The Spanish Virgin Islands, Vieques and Culebra and the East Coast of Puerto Rico

1. DAY ONE. (Half Day) Leave your St. Thomas embarkation dock and stage yourself at a good overnight anchorage like Lindbergh Bay. Here you can "decompress" from your airplane ride, sip a couple of sundowners and have a good nights rest aboard.

2. DAY TWO. Leave early to mid-morning heading West to Culebra island with the trade wind behind you. There is a well marked channel leading through the reef into Ensenada Honda Bay. This is a very well protected bay that could probably hold the sixth fleet if necessary..!! The little town of Dewey will be on your Port side, and you can anchor close in on the West side of the little island in the middle of the bay.  By all means go ashore in Dewey, there are some fine restaurants and the locals are fun and easy to get along with.

3. DAY THREE. Go ashore on on Culebra island, there is a dinghy dock "down-town" close to the entrance of a small man-made channel that runs through the middle of the town of Dewey to the West side of the island. Explore Dewey by taking a cab and "doing" a couple of the beaches on the North side of the island which are very pretty.

4. DAY FOUR. Take the boat out of the protected harbor and circle around to the West side of Culebra. There are some marvelous secluded beaches to explore, especially on the North side of Cayo de Luis Pena island. It's quite protected and you can anchor here overnight.

5. DAY FIVE.  Depart early for Vieques, certainly the nicer anchorage is on the South side by the town of Esperanza. You can use this anchorage as a base camp from where you can explore the island. To get to the Puerto Real anchorage you will have to cross Vieques Sound and through the Vieques Passage. Watch out for the Shoals ("Escollo de Arenas") on the North West point of Vieques and then skirt back South East around Boca Quebrada point, then head East to a Marker Buoy that is just outside the harbour. There are plenty of places to anchor, go for the most protected area close in to the island.

6. DAY SIX. Go ashore and explore Vieques, remember that the US Navy controls the Eastern third of the island so monitor your VHF and stay alert on target practice days. You have choices: you can explore by dinghy by running East where there are several neat bays and inlets like Ensenada Sun Bay, Puerto Mosquito, Puerto Ferro and others. You can also take a cab in Esperanza and cross to the North side of Vieques to the little town of Isabel Segunda. Actually you can go to Isabel Segunda directly from Culebra and anchor there, this is actually a good idea when  there is a South Easterly wind because  the South coast of Vieques can be quite bouncy.

7. DAY SEVEN.  Depart early for Icacos island.  You will need to retrace your steps around the West side of Vieques, again passing by Boca Quebrada and following the Vieques passage and the marked channel that meanders in a general Northerly direction towards Fajardo and the Cucarachas light.  Before you get to Cape San Juan,  you will see the island of Palominos and then Icacos on your starboard side. Both these cays have lovely beaches and you can anchor close in to either of them since they offer reasonable protection from the prevailing NE weather.

8. DAY EIGHT (Half Day) Depart mid-morning from Icacos or Palominos and head South Southwest to Puerto del Rey Marina, just South of Fajardo, where you will disembark and take transportation to San Juan and your trip home.