The BVI’s Continued….

As you could tell from our last post we were having a blast in the BVI’s! Next stop for us after we left the Baths in Virgin Gorda was the Norman Island Caves.

Just off the east end of St. John is Norman Island (named for a pirate). It is said that the island was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel “Treasure Island”. Norman Island has a documented history of pirate booty being hidden and found! Many still actively hunt out treasure on Norman Island, acting on the rumors that Spanish Galleon Nuestra señora de Guadalupe left silver dollars behind. In fact a silver chest was discovered as recently as 1910. Pretty cool, huh? The treasure for us was to snorkel around this amazing site with all of the beauty that it had to offer. Not as good as doubloons but we would need a lot more time to work that angle! If you want to read a little about the islands history check these pages out:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Island

https://www.bareboatsbvi.com/other-islands/the-caves.php

The Caves are always a favorite of ours to snorkel. The only way to get here is by boat. The same as the Baths, the national parks provide day use moorings. We decided to arrive early in hopes to get a ball that was close to the caves. It’s a bit daunting because the balls seem so close to the rock walls but there is plenty of room. We got lucky, tied up and jumped in. It was a bit scary at first because you can’t see the bottom, but just like Dory…if you just keep swimming, just keep swimming it shallows out and the snorkeling is awesome! The main attraction of course is to snorkel in and around the caves. We did not bring flashlights but if we had we could have explored the darkness further, maybe we will remember next time and get serious about finding some treasure! After we had a great snorkel we all hopped back on the boat and sailed for our next adventure. Jost Van Dyke Island, BVI.

Named for an early Dutch settler and former pirate, Jost Van Dyke is just four miles by three and with fewer than 300 inhabitants. It has been home to Arawak Indians, Caribs, Dutch, Africans and the British. We were visiting for the history? No, not this time. We were visiting to go to the famous Foxy’s Bar in Great Bay and to Soggy Dollar Bar in White Bay. Party time! Well, ended up that we had to make our own party while we were there. Not much going on, I guess to early in the season. Or, I could also say that maybe we just ended too early. As we were laying our heads down for the night it sounded like the party was just starting. It was a combination of tech music and bingo numbers being shouted. We all laughed and were sorry that we missed out on that fun!

We did get to become part of Foxy’s atmosphere though by hanging one of Moon’s shirts high up on one of their rafters and the food was really good!

We made a stop at White Bay Beach the next day to check out the Soggy Dollar Bar. Yup, a bar that is named after wet money! There’s no dock, so the usual way in is to swim. Of course, your dollars get wet – hence the name: Soggy Dollar Bar! Brian and I sat this one out and stayed on the boat. Rachel and Drew paddled the kayaks to shore to check it out. They claim to be the birthplace of the rum-soaked painkiller cocktail. I think that we had enough rum soaking by this point but Rachel and Drew did try some painkiller flavored ice cream that they said was awesome.

This bay is absolutely beautiful! I have to admit and it’s probably obvious that sometimes I alter my pictures to make them look better, but not in White Bay…completely unfiltered! This Bay stands on it’s own and no filters are necessary, the water is actually that bright blue!

We hung out for a bit and as the bay started to get crowded we hauled our anchor and headed towards St. Thomas for the night. Even though Rachel and Drew still had a lots of vacation days ahead, we had lots more that we wanted to explore! We planned on heading towards Culebrita, Puerto Rico and Culebra, Puerto Rico (Also known as the Spanish Virgin Islands) the next day for more adventures.

Wow, shared lots there and if you would believe it we still have more coming…See you as soon as I can get through more photos…take care all!

Jennifer and Brian and Crew Rachel and Drew

SV/Moon

OK, So I thought that I could post this in three parts but it looks like we have too many good photos to share! How many parts will we have, who knows? I’m just gonna to keep going until we can’t go no more 🙂

We will start with our first stop,

BVI, Soper’s Hole.

