Merry Christmas!

Santa's biggest gift to us was finally finding a flat anchorage! We moved from Coral Bay over to Hansen Bay and each of us finally got a decent nights' sleep. We have run into some old friends (Cynthia and Mike on "Minx" and John on "Sojourn") as well as made some new friends (Mark and Chris on "Silhouette"). We had everyone over for a Christmas eve party, which was a lot of fun.

For Christmas Day, John offered to host everyone on his roomy trawler. We had Duck, Turkey, Roast Beef, stuffing, sweet potatoes and all the fixins. It was nice to spend the afternoon with friends, although we are both missing our friends and family back home. Merry Christmas to all!

St. John

[Kevin's Post]Friday morning we left Culebra for St. Thomas. In hindsight we probably should have waited another day or so to leave, but we were getting stir crazy in Culebra waiting to go. We had a pretty miserable crossing, the 18 miles took us nearly 6 hours limping along on one engine into the wind. Yep, we could have walked there faster. The forecast was for 12-16 knot winds with 2-3 ft seas, but instead we had 18-20 knot winds and 4-6 foot seas. It was not pleasant. But, we made it to Charlotte Amalie without any issues and were happy to have our friends on Iguana Dance buddy boat with us for the slow trip.

This was our first visit to the mainland of St. Thomas, so we anchored off of downtown Charlotte Amalie in order to do a little exploring. St. Thomas is a duty free island which subsists primarily on the spending of cruise ship passengers. Walking down the main street of St. Thomas, it is strange to see that nine out of ten businesses are jewelry stores. There's probably 100 of them in a single city block. It is amazing that there is enough demand for all of them to stay in business. Especially since all of them claim to be selling their wares at a 75% discount (ha). All of them have salesmen standing out front trying to lure tourists inside with discounts and air conditioning. They all seemed mystified that we weren't there to shop for jewelry.

We stopped into a waterside bar to cool off and learned that in the evening would be a big christmas celebration with steel pan bands, a boat parade, and other festive activities. Normally we're on the boat by dark, but decided to make an exception and come back ashore to check out the festivities. We had a great rib dinner at a place we picked pretty much at random (Tavern on the waterfront). They had a live jazz band crooning christmas songs which put us in the holiday spirit. From our table we could see the boat parade. It wasn't much of a parade, since it was only about 5 boats, but they kept circling to give the illusion that there were more boats, so it lasted quite a while. After dinner we wandered around a while listening to the steel pan bands and eventually there was a parade down main street with a couple marching bands, floats, and lots of baton twirlers. It was a good time, but it eventually started pouring and everyone took shelter, things slowed down, and we headed back to the boat.

Overnight, the wind shifted more to the south and the Charlotte Amalie anchorage started to roll making it very uncomfortable to be on the boat. So in the morning we decided to get off the boat and explore St. Thomas a bit. St. Thomas has great public transportation, you can get pretty much anywhere on the island for $2 and closer destinations for only $1. We took the safari bus all the way to Red Hook (on the east coast) and back which gave us a good orientation to the island. We also stopped by the Independent Boatyard marina to check it out since Iguana Dance was staying there. After our self-guided island tour we had dinner at the Fat Turtle at the Yacht Haven Marina and then back to another rolly night on the boat.

Sunday morning we left early to head to Lameshur Bay on the south coast of St. John to meet up with our friends on Seaman's Elixir. We hadn't seen them since leaving Grenada 2 years ago. They are doing well and it was great to catch up with them. We spent the afternoon snorkeling in the bay looking for lobster (unsuccessfully). Linda invited the whole anchorage over for dinner and made a wonderful pork tenderloin. A good time was had by all.

Monday we had arranged to go scuba diving with Steve on Seaman's Elixir and John on Sojourn. We tossed all the dive gear in the dinghy and took off for White Point about a half mile away. Neither of us had dived in almost 2 years so were glad to do a shallow easy dive to get back in the swing of things. It was a great dive site with lots of cool canyons and walls. Since it was pretty shallow (max depth 45 feet) we were able to stay under for almost an hour. We didn't take the camera this time, so sorry, no pics.

