2024 Sailing Journal - Antigua to Puerto Rico

Date	Location	Notes
Antigua to Puerto Rico
01/01/2024	Falmouth Harbour, Antigua (mooring #19, AYC Marina) to New Division Bay (aka Hansons Bay), Antigua (anchored) Monday	Happy New Year! We started the year with a short, easy, mostly downwind sail on just the solent from the mooring in Falmouth Harbour to a very user-friendly anchorage just north of Jolly Harbour. There’s an enormous area of sand with depths around 3 to 4 meters, well protected except from the west. This would be a great place to anchor if one arrived at Antigua after dark. However, the water is somewhat cloudy (presumably with fine sand), so it’s not a good place to snorkel or make water. We took our time getting out this morning; Katy still isn’t feeling very good, and since we haven’t sailed in close to two months, we wanted to be extra careful not to miss anything as we readied the boat to leave. That said, we STILL managed to sail half the trip with the anchor light lit. I jammed my left middle finger while docking this morning when I took the trash in, just rank carelessness. Grrrr. Since we had the bridle on the mooring, with its great, huge shackle clip, we had to add a line to the mooring so that we could remove the bridle. That done, we retrieved the bridle; it was very badly encrusted with growth (interestingly, no barnacles). I cleaned it up enough to be able to stow it without making a mess, but it still needs more cleaning. It looks to me as if some of the threads in the line are fraying, so we may need to actually replace it when we get back to the U.S. It’s served us well. We were almost ready to go when I noticed another Exploration anchored near us in Falmouth Harbour. It’s a 60, the first we’ve seen - “Fiore”, with Harmen and Leone aboard. They weighed anchor and passed close enough for us to exchange greetings. Hopefully we’ll cross paths again soon; I’d love to get a tour of their boat. We had a lovely moonrise.
01/02/2024	New Division Bay to Lee Cove, Black Cliff Island, Antigua (anchored) Via St. Johns (anchored), for reprovisioning. Tuesday	We got up and out at a relatively early hour for us; we weighed anchor about 8AM. As we were clearing the mouth of the anchorage (motoring) we spotted “Fiore” (under sail), headed for Barbuda. As we approached the entrance channel to St. Johns, a very large cruise ship entered the channel more-or-less along side of us. I slowed to try to let them get ahead of us, but they were slowing, too. As we neared the turning area for the cruise ship docks, a pilot boat came along side of us and told us to wait, so we spent about a half hour lingering while the cruise ship docked. In retrospect, I should have held our speed and gotten in ahead of the cruise ship. The anchorage at St. Johns is just south of the southernmost cruise ship dock, and quite shoal. The water is very murky, and the smell wasn’t great. I can see why it’s not recommended for overnights. Once anchored, we dinghied in to the newish dinghy dock, which is just to the north of that southernmost dock. We went around the (newly docked) cruise ship to get to it; on the way back, we just zipped UNDER the pedestrian bridge joining the dock to the mainland. The dinghy dock is a tiny area, mixed in with docking areas for tourist boats (the usual snorkel/sightseeing party boats). There really was only enough room for one dinghy - luckily it was us. We walked (about a half hour) to the “Epicurean Grocery”. It’s a MASSIVE store. It had pretty much everything we wanted, but the produce wasn’t stellar. Just as we were about to check out, their credit card charge system went down, causing absolute chaos. Katy and I each sucked $300EC from an ATM to be able to pay in cash. While we were in line I called the “St. Johns local taxi association” to get a cab back to the boat (we had a lot of stuff to carry). A taxi was sent, but the woman driving wasn’t willing to wait while the cashier RESCANNED our entire grocery load. She had given me a price of $30US. Ouch. Anyway, once we finally paid and got out, she was gone. Attempts to contact the taxi association failed. Luckily, a small van with a taxi plate pulled up as we were stewing about what to do. The driver, Lloyd, gave us a price of 5$US to go back to the cruise ship dock. Hallelujah! He was chatty and friendly, and we wound up paying him $10US. Once all the food was stowed we got the cover off the mainsail and weighed anchor. Once past the container ship dock we turned up and got the main up. We did a mix of sailing and motoring for the rest of the afternoon; we were dead upwind for about 45 minutes, but otherwise were pretty much on a close reach or close hauled with the main and solent. The anchorage is great - no other boats, only a little roll, and we have a nice breeze.
01/03/2024	Lee Cove, Black Cliff Island Wednesday	We decided to stay put for a day. The water is clear enough to make for enjoyable snorkeling, and there’s very little wind, so leaving for Barbuda seemed crazy. I snorkeled for about 2 hours in the morning, first exploring the waters around the two small islands south of Black Cliffs Island. The reef I found was small, but productive; I saw a HUGE lobster, and (unfortunately) a small lionfish, as well as lots of live conch, sea cucumbers, and small fish of many varieties. The reefs here seem to be in fairly decent shape, with a lot of new growth and plenty of fish around them. I then swam over to Windy Cove, where the party boats go. There is more reef to be had on that side, but it’s not really different from what I saw earlier. There are at least three sticks marking the centers of VERY shoal reef tops - shallow enough that I could not swim over them. I went back to the boat, we had a bit of lunch, and then Katy and I both went out for a snorkel (maybe an hour?). It felt great to do so much swimming, but I was exhausted by supper time. There is a ton of boat traffic through this area. This is the first time I relly wished I had a day-glo float to pull behind me. Tofu tacos and guacamole tonight.
01/04/2024	Lee Cove to Spanish Point, Barbuda, Antigua (anchored) Thursday	Another earlyish departure; we were off by 0830. We motored out through a fairly narrow passage, with reefs on either side. Hence, we didn’t raise the main until safely past the reefs. We had a downwind sail (very broad reach) on the main and solent in modest (11-15 knot) winds. We probably could have done better with the gennaker, but we were not in a hurry and feeling lazy. A bit more than halfway there we got a “Canbus low voltage” alarm. This is about the third time we’ve gotten one; for some reason the chart plotter doesn’t save these in its alarm history, so there’s no other information available. This time I set up screens on the Triton2 displays, one in the cockpit, one at the nav desk, to show NMEA2K (Canbus) voltage - one for each network segment. The forward segment is fine - 13V or a little more. The aft segment, OTOH, is low - 11.2V or so. Once we got in I checked the voltage at the fuse between the Scheiber Block 9 supply and the NMEA2K injector - 13V. So there’s a drop someplace else. The injector is (I think) behind the cockpit chart plotter, where it’s not exactly easy to get to; I’ll have to pull the chart plotter. Assuming I’m up early enough, I’ll do it tomorrow morning. Meanwhile - the anchorage for the night is on the inside of Spanish POint, at the southeastern corner of Barbuda. Getting in entails winding carefully through a poorly-charted field of reefs, with shallow depths. We put on the headsets, and Katy stood a the bow, giving me steering directions. Now that we have a safe path in, we can follow it back out when we leave. We anchored in 1.8M – the shallowest we’ve anchored in since the Bahamas last winter. We dropped in very clear sand; when we checked the anchor (via snorkel), it was beautifully dug in, and the anchor chain rests entirely on sand - no coral heads in the way. Yea! We went out for a quick swim, to check the anchor and explore a bit. Southeast of us are some nice reefs, but it was cloudy by the time we got there. We’ll go back in the morning with better light.
