We spent Christmas in the US Virgin Islands, St. Thomas and St. John, at some lovely anchorages on the south coast. The wind was picking up, so we sailed over to the British Virgin Islands while we could, and cleared customs and immigration on December 27 in Road Town, Tortola. Then we bashed our way to windward and dropped our hook at Fat Hog's Bay, on the eastern edge of Tortola, where we'll wait for the winds to come down a bit before we make the hop over to St. Martin.

We spent December 18 - 21 at the loveliest little island we've ever seen, Culebrita, just off the east coast of Culebra. It is part of the Spanish Virgin Islands, east of the main island of Puerto Rico. Most of the time we were there by ourselves, on a mooring ball, with clear, blue-green water dotted with reefs and much sea life to snorkel in. We saw hundreds of colorful reef fish, sea urchins, starfish, and many other sea creatures. Also, part of the island looks like the western U.S. - boulders, sheer cliffs, and great hiking. We hiked up to the top of the island, where the ruins of a lighthouse stands, and could see for miles. St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands beckoned us to the east - and we sailed across the Virgin Passage on December 21.

We sailed into Culebra's harbor on the afternoon of December 4, expecting to spend a day or two. Instead, weather intervened, with a late tropical storm passing to the north of us, bringing brisk winds and squalls. The forecast calls for settled conditions, but higher than normal trade winds (between 20 - 30 knots) through Sunday. So, we'll stay put until the weather is more favorable for our next hop to windward, the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Thomas. We could see St. Thomas as we sailed into Culebra; it's about 20 miles away.
In the meantime, last Friday before the storm hit, we took a ferry back to the main island of Puerto Rico, to Fajardo. Here is the sun rising over Culebra on our trip over. It was fun to let someone else worry about the navigation, the piloting, the waves, the weather. On the way back the waves were breaking over the enclosed first floor of the ferry, and we stayed down there.

We left Salinas on the morning of November 28, and anchored just 6 miles away at Boca de Infierno to scrape the boat bottom and propeller, and rest. We buddy-boated with our friends Pip and Luz for the first part of this trip and enjoyed their company very much.
In Patillas, we anchored for a couple of days, waiting for weather. We saw this parachute sailor in the anchorage. Later the couple both tried windsurfing.
On the way to the west coast of Vieques Island, we left in a bit too much wind and had a real shake-down of the boat. We had the footrest platform on the bowsprit come loose; we were able to retrieve it, but it will need replacing. Then we were taking water into the anchor locker; Larry realized this when water poured out of the locker over our bedding in the V-berth. We lost the cover for the windlass. Then the jury-rigged depth sounder came loose and we had to do another jury rig on a pole to lower the sounder when we take readings. We need to replace the sounder with a permanent one when we get to a boatyard.
Here is a photo of Pip's boat underway from Vieques, where we anchored for one night, on our way to Culebra.

Debby flew back to Puerto Rico on November 5, and heard all about Tropical Storm Noel from Larry. It was gusty winds and torrential rain for four days, but everything turned out OK. We did a lot of provisioning at the larger supermarkets in Salinas. Shown here are the beach over by the coral reef, with its protected swimming and snorkeling area, and horses grazing in the field between Playa Salinas and Salinas.

We also had to take apart our trusty little outboard motor, a Mercury 3.3 HP. We rely on it every day to ferry us to and from shore while we are at anchor. We hadn't done this before, so we were very careful to read all the directions and save all the little screws and parts. We cleaned out the carburetor and got it going again! One more task we learned how to do.

We finally left Salinas on November 28, bound for islands to the east.

While in Salinas, Larry helped a small nonprofit organization with their business planning. VOLUNAC is a social service agency that provides assistance to poor, elderly and disabled residents of the Salinas area. The agency was created by Carmen Rosado who manages social work for the town and teaches at a nearby university.
VOLUNAC takes an innovative approach to social services by establishing a network of community volunteers which helps leverage scarce resources. But more funding is needed to undertake new projects. To do this, the agency is applying to the U.S. IRS for tax-exempt status which will greatly expand their fundraising opportunities. The IRS application was an extensive, detailed document that needed some English translation and interpretation of its work plan and by-laws.
It was a pleasure to work with and get to know the staff of this small but effective agency. Kenny(college intern), Larry, Carmen and Nancy.