Trip Report-Spanish and US Virgins

Summary: Traveled about 188 miles in 6 days.
Vessel: Valiant 37. Crew: 2.

Preliminary:

My friend Fred owns the boat we sailed on this trip. We
have helped each other double handing the delivery of our
own boats in the past and have been through the kind of
rough weather male bonding that few experience. We are
close friends. Fred has owned this Valiant 37 for about three
years.

He purchased it well equipped for ocean sailing and he
added an Iridium Satellite Phone with data interface. I
met him in Fajardo at Puerto De Rey Marina. If you
have a copy of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico
ChartKit by Maptech, this marina is shown on the cover.
This is the largest marina in the Caribbean and features
concrete docks, wide walkways and gasoline powered
golf carts to help deliver people and gear to their boats.
While I admire the methods and characteristics of the
marina, I found the Puerto Ricans working there to be
less than helpful. Often the drivers of the carts would
blast by patrons at full speed, driving recklessly, and
never offered a ride to people walking off the dock.
There is little tide swing and the docks are fixed on
concrete pilings.

Fred has some trouble while sailing down to St Thomas
from New York. One problem was a solder joint that
shorted a fan in the refrigeration system that drew his
batteries down. Another problem was his wind generator,
a Wind Bugger, blew apart offshore en-route to the islands.
It should have been secured during high winds, and could
easily have killed him when it blew off. The plan was for
Fred to sail to Fajardo a week before I flew down to San
Juan. He used this opportunity to replace his batteries
and fix the charging problem, top off his tanks, and order
a new AIRX wind generator.

Both of us like to sail, so we planned to cover some ground
and do most of the cooking ourselves, with a few nights out.
The Genoa needed some repair, so our working upwind sails
were the Staysail and Main. The winds were typically
around 15-18 knots. We reefed around 22-25 knots apparent
when sailing upwind. However, we could have carried these
sails in these conditions and reefs were shaken out fast as these
sorts of conditions rarely lasted long, even in St John's
Windward Passage.

Day 1: Fajardo to Culebra-about 28 miles.

The Trade Wind was blowing steady from the East so we
were in for some beating to weather. Our first goal was to sail
to Culebra, and we planned to sail upwind every day, so as to
have an easy downwind return to Fajardo a week later, which
would give Fred a chance to pick up his new wind generator.
I was very interested in trying out the Monitor wind
vane. I was pretty tired, as I'd stayed up all night, catching an
early flight. Tacking out, we cleared the point, and dodged the
shoals. After that we settled down for some long tacks, set the
wind vane, which was not needed as the boat balanced well on
staysail and main.

In the afternoon, I was a little nauseous and very sleepy and
decided to take a nap. It was rough enough that I rigged the
lee-cloths after a couple of tacks. Fred told me I slept for 2
hours but I would have sworn I didn't get any sleep. It was
getting late in the day and Fred decided to turn on the engine
and motor the last little bit before we lost the light. He woke
me up as the new alternator and belt were squealing. I tried to
tighten up the belt but could not get a lever on it with the largest
screwdriver. I cut a long piece of wood to make a lever, but
this did not work either. I managed to cut my arm somehow
with the saw, but don't remember how it happened. The boat
was pitching and rolling enough to make me feel nauseous again.
The smell of oil with my head bent over the engine was not fun
either. I've never been successful at working on an engine
while underway. I think you need a more stable platform like a
Catamaran to do this. In any case, by keeping the rpms lower
and gradually raising them, were able to motor when we
needed to, and run the engine while moored to charge the
batteries, although we didn't get a full 14 volts-typically
13.5 volts, sometimes a bit less at lower rpms.

The boat handled tacking upwind well. On port tack, pointed
more directly into the waves, we sailed about 4.5 knots, while
on Starboard, with the waves more on our beam we managed
5.5 knots.

On the South Side of Culebra is an uninhabited island named Ilsa
Luis Pena, which had three smaller islands, Las Hermanas, about
100' wide that I would classify as rocks except there was some
green on one of them. We motor-sailed through them, and then
between Luis Pena and Culebra and anchored near the south side
of the canal. I rather enjoyed that as I'd seen the big harbor last
trip and this new spot was lovely. While at first the anchor seemed
to drag-I felt chatter on the rode, I let out a bit more scope and
backing down set it nicely. There was another nice anchorage just
east of this spot that I think might make a nice spot although it had
a more difficult entrance. There was a big schooner anchored in
there-perhaps owned by a local. I could see myself building a
house over on Culebra and putting in my own mooring. It is a nice
island, and unlike Puerto Rico or Vieques, the crime is low. I'm
told the people on Culebra keep an eye on the few well-known
petty thieves. Culebra is the type of island where you could leave
your house unlocked. Dinner was a huge plate de-veined shrimp
with cocktail sauce--yummy!.

