Apr 16
We have the use of Sue's car for the day, so we decided to take a road trip. We left the marina and went north along the east coast of St. Thomas. I think I have only gone around this side of the island once. We didn't have a map, but whenever we were faced with a choice of roads, we kept to the right so we were following the coast. Eventually we got to an intersection where left took us uphill and right took us down, and a sign said that down was the way to Meagan's Bay. We have seen Meagan's Bay from above many times. It is probably the most beautiful view in St. Thomas. But, we have never been in the bay by boat, or to the beach by car. So downhill we went. When we got to the beach, we found that it is a park, and you have to pay to enter. Since we were not planning to stay long, we turned around rather than pay. Someday we'll return by boat and enjoy the beach without having to pay. We went back as we had come and continued up the hill. I recognized where we were as we got to the driveway to Mountaintop. Mountaintop is a huge souvenir store, known for it's banana daiquiris and it's view down on Meagan's Bay. It burned to the ground back in 2009, but was rebuilt. Even though we have been here several times before, we had to stop. We strolled through the mostly crappy souvenirs, purchased two banana daiquiris, and went out onto the large deck overlooking the bay. There must be several cruise ships in town today, because there was a constant parade of tourists and their taxi drivers coming through. We enjoyed the view and commented on how much cooler it was on top of the mountain compared to sea level. Once our drinks were finished we moved on. We continued west on the ridge road, where I'm pretty sure I've not been before. We were in the vicinity of Hull Bay where we went twice this visit, but we are on a road higher up the mountain. We came to an intersection where I didn't have to stop, but I did. Coming uphill from our right was a loaded dump truck. He had a stop sign, but since I was stopped, he kept his momentum going and came through, turning in front of us. I quickly realized this had been an error in judgment on my part, as now we were following this slow, loaded truck. After a couple of miles, we came to a construction area where they were repairing what looked like it had been a major washout of the road. They were nearly complete with the repair and at the final blacktop phase. I realized that blacktop was what was in the truck in front of us. We all proceeded through the construction zone so I figured the truck was going to pull off or turn around somewhere. Sure enough, a little past the construction zone, he slowed and swung out across both lanes so that he could back into a driveway and turn around. I stopped well short of him to give him plenty of room. If you have never been to an island, you may not be able to appreciate how steep most driveways are. There is nothing like them in the States. This one was no different. The driveway went uphill from where we were stopped. As the truck back into the end of the driveway, he was doing it such that the truck was sideways to the incline. The tires on our side (the downhill side) of the truck were noticeably squashed under the uneven weight of the load as the truck leaned way towards us. Had there not been several other cars stopped behind us, I would have been backing up, because I thought the truck was going to pass it's tipping point and roll over towards us. If it had, we may or may not have been far enough away anyway, but I was very nervous as the truck continued to back up as far as he could. He then pulled forward, and backed up again. The second time, his angle was better and it didn't look as close to the tipping point. He was able to proceed back down the hill and I resumed breathing. We continued around the western end of the island and eventually got to the airport which is west of Charlotte Amalie, the main city. Between the airport and Charlotte Amalie, we turned on the street that goes to Crown Bay Marina.
We have been to Crown Bay marina for fuel before, but never stayed there. We have also eaten at the restaurant there called Tickles. We decided to stop and have lunch there today. We sat down and were greeted by a waitress. She placed menus on the table and asked what we wanted to drink. We both ordered beer, and she said "Do you need glasses?". We both looked at each other and said, "Well yes, we need glasses, but we have a pair." We all had an good laugh then when we realized she meant beer glasses. Barb ordered a French Dip sandwich, and I ordered a fish sandwich. Both were a little disappointing.
When we left the restaurant, we stopped just down the street at the Pueblo supermarket. We provisioned for one of our charters here back in 2004. The store is quite long in the tooth. We picked up a few thing we need, but I wouldn't go out of my way to use this store again unless I was provisioning from Crown Bay Marina or CYOA Charters in Frenchtown. We headed back through Charlotte Amalie towards Red Hook, completing our circumnavigation of the island. Near Red Hook, but too far to walk from there, is another grocery. There were one or two things we wanted that we had not found at Pueblo, so we stopped. We were also curious how this store measured up. We found it to be a nice, clean, large store.
I checked e-mail when we got back to the boat and had a response from Hotwire regarding the wind generator. John had looked at the pictures and simply said, "Where do I ship a new housing?". I can't say enough about Hotwire's service. I sent John the marina address, and told him I would be glad to arrange and pay for a FedEx overnight shipment so we can get out of the marina. I will need to know the weight and exact dimensions of the box to do this.
We went up to Island Time Pub for happy hour and sat near a young couple who were not part of the regular crowd. We got chatting with them and found that they have been in the USVI for only a few weeks. They sold everything they had in the States and bought a twenty-eight foot sailboat that is moored in Great Cruz Bay, St. John. That's the other end of the ferry ride from here. They are living aboard the boat and have an open ended plan to cruise and live in the islands. Knowing that most of the boats moored in Cruz Bay are pretty rough, I suspect they have a lot to do and a lot to learn before they ever go cruising. But best of luck to them.
We went back to the boat for dinner of left over pizza.
GPS N 18-19.487 W 064-51.116 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10393.
Apr 17
Sue is returning from St. Croix on the seaplane today, so we need to pick her up. The plane should land about 10:45 in Charlotte Amalie harbor. We headed to town with plenty of time to spare, and got a text from Sue along the way saying that they were running about ten minutes late. We got to the seaplane terminal and parked, then walked back along the seawall to a place where we could actually watch the plane land. The seaplane terminal is very close to the CYOA Charters docks, where we chartered back in 2004. I had asked the guy from CYOA back then, who has the right of way in the harbor? Boats or the seaplanes? I was surprised to learn that boats have the right of way. The seaplane has to pick his spot to land or takeoff working around any boat traffic. The plane arrived about 10:55 and did a nice smooth landing in the quite choppy water. We walked back to the terminal as the plane taxied back, and met Sue.
Sue had no plans for the afternoon, so we drove back to Red Hook. I had received the info I needed to arrange the shipping of the wind generator housing, so we went to the boat so I could do that. I found it was going to cost $450 to overnight the package via FedEx. Being that we are sort of in the US though, FedEx isn't the only reliable option. I checked on the USPS Express Mail, and found it should cost only $75 for guaranteed two-day delivery. Sounds like a plan. But, Hotwire will have to take it to the post office. I called Hotwire and explained, and they said they would have it to the post office this afternoon. They also insisted on paying the shipping, even though I offered to have them charge it to my credit card.
With the shipping arranged, we walked across the street to XO Bistro for lunch. We had heard good things about XO, but have never been there. We found it to be a nice small place, and the service and food were excellent. I had a tuna steak sandwich that was perfect. Barb and Sue both had a chicken, brie, and apple warm sandwich that they said was great. After lunch, Sue went back to her resort and we went to the boat. We didn't know what if any plans we might have later with Clyde and Lynda.
By happy hour time, we had heard from Clyde & Lynda that they were not going to be able to come out and play tonight. They both had long days at work and have early morning things to do tomorrow. Sue wasn't sure of her plans and said she might join us at Island Time Pub. We went up to Island Time and sat at the bar, near the end where the regulars sit every day. There was lots of talk about the coverage of the Boston bombing, and then that turned to political talk. It was clear that most, if not all of the guys there were not fans of the current administration. We were staying out of the conversation. One of the guys then brought up a subject about the President I had not heard before, and neither had the other guys, even though they were not fans of the president either. He claimed that both the President and First Lady had been disbarred. He was raving about how can the man be President if he has been disbarred. I had a hard time keeping my mouth shut and not pointing out that there is no requirement for a president to be a lawyer, and disbarment is not a crime, but I did. We decided not to listen to this anymore though and paid our tab and left. I was curious about this disbarment claim though, as I had never heard that one. I looked it up and found that it is one of those persistent claims going around, and it is of course, completely false. I really don't have any problem with people having a different political belief than me, but I get so tired of the people who keep spreading false claims about the President, or health care, or any other current hot topic. We had ordered a pizza to go, and thankfully it came not long after all this started, so we left for the non-political safety of the boat.