01/05/2024	Spanish Point, Barbuda Friday	A lazy day of swimming and snorkeling. In the afternoon we had Pete and Donna, from “Muirgen” (a Westerly, about 36ft) aboard for drinks.
01/06/2024	Spanish Point to Low Bay, Codrington Lagoon, Barbuda (anchored)	This was an easy sail on the solent - we just were not in a hurry at all. When we got to Codrington, we anchored south of the cut into the lagoon, thinking that might give us the shortest dinghy ride to town (through the middle of the cut). It turned out to be a little rolly, and perhaps not so close after all. Anyway, once anchored, we spent most of the afternoon stripping and cleaning the primary winches. The port side winch has been squeaking - never a good sign. Once we got it apart, there was obvious wear on both collets (the little tabs that secure the main spindle). So -we replaced the collets (as well as the pawls and pawl springs, which we usually replace anyway). Once THAT was done, we motored across the cut and anchored next to Muirgen. Pete found a water taxi that can take us ashore (it’s a long, tricky dinghy ride), so with luck, we’ll go visit the bird sanctuary tomorrow with Pete and Donna. Fish tacos for supper.
01/07/2024	Low Bay, Codrington Lagoon Sunday	Our attempts at booking either a guide for the frigate bird sanctuary or a water taxi to shore all failed, so we put the gasoline engine on the dingy and braved the trip in to the lagoon through the somewhat scary breaking water at the entrance. Supposedly there is a “buoyed channel”; what there REALLY is is a single, faded orange float with empty bleach bottles attached to bulk it up, marking one important crux in the entrance. The ride was even more interesting because we had FOUR in the dinghy - Katy and me, and Donna and Pete off Muirgen. We made it in but we were all fairly wet; Katy was soaked. But it’s just water - it would dry. Once on land, we started looking for a guide to the bird sanctuary. As it happened, there was a fellow in a boat kind of puttering about as we arrived; Katy went and talked to him, and he said he would do it. He gave his name as Kevin, and for $60US he would take the four of us. The sanctuary is a large mangrove swamp; access is only by boat. It was quite a long ride to get there. Well - it was GREAT. Kevin was a very good guide, and the birds were amazing.My (so far completely unweeded) pictures are here. Upon return we made a pit stop at “Lil Linc’s Supermarket” (for cold drinks), then managed, again by pure luck, to hire a driver and guide for the Darby SinkHole / Cave. This was quite the little adventure. Our driver, Jacob, drive a seriously beat van over seriously beat roads. We eventually went essentially off-road and parked. Our guide, Olson, then took over, and we walked first to the “Highand House Ruin” (not very interesting, and then a good 40 minutes or so to the sinkhole. It was worth the journey. The sinkhole bottom is completely forested and has its own microclimate - it was noticeably cooler and moister than the dusty brush surrounding it. My (again, unfiltered) pictures are here. By this time it was late afternoon. Luckily the wind had faded a bit, and we were going WITH the wind , so the return was a bit less hairraising than the approach. We stopped at Muirgen to drop off Donna and Pete and stayed for a beer, then took a quick dip, had a hasty supper of cous-cous, and hit the hay.
01/08/2024 to 01/09/2024	Low Bay, Barbuda to Coral Harbor, St. John, USVI (anchored) Monday and Tuesday	On Monday morning we called Kevin, the guy who conducted our tour of the frigate bird sanctuary, and got a ride in to clear out. There was no one at the (tiny) customs office when we got there, and phone calls went unanswered. We eventually walked over to the “airport” (one small strip, with a very small “terminal” building) and asked a woman in a uniform about customs. She made a phone call and sent us back to the customs office, where we waited about a half hour until two officials showed up. We gave them all of our paperwork (we had cone the “eSeaClear” thing online as well) and waited another 20 minutes or so. Eventually one of them came out with our clearance for Katy to sign, and off we went. Amazingly - no charge for anything. Kevin then took us back out to the boat ($40US round trip), and we departed as soon as we could. We originally thought we would go north of St. Barts, but the wind said otherwise. We sailed on port task, WSW, for several hours, befor turning WNW on starboard tack towards the USVIs. We had good wind all the way - 15 to 25 knots, and since we were on a very broad reach, the apparent wind stayed below 20. We nonetheless put a reef in the main on Tuesday morning, shortly after Katy came on watch – why push it? For Tuesday, we averaged 7.4 knots (midnight to anchoring), with a max speed of 11.8 (surfing down a wave). Conditions were “sporty” - 1 to 2 meter not-quite-following swells, with chop. We started to make okonomiyaki for supper on Monday night, but BOTH of us got queasy prepping below, so we gave up. We had it on arrival. We first tried to anchor on the east side of Round Bay, but could not get the anchor to hold. We motored across to Coral Harbor (where we had anchored once before, in 2022), and settled in, with “Lime Out” (the in-the-water taco bar) directly ahead.
01/10/2024	Coral Bay Harbor to Caneel Bay, St. John, USVI (NPS mooring) Wednesday	Started the day with lunch at Lime Out. :-) We then motored around Ram Head and sailed on the gennaker, port tack. We gybed too early and had to motor for another 15 minutes, then sailed the rest of the way on the gennaker, starboard tack. As we passed Cruz Bay I submitted a CBP ROAM arrival request; it was denied. I used the 2023 DTOPS decal number. Once we were on a NPS mooring, I tried again with the 2024 DTOPS number (24007621); it was approved. Thank you for your recent U.S. CBP ROAM trip submission, Catherine Petersen. Your U.S. CBP ROAM Trip ID 723290 has been approved. You and your reporting group are now cleared to enter the U.S. Your PBRS Clearance Number is 510220240110152859. It seemed harder than usual to get the gennaker furled in. Katy dinghied over to the NPS kiosk to get some envelopes and slips for mooring rental. I found my “America the Beautiful” pass; the number is 22BA13704. When she got back, we moved further east to try to get out of some of the swell; there were several moorings close to the NPS kiosk. I’m not sure this mooring is really any better.
01/11/2023	Caneel Bay, St. John, USVI to Maho Bay, St. John, USVI (NPS mooring) Thursday	We dinghied in to Cruz Bay to do laundry and get some groceries. The NPS dinghy dock is closed due to construction, and one of the other dinghy docks is ALSO closed, so space was REALLY tight on the one dock available. While doing laundry we bumped into a Canadian couple. Their boat, “Wild Horses”, was on the mooring just behind us in Caneel Bay. We swapped boat cards and I plan to drop them a line; they may have good input regarding Newfoundland next summer. Back on the boat, we stowed the food and took off for Maho Bay. We are on a mooring near the “back” (based on wind direction) of the field. I went for a long snorkel around the perimeter of Maho Bay. Pleasant, if not spectacular; I saw three very large turtles and a lot of fish. We had rain showers all late afternoon. We’ll probably have more tonight. Pizza night.
01/12/2024	Maho Bay, St. John, USVI to Waterlemon Cay, St. John, USVI (NPS mooring) Friday	We took the dinghy to the dinghy tie-up line in Maho Bay to look for turtles. We saw one, and some tarpon, but not a lot else of interest, so we went back to the boat and motored to Waterlemon Cay. We picked a mooring pretty close to the beach, so hopefully we won’t have a very rolly night. Once in we did some housekeeping. We made water, pre-cooked potatoes and veggies, made and ate lunch, scoured the oven racks (which were looking pretty dingy). Light rain squalls came and went. Finally, late afternoon, we went out for a short snorkel around the cay. This is perhaps my favorite snorkel spot on all of St. John - lots of fish, interesting reef, a bit of challenge from the swell. We did a quick circuit of the cay and returned to the boat as the light faded. We say a large heron (perhaps a great blue) on the cay, and a bunch of goats on the St. John mainland.
