Hanging around St. Thomas

Jackson, Jen and Luke left us last week and we have been hanging around, enjoying the island and doing small chores.   We are currently at Water Island 'cause there is a great wifi signal.  We go ashore, do our boat chores, and listen on the radio to the passenger ferry, "Rabbit," as they leave Crowne Bay Marina.  

Rabbit says, "Permission to leave the marina with 5 passengers on board."  Crowne Bay says, "Roger, Rabbit."  It never gets old.

We’d had a problem with our roller furler and we were able to find a rigger to put it right.  If you need rigging, we would highly recommend Skip the Rigger at Compass Point Marina.  He probably has another last name – but we don’t know it. 

Brad will be here on Saturday so we are just lounging around, making sure we are seaworthy for his 2 weeks with us.  We don’t know much about St. Croix – except in Captain Ron they went to an island near there.  Remember that part?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhwM_vVQLxo

St. Croix is about 40 miles so that will give Brad a chance to do a nice crossing.  Our tentative plan is to give him a day or two to set his clock to island time and then head to St. Croix.  After a day or two exploring there we will likely come back to St. John and then clear into the BVI.  (It’s a mile from the closest point of St. John to Tortola.)  Then, like with Jen’s family, we will hit the highlights, Soper’s Hole,  Norman Island, the Baths and the Bitter End on Virgin Gorda, Foxies on Jost van Dyke, Cane Garden Bay and whatever else looks interesting. 

We have made arrangements to put the boat to bed for the hurricane season in Puerto Rico at Palmas del Mar.  Again, Glen’s fluency in Spanish has been invaluable as our communications with the marina have progressed.  After Brad leaves, we will make our way west  (might actually get a chance to use our sails!) for a couple of weeks before hauling sv Blue Pearl.

Pirates attacking a cruise ship

Long Bay, Charlotte Amalie

A modest cruiser

We have provisioned with rum - but will have to do that again because Glen keeps over-sampling.  Pussers is $11 per bottle in the BVI.  Woooo hoooo!

As soon as we sail onto Cane Garden Bay

We can’t figure out the darn wind.  It is supposed to be calm in the early morning and stronger later in the day.  And sometimes it is.  But sometimes it’s not.  When you are trying to schedule your movements around the naps of a 2 year old it gets challenging. 

We left St. John for Sopers Hole in the BVI.   It was only 5 miles but we bounced and bumped our way as usual, AGAINST THE WIND.  We chartered from Sopers in ’95 so it was cool to be there again.  We checked in and Glen tried to invoke a smile from the immigrations and customs people with limited success.  C and I people from all countries seem to have had similar training in being “challenging.”  Anyway, $12.63 later and we were admitted for our short tour.  We bought several bottles of Pussers Rum for Glen and an ice cream sandwich for Jack and then went to the Jolly Roger’s for burgers for dinner.  A perfect day.

Next day we tried again to outsmart the wind and sailed east to Virgin Gorda and the Baths.  Bounced and bumped and eventually motor-sailed-tacked to the Baths. After circling the day-mooring balls for a few minutes we scooped one and set off for the beach and the Baths.  Can’t describe the Baths.  Google them to get a sense.  We played on the beach, traversed the caves and then played on the beach some more.  We had planned to stay at the nearby marina to get more info about the place.  We might leave the Blue Pearl there this summer for the hurricane season and it seems like a good place.

Wow!  Caves!

The Baths

Swimming with Momma and Daddy

After a quick reconoiter, we sailed the 2 miles to Trellis Bay for the evening.  We had a beer at “Da Loose Mongoose” to get the wifi password and headed back to the boat – only to find we couldn’t crack the wifi.  How did they spell the password?  Anyway, no wifi.  Dang!

Cane Garden Bay

People and Places and Callwoods Rum

Still running after 400 years

Art shot

We stayed at Cane Garden Bay for a couple of days – enjoying the beach and the Callwoods Rum.  Check out the lyrics to Jimmy Buffett’s “Manana.”  Jackson is loving his swimming and Glen is loving his rum.

We took off for Sandy Cay, Jost van Dyke.  It is about an acre island – the picture perfect island typical of the Caribbean.  Played in the sand, frolicked in the water, harvested coconuts and then headed to Jost van Dyke to be ready to clear Customs Monday morning.  

Closs family

 

Swimming off the boat!

