Picture link to follow soon...

I hesitate to write about these islands, and now I understand why there isn’t much info out there – everyone wants these to remain a secret...by far my favourite destination so far, and so far removed from what the BVI’s are now, compared to what they were years ago...

Jim and I are not bar hopping sailors at best, so my best recommendation is if you like isolation, quiet anchorages and peace, this is the place for you! If you want something else, go to Dewey, Esperanza, and then elsewhere...

Best Western San Juan was adequate considering we got in after 10 and left at 7 the next morning. The cafe was surprisingly good, although the menu was limited. We had sandwiches and a very good chicken Caesar. The hotel was mildewy, but good enough to fall into bed.

Sail Caribe was awesome. Jim could not do enough to make us more comfortable. We were picked up at the airport and driven to our provisioning. Remind me to never try to provision on Christmas eve ever again! 2 ½ hours later, we finally checked out!

By the time we got to the boat, we were already pooped! Once we had everything stowed, and after listening to the weather report, we decided to stay at Marina del Ray for the night. Good call! We turned on the air, met with Jim to go over the boat and do a chart briefing, and made arrangements to meet him the next day for the boat checkout.

We chartered a Hunter 33, but next time will go for a bigger boat. The boat was great, but there was only a small fridge, an ice box that didn’t hold cold well, and a cooler. We ended up spending a lot of the first part of the trip trying to find ice to keep our food cold, and the last part of the trip trying to eat food before it went bad! ~smiles~ The only other issue with the boat was the electric head that used fresh water (a precious commodity on such a small boat). Jim gave us two extra 6 gallon water jugs, and we made use of them a few times during the trip. Still and all, we used only 80+/- gallons of water during our nine days on the boat. Pretty good considering we weren’t trying to conserve too much!

The marina has great facilities. Carts with drivers, great showers, nice deli, nice restaurant, friendly staff. We put on a movie, and settled down. And then the rains came. It rained so hard, we turned off the movie because we couldn’t hear it! It rained harder and longer than I have ever seen in the islands!

In the middle of the night, I woke up on such an angle – the boat was being pulled into the dock by the force of the rain!

In the morning, we awoke to a full dinghy and beautiful sunshine. After a quick briefing and boat checkout, we were on our way. The boat was well maintained, and even had a new dinghy.

Off we went.

Our first stop, in light winds, was a long and languid sail to Isla Palominos. Great place, most of the island is privately used by a resort that ferries guests out all day. But once 5:00 hits, there was no one else in the anchorage, and only one guy in a house on the hill, who seemed to have quite a rapport with the birds!

The next day we motor sailed to Luis Pena. We got part way under sail, but the winds were just too light in swells to make any headway. We moored off the western shore, and again, we were the only boat in the anchorage. This island is a nature preserve, so no fishing, and it was quiet – except for the clamour of all the birds!

We needed to get ice, so the next day we motored (light winds and big swells again!) to Ensenada Honda. We wanted to stop at Dakity, but there were no moorings left. We anchored off town, and went to Mamcitas for lunch – great meal, highly recommended. The iguanas were very entertaining, especially when a wiener dog came barking and running along the breakwall and chased them into the water, and then proceeded to jump in and swim after them! All we heard was barking for a little while, and then back comes the dog, panting and wagging his tail – it must be his daily entertainment and exercise!

We filled our water jugs at the Dinghy Dock, and again motored over to Dakity – still no moorings, so we went back to Luis Pena. This time we moored in Lana’s Cove, on the SW side. There were two other boats, the first time we saw anyone other than at Dewey.

A police boat showed up the next morning, not sure what they were doing. They picked up the last mooring and hung around for awhile. Jim and I went ashore to walk around a bit – went to the other side of the island. Not much to see...lots of crabs and birds...

We sailed (finally!) out a ways and back, and had to go in again for ice at Dewey. This time we went to Bahia de Sardinas, and dinghyed our way in through the channel. We had lunch at the Dinghy Dock (not great). Bought groceries at the Colmado Milka, surprisingly well stocked for such a small town. We ended up heading up island to Bahia Tamarindo for the night. Along with another boat from SailCaribe, we were the only ones in the anchorage after 5:00 We snorkelled between Tamarindo and Grand Tamarindo. We saw a lot of rays and some great sea fans and coral.

Another beautiful day. We decided to head around the north shore of Culebra, just to see it. With the north swells, we knew we wouldn’t be able to go to Flamenco beach, but with the clouds on Culebra, we also didn’t want to be on shore!

