food.  We provided an apple core which was met with considerable satisfaction.  It was a bit ironic, though; the idea of a clearly contented pig with an apple in its mouth.  Had to stifle an urge to holler "run for your lives."  

After our porcine encounter of the first kind, we circled by Thunderball Cove.  This was the location of the James Bond "Thunderball" shooting we mentioned yesterday.  On the way there we ran into our breakfast companions who were about to do some snorkling at the cove.  It has a big sign above the site.  Folks at the bar reported it has excellent snorkling.  Depending on the tide, you can either swim through the tunnel on the surface or fully submerged.  There were a lot of boats in the area so we decided to head out to see some of the islands bounding the west of the Yacht Club's bay.  Nice ride, and another example of just how shallow it is out there.  Our outboard extended maybe 18 - 24 inches below the hull.  On our way out to the islands and back we drug the prop through some loose sand.  We were never going full speed at any point, but slowed down further.  Eventually we headed for what appeared to be deeper water.  

By the time we headed back for the Yacht Club, we were ready to relax before dinner.  There was no particular procedure for leaving the boat, so we tied our whaler to the end of the pier and heading back for our balcony overlooking the late afternoon bay.  As you can see, rush hour traffic was just clearing up on the water before us.  

After cleaning up a bit, we headed back to the bar / restaurant by way of the pool area immediately behind the cottages.  We didn't get much time around the pool, though quite a few folks used the area.  Nice as it was, I think our beach was a better deal.

On the right is the path to the bar (the light blue framework in the background) is the phone booth we'll use in the morning to file out flight plan to Puerto Rico.

The Yacht Club has a large dinner most nights.  Of course, you sign up during the day at the bar for something on the menu that night.  By 7:00 PM everyone who signed up has gathered in the bar for a drink or two, and one by one the groups are seated.  The food is excellent, served by all the same folks you've met and chatted with during the day in the bar / restaurant.   

Eventually, everything winds down.  A few folks stay in the bar to tell a few stories, have a few drinks, shoot some pool, and generally socialize.  Many have children with them and head back to their rooms or boats.  

I have this recurring thought that Key West might have been like this a long time ago.  Before the highway was built so one could drive to Key West, and before there were as many tour boats.  At that time, the only way to get there was by plane or boat -- just like Staniel Cay.  There are stories about the call in the bars and coffee shops late in the evening for the "last flight out", the last flight from Key West back to Miami.  There are also stories about mysterious mechanical difficulties arising at just those times, problems which delayed the flights until early the next day when flight crews found they could not replicate the problem and returned to Miami.  For better or worse, such was the attraction of the place.  

If you chose, you could hang around the Yacht Club bar until all hours and chat with people who have travelled extensively, have interesting backgrounds, and have views to match.  Conversations start up spontaneously and cover a wide range of topics.  It is the luck of Key West that they had people like Hemmingway capturing elements of their lives and using them in their writing.  Maybe some of the aura of Staniel Cay will be equally well preserved by folks equally talented.   

That's if for now.  Next up - a long day to Vieques PR.  

Off to the Bahamas

It's Friday, 8 Feb 2013.  We are finally off to the islands.  The plan is for an easy hop to Congo Town BH (airport designator MYAK) on Andros for 30 mins with customs, then another 30 mins flying to Staniel Cay (MYES) and the Staniel Cay Yacht Club on Great Exuma for two nights.  The Sandhurst is as good as it's word, calling a cab for our trip back to the airport and paying the fare.

Everyone knows the Bahamas (BHs) is a bunch of islands off the Florida Coast and north of Cuba.  If you haven't been there before, what you don't necessarily appreciate is just how many places there are to go, and the number of airports scattered about.  From Grand Bahama in the north to Great Inagua in the south is around 450 nm.  We were about to fly that entire length and then some, starting 50 nm north of Grand Bahama.

When you fly in the Caribbean, you talk to Miami Center quite a bit.  They have specific ideas about what routes to take (on the other hand, they seem to be just a call away anytime you need to chat).  In our case, this being our first big jump over the water (Lake Erie excepted), we intended to fly further down the coast to Ft Lauderdale before making the jump to Bimini, the closest island to Florida.  Not a chance.  Seems they like to keep traffic out of the Miami area.  We're not the first to think we could sneak up on the jump.  Our routing is to Angee, a waypoint just off the coast from Ft Pierce, then to Bimini and Congo Town.

