2024-02-25 Moving on to St. Thomas

We stayed at Ensenada Honda in Culebra for a few days, as it was a three day holiday weekend, so we did not want to head out until the end of the weekend.

We went out for a nice dinner at Zaco's Tacos again, and walked up to a grocery store further away for the exercise and to check it out.

We like the artwork at Zaco's Tacos - food is good as well

Nice container home we saw on our walk

Stopped and got groceries, but could not resist the ice cream.   Yes, it was before 10:00 a.m., but ice cream is good anytime

On Tuesday we headed back out to Bahia de Almodover, as we wanted to make water, and needed to get a little power as well, so motoring out would do both.

Leaving the anchorage in Culebra Ensenada Honda

After a night in Bahia de Almodover, with water made and laundry done, we headed to St. Thomas.   The winds were NW, which does not happen often, so we decided to head over as we could sail the 20 miles.  Winds up to 15 knots, with some rain were forecast.  What we got was different.  The winds were NW - but saw up to 28 knots, and heavy rain.

Heavy rain knocked down the seas a bit. - But visibility went down to about 1/4 mile

Enduring the rain being blown in

Skies started clearing as we approached the channel on the SW side of  St. Thomas

Calm seas and a bit more clearing skies approaching anchorage

Quite the change as we dropped anchor.  Only 1 cruise ship at the dock, and anchorage not too crowded

St. Thomas has quite the different feel from Puerto Rico.  And catamarans definitely outnumber mono hulls here.  This island is definitely more touristy, and louder.

Next day we went for a nice long walk along the waterfront, down to Ace hardware - as we were looking for a new showerhead (Did not find one).

Passed this large graveyard on the main road.  Nothing buried, all above ground, and stacked.  

We also had lunch out, and then walked through some of the cruise ship shopping area - since no ships were in, and it was empty of people.

Nice courtyard and restaurant

When cruise ships are in, this area is packed with people

We heard lots of sirens that afternoon on the boat - and saw a large fire on the hill.   So sad, someone lost their house.  No one was hurt but the structure was a complete loss

Lots of black smoke on the hill

Such a steep hill.  Firefighters we parked above and below the home, and we could see the flames - at least 10' high.

Next day, we decided to head in and get some groceries, and look at the Home Depot for a showerhead.  St. Thomas is a small island, but lots of shopping here.   The Home Depot was further away, so we took the bus there.  These "busses" are only $1 or $2 per rider depending on how far you go.  You wave them down, hop on and pay when you get off.  Basically a truck with modified back with bench seating.

Our safari bus had some McDonalds sponsorship, but they are all different

We got a new showerhead, and then stopped at the Cost.U.Less store for some groceries and then back to boat.  The Cost.U.Less is a large grocery which is a cross between Costco and a large normal grocery.  Great store.  We will make a couple more trips before we leave.

Our son Derek arrives Tuesday, so we are excited to see him and will stay here until he arrives, and then head out for some fun times.

2024-02-18 A nice week in an beautiful anchorage

We decided to leave Ensenada Honda in Culebra on Monday - we wanted to make water, and Dean wanted to clean the bottom of the boat, so we motored the 4.5 miles over to Bahia de Almodover.

There were a couple of other sailboats there, but the water was clean, and it has a beautiful view, as it is protected from the Caribbean sea by a reef, so you are anchored and looking out at the sea, with land behind you.

The view from the boat

I worked on finishing the salon cushions and thank goodness, got the backrests done before running out of thread.  

Cushions - done for now.

Learned a lot on this project, and still want to redo one cushion and sew a bolster backrest for the long one, but the cushions are comfortable, and will stay cleaner than the old ones - so a success.

Dean got in the water and scrubbed the bottom.  He had some friends help him out.

These little fish hiding in the small gap between the hull and top of the rudder - about a 1.5" gap

We have got a lot of growth on the hull, we cleaned it a month ago, but this 83 degree water and lots of sun makes the stuff grow fast.

Dean's fishy friends were not scared and swam right up to him.

With the bottom clean and the cushions done for now, we decided to do some fun stuff, and headed over to the island of Culebrita to do some snorkeling.  We had heard that the NW corner had some good reefs, so took the dink the 2 miles over to check it out.   Unfortunately, there was a lot of reef damage from the hurricanes.

Large reef, but lots of white and dead

Some good signs of growth and recovery

Lots of this undamaged fire coral, which is more resilient to hurricanes and bleaching than other corals

The island of Culebrita is quite pretty, but we did not choose to hike to the top this time.

