March 6 - April 19, 2019


 We left St. Croix on March 6 and had a lovely 5 hour sail to Red Hook marina on St. Thomas. We provisioned and prepped for several days and then moved around to nearby Sapphire Beach Marina where Drew, April, Mila and Robbie joined us on March 9. Drew and April had a very nice studio room in the resort next to the marina and once again the grands stayed on the boat with us.

Next day we spent many hours on beautiful Sapphire Beach enjoying the Sunday Funday activities: live music, burgers and fish tacos, kite sailors. The kids loved playing in the ocean!

The Kansas crew got a little over sunned so we spent the next day visiting the Coral Bay aquarium where we met Fred the (huge!) Sea Lion and fed the rays, followed by lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville resort.

Lenexa Schendels in Paradise

Many iguanas everywhere 

Robbie checking out the fish

Fred the gigantic Sea Lion

Fred smiling for the crowd

Australian Rainbow Lorikeets

Tuesday we took the ferry over to St. John and visited Trunk Bay, one of the most gorgeous beaches in the world.

The grandkids enjoyed their first ferry ride and loved playing in the surf. Our lake friends the Gorells and Spencers were renting a house on St. John and they kindly invited us to join them for dinner. They picked us up and we had a very fun evening watching all the children play in the pool and eating mass quantities of delicious Italian food. Then they dropped us back at the ferry port - such great friends!


Next day we needed to stay out of the sun again so we rode the tram to the top of St. Thomas. At the restaurant where we had lunch we ran into Captain Morgan, his sidekick and his saucy wench!

 After riding back down we visited the children's museum, then returned to Sapphire Beach where the kids enjoyed playing in  the pool. 


On their last day with us we took Avventura back to St. John where we visited Maho Bay. No sailing wind but we got to go somewhere on the boat! We attempted to construct a shade awning from our various towels and clothing but it ended up looking like Ma and Pa Kettle's place and eventually collapsed. We gave ourselves "E" for effort! Again, the kids loved paddling around looking at the fish and we spotted several green turtles swimming and munching on the sea grass. Back on St. Thomas we had sushi for dinner.

Friday we wrote our name in rocks on the breakwater in front of the boat and built a cairn to mark that we were there.

Mila and Robbie in the V berth

Can you spot the name in the rocks?

We had a final delicious lunch at Duffy's Love Shack before sending the Lenexa Schendels off to catch their flight home. So glad they could join us for this wonderful week!

Back to Red Hook where we prepared for our next guests and had our new house alternator installed on our main engine. Avventura has two alternators on our diesel engine, one that powers the engine and recharges the engine start battery. Another larger alternator powers everything else on the boat like our autopilot, navigation equipment, refrigerators, etc. This large "house" alternator also recharges our bank of large "house" batteries.

Our guests, college friends Tom and Mary Acosta, arrived on March 17. First day we headed to Great
Harbour on Jost Van Dyck to check back in to the BVI (oh joy!) and visit White Bay/Soggy Dollar. A fast boat dropped an anchor right behind us because he had lost one of his engines and thought he could maneuver better at anchor than on a mooring ball. They were playing VERY loud music, and the Capt. told us at the check-in office that he was hosting a group of Dunkin Donuts Franchisees who had brought along a stripper! Fortunately they left soon after we returned to the boat. We had a very good dinner ashore at the newly restored Foxy's, good to see the iconic places in the BVI back up and running even though there is still much evident damage.

Mary checking out the remains of the church on Jost Van Dyck

Tom and Mary find evidence of previous Louisiana visitors in a beach bar

We left early the next day to make the 24 mile trip over to Virgin Gorda. We love the North Sound, so we grabbed a mooring ball close to the Leverick Bay Marina, and headed in to the resort. We were able to introduce Tom and Mary to the Michael Beans Pyrate Show and Rob won the conch blowing contest with a mighty blow of 50 seconds.

Michael Beans coaching Tom to blow the conch

 

Cindy's turn

 

Captain Rob for the win!

Free range chickens everywhere in the Caribbean

The winner's bottle of rum tasted sweet like VICTORY! The show was followed by a great dinner at the resort's upscale restaurant.

The next morning we took a taxi to the other end of the island for the Acosta's introductory trip to the Baths. With its caves and crannies and perfect beach, this is one of our favorite spots in the BVIs.

 We had an early lunch, enjoyed the breathtaking taxi ride back over the mountain, and left Leverick by early afternoon. We had a lazy sail over to Peter Island and grabbed a mooring ball in Great Harbor, where we enjoyed dinner and a spectacular sunset on board.

