Caribbean Pinball

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Written February 27 – March 8, 2025

We started in Rio Dulce, Guatemala, headed to Utila, Honduras and on to Roatan, Honduras. There we wait a month for a weather window. Our next stop was to be Guanaja, Honduras, then on to Providencia, Colombia (an island 200 miles off Nicaragua). From there, on to Panama. Instead of turning south to Providencia, we turned north from Guanaja to the Cayman Islands. We waited a month in Cayman for a weather window and then on to Jamaica (not Providencia). Now, we have decided to head to the Bahamas and not Panama. Most of our travels this year were not as we had planned.

How Did We Get Here?

The distance from Cayman to Providencia, or from Jamaica to Providencia it about the same as from Roatan to Providencia. So, that should be OK. But, the distances are long, more than 300 NM which means a 3 day passage. We have few friends interested or willing to do this sort of trip and thus, it becomes 40 – 50 hours of travel for the two of us, non-stop without anyone to spell the two of us. Perhaps we are too old (ha!), too lazy (ha!), or just not inclined to to want to do these long passages. With crew they are more manageable and one does not get so tired, but that does not seem to be an option for us. One can hire crew, but for us, hiring strangers to pilot our boat while we sleep just does not feel right.

Then There Is the Weather

We had a very lovely passage from Guanaja to Cayman. An unheard of smooth passage for the Caribbean. Our passage from Cayman to Jamaica, well, it turned out to not be as smooth as we had expected. 24 hours in, we had endured 5 – 8 foot waves on the bow with 8 – 10 second periods almost the whole way. That is lots of bucking, rolling, diving and slamming which makes it uncomfortable and hard to sleep. Think of laying there, feeling yourself slightly lift off the bed and then return to the mattress. Over and over. And, this was supposed to be the good part of the passage. We had another 16 hours in the dark to get to Kingston with weather that was not expected to be this good. Jim had been sick the whole way which did not make continuing any easier. I was feeling anxious. We diverted to Montego Bay which was only 6 hours hours away. We and the kittens had had enough.

We’ve experienced hours of weather like this. It gets tiring. It is hard to get the sense of this from a photo, I guess I should post a video. But, trust me, it is wearing on a person.

What is Next?

I know you don’t want to hear about politics so I’ll spare you beyond the fact that this is creating a huge amount of stress for me. Add on top of that the long waits for weather (we like to move), less than comfortable conditions, and the stress of future bad passages, and both Jim and I have more than we want to deal with. We like coastal cruising and this is not tripping our trigger. Thus, we’ve hopped along the north coast of Jamaica and are, once again waiting for weather to head up to the lower Bahamas. From there, work our way north and back to the US. Once there, we don’t know yet.

Getting from Cayman to Jamaica

Feb 19 – 20, 2025

Working with our weather router, we expected a bit rougher seas leaving Cayman and also a bit rougher seas along the southern coast of Jamaica, but all in all, it was supposed to be a pretty good weather window. We really are wimps and our router knows this. We were also looking at the seas on our own and also expected it to be pretty good. Turns out our experience was much worse than we expected. As I already mentioned above that it was not pretty, I’ll just provide a few pics.

The seas were not too bad here, a bit confused but there were storms ahead. I don’t have any pics of the sucky weather as it was dark or I was occupied otherwise.
We managed to pick up two flying fish along the way. Nope, the kittens had no interest in eating them. They were perplexed by fish not in a can.

Lets Talk Jamaica

February 20 – March 5, 2025

We’ve spent nearly 2 weeks in Jamaica and so let me tell you about that!

Montego Bay

I’ve always had an impression that Montego Bay is a paradise and I’m sure for those who live there, it is. We had a bit of trouble finding the fairy book paradise, but we did enjoy our time there. We rented a car and visited several places outside of town which we enjoyed.