Day 2: Culebra to St Thomas-about 30 miles with tacking.

Most of the day was spent beating upwind. Tacks were 6 miles
long or more. Once again port tack speed was a knot less than
starboard tacks. We had rougher water, and I took a few video
of the monitor wind vane in action. I studied it. It had some
hardware used to adjust it that I feel was unnecessary on this
boat, and made it's operation more confusing to comprehend.
This is how it works. The wind vane adjusts the blade in the water;
this turns the wheel at the helm. So the Monitor drives the boats
rudder through the wheel. It is an effective system and works
pretty well, although I could tell it would not handle sailing as well
as a man, unless sail was shortened.

We anchored in Lindberg Bay, which are a few minutes from the
St Thomas airport. It has a very nice beach, while the anchorage
tended to induce roll in the boat. There are a few cables run
underwater on the east side of the bay. We picked a spot just
outside the swim area just west of the cable area. Only one other
boat was anchored there. There were a couple of hotels with
beachside restaurants and bars. The food was Ok, not great, but
reasonably priced. The beach itself was terrific and popular with
airline stewardesses-I'd guess they use these hotels, as they are
cheaper than the five star hotels farther from the airport. I liked
Lindberg Bay; there were no hassles with the dinghy, which we
pulled up in an unobtrusive area away from the buildings. We ate
dinner and watched the Superbowl.

Day 3: St Thomas to St John-about 25 miles with tacking.

More long tacks, and we dodged some reefs and passed though the
Current Hole close to the Northeast edge of Great St James Island
-the deep side of Current Rock into Pillsbury Sound. Then we
passed between Steven Cay and the Brothers into the Windward
Passage and over towards Jost Van Dyke. The wind really picked
up in the Windward Passage. The Islands naturally funnel and
intensify the winds there. It has to be one of the most beautiful spots.
On past trips I've moored at Caneel Bay and Hawksnest Bay.
Caneel Bay Moorings used to be free. Now I'm told they charge
for these and all moorings in the Park.

Tacking upwind through The Narrows was easier than I expected
--the water is deep fairly close to the shore and even so we tacked
at depths of 67 feet on the first tack and 37 on the second tack,
and following this we laid it right in for Leinster Bay, in the company
of a Brigantine and a big cat that looked like a Chris White design.
I have pictures of both. A pretty gal, a volunteer with the park
system came out and asked us to pay $15, which had to be placed
in a lockbox near the old cane processing. It is a 15-minute hike
for every person taking a mooring to make it easy for the pick up
driver to collect the funds. You can dink over there but it is shallow
and rocky, although someone dumped some sand in the water to
cover the rocks and placed two pair of small buoys to guide you in.
These are not obvious to see.

Day 4: Clockwise around St John to St Thomas-about 37 miles.


We started out motoring because the weather was unsettled, and set
off on a starboard tack towards Tortola. Rain showers and wind came
and went a few times. With headers and lulls every time they passed.
A gorgeous 65' monohull-it looked like a Sparkman and Stevens
design, with a deck sweeper Genoa made it through on one tack. I
could not believe how high it could point. It came through with the
speed and power of a smooth running locomotive. It was awesome.

The passage took us an extra tack. I was hoping we could make it out,
on one tack but I didn't want to chance hitting the reefs on the north
side of the East End of St John. We passed inside of Flanagan Island
and Fred humored me in exploring deep into Coral Bay. I wanted
to check out the two anchorages in Coral Harbor, the western-most
of the three bays that make up Coral Bay--these are Coral Harbor,
Hurricane Hole, and Round Bay. Deep in Coral Bay is a mooring
field, and there is another mooring field on the left (west side) as you
pass in. On the way out we saw a MiniTransAt boat coming in,
striking his sails. It was #176.