01/13/2024	Waterlemon Cay, St. John, USVI Saturday	Rain squalls in the morning. Late morning we snorkeled the cay, this time going clockwise ‘round (yesterday we went counterclockwise) and much more slowly than yesterday. Lots of nice fish, coral, good sunlight, reasonably clear water. This is definitely my favorite spot in St. John. We made water and just rested in the afternoon. Fishcakes for supper.
01/14/2024	Waterlemon Cay, St. John, USVI to Great Lameshur Bay, St. John, USVI (NPS mooring) Sunday	Easy sail around the east end of St. John. We first motored NE towards Tortola (in the BVIs), put up the main, and turned SE on port tack, close hauled. As we worked our way south we could fall off more and more until we were on a very broad reach. Once around the SE corner of St. John we gybed, ran briefly on starboard tack, then turned up and got the sails down to motor into Lameshur Bay. The water here is stunningly clear.Once we got settled and had lunch, we went for a snorkel along the east side of the bay. Lots of largish fish, including a couple of large “scrawled filefish”. Schools of blue tang. After the snorkel, Alastair, the local park service volunteer, stopped by for a chat. He was here in 2022 when we passed through, and is back again. He’s a very nice guy. He greeted out comments about water clarity with amusement; he says it’s nowhere near as good as usual! I ordered 2 replacement aft shower heads from Fisheries Supply, sent to Owen. I also sent inquiries to Fisheries Supply and West Marine about the casings for the jacklines.
01/15/2024	Lameshur Bay, St. John, USVI Monday	We were pinned down all morning by persistent rain showers. In the afternoon we took the dinghy in to shore to get rid of trash, then picked up the south day use mooring (on Alastair’s advice). Excellent snorkeling territory, though we didn’t have great light (mostly cloudy). We saw a magnificent queen triggerfish, a spotted filefish, and many brilliantly-colored yellow damselfish of all sizes, as well as the usual suspects. It’s a great reef. I ordered replacement jackline casings from France. They are on backorder. :-( Nice sunset with supper, which was roasted cauliflower, tofu/bean melange, and rice.
01/16/2024	Lameshur Bay, St. John, USVI to Frederiksted, St. Croix, USVI (anchored) Tuesday	We had a great, if very salty, beam reach sail from Lameshur to Frederiksted. We started with the main with one reef and the staysail; we very quickly put the second reef in the main, as we had 20 to 25 knots apparent wind, pretty much the whole way. Seas were running 2 to 4 meters, almost on the beam (no surprise…), which the autopilot doesn’t handle well at all, so I hand steered almost the entire trip. We averaged 6.1 knots (mooring to anchor), respectable with a reefed main and staysail. We anchored very close to where we anchored in 2022, in 5.6 meters of water, reasonably close to the pier (for nice snorkeling). We have diving scheduled for Thursday.
01/17/2024 to 01/21/2024	Frederiksted, St. Croix, USVI , north of the pier Wednesday to Sunday	Wednesday - We dinghied in to check in with the dive shop (Nep2une), check out the grocery stores and laundromats, and have brunch at Polly’s. It wasn’t as good as we remembered, but it was not bad! Afterwards, we went for a snorkel around the Frederiksted pier. Thursday - a big dive day! We did a two tank morning dive with Net2une. The first was at “Armageddon”, a site where they dumped a bunch of wreckage from a pier destroyed by Hurricane Hugo. We saw many sharks and barracuda, and lots of other fish. It was a relatively deep dive (90 feet), and thus shortish. There was also a fair amount of current. The second dive was at the end of the Frederiksted pier. It’s much shallower, so a longer dive. We left a lot of our gear at Nep2une, came back to the boat for a late lunch and nap, and then went back in for a night dive with Nep2une at the Frederiksted pier. We saw a number of eels and snakes, some interesting crabs, a porcupine fish, many turtles, and other interesting fish. I saw my first squid of this dive season. This was an interesting dive for me, in that I used much less air than usual; I finally got into the Zen of diving. Sean was the divemaster for all three dives, and for the night dive, it was just the three of us (Katy, Sean and me). The boat driver for the morning dives was “Captain Jeff”. Friday - We did a self-guided shore dive at the Frederiksted pier, starting around 1130 and lasting a bit over an hour. After the dive we ate lunch at Polly’s and then went back to Nep2une to pick up our wet under-wet-suit clothes and newly-filled Spare Air tanks. Then back to the boat for a quiet afternoon and evening. I booked the car rental for Puerto Rico, for Feb 5-11. Saturday - We went for one last 2-tank dive in the morning with Nep2une. Our dive master was Jenny, who we dove with in 2022 and really liked. She didn’t disappoint. Our first dive was back at Armageddon, where we watched her feed a lionfish to a reef shark. Lionfish are a beautiful, but highly destructive, invasive species, so killing them is good, and watching a shark eat the corpse was fascinating, if vaguely frightening. The second dive was a “Chubb Hole”, an excellent reef in about 30-45 feet of water, so we had a full hour of diving. Lots of fish, including reef sharks, a free-swimming green moray eel, and much more. All the dive leaders at Nep2une are good, but Jenny is exceptional. After the dive we had a so-so lunch of sandwiches and fries at Taiquey. We got back to the boat around mid-afternoon and decided to book a sunset cruise on Jolly Mon, with Lyric Sails. It was more crowded than we expected, but we had a good time. Some of the crew, including the skipper, live on a boat anchored south of the Frederiksted pier, and ALL of the crew were fun to talk to. We saw a green flash at sunset. It was a nice “do once” outing, but would have been better mid-week, with fewer passengers. The boat is really rolling tonight, probably because there’s very little wind. Tomorrow morning we will leave for Culebra.
01/21/2024	Frederiksted, st. Croix to Ensenada Honda, Culebra, Puerto RIco (anchored) Sunday	We had a lovely sail on the main & gennaker, broad reach, essentially all the way. It was a great day to be out sailing. We anchored very close to where we anchored at the end of 2022, in Ensenada Honda. We have a dive booked for Tuesday afternoon (which we hope will be moved to Tuesday morning); tomorrow (Monday) we expect to do laundry, grocery shopping, etc. We cleared in via CBP ROAM, Trip ID 733268, PBRS Clearance Number 490420240121145658.
01/22/2024 to 01/24/2024	Ensenada Honda, Culebra, P.R. Monday to Thursday	Monday - chores. We took the clothes laundry in for a wash (sheets will wait until San Juan) at La Surana Apartments and Laundromat. $2 washers (top loaders) and $1 (15 minute) dryers. We had some trouble finding a place to put the dinghy; the first two docks we tried were clearly private, with locked gates that kept us in. We finally went back to the (also private) dock at Hostal Casa Culebra, where we put the dinghy last year. The only people on the dock were guests, but one of them gave me the name (“Rafa”) and number (+1 787 362 1830) of the attendant. I called him, and he graciously allowed us to use the dock free of charge for a few hours. Approaching the dock at Hostal Casa Culebra The laundromat. The entrance is up the driveway, to the left. Once the clothes were in the wash, we walked up to D’s Garden for veggies. We stopped there a year ago; it was as good as we remembered. Apparently we could have put the dinghy on one of the docks in Ensenada del Coronel, around the corner from where we were. We pulled the laundry before it was all dry and hung clothes on the rail (“those nasty live-aboards!”). As windy and sunny as it is, they should dry quickly. Tuesday - It got windy overnight, and the boat was actually cool by the morning! We hung out until 1130 or so, then took the dingy to town with all our gear for diving. It was very rough on the way in and we left the dinghy bobbing like crazy at the town dinghy dock. We checked in with Culebra Divers and dropped off our gear. One of the folks at the shop, Doug, lives aboard a 51’ cat, anchored near the dive shop. We talked passages for a while; he may be a useful source for information about Davisville in the Chesapeake. After lunch at Culebra Coffee, the same place we ate lunch at a year ago. The afternoon 1-tank dive was so-so. With all the wind, the water was a bit murky and there was a fair amount of surge and current. But we saw some nice fish. It was a shallow, and thus long dive - 65 minutes. 