At last, we finally got our “sleigh ride” sail (wind behind the
boat and she flies through the water) on our crossing from St. Martin to
USVI! We planned a 24-hour sail and
wanted to make sure we’d arrive during daylight so we left early afternoon
planning an overnight to arrive in St. John about the same time. Well, we had winds up to 25 knots and
were flying with speeds of up to 10 knots (we are ecstatic with 8 knots). In fact, our ETA quickly changed and we were
going to arrive in the middle of the night. S0, we changed our destination to
somewhat closer to St. Thomas and still had to drop one of our sails to slow the
boat down. It was wonderful! As our friends Frenchie and Pery were coming to visit in a couple of
days, we took a marina slip in St. Thomas so we could get the boat cleaned up and ready
for their arrival. They
flew into St. Thomas and we walked to the airport to meet them and - bribing them with painkiller drinks that we’d brought with
us - guilted them into walking back so that we could make a pitstop at the
beach. Let the fun begin!
Our first night, we decided to walk into Charlotte Amalie
(the capital city) for dinner.
Since they insisted on buying, we found a fabulous Spanish restaurant and enjoyed as amazing
dinner complete with sangria!
It was the perfect
start to their visit.
The next morning,
we took off early and stopped near the beach we’d visited the day they arrived
so that Frenchie could take a dip in the gorgeous blue water.
We got Frenchie back in the boat and took off for their first real sail
aboard our boat.
We again had an amazing
downwind sail of about 20 miles to the island of Culebra where we dropped
anchor in the bay near town.
We spent
the next day swimming (mostly Frenchie as the rest of us were wimps about the
cool water) and then took the dinghy into town to explore and try out the
“Dingy Dock” restaurant we’d found earlier (which turned out to be fabulous).
Next, we moved the boat around to the west side of the
island to anchor in a protected cove we’d found last time we were in
Culebra. This quiet and uncrowded cove has a small beach where could take the dinghy and then a path through the woods to beautiful Flamenco Beach. As we’d hoped,
Frenchie and Pery loved Flamenco Beach as much as we had on our previous trip. We spent the better part of the day walking
the beach and swimming in the gorgeous water. It was perfect!
The next morning, we pulled up anchor and headed towards
mainland Puerto Rico where we found an amazing anchorage near Cayo Icacos,
again, in the most amazing blue water.
We took the dinghy ashore to walk the beach which was partly sandy and
partly boulders but totally beautiful!
That evening as we were enjoying dinner, we looked to the northwest and
saw the most interesting formation in the sky.
We were all dumbstruck as we watched what looked like huge angel wings
forming in the sky.
By the time we
realized it was in fact a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral Florida, the rocket
was gone and no one had thought to take any pictures.
I think we all agreed, however, that it was
one of the best launches we’d all seen as the contrails formed what really looked like angel’s wings.
I found this picture someone else took and decided that I had to put it here. The launch was amazing!
Way too soon, it was time for Frenchie and Pery to fly back to
Florida. So, we picked up anchor and headed
to mainland Puerto Rico. We had to mostly motor as the wind wouldn’t cooperate
but the scenery as we approached the colorful the section of San Juan known as “La
Perla” as well as the forts that once protected the city made it worthwhile. There was no slip availability at the San Juan Bay marina so we dropped anchor nearby
and took them ashore in the dinghy so that they could catch their plane.
As everyone knows, with every bad there is usually some
good.
In this case, it was really
good!
Frenchie and Pery’s flight back
out corresponded almost exactly with my niece Brooke Feather’s flight in!
Brooke decided to fly in and spend a couple
of days with us exploring San Juan.
It was absolutely perfect timing!
Like us, Brooke is game for anything. So, we spent the first
day simply exploring Old San Juan.
As per our
usual modus operandi, the girls made a list of places we wanted to visit
(Brooke also found us a couple of fabulous restaurants) and Pedro navigated to
everything.
Our first stop was the bar
which claimed to be the creator of the Pina Colada. We obviously had to
imbibe.