Our first stop in the BVI’s was Soper’s Hole. Because we left the US territory and now were in British territory this required us to make a stop to visit the local authorities and fill out all of the necessary paperwork to allow us to visit. We’ve become accustom to all of this with our travels but this was Drew’s first time. We tied off of one of the mooring balls in the harbor and the guys rowed ashore to the customs office. No big deal and after a bit of going from door to door and $125.00 the guys had us cleared in.

Compared to the last time that we were here were not many cruising boats in the harbor. It seemed that the other boats that were coming in to clear in would go to the customs office and head right back out on their journeys. We decided to stay the night because it was late afternoon and it’s a great protected anchorage. After we settled in we decided to head across the harbor to eat at the famous Pussers Landing restaurant. We later found out that it had just reopened the week before we arrived after being destroyed by hurricanes Irma and Maria almost 2 years ago. Limited menu but lunch was great! Later that evening someone came around and collected for the mooring ball…$30.00. For some reason we thought that it was $50.00 so that was a nice surprise.

After a great nights sleep we headed to Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda. This is the island that the beautiful and world famous Baths are on.

The Baths National Park, Virgin Gorda

We’re sure that you have heard of the Baths at Virgin Gorda, BVI. It’s a maze of natural giant boulders that you walk, crawl, climb, and even wade through. It is a big vacation destination and has been visited by millions. Fortunately for us the millions were not there on the day that we visited and we just about had it to ourselves.

There was a lot of sea swell coming in that day and it was a workout to get to shore. Normally the snorkeling is great here too but the seas were too rough for us to snorkel this time around.

You can either access the park by land or water. If you come by land you walk down a neat worn path from the parking area past boulders and beautiful scenery to get to the main attraction. If you come by boat you choose a mooring ball and take your dinghy to the dinghy line and swim ashore. No dinghies are allowed on the beaches here. Rachel and Drew took the kayaks ashore which we think is allowed. Brian and I took the dinghy to the dinghy line tied to it and swam ashore.

There are a few ladders scattered throughout the caves where the rocks become too high to climb to help you explore. At the end of the breathtaking trail we reached the beach at Devil’s Bay for more amazing scenery.

How were the baths formed? Glad that you asked!

The Baths were formed by granite that eroded into piles of boulders on the beach. Granite forms from the slow cooling of magma at depth nowhere close to surface. The granite only appears at the surface after geologic ages have eroded away all the overburden covering it. Once exposed, erosion continued to isolate the granite into large boulders and round their surfaces. The boulders formed natural tide pools, tunnels, arches, and scenic grottoes that are right on the shoreline. The largest boulders are an astounding 40 feet, isn’t that awesome! Mother nature creates the most wonderful things!

As interesting as the geology behind The Baths is, it is really even more impressive to see and explore them in awe of their beauty. One of the first amazing formations you come across as you enter the baths is known as “The Cathedral”. This is probably the most photographed part of the baths. Two enormous boulders barely touch to make a gorgeous triangle shaped cave with the water rushing in and out with the tide. They say that depending on the time of day with the light coming through the rocks that the chamber changes its mood.

What a wonderful, amazing and magical day!

Stay tuned to find out what was in store for us next….

Jennifer and Brian and Crew Rachel and Drew

SV/Moon

As promised it’s time to share with you all of the fun that we had this Christmas and New Years.

As I was going through all of the pictures I realized that we have lot to share! Thank you Rachel and Drew for taking and sharing most of what I will be posting. It was nice to step away from the camera and really enjoy the places that we’ve been. Instead of jamming all of the fun that we have had together in one post I’m going to make three separate posts. One for each territory. Hope you all enjoy!

With that being said we start our adventures in St. Thomas USVI.

Last we left you were anchored in one of our happy spots…Brewers Bay, St. Thomas, heaven on earth! It was the perfect place to wait for Rachel and Drew to arrive. Just so happens that we were out and about on the day that their plane touched down with our friend Bob doing some last minute shopping and laundry. Bob was happy to run us by the airport to pick them up. Thanks again Bob!!

