Some of our Favorite Memories: 2017 Cruising Season

While hanging out in the cockpit one night, Mark and I were reminiscing about 2017 coming to a close. We thought it would be fun to do a blog post on some of our favorite things this year. We hope you enjoy it too.

Providenciales – Turks and Caicos Islands

Providenciales – Turks and Caicos Islands

We go slow. So far this year we have sailed or motorsailed almost 2050 miles. When you consider it is at an average of 5.5 knots (6.33 mph) that is 373 hours of sailing/motorsailing.  In an average car going down the highway at an average speed of 70 mph we would have arrived in around 30 hours (not counting bathroom breaks). The rest of our time was spent enjoying new places, doing repairs and chores on Cream Puff, and taking pictures of our adventures.

Here is our list of favorite places. Along with some of our favorite pictures. None of which are in particular order.

Favorite anchorage or mooring:

Majo Bay in St John, USVI. Mooring balls. Good protection. Good snorkeling.

Cambridge Cay, Exuma Land and Sea Park. Good protection. Picturesque. Good snorkeling.

Bahía de Almodóvar, Culebra, Puerto Rico. Calm. Picturesque. Can be noisy during summer weekends but we had a nice quiet few days here.

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Our first glimpse of Puerto Rico at sunrise

Favorite Stops:

Iles des Saints

Exuma Land and Sea Park (all stops in the park were awesome)

St John-USVI

Tobago Cays

Sandy Island off Carriacou, Grenada

Puerto Rico

Grenada

Providenciales – Turks and Caicos Islands

Providenciales – Turks and Caicos Islands

PiZZA Pi - The Pizza Boat

PiZZA Pi – The Pizza Boat. Off Christmas Island. St Thomas, USVI

Best bread

Puerto Rico

Iles des Saints

Martinique

Costco

We miss Costco

Best stops for groceries:

Florida (of course)

Puerto Rico

Grenada

Turks and Caicos (mostly because we had just left the Bahamas and they had an actual IGA grocery store that was stocked with stuff we needed. YEA!)

Martinique-Huge stores

HELLO!

Our favorite snorkeling spots:

Exuma Land and Sea Park

US Virgin Isalnds-St Johns

Tobago Cays, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Sandy Island off Carriacou, Grenada

Green Turtle

Turtle in St John

Sandy Island, Carriacou

Parting the fish on Sandy Island

Favorite touristy places:

Puerto Rico

Grenada

Key West, Florida

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Best quiet time:

Bahamas-pretty much anywhere there is a beach and no one around

Manatee River, Tampa Bay, Florida

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Warderick Wells, Exuma Land and Sea Park

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Rincon, Puerto Rico

Not much quiet time but a lot of fun activity to watch:

Staniel Cay/Big Majors Spot

Charlotte Amalie Harbor, St Thomas, USVI

Grenada

Tobago Cay

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Rincon, Puerto Rico

Tobago Cays in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Sunset in the Tobago Cays

Our favorite social stops:

George Town, Grand Exuma, Bahamas: hundreds of boats, hundreds of cruisers having fun

Exuma Land and Sea Park (winter months): You can have as much social or as much quite as you want in the park. Just pull up the hook, as they say.

Turks and Caicos, Green Turtle Marina: I call this the turnstyle of the Caribbean. So many people moving through this area to go north or south. We met a lot of people and learned so much from them.

Puerto Rico.: All of the marinas we visited had quite a lot of hustle and bustle with cruisers coming and going. This is a popular place to provision, have guests visit and take a break for island hopping.

Staniel Cay/Big Majors Cay: There are so many people it is hard not to meet someone new or catch up with old friends.

Grenada: The summer was full of cruisers looking to have fun. The fall is full of cruisers returning to get ready for a new season. Winter is a popular stop for people moving south or just hanging out.

Martinique-So far it has been pretty active with boaters.

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Favorite Marinas (so far):

Palmas del Mar, Puerto Rico.

Renassance Vinoy Marina, St Petersburg, Florida

Port Louis Marina. St Georges, Grenada

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Just another fun day living the dream

Best Places for local flavor:

Puerto Rico

Grenada

Iles des Saints

Key West, Florida

spicemas, carnival grenada 2017

Carnival in Grenada

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Finally!!!!!!!

Rain on the mountain top. El Unique Rain forest, Puerto Rico

St Kitts and Nevis

St Kitts

Grenada - Mona Money

Mona Monkey at Etang Lake, Grenada

Sendall Tunnel in Grenada. Rather than walk over the mountain people share the tunnel with the cars and trucks

Grenada - Mona Money

Hello. Do you have any bananas?

Grenada

Pope’s place. Grenada

Port Louis Marina

Port Louis Marina

Grenada

Wonderful World -Beautiful People

Carriacou, Grenada

This is what it is all about….ahhhhh……

As I write this it occurs to me, a lot of the places are repeated over and over in our list. I guess they really are our favorite places overall. I also realize just how many places we visited and how many people we have met. And, not all of our stops are represented in the list. We recorded our adventures with thousands of pictures. It was hard to pick just a few of our favorite pictures. It has been a great year. 2017 is not over yet but we are wondering what 2018 will be like for us.

Happy New Year!!!!!!

Categories: About Us, Sailing Blog, Shorts and Musings

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