We ate our pizza and were sitting relaxing aboard. I checked my phone and found that I had missed a text message from Sue. She had come to the bar after we left, and was still there. Hoping the happy hour regulars were gone, we ventured back up there. We found Sue at the bar and joined her. The crowd was entirely different people at this hour. We sat and visited with Sue for another hour or more before we all left.
GPS N 18-19.487 W 064-51.116 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10393.
Apr 18
We spent a quiet day aboard. I finished writing the logs for the past two weeks and updated the website. Mid-afternoon, we got a text message that Sue and Clyde were going to come pick us up and take us to Clyde & Lynda's house. They arrived about 15:00 and got us. Rather than go back through Charlotte Amalie, where traffic probably sucks because there are several cruise ships in town, we went around the north side of the island, similar to where Barb and I took our ride the other day. Along the way Clyde took us down a side road to show us some property they are considering buying to build a house. We found the lot and stopped and got out of the car. From the street at the lot they are looking at you just see jungle today. But if you go to the lot next door, which already has a house on it, you see that the lot overlooks Meagan's Bay. The land goes downhill steeply from the road, so once you clear the lot, the house sits just below the road, and there is nothing impeding the view of the bay. I didn't ask how much it costs for the lot, let alone the construction costs to build there. We continued west, past where the dump truck threatened to kill us, and turned off the main road, uphill on a steep side road. We finally came to Clyde's driveway, which was even steeper. Sue's poor little rental Toyota sedan almost didn't want to make the driveway. The property here is a main house and a guest house, and Clyde & Lynda are renting the guest house. The view here is beautiful also, although not quite as spectacular as the lot they want to buy. Again we were amazed at how cool it is up on the mountain compared to sea level. The house has air conditioning, but Clyde said they had never turned it on. Since electricity here is outrageously expensive ($.50/kwh) it's good to not need the a/c. We visited on the balcony overlooking the sea to the north until Lynda got home from work. After she relaxed a little, we decided to go to Crown Bay Marina for dinner. We went to Tickles again, and the food this time was much better than our lunch experience. We were joined at dinner by Sue's daughter who is in the Coast Guard. She was with several of her co-workers. Their job in the Coat Guard is to do inspections of field offices. They were in St. Croix earlier in the week, and St. Thomas today and tomorrow. Sue's vacation here had been planned around meeting up with her daughter in her off time. After dinner Sue took us back to the boat, since her resort is on the way.
GPS N 18-19.487 W 064-51.116 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10393.
Apr 19
We reconnected via e-mail with old friends Mike & Cynthia from Minx yesterday, and made plans to meet them in Charlotte Amalie for lunch. They are going to be there a couple more weeks, but we have no plans to take the boat around there, and will probably be leaving St. Thomas in a day or two, so we are going to take a bus there to meet them. There are real buses, like any city bus, here on St. Thomas. But, they only run about once an hour and are not known to be reliable. Of course there are taxis available everywhere, but there are also vehicles called safaris that run like busses. A safari is a full sized American pickup truck, that has had the bed replaced with a covered seating area. They usually have four rows of seats that can fit five people each. A short trip on a safari is a dollar. All the way from Red Hook to Charlotte Amalie is $2. In safari terms, Charlotte Amalie is "town", and Red Hook is "country". Not knowing how long the ride would take, we walked up to the street about 10:45. Within a couple of minutes we were picked up. Tutu Mall is about halfway between Charlotte Amalie and Red Hook, and we knew the safaris detour through the mall parking lot. We had been told that we might have to change safaris there, but I remember last time we were here and rode all the way on the same one. Sure enough, we went through the mall parking lot, but stayed aboard with many others and continued to town. I wasn't sure exactly how far into town they went before it was considered the end of the line. When I had used them in the past I always got off at the Wheatley Center, which is a small shopping center just as you enter Charlotte Amalie. But we stayed on past there and make it all the way to the waterfront. I had anticipated it might stop there and we would have to walk the rest of the way to old town, but it kept going our way. We finally got off right at the beginning of the old town shopping area where all the shops for the cruise ship people are. We walked maybe three blocks to the Greenhouse where we are meeting Mike & Cynthia at noon. We were half an hour early, so we hit a few of the shops, looking for a hat clip. We have clips that clip on your hat and have a short cord that clips on your collar. This way when your hat blows off your head, it probably doesn't go overboard. Many a hat has been saved on MoonSail or in the dinghy by these clips. The one I use everyday though has lost the bite in one of the clips. I would have thought anyplace that sole hats, or souvenirs, or sunglasses would have these, but we couldn't find any.
We went to the Greenhouse and got seated a little before noon. Mike & Cynthia soon joined us. We spent our first hurricane season in Grenada with them, but haven't seen them in person since we left Grenada in 2009. We had a good lunch and spent three hours catching up on each other's news and news of other mutual friends. We could have visited longer, but about 15:00 we needed to be heading back to the marina to see if the wind generator package came. We walked together back to near where their dinghy was and where the first safari stop was. After a few minutes we got a safari headed back to "country". As with the inbound trip, we went through the parking lot at Tutu Mall. But when we left the parking lot, we were headed up a road other than the one I would normally take to Red Hook. Had we not done our road trip a few days ago, I would have been concerned, but I knew that this road went around to the north and would bring us into Red Hook from the other side. We got out at the ferry terminal, which is just down the street from the marina.
When we got to the marina I stopped at the office, and there was my package. I took it to the boat and opened it up. KISS wind generators used to be made in Trinidad by a one-man company. Hotwire was the exclusive US distributor for him. Last year, the guy in Trinidad had some personal issues and decided to sell the company to Hotwire. When I got my current KISS in January, it was one of the last ones built in Trinidad. This new housing was made by Hotwire in the US, and you can tell the difference in the quality of the molding just by looking at it. It also proudly displays a sticker on the housing that it is Made in the USA.
I immediately started reassembling the generator. KISS wind generators are extremely simple, thus their name. But getting the rotor, which has the bearings on it, aligned so that the bearings seat where they are supposed to, can be tricky because of the big magnets in the stator that make it work. I put new bearings in my old generator years ago, and recall having a devil of a time putting it back together. This time it put up a mild fight, but by following the directions in the manual exactly, I got it together. Once it seemed lined up, but the nose cone wasn't tight, I used a small wrench to rotate the shaft. It seemed nice and smooth and turned easily. I tightened the nose cone bolts and then turned it again. This time it turned but felt very jerky, like something was sticking inside. I loosened the bolts a little, thinking maybe I had it too tight, but it still felt jerky. It was a few minutes after 17:00, so I immediately called Hotwire in the hopes of catching them before they closed for the weekend. Libbie answered and I described what I was feeling. She said that meant the brake was on. I asked how the brake could be on when the whole unit is sitting in my lap and not connected. She asked if the wires were touching each other. They were. That's how the brake works. The control box shorts the wires together. So by them just being touching the brake was on. Barb held the three wires so none we touching and I spun the shaft. Nice and smooth as it should be. While I felt a little embarrassed, I was glad it was so simple. I tightened the bolts again and sealed the seam between the housing and the nose cone. I'll let that sealant cure overnight before mounting it on the pole.
Since happy hour at the bars was past, we stayed aboard for the evening and had left over enchiladas for dinner.
GPS N 18-19.487 W 064-51.116 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10393.
Apr 20
We have a busy day planned today. Even though the wind is blowing like stink, we are planning to leave the marina and go join Seabbatical back at Francis Bay on St. John. When it is very windy from due east as it has been for the past several days, the marina pretty much sucks. The waves come straight in the bay the marina is in and we bounce around a lot in the slip. But before we can leave we have a lot to do.
