Happy New Year

Happy 2016 to everyone!!  Hope you all enjoyed the holiday season however you chose to spend it.

We have enjoyed having Paige on board for the last 2 weeks, had such a blast.  We are settled on the fact we will never make a sailor out of her but she toughed it out and made her dad proud.  We were able to keep a smile on her face (most of the time) with regular dosing of sea sick meds.

While awaiting Paige's visit and after we were back from Porto Rico we spent our time traveling between St. Thomas and St. John (USVI's).  Circumnavigating both and finding some truly beautiful nuggets along the way.  St. John is about 80% national park land and with that has a quieter laid back feel, not a lot of charter boats and a multitude of hiking options. We loved it.

So 3-4 weeks balancing exploring and fun time with boat projects, maintenance etc.  A leak in our raw water intake pump put us back into Crown Bay for a rebuild of a pump. The guys at the shop were so fabulous, saving us a few hundred dollars and helping Al out with the rebuild. Water pumps seem to be a recurring theme as now we are having issues with the water pump we installed 2 months ago, uhg!

We just got back from exploring the BVI's with Paige. Showing her some of our favorite places as well as checking out areas we hadn't been to before. Lots of snorkeling, paddle boarding and just relaxing.  We spent Christmas in Trellis Bay. Dinner at The Last Resort was underwhelming and over priced!! Fire dancers and great company kept us from seeing red.  That was followed by joining the full moon party on the beach, dancing and people watching. What a blast.
The BVI's were very, very busy coupled with high winds yet we managed to cover everything we had wanted fairly stress free.
Unfortunately the "Christmas Winds" showed up the day before Paige's visit and will only start to settle somewhat tomorrow. We can't think of a day that we haven't had rain and squalls but usually have been short lived and can get back to enjoying the sun and water.

Our new year's eve was quiet but great. Tomatoe soup and grilled cheese for dinner. Backgammon and a few hands of crib finished off with a fun movie. Up until 11pm!!
We are now on St. Thomas, Red Hook for Paige's last day. Decided to grab a dock for a good night sleep and ease for catching cab very early tomorrow morning. A sad day.

We have been watching the weather and it's looking good for a window opening at the end of the week to head to St. Martin. A few things to catch up on with the boat then we will make our way to Virgin Gorda to stage for the departure.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here, no regrets staying as long as we did. BVI's, St.Thomas, St. John, Culebra, main land Porto Rico. Some great sailing, beautiful waters, lovely people and lots to do, We will definitely be back again.

Trail hazards! It was as painful as it looks.

Walk to the Petroglyphs, St.John with great friends John and Nina "Sunkissed"

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!

Love to you all, talk to you soon. xo

Off to Puerto Rico

Well I have I have a confession.  My last blog was written in about 20 minutes and under duress to get it done. I had spent an afternoon writing it and choosing pictures then  saving on the computer.  The next day I walked for 1/2 an hour to get to a local bar that we knew had good internet to cut/copy/post,  easy right??  Not sure what happened, hitting buttons I shouldn't have been hitting but I erased (or I should say, saved with changes-blank) the entire thing!!  Al just rolled his eyes of course, while in mid sentence asking how that could happen, then stopped and moved on.  Anyway lesson learnt.

We spent a week at anchor between Crown Bay and Water Island getting caught up on more boat jobs.  We also managed some exploring to Home Depot, K mart and found a fabulous grocery store called Cost U Less.  Very similar to Costco, even Kirkland products. Good prices and beautiful produce. Our taxi ride back to the boat cost  $10, compared to $30 from the airport. He helped with groceries and it was at least 4x's the distance!

We have been getting rain almost every day but doesn't last long. Heat remains to keep us moving slowly and getting us in for a swim whenever we can.  We discovered Honeymoon Bay on Water Island, a fabulous swimming beach, buoyed off to keep motorized and kayaks etc. out. An easy and short dingy ride away from us.

New deck wash installed!!

                                     

replacement mats for floor in aft cabin, after our diesel leak last year

winch maintenance

Friday morning we lifted anchor, raised our sails starting our trip to Culebra (Spanish Virgin Islands). The winds were up and some big waves but we were headed in a good direction (west) making it a fast and comfortable sail the entire way (4 hours).  Unfortunately our friends from Toronto, Sun Kissed,  were making their way east towards St.Thomas  were not having the same experience.  We were the only two vessels out as far as we could see and from our chat on the radio they definitely were not having as much fun as we were.

Heading to Culebra

Loved Culebra. Great protected harbour and good holding for the anchor. Spent a couple of days exploring  the Island via foot and golf cart rental.  Beautiful, friendly little place. Kind of reminded us of Denman/Hornby Islands back home. Laid back, surfer (but no surfing) hippie, local tourist kind of place.  Sunday morning we were on the move again making out way back to mainland Puerto Rico, Porto Del Rey, for some more sight-seeing adventures and a bit of shopping.  A bit harder of a sail as the wind was lighter and waves (swells) still big but we managed to sail the entire way again (5 hours).

Culebra

Street in Culebra, across from Ferry

                                      Tiny canal from bay to open water on south shore

view of some of the smaller Islands surrounding Culebra

hey, wildlife other than Iguana's and cats!

View back to St. Thomas (higher peak way in the back ground)

remnants of US testing / training  times

view down to harbour where Haven is anchored

The marina here is huge!  Extremely well run, very clean and well kept.  Some of our cruising friends left their boat here for this past hurricane season.  We rented a car and were able to explore the island and get some other errands done.  We had heard of a wonderful  Canadian born lady who was highly recommended to us for sail repairs.  Even being very busy, she needed a little of Al's sweet talk, she agreed to do some seam repair we needed on our jib.  Done in a couple of hours. Thanks Heather! 

We spent hours walking around in Old San One followed by a visit to Costco before returning to the boat.  What a long day, but the old city was so worth the trip. Loved it!  The next day we headed up to El Yunque National Park.  The only Rain Forrest in the US Park System.  What an incredible place to visit.  We spent time at the visitors centre then headed up for a walk to La Mina Falls and some of the points of interest along the way.  A truly magical place they we will come back to another time to spend longer exploring.  Later the same day we  took a drive hoping to get into a coffee plantation for a tour but given timing and how far away things are we just ended up in Salinas for a beer. Salinas is a little town that we had spent four or five days at anchor last year and really enjoyed.

Today is a day for more organizing and a little relaxing. I'm not feeling great today so I think may be just a day "off" will be good. I'm sitting here writing while waiting for our laundry to finish but not much going on for me. Al took back the rental this morning and he has been "working" on boat jobs again today. 

Arriving in Puerto Rico. El Yunque in the clouds

Porto Del Rey

OLD SAN JUAN

one of these things are not like the others!

Getting out of town before the masses get in and the rain comes pouring down. 

El Yunque National Park

visitors centre

Bamboo on steroids

we actually seen this little guy but couldn't get a picture

La Mina Falls. We didn't stay, too many crazy tourists

view from top of tower. Haven is down there, right in the middle of picture

this was enough of a water fall for us, no one there but us

snail like critters on the trees

Laundry room. Picture me inside typing!

We are heading back to St. Thomas tomorrow hoping to explore a couple of different anchorages and then make our way to St. John's for more of the same.

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends!

Love to you all. Talk soon.