Took a taxi from the Airport to Red Hook American Yatch Club. Luiz was waiting for us, we jumped on the dingy with our two bags with kitesurfing equipment and headed out the Cascalho. The Cashcalho is a beautiful 2006 Lagoon 380 catamaran.
We put the bags away and sailed to Maho Bay to sleep there for the night.
Mauriane prepared a delicious dinner in her little kitchen :)
First night sleeping on a boat was very interesting and I really enjoyed it.
In the morning we headed to Jost Van Dyke for customs control into the British Virgin Islands.
Luiz went to customs to do the paper work for everybody while we took a walk on the beach towards the famous Fox's bar :)
From here went to Sandy Spit where we kited for the first time. It wasn't easy to get into Sandy Spit this time. The sand that is normally on the beach was washed out and we had to get on the shore through a very narrow stretch of land where waves were coming from both sides of the island. It was fun, but it would have been an awesome place to kite with more wind.
Mauriane cooked for us a very nice diner and then we played Carcosan, a game Robbie brought we her for the trip.
We spent our second night here.
From Sandy Spit we sailed to Peter Island (our first stop here)...
After a short break for launch we headed out to Virgin Gorda.
We anchored next to Prickly Pear Island. We took the dingy for an evening cruise towards Bitter End Yacth Club where beautiful huge sailing boats participating in the Loro Piana... regatta where anchored.
After breakfast we moved the catamaran to Eustatia Island and kited under very light winds. We had lunch and then decided to head out to Necker Island since it did not look the wind was going to pick up.
There was a little breeze and Robbie decided she wanted to try to kite. Luiz and I had to go rescue her and I decided to give it try. I could only go downwind and Robbie and Luiz followed me on the dingy for a while. In the horizon we could see the Loro Piana regatta boats, which was really cool.
From Necker Island we headed back to Prickly Pear Island to spend the night nearby where we anchored the previous night.
After breakfast we moved the catamaran to Eustatia island again for some kitesurfing. The wind was a little stronger and Robbie and I were able to kite for a several hours in very marginal conditions. Luiz let me use his surf board which was fun to try.
After lunch we put all the kitesurfing stuff away and sailed to the Baths. On the way out we found ourselves near the finish line for one of the Loro Piana regatta races. It was incredible to see these incredible sailboats racing and coming very close to us. Mauriane was so excited to be there.
We got to the Baths around 4pm. We took the dingy towards the beach, but boats are not allowed here, so we had to swim to shore.
What an incredible place. Walking between the rocks, caves and water is pretty awesome. The sunlight hitting the water and the rocks in different ways makes it pretty surreal. Difficult to describe with words or pictures. You have to be there to experience it.
From the Baths we headed out to Cooper Island to spend the night there. We arrived just before the sun was about to set.
As we dropped the anchor and Luiz is reversed the engines to test the anchor is properly set on the ground, he discovered one of his propellers was lost. A small incident that cause them some unexpected stress. We went to shore on the dingy to get better wifi and to see if Luiz could get on the internet to research the parts he needed to fix the boat.
The rest of us walked around the Yatch Club and went into a store. Here is were I felt land sick for the first time. I did not really feel sick, but I felt things were moving, quite a strange feeling.
We went back to the boat and had another nice dinner.
After breakfast Robbie and I headed out to snorkel on the stand-up paddle boards while Luiz and Mauriane scuba dived to look for the lost propeller and parts.
The snorkeling was awesome and here is where we saw a Spotted Eagle sting ray which I caught on the GOPRO. The sting ray came straight towards Robbie.
Luiz could not find the propeller but he had a spare one and some screws and washers he was able to use to attach temporarily to the engine. He avoided using that engine for the rest of the trip (and he got to practice his skills maneuvering out of the anchorage with just one engine)
After Luiz fixed the propeller we headed out to Peter Island (once again) to spend the night.
Here we took a nice 2.5 mile hike across the island to see the sun set. It was a little cloudy but the views were terrific.
We hiked back another 2.5 miles back to the beach in the dark.
Once on the Cascalho I took a dive into the dark waters of the ocean. It was quite interesting to be in the water at night :)
On our way back to St. Thomas we stopped at The Indians. These are rocks sticking out of the ocean and it is a beautiful stop to snorkel. Robbie and I spent an hour on the water snorkeling around the rocks.
After lunch we sailed towards St. Thomas. But first we had to stop in St. Johns for immigration control into the USA.
From here we sailed our last leg of the trip. As we were entering the port we saw a huge cruise ship on its way out. We anchored here for our last night on the Cascalho. Here Mauriane made us dinner one more time and even a cake to celebrate Robbie's birthday.
Luiz and Mauriane took as to shore on the dingy. We said goodbye and took a taxi to the airport.
We spent the rest of the day on the airport and the flight was eventually cancelled due to maintenance issues with he airplane.
The airline gave us vouchers to stay at the Marriot hotel.
Went back to the airport and flew back to New Jersey. We arrived home in sandals and short. I had to walk up on the snow with sandals to get inside the house. The first thing we did was shovel the snow :(