. Slipped the mooring lines and had a brisk downwind sail and then a beam reach all the way to Thatch Cay. Tucked in beneath Hans Lollik,( for sale btw for a mere 25 million), then anchored in Magens Bay for the night. It was there that we had our first mechanical mishap of the trip; not bad for 7 days in. We were enjoying happy hour, basking in the breeze and beauty of the anchorage when the genny died without warning. Indicator lights revealed no water intake. No problem, check the sea strainers. No seaweed at all but chock full of 0.5cm translucent critters that stung like fiberglass insulation. This was really painful to clean out, we had to remove and clean the entire intake hose, ouch! When we looked in the water, we could see what appeared to be a bloom of these weird things all around the boat. Surprisingly, the swarm passed and the water was once again crystal clear. We got the generator running again but every intake/strainer on the boat was clogged. Not my favorite night.

DAY EIGHT: Off to Culebra! Payback for the upwind half of our trip. Really nice sail, broad reach all the way with a few jibes. Made it to Culebra in no time. We anchored near the head of the bay in Ensenada Honda. Oh do I like having an electric chain counter! No more guessing about the scope. We called C&I, 787-742-3531 to clear in and got a stern lecture from an officer in San Juan about not having the customs decal on the boat. He told us to go to the airport and present our documents and pay a fee of $27.50, exact change only. The officer said there was one more thing we had to do and I’m thinking “what now”. He said “after you pay the officer in Culebra, go to the Dinghy Dock and have a pina colada”. I followed that order. Dinner at the Dinghy Dock restaurant was surprisingly good, fresh seafood, good drinks and service. Watching the tarpon a few feet from my table glaring at us while we consumed some of their brethren was unnerving. The kids stayed “in town” for what little nightlife there was after dropping the old folks back at the boat.

DAY NINE: We wanted to spend the day at the world famous Flamingo Beach, so we packed the cooler and picked up a jeep at Jerry’s. The beach was simply gorgeous with super soft sand, no rocks, seaweed or coral. The food kiosks were great, sort of like Coney Island, only different. Later we drove to Zoni Beach on the east end of the island. This was my favorite beach of the trip. It was nearly deserted with a great view of Culebrita. The contrasting colors of the sand, sea and sky were breathtaking.

DAY TEN: We saved the best day for last, a day trip to Culebrita. Fastest sail of the trip, topping out at 10.5kts. We took the boat to the north shore of Culebrita and picked up a mooring. Warning: these moorings are in terrible condition with frayed pennants and deteriorating chains. We put a line through the shackle on a ball with a fairly intact chain to bypass the pennant. We did the obligatory hike to the light house which offers a fantastic view of the surrounding islands. Our attention was drawn to an approaching storm with some impressive thunder clouds so we hurried back to the boat. We managed to get aboard before the lightning struck. I turned off all the electronics to prevent a possible direct strike from frying the instruments. It was quite a show, with big strikes all around the boat. We were under some time pressure to get underway and make for Isla Palominos before dark for our last night. I fired up the engines and flipped on the electronics but they were dead. Checked the electrical panel, no problem. I then inspected all of the breakers but none were tripped. Next, I shut off the house bank and rebooted, nothing. Panic time. No chart plotter, depth meter, radar, wind indicator, nothing. If this had did not belong to me, I felt it was too risky. I called SailCaribe, reception was terrible but after 30 minutes they got the picture and tried to trouble-shoot the problem with me. Unfortunately, I had already done everything they could suggest. They advised us to sit tight for the night and a chase boat would be out first thing in the morning. So we got to spend the night in Culebrita whether we wanted to or not! We made the best of it by finishing off the food and the rum we had left. I double checked the mooring and set an anchor alarm. I doubted I would get much sleep that night.

THE LAST DAY: At 0800, Jim Veiga, the owner of SailCaribe, arrived in the chase boat. After rigging a tow line for his boat, he piloted us safely back to the charter base in Farjado. He was in agreement with our decision not to move the boat blind. It took four hours of motoring to return to their dock. After filling the tank with diesel and doing a brief checkout, our charter vacation was over. A quick van ride arranged by SailCaribe brought us to the airport in San Juan.

The crew was unanimous in the opinion that this was the best charter experience ever and we are already planning a return trip. There is a lot to be said for the SVI’s for those willing to experience this relatively undeveloped cruising ground.

PS: Any guesses about the electronics?

Can't guess about the electronics, but I always bring a hand-held GPS with Blue-Charts for the Caribbean.

I've also lost the chart-plotter on a charter boat in the past, and always want a back-up. In one case there was something wrong with their chart plotter and it was about 1/2 mile off.

That said, we also carry paper charts and can do it the "old fashioned way" if necessary.

That's a bit of a scary ending. A couple helpful pieces of advice I learned from an experienced delivery captain (which alas wouldn't have helped in your case) : when lightning attacks put all the portable electronics in your Faraday cage (aka the oven), and if at sea start the engine - a diesel needs electricity to start, but not to keep running.