The water after Bimini changes.  We'd been told it was shallow in the BHs.  The lighter colored water to the left and below is not waves, but is actually the floor of the Caribbean.  
Congo Town is on Andros east coast, maybe 3/4 of the way down, on the second largest island.  Our only reason to stop there was for customs.  


From the air Andros northern island appears to almost not be an island.  We didn't do a geological survey before departing, so could not say for sure, but much of the island 
seems to be swampy or semi-awash.  


Eventually we got to the east side headed down to Congo Town.  The land seemed to firm up substantially the further east we got.  The airport is just past the inlet below, past the peninusula in the picture.

One of the great things about the BHs is they "really" want to make it easy to visit.  We were in and out of Congo Town in just about 30 mins.  There are several forms they need, but the one that was most useful is what they call a Cruising Permit.  One of these little puppies lets you fly anywhere in the BHs without a flight plan.   

With cruising permit in hand, once in the BHs all we had to do was take off VFR for other islands.  We headed for Staniel Cay which is due east of Congo Town on the Exumas (just to the left of the B in New Bight in the map above).  

We experimented with FltPlan.com to file international flight plans (ICAO format).  Our experience was spotty.  FltPlan sends emails saying plans were filed.  Ft Pierce to Congo Town worked OK, but Nassau never heard of us when we got in the air and called enroute to Staniel Cay.  Not sure if that is because they don't do "in the air" clearances the way we do in the US, or if they are substantially more focused on getting and hitting a slot at the time filed for.  Whatever the reason, VFR flight following was easy enough to get with the right frequencies in hand.  



I said there were a lot of islands in the BHs.  

The pictures above and to the right show a few of the many that don't show on the maps.  These are between Congo Town and Staniel Cay.  They were a little peculiar in that they were on an east west line.  In an emergency it would have been easy enough to put her down and wait for help. 

We finally caught sight of Staniel Cay, that long line of islands below.  

I joked to Ann before we left that the island looked just big enough on the charts for the runway and a dock.  On actually seeing it, that wasn't too much of an exaggeration.  The runway runs mostly north-south and is centrally located.  

The Yacht Club and most of the people live on the west (right) side of the runway.

On landing and chocking her on the ramp, we bumbled around for a while trying to figure out how to get to the Yacht Club.  There was a small shop (the pink building below) just off the ramp where you could get gifts and iced cream, but the sign on the door said they were out for a while.  

After figuring out how the phone worked at the blue and yellow open sided pavillion to the left of pic above, the folks at the Yacht Club said they'd send someone.  Before that happened, Monique showed up with a golf cart.  Monique is the lady who runs the gift shop / snack bar / golf cart rental.  She was just about to pick up her kids, so we piled aboard and headed for the Club.    

We would learn over the next day that a lot of people on the island seem to hustle, working multiple deals all the time, and balancing them all with their families.  Monique was no exception.  Among other things, she would be taking her kids to a library fund raising event right after dropping us off.

A very short ride to the west side of the island and we're there, the Staniel Cay Yacht Club.  I'll tell you in advance, this was a very nice place to spend some time, and I'd go back in a heartbeat.  It's not the luxury hotel, covers turned down, mint on the pillow kind of experience some people require.  It was outstanding, so don't get the idea I'm criticizing when I make observations below.  

At Staniel Cay we had a cottage on the water, and the rate was outstanding for pilots - $165 a night less a 20% discount.  No TV except in the bar, and internet was iffy, all of which turned out to be blessings.  Bought a phone card at the bar so I could call for weather and clearances later.  

Getting checked in was a great introduction to the experience.  Monique dropped us off behind a garage by a path that led to the docks and the office.  A short walk and we're standing in front of the bar / restaurant.  We look around.  While there is a lot of activity, I don't see the sign for the office, so I head to the bar.  The fella at the bar points at a small building on the right edge of the dock and off we go.  When we get there, two fellas are chatting.  When I ask about checking in, one says "Mattie is not here right now.  You can check in at the bar."  

That pretty much summarized how everything works.  You need to check in, go to the bar.  Need a calling card for the pay phones (there are no phones in rooms), go to the bar.  Need to get access to the internet (it was on the fritz for most of our time), go to the bar.  Mid-day snack, drinks before dinner, dinner, drinks after dinner, chat with other visitors, chat with the staff . . . go to the bar.  

Mattie, by the way, is kind of a super-multitasker.  There are a lot of activities on the island, and everyone working one of those knows what they are doing.  Mattie, in addition to handling checkin when not otherwise occupied, fills in wherever she's needed, and seemed to coordinate where coordination was needed among them.  A very talented lady.  

