Weather this time of the year in the tropics is usually pretty mild and we welcome the tropical rain and cooler breezes as they pass through. Nothing compared to the crazy afternoon summer storms on the mainland, but they can get sporty.

We are on a timeframe to get back, however, since our daughter is leaving for Bali in only a few days, and Jim has some fires to put out at work…  weather can slow you down just a bit depending on the squalls, seas and wind directions. So we decided after looking at the imminent tropical wave working her way up that we would take advantage of the good window and sail home. We had not expected to make our way home until Saturday and arrive Sunday.. great call as i’m sitting in the boat at our slip in PR and it’s stormy.

We had a fabulous sail home! SE winds and “flat” seas made for a fast and fun broad reach home. We made Cinnamon Bay to Puerto Del Rey on literally 2 tacks and 7.5hours. There was much cloud cover and since we were not dead down wind there was some air whirling around the cockpit. Not the typical HOT ride home.

We had some great conversation on the 7 hour plus ride home. Some deep thoughts and some funny moments.. the one that kicked me in the gut was within the first 30 minutes of sailing I looked at Savannah and knew something was wrong and asked if she was ok and immediately realized she was crying and I was like OMG what is wrong baby girl!!!???? She responded in a very adorable and secretly funny..  “I miss my remora friend and i’m really sad to leave Mom.”  Priceless. She knows she wont’ get back to the islands realistically until Christmas break..(heavy school load this coming year and summer is already filled with exciting adventures!) I just hugged her tight and told how happy I was that she had such a terrific time with her goofball parents for 2 weeks and all of the fun things still pending this summer. She perked up pretty quickly. I have to agree there is always a sadness that is hard to explain when leaving the islands, especially after such a magical trip together as a family. We literally spent 2 solid weeks cooking, sailing, hiking, snorkeling, laughing, and just being together in a beautiful place.

We docked and tied up just as the sun went down and Jim gave customs a call per instructions and I started dinner.

Can I just say it’s astonishing that ANYTHING in our Government gets accomplished given how our customs experience went. I won’t go in to details but they stayed on our boat for an hour because we were a penny short of the fees we owed. So we kept trying to give them the “change” of 4 cents we owed in a nickel form since we did not have 4 pennies on hand and keep the change! They absolutely would not do this. BUT.. after an hour later they just said keep the nickel he would get the 4 cents from their truck. okkkkkkk.. sigh. Then they wanted proof of importation fees and for us to write them a check for $8500.. we’re like.. nooooo. We bought the bought in PR and this has all been handled (and it has but they didn’t seem care) so we are not supposed to leave the boat until they have this proof. We were coming from a US territory after checking back in to St. John, then to here (yes you have to check in twice) with our US passports.. and this is our slip. Great for tourism…. sigh. Curious that just as soon as Jim started speaking Spanish in a local accent they decided to be nice.

The trip was completed half way home when a family of dolphins were frolicking on our bow. It’s amazing how quickly you can jump to attention and run to the bow with your camera!

This morning we will take our time cleaning the boat and unloading. We actually have quite a bit of food left over so I won’t have to go home and grocery shop. Laundry will not be bad either as I have a small load of clothes personally and the same for Savannah and Jim, one load of towels and then our bedding which will be 4 loads (2 comforters- 2 sets of sheets). So maybe 8 total. Less than 1 night of the air bnb with a full house and less than previous years’ trips. I’ll knock that out by tomorrow afternoon! Boat is already tidy and will just wipe all down all of the wood and fridge/freezer. Clean toilets, vacuum, rinse the boat, rinse snorkel gear and fresh water flush of outboard dinghy motor and done! Next week i’ll come down and polish the stainless and start thinking about the “honey moon” trip Jim and I will take soon while Savannah is in Bali for 3 weeks on a medical internship with Global Leadership.

I do plan to continue with the blog and include excerpts from Jim and Savannah as well going forward. She’s going to keep a journal in Bali and share on her return. Jim will keep you filled in on the state of Puerto Rico and some of the work projects and industrial and political dealings some of you may find of interest.

Thank you for following along on our trip. I thoroughly enjoyed writing and sharing and know I will look forward to reading this for years to come.

Stay tuned for future random posts of, garden, food, life, fur babies, adventures, sailing, getting back in shape, and life stuff :))

Last but not least.. a HUGE thank you to our house tenants Kezi and Alex for taking care of our garden and treating our “tribe” like their own… Ella the yellow lab, Wes the chocolate, Billie Girl the border collie mix, Banjo Man the Min Pin, FINN the border collie (tenants fur baby), Marty the black and white kitty, Sitka the old lady kitty, RUBY the chicken :)) and the 2 koi, 2 sharks, 3 bottom feeders and 5 guppies. :))) We were so relaxed about everything back home knowing they were in your care. Thank you.. We have the best tenants ever btw…!!!!

Food note: Lunch was chicken salad on romaine “boats” on the North side of St. Thomas. Side of orange slices.  Jim had the bag of crackers hidden!;)

Savannah’s Dolphin video!