The basics:

We (my wife and 2 boys) chartered a 2010 Island Packet Estero from Island Yachts out of Red Hook from June 6 - 16. I posted part 1 about 3 weeks ago (sorry for the delay). I’ve sailed in the islands since the 1970s, but this was just our second trip that included our 2 older boys. They are aged 7 and 9 and love to snorkel. I’m working on getting some pictures posted.

Part 1

July 14 - After a nice overnight at Vixen Point, we got a reasonably early start to head down the SFD Channel. After giving Mosquito Rock a very wide berth (courtesy of mrs. rundugrun), we raised both sails and enjoyed a nice downwind sail, but with light and variable winds. After about 4 1/2 hours, we reached Norman Island. We had considered overnighting at Cooper, but the boys love the beach at The Bight. We thought about snorkeling at The Pelicans, but they looked pretty busy, so we headed directly into the mooring field and picked up a good-looking mooring ball away from Wille T. As we were coming in to the anchorage, another Island Packet was heading out. We had only seen a couple of them during our charter. After lunch, we all went ashore. The boys enjoyed some low-key snorkeling along the shore. Along with the usual suspects, we saw a few trunkfish and trumpetfish. After hailing Deliverance to pick up our garbage, we headed back to Paradiso for a relaxing dinner.

July 15 - Eggs and bacon for breakfast... We left The Bight under power before 8am with a beautiful rainbow ahead of us on St. John and headed past The Indians. We raised sail as we rounded St. John. We sailed wing and wing down the channel as we headed toward Cruz Bay. Since we had to check back into the USVI at Cruz, we wanted to pick a mooring ball at Solomon Bay, but they were all taken. We headed slowly back to Caneel and as we approached a mooring ball, two big tourist catamarans (Adventurer) sped by creating a wake that made picking up the ball impossible. After I calmed down, I motored around and picked up a ball. We all made the trip around the point to customs in Cruz. We checked back in to the USVI (no sir, we have no garbage on board) without any problems. After some shopping and drinks in Cruz Bay, we headed back to Caneel in the dinghy. We motored to Cinnamon Bay and went ashore at Peter Bay to enjoy some relaxing beach time. There was a swell running through Cinnamon, so we moved to Francis Bay around 5:30pm for the evening. The boys spent about 30 minutes jumping off the stern of Paradiso before dinner. T-bone steaks for dinner (Marina Market has great meats)... Mrs. rundugrun and I packed until 11:30pm since this was our last night aboard.

July 16 - Left Francis by 7:00am and because of light winds and a 11:00am flight, we motor-sailed back to Red Hook. I successfully brought Paradiso to the fuel dock... After giving our remaining food and drink to the crew at Island Yachts, we waited for the cab that Skip had called for us... The cabbie was 40 minutes late and then took the scenic route to the airport. He was in no rush, despite the fact that he knew we were concerned about the time. Once at the airport, I spent the extra money for a red cap, which enabled us to make our flight. It was money well-spent, but I would have rather had a cabbie who was on-time. The flight back was uneventful, aside from a 20 something punk who literally pushed aside an elderly woman as he got off the plane. It was a rude welcome back to the mainland.

Final Thoughts:

* Island Yachts is a good operation, even though Skip gets a bit carried away during the boat briefing. The Island Packet sailed better than expected. I would charter from them again.
* The solar panels were the bomb! They kept the batteries charged and minimized the amount of time we needed to run the engine. We hate running the engine.
* The fridge and freezer were excellent with easy to read digital thermostat. We’ve chartered several times and always needed to keep buying ice. Not the case with Paradiso...
* The head used fresh water... That was a first for me. We got water once during the 10 days. The shower was quite big and very nice.
* For provisioning, we went to Tutu Mall (K-mart & Plaza Extra), Food Center and Marina Market. Plaza Extra was a nice surprise with good prices and excellent selection. Marina Market had great meats and although it’s a small store had a lot of necessities.
* Mosquitoes were quite bad early in the trip... worse than I ever remember. Thankfully we had Bug Bands which seemed to work.