We are now anchored behind the huge reef of Dakity off the secluded Isla de Culebra, one of the Spanish Virgin Islands east of Puerto Rico. It is one of our favorite islands in the Caribbean, small, friendly, with such happy people, a truly beautiful island. The quaint and insular town of Dewey is a delight with some fun bars and restaurants to enjoy, we will stay here for a few more days for sure.

Luckily we now have no agenda to get down to Bonaire, so can slow down a bit more allowing us to enjoy the perfect weather and sailing conditions we have. There are lots of peaceful quiet anchorages with snorkling and diving to explore, we just hope that the weather stays kind to us for a few more weeks.

We stayed another week in the BVIs so that we could enjoy Norman Island, where we met locals at the William Tell floating bar and some fun cruisers. Headed back to Road Town as I got an ear infection, then a sinus infection which I am still battling four weeks later. Saw Doc twice in Tortolla and an ENT guy in St. Thomas on our way west, way too many drugs but no choice. However I am slowly getting better. Worst part is the no swimming, it has been TORTURE.

We had a wonderful sail up to Anegada, an island made up of coral and limestone which at its highest point is only 28 feet above sea level. It is north of Virgin Gorda only 11 miles long with mile after mile of sandy beaches. It is totally unspoilt, quiet and we met some wonderful people there. One day we watched the men's Wimbledon finals with one other guy at Neptune's Treasure (great place for pain killers) and ended up going to Loblolly Bay and had the most amazing conch curry at a locals beach bar. A family reunion was about to take place of all the Vanderpools, our new friend being one from New York. He had some amazing tales, one was how his great grandmother was shipwreaked on her way from England and ended up marrying into one of the eight families on the island. She had seven children, but one old lady had just died who had twenty eight children - I suppose the lack of night life had something to do with it ☺

From Anegada we sailed to Cane Garden Bay on the west coast of Tortola. Great place to party and picture postcard material. Then a quick hop over to Jost Van Dyke the most western island in the BVIs and where it is easy to check out. Foxys is still there and has even more memorabella everywhere, but we did not see Sir Foxy this visit. He is quite famous and talented with a wicked sense of humour. We love Jost Van Dyke, although large it has a small permenant population and there are some great anchorages, one where we stayed White Bay has the famous Soggy Dollar bar. So called because you swim ashore and pay, what used to be a dollar, for a drink and they had an area that they used to dry out the wet bills. At the east side they have another beach bar where you make your own drinks and pay on an honesty system, our kind of bar, a locals place.

Then it was off to St. John where we checked in at Cruz Bay, which is charming, before heading to Caneel Bay. Two thirds of this fabulous island is under the auspices of the National Park Service, maintaining its pristine appearance. We would highly recommend the island for a visit, whether on land or water, there are so many wonderful things to do. There are only two big resorts, but most people just rent a villa and do day trips. Your boat is only allowed 30 overnight stays in the marine park; which covers most of the coastline, so most charter boats are unable to tour this magical island.

Caneel Bay Resort is built on the site of an 18th century sugar plantation, it is a lovely place to walk around, with little cottages dotted throughout the three bays it covers. From there we went to Francis Bay and onto Leinster Bay, some great hiking at both places. Coral Bay is still as quirky as we remember, wonderful eccentric and dedicated cruising sorts - such characters, just love some of the people we meet on our travels. We ended up spending quite a few days in Otter Creek in the area called the Hurricane Hole, there was no one around us for miles it was bliss. We did not find out until later that you are no longer supposed to stay there overnight unless there is a hurricane situation - oh well.

We had the southern part of St. John's almost to ourselves as well and visited Saltpond Bay, Great and Little Lameshur Bays before we left for St. Thomas and the big smoke. There is a fantastic fishing shop that we wanted to visit in Red Hook, so we popped in there and I managed to get a decent hair cut at the same time. It's now very short, but it will grew and it looks a ton better even with the grey seriously beginning to show. Pisses me off that Russell still only has a sprinkling of grey on his head. Red Hook is not a good anchorage, so we went over to St. James Island around the corner (great spot) before we headed into Charlotte Amalie, the capital so I could see the Doc. Not a great place, lots of tourist shops, but they are all duty free and we ended up picking up a couple of excellent buys.

Honeymoon Bay, on Water Island a mile away, was a great place to spend our last night. Terrific band ashore and lots of people partying as it was a Saturday night. We were amazed at how many permanent liveaboards there were, although it is certainly an area where there is lots of work to be found.

The sailing between islands has been terrific. It only took us four hours to sail to Culebra with just the genie out, we were feeling lazy and could not be bothered to set up big red. Our next big sail will be down to Bonaire about 360 miles from Puerto Rico. It should be fast with a great beam reach, we are looking forward to it. I will update the blog again on our arrival. In the meantime, enjoy your summer (or winter) months, be healthy, happy and have tons of fun.