Tuesday, after going ashore and exploring some of the nearby trails, we headed over to Coral Bay where we are now. Coral Bay is a small hippie community on the east side of St. John. Walking through town we met a guy selling hot dogs who claimed to have walked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon barefoot in 1975, "When I was a hippie". I guess he's not a hippie anymore, so sad. The Coral Bay anchorage was perfectly flat until dark, then it started to roll like hell so neither of us got much sleep. Today we continue our search for a flat anchorage.

No Mo' Mofongo Por Favor

We are still here in Culebra, waiting for weather to cross over to St. Thomas. On Saturday night we went out for dinner at a nearby restaurant. I had churrasco, which is skirt steak with chimichurri sauce. It is one of my new favorite foods. Kevin ordered mofongo with pork. Mofongo is a traditional Puerto Rican dish with mashed plantains stuffed with a meat filling. We had never tried it and were curious. Unfortunately, the meal placed in front of Kevin didn't look too appealing. What we didn't know was that the pork was actually pork cracklings and was deep fried to a beyond-crispy, bone-dry texture. The plantain part was very good but Kevin could only eat so much of it. Luckily my entree was huge and we were able to split it. It was nice to get off the boat for a bit. The restaurant was all decked out for the holidays and was playing spanish Christmas music, so that was a treat as well.

While at the restaurant we met Jose and Crissy, a very friendly Puerto Rican couple who happen to be on the boat next to us. She is a world-class triathlete who just finished the Kona Ironman. He is the former attorney general of Puerto Rico. They now live in Annapolis but keep their sailboat in Puerto Rico and were here for a vacation. We had them over for drinks and enjoyed talking with them.

Later last night Kevin and I watched the Geminid meteors streak across the moonless sky, a perfect ending to the weekend.

Ensenada Dakity

[Kevin's Post]We saw Margaret off early Saturday morning and took advantage of the rental car for the rest of the day to go shopping. Home Depot, Super Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc. Puerto Rico is great for shopping. Then it was back to the boat for more marina chores. We did 6 loads of laundry before turning in for the night.

Sunday we tried to hit a grocery store for some last minute items before returning the rental car and checking out of the marina, but amazingly none of them open here before 11AM on Sunday. After trying 4 different grocery stores we gave up and returned the car in defeat.

We left the marina early in the afternoon and made a short trip over to the lovely Isla Palominos. We were a little worried it would be packed with power boaters enjoying the last bit of the weekend, but were pleasantly surprised to find that even though there were a lot of them there was still plenty of room for us. We picked up a free mooring at the northern end of the anchorage away from the bulk of the power boaters (sometimes referred to as the Puerto Rican navy). The island is the largest private island in Puerto Rico and is owned by some wealthy family. They have a large house on the north end of the island. The southern half of the island is leased to the El Conquistador resort and they ferry hotel guests over all day to enjoy the beach. We were moored at the north end of the island near the house. As the sun set, we were amazed to see floodlights come on from the island lighting up the whole anchorage and much of the island like a baseball field. I'm not sure if the residents are just trying to discourage overnighters like us (it certainly would, I doubt we'd go back), or if they're just scared of the dark. I guess being isolated on a private island would make you paranoid, it's not like you can just dial 911. But what's the point of owning a private island if you have to light it up like Fenway Park. It was pretty rolly anyway, so that's another reason we probably won't return to Isla Palominos.

Monday morning we moved on to another spot we'd never been, on the southwest corner of Cayo Luis Pena, a place called Lana's cove. It was a beautiful cove with a white sandy beach and some of the best snorkeling we've encountered anywhere. Amanda spotted a big lobster but wouldn't tell me where. We had a wonderful afternoon there, until the tide changed, then it became very uncomfortable. The boat was rolling so hard, it knocked our lamp over onto the floor. It was already dark by the time it started to roll, so we decided to stick it out and leave first thing in the morning.

