Sailing Positive Waves

After pushing to get from Sweden to the Canary Islands in five months followed by a transatlantic passage, when we arrived in the Caribbean we were ready to slow down. So after some boat work in Grenada, we sailed from the Grenadines to St. Croix and spent almost six weeks between St. Croix, St. Thomas, and the BVI. We didn’t cover much distance in that time, but we did move and anchor nearly every day and the longest we stayed in one place was three nights. When we arrived in Culebra, one of the Spanish Virgin Islands and part of Puerto Rico, we were ready to slow down even more. Culebra is a fantastic place to cruise without really going anywhere. While the island doesn’t have the stunning geography of the USVI or BVI—it’s more arid, so instead of lush patches of greenery it’s more desert-like with plenty of cacti—the water color, clarity, and underwater life fully compensate for the above sea level beauty. Not to mention the laid back pace of the island, a relaxed tourism infrastruc...

  After weeks of island-hopping in the British Virgin Islands, it was time for Hans to go back to work in the States. His flight was out of Tortola on April 11 and our BVI visas expired on April 14. No extension was possible; we couldn’t wait in Tortola for him to return.  One obvious option was to change his flight to the USVI or Puerto Rico and hightail it to St. Thomas or Culebra where we could have done our usual and wait in one spot for him to return, but that seemed like a rushed exit from the BVI. Plus we’d miss exploring the north coast of St. John. My hand was forced. Time for me to captain Positive Waves with my trusty crew of two. I’ve been sailing and boating for the majority of my adult life and I’ve been living and sailing on Positive Waves for almost two years. I’ve crossed the Atlantic Ocean on this boat! Of course I can captain PW from the BVI to Culebra, approximately 40 nautical miles with plenty of stops along the way! (Can I? Do I want to?) We have twelve ...

Between Hans’s work trips, the boat work we did in Grenada, and another multi-day passage from the southern Caribbean to the Virgin Islands, it seemed like our long anticipated Caribbean cruising days were never going to materialize. From before we started sailing on Positive Waves, we had dreamed of (and hyped to the kids) the ease, fun, and comfort of sailing in the Caribbean. So far it seemed like all we were doing was boat work, school, chores, and juggling travel and work schedules. We had definitely not found our cruising groove. Our solution was to shrink our cruising ground to a small geographic area so we could spend more time having fun and living the dream. We’ve been in the Virgin Islands for almost a month now and we’re definitely feeling more relaxed and that we have time to do the things we love: snorkeling, reading, meeting other cruisers, and short sails from island to island. St. Croix We spent a week in St. Croix, anchored off Christiansted, while Hans ...