With a hire car we bought an AT&T phone package, including free phone, for internet and calls,texts all unlimited for use in US territories. We stocked up on provisions and went over to Buck Island, a nature reserve with crystal clear waters where I removed the ropecutter which proved to be the source of all the rattling below the stern. This involved multiple dives to the propshaft where I managed to remove the 4 allen screws and the ropecutter parts without dropping anything. We then fuelled and watered up and on Friday 30th we sailed over to Vieques, about 45 miles using just the headsail on a very broad reach. Anchored in Ensenada Honda, a large bay surrounded by mangroves and nothing else, we were the only boat there. Saturday I called the Border Agency and to cut a long story short were told to report to the airport at 9.30-1000 on Sunday morning. We moved anchorage to Sun Bay, the next bay from "town" as the holding off Esperanza was not good and it was a dinghy ride over from Sun Bay. No other yachts in Sun Bay, but plenty of weekend craft. We were up early on Sunday and set off in the dinghy only to find the gap we hoped to pass through was now solid so we had to beach the dinghy and walk to town to get a taxi to the airport. Unfortunately the beach was steep with surf, we got pooped, I was thrown out and G was laid out in front of the dinghy seat, while the dinghy was half full of watr with our wet bag and fuel floating about. After 10 mins of both heaving we pulled the dinghy out of the surf and counted the damage. All our devices and papers were in in the wet bag which had protected most of them, very luckily for us, but our kindle had died and | had lost my prescription sunglasses. There was a cafe with restrooms by the beach so we rinsed the salt and sand off, and squelched into town. Luckily our new US phone worked so we ordered a taxi and made the airport where we were issued with a cruising permit which they omitted to do in St.Croix! Back to town and after a brunch we returned to the beach to work out if the engine still ran and how to launch the dinghy without a repeat performance. Vieques is very quiet and there was hardly anyone on the one mile long beach at Sun Bay. We couldn't launch where we landed so we hauled the dinghy quarter of a mile round the beach to a quieter spot. This took two and a half hours and solved our overweight and lack of exercise issues at a stroke. The engine still worked, and with the help of a couple of tourists we got pushed out to deep enough water to be able to motor back to the yacht. We had the next day as a rest day and then Tuesday we moved to Puerto Ferro, a couple of miles to the east. It is an enclosed bay with alleged Bioluminesence but with a bar across the entrance with only six and a half feet!! We decide to give it a go as it was high water which gave us an extra 10 inches, and taking it slowly we inched over with the depth meter showing a low of 2.4 metres. Once in we anchored in 3 metres and it is a sheltered spot with our only company being about 5 other yachts with no one on board that were moored for the summer. I still have jobs, I need to get the generator running, check the positive connection on the SSB, as we can hear all but cannot be heard, tighten the main engine fanbelt and check the watermaker.

We move to Culebra about 15 miles away soon and then to Puerto Rico which is a short hop from there.

All these islands took hits from Hurricane Maria in 2017 and are still coming to terms with the damage but it is quiet here as charter boats from the BVI's and USVI's are not allowed to come this far so we are all on our own.