We all headed to Brewers Bay to settle down for the night and make our plans for the next few weeks. Yup, they got to have an extended vacation of around three weeks with us. We had lots planned out and had hoped to see as much as we could.

We started out the next morning hiking up to the cave above the bay. High in the hills above Brewers Bay is a cave that can be seen from both the bay and beach. Last time Rachel visited she and Brian made the climb and I stayed on the boat, but this time they were not letting me out of it.

I came across some fun history on the cave. Check it out with the link below:

http://valeriesims.com/mystery-cave-explored-john-brewers-bay-1929

The path starts across the main road from the ruins of the old Brewers Bay Sugar Factory. It is a rocky gut and a bit of a steep climb up. It is marked with spray paint to keep you going in the right direction. I would not say that it is a difficult hike, but it is definitely a workout!

As we were climbing up I was sure that my heart was going to beat out of my chest! We passed a couple of girls hiking their way back down, “You have lots more to go until you reach the top” one of them cheerfully said. Well, great I thought. I had figured that we were getting pretty close. I wondered if I would make it to the top, but I carried on. Even though I was a bit behind everyone else I was determined.

Well, we all made it and once we reached the top the views were amazing and we even had a bit of rain to cool us off.

Time to take some pics!

We thought that the rain was great until it activated the bees in the trees leaving both Rachel and Brian with stings. We did not even realize that there were bees until we started looking and they were all over the place! Seems that they build their hives on the tips of the trees branches . We had never seen that before and avoided them as much as we could on the way down. The rain also made for an interesting decent. We did a bit of slip and sliding in the fresh mud. Rachel found a cool vine to swing on and could not help but to play Jane and swing around a bit!

When we finally reached the bottom we were rewarded with the amazing bay to swim and cool off in. Satisfied with our adventure we got ourselves together and hit the food trucks for some beer and grub. Great first day!

Next day we were off to the big city of Charlotte Amalie. Charlotte Amalie is the capitol and the largest city of the USVI. The harbor is very busy full of cruise ships, mega yachts, tour boats, ferry boats and even sea planes!

We went ashore walked the streets admiring all of the architecture, history and shopping that it had to offer. Fun place to visit but we had so much more to see. Next stop for us will be the BVI’s. Hold on to your seats and we will get more of our story posted soon.

For now take care all,

Jennifer and Brian with Crew Rachel and Drew

SV/Moon

Hello and Happy New Year all!

Been a bit since we touched base and we hope that all of you had magical holidays. Ours was amazing and busy! As we mentioned in our last post Rachel and Drew were coming to visit and we were nonstop from the moment that they arrived.

We sailed over to St. Thomas where they flew in and then spent three amazing weeks traveling through the Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands and then ended up in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.

For the first time ever I did not take pics because they were the official photographers for all of our adventures. With that being said we are awaiting the final edited versions to be sent to us. Once we get them we will share all of our adventures with you. How exciting. We can’t wait to see the pics!

We are back in one of our favorite spots behind Dakity Reef, Culebra, Puerto Rico recuperating from all of the fun we had.

Soon as we get the photos from our adventure we will share until then take care all.

Jennifer and Brian
SV/Moon

Hello All!

Happy to say that we are on the move once again and it feels great!

Hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We were lucky enough to get invited to a friends house so Brian actually got to have some turkey! I had not planned a big dinner because Brian decided that the day after Thanksgiving was the day that he wanted to haul anchor and sail over to Saint Thomas so that we could prepare for Rachel and Drew’s arrival.

So now we are in Saint Thomas, anchored in beautiful Brewers Bay. I had almost forgotten how amazing it is here. We are anchored right off the beach in about 12 feet of crystal clear water. There are sea turtles everywhere. This beach is popular just for that reason. Tourists come here to swim with the wild turtles and the locals like it too because the water is so calm and shallow. Lots going on here. There are even food trucks that sell beer in the parking area!