Tuesday we were underway at pretty much first light and headed 5 miles to Ensenada Dakity where we are now. Entering the anchorage, we were motoring between the reef to port and the mangroves to starboard. As we were motoring in, a charter cat was motoring out. I had turned to port (left) to pick up a mooring, and common sense would dictate that the charter cat would go behind us and continue out the anchorage. Well, he didn't. He kept coming towards us and appeared intent on going between us and the mooring we were trying to pick up. Not knowing his intentions, I tried to just stop the boat and maintain our position until he was out of the way. After he was a safe distance, I tried to head back towards the mooring we were originally trying to pick up when I noticed something strange. The boat wouldn't turn to starboard against the wind. Crap. I tell Amanda, I think we just lost a propeller. Meanwhile, the wind is blowing us towards the mangroves. You can turn with engines alone by putting one in forward and one in reverse, but only with two propellers. Otherwise the boat has to be moving fast enough for the rudders to do their thing. I put both the engines in forward and try to steer us away from the mangroves with the helm. We came within about 20 feet before we were going fast enough to maintain steerage. We limped over to another mooring and picked it up using only the starboard engine. After the boat was secure I jumped in the water expecting to see a saildrive with no prop, and was briefly pleased to see it was still there. My glee was short lived when I came to the realization that something less obvious was still broken with the saildrive. I had Amanda try to run the engine in forward and reverse while I watched with a mask and snorkel from a safe distance. The prop didn't move. Not good. With the engine off but in gear, I could easily spin the prop in both directions, so something is clearly broken in the transmission between the engine and the propeller. We're going to need professional help on this one.

There's a Yahoo forum for Manta owners that is fairly active, so I posted an inquiry there explaining the symptoms and asking for recommendations on boatyards in the Virgin Islands. By the next day I had two emails from two other Mantas that had similar problems in the past. In both their cases it was a vibration dampener that connects the engine crankshaft with the saildrive input shaft. So I ordered that part in the hopes that it is the problem. Unfortunately, it is coming from Sweden (Volvo) and won't be here for 2-3 weeks. So, we are going to try to continue east on one engine and get to competent help in the British Virgin Islands. I spoke with a mechanic there this morning and he thinks it can be repaired in the water if the problem is the part I think it is. We're hoping he's right, because we don't really want to haul again after only being in the water for less than a month.

It's blowing pretty hard right now in Culebra and we need to go straight into it to get to St Thomas and Tortola. So, we're planning to stay right here until the middle of next week when winds are supposed to be lighter.

El Yunque, Puerto Rico

[Kevin's Post]Friday we left Green Beach very early because we wanted to get back to Puerto Del Rey Marina early enough to rent a car and take Margaret to the rainforest. We had a 15 mile trip into the 6 foot seas which was not pleasant, especially after a night of drinking. You get the picture. Apparently captain Kevin was the only one affected. I was happy to get to the flat water inside the breakwater and tie up at a slip. After checking in we picked up the rental car from Thrifty and drove out to El Yunque to go hiking. We stopped at the main visitor center and watched a movie about the rain forest, then continued on to the La Mina falls trail. Amanda and I had hiked this trail before, but hadn't brought swimsuits and towels so couldn't swim. This time we had planned ahead. Margaret and I waded all the way out to the waterfall while Amanda stayed behind playing photographer. It was a great day in the rainforest, there weren't many people and it didn't rain much until we were driving away.

That evening we went to the upscale Marina restaurant for dinner. There's never anybody in there, and I'm not sure how they can stay in business unless they are subsidized by the marina. But the food was surprisingly good despite the absence of any diners and we had plenty of leftovers.

Green Beach, Vieques

[Kevin's Post]Thursday we had a nice downwind sail about 8 miles to a spot on the west coast of Vieques called Green Beach. There was one other sailboat there when we arrived so we didn't have the place to ourselves, but pretty close. We snorkeled for a while and were relaxing when Dirk from the other boat, Lison Life dinghyed over. He had heard on the VHF that there was a water spout spotted in St. Thomas and coming this way and wanted to make sure we knew about it (we didn't). He also wanted to know what time happy hour was on Solstice. A bit later he reappeared with his wife, Sylvia and a cooler of beer. Happy hour turned into dinner (Amanda and Margaret made some delicious enchiladas), and then into after dinner drinks. They left around 11 I think. I went to bed, and the girls stayed up late talking.