3100 PSI to start, 1200 at the end. From he divemaster: Site: Tamarindo Chico Depth: 24 ft Time: 67 min Temp: 80 F The divemasters took pictures. Upon return to the dinghy, we discovered that the cable connecting the battery to the engine had popped off, and we could not get it to properly reconnect. We rode back out to the boat with me holding the cable in place, in very rough conditions - very NOT ideal. We pulled the motor off the dinghy to get a better look at the problem; it looks like the housing that surrounds the socket in the battery is slightly bent. Katy fussed with it whilst I made supper, to no avail (and a lot of frustration). We’ll look at it again tomorrow. Home fries and scrambled eggs for supper (the potatoes really had to go). After supper I did the PADI online training for Nitrox (“enhanced air”). I passed the final, and will dive on Thursday morning with Nitrox. Wednesday - rain and wind, so we stayed on the boat all day. Katy did the PADI Nitrox training. I made pesto, and did administrivia: Talked to someone at Falmouth Town Hall about the annual survey, printed and updated it, and emailed it back. Ordered a better power cord for the Spirit charger, and opened a dialog with ePropulsion about the effing connector problem. Confirmed my Schwab IRA distribution. I also wasted an exceptional amount of time on word games. Ravioli and caprese salad for supper. Thursday - Excellent 2-tank morning with Culebra Divers again, Meg and Trevor as divemasters, at Rosario Wall and Rosario North. Both are excellent reefs, with gorgeous coral and plenty of fish. Site 1: Carlos Rosario Wall Depth: 44 ft Time: 63 min Temp: 80 F Site 2: Carlos Rosario North Depth: 44 ft Time: 63 min Temp: 80 F Pictures here. Prior to the dive we completed the in-person training for Enhanced Air certification, so we’re now set to go on that. It seems that getting our Advanced Open Water certs would not be hard, and would open up a lot of options. We will need to be in one place long enough to get in 5 specialty dives and training at a single dive shop. The two required types of dives are deep (about 100 feet) and night, and navigation skills have to be demonstrated. Salad for supper.
01/25/2024	Ensenada Honda, Culebra, P.R. to Isla Palominos, Puerto Rico (on mooring) Friday	We had a mostly nice sail on the main (1 reef) and solent. We motored S out of Ensenada Honda, put up the main, and motorsailed until we could gybe to the WNW and put out the solent. Initial the wind was weak and squirrely, but after a squall passed, it filled in nicely, putting us on a broad reach most of the way. In retrospect we should have gone around the south end of Isla Palominos; instead we went around the north, which left us in a lof of surge as we got the main down. We’re on a nominally day use DRNA mooring, next to a very load (music) motorboat, which we hope will NOT spend the night. We plan to squat on the mooring for a couple of nights.
01/26/2024	Isla Palominos to Cayo Icacos, P.R. (anchored) Saturday	We had a brisk, if short, sail on just the solent. It took a while to find a good place to anchor. The guidance we had suggested a location somewhat east of where we wound up. On our one try there, we could not get the anchor to hold. So we moved around a corner to the NW and found good holding in sand in 4.5 meters. Shortly after we got anchored, day boats started arriving in droves. This place IS very busy on the weekends - but mostly for beachgoers and (unfortunately) various types of motorized toys - jet skis, handheld swim motors, foils, dinghies. The snorkeling, at least that we found, is decidedly sub-par. After returning to the boat we were visited by Ziggy and Peter, from a local catamaran anchored a bit west of us. Ziggy is a rigger, and had some interesting comments about our boat. He LIKES Garcias, especially the older Passoas. He also suggested some places we might like for snorkeling. Asian tofu/bok choy stir fry for dinner.
01/28/2024	Cayo Icacos to Cayo Lobos and back (amchored) Sunday	Well, that was a bust. We motored the short trip to Cayo Lobos and picked up a mooring, hoping for some snorkeling. It was hopelessly rolly. We put out the flopstopper, and it was STILL hopelessly rolly. So - since it was only 0930, we just motored back to Cayo Icacos and dropped the hook a bit further west and inshore of where we were yesterday. In the afternoon we swam to shore and took a little walk, then played cards remotely with Dan and Sue. If we thought Saturday was busy - Sunday was NUTS. The number of day boats was incredible. Luckily they were reasonably quiet with the music, though we still had jetskis zooming past the boat (and through the swimming area…) all day. Okonomiyaki for supper. Yum!
01/29/2024	Cayo Icacos to San Juan Bay Marina, San Juan, P.R. (anchored) Monday	We left shortly after sunrise and (sadly) motored all the way to San Juan. There was just NO wind. We thought we might anchor just inside the entrance to San Juan Harbor, at Bajo San Agustin, but the bottom is rocks, so we continued in the San Antonio Channel to “Anchorage D”, just outside the San Juan Bay Marina, where we will park the boat while visiting with the kids. The anchorage is deep; we dropped in about 10 meters and put 60 meters of rode out. The winds (such as they are) are extremely inconsistent, so all the boats in this tight anchorage are moving around. It’s a bit scary; if we don’t all have about the same scope, we could bump. At least the wind is expected to be very weak, so any bumps won’t be very hard. I dinghied in and took a look at the dock for tomorrow. The slips on the north side have odd numbers, even on the south. Hopefully we’ll have a slip number higher than 71; all those slips have short finger docks. We have quite a view of San Juan at night.
1/30/2024	San Juan Bay Marina, San Juan, P.R. (docked, slip A-87) Tuesday	We took the dinghy in to check out the slip (A-87); it’s the fifth in from the outer end, on the north side, and has a finger dock. The docks are fixed, not floating (only .3 meters of tide) On the way back to the boat we met Ramon, who lived on a trimaran in the harbor with wife Lindsay, 2 kids (3 year olds) and a dog. The move to the slip was, as usual, stressful. Katy had to get out the anchor wash when we weighed anchor; the bottom is clay. I cleaned the anchor more after we docked, but it’s still got some glop on it. We are stern to, port side to the finger. The fairway is pretty wide, but still I had trouble getting the boat lined up. We had a west wind pushing the boat to starboard as I was backing. Katy wanted me to get close to the piling on the starboard side, and I got a hair TOO close; she had to fend us off.Getting the boat settled was tricky, but we now have crisscrossed stern lines, forward and aft springs on the port side (to the finger dock), and bow lines to the port and starboard pilings. We’re on shore power, which is metered. Water is 2$/foot, one time fee (so $98). I’ll wash the boat in the morning when it’s cool. There isn’t any close-by laundry; we may just wait until we get into the airBNB to do laundry. I walked out to get beer and club soda, about 15 minutes away, at Miramar 24/7 Express. Great selection of beers, not much else. When I got back, we took the dinghy out exploring. Pizza for supper.
01/31/2024	San Juan Bay Marina Wednesday	Rain much of the day. In the afternoon I washed the boat (coach roof to decks, only part of the cockpit). In the process I got a helluva sunburn on my lower back. Ramon (from “Calmer Waters”) stopped by for a chat. He’s a very nice guy.
02/01/2024 to 02/13/2024	AirBNB in San Juan (us), San Juan Bay Marina (the boat) Thursday to Tuesday	We had a vacation with the kids! RuthAnne and Rommel from Feb 1 to 12, Owen and Alison from Feb 3 to 10.