After our morning coffee and the radio nets, we got busy. Barb took two loads of laundry up to the laundromat and got them started. She then came back to the boat to help me get the wind generator back up on the pole where it lives. To do this, I have to climb out on the end of the davits and balance there while I lift the generator, which is pretty heavy. I have to stuff the wire from the generator down inside the pole until it comes out the bottom and the generator sits on the pole top. The problem with this is that at the bottom of the pole, there is a ridge where the connectors on the wires always hang up. So a second person has to be at the bottom to fish the wires through. Barb did that part and I got the generator on the pole. I connected the wires, and switched the control box to the off position. Then I put the blade assembly on the shaft. I let the wind spin the blades back on until they bottomed out and the brake stopped them. I gave one last little turn on the blades to make sure they were tight. I got down off the arch and Barb turned the control box on. The generator started spinning, smoother and quieter that it has ever been.
Barb returned to monitoring the laundry, while I filled the water tanks, walked over to the fuel dock with the dinghy gas can and got a couple gallons of gas, and arranged to fuel the big boat. This marina has in-slip fueling where they bring a cart to your boat, which connects to a fuel line under the dock, and you pump your diesel right there instead of having to stop at the fuel dock. Surprisingly, there is no premium charged for doing this. They said they would be over in about half an hour to fuel us. The guy came with the cart and hooked it up. Many fuel docks have pumps so fast that I have to hold the nozzle and barely crack it open, else it will fill faster than the boat will take it. But this one was perfect on the slowest notch of the handle and I was able to just sit there. I told the guy I thought we would take about thirty gallons, and the pump kicked off at 29.6. After giving the guy back the hose and putting the cap on the tank, I walked back to the fuel dock to pay them. It was $4.98/gallon, which by island standards isn't too bad.
The last thing to do before leaving the marina is to check out. I disconnected our hose and power cord and walked up to the office to ask them to have the dockhand come read the meters. I gave them about half an hour, during which time I was below some, and then I went to the office to check out. I had not seen the dock guy read the meters, but I wasn't always watching either. When I got to the office, there were two other people checking out so I had to wait for them. When the girl got to me, she realized she still didn't have the meter readings. She called the dockhand on the VHF, and he answered from behind a door there in the office. So, I had to wait while he went and read the meters. Once she had the readings, it still took her quite a bit of time, but she finally gave me my bill. I think she screwed it up, but it was in my favor. Normally I point these things out, but overall, I think this marina is a rip-off, so I'll just consider us closer to even.
The wind is still blowing quite hard from the east. That means as we leave the slip, we are going straight into the wind. That should be good. The dock guy was not the most helpful I have ever encountered. He untied the stern lines, and was going to hold the one on the finger pier side until we were clear of the finger pier. Barb was going to undo the bow line and spring line and hop on. My job was to use the motor to ease us forward once the spring line was untied so we would blow back into the dock. Barb had a little trouble getting the spring line off the dock cleat, so the dockhand came and helped her with that. He then went back to the stern line as Barb got aboard. All was going OK, except the wind was just a tiny bit off the bow, enough to be pinning us to the finger pier as we pulled out. This means the fenders were being mashed, which is what they are there for, but one got pulled so hard that the stanchion at the gate opening bent back some as we departed. It's not the first time this has happened, and I know how to repair it, so it wasn't a big deal. Once we were clear of the finger pier, I was concerned that the fairway wasn't wide enough for me to be able to make the turn. I couldn't start turning until the dinghy cleared the piling at the end of the slip, and I did as soon as I could. I almost would have made the turn, but I was going to be awfully close to the sterns of the boats on the other side of the fairway if I kept going. So, I just put it in neutral for a few seconds. We had made the turn mostly, so now the wind was on our beam. I just let the wind push us a few feet towards the middle of the fairway, and then carried on. Old friend Jim Weaver taught me to be patient and let the wind work for you. It was good advice. We turned out of the fairway into the main channel to leave the bay, and were once again straight into the wind. I wanted to give Barb a chance to get all the dock lines and fenders stowed before getting out into the open water, so I was only motoring a little over idle speed. Then I noticed we weren't making any headway. We were just kind of sitting there. I had to come up to almost half throttle to get us moving forward at about two knots, which is still quite slow. Barb got everything done and I powered up to almost full throttle. I have not run the engine this hard since all the work we had done last year. There is no good reason I should be worried about anything, it's just a nagging thought that I have to baby it.
The distance from Red Hook to Francis Bay is about six miles. The first two and a half are across Pillsbury Sound, between St. Thomas and St. John. Instead of aiming straight towards Durloe Cut where we need to go, I instead aimed at Lind Point near Caneel Bay. This will be the shortest way to get in the lee of St. John and less waves. The waves really were nowhere near as bad as I had mentally prepared myself for before departure. Even though the wind was blowing a steady twenty knots, with gusts to thirty, with only a two mile fetch between the islands, the waves were no more than three or four feet. We were bashing straight into them, but until one of the big ferries passed us and added their wake to the mix, we didn't take any water on deck. As we got closer to Lind Point, the waves got smaller and smaller. Caneel bay is a wide open crescent. So, from Lind Point on the one end of Caneel, we followed the crescent around, staying just out of the mooring field, but benefiting from being as close to shore as we could be in nice calm water. Once we reached Durloe Cut though, we were back in the thick of things. Durloe Cut is fairly narrow, maybe a thousand feet across, between Hawksnest Point on St. John, and Henley and Ramgoat Cays. Not only were we getting back into the exposed waters with the wind driven waves, but the current coming through the cut was going against the wind. While that meant the current was with us and should have sped us up, it also means the waves in the cut are larger, closer together, and pretty much square. So we were bashing into these waves and slowed down to two and a half knots at full throttle. The good news is that the cut is only about a quarter mile long, and the closer we got to being through it, the more our speed picked back up. We now were traveling almost due east, straight into the wind again, leaving Johnson Reef to our port and staying fairly close to the shore of St. John. We had a little more than two miles to go to Francis Bay now. Similarly to the two miles across Pillsbury Sound, the waves were only about three feet and it was not that bad a ride. The only annoying thing was that I had not turned off the wind generator before we left the dock, and now out here in over twenty knots of wind, it had overheated, which means it freewheels and sounds like a helicopter is following you. It is designed to do this and doesn't hurt anything, but it is annoying.
As we got closer to Francis Bay, we could see that there were only a few boats on moorings at Francis, including Seabbatical, but almost all the mooring just south of there in Maho Bay were full, including Clyde, Lynda and Sue on Gypsy and two other boats we know. I hailed Seabbatical on the radio and asked Mike what they all knew that he didn't. He said he thought it was probably a little calmer in Maho since it is more tucked into the shoreline than Francis. We then called Gypsy and asked Clyde if there were any open mooring balls. He could see one left, so we turned towards Maho. As soon as we turned, we realized there was another catamaran not far behind us, and he was headed to Maho too. Since I had not been heading straight to Maho, it looked like this other catamaran had the better angle on getting to the empty mooring ball first. I resigned myself to letting him have it and figured we'd just go to Francis (we're talking half a mile difference here) when we saw there were actually two empty moorings. The cat got one and we got the other. As soon as we were secure we sat down and enjoyed the nice ten knot breeze and flat waters of the bay. What a difference being tucked in a bay can make.
After an arrival beverage, I checked to see if we had any internet signals here. There were none. Over in Francis I saw at least twenty signals, and there was one open one I could connect to. But, being tucked in the more protected Maho Bay, also means I can't see any of those houses on the hill and their free wi-fi signals. Oh well, back to getting mail on my phone which does still have a signal here although for the life of me I can't see a cell tower anywhere. There is a palm tree and a Norfolk Pine on top of the ridge that stand alone and look out of place. I thought for sure one of them was a poorly disguised cell tower, but upon looking at them through the binoculars, they really are trees.
We started to lower the dinghy in the water to go visit friends. Before we had it all done, Steve from Celebration came over in his dinghy. We have known Steve and his wife Lynn from the Coconut Telegraph net for years, but have never met face to face. We chatted for a few minutes and Steve let us know that there was going to be a little happy hour gathering on the beach about 17:00. We told him we would be there. While we were talking, Clyde dinghied over from Gypsy. He invited us over to Gypsy when we were done launching the dinghy. While he was there, we also gave him the fishing pole we have been carrying around for eight years that we don't use. My fishing luck has always been bad, so I gave up trying. It's much easier to hang around with friends who are so good at fishing that they catch more than they can eat and give you some.
