The rest of the cruise

We returned to Salinas on Monday, March 30, and did all the projects to put the boat on the mooring for the next 10 months or so. We put the dinghy away, and brought Magus to the mooring, borrowed another dinghy, and went to bed for a few hours. At 2 am, we got up and took the borrowed dinghy into the marina, put the outboard motor back on Fred's boat, and he gave us a ride to the airport in Ponce. He has been unbelievably helpful.

Here are links to some photos of the trip. Check out the one's at Erol's cabin on the east side of Jost. It's a very sweet place.

We spent a lot of time on Jost Van Dyke, most of it at Great Harbor. We took a trip to Road Town to get an extension on our immigration papers, so that was very interesting in a West Indian kind of way. We spent a night at Peter Island, where there were no other boats; this seems to be rare with all the charter boats around. Certainly, Great Harbor always had charter boats coming and going.

Anyway, if you want to hear the good stories, let me know.

Update with photos

Adding some photos to this post from last week.

We just got back to JVD, after a couple of days of visiting other places, and getting our visa extensions in Road Town-- that was a classical West Indian experience that took plenty of time. Nest time, we'll know to ask for the full 30 days or whatever it is. We found a harbor with no other boats where the snorkelling was outstanding.

Albert visited with Erol at his cabin on the north end of JVD one night, and we plan to visit again for a cookout on Sunday and get some photos.

Jenny's going to the school tomorrow to do a dog training presentation. Erol's playing at Foxy's on Friday night, and there's a big reggae concert there on Saturday. Then it'll be west to Culebra next week sometime.

Cruising at last

Just a quick update-
We left Salinas on Monday night, March 9 and anchored where we could leave at night. At about midnight on Tuesday, we were getting ready to leave, and got stopped by the Marine Policia, but no issues. Once we were underway, we learned that the autopilot worked like a charm, and we got into Vieques in the morning, after a bumpy ride all night long. We got chased out of a really nice harbor by some official guys doing ordinance removal operations, but found another nice spot at Isla Chiva. We took a day to rest, and left at about 1:00 am on Thursday morning, getting into Cruz Bay at 10 am or so. We stayed for a few hours, but it was hot and touristy. We then left for Great Harbor, Jost Van Dyke, BVI, arrived at 3:30, and cleared Customs.

This little town and the island are very nice and interesting. A guy offered to hold Tiger’s leash as we walked into the Customs office. At first we declined, but then the Customs office made it clear that dogs were not allowed, so we took him up on it. His name was Gregory, and he was one of Foxy’s sons. We listened to the music from Foxy’s bar that night, but went to bed early. First thing the next morning, we went into Foxy’s dock and met Foxy. He had a couple of good jokes, and we did some other business around town. We’ve decided to stay here for awhile. Jenny has an appointment to do a dog class at the school at the end of this week, and we want to stay for the big Reggae show at Foxy’s next Saturday. We may take a couple of day’s to visit some other BVI places, but it’s great to get to know this place.

I can’t begin to mention all of the people we’ve met, but they include Errol who has lived here since 1987, from Montserrat, after the volcano eruption. He’s an old friend of Foxy’s and played in his band for years. Foxy has now stopped playing, but he played the role of band leader when Errol and Jenny jammed at the bar on Saturday afternoon. There was another jam Sunday afternoon, with some of the other cruising people, but Erol never made it.


This morning, that would be Monday, we met Wendell, another of Foxy's sons, and listened to him play guitar on the beach for awhile. And we finally found this internet connection at another bar down the beach. For more photos and info, check out Jenny's blog.

And we learned about the Jost Van Dyke Preservation Society/ Environmental Group/ Sloop project, and met the executive director person, Susan. Check out link. 

First week in Puerto Rico

This will be short for now. The good news is that we found the main termite nest today, that's Friday, February 27, exactly a week after we arrived. The termites were not good news when we first got here, and they will be delaying our departure by most of a week. But we have met some great people, and are enjoying the marina "resort." When we first figured out that the boat had termites, the first thing we heard was "Welcome to the Caribbean/" Then a great guy that we met last year and who is an official boat surveyor, Fred said "I wouldn't worry about them too much-- a lot of boats have them." I did worry about them, and they are now completely gone.

Here's some carpentry I needed to do. That's new PT wood that the local lumber yard ripped to size for me. Fortunately, termites don't like teak wood, and most of the wood on Magus is teak.  Considering the disaster that it seemed to be at first, I now know the boat and all of it's nooks and crannies better than I would have, and I know that the little bit of structural impact is now better than new.

Planning for 2009

This is just a short blog about our planning to visit Magus for 6 weeks in 2009; that will be from February 20 to April 2. We'll be flying into Ponce and renting a car for a week while we get things ready to go for some travelling. We're also bringing Tigerlilly, our French waterdog; so that will be interesting with customs and clearance and everything.

After that first week, we are going to go around to Fajardo and Culebra, where we will meet up with daughter Sophi and her boyfriend Travis for just a couple of days. Then we will be working east through the US Virgins and the Brittish Virgins. Hopefully, we'll have the time and good enough weather to do an overnight trip to St. Martin, and then it's an easy trip to St. Barts. And then downwind back to St. John or Culebra or similar.

There's plenty more that I could say about all the things we are doing to get ready to go, including mailing stuff down to our friends in Puerto Rico, getting charts, etc... Also, the new mainsail was sent down a month or more ago.

Now we'll see what we really do once we get there, and if we make it as far as St. Barts or not.