Rockland Bird Sanctuary

Rockland is a very small area where the owner have mostly kept the vegetation natural but added the fun of feeding hummingbirds sitting on your finger as well as small birds with seed on your leg. I know, kind of quirky, but the birds are all wild and why is that any different than bird feeders in your yard? We did see 11 total species, 5 of which were life birds (birds we’d never seen before), so all in all, a fun trip.

The two hummingbird species in Jamaica, the Red-billed Streamertail and the Jamaican Mango. So cool to see them so close!

One became so used to the hummers that you could get sidetracked watching other birds while feeding the hummers. Like a Mom with a baby…
Jim covered with Grassquits. He was being very still so they would stay.

Rose Hall Great House

Now this is an interesting place. A sugarcane plantation from the mid-1700’s. A pretty plantation sitting on a hill overlooking the pristine Caribbean Sea. The story is rather complex and reads like a murder mystery soap opera with lots of intrigue and death. It all comes down to Annie Palmer, the white witch who killed 3 husbands and still haunts the house. Apparently no one has lived in the house since the 1846 when Annie was killed. The place was in ruins for many years but fully restored in the 1960’s. We had a fun private tour with a great guide. You can read the story here.

The Rose Hall Great House
Not a bad view from the second floor landing. Quite appealing.

To add more interest, Johnny Cash owned a plantation house just up the hill from Rose Hall, has performed concerts here and wrote a song about Annie Palmer.

Annie Palmer’s grave at the plantation. She is apparently the only one buried there. Her husbands and lovers are buried farther afield.

These were the two highlights of our time in Montego Bay beyond meeting a really nice guy who owned the rental car company and took us around in his hybrid Porsche Cayenne to find a few plumbing fittings to fix our watermaker. His generosity was above and beyond the call!

The best jerk chicken place in Montego Bay. Called Porkies. So, we tried the pork and the chicken. Go with chicken. The pork has LOTS of fat on it. It just did not work for us.
You could rent jet skis and little jet ski cars. We did neither, but it was fun to see the jet ski cars.
I always love seeing grocery items I’ve never seen before in the groceries. I loved these clear plastic cans. Seeing is not buying for me in this instance.

Waltzing Across Jamaica

After Montego Bay, we had short trips, no more than half a day runs east across the top of Jamaica to each of our destinations. Weather was manageable and the days not too long.

Discovery Bay was a beautiful and very local community. The water was a bit rolly so the flopper stoppers are out.
I really enjoyed this MacGyver boat. Not quite sure how to use it or what is it used for.
We took the dinghy to the Coast Guard dock and talked them into letting us tie up. A walk through town lead us to this little beach bar area. Definitely very local. A beer seemed a safe bet. We could very easily have had a spliff as well.
Sunset from the Coast Guard dock before heading back to Rincon.

Our next stop was Ocho Rios. This IS a cruise ship stop and has a big mega-all-inclusive hotel surrounding the small bay.

We did not even venture ashore but invited another cruiser over for drinks. Logan is from New Zealand headed for the Bahamas. The mega ressort in the background. Luckily, all the speed boats in the harbour had quieted down for the night.
A pretty sunset. If a cruise ship was in port, it would have blocked much of this view.

Port Antonio

Our last port in Jamaica is Port Antonio in the northeast corner of Jamaica. Pretty much south directly south of the Windward Passage which is the gateway to the southern end of the Bahamas. Port Antonio is the home of the Caribbean banana business, starting in the 1880’s. A bunch of movies have been filmed in this corner of Jamaica I’ll let you look all those up. I don’t think I’ve seen a one. We are at the Errol Flynn Marina. No Errol Flynn did not own it but he lived here and had big parties with all his “friends” down here on what is called Navy Island which he at one point owned.

Rincon at the Errol Flynn Marina. Run by the Government, but with very pretty grounds to walk, a bar and a restaurant. During our few days there, lots of boats came and went, some headed south or west, others headed north like us. Definitely a gateway to the Western Caribbean.
There are small grocery stores here, but Port Antonio still relies on it’s street markets for produce. The stores have very little.
Brings new meaning to a cut of meat!
We never did figure out what this sign was trying to really say…

We rented a car for a few days and had great ideas for things to do while here from a couple of cruising boats here.