When we first dropped anchor and Brian was settling things in down below I got a bit freaked out because all of a sudden there was some strange man swimming beside the boat…way too close for my comfort. I yelled down below to Brian and as I did the guys head popped up out of the water and wait a minute, I recognized this guy…it was our friend Bob Petersen! We had met Bob and his wife Sally years ago here in Saint Thomas, they used to have a Searunner Tri exactly like ours that was unfortunately lost with the two hurricanes, Maria and Irma. We invited Bob aboard to catch up. Come to find out Bob had recently bought himself a new to him boat and was anchored here in Brewers Bay too. This was an awesome surprise!

There is a beach around the corner from here that I remembered was good for beach-combing, one of my favorite things to do. So after catching up with Bob we headed over to Perseverance Bay. There was a wreck on the beach here that was sad to see. Bob had said that it was a 74-foot yacht, Summer Star, a Hatteras that was blown aground here when Hurricane Dorian formed here a few months ago. Dorian really caught everyone by surprise as it built up over night and came here instead of where it was for-casted to go which was further south and east. If you remember reading through our blog you might also remember that it caught us of guard as well in Culebra. Seeing the wreck on the beach is a reminder of how unpredictable mother nature can be.

On the way to the beach we came across a dolphin! It was jumping all over and having a grand time. By the time I got my camera out of my waterproof bag he all but disappeared but I got one fin shot before he swam away. It was so cool to see him. Silly because I see dolphins all of the time at home but we don’t see so many when we are sailing so this was a real treat!

It’s been nice enjoying the beach. I bring my hammock ashore and swing and watch the world go by. One day Brian rowed our dinghy ashore to join me and got in trouble though. The beach and land here belongs to the local college and there are security guards that patrol the area. A security officer pulled us to the side and told us that we could not row ashore. We purposely did not put our engine on the dinghy because we were in a swimming area but we have never had any issues with rowing through one. He said that because when you are rowing you can not see behind you and that we might row over a swimmer. This was a humorous surprise to us. I’ve never heard of a person getting run over by a row boat but it must of happened at some point! So now we take our kayaks ashore. This of course was approved by security. He said that because we are paddling facing forward that we can see the swimmers so that was OK.

The days are amazing here and the nights are beautiful too. We are lulled to sleep by the sing songs of the coqui frogs every evening. This Bay is quite like being in paradise!

The days are amazing here and the nights are beautiful too. We are lulled to sleep by the sing songs of the coqui frogs every evening. Anyhow, you can see that we are in our own little paradise right now. It’s nice because up until now it seems that all we’ve been doing is working on the boat so it’s nice to take a break. Soon Rachel and Drew will be here are we will really get to play tourist and have lots to share with you all.

Take care for now,

Jennifer and Brian

SV/Moon

Last we left you we were scraping, sanding, sewing, scrubbing, painting, cooking and sweating. Well…you might not believe this but not much has changed. We are perpetually stuck in the same mode. There is a goal in sight though. Not sure who already knows but Rachel and her boyfriend Drew are coming to visit. We are so excited! They don’t arrive for another month but we are planning on being finished with all of our hardcore stuff by then and then it will be vacation mode for us. We can’t wait!

We’ve been working our butts off getting Moon ready. We are not doing all of this work because they are coming but it does create a deadline for us. This is a good thing though otherwise we would just keep on keeping on with all of our work. I think that we could push on Moon 24/7 and still have something else that would need to be done. She’s an old girl and needs constant keep up. I’m not quite there yet myself but I still know how she feels!

The main project being worked on right now is the decks. Brian has already pulled up the starboard side and now he’s moved port, pulling up the old deck, looking for rot or any other issues, laying new fiberglass and paint. We’ve been deciding on what deck coating to go with. So far sand, kiwi grip, EBA foam have topped the list of what we’ve been thinking of applying. Anyhow it’s a big, time consuming and expensive project!

