Puerto Rico
December 2022
We have been looking forward to cruising PR ever since we came through the canal back in 2016. We chose to skip the west side of the island because we did not want to get caught going East in strong trades like we did last season along the coast of the DR. When we left from Curaçao, we could make port in Ponce, so that is what we did.
Ponce, PR
Ponce is the 2nd largest city on PR with loads of history. Sadly over the years due to strong storms and earthquakes, the once thriving city has been hit too hard and too many times to be the tourist destination it used to be. In 2017 PR was hit by Hurricane Maria, then covid, then all the earthquakes in 2020, all of which, has left it to be skipped by most cruisers or seen simply as a quick stopover.
A local professor offered Jon and me a ride into the historical downtown when he noticed us walking down the road. After he said that it was simply too hot to be walking, he told us that they (the people of Ponce) were just now starting to get back to normal. People are just starting to reopen their businesses, kids are going back to school, and for the first time in years, they were going to have all the Christmas and Three Kings Day festivities.
During our ride, he told us about how difficult it has been to see his city in such a state of disrepair. Historic buildings still lie in piles of rubble all along the road and the once booming malecon along the harbor has been completely abandoned by the government. He dropped us off and told us to take our time walking through the old town to really get a good look at the buildings… he was an architect professor after all.
- September 19–21, 2017 – Hurricane Maria makes landfall on Puerto Rico as a high end Category 4 hurricane, causing catastrophic damage to the territory. Rain totals as high as 37.9 in (960 mm) were reported, with that peak value coming in Caguas.[121] High storm surge and heavy rain caused significant flooding, with water levels being as deep as 15 ft (4.6 m).[122] The entire power grid on the island was destroyed by the storm,[123] and 95% of cell networks on the island were down.[124] Five days after the hurricane, 95% of the island still had no power, 95% of the island had no cell service and 44% had no tap water.[125] By three months after the hurricane, 45% of power customers had yet to get power back, and 14% still had no tap water, though 90% of the island did have cell service by this point.[126][127] Maria ultimately caused an estimated 2,975 deaths on the island, becoming the deadliest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico since the 1899 San Ciriaco hurricane.[128][129] Governor of Puerto Rico Ricardo Rosselló estimated damages from the storm at $90 billion (2017 USD).[130]
Our scroll around the historical town center was short and sweet, literally as we stopped for some amazing fresh ice cream. We looked around for a place to eat, but could not find anything that tickled our fancy. The long walk back to the anchorage was much cooler and seemed to go by much quicker.
The next few days were spent hanging out and about in the marina area and taking advantage of the yacht club bar with AC to watch the World Cup games. We were with loads of Dutch cruisers who also made with trip north from Curaçao. I was rooting for Brazil, therefor was unliked by said Dutch, well during the games that is.
Prism sailed out to Isla Caja de Muertos for an overnight stay. The water in the anchorage was crystal clear which was very misleading. When I suited up to check out the reef on the west side of the island, I was very sad when the visibility was less than 3 feet. Sad.
We spent the night and regretted it. As the wind shifted offshore during the night, Prism rocked from ear to ear while Jon and I debated just making out way back to Ponce in the dead of the night.
In the end, we waited for daybreak, snagging 15 minutes of rest between the larger sets. We were excited to get back to Ponce as FIN was making their way there to resume our buddy boating adventures! Not only were we buddy boating with FIN, but 3 other boats that took the same passage as us from Curaçao. We are all on the same route for a little while. Sailing with SV Noorderson, SV Morgan of Stark, SV Lena, and of course FIN, we formed a boating flotilla with incredible vibes.
Salinas, PR
Salinas is known as a cruisers’ hangout in PR. The anchorage is very, very protected, and many stay here for hurricane season.
We stayed here for almost 2 weeks as the still flat anchorage was a blessing, but with still water comes bugs. The biting bugs would be the only thing I have to complain about, I loved everything else.
Christina flew home to see family so Derek, Jon and took advantage of the happy hour bucket of beer deals while we once again found ourselves watching the world cup matches with people from around the world.
After we dropped Christina off at the airport the 3 of us made a pit stop to trek out to a waterfall that FIN had been to last season with some friends… It was so incredible that we did it again with Christina when we picked her back up 10 days later. That was after we explored the old town of San Juan of course.
