2025-03-01 Back to St. John

Sunday we moved out of the ferry wake zone so had flat-ish water, decided to do a boat project.  Our salon table was getting worn, and the varathane was gone in a couple of places.   We picked up some epoxy at the Home Depot, so decided to give it a try.  If we like how it works, then we will probably redo the table again, maybe with a new map

Table all shiny and coated again.  

On Monday, the swell wrap was coming in stronger, so we decided to move.   We knew we did not want to head west yet, as we had time to kill before heading back to the states, so we sailed upwind, tacking many times back to Ensenada Dakity in Culebra.  Hung out a couple of days until the winds went a bit more southerly, then did another upwind sail to St. John, to Watermelon Bay.

We took a nice short hike at Watermelon Bay, saw some ruins and watched some goats.

Charm, on mooring ball in center of photo in Maho bay

Old ruins from 1600s

Why do goats like to climb on rocks and ruins?

Goat found a nice hole in the ruins to crawl into for a nap

Watermelon Bay

After the walk and relaxing lunch, we jumped in and snorkeled around Watermelon Cay.  Snorkeling, not great, but saw some of the biggest parrotfish we had seen for a long time.

Odd to see this many parrotfish, this big, with not a lot of coral around

After the snorkel, Dean did a quick clean, checking things out on the boat.  A rather large and toothy barracuda was hanging out under the boat, and did not want to move, so a section of the hull was not done.  Looking at those teeth, who can blame him.

Friday, we spent an hour or so dumping out our anchor chain and de-twisting it.  We are having issues with our chain jumping on the chain wheel when we bring it up.  Hopefully de-twisting will help, but after spending time carefully watching de-twisted chain come in, we are not pretty sure we need a new chain wheel.  

After our chain work, we moved over to Maho Bay on Friday.  Relaxed and had pizza dinner - Friday is pizza day.  Saturday we took a hike in the morning up the Maria Hope trail.  Only 1.5 miles long, but up 780'.  Nice hike to get some exercise.

Large termite next in a tree over the trail

Kris's toe is doing better, so the hike was not too bad on it.

Decent views near the top

Back to boat, nice relaxing lunch.   

Not much planned for the next couple of days.

2025-02-23 Derek Visit, El Yunque

We went for a nice snorkel off of Punta Tamarindo Grande in Culebra.   Nice reef structures, lots of soft corals, sponges and structures.  Not a ton of fish.  Unfortunately, forgot the camera again.

Back to boat where we had anchored at the north side of Cayo de Luis Pena and jumped in for another small snorkel and enjoy the beach.   Derek grabbed the camera for this snorkel, and got some great close up photos, as he is good at going down around 12' deep for extended periods.

Derek is still a great snorkeler

After snorkeling decided that the reef was too close for overnight comfort, and a small swell had come in so we went back to Culebra and anchored in Ensenada Dakity.   In the morning, we worked on our water maker - replacing the pressure gauge and regulator.

Working on the water maker

Water maker seems to be working well now, although at a higher pressure than before, but don't know how accurate the gauge or water flow meter actually are.  After Derek was done with work for the day, we explored the bay via dingy, and walked the barrier reef a bit at low tide.     

Derek wishes we had the new dingy and engine when he was on the boat

Walking the small exposed reef area at low tide

Weird red balls on dead coral.  Any idea what it is?

Some wading involved.  Charm is anchored to the left of Derek 

Tuesday had a nice but lumpy sail over to mainland Puerto Rico, where we had a reservation at the Safe Harbor Puerto Del Rey marina.   Huge marina, but well-kept up and friendly people.   The marina is so large, they offer free golf cart rides to all tenants and guests of the marina to get from the parking and office to the docks.  We were reasonably close to the office, so we walked, until we had groceries to bring back, then we took the cart.   They don't let you drive the carts, so you are chauffeured, as the finger docks are barely wide enough for the cart, lined by power stands.  Too much risk to let anyone drive.

Golf cart pick up area, small carts for luggage and stuff they attach to the carts

View of marina.  

Dean and Derek gave the boat a nice scrub down with the $5 a day water.  Had a nice dinner from the local restaurant, which we ate back on the boat.

Enjoying another good meal.

Wednesday morning we headed up to the El Yunque Rain forest.   The only tropical rain forest in the United States.  Luckily we had a nice sunny day, with no rain, and clear of clouds.   Stopped at the visitor center first

Checking out the park map

Nice large visitor center

Short trails around the visitor center

Puerto Rico parrot - native to Puerto Rico but almost extinct

Then went up to the end of the road to hike the Mt. Britton Trail to the tower.  Good hike, went slow due to Kris's toe, but it was good to go slow on the way up.  Nice trail, but narrow, so always had to step to the side when passing or meeting people coming down.

Single file walkway

View from top of tower looking North-ish

View looking south-ish

Narrow stairs in the tower

Tower is not that tall, but on top of the peak

Did a couple more stops in El Yunque, seeing the tourist spots. But lots of people around.

El Bano Grande dam

Working on better selfies

Very pretty small creeks throughout the rain forest

Coco Falls

Very mossy tree trunks

Late lunch at McDonald's on the way back to the boat, where we indulged in long showers at the marina.

Derek flew out Thursday afternoon, so we went out for a nice lunch at Board riders Surf bar and grill just off of the beach at San Miguel.   