We went over to Gypsy and hung with them for an hour or so, until it was getting close to happy hour. At 17:00 we headed to the end of the beach where dinghies are allowed to land. The group included Clyde and guest Sue from Gypsy, Steve & Lynn from Celebration, and Mike & Lynn from Seabbatical. We all stood around chatting and enjoyed getting to know Steve & Lynn better. We had also planned to invite Jim & Connie and their guests from Plane To Sea, but they have not been aboard all afternoon. Their dinghy is here on the beach, so they must have taken a taxi to town. Sure enough, while we were talking, here they came walking down the beach. They joined us in the conversation for some time, even though they did not have happy hour beverages. At dusk we all headed back to our boats. We joked about the fact that we were not acclimated to life away from the marina yet, because we forgot to bring a light with us in the dinghy or to turn on the anchor light on MoonSail. None of which are big deals, but it's funny how you have to shift gears mentally depending on whether you are at a dock with unlimited power, water, etc., vs. being out at anchor or on a mooring.
GPS N 18-21.490 W 064-44.838 Nautical miles traveled today 6 Total miles 10399.
Apr 21
We were up a little before 08:00 to listen to the Coconut Telegraph. I was surprised to see Gypsy was still here. Clyde had said last night that they were going to get an early start because Sue has a plane to catch tomorrow. At 08:00 we were listening to the radio, but could not hear the net controller for the Coconut Telegraph at all. Radio propagation has been extremely weird the past week or more, and today was no better. None of the regulars in this area who check in every day heard anything. I spoke to Clyde on the VHF radio shortly after that and he had recalculated the time it would take them to get back to their slip and decided they didn't need to leave at the crack of dawn after all, but they would be getting underway soon. Meanwhile, Lynn from Seabbatical called me on the VHF to let me know that the best mooring on their side had just been vacated. So, we hopped right into "let's move" mode. For a half-mile move, there isn't much to prepare. I didn't even turn on the instruments. I started the motor, and after a minute, Barb (who had been below) came up and said she thought she heard an odd noise from the engine. I opened the front engine room door and saw that the bolt on the alternator that came loose once before had again lost it's nut. No worries. We're only going half a mile. Barb dropped the mooring lines and we motored over to Francis. The wind was noticeably stronger over here as it is not as well protected, but the water is smooth as we are getting the mooring closest to the beach. When you pick up a mooring, you motor straight into the wind towards it and approach very slowly until the person on the bow can snag the mooring pennant with the boat hook. I approached in my normal manner, and throttled down appropriately to come in slowly, but with the strong wind, I ended up being too slow. I had to throttle back up a bit to get there. It all went well and Barb got the pennant perfectly on the first try, but we joked that it probably was our slowest approach ever.
The wind on the Francis Bay side is blowing a steady fifteen to eighteen knots. We both sat and smiled as we watched the wind generator spinning happily and quietly. It's the little things that make us happy.
About 13:00 we took some cold beer and went over to Seabbatical to listen to the NASCAR race on their SiriusXM radio. We enjoyed the race with the beer and some snacks that Lynn put out. When we left we realized this may be the last we are together with Mike & Lynn. We thought this a couple weeks ago, but the weather has kept them here longer than planned. But, it looks like they will be leaving for Virgin Gorda tomorrow to stage for crossing the Anegada Passage to St. Maarten the next day. So we hugged goodbye again and went back to MoonSail.
Late in the afternoon, a bright yellow boat took a mooring behind us. Most boats are white, with the next most common color being dark blue. Throw in a smattering of black ones and other colors, but you rarely see a school bus yellow one. We looked through the binoculars and read the name of the boat off the boom. It was Yellow Shoes. I immediately recognized this boat name from an Eric Stone song. On his album Long Boards and Short Stories, he has a song called Yellow Shoes. It's about a guy whose nickname is yellow shoes, because he wears bright yellow plastic yellow shoes, which I assume would be Crocs. So I have something in common with this guy already. The song goes on to say that he has a yellow Harley, and a yellow Porsche, and that he had ordered a custom built yellow Hylas 54 sailboat to go cruising. Well, I'm guessing this is the guy and the boat. I also found an add that the boat is a 2006 model and it is for sale, so I don't know for sure if the guy aboard is the guy from the song or not.
GPS N 18-21.889 W 064-44.765 Nautical miles traveled today 0.5 Total miles 10399.5.
Apr 22
I was up early to listen to the weather on the SSB. Seabbatical called in for a specific forecast for crossing the Anegada Passage, and the answer was that Tuesday night into Wednesday looked good. So, they are up early getting ready to move today up to North Sound on Virgin Gorda to stage. We chatted on the radio and said goodbye again, and then as they left they drove by us and waved.
I busied myself with a couple of boat repairs. I shot some WD40 on one of the solar panel mounts so that I could swing it out to get a better angle on the sun without bending it. Then I used a Spanish tourniquet and my rubber mallet to straighten out the stanchion that we bent leaving the slip the other day. My last repair was to find the nut that had come off the alternator bolt and put it back on tightly this time. Once that was done, we fired up the engine to do a little battery charging. With the nut on and the new tighter belt, we were able to charge at ninety amps! This should make keeping the batteries charged a bit easier.
Here in Francis Bay, both this time and a couple weeks ago, we have noticed fish frenzies going on all day every day. Sometimes these are happening right at the boat, so it's easy to see the food chain in action. The show starts with large schools of little minnow sized fish, right at the surface. To start the frenzy, you add a school of eight to ten inch blue runners who are trying to eat the little fish. This makes the little fish come out of the water in hops of several feet, followed by the churning of the water from the blue runners being close to the surface. Sometimes, to add to that, you have large fish, like tarpon and who knows what else, who would like to dine on the blue runners, so the blue runners are also jumping out of the water for a few feet at a time. Now no fish frenzy would be complete without an air assault also. So, you have dozens of seagulls and terns swooping in to snag the little fish as they are right on the surface or jumping in the air. Then you add half a dozen pelicans who are diving after the blue runners. It makes for quite a show. I don't know if it is seasonal or not, but it has been going on here for several weeks, pretty much all day every day. Each time one of these frenzies erupts, it will cover and area about twenty feet around. Once we watched as one of these frenzies approached an unaware snorkeler from behind. That would probably be quite exciting to suddenly be surrounded by all those fast moving fish and maybe a seagull on your back.
With the alternator bracket tight again, we ran the motor for awhile to charge the batteries. We also have a perfectly clear sky and lots of wind, so the solar panels and wind generator are doing their best. Being able to use the engine to charge at about ninety amps, it doesn't take long to get the batteries up to near full. After an hour of running, I shut the engine off. With the solar and wind still going strong, we are actually fully charged away from the dock. That rarely happens.
Relaxing in the cockpit early in the evening, I looked across towards Maho Bay and saw a boat I thought I recognized. I got the binoculars and confirmed that it was Sweetest Thing, the catamaran we chartered in 2010. We had spoken to Capt. Tofer once on the radio when we first got to the Virgins, and we exchanged e-mails and pretty much figured out that he was busy chartering the whole time we would be in the USVI, so we wouldn't be able to get together. We know we can't bug him much when he is actually on charter, but we hopped in the dinghy and buzzed over there. We said hi to the guests on the back deck and asked if Capt. Tofer was there. He came out from the galley with his apron on where he had been preparing dinner. Turns out he now has his teenage daughter crewing for him, instead of a professional chef, and he does the chef work himself. We chatted for a few minutes and let him get back to his work.
GPS N 18-21.889 W 064-44.765 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10399.5.
