Monday, March 31, 2008

One Year Of Cruising

Culebrita, Spanish Virgins
18 18.7N 65 13.9W

Well there we go one year gone! We've sailed from Fort Lauderdale to Newport, back down to the Bahamas and on to the Virgin Islands, 4848 miles to be precise! It's been a fabulous year, we have made lots of new friends, seen some amazing things and the boat has been a joy for the whole time.

My brother Mike, his wife Liz and their 3 teenage girls arrived in Ponce and we have cruised east along the Puerto Rico coast and are now enjoying the wonderful Spanish Virgin Islands. Seven aboard has been much easier than anticipated and we are now enjoying snorkeling, the beaches and the walking around here.

Culebrita has white sand, palm trees and not much in the way of crowds except at the weekends, so we may well spend quite a bit of time here in the weeks ahead.
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Tuesday, March 18, 2008

South Coast Of Puerto Rico

Ponce, Puerto Rico
17 58.0N 66 37.1W


We have spent the last 2 weeks cruising along the Puerto Rican coast. From Boqueron we sailed round to La Parguera, a lovely spot in among the mangroves, a nice little town and some snorkeling on the reef. We also visited a bio luminescent bay where we swam in the water on a moonless night with the silver trails from the fish and ourselves all around, spectacular.

From there we went on to Ponce via some other great anchorages, we have been here now for a week doing some provisioning, going to the doctors and all the chores that have built up with all this enjoying ourselves we have been doing.

We have also found some time to explore inland, including a coffee plantation, the caves at Camuy (funny hats compulsory - crew of L'Aventura with Tim) and the amazing Arecibo observatory - set in the hills it's featured in the Bond film Golden Eye.

My brother Mike and his family arrive from England tomorrow so we will cruise on to the Virgin Islands from here with them.
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