On March 11th we finally left Fajardo, PR and ended up in Sun Bay, Vieques. This gorgeous bay on the south coast features over a mile of lovely sand beach along with a picnic park, decent snorkeling and some good hiking. One day we visited the town of Esperanza and had a great lunch at Duffy's. We spent five nights here with Bonanza waiting for the winds to lay down a bit so we could start the beat to windward. During the wait, our dinghy visited the Spa for the semi annual bottom scrub and overall cleaning! The next leg was a short rough trip, to a neat well protected anchorage in Ensenada Honda where we explored the reef and the mangroves for a couple of days.

On March 18th we motored over to Charlotte Amalie in St. Thomas and the following day to Lameshur Bay, St. John. Lameshur Bay is in the National Park, so we took a mooring for the night. The following day we went for a 6 mile hike to the Petroglyphs, and then motored around the corner to spend a night in Coral Bay. Unfortunately, we didn't like the anchorage so diverted to party central - The Bight, Norman Island, BVI. That night, March 20th was deemed time for a dinner ashore - ribs at the Pirate's Lair. The next morning we sailed and motored to Leverick Bay, Virgin Gorda to stage for a window to St. Martin. This 80 mile leg crosses the Anegada (aka Oh-My-God-A) Passage up-wind so it has a reputation for being quite rough.

We arrived in Marigot, St. Martin at 0630 on the 23rd after an uncharacteristically smooth motoring trip. No SOD - that is, no salt on deck! A tot of rum was offered to Neptune (and the crew) in thanks for our first smooth eastbound passage of the year.

For the rest of March we anchored in Simpson Bay Lagoon (French side under the Witches Tit) and seem to have been busy every single evening. Andy & Kitty visited us from Anguilla and stayed overnight. We also attended a street festival in Grand Case and a reunion of the Stray Dogs on Dreammaker. Exhausting, especially when you include provisioning! This is the home of $18 US for a 24 of 12 oz Heineken cans, less than $15 for Presidente and Carib. Best beer price anywhere, pop is similarly inexpensive, and grocery prices and selection are great, especially compared with the other islands.

On April 1st we passed through the Sint Maarten bridge and headed out for Anse Colombier, St. Barts. Beautiful spot, we've promised ourselves twice that next time we'll check in to St. Bart's and stay for a few days exploring. We left there the following morning at 3AM arriving in Jolly Harbour, Antigua at 5 PM. We checked in the following morning and anchored near Nancy Dawson.

On the 6th we motored the 15 miles up to Antigua's North Sound, anchoring in Jumby Bay. Spectacular beach, but Long Island is private - occupied by private residences and an upscale resort. How upscale, you ask? Well, the April special prices were $2500 - $3500 US PER NIGHT, which included all activities, food and beverage and your personal chef and housekeeper. For some reason, we only saw two guests!
The next day we moved to another spectacular beach on deserted Great Bird Island.

After that it was back to Jolly Harbour and on to Falmouth to await the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta which runs from April 16th through 21st. There are 59 entries ranging from the 24 foot Springtide to the 140 foot Rebecca and including J boats Velsheda and Ranger. We'll be rooting for Nancy Dawson of Dartmouth and Pasha of Lunenburg, the only Canadian entries. Races run from Friday to Monday just off English Harbor / Falmouth.

These folks know how to throw a regatta! I've never seen so much free booze and food. As Dave on Daniell Storey put it "these are Gold Star Days", which is cruiser talk for any day you spend no money.

There are great places to watch the races from the cliffs on the coast of Antigua off Falmouth and Jolly Harbour. Exciting watching all flavors of traditional yachts - capped off by watching the Js duel! you all know the groan your sheets make when you are close hauled and ease them off, well drop it a couple of octaves so it's more like thunder and make it audible at ½ mile and you are close! The races were blessed with 15K winds and sunshine with reasonable seas.

The cap for us was a chance to join Randy and Sue with their guests Stu and Tara on Nancy Dawson for the second race. We had a great time and particularly enjoyed the spectacle of Velsheda, Ranger and Eleonora (each 135 feet) roar past 100 meters away in line astern (see our header picture). It was great until we stalled out in several minutes of swirling winds due to their passage!

On Tuesday the 21st they hold gig races in the afternoon and the awards in the evening. The gig races were great sport, but we couldn't stay up for the 9PM awards ceremony!

Tomorrow its off to Jolly Harbour to stock up and wait for a window to Montserrat or, that failing, Guadeloupe.