Glen went ashore to case out Customs, found them open and was able to clear us out.  He checked out Foxies – the crazy island bar – but it is more suited to people without busy little two-year-olds.  We spent the night at Little Jost – met a couple from North Vancouver who are impressed with the BVIs but no so much their charter boat.  Headed  back to the USVI, clearing in at St. John and then to Water Island off Charlotte Amalie. 

The Closses leave us on Tuesday morning.  We will dinghy them to shore at Lindberg Bay and walk  them to the airport.  After 48 hours of sleep we will be missing them desperately!

Navigating

USVI to BVI

Ice cream sandwich and a donut for lunch!

Wow!  Great times in the Virgin Islands!  We stayed overnight at Honeymoon Bay on Water Island – right beside Charlotte Amalie.  Jack was crazy in the water – running in until he was over his head and then floating on his back.

Pelican friend at the Dinghy Dock Bar

In the morning we headed 1.2 miles over to Lindbergh Bay so Jen, Pam and Jackson could walk to the airport to get Luke.  Glen stayed on the boat to do important tasks and not drink rum.

In less than an hour – and  much less than 4 ounces – Luke was on the boat and we were heading back to Honeymoon Bay.  Great place for all of us – but especially Jack.  We think it was a good start to Luke’s vacation.

So the parrot said... "OK, I give up.  Where did you put the boat?

We are into new cruising guides now – not territory we’ve read much about.  We stopped at Christmas Cove on St. James Island after cruising through past the big cruise ships in Charlotte Amalie.  Great snorkeling, according to Jen and Luke.  We took Jack to the beach to review throwing rocks.  He did pretty well, although he almost nailed his own foot a couple of times.

Back floating

Left Xmas for a morning in Cruz Bay.  Found two new kinds of rum to buy.   Then onto Francis Bay.  More beach, more rock throwing, back floating and running into the waves.  Jack did stuff, too.

Holy Crap, Gran.  You should see all the food under your bed!

Captain Papa - I think we've got the right-of-way

More to starboard, Papa

Nav aids

I think Yan Diesel needs oil

King of the castle

Now who's captain?

Super snorkler

We are in Francis Bay on St. John planning a brief tour of the BVI and then a quick trip back to St. Thomas to ship the Closs family off for their return trip home to Vancouver.

Jen and Jack!

We had an awesome cruise with the Inmans – but all good things come to an end.

We docked at Puerto del Rey in Fajardo after a brisk sail up from Ferro Bay on Vieques.  We went to Ferro to see the bio-luminescence – which was pretty spectacular.  But no more so than some of the same up in the Pacific Northwest.  Some times at night when we flushed on Miss Pearl the head would light up like the lights were on. 

Anyway, we had a great sail and we rewarded ourselves by turning on the AC when we hooked up our yellow dock line (power cord) at Puerto del Ray.

Next day we said our goodbyes to the Inmans after a fabulous lunch in San Juan – they are off on a supplementary adventure to explore the island.  They are the perfect guests... except that they won't let you pay your fair share.  So I guess that makes them the perfect guests!!!

Pam's Salad Nicoise at Miros in San Juan

We left the airport and promptly got lost.  We drove in ever expanding circles until we found a Costco and bought a GPS.  Woooo hooooo!  After paying $500 ransom, we left with the new GPS, two cases of wine and fresh fruit and vegetables for our visit with Jen and Jackson.

Back to the boat – with directions from GPS Jill – to stow our treasures and rest up.  We’ll need the rest – Jackson doesn’t stop.  

Got them at 10:30 pm (6:30 their time) and Jack played shy for 2 minutes.  Got into the car and sped back to the boat.  Now Jack was NOT shy and wouldn't stop chatting.  Told us his travel stories all the way back to Fajardo.  Had a nice bedtime and then a great sleep. 

Gran's my favorite!  Ice cream sandwich and new net!

Alright, let's get this show on the road.

Spent a day letting them get their hours organized and then headed out on Thursday for Isla Palamino.  Had a blustery sail but only for 5 miles.  Then an evening on a mooring ball and off for an early start on Friday for Culebra. 

The weather didn’t cooperate and our pregnant Jen had a relapse of morning sickness.  Ugly and bumpy – but we were into Bahai Tamarindo before noon.