Pretty beach on Culebrita, looking towards Culebra

Kris went for a nice kayak trip around the anchorage and into the mangroves near land.   There were hundreds of upside down jellyfish in the mangroves

They may look like weird plants, but these are upside down jellyfish

They were so thick in some spots they completely covered the bottom

We had the anchorage mostly to ourselves for the week, with two days of being completely alone - but it could not last.  On Friday, 7 powerboats came in and anchored.  They were not loud, but were a bit close to us.  On Saturday morning, more started coming, and we realized we were in the prime spot for the locals weekend getaway, and it was a three day holiday weekend.

Three boats rafted up in front of us.

We decided it was time to move again so Saturday we headed back to the large anchorage of Culebra - Ensenada Honda.    Shortly after lunch we got a text message from our friends Ed and Cathy on What If- who are currently in the Bahamas.  They said to look towards land - their son and family had rented a house for the weekend to get away and were nearby.   Turns out we were quite close, so we launched the dink, and went to say hello.

Ed and Cathy's son with his wife and children - and us.

We had a good but short visit with them - as they are on holiday weekend, and had lots of activities planned, we did not want to slow them up.

We will stay here a couple of days - and then look for the next place to go. 

2024-02-11 A week in Culebra

We left Fajardo on Sunday, as winds were predicted to build out of the south, and we wanted a better anchorage - plus we were done with Fajardo.  We sailed the 23 miles east in light winds, with lots of tacking, finally having to turn on the engine the last two hours to make it in before dark.   

The anchorage in Culebra Ensenada Honda is very large, and well protected.   Monday we headed into town to stop at the post office.  We had used our spare water pump a while back, and wanted to keep a spare on board, so stopped at the post office to make sure they would accept general delivery shipments.  Smallest post office we have ever been in, but very nice people, and yes, they would do general delivery.  We walked around the area a bit while waiting for the post office to open.

Street post office is on.

2024-02-03 Vieques, and Fajardo

Our plans changed due to a southerly swell so we did not go to our planned stop on Vieques, but went to the town anchorage of Esperanza.

Looking at town from the boat.

2024-01-28 - Wind and sewing

We left Puerto Patillas after just one night, as we wanted to make it to a protected anchorage, as 4 days of winds above 20 knots were forecasted.   

We motored into the wind all day, making it to the island of Vieques, and we anchored in the furthest east anchorage of Ensenada Honda (Deep Cove).   

The island of Vieques used to be a Navy bombing range, and there are still many unexploded ordinance on the island, especially the eastern part, so going further east is not safe.  It is a shame, as there are some beautiful beaches on the east side.  This anchorage is surrounded by mangroves, but very protected and good holding, so good for the strong winds predicted.

Monday we went out and explored the mangroves before the winds built.  

Charm at anchor as we head off to explore

Heading into the mangroves

Found a sunken boat.  Looks like it was pretty well stripped of items.   

Sunken boat

Water is fairly clear, can see the boat below the water.

Another boat in the anchorage with us is a person who runs sail charters off of his boat.  Visited with him a bit, and he told us the sunken boat was in hurricane Maria, with 150 knot winds and 12' of surge.  Almost 3000 people in Puerto Rico died as a result of the hurricane.   The fellow we spoke with also had his boat tied up in the same mangroves, and his boat also made it through the hurricane fine, and he was able to get back to his boat quickly once the winds died.  The sunken boat also made it through the hurricane just fine, but looters stripped the boat and sunk it, as the owner did not get back to it for a while.

After our brief mangrove explore, we headed back to the boat, did laundry and relaxed.   Winds started to build that night.

Tuesday we started a project.   We have been wanting to recover our salon cushions for a while, as the fabric we picked 3 years ago, always looks dirty and worn.  We bought new fabric, and supplies we would need, and have been hauling them around for a few months, so this seemed like a good week to work this project, as we would most likely be boat bound during the winds.

We started the project Tuesday, and worked on it every day until Saturday night.    With big projects, it turns the main cabin into a mess.   We had to re-cut all our foam, and add pieces in to make it fit the way we wanted.  Then had to make up a pattern for each new piece of fabric, since we were not using the same design as the old cushions - we just had to make it more difficult.

Lots of time, spent cutting, sewing, patterning, checking etc, and as of Saturday night two cushions done, but all foam cut.

Almost a entire day spent determining how we wanted the new cushions and cutting and gluing foam.

The boat was a mess for 4 days while working on the cushions

Two seat cushions almost done.

We decided to put a knee rise in the cushions, which double the work, and a non-skid bottom on the cushions, which added more work.  We are using a fabric called Ultraleather, which is nice fabric, but stretchy, so had to pattern and plan the stretch into each cushion as well - adding more work, and confusion as it stretches in one direction much more than the other direction.  Also decided to put French seams on the exposed edges.    All in all - we could not have made it more difficult if we tried.   