While Christina was gone, Derek singled handed FIN and joined Prism in checking out a few more of the anchorages surrounding Salinas. We checked out 2 different spots in Bahia de Jobos, and defiantly got our snorkeling in as Derek and I swam the entire reef on the outside of the Cayos de Barca.
While we were out there, we checked out the town of Guayama. We walked around, and got chased by some dogs, but found a great spot to enjoy a few IPAs and take in the view. Once again we could see the draw to places like this, but most places were still closed or rebuilding.
On our way back to Salinas, the 2 boats really enjoyed the downwind sail back to our anchorage. We had all forgotten what it was like to sail WITH the wind, IT IS SO NICE!
When we picked up Christina, we made a stop to make our way out to a beautiful waterfall. Fin visited this waterfall last season with the help of our other friends aboard StarGazer, Beth, and Cal. The hike out to the falls was a bit muddy, but 100% worth it! We wanted to stay there forever!
With both boats having full crew again, we started to make our way East. There were some loose plans to celebrate Christmas with the full flotilla in Culebra of the Spanish Virgins but we were not sure we were going to make it. To make the Christmas get-together Prism was going to have to change their loose cruising plans and skip quite a few stops.
We thought about it long and hard and ended up sailing away from FIN in Patillas on the south side of PR. Jon and I were heading to the Spanish Virgins, while FIN wanted to spend some time in this little town as they did last year.
The season of Easting
EASTING. noun
east·ing
1. nautical
The Spanish Virgin Islands
These islands are scattered off the coast of Puerto Rico. We had planned on taking our time exploring each and every one of them…. but you know how that goes. We had made the choice to meet back up with Noorderzon, Morgan of Stark, and Lena in Culebra in just 3 days.
Originally Jon wanted to circumnavigate around Isla de Vieques, but we ended up spending around 8 hours sleeping in at the Green Beach anchorage on the very west end before leaving the next morning before dawn. We needed to catch the tide going the right way through the Vieques Passage.
Off our bow rounding the red marker into the passage heading East we saw a familiar name on AIS.
FIN!!! They changed their minds and were heading to Culebra as well! The 2 of us spent the next few hours beating directly into wind and waves as we slowly made our easting. When we pulled through the reef passage and into the harbor, we found a spot to anchor and were excited to explore and play.
Culebra, Spanish Virgin Islands
Christmas & New Year 2023
The anchorage here was massive and well protected and once again is known as a cruiser’s playground. For x-mas, we all boarded SV Morgan of Stark for a potluck-style dinner and had a night of playing music and getting a lot of laughs.
For NYE, the town of Culebra closes down the main street to host a big, live, and free concert! Jon organized a cruiser potluck gathering on the large public pier and invited all the boats in the anchorage. It was a great turn out and the food was AMAZING. Once all the food was gone and packed away, most of us headed into town to check out the party and danced into the new year which started off with a bang and a great show of fireworks.
Culebra has “The prettiest beach in all of the Caribbean”…. or so they claim it does. We had to see for ourselves and made the hike over the island to the famous Flamenco Beach. Once again the whole gang was together as we walked the beach, hunted for coconuts, played bocce, and swam in the warm clear waters. It was a beautiful beach, but I don’t think it is the prettiest in the Caribbean….. just my opinion.
We were ready to see what else these Islands have to offer…. but sadly this was the splitting point with our Dutch friends on Morgan of Stark and Noorderzon, as they were both heading north and the rest of us are going East.
It is always said when sailing away from friends made, but we are so glad we got the chance to meet them and hope to see everyone again someday… I think Jon and I have a trip to Holland in our future.
Along with FIN, we set out to check out the smaller island to the East called Isla Culebrita. We wanted to snorkel or dive the reef on the west side, as the charts showed an anchorage there. When we slowly peaked Prism’s bow into the shallower waters filled with coral bommies, we quickly retreated as there was not enough water to navigate safely, nor was there a clear spot to anchor without damaging coral. Not sure who would or could anchor there and I hope no one does in the future. We turned around and found an excellent anchorage in Bahia de Almodovar.
After snorkeling the entire reef with only somewhat good visibility, we got together aboard FIN to talk about our next plan.
Over dinner, we were talking about weather windows to keep moving East, or if we should turn around and go check out the East side of PR, we had heard good things about Fajardo and we all wanted to go to the National Park there.
