Tag: family

August 25, 2014

BVI’s Best Kept Secret: Guana Island

May 29th we sailed East toward Guana Island. Mom enjoyed another gorgeous morning on the bow as we let the wind carry us forward through the spectacular British Virgin Islands.

Guana Island is an 850-acre private island. Cottages and Villas can be rented for an all-inclusive $5,000 – $15,000 per WEEK, or the whole island can be rented at an average rate of $30,000 per night. Yes, per NIGHT!! A maximum of 36 guests are allowed at any one time to maintain that private-island feel.

Of it’s seven beaches, White Bay Beach is on the leeward side of the island and is even equipped with private mooring balls at a rate of $30 per night. That’s pretty standard for anywhere in the BVI so why not spend it in front of an exclusive private island? We were told by one of the staff members that the island is private, but the ocean floor and the sand on the beach are technically public. We were welcome to play on the south end of the beach as long as we stayed clear of the resort facilities.

The beach was gorgeous and the water was clear. Several large tarpon swam around the boat and there were some small coral patches near the beach suitable for beginner snorkelers. Not many charter boats come here so we had the place all to ourselves. It was incredible!

Monkey Point lies to the south with day-moorings which are supposedly maintained by the Virgin Islands National Park staff. It’s a popular spot for charter boats to snorkel during the day, though overnight mooring is not allowed. We took a dinghy ride to Monkey Point from our mooring in White Bay and we were less than impressed with the snorkeling there after what we had already seen at Muskmelon Bay to the North.

Our recommendation: Skip the popular “Monkey Point” and head straight for Muskmelon Bay! The rocky cliffs surrounding the bay give these moorings a truly majestic feel. The stillness echoed around us. Depths of 60-80′ give off a rich blue brilliance to the ever-so-clean waters in what we believe to be the “Best Kept Secret of BVI.” Moorings here also cost $30 per night, however the islands staff sometime doesn’t come to collect. If you’re lucky, you might get the 2-for-1 deal!

The coral formations in Muskmelon Bay made for some of the most magnificent snorkeling we have ever seen. Like underwater highways, the millions of small bait fish swam past us in and out of the coral mazes. Each crevice seemed never ending as they looped around and up and down. The coral heads are on average 8-10′ tall and full of life. Hundreds of different species of reef fish thrive here.

A return trip with an underwater camera is a MUST, though the true magic of this place will forever be engrained in our memories. Especially magical for Bean, it was her very first time snorkeling! What a lucky woman to be introduced to the underwater world in Muskmelon Bay, BVI…

Stay tuned for more adventure in the BVI! We are currently enjoying the rest of Hurricane Season in Mt. Hartman Bay, Grenada. Please leave us a comment if you enjoyed these photos!

August 20, 2014

A quiet anchorage and a slice of heaven

May 27th we sailed over to a little anchorage between Little Jost Van Dyke and Sandy Spit. It’s a popular spot for charter boats but not many stay over night. We had the place all to ourselves in the morning and evening hours…

We snorkeled near the reefs in the crystal clear water spending the day in paradise. It was only a short walk around the whole island. The cool Caribbean Breeze felt so refreshing after our swim.

Yes, this place is real. Our little slice of heaven. Would you like to go?

Peter decided we should go on a romantic walk down the beach. And what did we find?

A coconut of course! Another sign we are exactly where we are supposed to be :)

Fragments of coral were scattered all over this tiny little island. Picture perfect and very secluded. It’s a magical feeling when you have an island all to yourself!

I think the best part of Bean’s trip was getting to cuddle with Gunner again :)

Next stop? Cane Garden Bay, Tortola!

Stay tuned for more pictures during our stay in BVI!

We are currently working on boat projects and blog posts in Grenada for the remainder of Hurricane Season. If you’re in the Secret Harbor neighborhood, come say HI :)

August 17, 2014

I Wish I Was There Tonight… On Jost Van Dyke

In the evening hours of May 24th, Peter, my Mom and I sat in the cockpit watching the planes come in over St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. We had anchored in Brewer’s Bay, just a short distance from the airport near Charlotte Amalie. The next afternoon my Grandmother was scheduled to arrive to spend a little over a week with us on Mary Christine.

By this time, Mom was beside herself with excitement to finally be back in the Virgin Islands. Her last visit was in 2006 when she left her heart and a piece of her soul on Jost Van Dyke. Jeanne, my Grandmother and Mom’s Mom, had never traveled this far before and was thrilled to earn her very first passport stamp! With three generations aboard, it would surely be a trip to remember.