Date

Location

Notes

Antigua to Puerto Rico

01/01/2024

Falmouth Harbour, Antigua (mooring #19, AYC Marina) to New Division Bay (aka Hansons Bay), Antigua (anchored)

Monday

Happy New Year!

We started the year with a short, easy, mostly downwind sail on just the solent from the mooring in Falmouth Harbour to a very user-friendly anchorage just north of Jolly Harbour. There’s an enormous area of sand with depths around 3 to 4 meters, well protected except from the west. This would be a great place to anchor if one arrived at Antigua after dark. However, the water is somewhat cloudy (presumably with fine sand), so it’s not a good place to snorkel or make water.

We took our time getting out this morning; Katy still isn’t feeling very good, and since we haven’t sailed in close to two months, we wanted to be extra careful not to miss anything as we readied the boat to leave. That said, we STILL managed to sail half the trip with the anchor light lit.

I jammed my left middle finger while docking this morning when I took the trash in, just rank carelessness. Grrrr.

Since we had the bridle on the mooring, with its great, huge shackle clip, we had to add a line to the mooring so that we could remove the bridle. That done, we retrieved the bridle; it was very badly encrusted with growth (interestingly, no barnacles). I cleaned it up enough to be able to stow it without making a mess, but it still needs more cleaning. It looks to me as if some of the threads in the line are fraying, so we may need to actually replace it when we get back to the U.S. It’s served us well.

We were almost ready to go when I noticed another Exploration anchored near us in Falmouth Harbour. It’s a 60, the first we’ve seen - “Fiore”, with Harmen and Leone aboard. They weighed anchor and passed close enough for us to exchange greetings. Hopefully we’ll cross paths again soon; I’d love to get a tour of their boat.

We had a lovely moonrise.

01/02/2024

New Division Bay to Lee Cove, Black Cliff Island, Antigua (anchored)

Via St. Johns (anchored), for reprovisioning.

Tuesday

We got up and out at a relatively early hour for us; we weighed anchor about 8AM. As we were clearing the mouth of the anchorage (motoring) we spotted “Fiore” (under sail), headed for Barbuda.

As we approached the entrance channel to St. Johns, a very large cruise ship entered the channel more-or-less along side of us. I slowed to try to let them get ahead of us, but they were slowing, too. As we neared the turning area for the cruise ship docks, a pilot boat came along side of us and told us to wait, so we spent about a half hour lingering while the cruise ship docked. In retrospect, I should have held our speed and gotten in ahead of the cruise ship.

The anchorage at St. Johns is just south of the southernmost cruise ship dock, and quite shoal. The water is very murky, and the smell wasn’t great. I can see why it’s not recommended for overnights.

Once anchored, we dinghied in to the newish dinghy dock, which is just to the north of that southernmost dock. We went around the (newly docked) cruise ship to get to it; on the way back, we just zipped UNDER the pedestrian bridge joining the dock to the mainland.

The dinghy dock is a tiny area, mixed in with docking areas for tourist boats (the usual snorkel/sightseeing party boats). There really was only enough room for one dinghy - luckily it was us.

We walked (about a half hour) to the “Epicurean Grocery”. It’s a MASSIVE store. It had pretty much everything we wanted, but the produce wasn’t stellar.

Just as we were about to check out, their credit card charge system went down, causing absolute chaos. Katy and I each sucked $300EC from an ATM to be able to pay in cash.

While we were in line I called the “St. Johns local taxi association” to get a cab back to the boat (we had a lot of stuff to carry). A taxi was sent, but the woman driving wasn’t willing to wait while the cashier RESCANNED our entire grocery load. She had given me a price of $30US. Ouch.

Anyway, once we finally paid and got out, she was gone. Attempts to contact the taxi association failed.

Luckily, a small van with a taxi plate pulled up as we were stewing about what to do. The driver, Lloyd, gave us a price of 5$US to go back to the cruise ship dock. Hallelujah! He was chatty and friendly, and we wound up paying him $10US.

Once all the food was stowed we got the cover off the mainsail and weighed anchor. Once past the container ship dock we turned up and got the main up. We did a mix of sailing and motoring for the rest of the afternoon; we were dead upwind for about 45 minutes, but otherwise were pretty much on a close reach or close hauled with the main and solent.

The anchorage is great - no other boats, only a little roll, and we have a nice breeze.

01/03/2024

Lee Cove, Black Cliff Island

Wednesday

We decided to stay put for a day. The water is clear enough to make for enjoyable snorkeling, and there’s very little wind, so leaving for Barbuda seemed crazy.

I snorkeled for about 2 hours in the morning, first exploring the waters around the two small islands south of Black Cliffs Island. The reef I found was small, but productive; I saw a HUGE lobster, and (unfortunately) a small lionfish, as well as lots of live conch, sea cucumbers, and small fish of many varieties. The reefs here seem to be in fairly decent shape, with a lot of new growth and plenty of fish around them.

I then swam over to Windy Cove, where the party boats go. There is more reef to be had on that side, but it’s not really different from what I saw earlier. There are at least three sticks marking the centers of VERY shoal reef tops - shallow enough that I could not swim over them.

I went back to the boat, we had a bit of lunch, and then Katy and I both went out for a snorkel (maybe an hour?). It felt great to do so much swimming, but I was exhausted by supper time.

There is a ton of boat traffic through this area. This is the first time I relly wished I had a day-glo float to pull behind me.

Tofu tacos and guacamole tonight.

01/04/2024

Lee Cove to Spanish Point, Barbuda, Antigua (anchored)

Thursday

Another earlyish departure; we were off by 0830. We motored out through a fairly narrow passage, with reefs on either side. Hence, we didn’t raise the main until safely past the reefs.

We had a downwind sail (very broad reach) on the main and solent in modest (11-15 knot) winds. We probably could have done better with the gennaker, but we were not in a hurry and feeling lazy.

A bit more than halfway there we got a “Canbus low voltage” alarm. This is about the third time we’ve gotten one; for some reason the chart plotter doesn’t save these in its alarm history, so there’s no other information available. This time I set up screens on the Triton2 displays, one in the cockpit, one at the nav desk, to show NMEA2K (Canbus) voltage - one for each network segment.

The forward segment is fine - 13V or a little more. The aft segment, OTOH, is low - 11.2V or so.

Once we got in I checked the voltage at the fuse between the Scheiber Block 9 supply and the NMEA2K injector - 13V. So there’s a drop someplace else. The injector is (I think) behind the cockpit chart plotter, where it’s not exactly easy to get to; I’ll have to pull the chart plotter. Assuming I’m up early enough, I’ll do it tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile - the anchorage for the night is on the inside of Spanish POint, at the southeastern corner of Barbuda. Getting in entails winding carefully through a poorly-charted field of reefs, with shallow depths. We put on the headsets, and Katy stood a the bow, giving me steering directions. Now that we have a safe path in, we can follow it back out when we leave.

We anchored in 1.8M – the shallowest we’ve anchored in since the Bahamas last winter. We dropped in very clear sand; when we checked the anchor (via snorkel), it was beautifully dug in, and the anchor chain rests entirely on sand - no coral heads in the way. Yea!

We went out for a quick swim, to check the anchor and explore a bit. Southeast of us are some nice reefs, but it was cloudy by the time we got there. We’ll go back in the morning with better light.

01/05/2024

Spanish Point, Barbuda

Friday

A lazy day of swimming and snorkeling. In the afternoon we had Pete and Donna, from “Muirgen” (a Westerly, about 36ft) aboard for drinks.

01/06/2024

Spanish Point to Low Bay, Codrington Lagoon, Barbuda (anchored)

This was an easy sail on the solent - we just were not in a hurry at all.

When we got to Codrington, we anchored south of the cut into the lagoon, thinking that might give us the shortest dinghy ride to town (through the middle of the cut). It turned out to be a little rolly, and perhaps not so close after all.

