Swimming in St. John

We have spent the past week working our way around St. John, stopping in most of the harbors, even though they are only about 4 miles apart. The beaches have been very good, the snorkeling average and the sailing quite nice. St. John is nearly all national park. The facilities include hiking trails, underwater snorkel trails, mooring balls and moorings for dinghies at the dive/snorkel sights.

We ran into a cruising couple who we had previously met in Long Island in the Bahamas, but had not seen since. We were preparing to go over to their boat for evening drinks and eats. We had all showered after a long day of beach and swimming. Our contribution to the food was prepared the dinghy loaded. The captain went to step down into the dinghy, wearing a backpack with all of our stuff, including dvd player for the kids entertainment, just as Isabelle moved and stepped in front of me in the dinghy. I began to lose balance tipping backwards in slow motion, quickly acknowledged the situation and mentally prepared for the scamper up the boarding ladder. Fortunately noting was damaged by the salt water bath, except of course my humor. The crew was concerned only about the dvd player.

I got even, taking the family on a 4.5 mile hike in the St. John mountains that they are still complaining about ... it was hot, steep and not very worthwhile.

We are now in St. Croix, which is a bit off the beaten tourist track so a little quieter, unfortunately with a bit of bumpy anchorage.

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St. John

AhHA - this is why you do it. Rae Ann spontaneously says "this is better than the Bahamas...". The 350+ miles of beating into trade winds, seas and the equatorial current are now forgotten (not really but I get it now). I was very skeptical for a while there, even from the Spanish Virgins to the USVI was a miserable beat, in calm conditions no less.

We left St Thomas in the morning for a trip to the north side of St. John, 15 miles in all. The seas were flattened by the surrounding islands. The BVI's, Jost Van Dyke is close enough to touch, the islands are absolutely gorgeous - stunning mountains and beaches. The wind was 10-25 knots, sometimes a cay got in the way so we had to tack around it.. what pure enjoyment. We now have about 6 weeks give or take in this playground, and that is what it is a playground for boaters.

St. John is 70% national park and beautifully maintained. No one is allowed to anchor any longer, but there are plenty of park provided moorings, costing $15/night, which I am happy to contribute as it seems that it goes only back into the park. We will spend the next week or so circumnavigating the island to check out the beaches, hiking and snorkeling from as many anchorages as possible.

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Now We Go Fast

We left Culebrita on Friday morning for the trip to the USVI, goal St. John, about 30 miles. Well we got out in the Virgin Passage between Culberita and St. Thomas and got all shaken up by opposing winds, seas and currents. Not alot of fun but only about an hours worth of discomfort. However, it was long enough for Isabelle to get sick. So as we came closer to St. Thomas I asked if she wanted to stop and get a new outboard engine, something we have been talking about as our 5hp is just over matched now. She said yes that would make her feel better. So we detoured to Crown Bay, anchoring up against the west side of Water Island. We are now the proud owners of a 15hp Yamaha, and boy do we go fast. Jake gets a concerned look on his face and says "he worries about stuff flying out of the dinghy"... probably him. Isabelle holds on to the painter and laughs the entire time, only wanting to go faster.

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Culberita

Culberita is a small uninhabited island just to the north and east of Culebra. It has a beautiful beach, a well protected if somewhat swell ridden anchorage, some good reefs for snorkeling and fishing. It is also a turtle reserve, and as we are here it is egg laying season, so there are many many turtles swimming around the boat.

We came in here on Sunday, and while less than Saturday, there were about 75 boats in - all just for the day - celebrating the Easter holiday. Most of the boats were power boats that came over from Puerto Rico. The would anchor stern to the beach and jump off into the water. All having a very good time. Now mid-week it is just us cruisers - 4 boats in all.

We will leave Culberita for the USVI's later this week after the east winds lay down a bit.

Jake has been working on his swimming and is doing quite well. He also caught his first fish yesterday, a Remora (they have suckers on the top of their head, which they use to attach to sharks, rays, turtles, boats, divers), unfortunately not an eating fish so we let it go, but it played and fought quite a bit so Jake had a nice time.

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The Rescurers

We took our dinghy about 2 miles to the north of Cayo Luis Pena for a snorkeling adventure, after seeing a dive boat stop there earlier in the morning. We were rewarded with a great reef - very long - with some great formations and several fish including a 3 foot hog fish. The kids did great and have really become very good at snorkeling.

Just after we started our trip back, two people who were snorkeling just to the east of us, on a rocky point were waving. We went over to them and they frantically hailed us to get in our dinghy. We obliged. They were in Puerto Rico for their first wedding anniversary and had taken a plane to Culebra for a day in the sun and water. They had snorkeled off a beach just to the south and east of the point. They got caught in the north flowing current and could not get back. They had then panicked, trying to get up on the rocks they had scraped themselves up pretty bad and lost one of their snorkels. We gave them a ride back to the beach for which the were very grateful. I tried some good natured advice, like "do not fight the current, just ride the current then head towards the nearest beach and walk". Needless to say they were shaken enough to suggest that I was wasting my breath as they were never going in the ocean again. The asked what we were doing in the Spanish Virgins, so we very briefly explained our cruise, which given that they did not ever want to see the ocean again, really did not register as even possibly true.

Anyway, it was good to be in the right place at the right time to lend a hand. The kids were clearly impacted by the panic of the rescued couple but recovered quickly.

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Sailing into the Spanish Virgins

We left the south coast of Puerto Rico in the early morning of Monday (3 am to exact). We attempted to make Vieques but were fighting wind, sea and current. By the way the sailing directions for the Spanish Virgins clearly note this, suggesting an alternative route. We broke off to the north sailing along the east coast of Puerto Rico, the wind veered to the south east and we laid a course for Culebra, tacking a couple of times to make it but enjoying a long 6 hour sail in great conditions. We anchored on the north coast of Cano Luis Pena, a nature reserve for turtles, and just as we set the anchor a rather large turtle (Hawksbill we think) came to take a look. Culebra and its surrounding islands are very pretty.

So our pounding to windward is done, yes we do have make a few more miles east, but that is all within the Virgin Islands which provide tacking angles and nice lees to use. I can say that it is a big relief to not have to repeat the route along the DR and PR coasts. We really enjoyed Puerto Rico and is a great cruising area itself. Until the last leg, leaving between 3-4 am did work on the PR coast as the nocturnal wind made things much calmer for easting. The last leg I think ultimately is too close to the eastern end of the island so the seas and winds are not dampened as much.

With respect to the Virgins I have high expectations for the Spanish, am intrigued by the British, and think unlikely for the U.S.

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Caja de Muertos

This past week has been very interesting and frankly productive. We came into Ponce, the second largest city in Puerto Rico. The anchorage is deep but well protected. We had to run our two anchors in series to get good holding. We used Ponce as a base to re-provision, which went very well with good grocery and hardware stores. We also took a day to tour the rain forest, which was very cool, with some nice hikes to waterfalls which all enjoyed.

We left Ponce for Caja De Muertos - Coffin Island - so named for its appearance of a person laying with arms crossed over their chest. The island is a park with a hiking trail up to a defunct light house. The water is stunningly clear with a nice beach to enjoy it from. The anchorage is good in sand but with a slight roll as we are much more exposed to the ocean swells.

We will continue to take advantage of the excellent weather (light winds and seas) and continue east toward the Virgin Islands. We were able to find a home for the old dinghy with another cruiser, which was a relief to get it out of the way from a storage stand point. No decision yet on the new outboard, but prices and availability have been researched.

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