My 31st birthday was May 26th and what better way to celebrate than to spend it on Jost Van Dyke with family?!! After picking up Bean at the airport, we immediately set sail for an overnight stop in Hawksnest Bay, St. John. (I couldn’t say Jeanne when I was little and now everyone calls her Bean. The name has stuck through all these years!) The morning of my birthday we sailed north to Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke. It was a gorgeous sail with perfect winds. The Virgin Islands are truly spectactular – unlike anything we’ve seen on our journey so far. The way the islands are nestled together, it makes for some pretty perfect cruising grounds.

With little room to anchor, we picked up a mooring ball toward the back of the mooring field. All four of us could hear Kenny Chesney singing a little song called Somewhere In The Sun inside our heads,

“Oh I wish I was there tonight on Jost Van Dyke
Sipping on some Foxy’s Firewater rum
Or kickin’ back with Ivan
With all my friends down in the islands
Wouldn’t take much for me to up and run
To another life somewhere in the sun”

We made dinner reservations at Foxy’s for later that night. Luckily, it was a Monday and fairly quiet. Foxy’s can definitely get rowdy!

Dinner was outstanding and the ambiance was perfect. Just a quiet night with a little Caribbean Breeze… My kind of birthday!! :)

Tuesday 5.27 we took a short dinghy ride over to White Bay, BVI. Mom was absolutely GLOWING!!! Happiness was spilling out of her like I’ve never seen before. The second she got in the water, it was as if she was HOME. I felt like she was welcoming us to the place where she belongs… Can you feel it too?

Kickin’ back with Ivan…

Enjoy these photos of Ivan’s White Bay Campground and Stress Free Bar before it was torn down this summer. This famous beach bar is currently being rebuilt due to foundation damage from a rain storm 10 years ago! Rumor has it, Ivan’s will be back up and running this November, just in time for our return to JVD!! While most of the memories will be put back up, we’re sure Ivan will need lots of help with new decorations of seashells, t-shirts and autographs from all his visitors.

What’s your favorite spot in the Virgin Islands???

Stay tuned for lots more photos of the time we spent in BVI! We are currently relaxing down in Grenada for the remainder of Hurricane Season. If you’re near Mt. Hartman Bay/Secret Harbor, come say hi!!!

July 27, 2014

The Spanish Virgins: Paradise in Culebrita

Mom was SO excited to go for her first sail! We left Salinas on May 18th around 8:30 at night. It was beautiful and still inside the harbor. As we motored out, we saw not one but TWO flares go off, just East of us outside the harbor. Couldn’t be fireworks. They were most definitely flares. Peter immediately got on the radio announcing what we saw and the US Coast Guard responded right away. They asked that we call them from our Sat Phone to give them all the details. They asked what our course was, the approximate location of the flares, the seconds between the shots, the angle and speed of the flares and any other information we could give them. It was really quite reassuring how totally “On It” the Coast Guard was. I mean, you always wonder if you really needed help, would anyone hear you?

Within what seemed like minutes, a helicopter was flying above us with a spotlight. We never did find out if they found whoever had shot off the flares but hopefully everyone was okay.

The seas along the Southern Coast of Puerto Rico were nasty. The night lees we found in the DR were long gone and the Trade Winds were creating something fierce on the surface of the seas. The waves had the shortest period we had encountered yet, bashing against our hull as we motored hard to wind. Uncomfortable was a mild way to put it. After just a short while, Mom wasn’t feeling too well, giving her a terrible first impression of her journey.

Mom stayed up with me for my watches and we slept when Peter took watch. 15 hours later we arrived at Puerto Real, Vieques, around 11:30 am. We decided to take it easy that day and stay overnight. The next day, we left Puerto Real and took a short trip over to Ensenada Honda (or The Turtles). The day after that (May 21st), the weather looked good and we decided to take a three-hour sail and detour up to Culebrita instead of heading straight to the USVI.

As we rounded the point into the anchorage on Culebrita, we saw a gorgeous white sand beach and clear blue water. This place looked like PARADISE compared to the anchorages we had been staying in ever since the Bahamas. There were about 4 boats on mooring balls near the beach. We decided to anchor in a sandy patch a little further back.

Peter took off on a paddle board to go say hi to our friends on Rainbow, just across the anchorage. Last time we saw Rainbow was back in La Parguera so it was nice to see a familiar boat. We spend a fantastic three days here in this magical little place. If we ever come back this way, we will definitely schedule in some extra time to come back here. One of our favorite places for sure.