Anyway, once anchored, we spent most of the afternoon stripping and cleaning the primary winches. The port side winch has been squeaking - never a good sign. Once we got it apart, there was obvious wear on both collets (the little tabs that secure the main spindle).

So -we replaced the collets (as well as the pawls and pawl springs, which we usually replace anyway).

Once THAT was done, we motored across the cut and anchored next to Muirgen. Pete found a water taxi that can take us ashore (it’s a long, tricky dinghy ride), so with luck, we’ll go visit the bird sanctuary tomorrow with Pete and Donna.

Fish tacos for supper.

01/07/2024

Low Bay, Codrington Lagoon

Sunday

Our attempts at booking either a guide for the frigate bird sanctuary or a water taxi to shore all failed, so we put the gasoline engine on the dingy and braved the trip in to the lagoon through the somewhat scary breaking water at the entrance. Supposedly there is a “buoyed channel”; what there REALLY is is a single, faded orange float with empty bleach bottles attached to bulk it up, marking one important crux in the entrance.

The ride was even more interesting because we had FOUR in the dinghy - Katy and me, and Donna and Pete off Muirgen.

We made it in but we were all fairly wet; Katy was soaked. But it’s just water - it would dry.

Once on land, we started looking for a guide to the bird sanctuary. As it happened, there was a fellow in a boat kind of puttering about as we arrived; Katy went and talked to him, and he said he would do it. He gave his name as Kevin, and for $60US he would take the four of us.

The sanctuary is a large mangrove swamp; access is only by boat. It was quite a long ride to get there.

Well - it was GREAT. Kevin was a very good guide, and the birds were amazing.My (so far completely unweeded) pictures are here.

Upon return we made a pit stop at “Lil Linc’s Supermarket” (for cold drinks), then managed, again by pure luck, to hire a driver and guide for the Darby SinkHole / Cave. This was quite the little adventure. Our driver, Jacob, drive a seriously beat van over seriously beat roads. We eventually went essentially off-road and parked. Our guide, Olson, then took over, and we walked first to the “Highand House Ruin” (not very interesting, and then a good 40 minutes or so to the sinkhole.

It was worth the journey. The sinkhole bottom is completely forested and has its own microclimate - it was noticeably cooler and moister than the dusty brush surrounding it. My (again, unfiltered) pictures are here.

By this time it was late afternoon. Luckily the wind had faded a bit, and we were going WITH the wind , so the return was a bit less hairraising than the approach. We stopped at Muirgen to drop off Donna and Pete and stayed for a beer, then took a quick dip, had a hasty supper of cous-cous, and hit the hay.

01/08/2024 to 01/09/2024

Low Bay, Barbuda to Coral Harbor, St. John, USVI (anchored)

Monday and Tuesday

On Monday morning we called Kevin, the guy who conducted our tour of the frigate bird sanctuary, and got a ride in to clear out. There was no one at the (tiny) customs office when we got there, and phone calls went unanswered. We eventually walked over to the “airport” (one small strip, with a very small “terminal” building) and asked a woman in a uniform about customs. She made a phone call and sent us back to the customs office, where we waited about a half hour until two officials showed up. We gave them all of our paperwork (we had cone the “eSeaClear” thing online as well) and waited another 20 minutes or so. Eventually one of them came out with our clearance for Katy to sign, and off we went. Amazingly - no charge for anything.

Kevin then took us back out to the boat ($40US round trip), and we departed as soon as we could.

We originally thought we would go north of St. Barts, but the wind said otherwise. We sailed on port task, WSW, for several hours, befor turning WNW on starboard tack towards the USVIs.

We had good wind all the way - 15 to 25 knots, and since we were on a very broad reach, the apparent wind stayed below 20. We nonetheless put a reef in the main on Tuesday morning, shortly after Katy came on watch – why push it? For Tuesday, we averaged 7.4 knots (midnight to anchoring), with a max speed of 11.8 (surfing down a wave). Conditions were “sporty” - 1 to 2 meter not-quite-following swells, with chop. We started to make okonomiyaki for supper on Monday night, but BOTH of us got queasy prepping below, so we gave up. We had it on arrival.

We first tried to anchor on the east side of Round Bay, but could not get the anchor to hold. We motored across to Coral Harbor (where we had anchored once before, in 2022), and settled in, with “Lime Out” (the in-the-water taco bar) directly ahead.

01/10/2024

Coral Bay Harbor to Caneel Bay, St. John, USVI (NPS mooring)

Wednesday

Started the day with lunch at Lime Out. :-)

We then motored around Ram Head and sailed on the gennaker, port tack. We gybed too early and had to motor for another 15 minutes, then sailed the rest of the way on the gennaker, starboard tack. As we passed Cruz Bay I submitted a CBP ROAM arrival request; it was denied. I used the 2023 DTOPS decal number. Once we were on a NPS mooring, I tried again with the 2024 DTOPS number (24007621); it was approved.

Thank you for your recent U.S. CBP ROAM trip submission, Catherine Petersen. Your U.S. CBP ROAM Trip ID 723290 has been approved. You and your reporting group are now cleared to enter the U.S.

Your PBRS Clearance Number is 510220240110152859.

It seemed harder than usual to get the gennaker furled in.

Katy dinghied over to the NPS kiosk to get some envelopes and slips for mooring rental. I found my “America the Beautiful” pass; the number is 22BA13704.

When she got back, we moved further east to try to get out of some of the swell; there were several moorings close to the NPS kiosk. I’m not sure this mooring is really any better.

01/11/2023

Caneel Bay, St. John, USVI to Maho Bay, St. John, USVI (NPS mooring)

Thursday

We dinghied in to Cruz Bay to do laundry and get some groceries. The NPS dinghy dock is closed due to construction, and one of the other dinghy docks is ALSO closed, so space was REALLY tight on the one dock available.

While doing laundry we bumped into a Canadian couple. Their boat, “Wild Horses”, was on the mooring just behind us in Caneel Bay. We swapped boat cards and I plan to drop them a line; they may have good input regarding Newfoundland next summer.

Back on the boat, we stowed the food and took off for Maho Bay. We are on a mooring near the “back” (based on wind direction) of the field.

I went for a long snorkel around the perimeter of Maho Bay. Pleasant, if not spectacular; I saw three very large turtles and a lot of fish.

We had rain showers all late afternoon. We’ll probably have more tonight.

Pizza night.

01/12/2024

Maho Bay, St. John, USVI to Waterlemon Cay, St. John, USVI (NPS mooring)

Friday

We took the dinghy to the dinghy tie-up line in Maho Bay to look for turtles. We saw one, and some tarpon, but not a lot else of interest, so we went back to the boat and motored to Waterlemon Cay.

We picked a mooring pretty close to the beach, so hopefully we won’t have a very rolly night.

Once in we did some housekeeping. We made water, pre-cooked potatoes and veggies, made and ate lunch, scoured the oven racks (which were looking pretty dingy). Light rain squalls came and went.

Finally, late afternoon, we went out for a short snorkel around the cay. This is perhaps my favorite snorkel spot on all of St. John - lots of fish, interesting reef, a bit of challenge from the swell. We did a quick circuit of the cay and returned to the boat as the light faded. We say a large heron (perhaps a great blue) on the cay, and a bunch of goats on the St. John mainland.

01/13/2024

Waterlemon Cay, St. John, USVI

Saturday

Rain squalls in the morning. Late morning we snorkeled the cay, this time going clockwise ‘round (yesterday we went counterclockwise) and much more slowly than yesterday. Lots of nice fish, coral, good sunlight, reasonably clear water. This is definitely my favorite spot in St. John.

