We start to Cruise with Midnight Rambler

Frolic is safely put to bed in Virgin Gorda and we take a series of ferries to St John to meet up with Peg and Aug on Midnight Rambler, a 49’ ketch rigged transpacific. We have a going away dinner at Morgan’s Mangrove Aug and Bobbie’s past place of employment, and the Fatty Crab and pick up our 5^th crew member, Bobbie. Our purpose is to zip by the south coast of Puerto Rico,  sail through the Turks and Caicos, enjoy the Bahamas, then across the Gulf Stream to Florida and up to Sarasota. Peg has the trip on Facebook Midnight Ramblers Caribbean Adventures.

friends on the beach

our last beach party of the year

The first day we enjoy a nice sail running from Caneel Bay St. John to Brewers Bay on St. Thomas. There we have another good bye party on the beach with many of our cruising friends. We miss them already as we hear of their travels.

we have the triditional shot at the end
of a sucessful day's sail

drinks at Zaco Tacos in Culebra

Our plans to do an overnight down the South Coast of Puerto Rico is foiled by weather and we stop in Culebra for a couple days. We take advantage of it by visiting some of the sights, like Flamenco Beach and some of the eating and drinking establishments.

Carl and Aug on the tank at Flamenco Beach

One of the camps at Flamenco

 

 

 

 

 

Rambler at Plamas del Mar

The pool at the marina at Palmas

 

We bounced along the South coast of Puerto Rico stopping at Palmas Del Mar, Salinas, Gilligan’s Island , and Puerto Rojo. It was great exploring and enjoying these new places. The coast has many parks and public camping areas on the beach which the locals take full advantage of.

The "girls" on Rambler

Sunset at Salinas

 

 

 

 

 

storm on the horizon

Another sucessful day's sail

 

 

 

 

 

Mexican bar at Palmas

The "harbor" at Salinas

 

 

 

 

 

 

The marina at Gilligan's Island

The beach at the resort

 

 

 

 

 

Gilligan's Island

park on Gilligans

 

 

 

 

 

 

Play time at Gilligans

 

Now we leave Puerto Rojo and head for the Turks and Caicos which will be  3 day and night trip at sea. Everyone is looking forward to the trip, for some it will be their first night at sea.

A last drink at Puero Rojo

It’s a Short Season

Diane has left and now we are left to our own devices. Soon our friends Wilma and Gene on Gewil, and Vince and Alex from Slow Motion will arrive. In the mean time what is there to do? We go to the Honeymoon

Beach Drive In

Dog Learning to boogie board

 

Monday night movie and enjoy a movie, popcorn and burgers.  Joe’s on the other end of the beach is now the Dinghy and they have an inflatable on the beach with a female mannequin in it. I understand she has already had trouble with people borrowing her bathing suit and taking her for rides. Honeymoon beach is a lot of fun.

Dinghy's and their sign

Leslie at Heidi's

 

 People have fun in the water during the day sometimes teaching dogs to surf. There is of course Heidi’s beach bar at one end and Dinghy at the other for food and drinks and at night with the lights on it is a magical place.

Honeymoon at night





What a cool slide

The most toys wins

 

There is also Brewers Beach to swim, snorkel, get food and drinks at the food trucks and sometimes catch a beach wedding or even a swimsuit model shoot. Some big boats sometimes drop in for a play day, and they have the toys!



another slide! It must be the new thing

 

swimsuit models at Brewers

 

 




There of course is the Wednesday shopping spree with friends to the thrift store, Cost U Less, Home Depot, and Price Smart.

Zora fitting Leslie's sandals

 

 Leslie got some custom sandals at Zora’s.  There is also dinner with friends at various spots on St. Thomas, or go to St. Johns. Here there is great snorkeling and swimming at Maho, Frances, and Caneel Bays to mention just a few, as well as hiking all over the island.

Dinner on Ocean Wings

Dinner at Island View with friends

Suzanne's birthday dinner

 

An Octopus hiding in a hole

 

The bug parade

Nice cars

 

Of course there are parties and events all around. We went to the University of the Virgin Island’s Taste of Spring celebration. There was all kinds of foods with a food contest and a parade of classic cars.

fire jugler at taste of Spring

The Spring Queens

 

 

 

 

 

One of the food tents with local dishes

There were lots of kids activities

 

 

 

 

 

 

Concert at Crown Bay

 

Beautiful Coral at Culebra

Another Octopus

 

 

 

 

We also sailed to Culebra to meet friends and snorkel as the water and snorkeling is wonderful!

 

Leslie at Culebra

 

Templet for Scuba tank holder

The completed tank holder

 

What do you do? Well when all else fails there is always the list of projects and maintenance waiting to be done.

The tank holders installed

Tanks in the holders

Varnish the engine hatches

 

 

 

Putting a gasket on oven

New anchor bow roller with anchor guards

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carl spicing 8 strand to chain

The finished splice

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lelsie with new tables at Leverick

Completed scuba shop at Leverick

 

We made a last trip to BVI North Sound, one of our favorite places, and started to get the boat ready to haul out. We had a great close hauled tack up the Francis Drake Passage and got passed by some Maxi boats racing around Virgin Gorda.

New shops at Leverick under
construction

Maxi boat heading for the start

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Beans with 81 year old father
on the wash board

crowd sailing away with Beans

 

We also caught a last show of Michael Beans.

 

Of Course just as we were leaving Brewers Bay, Carl did something to his right leg and could barely walk! So mornings were spent stretching and rubbing his knee and leg. At Leverick he had 2 massages and 2 acupuncture treatments and is now almost back to normal.

Midnight Rambler crew

Midnight Rambler Leaving Maho Bay

We will soon be putting Frolic up for the year as we will be sailing on Midnight Rambler with Peg and August to Tampa Florida. It promises to be a leisurely and fun trip and should take 6 – 8 weeks. Then since we will be in the states we will start a land travel marathon to visit as many friends as we can.  From there we will hopefully fly to Australia to visit family we haven’t seen since 2006, many new additions await our acquaintance. 

Frolic out of the water after 3 months