On our last cruising day with the Acostas, we left Great Harbor for a short trip over to Cooper Island. no more than 20 minutes out, we all started to smell something electrical overheating. Turns out it was our brand new house alternator, threatening to catch on fire! I turned off the circuit and that seemed to take care of it, so we continued to Cooper where we took the last mooring ball and dinghied in for a delicious lunch at the Cooper Island Resort. As we were leaving in the dinghy, I almost ran over a 300 pound sea turtle who had come up for air just in front of us! When we got back to Avventura, we spotted a familiar sailboat - Toucan Share, which is part owned by Cindy's brother Charlie. Charlie and Esther had guests aboard and we enjoyed a quick rendezvous. We were able to turn our mooring ball over to them as we left.

Shortly after leaving Cooper, the electrical burning smell returned. I shut the engine down and started a slow sail to the Nanny Cay Marina on Tortola. Guessing that perhaps the bearings in the alternator were now cooked, I decided to remove the belts so that we could use the engine to enter the marina without any fear of starting a fire. This little bit of diesel mechanics was accomplished quickly and we had an otherwise easy trip over to Tortola. Our last night with the Acostas was spent at the Nanny Cay Marina, where the next day we said our goodbyes as they took the ferry back to St. Thomas for their flight home.

Cindy's brother Charlie was still in the area, and we joined them in the Scrub Cay Marina for one night and then one night on a mooring in Trellis Bay. It was fun to expand our lake Flotillo to the Caribbean! We enjoyed the pool at the Scrub Island Resort and dinner in the resort's restaurant, but the night in the marina was probably the worst we have had on a dock, as significant surge kept the boat rocking all night long. We were glad to scoot out the next morning.

Charlie, Esther and Bill enjoying the swim up bar

Trellis Bay has been one of our favorite spots in the BVIs, but many of our favorite haunts there were destroyed by the hurricanes and still are not rebuilt. The bay is lined with over 20 destroyed boats on the beach, and a number of seemingly derelict sailboats missing masts, etc. are still anchored in the bay. Depressing and sad.

Charlie and Esther's guests left the next morning and we said our goodbyes as they were leaving the next day. We mostly motored around to Soper's Hole to check out of the country at the Customs office there. Again, Soper's Hole is a sad sight with little of the commercial development rebuilt and some wrecks on the rocks. Customs is still in a temporary office. A short hop brought us over to St. John, where we found a nice National Park mooring ball at Francis Bay for the night.

In an attempt to get some value out of the new alternator that I had paid for, we checked back in to the marina at Red Hook, St. Thomas. The workman advertised himself as a specialist in boat alternators, but after several calls with him it became clear that he was not going to make good on the alternator he sold me and installed. Our schedule was tight, and despite my anger over the situation, we decided to leave and have the necessary electrical work done in Puerto Rico in the "off season." Needless to say, I will not be giving this guy any good reviews.

Our last longer passage of the season was 38 miles from the East end of St. Thomas to the Puerto del Rey Marina on the East end of Puerto Rico. Our route was dead downwind, but winds were amazingly low, the sea was gentle and we mostly motored, passing close to the "Spanish Virgin Islands" of Culebra and Culebrita on the way.

The Puerto del Rey Marina, near Fajardo, Puerto Rico, is the largest marina in the Caribbean. It is something of a wonder, with wet slips for 1000 boats, dry stacks for hundreds and space for hundreds more on land in their large boatyard. The distances in the marina are huge, so they employ a fleet of golf carts and drivers to deliver customers out to their boats and take them back to the front of the marina where the parking and other boat services are located. The facilities are clean and mostly new, with significant rebuilding since the hurricane. With this many boats, the boat services like mechanics, riggers, painters, upholsterers, carpenters, etc. are excellent. The marina has a fine restaurant with tasty local food. We like it here! We even saw a manatee hanging out to catch any fresh water run off from the boats.

We had a few days before our next guests so we rented a car and visited some of the surrounding towns. Puerto Rico is an odd mix of exotic Caribbean locale and foreign language (Spanish) but with chunks looking very American. Wal Mart, K-Mart, KFC, Pizza Hut, AutoZone, Home Depot, Walgreens and other American chain stores are prevalent in American-style shopping centers. The US dollar is the currency and they drive on the same side of the street as we do in the continental USA. In this way, Puerto Rice seems very familiar and easy to negotiate. The countryside looks very Caribbean, however, with sharp rain-forested mountains, beautiful beaches and some architecture that hearkens back to hundreds of years of Spanish control of the island. Most signage is in Spanish only, giving us an opportunity to resurrect our high school espanol.  Much of the food is quite exotic, with fish and spicey pork dishes and mofongo, a spiced mash of plaintains and yucca and sometimes added meat.