Apr 23
Maho Camp is a place where guests stay in screen and canvas shelters which are built throughout the woods on different levels all connected by a series of stairways and boardwalks. Stairs lead to the beach where they also have kayaks, windsurfers, Hobie Cats, and other watersports stuff. Back in 2002 on our first charter in the Virgins, we hiked up the stairs to the store at the top to buy ice. Many cruisers rave about the Friday night prime rib dinner special they have. (The restaurant is open to the public.) We have never eaten there, and probably never will, because the place has lost it's lease with the National Park Service and is closing in a couple of weeks. We thought we would check it out one last time though, so about mid-day we dinghied in to their beach. We slowly hiked the 218 steps to the store at the top. We bought a couple of sandwiches and beers and sat on a bench near the store to eat. After we ate we started back down and took a detour along one of the boardwalks that eventually overlooks Maho Beach. When we reached the end of the road, so to speak, we doubled back and then went back down to the dinghy. Although the whole place is showing it's age, it is a cool idea for a vacation off the beaten path.
Back at the boat, we got in the water for awhile. We tied a small fender we have to a line and let it drift out behind the boat. That line and a couple of noodles made for a relaxing soak. You think of eighty degree water as nice warm swimming water, but after you've been in it about thirty minutes, you start to get a chill. We got out and sat on deck in the sun to dry a bit. Once my hair was dry, Barb got the clippers out and gave me a haircut before I showered. I was getting a bit shaggy.
The fish frenzies continued today. They have pretty much been non-stop at some point within our view all day. I described the food chain at work here earlier, but it now occurs to me how many different types of bird feeding methods we are observing also. We have gulls who have to pick up something right off the surface of the water or steal it from a pelican. Then there are the terns who dive in after the little fish just below the surface, but they dive very shallow. Then there are the pelicans who dive bomb for the larger fish and literally crash into the water at full force. To finish it up, today a couple of frigate birds showed up. They just fly around and try to steal something from the other birds. It's nice to be able to be living life slowly and have the time to observe these things.
The boat next to us is named Havana Goodtime. We have not met these people, but remember seeing the boat on the hard in Grenada back in 2007. When they came in to the mooring field a couple days ago, Barb noticed that they had a KISS wind generator like ours and it wasn't spinning. Shortly after their arrival, the guy had taken the generator down. Late the next day, he remounted it, but it still didn't seem to want to spin. This morning it came down again and went below. After a while he and his wife had it on the foredeck where he was holding it firmly while she turned the blades. They didn't seem happy and it went back below. I wondered if the little trick I learned a few days ago about the wires touching causing the brake to be on was getting him too. I dinghied over to see if he needed any help. It turns out Tom is more intimate with his KISS than I ever want to be. It was damaged in Hurricane Ivan in Grenada in 2004 and he basically hand built half a new housing for it. He has had it apart and back together many, many times to replace bearings. But, it turns out I was of some help. While the brake wasn't the problem, I was able to let him use a tool Hotwire sent me to install the front bearing properly. This was good, but when reassembled it still didn't want to turn. You could hear the stator and rotor touching when it turned. I suggested that the rubber the seats the bearings may be worn out and not supporting the bearing enough to align properly. He added some shim material behind the rubber, and when last seen the KISS was spinning merrily as it should.
GPS N 18-21.889 W 064-44.765 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10399.5.
Apr 24
This morning after the radio nets, we dropped our mooring and headed to Caneel bay. Caneel is just around the corned from Cruz Bay, the main port of entry for St. John. We have appointments at 11:00 with Customs & Immigration to be interviewed for the new Small Vessel Reporting System. There used to be a program called the Local Boaters Option that allowed US boaters to check back into the US from foreign waters by simply calling them instead of having to go to the office. The Local Boaters Option still works, but you can't get a new LBO number now. The SVRS has replaced LBO and is similar, but you do your check-in online and by phone. I filled out the applications online, and to complete the process, we have to go to the office in Cruz Bay for an "interview".
We dinghied around the corner from Cannel Bay to Cruz Bay and got there about 10:00. Our appointments aren't until 11:00 and 11:15, so we walked around town a bit. We went up the hill from the ferry dock past The Lumberyard, which I think used to be a lumberyard, but is now subdivided into many small businesses. We found a bakery here and bought a fresh apple fritter and a bottle of orange juice to share. Further up the hill, we found the Dolphin Market, a good sized grocery store. We didn't buy anything now, because we don't want to carry it around, but we'll stop back later. We walked down the hill on a different street, past Woody's. We had heard there had been a fire at a restaurant called Cafe Roma, but we weren't sure where it was. Turns out it is just around the corner from Woody's on the street between Woody's and the post office. Cafe Roma was on the second floor of the building and there is a small snack shop on the first floor. We could see that Cafe Roma was entirely gutted, but remarkably, the business below was open for business as if nothing had happened. I guess when the whole structure is concrete, including the floors between levels, damage is limited. Not sure what the long term outcome will be though. It didn't look like something that could be fixed without disrupting the business below.
It was still only 10:30, but we went to Customs anyway. There was no ferry so they were not busy. The officer who checked me in a couple weeks ago was at one of the booths and called us over. I explained we were early for our interviews, but he said that was no problem. He looked us up on his computer and verified all the stuff I entered online was correct. He looked at our passports and verified we were us. That was pretty much the interview. He gave us our new numbers and explained how the system worked for next time we check into the US via boat. We won't get to use this until next year, but since we plan to be back and forth between the BVI and USVI several times next year it should make it simpler.
With the official reason for our visit to Cruz Bay complete, it was time for a little fun. We walked to Mongoose Junction, which is a neat collection of shops and restaurants. We looked in a couple of the shops and finally found a replacement hat clip that I had been looking for. It was now 11:00 and we found the Virgin Islands Brewery Tap Room just as they were opening. Virgin Islands Brewery used to actually be just a local beer, brewed on St. John. They got so popular though that now they contract the brewing and bottling to a large brewery in the States. But, they maintain this bar and restaurant here and a gift shop also. It is the only place you can get their beers on tap. We both had pints of the Island Summer Ale and perused their menu. We decided not to eat here, but enjoyed the beers and chatting with the bartender. Barb was also perusing a Homes For Sale magazine she picked up on the street. Nothing we are planning now, but you never know. The bartender used a term I have not heard before, although she said she can't take credit for it. In the USVI, it is perfectly acceptable to take a drink with you when you leave. For that reason they frequently use cheap plastic cups to serve the drinks. Since we had come in and sat at the bar, she had served us in real glass pint glasses. But when a couple other folks came in who ordered but didn't sit down, she asked if they wanted their beer in glass or Caribbean Crystal. As she said Caribbean Crystal, she was holding up one of the plastic cups.
We didn't eat at the Tap Room because I already had my taste buds set on Texas BBQ down the street. The Cowboy Lounge is in the Lumberyard complex and their banner hanging outside proclaims them to have the best BBQ in the islands. They have a big Texas flag hanging outside, so we'll give it a try. We were the only customers there and there was one guy doing everything. He was working a large smoker in the corner of the deck overlooking the harbor. We ordered beers and checked out the menu. Barb got a pulled pork sandwich, and Cole slaw. I got a plate of brisket, sausage, Cole slaw, and beans. Overall the food was good with some interesting twists. The Cole slaw was spicy like we have never had before. Barb didn't like it, and it wasn't my favorite, but I ate it. The BBQ itself was good. The pulled pork and brisket were as good as places in Texas. The sausage was good, but it was Italian sausage. I've never had smoked Italian sausage before. Wasn't bad, but different.
After lunch we dinghied back to the boat and immediately fired her up. Caneel Bay can be quite a rolly place, so we aren't spending the night here. As we motored out we picked our destination. We could have stopped at Hawksnest, the next bay east, or gone back to Francis/Maho, or go to the next bay further east of them, Leinster Bay. We decided to go all the way (five miles) to Leinster Bay. The moorings at Leinster Bay are actually at Waterlemon Bay. They are right next to each other, but Waterlemon is slightly more protected by Waterlemon Cay and reef. As we approached it wasn't obvious that there were moorings available, but once we were close in we saw there were several. This is the first place we stopped back in 2002 on our first charter. I thought I recalled that back then we took a mooring close to the beach and had a problem with evening bugs. So, this time we got a mooring out in the middle of the bay. Going back and looking over my logs from 2002 I saw that we had brisket brought with us from Texas that first night of the charter. I guess having brisket for lunch brought us full circle.
