Only two boats on the mooring when we arrive in Lameshur Bay, St. John. We have been told that it wouldn’t be busy but we didn’t expect it like this, there are 20 moorings in the bay which are normally all taken before 11.00.

Great and Little Lameshur Bay are pristine and part of the national park, it has wonderful clear water and white sandy beaches. Our hike to Reef Bay is unexpected easy, the path is already cleaned and we see even dears walking in the bushes next to us. They are not shy at all.

Next day a hike to Coral Harbour, we expect to have some internet over there. It’s a real hike, uphill for more than an hour and with spectacular views of our bay. And when you go up, to go down is next and unexpected it is harder for your legs, well also lack of condition I suppose. A couple we met on our way advises us to go back with the bus to Salt Pound Bay and hike from there to Lameshur Bay, then we will miss the steep road up. Sounds like a plan 🙂 , we always can go with a mule. The road down makes us feel down and uncomfortable as we see devastated houses, cloths and furniture on the site of the road and places where should be a house but isn’t. We can’t imagine how much power a hurricane has. When we are approaching Coral Bay we see a lot of houses rebuild and also some restaurants are open again, the view here is still spectacular.

We have a real American hamburger at Skinny Leggs and Mary, our waitress, say: if there are no buses, they are a bit unreliable, just put your finger down to the road when you see a car coming and somebody will pick you up. And that’s what happened, no bus but a kind guy who took us with him to Salt Pound Bay and told us the story of his live during the ride 🙂 . 45 minutes later we arrived in our bay and saw we were the only one in this beautiful bay. The next stop is Caneel Bay, where we can dinghy over to Cruz Bay to do some shopping, the supermarket is fully equipped but also here the restaurants and shops are not all open.

It will take some time until everything is up and running again. Our bay is fantastic with white sandy beaches and bleu cruising water, great, the USVI’s is worthwhile visiting. Tomorrow we leave the USVI’s heading for Bonaire, we have a perfect weather window which we don’t want to miss.

Customs is a little strange, they won’t clear us out. Just go, no need for clearing out, well we see when we arrive in Bonaire what they will say about that 🙂 .

By the way Ronald is exercising in another way, making his birthday cake. Well the brown one is the example 🙂 .

East again, we arrive in St. Thomas part of the US Virgin Islands where we anchor just in de corner of Hassel Island in clear blue water. More wind is coming and here we have good protection. It is simple to go ashore, just dinghy to the other site of the bay to Crown Bay Harbor, there is a dinghy dock and from there it is just 10 minutes to the Pueblo. The Pueblo has everything you need, even blue cheese and good wine against normal prices, a bottle of Barefoot wine is only U$ 5,99 and dark rum is U$ 7,99 a liter. There is also an Ace shop, a do it yourself shop, and even that we don’t need something after been visiting this shop we did buy stuff 🙂 .

Sitting on the aft deck, the water aircrafts are landing just in front of us, spectacular to see, and cruise ships are going through the narrow canal just in between two islands, those ships are enormous. The old town of Charlotte Amalie is completely filled with shops for the people of the cruise ships selling t-shirts and other stuff with the name of St. Thomas on it. We just sit on a terrace having a coffee and looking at the crowed, it is a long time since we could do that 🙂 .

Clear out at the USVI’s is not necessary the friendly officer says (the book says different, but he won’t clear us out)and we decide to visit St. John first before going to the British Virgin Islands (BVI), 2/3th of the island is national park and it must be beautiful. We stop at Christmas Cove, a private island where you can anchor and there are also free mooring balls, you only are not allowed to go ashore. There is a Pizza Pie boat where you can order pizza’s and drinks and every morning turtles are saying hello as also dolphins are passing by. In the evening the anchoring has lot of lights because of all the led’s on the boats 🙂 .

OCC members are everywhere and that is always an excuse to have a drink and a meal, we had again a lovely time on Tourterelle and Aura.

Next day it appears that the battery for the engine has died and we decide to go back to Charlotte Amalie to buy a new one, also the cable of the VHF is very bad and we renew this to, the boat is a mess but de VHF is better than ever and the engine starts again with a push on the button. Today relax and a bit of cleaning and finally tomorrow we are leaving for St. John, we aim at Lameshur Bay.

Isla Caja de Muertos is the first stop we make after leaving the yacht club in Ponce. We need to see the blue water and white beaches and we find them just 2 hours from Ponce where the dolphins are waiting for us.

During our “motor” sail, we are still heading east, Ronald catches a fish. We don’t know if it is a Barracuda or a Wahoo and because it is looking very ugly we throw it back in the water. Esperanza on Vieques is a very nice village but you can still see the damage which is occurred when the hurricane came over the island. Duffy’s, the place to be for cruisers, is open but many other restaurants and cafes are still closed. There is a lot of swell in this bay and also in Ensenada Sun Bay during the time we are here, there is nothing about that written in the pilot so it must be just bad luck.

It is not very busy here with cruisers but Al, Francine and dog Mizzen from Time after Time are meeting us here and will sail up to Culebra with us. Together we explore the island hiking, well the surrounding, and we use maps.me to find our route. Tracks are vanished by the hurricane but we find our way to the great beaches. So we hike, chat, play carts and are emptying the wine cellars 🙂 , we have a lovely time.

Then up to Culebra, this small island is liked very much by the Puerto Ricans themselves and they go by ferry or motor boat to visit the island. We catch two fishes this time we think it is Wahoo and we clean it immediately so we can have it for dinner tonight. Al did dive up some conch which we will have as a appetizer and well we have some ……. it appears to be Barracuda, bugger.

These fishes are poising (called ciguatera) for humans and we are not going to eat that, some frozen shrimps will do instead. Next time we know the difference between a Barracuda and a Wahoo, the fin on the back is long when it is a Wahoo and a Wahoo does not have spots only stripes. As Mr. X arrives, another couple we met in Grenada, a part of the Hashers from there are now in Culebra. You can hire a Jeep or a buggy to see the island but we are hikers and we end up with beautiful sights and spectacular beaches. The street food is also perfect here, instead of a pizza truck they here have a roasted pig truck and it is delicious.

Shopping is perfect here and with the fridge full we are going tomorrow to the US Virgin Island, St. Thomas here we come.