We came to Puerto Rico to visit our Harvard friends Nilsa Santiago and Pedro Ray. We left the BVI'S very early for the 90 nautical mile crossing to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We had a following sea so the crossing was quiet comfortable. Our first view of San Juan was the massive fortifications of 'San Cristobal Castle', the fortification walls and 'San Felipe El Morro Castle'. We entered the large harbour and squeezed very tightly between two large motor cruisers in...

We strike a Marlin trolling halfway to the BVI'S. She is beautiful and quickly released when she gets close to BP, after jumping for us close to the boat. We cross a large seamount known as Barracuda Reef that rises from 500 to 50 meters, but no fish are caught. We arrive at 'Virgin Gorda', one of the four principle islands of the group, there are also another 50 smaller Islands. We anchor in St. Thomas Bay next to the islands main town, Spanish Town. Paul went...

Only one hour from Saint Martin is Anguilla. We wait for the 11 am bridge opening at Simpson Bay. We troll all the way but catch nothing. We arrive in time for lunch at Prickly Pear Island. On first appearance it is pretty barren, but when we round a corner in the tender, we find a beautiful white beach with two cafe bars. Only 'Johnnos' is open today but no clients at this end of the season. After lunch we go snorkelling, it was supposed to be very good, but i...

It is only a short trip to the island, which is run by two countries the Dutch and the French. For hundreds of years the Caribbean was the playground of imperialists who transported rum, slaves and gold between the new and old worlds. These far away kingdoms repeatedly conquered and retreated radically changing the areas political geography with the spark of a cannon. After years of giving up these sand strewn paradises, only one of the Caribbean's 7000 Islands...

In five hours we feel we have gone from third, to first world, or chalk to cheese. We guessed that everywhere has it's good times. Nevis and St. Kitts had theirs in the 17th, 18th and part of the 19th centuries. St. Barts is having theirs now. It is an Island that is not fertile but has been designed and developed for modern tourism. It was virtually nothing until the 1960's. it has a strange history firstly occupied by the French then given to Sweden in a tradin...