Sailing in the Virgin Islands

March 30 - April 10

Saturday

Skip, the owner of Island Yachts, met us early to deliver the dinghy and do the final checkout. We were out of the marina after breakfast on "Sailor Dog", a 37 foot Island Packet. We decided after we got going that we'd go to the Maho Bay for the first night out.

We picked up a mooring, tied the dinghy to it and took the sailboat over to a day mooring at Whistling Key, where we had snorkeled last week with Fred and Renee.

After a couple of hours of good snorkeling, we came back to the mooring, then took the dinghy to Maho Bay campground so Jan could find a new mask - hers was leaking.

We spent a nice evening relaxing on the boat in a beautiful place.

Some boats are bigger than others

Sunday

Today we sailed out of Maho East to Leinster Bay - not very far but we were tacking into the wind all the way. A very pleasant sail. This is a big heavy boat and today's wind, 8 to 10 knots, did not give it a good chance to show its stuff.  It seems that it needs 15 to 20 to get it going good. Maybe we'll see that later, although we're really enjoying the light breezes.

Tacking from Maho to Leinster Bay

We picked up a National Park mooring and went snorkeling around Watermelon Cay. All the snorkeling has been great, and this did not disappoint. It seemed that there were a lot more fish here than other places.

Another beautiful place.

Monday

We left Leinster with light winds and partly cloudy skies. We set the sail for a run downwind and slowly made our way East to Christmas Cove

We have decided that the "Puerto Rican Navy" (the name bestowed locally on Puerto Ricans who bring their big sports fishing boats - along with a lot of people - to the US and Spanish Islands on weekends and holidays) may have left Culebra by Tuesday (after Easter weekend) and we want to go there. This will be our first voyage to the Spanish Virgin Islands.

About half way to our start point for tomorrow, we finally got the edge of a rain squall and gave the "Sailor Dog" a little workout with some 20 knot winds. Boy, she handles 20 knots beautifully. We sail a few miles with nice winds and finally tuck into Christmas Cove.

We didn't expect good snorkeling, but we're pleasantly surprised with a nice afternoon of snorkeling around the island in the cove.

Bill taking care of business

Tomorrow we'll run downwind to Culebra.

Tuesday

We departed Christmas Cove around 8am with a starboard aft quartering tailwind and set a course of about 270 degrees to Culebro. There is a North swell of 4 to 6 feet. With the tailwind, we had a pretty uncomfortable downwind sail to Culebra of about 4 hours, arriving at Dewey, the only town on Culebra around noon.

I had a long check in by phone with customs and immigration. They asked if I had garbage aboard. We did and I said we did - which was a mistake. I realized I had made mistake, so a second person came on the phone and asked the same question. This time I said "no, we have no garbage we plan to leave here". Then a new person came on the line and accused me of being a liar, which I was when I said we had no garbage on board. They informed me that there is a $5000 fine for having "foreign" garbage.  After a lot of confusion, we finally got it straightened out. We will not have garbage.

We went to the Dinghy Dock Restaurant in Dewey and had our first meal ashore since Saturday. After a few beers and a good cheeseburger, we got a few groceries and returned to the boat.

At the Dinghy Dock

We motored out to Ensenada Honda mooring field. I swam quite a lot looking for a better mooring because ours does not allow for swinging a 180 degrees - we'll be aground. We could not find a better mooring so we set a stern anchor to assure we don' t swing 180 degrees and go aground.

We are anchored behind a reef in Ensenada Bay. It is quite a spot. The reef protects us from the rolling ocean waves, while providing an almost flat calm sea.

Tonight we should sleep really well.

Wednesday

Today we circumnavigated Culebra. It wasn't the plan!

We left Ensenada Reef after we figured out that the gear shift lever has to be in neutral for the engine to start. We had to call Skip to figure that out. Now we are educated on starting "Sailor Dog".

We went around the Western side of the island looking for the anchorages that we had been assured were there. They were, however the winds and north swell made all of them untenable. We went around the Northern point of the island hoping to find an anchorage on the Eastern side. No luck.

Instead we ended back almost where we started, which ain't bad.  We choose to spend the night on the anchor in Dewey Harbor.

"Sailor Dog" in Dewey Harbor, Culebra


Tonight we went to the Dinghy Dock Restaurant where the choice for tonight's menu (which was extensive) was whether you wanted your cheeseburger medium or medium Rare. Their scheduled food delivery had not come in. This place is completely dependent on delivery for everything.


Sitting in the Dinghy Dock Restaurant, we could look out at crystal clear water and see "big" fish swimming


 


"This is where I want you to tie up the dinghy"





We've seen enough of the Culebra, and we don't have time or a good weather forecast to go to Vieques, so tomorrow I think we'll head back to the USVI.






Thursday

This morning we got an early start, leaving Dewey harbor heading back to the USVI. The breezes were light out of the east/southeast. We put out the main and staysail, cut the motor on, tightly sheeted the sails and only tacked once.