Kris not super happy with them yet, but still better than the old ones.   The back cushions will be easier, as they are basically boxes.

We will move today, about 4 miles to explore another anchorage on Vieques.

2024-01-21 We've been shot! - well the dink anyway.

We arrived in Salinas around noon on Sunday last.  Salinas is a very protected harbor, where many sailors stop to provision and to leave the boat to rent cars to tour Puerto Rico.   We were greeted by two manatee on our way into the anchorage.

Two manatee that approached the boat as we came into the anchorage

We went extra slow as they came right up to the boat

They left as we motored further into the anchorage area.   Next day a nice walk in order, took our dinghy to the local marina, who provides a dinghy dock for free.  We checked in with the marina, to make sure all was OK, and if there was a dinghy dock fee, and also got a phone number for a local rental car.

A quick walk through town, up to the large Econo grocery store, lunch out and walk back.

Kris always takes chicken photos.  This yard had pigeons as well

Large Econo supermarket and large "future" area for development

Lunch at Wendys - stale fries

Back at boat, nice rainbow over the anchorage in Salinas

We arranged a rental car for the next day, as we needed to get some plumbing parts to fix our broken coolant drain line on the port engine.

Dean behind the wheel - haven't driven in a while

Quite a few bananas grown in the area

We arranged the car for 9:00, but it was closer to 10:00 before we were on the road.  After drivng to Ponce and going to Home Depot, WalMart, National Hardware, Pep Boys auto parts and a quick lunch at McDonalds, it was 3:00 already, so we did not have enough time to do the scenic driving we wanted, so took a shorter scenic drive on our way back to Salinas, up into the hills to drive by Lago Toa Vaca, (All cow lake?) a large reservoir.   

Lago Toa Vaca at the dam

Spillway from dam, and downstream from dam

The countryside is very hilly, and quite steep.  Some of the roads are quite narrow,  and very few had a center line to seperate traffic.

Quite hilly and steep

We got back to the dinghy dock before dark, but to our dismay, found the bow section of the dinghy completely deflated.  Dean took a few groceries to the boat while I waited at the dock, and then grabbed the pump and came back for the rest of the groceries and me.  I pumped the dink while on our way to the boat.  By the time we got to the boat, and groceries unloaded it was dark, so did not look at the dink until the next day.  We found two holes in the dinghy tube - and noticed that they were in alignment, almost like something was poked from one side through to the other side.

Hole on outside through dinghy chaps

Dinghy chaps removed, you can see the hole

And a hole on the other side as well though the chaps

Chaps removed, you can see the hole.

The more we looked, it seemed like the dinghy had been shot, by a powerful BB type gun or something else.   We called the marina and let them know that our dink had been vandalized.

We had patch material, so spent the day working on that, and fixing the port engine coolant drain with the parts picked up in town.  We let some other cruisers know about the dinghy as well, since we were all using the same dock.

Next day, we decided to test the dink repair, by going in for lunch.  Kris had had mofongo when in Puerto Rico back in 2013, and enjoyed it, so wanted to have it again.  Found a close restaurant called La Bakira, and went in for lunch.

Sitting outside at La Bakira

Kris's lunch - Mofongo de Camarones

Lunch was very good, and enough to take a bit back home as well.  Unfortunately the dink still has a slow leak on one side, so will have to try that patch again.

Friday we headed 5 miles east to Bahia de Jobos.  Dean made bread and pizza dough, and Kris went for a nice kayak trip.

Kayaking through the mangroves

Water was surprisingly clear in some areas

Dean's perfect looking bread 

While there, we got an email from the cruisers we had met in Salinas.   They let us know that there was a fellow at the marina walking around with a 22 caliber rifle.  The marina hires him to shoot Caiman for the safety of the marina patrons.  Now we know what happened to our dinghy.  Either he accidently shot it and did not realize while aiming at a Caiman, or realized, but was afraid of repercussions so did not confess to it. Either way, we felt better knowing what had happened - at least we are 90% sure of the cause, and knowing it wasn't a personal attack on us made us feel better.  Still sucks though to have our brand new dinghy shot.

Evidently the non-native Caiman are causing quite a problem in Puetro Rico.

Smaller than crocodile or alligator, but still a pest.

Saturday we moved 15 miles east to Puerto Patilla, as a staging anchorage for the large trip east to Vieques.   This should be the close to the last motor trip against the wind for a while, and we can hopefully start sailing more.