Kelly defended her PHD Thesis on April 10th. It was an impressive presentation, one with the potential to save the lives of many cancer patients, and an occasion to celebrate. We stayed stateside for two and a half weeks visiting family and friends before returning to Puerto Rico on April 23rd.

Puerto del Rey is an impressive facility. It is one of the largest marinas in the Caribbean, with wet slips for 1000 yachts, dry storage racks for sport fishing boats and a large boatyard and dry storage area for hurricane storage. It is within less than an hour from San Juan and major US retail chains. It is also a great place to jump off to the VIrgin Islands!

Just off the east coast of PR are a group of islands which belong to PR, known as the Spanish VIrgins. We would pass through these islands on our way to the US Virgin Islands and then onto to the British Virgin Islands. Our first stop was Isla Palomino just a quick jump from PDR Marina. Palomino is a popular spot for local boaters because it is only 5 miles offshore. On the weekends it is inundated with small powerboats playing load music. From there we cruised to Isla Culebra and anchored behind a reef at the entrance to Ensenada Honda. Culebra has a small town and one of the most beautiful beaches in the world Playa Flamenco.

From our anchorage we could see St Thomas, USVI to our east. Leaving Culebra we would cross the VIrgin Passage, our first deep water ocean passage since we arrived in PR . But this time the passage is only 8 miles wide. But true to form we were facing a head wind with the trade winds blowing briskly. Leaving the passage we passed Sail Rock, a tall triangular rock that resembles a sailboat. Then we tucked in as close to St Thomas as possible to help block the trade winds blowing from the east. Hugging the coast we head to Great Saint James Island and Christmas Cove. Christmas Cove is where we spend our first night out fifteen years ago when we chartered our first catamaran to celebrate Kelly’s High School Graduation. It was fitting to return here after she completed her PHD!

Christmas Cove

We spent a few days at Christmas Cove before heading to St John. Every night we were entertained by a large school of giant tarpon, the brilliant silver sport fish that angler’s crave to catch. Their reflective silver scales would flash as they danced around our underwater lights.

Crossing Pillsbury Sound to St John we first stopped at Caneel Bay where we visited the town of Cruz Bay by dinghy.

Waterfront park at Cruz Bay

For the next two weeks we circumnavigated St John going clockwise around and stopping at: Maho Bay, Watermelon Bay, Haulover Bay, Otter Creek Hurricane Hole, Long Bay, Salt Pond Bay, and Great Lameshur Bay before we crossed our wake by returning to Cancel Bay.

I got to snorkel at Caneel, Watermelon, Otter Creek, and Salt Pond. At Salt Pond we hiked to the top of Rams Head point for the spectacular view.

View of Cay de Cay at anchor from trail up to Rams Head

Everywhere we anchored or moored there were schools of tarpon under the boat. Bait fish were abundant and the sea birds feasted on them in incredible aerial displays.

At our return to Caneel, we took a taxi tour of the island from Cruz Bay to see the views from land of everywhere we had just been. St John is mostly a National Park and once outside Cruz Bay, it is isolated and natural. The views of the water in every shade of blue from the hillsides are amazing. One interesting stop was the Annaberg sugar mill ruins.

Roadside view St John


Annaberg sugar mill ruins

Following our land excursion we stopped at Trunk Bay for a couple of days before leaving the USVI and heading back to Puerto Rico. On May 20th we retraced our route via Culebra, Palomino, and finally Puerto del Rey Marina. We secured Cay de Cay once again for a three week stateside visit with the grand kids.