My friend Bruce Ginsberg called me at 5:20 on Wednesday November 5, 2003 and asked me to meet him at 8:30 AM on Monday morning… in Saint Thomas, US Virgin Islands. He had bought a house on Calebra (a small island off Puerto Rico) and was shipping his 30 foot sailboat, the Saraband, down to the islands. The cargo ship picks up boats at few stops along the eastern seaboard and unloads them all in St. Thomas. I had sailed with Bruce before (in Long Island Sound) and he wanted me to help him unload the boat sail from St. Thomas to Calebra.

I took 3 pictures of the harbor from the balcony of the Hotel 1829.	The first picture is the left side of the harbor, this is the shot looking straight out to sea.	This is the right side of the harbor.
Bruce walking down a street.	The Fort in Charlotte Amalie was built in 1629.	The cargo ship is packed with boats.
The ship is just starting to fill with water, the orange front of the ship will fold down when its full.	We climbed down onto the Saraband while waiting.	Divers remove the stands that had held the boats in place and you just float out.
We dropped anchor and stayed onboard that night.	St. Thomas behind us, we sail out to an 8 foot sea (wave height).	In the middle of nowhere, the sun starts to come out.
After 3 hours of sailing we sight Calebra.	After another hour we anchor in Calebra.	Bruce's house came with chickens.

Monday morning I met Bruce and we waited for the cargo ship to unload. It is built like a giant landing craft, they half submerge it and open up the front to let the boats float out. We didn't get Saraband unloaded and moored until after 2 PM so we decided to sleep onboard that night and sail to Calebra (about 25 miles) in the morning. That night it started to rain so we woke up at 6:30 and started to sail in moderate drizzle. It was not much of a problem because it was so warm and the sun came out when we were about 45 minutes outside of Calebra where we had a nice afternoon and evening. The next morning (Wed.) we awoke to drenching rain, all the flights between the islands had been canceled so we took the ferry to Fajardo which is just over an hours drive from San Juan (PR). In Fajardo we tried to rent a car but they refused us because the highway to San Juan was washed out! Bruce and I hitch hiked to the road block, walked through the water and got another ride on the other side. What an adventure!