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

Three years ago today my Mom left this world. It was the hardest thing ever. A day does not go by that I do not think about her. I know that she would have it no other way than to remember all of the fun times that we had together. I wanted to share her beautiful smile with all of you that she shared with the world.

Her life was not easy, yet she was a living example of someone who did the best with what life handed her. Thank you, Mom. I will always be grateful for the life lessons you taught me and the love you shared.

I love and miss you!

Karen has come and gone and thankfully was not that big of a deal. We had winds of 35 and gusts up to around 50. There were winds and storms through out the day but the biggest part of the storm blew through around 1am Wednesday morning, not much sleep that night. Storms in my opinion are more daunting at night when you can’t see anything. It was close to a new moon (25% waning crescent) and it was pitch black too!

It was so crazy, we were watching the radar and Karen was a bit of a puzzler. They said that the eye was just south of Puerto Rico but the radar was showing us something totally different and strange. It looked as though she had more than one eye!

As the night went on and we kept up with the updates we found out that it was true. The NCH said that she had multiple eye wall mesovortices. Maybe it was just me but I had never even heard this word before and had to look it up…good reading here on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesovortices

Brian on the other hand already knew what that was and it confirmed what we saw on the radar.

It was so crazy watching the storm. It seemed that it was jumping around. In the evening as we were down below watching it on radar our boat did a 180 which we thought was strange…that meant that the storm was changing direction! Karen was all over the place. We later found out that the center passed right through Culebra and Vieques. Thankfully she was a small storm and it seems that everyone did just fine.

We hauled our anchors and moved out of the mangroves and are now back on a mooring at Dakity Reef. Brian is working on sewing projects, I have things baking away in our solar oven and things are back to normal.

Until next time, take care everyone!

Jennifer and Brian

SV/Moon

 

Last we left Brian was working on binnacle repairs which I thought were close to being completed. Boy, was I wrong! Not to say that it took forever (I think that the entire project was completed in four days) but, I thought that once he shaped the base that it would be smooth sailing with the repairs. Little did I know that removing the binnacle base, helm cable and all that is associated with that was going to be a bit of a pain in the arse! Do you like my pirate talk? Well, there was a bit of that and some other things communicated on the boat as we got the repair completed…lol! Anyhow, as always Brian did an excellent job and our binnacle is as good as new.

Next was dinghy engine repairs. Brian had to replace the valve cover, carburetor, throttle cable and prop.

Meanwhile, I have been learning how to use our new solar oven. I can not express how happy I am to have it! I can now finally bake things and not heat up the boat at all! Very big factor since it has been so hot here lately. The All American Sun Oven is the one that we chose and we love it! And as far as solar oven temps go this one is top notch! It gets temps of 300 easily on a sunny day. It might take a bit longer to bake something than a normal house oven but not that much. I have had fun experimenting.

Our neighbor John has a solar oven too and he was the inspiration for us to finally get one. He has been amazing in helping us get started. He’s even shared recipes and some of his bread making supplies. Thank you John!

As always once our dinghy engine was up and running again we took some time to explore the underwater world around us…this time we snorkeled at Punta Soldado Beach which is a short dinghy ride from our mooring at Dakity. It’s a nice beach and generally not very crowded. The reefs here are pretty but not as much color as some of the others but it does have some reds and greens that I don’t see everywhere.

As I am writing this we are once again anchored in the bay by the mangroves. Just moved the boat here this morning for protection. Tropical Storm Karen is heading our way, expected to arrive by tomorrow sometime. Hopefully she will not gain strength. They say she is not supposed to but, I have a hard time believing until it actually happens!

Well, that’s all from us for now. Time for us to batten down the hatches and get ready. Take care all.

Jennifer and Brian

SV/Moon