Passages - Culebra to Vieques, to St. Thomas, to St. John

Culebra to Puerto Ferro, Vieques - anchor to anchor - 2l miles - 6 hours - March 29, 2008.
As we approached Puerto Ferro, Vieques, the bottom was clearly visible below us through 50 feet of crystal clear water, however, once through the channel and into the bio-luminesent bay the greenish/brown water was very murky, shallow and still.
While here we explored along the beaches and mangroves to view the many orange and yellow with orange accent cushion stars that lay in the shallows. As well, the shell collecting was quite rewarding.
On our departure along Vieques' south coast our trolling line caught a great barracuda which we happily returned to the sea.

Vieques to St. Thomas - anchor to anchor - 33 miles - 13 hours - March 3l, 2008.
In an attempt to reach St. John we ended up tucking in, at sunset, to Lindbergh Bay on St. Thomas' south coast after beating into the weather that had developed to 25 to30 plus knot NE winds during the day.
We became intimately acquainted with sail rock as we tacked repeatedly around it in an attempt to travel eastward.

St. Thomas to St. John - anchor to anchor - 6 hours - ll miles - April 1, 2008.
Today's passage had to be an April fool's joke. In a desperate effort to finally make St. John, even though the wind was NE-E 30 plus knots, sea swell 14 feet (9 second interval) and forecasted to remain the same, we set out at dawn, under power, with a reefed main up. Our plan was to tack and edge along St. Thomas' shoreline, hugging the lee shelter, and hopefully "easting" our way forward.
As we passed Charlotte Amalie our friends (out of Sarnia) Jack and Peg (4l' Hunter - Free Spirit) joined us; they just under power. Our sail "tac-tics" had us ahead of them most of the way as we jockeyed around the inter-island ferry traffic in the high winds and sea.
We made Cruz Bay, St. John only to find the anchorage full, moved to the next bay north (Caneel) and picked up a mooring ball ($l5.00 U.S. a night) as anchoring within the National Park limits is not allowed.
Thankful to be in St. John at last!