As we were looking at windy.com and using our favorite Fastseas.com… Jon threw a curveball idea that none of us saw coming.
“Um, guys….just throwing this out there, but the weather looks perfect to shoot down to St. Croix tomorrow” -Jon
After fast rejections, all went a bit quiet…
“That actually is not a bad idea” – the rest of us.
By sailing down to St. Croix, the passage back up to the USVI would be a beam reach rather than a straight beat into the trades. And there is good diving in St. Croix…..
We ended up calling it an early night as we needed to prep our boats for the pre-dawn departure in the morning. St. Croix, here we come!
s
The US Virgin Islands
St. Croix
January 2023
Heck yea, now that was a bitchin’ sail. Clearly, beam reaching is what it is all about, and that’s why so many people love sailing in the Caribbean. We just never had experienced it before, wow!
I don’t think any of us were ready to fall so hard in love with the west side of this island. In the past St. Croix was avoided by most cruisers as it was deemed “not safe”.
The island did have a high crime rate, especially in the western town of Fredricksted, which is where we were anchored. However, in the last few years, they have turned that around and we felt nothing but safe and welcomed while we were there.
It was by chance that we sailed here just in time for the last of the Christmas Festival. When we went to shore to catch a bus to check out Christiansted ( located on the other side of the Island), we were stopped in the streets by a mass of people participating in the J’ouvert which is part of the Crucian Christmas Festival.
Now this was a party that reminded me a lot of my younger days when we would party alongside the Bay to Breakers marathon in San Francisco. yee-haw.
The people partaking had been at it for a few hours already when we met up with the moving party. The drinks were flowing, the weed was wafting ( legalized only a few days prior), the music was bumping and everyone looked to be having the time of their lives.
We gave up on the bus for a while and just watched in awe as the never-ending swathe of people bumped and grind past us. I guess it is common to get doused with paint as a by-stander during this party, and we could see loads of people who looked like they had taken a paintball to the face, but they all must have used their paint ammo in the wee hours of the morning as we made it out without new colors added to our wardrobe.
We watched for a good long while and could not see the end of people down the main street, and we were still hoping to find a bus to the other side of the island.
We took a back road around the part in hopes to find the so-called bus, but we had no luck. We changed tactics and started to look and hope for a taxi… it was not until a local told us that because it was Jouvert, we were not going to find any taxis today and everyone was enjoying the party.
As we made our way back to the waterfront, the party had made its way down the small streets and was no longer in sight. We were all in shock to find the streets that had thousands of people on just a few hours ago, were completely clean. No trash! We eventually caught up with the cleaning crew, which was following the party with people and trucks picking up all the trash left behind. It was incredible.
It was such a treat that we got to be part of the Christmas Festival, and the adult parade was something none of us wanted to miss. I can’t imagine what it would be like during the actual carnival, because this was a site to see. The men and women, the costumes and the feathers!!! SO MUCH FUN! Along with Fin and Lena, we scouted out a spot that supplied some shade as we waited for hours for the parade to get to our part of the street. Luckily we brought games, and the local shop was selling pizzas, but we sent half the group to go get a cooler and beer to keep us hydrated while we waited.
Now lets get into the SCUBA DIVING!!!
THIS IS WHAT CRUISING (for me) IS ALL ABOUT. Diving directly off our boats.. over and over again. Sadly when we went to fill our first set of tanks, the pressure gauge on the compressor blew up. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! Who was our savior… USPS. yep as in The United States Postal System, comical right…. but because of their flat rate boxes we were able to get the replacement part shipped to us cheaply and we would only be out of diving for maybe 1 week. Once we got the part we were back up and running, and avoided paying the local shops $11 a fill. That adds up quick when 4 people are doing 2 or more dives a day.
THE DIVING IS OFF THE CHARTS! And as odd as this sounds, one of the best spots is the cruise-ship pier. Each pillar is teaming with so much life, raging from 28 to 45 feet, we took our time circling as many of the pillars as we could till we ran out of air. We were searching for Sea Horses and Frog Fish, and in the end only saw 1 sea horse. Hours and hours of scuba and free diving were spent in the waters along the west coast. It was a playground we did not want to leave, but knew if we didn’t get moving we would lose the whole season.
FIN had their parents out for a visit, so we explored St. Croix together and they even sailed back to St John with us all.