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After 4 days split between Trellis Bay and Leverick Bay in the BVI's, we decided to visit Anegada, the only coral island in the BVIs. It was a wonderful beam reach (only 14 miles) and another spot that hasn't been totally touristized. We moored off the Anegada Reef Hotel at 10:30. By 5PM there were 25 boats moored and anchored - only 5 were cruisers, the rest charterers. (This represents a huge gain in population - only 250 residents here!)

We rented a car with Bonanza to tour the island. En route, we stopped at two great beach bars. The first was Cow Wreck Beach Bar. We had to ask why Cow Wreck Beach? Evidently in the olden days buttons were made out of cow bone. A ship loaded with cow bones wrecked on the coast and cow bones drifted ashore for years after.

The other was De Big Bamboo in Loblolly Bay. Regarding Loblolly - we don't know the names provenance. However, they had no shortage of shade, hammocks in the trees and bright blue cement walkways.
Both spots have oodles of character and you could chill out all day. Sadly for cruisers, both are on the weather side of Anegada (no anchorage) so you need a land yacht to get there.

The Gourmet's of the Caribbean struck again with a candlelight lobster dinner on the deck of the Lobster Trap restaurant.

The following day, Feb 4th we had a great 25 mile sail to Cane Garden Bay, where we rendezvoused with George and Kate (Magical) from the RNSYS. We spent the next day in their company at Great Harbour, Jost van Dyke - the home of Foxy's. This is one of the few BVI hot spots that does not have moorings - when the wind swirls or goes flat there are lots of close encounters - especially with folks driving rental boats who don't anchor very often!

The following morning we got away before anyone bumped into us and crossed over to Cruz Bay, St. John to clear into the USVI. From there we moved on to Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, the alleged home of duty free shopping. We spent over a week anchored there shopping and sightseeing. We wandered through town, sprinted (well, sort of) up the 99 steps (see photo) to see Blackbeard's Castle and the ladies hiked around Hassel Island. The anchorage is hard alongside one of the cruise ship terminals and it is pretty neat watching those guys maneuver in close proximity to our little boats and each other.

The next step was a dead downwind run to Dewey, Culebra in the Spanish Virgin Islands.
The contrast is amazing. Dewey is laid back like the more undeveloped places further south, while St. Thomas is unabashedly busy and American. We hung in Dewey for 10 days, walking, cycling and visiting beautiful Flamingo Beach. We also took one of the best transportation bargains in the world. The 1 ½ hour ferry ride to Fajardo (about 20 miles) is $2 each way - half that if you are over 60!
Interestingly, the USVI and Puerto Rico have slightly different rules from each other and from the mainland US. The USVI does not require a cruising permit. You must clear in again when you go from USVI to Spanish VI (PR) and buy your US cruising permit. DO NOT bring any garbage ashore - verboten! We got our cruising permit at the airport in Dewey, Culebra.

On Feb 24th we set our sails for another downwind jaunt - to Fajardo, PR. We checked in to Puerto del Rey Marina - our first marina since we tied up in Grenada in November to visit Barbados. A good thing we tied up near chandleries - stuff started falling apart right away. The fresh water pump was running intermittently because the hot water heater had sprung a leak. The inverter was tough to get started, then died completely. Finally, the key fell out of the autopilot sprocket on the main steering shaft. I could never have replaced it if the water heater had not been removed for replacement!

Puerto Rico has been a neat stop. With Bonanza we rented a vehicle for seven days to provision and tour the island. We visited the radio telescope at Arecibo, spent a day at the El Yunque tropical rain forest including a hike to the top. We also visited the El Conquistador resort where Leona and I stayed in 2001 when I won a Nortel Master's award.

The highlight has to be the visit to Old San Juan. The town is neat, and the El Morro fortress is breathtaking. Thanks to son Steve for the recommendation we had reasonably priced accommodations right in town, and walked our feet off.

Water is free here, and shopping is almost as good as the mainland US. Therefore the boat has been spring cleaned throughout and sewing, provisioning and cetol are nearly up to snuff. Worn out clothing has been replaced and consigned to the rag bin. We are better stocked (and poorer?) than when we left Florida in December, 2007.

We have truly enjoyed travel with Bonanza. Leona and Roy take turns cooking up great meals whilst Michelle and Bill stress the groups pun tolerance.