There has not been much time for play but I did go to the beach to get some coconuts so that I could use the husks as mulch for my herb garden. I called it visiting natures “Home Depot”.

We’ve been ordering boat necessities on Amazon and are getting our final orders in. Thats a good thing because soon we will be moving on to St. Thomas where Rachel and Drew are flying in. They arrive mid December and will be with us through the New Year. We plan on sailing through the British Virgin Island’s, the Virgin Island’s and then exploring the mainland of Puerto Rico. It is going to be amazing! It will be Drew’s first time so it will be fun seeing everything through a new perspective!

OK, I better get back to work…my counters won’t paint themselves, although I wish they would…ha!

Take care all.

Jennifer and Brian

SV/Moon

I’m sure that you have all heard of Plymouth Rock, the rock of Gibraltar or how about rock-n-roll? But,I’ll bet that you’ve never heard of Byron’s Rock!

Rocks are an often-overlooked part of the landscape after all, they don’t move or blossom into pretty flowers. I’ve always got my eyes peeled at all mother nature has to offer and apparently I am not the only one.

Certain stones started out as dumb common boulders, like all the rest. But one day they got a lucky break, and now they’re genuine rock stars. Here’s one that got lucky enough to hop on a flight to the Caribbean with us!

Now don’t tell Brian because I was not supposed to pack it along but how could I resist? A friend of ours Bryon, gifted it to us when we were visiting family in Floral City, FL.

He said that he was drift diving in Boca Grand and as he was looking he saw nothing but a pure sand bottom all around until he came across this one rock. It spoke to him…well, not really…hmm, I think. But anyhow, he was compelled to pick the rock up because it made him think of us and our journeys.

He gave us the rock right before we left and I set expectations with him that I was not sure that it would make the cut in my luggage and by the way what would customs think of some strange rock in there if they found it?

Anyhow, I tucked it in my bag to be thought nevermore until recently I was digging through my stuff and low and behold there was Byron’s Rock!

Well, it made it Bryon! It is now famous on the internet and all! Now that it has had it’s moment of fame it shall become one with the sea again and make some new Caribbean friends here at Dakity Reef, Culebra Puerto Rico. Who knows maybe it will join a rock band!

Thanks for the smiles Byron, rock on!

Hello all. Sorry for the long delay in getting something posted. We recently switched our server and had some hiccups in getting our site up and running. Even our computer guru Brian was stumped with some of the back end stuff that he had to do to make everything work smoothly again. Looks like we are up and running and ready to share our adventures or as of now lack of adventures.

So, what have we been up too? Pretty much the same as always as our title suggests. We’ve mostly been working on the boat. So much that I’ve been neglecting to take pictures like I should of the work being completed to share with you. Everything is starting to blend together as one never ending long day. Ever seen the movie Groundhog Day? It’s sort of like that for us right now!

It’s pretty quiet here otherwise. The town is slowly preparing for the tourist season to start as it seems that the other islands to the east are too. We see fleets of charter boats being sent that way almost daily. They are being transported to the popular areas of the Caribbean, getting ready for the masses escaping the cooler weather. Sure wish that we would get some of that here…the cooler weather that is. It is still very hot!

As always after the chores are done for the day we swim. On the weekends the locals come over from the main island of PR and the anchorage livens up a bit with music, laughter and the fun of all of their toys buzzing around. It makes for good people watching. Sometimes they quiet down early and sometimes they party all night long. I used to find it a bit annoying but a friend of ours on a boat nearby named John put it into perspective for us. He calls it “paying the rent”. The way that he explains it is that because there is no charge to stay on the mooring balls here that when the locals come over and party loudly all night long it is like paying the rent. You just deal with it and before you know it we have the place to ourselves again. I like that. It made sense to us and now it does not bother us as much.

Well that’s all for now. I will try to take more pics and maybe we will do something that is more fun to share. We need to go snorkeling soon and look for the kraken!

