TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums US VI and Puerto Rico Echoes in the VIs and SVIs

Sweet Christine and I spent April and May moving Echoes, our Beneteau 423, from Florida to the Virgin Islands via The Bahamas, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. We got setup on St. John with mailbox and looked at mooring locations in Coral Bay. We are ready to make this our home after hurricane season.

We were lucky to sail the SVIs and St. John with Capt. Jay and Debbie on Days Like This, their Fontaine Pajot Lipari 41, for Jay's birthday. It's a bit bittersweet after so many great sails on De Life, but Irma took her from us. She still lives on in the refits we did on Echoes and with Days Like This. The SVIs continue to blow me away - happy people, cheap prices, great food, no crowds, great sailing, beautiful scenery.

Some of the SVI highlights were Culebrita Lighthouse, new tapas restaurant on Culebra that is a walk from the town dock - La Cocina el Navegante del Culebra, Zoni Beach, Flamenco beach, Dinghy Dock restaurant, Heather's Pizza on Culebra.

For Vieques, we picked up moorings at Esperanze for $25 per night for a couple of nights and explored the island. There are a couple of very good restaurant right near the Fisherman's dock and Duffys was a stand out with good food about half of what it cost on St. Thomas, including a huge $11 grilled wahoo sandwich. el Quenepo is fine dining and we went there to celebrate Jay's birthday with a splurgy meal. A trip to Isabella, the main town, was fun with a great cheap meal at Biekes Bistro, shopping, and drinks overlooking a calm harbor given southerly winds. We had a rolly anchorage on the great beach of Sun Bay. We had the huge sheltered Ensenada Honda bay to ourselves and did a great dinghy crawl through the mangrove river.

In general, the SVIs are a wonderful inexpensive place to cruise.

Back in the USVIs, we had a quiet night anchored in Magens Bay and hit our favorite spot Maho Bay on St. John. Lime Out on Hansen Bay, inside Coral Bay, on St. John was quite an experience - floating taco bar with big drinks; you float, sit on a bar stool, or lounge on enormous floating mats in 20' of water - not cheap, but good. We split up after that as Jay and Debbie had to take their guest to the airport. We spent our last night out and about at beautiful Salt Pond Bay.

Our frequent home base has been Honeymoon Beach, Water Island. Once you get a good anchor set here it is hard to move on. Crown Bay Marina is nearby with a free dinghy dock and access to Tickles restaurant and Pueblo groceries. On Honeymoon Bay there are two good beach bars with good food. This could as easily be home as Coral Bay.

We are off today to Puerto del Ray Marina to prepare our boat for haulout and hurricane storage. We'll be back in the VIs before Halloween.

Cheers, RickG

Thanks for the report and the tips. We'll be down in a few weeks and hope to spend a few days again in Culebra and possibly Vieques.

Please share your experiences with getting a mooring in Coral Bay as you go forward.

Baard, will do. There are a couple of guys I have not met yet that informally oversee new and existing moorings. There is a strong sailing community there and it is best to work with the local sailors before you work with DPNR.

Cheers, RickG

I “know” you from the old VIOL forum, are you and Christine full time live aboards now? Jay and Debbie are on a cat?

It’s nice to read that you are living the dream 😀

Yes Deb and I are living on our Cat and Rick and Christine are on their boat as well.

Sounds like a great trip and the idea of a cruising life in SJ just sounds spectacular. My question though is about Culebrita. How did you get to the lighthouse?

After a night on a ball in the bay, we tried to hike over on a trail but were met by soooooooo many mosquitoes about 50 yards in we just turned around and ran into the bay to wash off.

Is it possible to anchor near it and dinghy in?

We anchored on the West side. There is an old wharf and a road that goes to the lighthouse. The climb is reasonable, but exposed and hot. Bring water!

Cheers, RickG

Thanks we'll have to try that next time. We have a cat coming into charter in BVI in Mar so I suspect our sailing will be almost all in that area for the next few years but we LOVED our sail thru SVI a couple years ago and I expect we'll make it back. Just don't know when.

Culebra is a straight shot down the North shore of St. Thomas. It is an easy day sail with good fishing. We usually get a Mahi on the way once past St. Thomas.

Cheers, RickG