Wicked white water hitting all the little cays on the north side of the island! We had a great and wild ride around, and headed into the relative quiet of Isla Culebrita. Again, after 5, we were the only boat in the anchorage. For the first time since the marina, we had rain in the morning. We decided not to go ashore to climb the lighthouse, and missed seeing the other anchorage (too rough in North swells to get in, and too wet to walk!).

Because of the rain, we decided to head into Ensenada Honda and maybe connect back home via internet and get more ice. We anchored off the town again, and tried to outwait the rain. As it got to be late afternoon, we decided to head in before everything closed. And, of course, it really poured as we headed in!

After we got what we needed, included contact with home, we headed back out in relatively dry conditions. Unfortunately, Jim fell off the back of the boat getting out of the dinghy because I slipped on the ladder on the boat. His wallet and camera were soaked, and we tried to dry them out as quickly as possible –we managed to capture most of the pictures from the camera once we got home, but thought for sure they were lost while we were away. The camera is now in the garbage...damaged beyond repair. But at least everyone was safe and uninjured!

It rained on and off all evening, and there was quite a wind in the anchorage. Our anchor held well, I can see why this was a preferred stop in rough weather. It was windy and gusty all night.

We decided to try to outrun the rain the next day and head to Vieques in, as the weather report said, “confused Seas”. Boy, were they right! We didn’t think we would hit the west side of the island, never mind the east where we were trying to get to! But halfway across, everything changed, and we were able to head up much better than we had hoped. Once around the east side of Vieques, the seas were behind us, and we skied down some swells pretty fast!

We sailed into Sun Bay on the south side of Vieques, next to the town of Esperanza. We went in to Esperanza, trying to arrange a tour of the Bio Bay, but everyone was closed because of New Year’s Eve. We wandered around for awhile and then headed back to our boat. Esperanza reminds me a lot of Port Dover in Ontario – everything is along one strip of land, and then nothing but homes behind it. A lot of “different” characters hang out there, it was a blast to just sit and people watch.

We were the only boat in the anchorage again after 5:00, and everyone was gone from the beach as well. After we went down to wash dishes, another boat joined us, and we ended up watching fireworks from Esperanza and Isabel Segunda at midnight to ring in the new Year. The full moon was out part of the night, but it was cloudy so it was sporadic.

The next morning we snorkelled around the point at Sun Bay. Not much to see, lots of sea grass, but no turtles. The boat did not have an inverter, so I had to go into town to charge my camera battery. We headed to Lazy Jack’s, and spent a lazy afternoon eating pizza and watching the Fenway Park hockey game – a long way to go to spend an American Afternoon! LOL

There were the usual motley crew, most of them hung over or still drunk, and lots of action on the beach front.

We still never made it to the Bio Bay – most places were closed because it was New Year’s day, or just not answering their phone. We made arrangements with a local to go, but she never showed up. What a waste of time ~shrugs~

Oh well, as Jim says, this gives us a reason to go back!

The next morning, we headed out and sailed out a fair ways south of Vieques before turning to our final destination – Punta Arenas. What a great area. There were lots of boats there, but again, they all headed home after 5:00. Two other boats after dark, and one towed away by Seatow – not bad for such a large anchorage! We tried to arrange for a Bio Bay tour, but no one would come out to Punta Arenas to get us, and it was a long walk to the road to try to catch a publico!

So, we hung out at the boat, swimming and sunning and enjoying our last night beneath the stars, with the lights of Puerto Rico in the distance.

Our last morning we motored pretty much the whole way on flat seas. There was lots of activity in the water, jumping fish, dorsal fins swimming ahead of the boat, birds diving into the water. It was pretty idyllic.

After we got in to Puerto Del Ray, we did our boat debriefing, had some lunch, packed up the rest of our gear, and got our taxi back to town.

We stayed at Le Consulat (not recommended) and ate at a wonderful restaurant called JoseJose. It had the old world charm of a 1950’s upscale Spanish restaurant. A wonderful finish to a wonderful holiday!

Every anchorage we stayed at with the exception of Ensenada Honda on Culebra (Dewey) had mooring balls. We didn’t have any trouble getting a ball with the exception of Dakity Harbour, which we knew would be busy, being so close to New Years.

The charts and buoyage system were phenomenal, we had no problem finding our way around, and making safe passage. I was nervous going somewhere new, since the BVI’s are so familiar to me, but it really was no problem at all.

The people were friendly, the anchorages unspoiled and I am so looking forward to going back again and exploring more of the islands! I would definitely recommend Sail Caribe, they had awesome boats and look after them well, and they are available to help anytime (even Christmas morning!) for anything we needed.

The weather was fluky at best. Warmer than I am used to this time of year, no rain at night (no 3am hatch drills!) and very weird winds and seas! By all accounts a fluke, and hopefully when we return we'll have fairer winds!