Take care,

Jennifer and Brian

SV/Moon

Those of you who know us know that usually you will find us hiding from the sun as much as possible, but we make our boat do the exact opposite. We are all about solar energy. It is amazing what the sun can do! Because of the sun we can have power…lots of power especially since we bought our new solar panels last year in Antigua. And now that we have a solar oven we are unstoppable…uh, unless it is a cloudy day but we will deal with that when it happens…lol! So far that has not been too much of an issue and we always have our wind generator too.

We’ve been harnessing the sun to work for us. Because we have so much power we were able to finally install a water maker. Yes, we now have a water maker…pure luxury! Brian has had some of the parts to build one for a while now but he has finally built it and we are water making fools! Now I don’t have to decide whether I want to swim and get my hair wet because I will have to wash it, I can just jump right in! And if I have some laundry that I want to wash until the next time that we go to the laundry mat, I can wash it! I know that this might sound ridiculous to some of you reading this but water is an issue when you have to work to have it. No pipes running to our boat from the water company. The best thing yet is that Brian no longer has to lug all of our water jugs to shore to fill them and then haul them back to the boat. This saves time, money and backaches!

Boat chores are never complete though. As as we always say there is lots to do here. We had a small bit of rot in one of our bunks where water had leaked in and another spot along the forward companionway hatch. Brian has been working on repairs to them and they are almost complete. First accessing the damage, scraping out the rotted area, applying product to dry it out, then sanding, fiberglassing, then more sanding and then finally painting to finish. Lots of dirty work!

Brian also took on a project for our friends Less and Patty and helped them by making a new bunk for their V berth from scratch.This was quite a project and Brian of course did an awesome job!

As always we try to find fun where and when we can. Recently it was our friend Les’s Birthday and we had a great time with him and his lady friend Patty at Zoni Beach. It’s a beach that is on the north east side of Culebra and it is a bit from town so it was nice of them to invite us along in Patty’s car. We had so much fun that day! Happy 69^th Birthday Les!

I am still experimenting with the solar oven and am always looking through my cookbooks or browsing the internet for new recipes. It’s been fun and rewarding learning how to use it. Sometimes things cook quickly and sometimes they take a little longer depending on how strong the sun is. Mostly been using our propane stove just to make coffee in the morning. That’s awesome too because it is really hot here!

On the days that we go to town and have to anchor in the harbor we swim at a little beach near the ferry dock to cool off. If we are on a mooring ball at Dakity Reef which is most days, after our work is done we open up the floating bar. Just happens that one of our kayaks is perfect for this. We stock it up with a few cold beverages, turn on our blue tooth speaker and swim under the shade of the deck.

As you can see we’ve been busy seems that the list of chores is never ending…just like you guys on shore…see boat life is not that different. Just different challenges! Take care for now all. I have to go and get my apple bread out of the solar oven. It smells like it is cooked perfectly!

Jennifer and Brian SV/Moon

Hello there again. Been meaning to get on here and write for a while but the days all seem to blend together with a mixture of work and play. Sometimes at the end of the day I wonder where the time went then I think of what we’ve done and it all makes sense.

Brian has been very busy working on the ever never ending boat projects. He’s sewn us some windsocks for our bunks, a rain catcher, (still a work in progress needs better material) and he’s also replaced our foggy windows in the bimini top. We can actually see out of the windows now, it is amazing! He’s been completing so many projects that I can’t even keep up with him in showing them all to you! I will share some that I have pics for today and some on our next posting.

We took some time of to have some fun recently and went to Flamenco Beach with some friends and another day we went sailing to Culebrita Island on our friends Chris’s boat. Not much wind that day but it was great company and a fun sail!

Of course we also went snorkeling, this time at Melones Beach and it was better than I remembered from when we were here last season.

That’s all for now and I will write again soon. So much to organize to share with you. I hear that some cooler air is moving in back in the states and at home. Sure wish that we had some of that here…it is still soooooo HOT! Take care all.

Jennifer and Brian

SV/Moon