We're just back from the SVI and had a great trip full of excitement and surprises.

Eight of us chartered a Lavezzi 40 cat from CYOA, and made stops at Culebrita, Vieques, Puerto Del Ray (PR), and Culebra. Woody was the Captain on this trip and I only touched the helm for a short time on the first day. He did great!

As usual, the CYOA staff went above and beyond expectations to make our trip a good one. A special thanks to Captain Jay for getting two brand new AC units installed the day we arrived!!!

Had a long day touring some of eastern Puerto Rico and managed to snap a panorama of the Fort at old San Juan that turned out kinda nice.



More to come after we dig out from being gone for two weeks.

Nice photo of Fort El Morro,
A lot of history, started building it in the early 1500's.
Only once in it's history was it over run by Holland.
The funny part is they conquered one of the most fortified ports in existence at the time and had to abandon it because they all fell ill to dysentery or something like it. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

How was your passage back to St. Thomas from SVI? How long did it take? Rough trip?

Passage back was easy.
Wind was light, about 10-15 knots and right on the nose. Seas were 2-3 feet.
We motored from North of Culebra to pass south of Savanna island and then back in to Brewers. 3.5 hours from Flamenco Beach.

Could you have chartered out of Puerto Rico?

Yes indeed.

When we started trip planning we considered a number of cruising locations and companies. We were interested in new areas (Abacos) and considered returning to the SVI or Grenadines.

However, several things factored into our decision:

* CYOA has excellent prices and had a boat with Gen/AC available that we had chartered before.

* We got started a little late on the trip planning and ran into boat availability issues almost everywhere. Few had Gen/AC, and those that did were crazy expensive.

* Boat costs elsewhere were higher

* Flight costs elsewhere were higher, and with 8 people traveling, this was a factor.

So after considering the factors it came back down to our tried and trued approach of starting in the USVI and chartering with CYOA. We saved $ thousands over other options.

Walt, I thought you were filthy rich and money was no object.
We really like the Culebra vibe.