Blog

Some of the islands throughout the Caribbean have or has in the past, had some sort of crime involving cruisers. Things from just aggravating cruisers by wanting to help with moorings, theft of dingy and/or motor, stollen items from boat, and in rare incidences violent crimes have occurred. The town of Portsmouth in Dominica, has put in place an organization called the Portsmouth Association of Yacht Security (PAYS). PAYS, is a non-profit organization providing security, mooring and related services to yachts visiting Dominica. When you arrive in Portsmouth you will [...]

We left the anchorage at Prickley Pear in the BVI around 1:30pm looking to make the 123nm trip to St. Kitts and arrive around the same time the following day.  However, the seas were confused (coming from all directions) and kept our speed down. We decided that after 22 hours we had had enough and settled for the island of Sint (Saint) Eustatius which is the island about 20nm north of Sint Kitts. We found the anchorage easy to get into and we anchored without any difficulty. We originally planned [...]

After working our way across the southern coast of Puerto Rico, we made a short sail to Isla de Vieques, the first of the Spanish Virgin Islands. The principal islands are Vieques and Culebra and there are multiple smaller islands and islets. These islands are also called the Passage Islands and as is Puerto Rico, are all US Territories. Vieques is best known internationally as the site of a series of protests against the United States Navy's use of the island as a bombing range and testing ground, which led to the Navy's [...]

Unlike the Bahamas where you can do a onetime check-in and get a cruising permit for up to six months, the Dominican Republic requires cruisers to check-in and check-out each time you move anchorages. This adds a level of coordination to the process and prevents you from deciding to move at the last minute. With each move, you have to clear with Immigration, Customs and the Armada (Navy). The process has been made painless at the Puerto Bahia Marina. Customs and the Navy are usually on [...]

Much has happened since we arrived in Luperon. We stayed in the bay on a mooring for two weeks and explored the town daily. Here is Tim grabbing some WiFi outside of Wendy's, one of the local hang outs. Many cruisers travel through the islands and find that they decide to call this place home. The bay is an excellent hurricane hole and food, drinks and apartments are extremely affordable. We were told that you can live very nicely on around $1,500.00 per month. We went on [...]

1064 Nautical Miles, 3 countries, $545 in customs fees all in 27 days! It is hard to believe that we are already 1/3 of the way through this years cruising (St. Marys, GA to Grenada). But that is the good and bad news. Good in that we are all the way in the Dominican Republic and the bad is, we have already killed a third of the trip. We knew that we were going to skip the Exumas this year because we wanted to spend the bulk of [...]

We finally got the weather window we were needing. It wasn't ideal because the wind was suppose to drop off and once again we would have to motor. However, it would be safe and since we were planning to spend the night anchored at Mackie Shoals in the middle of the Bahama Banks, it was a good choice for us. We left Miami at first light and navigated through the channel at Biscayne Bay and were able to put the sails up once out of the channel. We [...]

Renee is so excited about getting to the Bahamas that she got a new hat and bathing suit! Getting such a late start this season and being 39 degrees in Georgia, we could not wait to get moving south. The first leg of our journey south is 274 nautical miles to Lake Worth/North Palm Beach, Florida. This will take around 50 hours from start to finish. The prediction was to have 20-25 knots of wind with gusts up to 30. But the wind would be behind [...]

In preparation for a long journey through the Bahamas and Caribbean, you have to try and figure out what additional spare parts you will have to bring along. Ordering spares here in the United States is fairly easy, but having to get these ordered and shipped while cruising has its challenges. We ordered several items, including the complete set of curtesy flags for the Eastern Caribbean and out islands. We returned to the boatyard immediately after the New Year in order to complete the remaining items from [...]

Living in a boat yard is not all that bad. Did I just say that? Here at St. Marys Boat Services (SMBS) we are fortunate to be located close to the river and get to enjoy beautiful sun sets like this one almost every evening. We have a list of projects/repairs that we would like to complete before splashing in January. The list contains things that "must" be completed and others we consider as "would be nice". The list seems to grow and shrink almost daily. As one project [...]