Great beach toys

Master of my domain

Body surfing

Waiting for big waves

Serenading

Helping Gran make dinner

Nuggets and a brewskie at El Batey - that's livin'

We are back in Culebra, snorkeling, playing on the beach, playing on the boat - just hanging out in the Spanish Virgin Islands.  We've seen many of the boats we got to know in Luperon while we all waited for weather - Southern Cross IV, Falcon's Nest, Seabbatical 1, Fawkes, N'er Do Well - and have heard others on the radio.

It is very windy now and will be for the next few days.  Saturday looks like a good day to head east - Maybe to Saint Thomas?!

The Virgin Inmans

We told Mike and Charlotte that since they were arriving close to midnight, they would need to stay overnight in a hotel  and then rent a car to come to us. After all, getting around when you are boat-based is challenging. But from our anchorage in Salinas it turned out that renting a car was a piece of cake. Sidney, the Hertz dealer would deliver the car to the marina.

So we rented the car for 2 days. We adventured with Colleen and Bruce from Serenity on day 1, winding all through Ponce until we found our buddy boat, Vagabond still in the Ponce Yacht Club. We shopped ‘til we dropped – actual American stores were fascinating after all our time in the Bahamas and the DR. Then we headed back for a terrific meal of fresh mahi on Southern Cross IV.

The next day, we took off in the morning to gather Mike and Char from the San Juan airport. Got on to the freeway headed for Ponce – damn, that’s the wrong direction. Did a U-turn, went through an automated toll booth without the right sticker. Not a good start. Waiting for a nice fine on our VISA when we get the bill.

What a cool hotel! It is right in the airport, quite reasonable and a terrific place for guests to arrive. Make sure to remember that one! Great to see M & C. We’ve been anticipating this visit for a long time so we were overjoyed to see them.

We got them back to the boat – went back out to do some provisioning. We had lunch at the recommended chicken stand – Viktor Pollo. Back to the boat for drinks and yapping. Next morning we set out for a 20 mile run to a little fishing village named Patillas. Ran the boat up on a coral head named &%$**$$##. Set a stern anchor and kedged ourselves off and then anchored for the night. A manatee floated up and said, “Good job.” Explored the town. Not much there. Beers, garage sale, and then back to the boat for mahi, drinks and sweet dreams.

Next day we actually reached our destination in all this…. the Virgin Islands. Vieques (vee AYE case) Island is one of a number of islands in the Spanish Virgins. It was primarily used for military purposes until only recently and so it is not as developed as other nearby islands. We enjoyed a great swim. We walked up the beach and rescued a young couple who had become stuck in the sand in their jeep. Karma rewarded us for our efforts right away. We met George, Iris and a number of their friends who were enjoying the weekend at Green Beach. They spent most of the day in the water like Water Buffalo – eating snacks and drinking PR moonshine rum. They enjoyed Charlotte’s antics as she tried to knock a coconut from a tree – and then invited us to join them for refreshments. They recommended some places for us to visit and told us of a great marina where we may end up leaving Blue Pearl at the end of this season.

In the morning, most folks had scattered so we decided to head out. We started for Isabel Segunda and then shifted course for Culebra. We headed into Ensenada Honda – a big bay near the town of Dewey. Had beers at the Dinghy Dock Restaurant with Colleen and Bruce – then set off to explore a bit. Found the mercado (store) and the panederia (bakery) and finally Momacita’s – a nice little bar on the canal near the ferry dock. Back to the boat for sundowners, crib and another great dinner – and lots of rum.  Rum led to guitars, singing, crooning - man we were good!  Tylenol en la manana (the morning.)

Spent a day snoozing and reading at our Dakity anchorage and then went snorkeling with Bruce and Colleen. Saw great reefs and lots of rays. When the sun is out, the colours in the water are just spectacular. Said our goodbyes to Serenity as they head farther east. We sailed a couple of miles to nearby Culebrita to walk to the lighthouse, swim and relax. Back a couple of miles to Bahia Almadovar for another great dinner, drinks, crib, reading and an early bedtime. Tough life!!!

Pollo carbon

OK - rock it - just like in the snow

How do you get the dam things down?

PR moonshine

Not open today

Dominos and huge hamburgers

Culebrita lighthouse

views!

Top of the lighthouse

View from the lighthouse - nice boat!

Happy Hour with Colleen and Bruce

Local bars

Whoooo hooooo

Stingray

Hardy sailors

and snorkelers