Some hurricane damage is still evident here. You occasionally see the blue FEMA tarps still covering
rooftops. However, overall the island appears to be significantly ahead of the US and British Virgin Islands, which still have many structures without roofs and open to the weather. Our President recently declared that "NOTHING works in Puerto Rico." Now that we have been here, I find that statement to be ignorant,absolutely wrong and actually malicious. This is a beautiful island full of friendly and hard working Americans, and we have found that virtually everything is working here, rather well, especially when compared to other parts of the Caribbean. No thanks to this President.

Our final guests of the season, college friends Joe and Donna Moramarco, flew into San Juan for a week with us on Avventura. Rob drove in to meet them at the airport and to bring them the 60 miles E to the marina. Cindy cooked a great meal on board.

 The next morning we departed the marina on Avventura and motored directly upwind for 20 miles to Culebra, a small island between St. Thomas and Puerto Rico. Culebra, Culebrita, Vieques and a host of smaller islands are often called the "Spanish Virgins" because they look and feel so much like the US and British Virgin Islands just to the east. Culebra has a small population of 2,500, but ferries bring lots of tourists there from Puerto Rico to enjoy the beaches and sights. Culebra has a large bay called Ensenada Honda and the main town of Dewey sits at the top of the bay. The bay is protected by a large reef, and we entered through an exciting, small but well-marked cut through the reef. Inside the bay, the water was flat. We took a mooring, launched the dinghy and explored Dewey, enjoying drinks and apps at Mamacitas and then fried whole snapper for dinner at the a Restaurant called 'the Dinghy Dock". Yes, it had a great dinghy dock that we used throughout our stay.

Huge tarpon hanging out next to the restaurant to catch the fish carcasses thrown by diners

The next day we rented a jeep and drove to Flamingo Beach, which has been named one of the best beaches in the world. It did not disappoint, a long and wide beach of white sand with modest crowds mid-week. This day, April 4, was Cindy's birthday, and on the beach she met a young woman who was there celebrating her birthday as well. At one end of the beach there are several former military tanks in the surf, which are now painted with bright colors and graffiti. There are left over from decades before when the NW tip of the island was used for bombing practice by naval aviators.

Birthday girls posse on Flamingo Beach

 

Birthday twins

After lunch we drove to the wilder Zuni beach on the E side of the island, also lovely and a protected site for turtles.

On our third morning with the Moramarcos, we left Ensenada Honda for the short trip around to the uninhabited island of Culebrita, just to the E of Culebra. On the way we managed a close pass by Sailing Yacht A, the largest and quite possibly ugliest sailing ship in the world. Built by a Russian oligarch two years ago at a reported cost of over $400 million, this monstrosity is 469 feet long, has a crew of 54 and accommodations for 20 guests. No accounting for taste of the super-rich, apparently.

Sailing Yacht A, largest sailboat in the world

The entrance to Bahia Tortuga, the primary bay and beach on this beautiful little island, is treacherous. The entrance is narrow, and you pass over a sand bar with water less than 10 feet deep. With big swells breaking from the open Atlantic, it felt like we were in a washing machine for a few minutes, as we we rolled around. Once in the bay however, the water was flat, the beach beautiful, and the snorkeling excellent with sea turtles munch, munch, munching on sea grass and a ray flapping lazily through the water. We dinghied in to the beach and did a strenuous hike up to the highest point on the island, where stand the ruins of an old lighthouse. The view from the top was magnificent, both of St. Thomas to the East and of Culebra and Puerto Rico to the West.

Leaving Culebrita in the afternoon, we backtracked through the same washing machine, with some small rain squalls kicking up around us. Much to my surprise, we even spotted several small waterspouts form nearby, a sight that definitely gets my attention.

Water spouts popping out of the clouds

We ducked into an anchorage on the SW corner of Culebra for the night, in flat water but with only  a breaking reef between us and the open ocean.

For our final full day on Culebra, we toured the W side of the island, stopping at Playa Tamarindo for lunch and snorkeling. The reef had a lot of dead coral but was recovering, with beautiful purple fan, brain and branch corals and many small fish. We headed back to Ensenada Honda for the night, and tucked into a lovely little bay called Bahia Fuladosa. The sunset was pretty as was the star field at night.

A morning of easy downwind motor sailing brought us back to Puerto del Rey. The boat got a wash and we filled up the water tanks. Dinner was at the marina restaurant, Cueva del Mar.