The sail back up to St. John was very enjoyable and we made great time with the wind just ever so slightly forward of our beam. WAYYY better than beating into it.
St. John & St. Thomas
Having dinner aboard FIN, the 4 of us were talking about our next stop, the BVI, and when we should check in there. From Francis, we are only about 5nm away from Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke. We were, like always, looking at the weather and noticed that some higher winds were on their way. We could do one of 2 things, stay in Francis till the winds lay back down, or make the hop over to JVD and explore there while the winds were high.
We opted to make the jump and the next morning we set off for our next country.
The British Virgin Islands
Jost Van Dyke
The sail over to JVD was quick and simple. We made our way into Great Harbour, which had many open moorings, but we kept looking for a place to drop our hooks. At first, we tried in deeper waters near the mouth of the bay, but we could not get a good set. We headed over to the east side of the bay and found some sand just outside of the mooring field and just enough room to swing towards the shore…and I do mean JUST enough. As soon as we were comfortable with how our boats moved we headed into town to explore but did not make it very far……
Before we set off for the BVI my Uncle Bob told me to seek out his good friend, the owner of Corsairs. It just so happened that we landed the dinghy right in front of this bar. We walked in, took a seat at the bar and I told the man we were looking for Vennie…. then I clarified that my uncle told me to ask for “Ugly Vennie…..”
This man looked at me and asked ” Who’s your uncle”?
My one-word response was “Bobalou”
This man, who was, in fact, Vennie, dropped what he was doing, came around the bar and gave me a hug, and called me family. Next thing we know we have a full bottle of tequila and 5 shot glasses in front of us. We didn’t move for hours as we drank and Vennie told me stories from back in the day, he even knew my mom (who died over 30 years ago)!!!!
Lesson learned…. when your uncle tells you to go say hi to someone he knows, always follow through!
We headed back to the boats to rest a bit and get showered for dinner. We made reservations to eat at Corsairs and ordered from the famous Pizza Dave. yum. Because of our day drinking, we did not last long into the night and ended up calling it around 10pm… We didn’t know it at the time, but this was our saving grace.
The stronger winds that were forecasted, well those winds cause the sea state to do some really weird things. The swell ended up wrapping heavily into the anchorage causing a very rolly night and putting our sterns way too close to the shallow shoreline. We weighed anchor around 7 am and set off in hopes that White Harbor would have more protection. It didn’t…. in fact there was nowhere to anchor on JVD that was not being hit by these swells.
We set off to try Cane Garden Bay on the back side of Tortola. We were motor sailing into the wind and waves just praying for a calm anchorage where we could drink some coffee and catch up on sleep. Just outside of the anchorage, we could see that the masts belonging to the boats in that bay were rocking ear to ear. Vinnie sent us a message letting us know that Cane Garden would be even worse than Great Harbor ( where we left from) and that with this kind of swell, we should head to Sopers Hole or Normand Island.
Sadly we sailed away from JVD before we got to explore it more, we missed out on Soggy Dollar, the bubbly baths, and even Foxy’s. Though now that I know Vennie, I will ALWAY choose Corsairs!!
We turned around and were now sailing downwind towards the west side of Tortola to hopefully find a place to hide in Sopers Hole. As we sailed through Thatch Island Cut, Jon and I reminisced about the last time we sailed in the BVI back in 2014. We remembered ogling the houses built into the cliffside that line the west end.
The protected harbor was filled to the brim, I’m sure with everyone else who was looking to get away from these seas.
Looks like we are sailing to Normans Island. This is really messing up our planned BVI itinerary, but that’s sailing.
Prism peaked her bow out into the beginning of the Sir Francis Drake Chanel and tacked her way out in-between Tortola and St. John.
While we were tacking our way to Normand, Jon spotted something just off our port side.
“That’s a bean bag!”- Jon
“If we tack now, we can grab it without giving up any ground”- Shannon
“TACKING”- Jon
and that’s how we have 2 bean bags aboard Prism now. Living in luxury now!
5 hours later, we set the hook in the very front of The Bite anchorage. We snuck up in front of the entire mooring field and found a perfect spot next to the supply dock in 17ft of water.
The Bite, Normand Island
Once it stopped raining and our drinks were empty Jon and I went back to Prism, to find that our solar panel was gone and lying on the sandy bottom next to our keel. Lucky for him, no damage was done and the panel still works with no problems. I have told him several times that I don’t think propping it up like that is a good idea. Did he listen……. more on this later.