Esperanza, Vieques

[Kevin's Post]
Wednesday morning we moved west a few more miles to one of the main towns on Vieques, Esperanza. We anchored off the town dock and dinghyed to shore to see what the town had to offer. Just north of the dinghy dock was a kayak shop advertising nightly tours of the nearby bioluminescent bay. We had been wanting to see it, so we went in and talked to the guy. It would be a full moon so not ideal conditions for seeing the bioluminescence, but we were there, so decided to take a chance and made reservations.
After making kayak reservations, we wandered down the Esperanza boardwalk which is lined with restaurants, bars and shops. We had a great lunch at a place called Bellybuttons. Having no plans for the afternoon, we continued to wander down the boardwalk and turned it into a pub crawl.

Later that evening we returned to the kayak shop at the appointed time to go to the bioluminescent bay. 14 of us piled into a large van for the 3 mile bumpy ride to the bay. It sounded like the van was scraping the bottom the whole way, and the trees were definitely scraping both the sides the whole way. The road was no wider than the van, I'm not sure what they would do if they met someone coming the opposite way. Arriving at the bay, Alexi, our guide tossed all the kayaks in the water, gave us each paddles and made us wade through 6 inches of smelly mud to get on our kayaks. Then he jumped on one himself and told us to follow him. The moon was so bright, I was not optimistic that we would see anything. But as we paddled deeper into the bay, you could start to see little explosions of blue light with every paddle stroke. When we got out to the middle of the bay we all tied up to a buoy and jumped into the water for a swim. That's when the fun started. Every movement of your body was trailed by blue bioluminescence. Even with the full moon, it was clearly visible and really cool. We swam around for an hour in the water playing with the light. To see what it really looked like, go here:

I didn't have high expectations of the biobay tour, but it was totally awesome. We are going to try to go again sometime when there is no moon.

After the biobay tour we were able to rinse off at the kayak shop and went back to a restaurant called Duffy's for dinner. This place had amazing food, so if you're ever in Esperanza, check it out.

I think we're gonna get boarded

[Kevin's Post]We left Culebrita Tuesday morning to head to the southeast coast of Vieques. We had light winds on the beam the whole way and small seas, so it was a very pleasant sail. Margaret even took the helm for a while. As we approached the eastern end of Vieques I see a Coast Guard cutter about 2 miles to our east steaming right at us. "Uh, I think we're gonna get boarded", I say to Amanda. The Coast Guard routinely boards and inspects vessels in this area and pretty much everyone we know has been boarded at least once, except us. So we watch them get closer and closer and then the inevitable, they hail us on the VHF. They asked us the typical questions, registration number, persons on board, nationalities, last and next ports of call, purpose of journey, etc. Then just a "Thanks, and have a nice day". Sigh of relief. It wouldn't have been a big deal to be boarded, but nerve-wracking anyway. We had just bought new un-expired flares 3 days earlier for just such an event, and I doubt they would have found any other issues, but given the choice I'd rather not find out.

Our intended destination was Bahia Fanduca, a small cove on the southeast coast which looked cool on google earth. As we approached we saw a large white buoy at the entrance with small writing on it we could read from more than 100 feet away. Amanda suggested we go a little closer to see what it said. It said, "No anchoring zone, unexploded ordinance". Hmmm, you'd think something like that would warrant a larger font. It wasn't really a surprise though, the whole eastern half of the island was bombed by the navy for 50 years and they are still in the process of cleaning it up. So we pushed onward another few miles to Isla Chiva which we knew was safe. They had 3 free park moorings there so we tied up to one and spent the afternoon snorkeling. This spot had a nice reef and a large seagrass bed. We saw rays, turtles, barracuda in addition to the typical reef fish. Once again, we had the whole place to ourselves.