Captain Rob loves to sail!

Joe became a seasoned deck hand

The last full day with the Moramarcos, we rented a car again and drove to the nearby Yunque National Rain Forest Park, where the sights were beautiful. We climbed an observation tower and took a short hike up to mountain falls. The rain forest was lush, full of various flowering plants, tropical trees and ferns but thankfully on this day, no rain.

Observation Tower

View from the Observation Tower window

This was used as a natural swimming pool for  many years

We had lunch at nearby Loquillo Beach and then enjoyed playing in the surf and walking the beach. The next morning Rob drove the Moramarcos to their hotel in San Juan, where they would do additional sightseeing for a few days.

After a rest and clean up day, we set out in our rented car for a few days of exploring. We drove to Arecibo, towards the NW corner of the island, then drove inland some miles through the weird karst hills of that region to the Arecibo Radio Observatory, the largest radio observatory in the world. The receiving dish is 300 meters in diameter, and is built in an old sinkhole. The scale of it is quite amazing. It has been the backdrop for parts of several movies, including the James Bond movie Goldeneye and Contact starring Jodie Foster. Luck would have it that we ran into the Moramarcos there, who decided on a whim to visit the site at exactly the hour we were there! We enjoyed the little museum and film before heading to our "guest house".

Tricked out school buses brought children to Arecibo

Capt. Rob leaving his message for the ETs

As to our guest house accommodations, HOO BOY, unfortunately this place was really not ready for visitors, and I think we were the only guests  that night. Reminded me a bit of the Bates Motel. Some kind of big bug in the kitchenette. Several lights did not work. The room was crammed with old, heavy furniture. Wi Fi not up and running when we got there (but operational after the owner made a special trip over). Bathroom was dirty, shower plumbing was leaking and we learned  later that the toilet was plugged. Loud traffic noise all night, punctuated by the frequent barking of the old dog who hung around in front of our door. The sheets and pillows were ancient. Needless to say, not the best night's sleep, but we did have a nice fish dinner over a lovely sunset at a nearby restaurant.

Driving around the area we came upon a gargantuan statue of Columbus with the 3 sails of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria behind him,  but no signage and no access to get up to see it.  We googled it and discovered it was called "The Birth of the New World", created by a Russian sculptor and coveted at one time by Donald J. Trump who wanted it for his planned Manhattan development because it is taller than the Statue of Liberty!  At something like 375 feet tall, it is claimed to be the tallest statue in the world.  Thankfully NYC refused to allow it and, after many other places rejected it, it landed in Puerto Rico.  There it sat unassembled for years, going through lots of government disputes over taxation, who would develop the park around it, etc.  It was finally erected but is not open to the public until further development issues are resolved.  Boy is it ugly!

Next morning we were glad to leave early and drove a bit south of Arecibo to visit Cueva de la Ventana, Cave of the Window. There are actually several caves on the site, and visitors are fitted with hard hats and led through the caves by tour guides. At the end there is a spectacular stop at the Window, a cave opening high on a cliff with a magnificent view of the nearby valley. Really a must-see if you visit that part of Puerto Rico.

We decided to drive S to Ponce on the S coast before returning to our marina. This drive was up and over the central mountains of Puerto Rico, some on modern 4 lane highways, some on twisty, white-knuckled spottily paved 1.5 lane roads. The landscape is primeval, with sharp crags and rain forest, and it rained on us for much of that drive. On the S coast the rain stopped and roads improved. The towns looked more prosperous as well. We put a lot of miles on our little rental and were glad to be back on Avventura late in the afternoon.

Our last few days in Puerto Rico are occupied by cleaning, packing, securing items for summer storage, and readying the boat for haul-out and storage in the boatyard. This is the not-so-fun part of cruising, but we were missing home and  excited to be headed back.

Haul-Out Day

Our baby Avventura "on the hard" in the boatyard at Fajardo, PR

Looking back at our 2019 cruise, I again feel a sense of accomplishment, having covered something like 940 miles by sailboat. We visited 21 islands. Once again, we avoided all rocks and reefs. A few cuts and bruises, but no major injuries to us or Avventura. We entertained four different groups of friends and family members. We managed the rather ambitious travel schedule of the first month of the cruise and arrived in the BVIs in plenty of time to meet our first guests. We feel more comfortable operating the boat and her complicated systems. We experienced some new places and real adventures, but also had great fun being back in the Virgin Islands that we know well and love so much. Looking forward to spending next season in the Bahamas, islands we have visited several times in the past on charter boats or land based trips but never on our own.