Tomorrow, no another day, we found It hard to say goodbye to the Spanish Virgin Islands, as they are locally called. They are part of the offshore islands of Puerto Rico, both of which are territories of the United States. The islands were colonized by the Spanish for four centuries and now offer immersion into the Spanish Caribbean, with the benefit of bilingualism and the convenience of US institutions. Luckily, unlike the other Virgin Islands, they are many years behind in development. Terrific for the getaway cruiser with secluded undisturbed anchorages, pristine beaches and great snorkeling. We saw no charter boats, with only local boats and a few liveaboards like ourselves being around at this time of year.

Culebra and its out laying islands are magic. They have not changed at all since we visited six years ago and we keep our fingers crossed that they will continue to stay a local secret. The beaches and bays are spectacular and the town of Dewey is very quaint with no development. Everyone is terribly friendly, happy, and always helpful. Even the kids came up to us smiling wanting to chat. We can understand why people arrive here and never leave.

During the week Culebra is quiet with Thursday happy hour (well three hours from 3 till 6) at the Dingy Dock being the night that the local liveaboards seem to get together. The food is excellent and it is always busy on Friday and Saturday nights, as they have live entertainment, and people arrive from the mainland for the weekend. The island is only about five miles, by two miles, however it has a wonderful community. There is a great grocery with fantastic butcher, Tues and Friday a fresh market, library with free internet, and even a mini cinema open two nights a week. We were fortunate and met lots of locals, some fascinating characters either living on their boats or ashore. Our neighbour at anchor John helped us set up our new wifi aerial/router system, he left a top job at wall street at 35 to go sailing over 20 years ago and has never looked back.

The weather has been perfect since we have been in the Virgin Islands. For approximately 99% of the time we have had warm, sunny days with the temperature averaging 28-30 degrees with not too much humidity. There have been a few fronts to keep us on our toes, the worst being Bertha when we hid ourselves and Ta-b in the mangroves in Culebra. We hardly moved or felt the wind, although it felt like we were being pressure washed all through the day on and off. Some of our friends stayed out at the anchorage where we had been. They told us they clocked 76 knots of wind at one stage, with one of them being nearly knocked over and another nearly taking flight. It was our first time in the mangroves and it was an interesting and somewhat exciting experience - apart from a major thunderstorm. However, it is an event we hope we never go through again.

We popped back to St. Thomas for a day to get our (new) water maker pump fixed under warrenty and to pick up some parts. Reefco were fantastic and had us sorted out within five hours and we now have masses of water. It did not help Russell’s compressed vertibrae though and he was out of action for quite a few days with an painful back. When will we ever learn that we are getting older…. never I fear ☺

After a month we moved onto Viequez which is the largest of the Spanish Virgin islands. Many people consider the bays, coves and beaches the best of all the Virgin Island anchorages. They are totally untouched by developers as they have stayed off limits for most of the 20th century. The US Navy used both Viequez and Culebra for weapons training. The whole eastern half of Viequez has become a marine park, but sadly you can’t go hiking inland as there are signs everywhere warning of unexploded bombs. There are no houses, however the beaches are supposed to have been cleaned up. We did not go ashore as there were also wild dogs; which kindof put us off, but the beautiful coves were certainly worth visiting. We did not see a boat or a house for over a week and with no other lights to be seen the stunning night skies and strong phosphorescence were a delight.

We spent our last night in a bay called Ferro where there were six boats at anchor without anyone on board. Two were in the mangroves, but sadly one had been broken into as it was open with no one around. With the recent front that had come through we could imagine the water damage inside, not a happy thought. We left the next day for Salinas as the winds were perfect and we had a fantastic fast sail across to the mainland.

Salinas was dead, nearly everything closed for the season. So we moved onto Ponce hoping to be able to get into the marina there for a few nights so we could go walkabout. We were lucky and got the last spot for a catamaran. It was cheaper for us to spend a week at dock then three nights, water was free and as the weather was forecast to be good we settled Ta-b alongside, hired a car and went off to explore the island. Ended up spending a couple of nights in an airbnb apartment in the old town of San Juan, perfect location and great place to be a tourist. We found a wonderful place for breakfast called Hacienda Isabel, they produce their own coffee and we agreed it is the best we have ever drunk. You can buy on line and we now have some on board. In the plaza by our apartment was one of the oldest restaurants in San Juan, Rosa de Triana. It was so fantastic that we went there two nights running for tapas, sangria and live flamingo dancing. We also visited the Rain Forest and stayed in an awesome boutique hotel at a wonderful low last minute price. Puerto Rico is very lush and a nature lovers paradise.

Just before we left Puerto Rico we cleaned our hull …. Again. With the very warm waters growth was a hassle and we wanted Ta-b to have a fast trip down south. We picked our weather window and had a quick, although bumpy two day sail down to Bonaire. The trip was 434 nm with a maximum squall of 42 knots, although the average was 15-25 knots for the trip. The wind was on our port beam, perfect except for the waves that were also on our port beam max 3 meters, but confussed and a pain. Russ has a recorded max sog (speed over ground) of 11.45 knots; which was probably when the squall hit - thankfully I was off watch ☺ What did surprise us was all the seaweed in the water, it was offshore for at least 300 miles and was not there 6 years ago when we sailed the same leg north. It will be interesting to learn about it, but it certainly stopped our fishing. We took a picture that even shows a can on what looks like a little island.

On the trip our freezer went on the blink. Can you imagine with a friend’s cards I had bought out Costco and Sams and had filled the freezer and it looked like I was going to loose the lot. Made friends with a big power boat on our arrival in Bonaire and luckily they had room in their ….. walk in freezer …. for our stuff. Freezer now fixed, electrics, boats … say no more $$$

Bonaire is one of our favorite islands. We are relieved to find It is not as hot as we remember, however there is a lot of wind at the moment which keeps the temperature down. The water is a couple of degrees cooler, perfect for cooling off and hopefully will keep our hull clean. We will be here for at least a month, if anyone is coming this way, before we head towards Curaco.

I have rambled on. Those following in our footsteps if you want any more information we would be happy to help you. Tips from one cruiser to the next is what makes our community. Take care everyone, keep safe and have fun.