We wanted to get some more water and decided to head into Charlotte Amalie. I soon remembered an earlier trip,when we had stayed at Crown Bay Marina so we called them to arrange for a berth for the night.

We arrived early afternoon and enjoyed a laid back afternoon around the marina and enjoyed lunch and dinner at their restaurant.

Friday

We are in some of the clearest water we've ever seen tonight.

The visibility in the water is incredible.  We could easily see the bottom in 25 feet of water. 

This morning we left Crown Bay seeking a protected anchorage for a projected shift in weather patterns tomorrow.

A "cold" front is coming through sometime tomorrow, which means the wind will shift from the East/Southeast to the North/Northeast and go from 5 to 10 knots to 25 to 30 knots.

We decided that the best protection would be on the South side of St John, so we motor/sailed over to Greater Lameshur Bay. This is the first place Clara and I went to upon arrival last week. However, we didn't get to the good snorkeling then. Today we did. We saw about as many variety of fish in about as clear of water as you can get. We snorkeled around for 2 to 3 hours, until we were all waterlogged. It was great.

This evening setting at the mooring, we could see the bottom 20 to 30 feet below as clearly as if there were no water.

Bill taking care of business back in Asheville.

We had picked up a Mooring closer to shore, but around sunset the bugs attacked, so we started for another mooring further from shore. Well, due to a comedy of errors, Jan ended up diving into the water to retrieve the boat hook, which Clara had to release when trying to pick up the mooring, because we had forgotten to shorten the line to the dinghy, and I couldn't put the boat in reverse to pick up the mooring for fear of tangling the the line in the prop, which would not have been good.

We retrieved Jan.

Saturday

It's a good thing we decided to stay here in Lameshur Bay today. The 'cold' front came through late this afternoon and the winds have picked up and we are getting heavy rain showers.  But before all this hit, we had an early morning sail, a long snorkel before lunch and another one after lunch. It still amazes all of us the wide variety of fish and coral we are consistently seeing. This has been by far the best snorkeling trip we've ever had.

Dave taking care of business

Unfortunately, Bill sprained his knee while trying to get in the dinghy, resulting in a lot of pain.  He soaked it in rum and that seemed to help.

Two lobster were hiding under the coral.  No one was brave enough to reach in and pull the lobster out



Another great day in paradise.

Sunday

This morning the winds were pretty strong, so we dinghied to shore and took a short hike in the Virgin Islands National Park. On return to the boat, we decided that we'd move from Great Lameshure Bay to Little Lameshure Bay, a move of a few hundred yards, but a more isolated anchorage with only 4 moorings.

I took a nice long swim/snorkel to check out the new bay, which is much like the other with a lot of fish and beautiful underwater canyons, then lunch and another swim/snorkel into a different part of the bay which had the most beautiful underwater landscape I've ever seen. It sure is going to boring when I have to start swimming in a swimming pool again.

Clara spent a lot of time snorkeling.

The fish with no tail

Just a nice lazy day. Nothing special, just a great day relaxing and enjoying the warm beautiful waters.

Monday

This morning we left Little Lameshur on a nice jibbing sail downwind to Christmas Cove (supposedly named for the Christmas Winds that occur in Dec/Jan and the protection this bay offers).

Before we left, we noticed a boat anchored outside the mooring field, and Clara identified that Beaufort was its hailing port.  I took the dinghy over this afternoon to check if it was someone we know.  Turns out that Jim Carr had bought the boat (a 34 foot Pacific Seacraft - "Merganser") in Beaufort at Beaufort Yacht Sales (Eddie Miller) last Spring.  Then he traveled North on the ICW and sailed (single handed) across the Atlantic to Spain and Portugal.  He had spent the winter there (with lots of interesting adventures), and then singled handily sailed the boat to the Virgin Islands, arriving a week or so earlier.  Quite the adventure and fascinating to talk with.

Tuesday

Today is the last day on the boat.  We motored from Christmas Cove to Red Hook and begrudgingly turned "Sailor Dog" back over to Skip. 

Our sailing journeys have been great on this trip.  When we go back to the Virgin Islands again, I don't think we'll bother going the the British Virgin Islands.  There are some really great places around St. John and I'd love to get back to the Spainish Virgin Islands when we've got at least 5 - 7 days to explore Culebra and Vieques.

Our anchorages and Pat and Dave's home

In the afternoon, we took a taxi to the Best Western Motel at the airport.  Later, Clara, Jan and I took a taxi back to downtown Charlotte Amalie for the gals to shop a while. 

It's hard to understand how so many jewelry stores can stay in business.  There must be a hundred or more in the shopping area.  They all seem to sell the same thing, in which, of course, I have no interest.  Tonight we had a relaxed dinner at the motel restaurant overlooking the bay.

Wednesday

Today is going home day - St Thomas to Charlotte to Raleigh.  We see the kids and spend the night with Slade.  

Our flight track out and back

It's been another great adventure!