When picking a mooring, or a place to anchor for that matter, there are a couple of things to consider. If it is very windy, you are usually better off the closer you can be to the beach, limiting the fetch of the waves. But, if there isn't a strong wind, you might be better off out in the bay a bit to avoid bugs getting to you. Well, I have a new thing to add to the list. You should pay attention to the boats near where you are parking to see if they have screaming babies aboard. Obviously I have learned this lesson the hard way today.
GPS N 18-21.885 W 064-43.370 Nautical miles traveled today 8.5 Total miles 10408.
Apr 25
The wind died overnight, so we had a very quiet night for a change. I was up listening to the weather net and the Coconut Telegraph as usual. During the Coconut Telegraph I made contact with Seabbatical. They are in Leverick Bay, Virgin Gorda preparing to leave for St. Maarten Friday.
We sat around most of the morning watching the world go by. Waterlemon Cay is very popular for snorkeling. People come from resorts and park about ¾ mile away and hike in to where we are just to snorkel here. It occurred to me that lots of the people I see doing it look like the hike has done them in before they ever put on their snorkel gear. We have not done it yet, but I hope it was worth the hike for them.
The other thing we watched this morning was a crew from the National Park Service servicing moorings. There are three guys in a small boat and they go from mooring to mooring diving on them and inspecting or repairing as necessary. It's nice to see that our fees are being used to keep the moorings secure.
We had lunch aboard and then went for a hike. We went the other way from all the other folks and hiked out to the parking lot. Just above there is the ruins of the Annaberg Sugar Mill. This has been restored some and preserved by the National Park Service. It was pretty nice how they had fixed it up.
Back at the boat we considered snorkeling, but decided we had enough exercise for the day. We'll be around this all next season and can put that on our to-do list. We heard Jim & Amanda on Catsy calling somebody else on the radio, and I hailed them. They are on a charter now, and heading to St. Maarten in a couple of days, so we are going to miss them for now. But it looks like they will be back and at the marina in Nanny Cay at the same time we are for our haulout, so hopefully we'll see them then.
I got my nook charged up and started reading a book. The book is The Art of Racing In The Rain. I have read it before, but the version I read was a sanitized version for "young readers". This is the real version. Should be interesting to see how different it is.
GPS N 18-21.885 W 064-43.370 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10408.
Apr 26
This morning after the radio nets, we got ready to move to a new place. I dinghied over to the pay station and paid for our stay on the mooring. We then hoisted the dinghy onto the davits.
Our destination today is Coral Bay or somewhere nearby. There is a forecast of a large north swell event happening over the weekend, and Coral Bay is on the south coast of St. John, so it shouldn't be an issue there. Coral Bay is off the normal tourist radar for some reason. It is home to an eclectic community of people, many boaters or ex-boaters. Coral Harbor itself is full of moored boats, many of which will never sail again. The larger bay that Coral Harbor is part of has many bays including Long Bay, Round Bay and Hurricane Hole. The wind is almost non-existent today, and would be right on the nose anyway, so we drop our mooring and motor east from Leinster Bay to the east end of St. John where we turn south. We follow the coast around East End Point, Privateer Point, Red Point, and Long Point to enter Coral Bay at the southeast corner near Long Bay. We slow down and cruise into Long Bay to check out anchoring options. We found one boat in Long Bay that looks like it has been anchored there for some time, but it looks lived aboard. We found that we could get pretty close to shore and find depths under twenty feet, so this may be an option. There is also a floating bar here which actually appears to be open, so we may come back here. But we want to check out the whole bay, so we continued around the perimeter counter-clockwise. We went through Round Bay, which has two lobes to it, and found it was quite deep until you were very close to shore. We continued up to the northeast corner of Coral Bay into Hurricane Hole. Hurricane Hole consists of three fingers which are all surrounded by mangroves. Each finger has a few Park Service moorings in them, but they are for day use only. Back in 2004 on our charter, we spent the night on one of these moorings despite the day use markings. They are marked for day use so that people don't just camp on them and more boats have a chance to use them each day for diving or snorkeling. There were no boats in here at all, and we considered the option of taking one, but didn't. We left hurricane hole and went west along the northern edge of Coral Bay to Coral Harbor. This is where the small town is and where fifty or more boats are anchored or moored. I considered just anchoring way out at the entrance to the harbor, assuming there would be no space amongst the local boats. But, we drove up through the pack and found a perfect spot about two-thirds of the way in where we had room to anchor and swing without being in anybody else's territory.
The distance traveled today depends on how you measure it. If we were a seagull, we are about a mile and a half from where we started. If we had come directly into Coral Harbor when we got here, it would have been about a nine mile trip around the east end of the island. But, we actually covered about twelve and half miles by touring the perimeter of Coral Bay.
The one "attraction" in Coral Bay is a restaurant called Skinny Legs. We have heard of it from friends but have never been there. By the time we were anchored and settled, it was almost noon, so we launched the dinghy and went to shore. We had looked around the perimeter of the harbor with the binoculars, and found a dinghy dock in the northeast corner. There is a grocery and several restaurants on the western shore, but there doesn't appear to be any place to land the dinghy on that side. We dinghied in to the dock and found a very nice, large, relatively new looking floating dinghy dock. We tied up and started walking up to the road, with no clue where Skinny Legs was. Before we got to the road though, we smelled burgers. At the road we found the fire station to our left, and Skinny Legs to our right. That was easy.
Skinny Legs was nearly full of people. Obviously people other than boaters come here for lunch. We found a table for two and were greeted by our waitress. She fetched us beer while we perused the menu. Burgers is what they are famous for, so burgers it was. Barb got a regular cheeseburger, and the waitress tempted me with the special burger of the day. After a while, the other waitress who was working brought two burgers to our table. It didn't occur to me until I was a couple bites into it, that mine wasn't what she had described. She described a "fajita" burger with cheddar cheese, chunks of tomato, onion, and cilantro with a dollop of sour cream on top. What I got had Swiss cheese, grilled onions, and jalapenos. I think the jalapenos are what made me still think southwestern as I started to eat it. While it wasn't what I ordered, it was very good. A few minutes later, a table behind us got two burgers, and his was the special. I speculated they mixed up the delivery, but he never complained either and said to his wife that his burger was great. We had a couple more beers and took in the place as the lunch crowd thinned out.
There is a mooring float right behind where we are laying when the wind is from the east. We are close, but hopefully not too close if it gets used. Late in the afternoon, I was below writing and Barb was in the cockpit reading. She looked up and there was a boat on this mooring behind us. He had apparently sailed to the mooring, nice and quiet, and was already attaching the line to his boat before she noticed him. If I were to see this boat here on a mooring, and had not seen it sail in, I would have thought it was a derelict. The guy never said anything to us about being too close, so if it's ok with him, it's ok with me.
I finished reading the book I was reading (The Art of Racing in the Rain). It is a very good book, and I recommend it.
GPS N 18-20.616 W 064-42.759 Nautical miles traveled today 9 Total miles 10417.
Apr 27
We awoke to dark cloudy skies, unlike what we normally see in the islands. Yesterday there had been a few squalls on the horizon, but none actually rained on us. Today though is totally overcast and by 07:00 we had our first shower. It rained off and on over the next three hours. There is zero wind associated with this rain, so the boat has swung around in several different directions, and not always the same as the neighbors, but we seem to be well spaced and there is no problem. About 10:30, the rain seemed to had stopped, and we decided to go ahead with our original plan for the day, which was to explore the other side of the bay, including a stop at the grocery. We also had a bag of garbage to dispose of.
We listened to the morning radio nets this morning with extra interest because Seabbatical made the crossing from Virgin Gorda to St. Maarten overnight. They should have arrived by now and hopefully will check in so we know they made it ok. We checked in and asked to have traffic with Seabbatical, but when we called them there was no answer. Hopefully they are just busy getting ready for the bridge opening to enter the lagoon in St. Martin and they forgot the time.
