Spanish Virgins Continued

The architecture in Dewey has both a Spanish and Caribbean flavour.

Rob rowed up the canal to the gas station with the diesel jugs.

Michael the local barber helped me out by giving the captain a good hair cut. He also gave me a trim even though they only do "caballeros" and not "damas." Today is is Friday April 20th and we are on a mooring in Rendezvous Bay in St. John in the United States Virgin Islands. St. John is about three quarter's natural park thanks to The Rockefellers who bought St. John in 1954 and donated the island to the park. Their only stipulation was that they were allowed to build a very fancy hotel retreat on the island. The hotel is still here along with the houses of the rich and famous; however the remainder of the island is national park.

On Sunday Katherine, John's partner is flying into St. Thomas and John is sailing the three miles over to pick her up and then staying in a marina. On Monday we hope that Katerina and Celebrian will move on to the British Virgin Islands. From there we have our last overnight passage across the Anegada Passage to St. Martin. We need good weather for that passage so we are planning to wait in the BVI. The BVI is supposed to be one of the best cruising areas in the Caribbean; however we may get tired of the charter boats.

S is for Spanish Virgins

Our first anchorage at Luis Pena in the Spanish Virgin Islands.

After the first night at the small island of Luis Pena we moved over to the western coast of Culebra. Culebra is the larger island with the settlement of Dewey.

Dewey is a very quaint and colourful town.

The sign says it all....open some days...closed others.

The Spanish Virgins, like Puerto Rico are very hilly. There are many roads much steeper than this but this one gives you the idea.

We hiked the two and one half miles to Flamenco Beach. It is now a park and it was interesting to watch all the Puerto Ricans at play at the beach. Many come across from Fajardo, PR just for the day at the beach.

These Puerto Ricans gave us a lift back to town from the beach. The driver who was a marshall in the Puerto Rican army wanted a picture of the cruising Canadians. More news and pictures to follow.

This is how this is how the other half live. We rented a car from Enterprise whose office was in the Conquistador Hotel.

We waited for the ferry back to Culebra in a little bar. Notice the big box...a brand new shiny toilet...at least we didn't have to fly this box down?!? The Spanish Virgin Islands were discovered by christopher columbus in 1493 and they lie between the US virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. They are totally dependent on tourism yet they are not "touristy" and busy. Dewey is the only town and it is ever so quaint. The islands are a very popular place to come for diving. We snorkelled at our anchorage yesterday and it was quite lovely. The coral is healthy and growing and the water was clean and clear. The Spanish Virgins have lovely anchorages, and pristine beaches and we only wish we had lots of time to spend here; however we will do what we can in the time that we are here. We are pinned down for a few days with a cold front so we may have a chance to do some exploring. We went into town this afternoon and learned a few things from a local cruiser who runs the Dewey Library. Last night the cold front came through with very strong winds and squalls. John almost didn't join us for dinner as the winds and rain were picking up by dinner time. By the time he left in his dinghy for Katerina the wind was quite fierce; however this is a great anchorage and well protected. Today is Sunday April 15th and we have been invited to a potluck on Blue Kai which is a huge catermaran. We met them back when we first arrived in Puerto Rico. John and Kathy have travelled with several of the boats that are here in the harbour and everyone is getting together on the largest boat. Today is Wednesday April 18th and tomorrow we are leaving for the US Virgin Islands.....St. John which is a national park.

R is for Rock and Roll and Rainforest Too

This is a map showing our journey up until Salinas, Puerto Rico. I will be updating the map as I post blogs. I came across this amusing article on the scale of rolling at anchor. Many of you have heard our stories of taking sea sick medicine while anchored so you will appreciate this scale. I have modified it to Celebrian's experiences. 1. Rock a Bye Baby-Gentle movement that is comfortable and might even rock you to sleep; however we put the fine wine goblets away and use our tumblers. 2. Pesky-Periodic rolls that cause unmanned objects to unexpectantly fall onto the cabin sole. A pesky roll can wake you up at night, but usually won't keep you awake. Pesky rolls cause things on deck to make unusual noises that sometimes keep the crew awake. 3. Annoying- Dishes start clinking. Objects roll off un-fiddled spaces. You tend to lurch and walk into walls. Annoying rolls will wake you and might require minor changes to sleeping arrangements. The person on the outside of the berth often feels like they are going to tumble out onto the sole. Using the head becomes difficult because you can't let go. 4. Really Bad- The inside of the boat becomes noisy with stuff rattling and clinking. Unsecured objects become missiles. Sleeping arrangements must be re-arranged from fore and aft to athwartships, or across the berth necessitating one of us sleeping in the pullman berth and one of us sleeping cross ways in the salon. Misery and whining is permitted. 5 The Death Roll/ Also known as The Big Sand Roll -We will take any kind of motion but the dreaded death roll which is akin to a cork screw followed by a rolling that is resonant and intermittent. Just when you think it has stopped it starts up again. It is almost impossible to cook and usually the crew doesn't feel very hungry. If you can not escape just take drugs and go to sleep. Perhaps the best advice comes from an ancient mariner who said," If you feel sea sick....sit under a tree."

It was nice to take some time for a paddle in Salinas Harbour. We watched the pelicans dive for fish so gracefully for such big birds.

Today is Friday April 13th and we are anchored in Luis Pena, a small island next to Culebra in the Spanish Virgin Islands. The Spanish Virgin islands are part of Puerto Rico and a day sail away from both the United States and British Virgin Islands. Of course you still have to wait for the right weather but at least we don't have to do any over night sails for awhile.

Back in Salinas we rented a car with John and had a great day shopping and touring. Puerto Rico is very mountainous and has the only rain forest in North America. The rain forest was wonderful and we wished we had had time to do some hiking. It was a whole different world up in the rain forest...average temperature of 18C (66F) and lots of rain and lush vegetation including bamboo. The houses were perched on sheer drops in places and must have presented some building challenges. We finished our day with a shop at a supermercado that had fruits and vegetables....it had been a great day.

The next morning we left at 6am for Las Patillas. We travel in the early morning or at night where possible to get the lee from the island of Puerto Rico. We spent the afternoon doing a little paddling and relaxing in our reef protected anchorage. We were up at 3:30 am for our trip to Vieques in the Spanish Virgins. When we were at Vieques we realized that the wind was favourable and that we could continue on to Culebra. We arrived at Luis Pena near Culebra by the middle of the afternoon and had time for a nice snorkel in the anchorage. The coral is much healthier here and the water much cleaner than along the coast of Puerto Rico. These islands are about 10 miles off the eastern coast of PR. John came for an early dinner as everyone was ready for an early night to bed. From Luis Pena we motored the couple of miles across to an anchorage off of Culebra's western shore and awoke in the night to number 4 on the Rock and Roll scale. After listening to Chris Parker's weather forecast we dropped the mooring ball and headed south to Ensendad Honda, a large protected harbour off the small and quaint town of Dewey. Rob managed to make breakfast this morning but we had coffee grains from one end of the galley to the other courtesy of number 4 rock and roll.