Beautiful tiled wall and walkway down to beach

Beach is very orange, but soft sand

Had some time before Derek needed to be at the airport, so went to Home Depot and got some stuff for boat projects, then took him to the airport.     

Had a great visit with Derek, really enjoyed the time with him.  After dropping him at the airport, we went to the Walmart Supercenter to do a big grocery stocking up, followed by a stop at a large Ralph's grocery.  We were tired, and it was late, so grabbed Subway on the way back for a late dinner.  Kris started a load of laundry, which we hung up before bed.

Friday we did not have to leave until 11, so took advantage of the water and power to do a couple more loads of laundry.  With the wind blowing from the stern, we hung them up in the cockpit, and they only took a couple of hours to dry.

We left the marina just before 11, and stopped and filled the diesel tanks at the fuel dock on the way out, then motored the 3 miles to Isla Pineros anchorage.  Saturday morning we explored the mangrove river - unexciting then decided to move, as lots of powerboats use the passage between Isla Pineros and the mainland, and we were getting quite a few large wakes, plus a slight swell was coming in.

Pretty mangrove river, but murky water and not many birds

Moved to Roosevelt Roads harbor and anchored near the entrance.  It was a mistake as the ferries come in and out, and every hour and a half or so, we get a rather large wake.  We will up anchor and move further in today to get out of the wake zone.

2025-02-16 Week with Derek

Monday we moved the boat to Lindbergh Bay, which is close to the airport terminal.  Usually the bay can be quite rolly, but it was not bad at all, so we were lucky.  

Took the dingy and Dean dropped Kris off at the beach.  Since the package arriving from Echo Tec (Water maker parts) was in Kris's name, she was the one needing to go in to pick it up.  The walk was not far, only about a mile round trip.  There is not a good place to land and leave the dinghy, or we both would have gone.

Once Kris returned, Dean got busy replacing our membrane, and then we turned on the water maker hoping for a magical cure. Our ppm was much lower, but still the issue of low production.   We will wait until Derek leaves until we do more work, as there is a slim chance of failure, and we do not want to be without the water maker while he is visiting.

Water maker membrane change over 

Later in the day the anchorage got rolly - must have been with the tide change, so we moved to a different spot in the bay, which made it tolerable for the night.

Tuesday Derek arrived in the morning, no issues, and after he was on the boat we hoisted anchor and headed back to the St. Thomas cruise ship anchorage.  Lumpy anchorage, so after anchoring, we got off the boat, and headed for lunch as Derek was quite hungry after his overnight flight.  Nice lunch out at Smoking Rooster, then on the bus to the grocery store to get fresh stuff and anything Derek needed.   We also dumped out trash and got dinghy gas.   

Saw this guy hanging off the side of a mega yacht cleaning on the way back in the boat.  I guess if he falls, he just gets wet. 

Got to keep it clean

Back to the boat, where we hoisted anchor and moved back over to Brewer's Bay where the water was flat and clear.   Poor Derek was exhausted at this point and fell asleep on the way over, and did not even wake up for anchor dropping.  

Wednesday Derek had to work, so it was a boat day.   It was also baking day.  Dean made cinnamon rolls, and Kris made her oat walnut breakfast bread.       

Thursday Derek also worked, but we took a break and went for a nice snorkel, and saw 4 sea turtles, and 4 rays, but that was about it.  The bottom is mostly sand, grass, weed with few small coral areas.  But we did get within 5 to 10 feet of the sea turtles who had no fear, so that was cool.  - Forgot to take the camera - so no photo.   

Thursday evening, Kris went to wash up dishes, and had no water.   The water tank was half full, but the pump was not turning on.   Checked the electrical quickly, and all was good.  Luckily we had a spare fresh water pump on board, so Dean did a quick swap over, and we were back in business.   Why do things like this always happen when you have guests?

Friday morning, Kris did a deep investigation on the broken water pump, as it was only two years old.  Did not really see any issues, but learned a bit about the pump construction.  Think it is just a bad pressure switch.  Dean made some fresh bread as well.

Dean worked on installing a part Derek had 3D printed for us.   We hope it will fix the boom vang banging a bit.

Dean installing the custom-made parts 

Dean's bread is getting pretty perfect looking.

In the afternoon we upped anchor and had a fast but lumpy downwind sail over to Culebra, Bahia de Almodover.   Seas were 4 to 6 feet and winds 15 to 20 with gust to 30.   We just used our jib, and averaged over 7 knots for the 2.5 hour trip.     

Bahia de Almodover was flat calm, and beautiful as always.

View from boat, anchored in Bahia de Almodover

Saturday afternoon, we headed into Culebra proper, as we wanted Zaco's Tacos for Dinner.   Got a good anchorage spot, but the bay here does have some chop from the winds.   Dean and Derek went in and fetched dinner and brought it back to the boat, as Zaco's Tacos usually has some biting bugs around, and if you don't want to dose your legs in bug spray, it's better not to eat there.

Derek remembered Zaco's Tacos from when he was on the boat with us in 2013-2014

While the guys got dinner, Kris worked on putting a quick cover on the table, as we have worn through the layers of varathane down to the paper chart in some areas, and the table is getting sticky from the decoupage material we used.   We will have to redo the table soon.   Kris found an extra large Bahamas flag we bought by accident off Amazon, and rigged up some sticky Velcro to hold it to the table.

Dinner on the boat - watched an old Indiana Jones movie with dinner.

Today we plan to snorkel, so will be sure to take the camera.  Beautiful sunrise this morning.