Sailing Positive Waves

  We’ve been at anchor in San Juan, Puerto Rico for almost two weeks now. We’ll sail north to Bermuda on Tuesday, approximately 800 nautical miles from here; from Bermuda we’ll sail another 700-ish miles north to Maine in order to get us to more temperate summer weather and wholly out of the hurricane zone. It doesn’t feel like we’ve been in the Caribbean for over five months, but it does seem like ages since we arrived in Bequia after crossing the Atlantic. The Grenadines, Grenada, the Grenadines again, St. Croix, the BVI, the USVI, Culebra, Vieques, and San Juan—we’ve kept our cruising grounds small and it seems like this season was more about enjoying our time on the boat and in the water around the boat and less on exploring new places. Daily school definitely limits the time we have for other activities, and getting Hans to and from airports to go to work is another major factor in where, and how, we spend our time. So after five months we’ve definitely fallen i...

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 ...