A year ago today, we were in Georgetown saying farewell to son Doug and the Bofix gang. We were wondering if we would ever get to Grenada before hurricane season. Well, been there, done that! However, after the big investment in time and energy just to get here, the suitability of Voyageur C (as now equipped) for extended cruising, and the number of places we haven't visited, we have decided to spend another season in the Islands before setting sail for home. So, Puerto Rico is our northwest terminus for 2009, and tomorrow we are heading back southeast through Vieques, maybe St. Croix, St. John and St. Martin before wandering down to Antigua for the Classic yacht regatta.

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NOTES:
If you want to see where we are, copy the following link to your browser:
http://www.winlink.org/dotnet/maps/PositionreportsDetail.aspx?callsign=VE1VOY

Also, our first post, titled "Learnings" has been updated.
Finally, many of our pictures were taken by other folks. We make no apology for selecting the very best!
______________

We left Falmouth December 29th for Jolly Harbour, Antigua and continued the following day to Cocoa Point, Barbuda. Barbuda will be remembered as another spot with spectacular beaches.

We celebrated the arrival of 2009 in Barbuda on board Bonanza with fresh fish (pompano) caught by Dreammaker on the sail over from Antigua. Since cruisers midnight is 9PM, we decided to celebrate the New Year based on GMT, which was 8PM local time. We enjoyed a great bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne from Guadeloupe. Thank god for the French islands. Good thing we celebrated early, since we both were asleep at midnight for the first time in nearly half a century!

On Saturday January 3rd, we went in to St. John's and returned to discover the boat coated with volcanic ash. While Montserrat is downwind from Antigua, the upper level winds run the opposite way. If the ash cloud gets high enough, Antigua gets a dose of ash. Thankfully it was short lived, but left us in the unique position of hoping for rain in Antigua!

We rented a car and toured Antigua for a day. Great beaches and the landscaping and architecture at the Stanford cricket grounds are outstanding.

We left Antigua early on January 7th, stopping overnight in St. Kitts and continuing on to St. Maarten the following day. We anchored in Simpson Bay in time to await the scheduled 5PM opening of the bridge to let us (and our escorting mega yachts) into the lagoon.

Bizarre - We cleared in on the Dutch side and anchored under the Witch's Tit on the Dutch / French border enjoying French baguettes and Dutch duty free. Like a Heineken two-four (330 ml cans) is $17 US! Grocery shopping is better than home. Funny though, the Dutch side is the worst served place from an internet and WiFi perspective - but the French side cafes have great connectivity. Go figure.

Gourmets of the Caribbean struck again, this time for lunch on January 9th at La Main a la Pate in Marigot, St. Martin. Leona and Michelle dove into buckets of PEI mussels, while Roy sampled a crème brulee foie gras. Bill went for the seafood.

We hauled out on Tuesday January 13th to refresh the bottom paint and lube the aging feathering prop and launched on Friday morning. We finally washed away the remnants of Montserrat ash!

We had a chance to visit Destination Fox Harbour Too at Isla del Sol marina. The furnishings, layout, decoration and fittings of this 161 foot beauty are absolutely spectacular. There were 20 or so of these mega yachts on the north docks alone!
And there are two other marinas with more mega yachts plus a couple anchored outside that can't fit through the bridge into the lagoon.

On Sunday the 18th we headed over to Maho Beach to watch the planes land - some 50 feet overhead. Hundreds of people hang around the two bars on either side of the runway or in the middle on the beach at the very beginning of the runway. They actually post the arrival times on a surfboard on the beach!

But, the piece de resistance is takeoff. The planes spool up at the airport fence - folks hang onto the fence or stand on the beach to see if they will be blown out to sea - or at least sand-blasted. Can you believe it?

On Tuesday we sailed over to Anguilla to see Kitty and Andy, friends from Halifax who now live there. Andy kindly took the day off and toured the six of us (Bonanza, Daniell Storey and Voyageur C) around the island to see some of the upscale resorts and fabulous beaches. We started at a rum factory, had a delightful lunch along the way and capped the day with a great dinner at their place. Thanks for your hospitality to our extended family!

On Friday at 3AM we left Anguilla for Virgin Gorda with Daniell Storey. After an uneventful 12 hour motor sail we arrived at Leverick Bay. Since then we have made major passages (up to 8 miles) around the BVI - just chillin' out. (Actually, it is chilly here. Leona just noted cabin temperature of only 80F at 5PM!)

We plan to wander around the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico for the next month or so before resuming the trip toward the DR and Cuba.

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