The weather had spoiled our plans and was forcing us to move a bit faster than we wanted. There was a good window in 2 days to sail out to Anegada. This off-lying island was at the top of our must-do lists and we were not going to miss the opportunity to enjoy our sail out there.
We sailed over to Road Town and stopped for a few hours to hit the grocery stores before tacking our way up to Virgin Gorda. We spent the night in Long Bay with plans to come back here as it was stunning!
Remember the solar panel thing and propping it up….. well he did it again. This time the connectors did not let go and the panel went for a short flight and somehow missed landing on any of the hard objects in our cockpit. It did lose a chunk along the siding/ framing… so it was close to possibly shattering the cells. Yea, he doesn’t prop it up like that anymore…
The next morning we set sail for Anegada. It was a very peaceful passage and we were happy to find spots to anchor with good holding.
Anegada, BVI
We spent a week in this paradise. There was a calm in the weather, so we took the chance to explore the coral heads that litter the south side of the island. We found a spot about halfway to Horseshoe Reef and dropped the hook in the clear sand. We free-dove a number of the large coral heads and tried for a while to grab a lobster. No luck on the lobster front, but we had a very nice day.
The 4 of us started to walk to Cow Wreck Bay and were picked up by a couple who felt it was too hot for us to be walking. We enjoyed the beach and a few rounds of bushwhackers served by the one and only Belle. We then took the long way home and walked along the beach all the way back to our anchorage at the Settlement.
The weather did catch up to us, and we waited out a “blow” for a few days before we sailed back to Virgin Gorda.
Virgin Gorda, BVI
We sailed our way into the sound and found a great spot to call home for a few days. We dropped the hook in front of what looked like an abandoned beach bar off Vixen Point. This spot was perfect as it offered wind protection that the anchorage in front of Saba Rock did not and it had a VOLLEYBALL net set up on the beach! SCORE.
For the next few days, we spent our days playing volleyball and relaxing. We spotted SV ZEN and were excited to play a few rounds with them and even went for a “hike” using the goat trails. Our nights were filled with friends and laughter shared over good food. We shared a taxi with everyone and made our way up to a BBQ place on the very top of VG called Hogs Heaven. The food was delicious and the view was breathtaking. The drive there and back however was terrifying.
We made new friends with SV Valentina, who for “never had ever played” ran circles around FIN and us during our games of volleyball on the beach.
We, of course, made it a thing to check out happy hour at Saba Rock. The plan was to enjoy happy hour, look at the menu and then come back another night for a nice dinner out.
We took full advantage of the happy hour and passed the time playing cards, drinking our drinks, and people-watching. Before we knew it, it was past dinner time and we needed food. Lucky for us Christina pre-made dinner and it only needed to be warmed up. To say the food was needed would be an understatement. While we were stuffing our faces with the homemade mac and cheese, we were invited to play some games aboard Holokai. We informed them that we had been drinking and we might be a bit loud… They said we reminded them of their kids and would love to have us over. So we loaded up into the dinghy around 830 and made our way over. New drinks in hand we played a card game which I can not remember the name of now, but wish I could. It was a good time, but we only had one game in us before we had to call it a night.
All too soon a weather window formed to make a possible smooth passage to St. Martin. There were so many places we wanted to see and revisit in the rest of the BVI, but when the trades lay down, you take advantage to head east.
Before we left we HAD to check out the Baths. The day we had to explore was a very rainy morning. We kept waiting and hoping for the rain to go away, and when it “kind of” stopped, we made our move.
This never happens, especially during the high season, but we had the Baths to ourselves. Okay, there were maybe 6 other people there too, but that’s it!!! We explored and had a blast having the place to ourselves.
We wanted to check out the new restaurant called, The Top of the Baths, but we were turned away because we had a dog with us. Oh well, Poor Mans Bar on the beach is more our style anyways.
We enjoyed a few beers together and talked about when we were going to leave the next day for St. Martin.
One thought on “Sailing Puerto Rico & the Virgin Islands”
As always great write up…..Shannon 😊
Great pics and very easy reading!! It’s too bad we weren’t able to get together in Fajardo, I was very much looking forward to meeting the both of you and set foot in Prism to see how beautiful she looks! 🍻