The frozen cocktail was a much
fun as the witty bartender who served us.
Next, continuing on, Pedro went about checking must see items off of our list.
Possibly even more fun was the great deal of time we spent just
meandering the streets and admiring the adorable architecture.
We were very disappointed to discover that,
due to road construction, the famous “umbrella street” was temporarily
disassembled so we didn’t get our iconic picture.
However, since we had seen “La Perla” from
the sea and Brooke knew of his famous “Despasito” video by Daddy Yankee which
was filmed there, we headed over to see that area too (we old people had never heard of it).
The views of the waterfront and the colorful
houses made for a great excursion.
Back at
the marina, we were telling a friend (we met her on FB site for Puerto Rico
Cruisers) where we’d gone and she was shocked as she thought the area was
unsafe.
All I can say is that it was very interesting scenery and everyone we met was great. We never once felt unsafe or unwanted!
The next day, we all decided to hit the beach. We packed a picnic lunch with refreshments
and found a great spot under a palm tree where we spent a few hours soaking up
the sun and dipping into the gorgeous water.
That night, we again went back to Old San Juan, found another great
restaurant and spent a few more hours just wondering the streets. We were absolutely fascinated with the area and the
wonderfully friendly people.
Way way too quickly, Brooke’s visit came to an end.
She had an early flight the next morning so
we dinghied her ashore, put her in a cab and made one last run to the
grocery store (plus we had to give out the last of the cat food that Brooke had
bought to feed the stray cats nearby) before heading back to the boat and
pulling up our anchor to continue our sail back to the US.
We left San Juan and had 3 days of great sailing. Again, we had another “sleigh ride” sail with
strong consistent winds nicely pushing the boat along. Pedro even caught us another mahi mahi so we
had fresh fish to eat for a few days also. On our third day, we arrived in
Booby Cay on Mayaguana Island, Bahama. This is absolutely
one of my top favorite anchorages ever. We were
anchored about a mile off shore in 9 feet of the clearest and calmest water
imaginable. We’d no sooner dropped
anchor than I grabbed my snorkel gear and check out the surroundings. While not a lot of sea life, the scenery
combined with a gorgeous sunset and moonrise that night made for such an
idyllic setting that it felt like we were on some Hollywood movie set.
Originally, we thought we’d just sail around the Bahamas as we really
wanted to get back to the US for a few somewhat pressing matters.
However, the allure of the Bahamian water and
amazing weather was too strong for mere mortal sailors. So, rather than sail around, we decided to sail through dropping the anchor almost every night and staying an extra day at a couple of anchorages that were simply too beautiful to leave (or when the wind decided to skip a day). It ended up taking us
almost 2 weeks to get through but it was completely worth it.
Each anchorage was unique. Some were in
protected bays surrounded by rock cliffs, some close to beaches where we could hear the surf and one in the
middle of ocean where we anchored in 10 feet of water with no land in sight. With the exception of a storm that blew up one afternoon while we were sailing, we also had amazing weather. We've been to the Bahamas on several other occasions but this trip was enough to have us already planning to go back.
As we approached the Bimini Bank where we’d planned to spend
our last Bahamian night, our weather window looked great for an overnight
crossing to Florida so we decided to continue on and reached Ft. Pierce, FL
less than 18 hours after leaving the gorgeous Bahamas behind.
We dropped our sails and motored up the
Intracoastal Waterway reaching Palm Bay, FL in time to get the boat settled and
have dinner while watching a rocket launch from nearby Cape Canaveral.
While, I’m pretty sure they didn’t know we
were coming, we still assumed it was Space X’s way of welcoming us back!
As I type this we are sailing north at about 6.5 knots (yes, in
the Intracoastal) to meet up with friends for lunch before heading into
our home slip in Cocoa Village Marina for the next couple of months.
The boat's been gone from our marina for almost 5 years (and about 18,00 nautical miles) so it'll be fun to be back for awhile. We have lots of family and friends to see as
well as a few boat chores to catch up on.
But, we’ll fill you in on that next time!
