Friday 8th March Mourne Park Northern Ireland

However this was not the end of the saga, on Tuesday, having booked my flight back to Ireland, leaving San Juan Puerto Rico on Thursday 7^th I received a phone call from the Coast Guard informing me they were going to serve me with a removal order to be fulfilled within seven days, after which followed a number of frantic phone calls to underwriters and local representatives, who affirmed the insurance would pay any costs. The order was finally issued to me on Wednesday at 3.30pm and stated that all fuel and oil must be removed from the vessel within ten days, so the boat could stay where she was! More phone calls and assurances that all was in hand (if the order was not fulfilled I as the registered owner was, in the eyes of the Coast Guard, liable and would be billed or fined or both. After an early supper I retired and turned on the TV which was on the weather channel, and talking about a major storm bringing high winds and snow to the New York area where planes were already being delayed and cancelled (my flight plan involved a change of planes in New York). After not allot of sleep I left the hotel at 1am on Thursday for my 6am flight expecting the worst, in the event there I encountered no delays and got into Dublin at 5.40 am on Friday 8^th although I left Puerto Rico at 21°C New York at 0° and Dublin at 2°C and raining, however when my suitcase arrived I noticed there was no lock on it, on opening it I found a card from the US Transportation Security Administration, informing me that my bag had been selected for physical inspection, fearing the worst I left a thorough check until I reached Mourne Park, where I found the only thing missing was an elderly computer and its battery, which I had used as my course computer on Snow White, another link with her lost.

Monday 4th March 2013 Ponce Puerto Rico

Well thats it folks, just recieved an email from the underwriters saying "After further discussions with surveyors, we are treating this claim as a total loss" and after phoning around the only advise seems to be 'go home'

Thursday 21st February Ponce Puerto Rico

Billy and family have all gone their separate ways and Snow White is still on the rocks in the secluded cove, the last I heard someone had been on-board, so I guess anything usable and portable has gone, and she was flooded inside, so all electrics will be of no use; from all accounts she will be written off as a “constructural loss” as the cost of recovery is going to be virtually the value of the boat, but until somebody actually does something I wait.

Billy & Nick in Central Park

Central Park at night

Into the central Mountains

In the meantime I have managed to take a couple of trips out into the mountains with Billy, and today a trip into Ponce to the Castillo Serralles (not a castle but a fine house overlooking Ponce) with their formal and Japanese gardens, then into the centre of town.

Back Street in Ponce

Ponce from Castillo Serralles

Japanese Garden

In Ponce

Veg market in Ponce

Herse and old building Ponce

Local Masks in the park

Thursday 21st February Ponce Puerto Rico

My brother, Billy, hired a car today and with his son and girlfriend set off to find Snow White overland, we found a track that got fairly close and then started walking, after just over an hour I spotted the mast and found her virtually where I left her, possibly slightly closer in but well heeled over onto her starboard side. I will try tomorrow to see if anything can be done to start rescue procedures. The sight of her abandoned on the rocks like that was very disconcerting, however the walk was spectacular.

 

Monday 18th February 2013 Ponce Puerto Rico

I decided to leave Boca Chica on Wednesday 13^th so arranged with the marina manager, on Tuesday, to clear out in the morning, to leave the country the boat has to be searched with a sniffer dog as well as customs and leave immediately, and got my exit stamp from immigration; the formalities were finally completed by 10am and so lines were let go and off we went again. The NE winds I was hoping for did not materialise so tacking was again necessary, although the winds were a pleasant 10-20 knots from the East to South Eastgiving me an easy ride at 3-4 knots, the only life around being the odd sea bird and briefly a pod of large black dolphins. On Friday the wind picked up blowing 20-25kn with a fairly short swell of about 3m and a cross swell to top it off, we finally got past Cabo Rojo, meaning we had crossed the channel between the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, early afternoon on Saturday 16^th After sunset the wind moderated to 10-15kn from the East, so an easy run should have resulted in arrival at Ponce on Sunday morning, however at about 3.15am on a clear night, there was a sudden jarring bump, first thought we had fallen off a steep wave, but checking the GPS we were off course and close to land, another bump, and could see cliffs around in the dark and breaking waves driving us closer, so started engine and tried to reverse off, more bumps and little progress, I moved to ahead and started turning the bow away from land, we managed to get about but made little progress away from the rocks; realising we were now aground and starting to get pounded into the rocks I put out a mayday and was answered by the US Coast guard immediately, who contacted SeaTow who said they would be out at first light (about 6.30am) the engine stopped after what felt like the propeller touching down and she started listing to starboard as the keel was hard aground, with waves lifting and pounding us down again, the forestay bracket came adrift and I managed to pull down and stow the jib and douse the main, after a while the forestay parted at the masthead and I secured the self furling along the starboard side, I also inflated the dingy as a way off if I needed it. SeaTow arrived in a rib and not being able to get close because of the breakers, swam a line over and tried to pull us off with no effect, so they sent for a bigger boat which would not arrive for a couple of hours, and they stood-by, the coast guard had deployed a helicopter, the seatow captain and the helicopter crew said they were worried for my safety aboard so I agreed to try for shore, a small pebble beach was now about 20yards away, so putting a few waterproof bags of essentials (ships documents, computers and clothes) into the dingy I rowed ashore not getting too wet.

 However having looked around the beach I could find no way up on to the cliff about 20 feet above, we were in a small cove carved out by the sea, after a while the seatow captain offered to try to float in a line to pull me out, and the helicopter said there was the option of a basket, I decided to try to row out, there were two lines of breaking waves one close to shore the other at the entrance to the cove, so after reloading and refloating the dingy I picked my time and rowed out fairly easily to board the rib. As the bigger boat was not due for aa while yet we headed for Ponce marina to await it, an officer from immigration turned up and went through the formalities, but kept all ships documents until Snow White could be seen and cleared-in. When the larger SeaTow boat arrived we went out to the cove , but the waves at the entrance were now much too big to allow a safe approach, after a number of phone calls to head office we returned to Ponce and a brief interview with the local marine police, then a taxi ride to a hotel to try to get some rest.