So after going to the bar and checking in, we do a 20 yard bag drag to our accommodations, the Pink Cottage.  This a view from the porch of our cottage and a view of the porch.  

There are six cottages built right on the water like ours, and at least as many other suites. These are not the only accommodations on the island, but these are very nice.  There are also a number of homes to rent.  Frankly, a lot of visitors stay on their boats, either tied to the docks or anchored a short distance offshore.  

The room was comfortable, clean, and (although it's not clear we needed it this time of year) air conditioned.  There was plenty of hot water, and a small fridge to keep whatever you might want to keep chilled.

We got in early enough to have a beer and some bar snacks for lunch, and still had several hours before dinner.  As long as we were at the bar, we asked about renting a golf cart to explore the island.  

A call went out to Monique and 15 to 20 minutes later she's taking us back to the airport.  

But first, it seems there is a lot of construction on the island that takes place during the week.  This being Friday, most if not all the construction workers head for home and will return on Monday.  They are gathered in the blue and yellow pavilion.   Before Monique can get us the cart, she needs to take care of her role as airline ground manager, ticket taker, seat assigner, and baggage handler for this flight.  

The procedure is, like most things on Staniel Cay, informal and effective.  All the passengers seem to know Monique well.  She checks them off her list and they move forward with the second officer to the nose baggage compartment.  As they pass their bags forward #2 places them where he needs them, and the passengers head for the open cabin door.  

Once this is taken care of, Monique leads us to the gift shop / snack bar to get a cart.  We just need to get it back in about two hours.  

I mentioned this is a very small island.  The center is all water which you can see to the left of the runway above, leading to the sea on the south end of the island.  Our plan is to head for the southwest end of the island first, then move clockwise around the water until we get to the southeast end.  

The center of activity seems to be the center of the island between the airport and the yacht club.  There are businesses in some of the outlying areas, but the further you get from the airport / yacht club axis, the more you see personal homes and the less you see obvious economic activity.

The next few pictures look to the west of the road facing the bay on which the yacht club is located.

As you roam about, there are a number of interesting things you find, other than the sea views, that are not common at home.  Finding a radial aircraft engine to the right of one fella's driveway is in that category.  

On the other hand, some things are common enough.  As you drive out to the suburbs (so to speak ;-) folks seem to like a little space between their homes.  

Construction is pretty similar all over.  There is a lot of concrete.  We saw some deserted homes that appeared to have experimented with cinder block, or a concrete base with a wooden structure.  There were also wooden structures in some areas that seemed to have been around for a while.  It may be that there are locations that are better protected from the occasional hurricane during the summer, but concrete is clearly considered the more durable material, if one can afford it.  

We mentioned the construction crews earlier.  It seemed most of the new construction was taking place on the east side.  This yellow building is all concrete, and is located on a bluff looking to the east.  On the east side of the central waterway there is also dredging taking place to allow larger boats to dock further toward the north end of the inlet.  There is a lot of money going into this island.

As we circled to the east side we got some particularly good views of the central waterway.  

The north end of the island had many small islands which sheltered a large number of boats of all kinds -- sail and power.  There was one facility close to a magnificent beach whose drive was chained.  There was also a place called Thunderball Club, a large building facing west, which took its name from the James Bond movie "Thunderball".  The movie used an underwater tunnel at the north end of one of the small islands at left for some of it's scenes.  This club appeared deserted, though it could simply be a seasonal activity.  

The whole tour fit within our two hour cart limit and got us back to the Pink Cottage in time for some great views of the bay and the sunset from our patio.   

Inevitably, we made it back to the bar for dinner and a beer.  The place was packed with people staying at the yacht club, folks from the boats docked or anchored nearby, or folks from around the club.  

There was an interesting mix of people.  The bar seemed to be a major social center of the island, at least for visitors.  Everyone who got there by plane or boat ended up there for whatever your reason might be, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all points between.  Pretty good food as well, and the service was excellent - not white glove kinds of stuff, just good and friendly attention.  Lot of hustling folks make this place work.  There were a lot of Canadians all over the Caribbean.  Of course, its a bit cooler in Canada at this time of year . . . 

Interesting mix of rums, too - great "rum punch" according to Ann, and I liked the local BHs beer, Kalik.  We chatted about the following day's activities.  Ann made arrangements for a Boston whaler for morning before we turned in for the evening.