We made water and just rested in the afternoon. Fishcakes for supper.

01/14/2024

Waterlemon Cay, St. John, USVI to Great Lameshur Bay, St. John, USVI (NPS mooring)

Sunday

Easy sail around the east end of St. John. We first motored NE towards Tortola (in the BVIs), put up the main, and turned SE on port tack, close hauled. As we worked our way south we could fall off more and more until we were on a very broad reach. Once around the SE corner of St. John we gybed, ran briefly on starboard tack, then turned up and got the sails down to motor into Lameshur Bay.

The water here is stunningly clear.Once we got settled and had lunch, we went for a snorkel along the east side of the bay. Lots of largish fish, including a couple of large “scrawled filefish”. Schools of blue tang.

After the snorkel, Alastair, the local park service volunteer, stopped by for a chat. He was here in 2022 when we passed through, and is back again. He’s a very nice guy. He greeted out comments about water clarity with amusement; he says it’s nowhere near as good as usual!

I ordered 2 replacement aft shower heads from Fisheries Supply, sent to Owen. I also sent inquiries to Fisheries Supply and West Marine about the casings for the jacklines.

01/15/2024

Lameshur Bay, St. John, USVI

Monday

We were pinned down all morning by persistent rain showers.

In the afternoon we took the dinghy in to shore to get rid of trash, then picked up the south day use mooring (on Alastair’s advice). Excellent snorkeling territory, though we didn’t have great light (mostly cloudy). We saw a magnificent queen triggerfish, a spotted filefish, and many brilliantly-colored yellow damselfish of all sizes, as well as the usual suspects. It’s a great reef.

I ordered replacement jackline casings from France. They are on backorder. :-(

Nice sunset with supper, which was roasted cauliflower, tofu/bean melange, and rice.

01/16/2024

Lameshur Bay, St. John, USVI to Frederiksted, St. Croix, USVI (anchored)

Tuesday

We had a great, if very salty, beam reach sail from Lameshur to Frederiksted. We started with the main with one reef and the staysail; we very quickly put the second reef in the main, as we had 20 to 25 knots apparent wind, pretty much the whole way. Seas were running 2 to 4 meters, almost on the beam (no surprise…), which the autopilot doesn’t handle well at all, so I hand steered almost the entire trip. We averaged 6.1 knots (mooring to anchor), respectable with a reefed main and staysail.

We anchored very close to where we anchored in 2022, in 5.6 meters of water, reasonably close to the pier (for nice snorkeling).

We have diving scheduled for Thursday.

01/17/2024 to 01/21/2024

Frederiksted, St. Croix, USVI , north of the pier

Wednesday to Sunday

Wednesday - We dinghied in to check in with the dive shop (Nep2une), check out the grocery stores and laundromats, and have brunch at Polly’s. It wasn’t as good as we remembered, but it was not bad!

Afterwards, we went for a snorkel around the Frederiksted pier.

Thursday - a big dive day! We did a two tank morning dive with Net2une. The first was at “Armageddon”, a site where they dumped a bunch of wreckage from a pier destroyed by Hurricane Hugo. We saw many sharks and barracuda, and lots of other fish. It was a relatively deep dive (90 feet), and thus shortish. There was also a fair amount of current.

The second dive was at the end of the Frederiksted pier. It’s much shallower, so a longer dive.

We left a lot of our gear at Nep2une, came back to the boat for a late lunch and nap, and then went back in for a night dive with Nep2une at the Frederiksted pier. We saw a number of eels and snakes, some interesting crabs, a porcupine fish, many turtles, and other interesting fish. I saw my first squid of this dive season. This was an interesting dive for me, in that I used much less air than usual; I finally got into the Zen of diving.

Sean was the divemaster for all three dives, and for the night dive, it was just the three of us (Katy, Sean and me). The boat driver for the morning dives was “Captain Jeff”.

Friday - We did a self-guided shore dive at the Frederiksted pier, starting around 1130 and lasting a bit over an hour. After the dive we ate lunch at Polly’s and then went back to Nep2une to pick up our wet under-wet-suit clothes and newly-filled Spare Air tanks. Then back to the boat for a quiet afternoon and evening.

I booked the car rental for Puerto Rico, for Feb 5-11.

Saturday - We went for one last 2-tank dive in the morning with Nep2une. Our dive master was Jenny, who we dove with in 2022 and really liked. She didn’t disappoint.

Our first dive was back at Armageddon, where we watched her feed a lionfish to a reef shark. Lionfish are a beautiful, but highly destructive, invasive species, so killing them is good, and watching a shark eat the corpse was fascinating, if vaguely frightening.

The second dive was a “Chubb Hole”, an excellent reef in about 30-45 feet of water, so we had a full hour of diving. Lots of fish, including reef sharks, a free-swimming green moray eel, and much more.

All the dive leaders at Nep2une are good, but Jenny is exceptional.

After the dive we had a so-so lunch of sandwiches and fries at Taiquey.

We got back to the boat around mid-afternoon and decided to book a sunset cruise on Jolly Mon, with Lyric Sails. It was more crowded than we expected, but we had a good time. Some of the crew, including the skipper, live on a boat anchored south of the Frederiksted pier, and ALL of the crew were fun to talk to. We saw a green flash at sunset. It was a nice “do once” outing, but would have been better mid-week, with fewer passengers.

The boat is really rolling tonight, probably because there’s very little wind. Tomorrow morning we will leave for Culebra.

01/21/2024

Frederiksted, st. Croix to Ensenada Honda, Culebra, Puerto RIco (anchored)

Sunday

We had a lovely sail on the main & gennaker, broad reach, essentially all the way. It was a great day to be out sailing. We anchored very close to where we anchored at the end of 2022, in Ensenada Honda. We have a dive booked for Tuesday afternoon (which we hope will be moved to Tuesday morning); tomorrow (Monday) we expect to do laundry, grocery shopping, etc.

We cleared in via CBP ROAM, Trip ID 733268, PBRS Clearance Number 490420240121145658.

01/22/2024 to 01/24/2024

Ensenada Honda, Culebra, P.R.

Monday to Thursday

Monday - chores. We took the clothes laundry in for a wash (sheets will wait until San Juan) at La Surana Apartments and Laundromat. $2 washers (top loaders) and $1 (15 minute) dryers. We had some trouble finding a place to put the dinghy; the first two docks we tried were clearly private, with locked gates that kept us in. We finally went back to the (also private) dock at Hostal Casa Culebra, where we put the dinghy last year. The only people on the dock were guests, but one of them gave me the name (“Rafa”) and number (+1 787 362 1830) of the attendant. I called him, and he graciously allowed us to use the dock free of charge for a few hours.

Approaching the dock at Hostal Casa Culebra

The laundromat. The entrance is up the driveway, to the left.

Once the clothes were in the wash, we walked up to D’s Garden for veggies. We stopped there a year ago; it was as good as we remembered. Apparently we could have put the dinghy on one of the docks in Ensenada del Coronel, around the corner from where we were.

We pulled the laundry before it was all dry and hung clothes on the rail (“those nasty live-aboards!”). As windy and sunny as it is, they should dry quickly.

Tuesday - It got windy overnight, and the boat was actually cool by the morning! We hung out until 1130 or so, then took the dingy to town with all our gear for diving.

It was very rough on the way in and we left the dinghy bobbing like crazy at the town dinghy dock.

We checked in with Culebra Divers and dropped off our gear. One of the folks at the shop, Doug, lives aboard a 51’ cat, anchored near the dive shop. We talked passages for a while; he may be a useful source for information about Davisville in the Chesapeake.

After lunch at Culebra Coffee, the same place we ate lunch at a year ago.