Lobster Season on Culebrita happens to be YEAR ROUND! The anchorage here is also on the North Coast of the island which is supposedly not affected by Ciguatera, notoriously found on the South side of Vieques and Culebra. Within the first 15 minutes of snorkeling around the reef nearest our boat, Peter spotted a monster lobster down about 20′. He used his snare to catch him and quickly swam towards a sandy patch away from the reef. If the lobster were to get loose, it’s best to take it where there is no where to hide. By handling lobster over the reef, they can easily wiggle away and crawl into a hole faster than we can swim back down.

We stayed on Culebrita for three nights. Every night we were there we had fresh grilled lobster. Peter dove hard for them for many hours and always towards the end of the day he would come up with some of the biggest lobster we’ve ever seen. Although leery of the larger fish, he hooked a few mutton snapper off the back of the boat each night as well. The larger ones have a higher chance of containing Ciguatera so Peter let those ones get away.

Gunner and Betsy had SOOOO much fun swimming at the beach! Betsy would spend the whole day in the water if she could. Gunner goes back to the dinghy when he’s tired and barks at us to lift him back in :)

Gunner wasn’t too sure about our dinghy anchor…

Gunner was very excited to find a coconut up on the beach. He kicked it around a few times but eventually figured out he couldn’t eat it. I think he likes to be where the coconuts grow just as much as we do!

Friday was the start of Memorial Day Weekend. All the Puerto-Rican power boats cruised in, one after another, after another, after another!! We were amazed at how many there were. 60+ at least. Other cruisers had told us about the “Puerto-Rican Navy,” and that this is a regular occurrence on the weekends but we didn’t understand until we saw it ourselves. The music got louder, the wake got larger, and the bikini bottoms got smaller. It kind of ruined the whole place. Being anchored next to a bunch of rowdy naked people partying all night long is not our idea of paradise so we got out of there as fast as we could.

It was a short sail over to St. Thomas, USVI, on the 24th of May. We arrived just in time to pick up my grandmother (Mom’s mom) who everyone knows as “Bean” the very next day. We’ve had some pretty amazing timing on this adventure and this is just another example of how everything happens for a reason, at exactly the right time!

July 22, 2014

Salinas, Puerto Rico

After we picked up Mom from the airport in San Juan on May 12th, she quickly got acquainted with our little home aboard Mary Christine back at the harbor in Salinas. She wasn’t just excited to see us… she really wanted to learn how to SAIL!!! She brought more enthusiasm for learning about the boat than we could have ever dreamed :) We’ve heard from other cruisers that most guests that visit your boat have no idea what they are getting into and don’t realize how hard it really is living on a boat until they see it first hand. Mom was planning on staying for about 3 weeks so it’s a good thing she immediately fell in love with the lifestyle. It’s not for everyone, but when you love it, you REALLY love it :)

We spent a few days showing her how all the systems work and what our daily routine looks like. She had to learn how to flush the toilets, how to conserve water, what all the strange sounds are, and how to help with the dogs. Most importantly, she learned our process for quickly closing up the boat when it starts raining in the middle of the night. It rained a LOT when we were in Puerto Rico.

There were still a few essential boat projects that had to be done before we could leave. We went up the mast and Mom took some great photos for us! We changed the oil and filters while fitting in some hot yoga in the engine room.

We watched the local police make their rounds.

And we enjoyed some great meals together.

After a trip to Costco, Wal-Mart and West Marine in the rental car, we were completely reprovisioned and ready to go. While waiting for the next weather window, Peter found some time to play around with one of our Tower Paddle Boards and go after some of the MONSTER tarpon we saw. Although it was smaller than all the rest, he actually landed one from the SUP!! He had hooked one almost as big as the board but luckily it broke off before taking Peter out to sea.

Salinas is a great Hurricane Hole with all around protection. The holding was like cement and the people there are the friendliest we saw in all of Puerto Rico. We met some wonderful new friends that showed us overwhelming kindness. It’s also a great safe place for cruisers to stay in bad weather. If we ever travel past Puerto Rico again, we would definitely stop by Salinas.

Although there were great U.S. stores and other U.S. luxuries nearby, our overall impression of Puerto Rico was rather disappointing. We visited La Parguera, Salinas, Ponce, San Juan, and Fajardo. The locals made little effort to speak English and almost all the drivers were terribly rude. Outside the gates of Marina de Salinas, we just never felt very welcome. We were also told to not go out at night in the cities – the homicide rate is three per day!

The Puerto-Rican coastlines bring harsh winds and currents, making for commonly uncomfortable travel. We found the lightest weather window possible and we were all happy to continue on our journey East towards the Spanish Virgins where Mom finally learns how to SAIL!

Have you had a positive experience in Puerto Rico? Please leave a comment and tell us about it!

Stay tuned for more adventures. We are currently in Carriacou, Grenada watching the weather, and catching up on boat projects and blog posts :)