Island Hopping

23 Comments

Finally ready to get moving for a while, we spent a week getting groceries and finishing up small projects around the boat. There wasn’t much to do. Just wait for a weather window to make the quick 90 mile jump over to St. Thomas.

The kids watching a manatee eat off the bottom of the boat. There really was hardly any growth on the bottom, but he must have found something he liked as he came up with a light blue bottom painted nose.

Watching Manatees

Lowe invented a bowling game consisting of MagnaTiles and Matchbox cars. He beat us handily.

MagnaTiles Bowling Bumfuzzle Bedroom

Back underway. Eleven hours of reading books and staring at the ocean. The boat shook off any cobwebs it may have had, ran perfectly, and plowed through the headwinds. We were supposed to see 10 knots on the beam all day, but got 20 knots on the nose instead. Fortunately, there was no swell and hardly any waves built up. It was actually quite strange considering the wind.

Bumfuzzle Leaving PRBumfuzzle UnderwayPR to STT

We dropped anchor in Brewers Bay on the west end of St. Thomas and were almost immediately back in the water.

Bumfuzzle Brewers BayPaddleboard Brewers BayBums Underwater

Taking the garbage out, boat life edition.

Taking the Garbage Out

Jousting along the way home after meeting up with a longtime Bum friend on the beach.

Paddleboard JoustBumfuzzle Paddleboarding

Even Ouest had to admit that her paddleboard is way sturdier than Lowe’s.

Paddleboard Jousting

In the Caribbean pretty much any type of boat can get you there. I will say, I still have yet to think, for even a moment, that I wish I had a sail.

Bumfuzzle Brewers BayPaddleboard Dive

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23 Comments on “Island Hopping”

  1. Glad ya’ll are moving again. Things are opening up here but we’re staying locked down. We want to see how this opening up thing goes. We miss our boat in the Bahamas but we’re so glad we had the wisdom to have one on a lake close to home as well. Happy adventures to you.

    1. Yes, I’ve been seeing you guys getting out on the lake. Nice.

      We too sat tight for a bit, to make sure we could return to Puerto Rico – as we could have always headed to the USVIs without issue, it was the coming back that had us worried (and PR did close their borders completely for a few weeks). And hurricane season on our minds. The USVIs have opened up a bit, they are relaxed with some rules, but we are still just pretty much keeping to ourselves. We don’t drag the kids to the grocery store or restaurants – one of us usually goes, and we may get takeout from time to time.

      Stay healthy friends!

    1. Nope. Nope. And Nope. It is a trawler! If we wanted a sail again we would get a SAILboat. 🙂

      Hope to see you all again at some point!

  2. You must be stoked to be moving AND have the pool open around the boat. I remember loving Brewer’s Bay. Pristine back then.
    Are you having to check in, US to US?
    Our favorite there is of course St. John, where most of the island is National Park. Great remote bays and snorkeling and even an underwater nature trail. Also Coral Bay is a bit of a hurricane hole, if need be.
    Have a blast and looking forward as always to the posts!! ?

    1. Hiya! Did not need to check in PR to USVI, but do when we return to PR. Makes no sense. We will see how it actually goes. Our PR boat decal is good until Dec2020.

      Yes enjoying all the bays – especially with the cruisers emptied out, very few charters, and no cruise ship passengers – we finally like the USVIs.

  3. Can you explain what this means? “We were supposed to see 10 knots on the beam all day, but got 20 knots on the nose instead.” I tried googling it, but couldn’t find a simple answer. Thank you!

    1. Knots indicate wind speed in nautical miles per hour. On the beam is perpendicular to the keel of the boat — in other words, wind perpendicular to the direction of travel. On the nose means they were traveling directly into the wind. Generally that means a rougher trip, as you are thumping into the waves.

  4. I was really glad to hear you say this:

    “In the Caribbean pretty much any type of boat can get you there. I will say, I still have yet to think, for even a moment, that I wish I had a sail.”

    We’re headed to the transition to trawler pretty soon and I was curious what your long term opinions were going to be. Thanks for helping with the research!

    Loving the pics.

    Deb
    SV Kintala
    http://www.theretirementproject.blogspot.com

    1. Hi Breeana, We did a lot of research to find one that she could hop on and go. Didn’t want her to get frustrated when she was 8. And she didn’t. And now she is a pro on that same board and will have it for years to come. They’ve changed the name of the board now. But it is the same. https://amzn.to/3640iMN

    1. Hey briarwood, we were always free (to head to the U.S. or to the U.S. Virgin Islands) – but we decided to sit back and see where this was going. As this is our life, and not just a trip – we were able to really gauge this unknown time and make good decisions for our family and our home. It wasn’t a horrible 2 months to be together on a 42′ boat – we kind of liked it. Well not the cooking and the hand washing of laundry. 😉

      Puerto Rico would always let us leave – it was that they weren’t going to let us back in with hurricane season on the horizon.

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