We dinghied to the dinghy dock and unloaded. There was a guy there getting into his dinghy that looked like he might live there, so I asked him where we can drop garbage. He directed us to walk the "donkey trail" which runs west from the dinghy dock, between the school grounds and the mangroves which line the bay. Once we come out on the road, the dumpster will be a few blocks down. It was a long walk carrying the heavy garbage bag, but we finally found the large roll-off community dumpsters. Seems like one by the dock would be real helpful. We were almost to the businesses on the west side of the bay at this point. We found several small restaurants that were more local's places than tourist spots, several shops that appeared to all be closed, and then Aqua Bistro, which was open and right next to the grocery. We sat down at the bar and ordered beers and looked at the menu. We hadn't been sure we were going to eat here or not, but it looked good as any, so we ordered. Barb had a gyro that was huge and I had a grouper sandwich that was quite tasty. While we were eating, it started to rain again. This shower was as hard as any we had earlier. We finished lunch, had another beer, and it was still raining. We paid our tab and went to the grocery, which was literally steps away and did our little bit of shopping. We only need a few staples, like rum and beer. Oh yeah, and bread. When we came back out, it was still raining substantially, so we sat down and ordered another beer. We chatted with a couple who were renting a house up on the hill for the week, telling them about our lifestyle.
While we were at Aqua Bistro, we noticed a sticker behind the bar that said "www.OneHornedButtFish.com". I had no idea what this meant, but shortly after noticing the sticker, a pickup truck pulled in that had the same logo on its door. Seeing the larger logo on the truck, I got the joke. Maybe this is old news to some, but I have never heard it before. If you imagine a snorkeler in the water, face down swimming, you see the head, with a horn (the snorkel), the butt, and the fins. The One Horned Butt Fish. I looked up the website, and they sell snorkeling gear and apparel. I have no idea if their stuff is any good, but they get an A in my book for a creative company name.
Barb's back was bothering her, and we had a heavy bag with our groceries, so I decided to walk around and get the dinghy and bring it over here to pick Barb up. The shore here is rocky and shallow quite a ways out from the edge, but I should be able to get close. It was still drizzling, but I set out to walk back. By the time I got to the dinghy, the rain had stopped completely. I crossed the bay and slowly approached a place near the store where there were a couple of concrete steps down to the water's edge. Barb saw me coming and was waiting there. About fifty feet from shore, the outboard started bumping rocks, so I shut it off and tilted it up. I got out into knee deep water and walked the dinghy almost to shore. We loaded the bags and Barb in and I walked back out to knee deep water, and then gave us a big shove as I hopped in. We were deep enough to lower the outboard and went back to the boat.
We decided to give Skinny Legs a try for happy hour. We got there about 16:30, and found it not very crowded. We had several beverages and got interested in the basketball game on the TV that ended up going to triple overtime to resolve. I realized how out of touch I've been because I learned from this game that the New Jersey Nets have moved to Brooklyn. I think I knew that was in the works, but didn't realize it had happened. We chatted with several locals at the bar and enjoyed a couple hours there.
GPS N 18-20.616 W 064-42.759 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10417.
Apr 28
During the night, the harbor became quite rolly. We came here to avoid being in a rolly place. I don't know if the north swell is possibly wrapping around the end of the island and getting in here, or if the offshore winds have picked up from the southeast and those waves are coming in, but it is uncomfortable. For the non-sailors, when there is a roll to the seas which makes it into an anchorage, it can be quite annoying. This is especially true if the local wind is roughly ninety degrees different from the swell, making the boat roll from side to side. This was just a mildly annoying amount of roll - we have been in much worse - but annoying nonetheless. We decided to move right after the morning radio nets.
There is no weather net on Sunday, but the Coconut Telegraph happens every day. Again, we want to hear from Seabbatical to know they made it ok. I checked in early in the net and asked for traffic. When I called Seabbatical, Lynn answered, so we knew they were alright. We agreed to a channel to chat on after the net was over. Once we got connected after the net, we learned why they hadn't checked in yesterday. It turned out they had a horrible passage. To get from The Virgins to St. Maarten, you are going southeast. The prevailing winds come from the east, so most boats wait for a forecast of no or low wind, or possibly moderate wind from the northeast. Mike & Lynn had been waiting for a good forecast for several weeks now. The forecast was for light wind from due east, which would mean motoring all the way, but in reasonable conditions. It turns out what they got didn't match the forecast at all. They got twenty knots of wind, right on the nose, and large, confused seas. This not only makes for a very uncomfortable ride, but a slow one as you bash into the wind and waves. What should have been a thirteen to fifteen hour trip turned into twenty-two hours of ugly. They had hoped to be in St. Maarten in time for the 09:30 first bridge opening of the day, and instead only made it an hour or so before the 17:30 last opening of the day. We felt very bad for them having done this, and were awfully glad we changed our plans to go back to Antigua, otherwise we would have been out there with them.
As soon as we were done talking, we prepared to move. Further east on the south shore of St. John there are a few other bays, which we are hoping are not rolly too. We weighed anchor with no trouble and motored out of Coral Harbor, heading south. The further out into the southern end of Coral Bay we got, the larger the swell coming from the southeast was. We turned west around Ram Point and then northwest towards Saltpond Bay. Once we were around Ram Point, the seas subsided considerably. We found the narrow entrance into Saltpond Bay and cruised in. There are five Park Service moorings here, and only two are occupied. We picked up one close to the beach. As we were still getting the mooring, I heard a woman's voice from the beach yelling "Hey Texas!". She apparently saw our flag and has a connection to Texas. I waved and we finished getting secure.
As we first entered the bay, we both noticed an unpleasant odor. There is a salt pond just past the mangroves ashore, and I'm guessing it is the source of the smell. It's not overwhelming. Just enough to get your attention.
Up on the hill overlooking the bay is Concordia Eco-resort. This is a sister property to the Maho Campground on the other side of the island. It looks to be a little more upscale than Maho, but has a similar feel to it. The foliage on this side of the island is not quite as high and thick though, so the units are more exposed than at Maho where they are very much hidden in the trees.
Unlike most of the bays in the Virgin Islands, this one is quite shallow. Most of the bays are anywhere from thirty to seventy feet deep until you get right near the shore, which make moorings a necessity. We found Saltpond to be under twenty feet from where we first entered. So, the moorings are not required because of depth, but here they are in place to preserve the marine environment on the bottom, making this a very popular snorkeling destination. I wasn't planning on doing much snorkeling, but I got my fins and mask out so I could look at the bottom of the boat. When we were in the marina, and again in Waterlemon Cay, I kept hearing a sound when the boat bounced a little in the waves that sounded like something was hitting the hull around amidships. In the marina I had looked to see if perhaps there was an old piece of the dock under the surface that was hitting us or something, but found nothing. When we were on the mooring at Waterlemon Cay, I thought perhaps we had drifted up over the mooring ball and it was banging the hull, but it wasn't. So this sound was a mystery. I had the thought that perhaps back when we snagged that fish trap float between St. Kitts and St. Maarten, that maybe it had wrapped around the keel somehow and we had been dragging it all this time. Farfetched, but it would make a great story. So, I got in the water and took a look at the bottom of the boat. All in all it is still quite clean, which pleased me. There are a few little barnacles, but nothing worth spending anytime cleaning before we haul out anyway. The rudder has some interesting growth on it, but that can wait too. And alas, there were no foreign objects wrapped around the keel banging on the bottom of the boat. So, the sounds remain a mystery, but it's good to know that wasn't the cause.
While we were in the water, Barb grabbed a sponge with a Scotchbrite side and attacked the waterline. The waterline has a dark blue stripe that has a little fringe of algae growing on it, and the first few inches of the white part of the hull tend to collect black marks just from scum in the water. She was floating on a noodle and scrubbed her way around the whole boat. She also cleaned the stern where it tends to get black from the exhaust when we are motoring. It looks a whole lot better now and she got bonus wench points for the day.