Scatter Falls and Rafting the Rio Grande

We took a short drive up into the mountains from Port Antonio

Our guide Ben took us on a trail through private land to the falls.
Scatter Falls. A pretty fall, one of hundreds that drain out of the Blue and John Crow Mountains in eastern Jamaica. Tall and steep. Yes, these mountains were the home of Bob Marley.
There was a small pond on the side that you can climb over to by crossing the waterfall on the rocks. Turns out they are not slippery. We had it to ourselves!
We then had a lovely 2 1/2 hour journey down the Rio Grande in Jamaica from the mountains to the sea. Our personal bamboo raft with flowers and our trusty Captain Louie. A very relaxing afternoon with a beer from another bamboo raft that came by to sell us a beer.
As well as rapids, there is lovers lane!
And yes, that is the ocean out there. Louie is polling our raft into shore. I would not have wanted to take this raft into the ocean!

Reach Falls

While we still had the car, we took another day trip to Reach Falls. This is a more public fall, managed by the Government. Some facilities, like a parking lot, bathrooms, paved trails and a life guard.

The drive to the far east side of the island took an hour and a quarter. Sometimes the road was good like this. This is both directions and narrow, but a pretty view.
The same road. Sometimes it was dirt and very potholed. It was a long tiring drive.
Arriving at the falls and walking down to them was pretty. The trail was paved but covered with moss.
Passing by the upper falls. There is apparently a “rabbit hole” you can climb up to and go through underwater. No thanks!
The falls from the bottom with a very large swimming area. All the falls we saw seem to be these limestone creations. They remind me of the Soda Dam in New Mexico, or Mammoth Hot Springs at Yellowstone (although these falls are not geothermal).
You can climb over to a cave on the right of the calls and then come out through the fall right behind these folks. We did do that. Actually kind of fun!

The drive back was long but worth the trip.

Jim and I had never considered visiting Jamaica but are glad we did. Nearly everyone we met was friendly, glad we were visiting their country and not putting on the the hustle. One hears lots of being unsafe in Jamaica and we never felt unsafe as we visited the country.

Jamaica is very proud of their musical heritage. A part of a mural in Montego Bay.

The only thing I found a bit frustrating is that it is very hard to find a trail or beach or waterfall that does not require a guide or payment to enjoy it. And the prices can be steep, as much as $30 USD per person.

It is easy to feel outnumbered by the cruise ships in the Caribbean. yes, we are anchored and there was space for the cruise ship to turnaround to dock between us and dock on the far side. (The joys of a long lens). Part of the “issue” is that the cruise ship industry “allows” for charging for everything. It does allow folks to make money, but so changes the experience for non-cruse ship visitors.

As we have boated the western Caribbean this season and last, we have met fellow boaters who are kindred spirits, they have had many of the same worries, concerns, fears and joys we do. As one boater we met said, “cruisers connect instantly as they are all facing the same situation.” we have round this in spades here in the Caribbean.

Backing up to Cayman – A Family Visit

I’ll leave you with one of those happenstance moments. A long month before we got to Cayman while still in Roatan, Jim’s cousins told us they were taking a cruise and would be in Roatan. No way we would be there when they came through. That was true. But, they were also stopping in Cayman, Yes, we were so slow in moving due to weather that they caught up with us in Cayman. We were their excursion.

Jim and Cousin Kathy. We have driven by the house in Tennessee multiple times going back and forth to the boat when it was in Virginia. We often stopped, but this was the first time they got to see the boat.
Jim and Owen, Kathy’s grandson exploring the engine room.
Howard determining if there was sufficient space in the engine room.

We’ve just spoken with our weather router. It looks like a Wednesday morning (March 5th) departure from Port Antonio for Inagua, Bahamas. A mere 32 hour run. Weather looks… reasonable. Wish us luck once again.