We hugged the shore of St John, cutting inside of Leduck Island. There
is a shoal directly south of the island. I use Leduck as my reference
point to avoid the shoal. As we followed the south shore of St John
towards the St James Cut, I started to get nervous about making this
passage. I could see no breaking water indicating where it was. It
didn't seem wise to follow my usual practice of hugging the shore of
Great St James. That would put us too close to a lee shore. Instead
I opted to go north of Great St James and back through the Current
Hole. After clearing the rocks we laid it right down the coast towards
Lindberg again.

There are a couple of nice beaches and anchorages in Duff Bay and
Elephant Bay on the west side of Water Island. Someday I'd like to
explore Water Island, it looks like a very nice spot.

We met three cute young gals one who worked as a cook from Texas
and the other two as waitresses from the St Louis. Nice gals all of them.
One surprised me by telling me that AIDS is more serious in the islands
than I thought. It is, second only to Africa. She told me 20% of the
people have AIDS While it is true that it is the second worst area for
AIDS, the actually percentage is only 3%. We had a few drinks and
ate dinner at the other restaurant-the food was Ok, not great.

Day 5: St Thomas to Vieques-42 miles.

This was what I was looking forward to, a long Spinnaker set to Vieques.
After days of beating to weather this was the big downwind run. Between
Saba Rock and Porpose Rocks Fred set the spinnaker while I hoisted and
drove. Fred gave me a bearing for Esperanza on Vieques, which seemed
to line up with Sail Rock. I hoped to steer to leeward of Sail Rock but
could not keep the boat moving fast. If I headed up to take it to windward,
the boat moved fast, but tended to round up. Why? The spinnaker was
not set on a pole, but tacked at the stem. That meant it had to be luffed
in
the windier conditions. The boat has a barn door rudder, so with the helm
hard to starboard, the boat eventually came back down. It would have been
better to sail with a pole in these conditions.

Later I realized Fred's course would take us through the island, not along
the south side of the island. So taking Sail Rock to windward was the
smart thing to do. However, it was hard to lay the south edge of Vieques
as this put the boat close to the round-up angle. Later the winds lightened
up and shifted a bit. We just barely were able to clear the east point.
After that it was easy to carry the kite down the Esperanza. The total
distance flying the kite was about 35 miles. I had a blast steering most of
that, 29 miles. The kite was hot pink so wonder how long it will hold up
in the island.

During the entire week, it was the only spinnaker I saw in use. Most
people sailed with a Genoa, without a main when sailing downwind.
After I passed the helm to Fred, I noticed a mast due South of Vieques.
I took a nap for a while and it was not until we arrived at the Puerto Real
harbor that I noticed a sweet looking sloop behind us flying a yellow
quarantine flag. Fortunately we were in the lead, as we wanted to pick
up a mooring. The harbor has very poor holding due to sea grass.
Fred's boat dragged when he first arrived some weeks before-saved
only by a nice fellow on a nearby mooring. I noticed the other boat, a
somewhat fair aluminum boat with a hard chine near the water line, was
about to anchor. The moorings are free so that people won't anchor
and drag I suppose. We warned them to take a mooring and fortunately
there was another one. The skipper and his wife and child were French.
As much as I like to make fun of the French, I have to admire French
Sailors. The boat was very impressive. My camera batteries had died
so I could not take a picture of it.

Fred gave me a tour of the town and we enjoyed a nice meal near the
Malacon-a walkway along the beach facing the harbor. One i
nteresting thing I learned, the ferry is only $2 for a ride to Fajardo.
The horses on Vieques are pacers-smooth gaited things called
Passafino's. I saw a gorgeous horse pace down the road at dinner.
None of the riders use saddles. The gait of these horses is so smooth
that saddles are not needed. It was a magnificent horse. I'd like to
see more of them.

Day 6: Vieques to Puerto Rico-26 miles.

The Northwest side of Vieques has a shoal that extends 3.5 miles to
the Northwest. There are lots of other shoals on the east side of Puerto
Rico. We had light wind dead downwind from Esperanza and then a
beam reach Northeast, then North and finally West into Puerto Del Rey.
It was a lazy day and frankly I was in no rush to get to Puerto Rico. I
bought dinner and the next day Fred had a few errands to run and
rented a car and drove me to the airport.

Goals for the futu Explore Culebra and Vieques more. Ride a
Passafino on Vieques. Rent a car and drive all over St John. Anchor
in Ensenada Honda (Southeast side of Vieques). Sail to Anegada.
This trip it would have taken too long to get to Anegada. If we had
an extra day we could have done it.