We had a late breakfast this morning after we had moved to Saltpond, and then no lunch, so we had an early dinner. The crowd on the beach all left as sunset neared, and we were left alone, except for the four other boats here, to watch the nearly full moon rise. Just before dark, I saw three older local folks, one man and two woman, arrive and walk the length of the beach and over the dune towards the salt pond. They were not your average hikers, and I wondered if they were going to hunt crabs or something.
GPS N 18-18.507 W 064-42.370 Nautical miles traveled today 5 Total miles 10422.
Apr 29
We were awakened this morning by the sound of a small boat coming into the bay fast. I looked out and saw a local guy in skiff zipping across the bay towards the beach. He came pretty close to our stern, and his wake slapped against the hull. If the sound of his outboard hadn't wakened us, the sound of the wake hitting us surely would have. I wondered if maybe he was coming to pick up crabs or something that those folks last night had caught and left on the beach. I stepped above to see what he was doing, and was baffled. He beached his skiff and took a five gallon plastic bucket up on the beach. He proceeded to fill the bucket with sand using his hands as scoops. He then put the bucket in the skiff and took off back out of sight. Stealing the beach one bucket at a time? I'm pretty sure taking of sand from the beach is against park regulations, but I'm more curious what the heck he does it for.
Late in the morning we decided to get off the boat and take a hike. We landed the dinghy near the end of the beach where the trail up to the road is. Since there is absolutely no wave action, and the wind is blowing off the beach, I anchored the dinghy and let it drift out away from the beach instead of dragging it ashore. Hopefully it will still be here when we get back, and nobody will step on the anchor or trip on the line in the water. Our plan is to hike up to Concordia's little store and check out the restaurant. We headed up the road from the beach to the parking area. This road looks like it has been recently graded, but visitors are not allowed to drive all the way down. It is probably a quarter mile uphill to the parking area. We passed a trail off to the east about halfway up, that I speculated would be a shorter way to the camp, but it was not marked at all, so we kept going up the road. At the parking area we found a sign at the beginning of a trail that clearly said it went to Concordia and it gave a twenty minute walking estimate. We headed down that trail and eventually came to a junction where the other trail we saw joined it. We'll go back that way as it will be shorter. The trail went over a ridge, then down into a valley before climbing back up to the road at the main entrance to the camp. Along the way we passed a couple interesting sights. One was the remains of an old one-room house. It was also connected to what I think was a large covered cistern. The cistern caught our eye first, as it was right alongside the trail. The remains of the house, which was basically four stone walls, was almost totally obscured by the growth over and around it. A little further down the trail I saw another concrete thing in the woods. This turned out to be a grave. It was about twenty feet off the trail, but there was a little side trail to it where people obviously investigate it regularly. It was an above-ground concrete crypt, which is very common in the islands, I guess because the ground is often just hard rock. The headstone said "In Memory of Carl Penn", but it gave no dates. Once at the camp, we found the reception desk, the cafe, the little store, and a large covered pavilion where they hold activities. The restaurant is not open for lunch, but we checked out their schedule of evening events. They have a happy hour each day from 15:30 to 17:30, and tonight is their weekly open mic night. We bought a couple of cold drinks at the store and sat down at a covered picnic table overlooking the anchorage. After a nice break enjoying the view and the breeze, we retraced our steps down the hill, except this time we took the shorter trail.
When we got back to the beach, we found the dinghy right where we had left it. There were several people standing waist deep in the water near it, right where they had to be cognoscente of the anchor line as it moved. They didn't seem to mind, but if they had just moved down the beach twenty feet, they wouldn't need to worry about it. Barb sat down at a picnic table, but I wanted to investigate the actual salt pond, which is at the other end of the beach. We could barely see the water in the salt pond from up above at the camp, and I wanted to see if it was indeed the source of the foul odor we sometimes smelled in the anchorage. I walked the length of the beach and over the dune. What I found surprised me. The salt pond was much larger than I would have guessed based on what I could see from the camp. More surprising was the fact that the water was red. This is from algae in the stagnant water. You can read a bunch more about it here. I didn't stay long at the salt pond, because up close it stinks even more than out in the anchorage. I went back and got Barb and we took the dinghy out of the people's way. We had dropped off our payment for the moorings at the drop box on the beach while here also.
Back at the boat we decided to take a float around again. Our swimming usually just consists of jumping in, and then floating with noodles. If we really want to call it exercise, we paddle around the boat a lap or two. We were in the water about thirty minutes and started to get a chill, so we got out. I was standing on deck dripping dry looking towards the catamaran on the next mooring, when I saw a large fish coming towards us near the surface. I thought it was probably a tarpon. I thought about getting the camera, but figured it would be gone by the time I had the camera turned on. To my surprise, it slowly swam right up to the back corner of the boat and stopped. Even more to my surprise, once it was that close, I could clearly see it was a barracuda, not a tarpon. I got the camera and he just hung there for at least thirty minutes while I took pictures. I even stuck the camera in the water off the swim platform and took a little movie of him as he swam close to me. While they have a bad reputation, barracudas never bother people unless they feel threatened. I read that they like to follow swimmers, snorkelers, and scuba divers because they are scavengers and they think the people are a bigger, badder fish and maybe they will get some remains when the person catches something. They also get attracted to bright things like jewelry, so you may want to leave that off when you are in the water. Since we didn't have our masks on, we may have never even known he was there while we were in the water. Over the rest of the afternoon, until dark, he kept making the trip back and forth between us and the catamaran next to us. I found that they don't eat bread. When I threw a hunk of a stale hot dog bun in the water, he came up, touched it and left it.
Speaking of wildlife, I don't think I have mentioned the large number of turtles we have seen this year. It seems that in almost every bay, certainly the ones here in the park, we have seen multiple turtles swimming around. I'm guessing there may be more in the park since anchoring is not allowed, it lets the sea grass grow more, which I think it what they eat. That exhausts the marine biologist knowledge in me.
Our meals today were similar to yesterday. We had a late mid-morning breakfast burrito, and then homemade pizza for an early dinner. As we sat in the cockpit eating dinner, we could hear the open mic happy hour at the camp. Sounded like your normal bad Karaoke, except I guess you would have to know the words here.
GPS N 18-18.507 W 064-42.370 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10422.
Apr 30
This morning on the radio we spoke to Seabbatical again. They are running out of time to get to Antigua for their scheduled haulout, so they are already looking forward to a weather window to make that next hop. We also spoke to old friends Harry & Melinda on Sea Schell. They were amongst the group of us who came south in 2007. Similar to us, they went back to the States for a few years to make more money, but they took their boat back. This year they have been making their way south again. They are in St. Thomas and plan to come over to St. John tomorrow perhaps. It will be good to see them again.
After the nets, we dropped our mooring and made the long journey from Saltpond Bay to Great Lameshure Bay. Great Lameshure and Little Lameshure are side by side, just to the west of Saltpond. The trip was about two miles from mooring to mooring. I knew there were Park Service moorings there, but didn't know how many or how many boats we would find. We needn't have worried, as we found fourteen moorings and one other boat. We also didn't know what was there as far as things onshore. I knew there was a dock because I knew the pay station for the moorings was at a dock. Well, it turned out, the dock, which it the VIERS dock, is the only thing there. VIERS is the Virgin Island Environmental Resource Station. It is now a campground, but was built to support Project Tektite back in the late 60's. Project Tektite was an underwater research lab that studied the effects of humans staying at depth for long term. It was co-sponsored by the US Navy, NASA, and General Electric. The Navy and NASA were interested in the psychological and physiological effects of humans being stuck together in a tiny place for a long time. From where we are moored, you can only see the dock and one building. Apparently there is more in the trees that we will have to explore.
We spent the rest of the day reading. I was able to get just enough of a wi-fi connection from VIERS to download a few new books to my Nook. The one I started and then finished today was Cruise Confidential. It is about what it is like to work on a cruise ship. It was good, but not great, but it makes you wonder about the conditions most of the crew work under.
A note from the Wench and Galley slave: We are running low on Rum and Beer. (insert sad face here.)
GPS N 18-18.945 W 064-42.375 Nautical miles traveled today 2 Total miles 10424.