The afternoon 1-tank dive was so-so. With all the wind, the water was a bit murky and there was a fair amount of surge and current. But we saw some nice fish. It was a shallow, and thus long dive - 65 minutes. 3100 PSI to start, 1200 at the end.

From he divemaster:

Site: Tamarindo Chico

Depth: 24 ft

Time: 67 min

Temp: 80 F

The divemasters took pictures.

Upon return to the dinghy, we discovered that the cable connecting the battery to the engine had popped off, and we could not get it to properly reconnect. We rode back out to the boat with me holding the cable in place, in very rough conditions - very NOT ideal. We pulled the motor off the dinghy to get a better look at the problem; it looks like the housing that surrounds the socket in the battery is slightly bent. Katy fussed with it whilst I made supper, to no avail (and a lot of frustration). We’ll look at it again tomorrow.

Home fries and scrambled eggs for supper (the potatoes really had to go).

After supper I did the PADI online training for Nitrox (“enhanced air”). I passed the final, and will dive on Thursday morning with Nitrox.

Wednesday - rain and wind, so we stayed on the boat all day.

Katy did the PADI Nitrox training. I made pesto, and did administrivia:

Talked to someone at Falmouth Town Hall about the annual survey, printed and updated it, and emailed it back.
Ordered a better power cord for the Spirit charger, and opened a dialog with ePropulsion about the effing connector problem.
Confirmed my Schwab IRA distribution.

I also wasted an exceptional amount of time on word games.

Ravioli and caprese salad for supper.

Thursday - Excellent 2-tank morning with Culebra Divers again, Meg and Trevor as divemasters, at Rosario Wall and Rosario North. Both are excellent reefs, with gorgeous coral and plenty of fish.

Site 1: Carlos Rosario Wall

Depth: 44 ft

Time: 63 min

Temp: 80 F

Site 2: Carlos Rosario North

Depth: 44 ft

Time: 63 min

Temp: 80 F

Pictures here.

Prior to the dive we completed the in-person training for Enhanced Air certification, so we’re now set to go on that. It seems that getting our Advanced Open Water certs would not be hard, and would open up a lot of options. We will need to be in one place long enough to get in 5 specialty dives and training at a single dive shop. The two required types of dives are deep (about 100 feet) and night, and navigation skills have to be demonstrated.

Salad for supper.

01/25/2024

Ensenada Honda, Culebra, P.R. to Isla Palominos, Puerto Rico (on mooring)

Friday

We had a mostly nice sail on the main (1 reef) and solent. We motored S out of Ensenada Honda, put up the main, and motorsailed until we could gybe to the WNW and put out the solent. Initial the wind was weak and squirrely, but after a squall passed, it filled in nicely, putting us on a broad reach most of the way.

In retrospect we should have gone around the south end of Isla Palominos; instead we went around the north, which left us in a lof of surge as we got the main down.

We’re on a nominally day use DRNA mooring, next to a very load (music) motorboat, which we hope will NOT spend the night. We plan to squat on the mooring for a couple of nights.

01/26/2024

Isla Palominos to Cayo Icacos, P.R. (anchored)

Saturday

We had a brisk, if short, sail on just the solent. It took a while to find a good place to anchor. The guidance we had suggested a location somewhat east of where we wound up. On our one try there, we could not get the anchor to hold. So we moved around a corner to the NW and found good holding in sand in 4.5 meters.

Shortly after we got anchored, day boats started arriving in droves. This place IS very busy on the weekends - but mostly for beachgoers and (unfortunately) various types of motorized toys - jet skis, handheld swim motors, foils, dinghies. The snorkeling, at least that we found, is decidedly sub-par.

After returning to the boat we were visited by Ziggy and Peter, from a local catamaran anchored a bit west of us. Ziggy is a rigger, and had some interesting comments about our boat. He LIKES Garcias, especially the older Passoas. He also suggested some places we might like for snorkeling.

Asian tofu/bok choy stir fry for dinner.

01/28/2024

Cayo Icacos to Cayo Lobos and back (amchored)

Sunday

Well, that was a bust. We motored the short trip to Cayo Lobos and picked up a mooring, hoping for some snorkeling. It was hopelessly rolly. We put out the flopstopper, and it was STILL hopelessly rolly.

So - since it was only 0930, we just motored back to Cayo Icacos and dropped the hook a bit further west and inshore of where we were yesterday. In the afternoon we swam to shore and took a little walk, then played cards remotely with Dan and Sue.

If we thought Saturday was busy - Sunday was NUTS. The number of day boats was incredible. Luckily they were reasonably quiet with the music, though we still had jetskis zooming past the boat (and through the swimming area…) all day.

Okonomiyaki for supper. Yum!

01/29/2024

Cayo Icacos to San Juan Bay Marina, San Juan, P.R. (anchored)

Monday

We left shortly after sunrise and (sadly) motored all the way to San Juan. There was just NO wind.

We thought we might anchor just inside the entrance to San Juan Harbor, at Bajo San Agustin, but the bottom is rocks, so we continued in the San Antonio Channel to “Anchorage D”, just outside the San Juan Bay Marina, where we will park the boat while visiting with the kids.

The anchorage is deep; we dropped in about 10 meters and put 60 meters of rode out. The winds (such as they are) are extremely inconsistent, so all the boats in this tight anchorage are moving around. It’s a bit scary; if we don’t all have about the same scope, we could bump. At least the wind is expected to be very weak, so any bumps won’t be very hard.

I dinghied in and took a look at the dock for tomorrow. The slips on the north side have odd numbers, even on the south. Hopefully we’ll have a slip number higher than 71; all those slips have short finger docks.

We have quite a view of San Juan at night.

1/30/2024

San Juan Bay Marina, San Juan, P.R. (docked, slip A-87)

Tuesday

We took the dinghy in to check out the slip (A-87); it’s the fifth in from the outer end, on the north side, and has a finger dock. The docks are fixed, not floating (only .3 meters of tide)

On the way back to the boat we met Ramon, who lived on a trimaran in the harbor with wife Lindsay, 2 kids (3 year olds) and a dog.

The move to the slip was, as usual, stressful. Katy had to get out the anchor wash when we weighed anchor; the bottom is clay. I cleaned the anchor more after we docked, but it’s still got some glop on it.

We are stern to, port side to the finger. The fairway is pretty wide, but still I had trouble getting the boat lined up. We had a west wind pushing the boat to starboard as I was backing. Katy wanted me to get close to the piling on the starboard side, and I got a hair TOO close; she had to fend us off.Getting the boat settled was tricky, but we now have crisscrossed stern lines, forward and aft springs on the port side (to the finger dock), and bow lines to the port and starboard pilings.

We’re on shore power, which is metered. Water is 2$/foot, one time fee (so $98). I’ll wash the boat in the morning when it’s cool. There isn’t any close-by laundry; we may just wait until we get into the airBNB to do laundry.

I walked out to get beer and club soda, about 15 minutes away, at Miramar 24/7 Express. Great selection of beers, not much else.

When I got back, we took the dinghy out exploring.

Pizza for supper.

01/31/2024

San Juan Bay Marina

Wednesday

Rain much of the day. In the afternoon I washed the boat (coach roof to decks, only part of the cockpit). In the process I got a helluva sunburn on my lower back.

Ramon (from “Calmer Waters”) stopped by for a chat. He’s a very nice guy.

02/01/2024 to 02/13/2024

AirBNB in San Juan (us), San Juan Bay Marina (the boat)

Thursday to Tuesday

We had a vacation with the kids! RuthAnne and Rommel from Feb 1 to 12, Owen and Alison from Feb 3 to 10.