Mar 16
We spent the morning aboard doing reading, and went ashore about lunchtime. We dropped our garbage off at the convenient dumpsters near the dinghy dock, and went to look for Wi-Fi and lunch. We stopped first at a place we have eaten at before, but I don't know their name. I asked if they had Wi-Fi, and the lady said no, but directed me to the Cyber Cafe just down the beach. We found the Cyber Cafe quite busy, so I forgot about the Wi-Fi for now and we went back to the first place. We ate lunch there, and then saw D & Don and Doug & Anne coming in. We knew they planned to have a late lunch at the Trellis Bar, right by the dinghy dock, where they sell rotis. We finished our lunch and walked back down to meet them. Turns out Trellis Bar had free Wi-Fi, so we joined them at their picnic table and had four computers out between us while they waited for their rotis.
While they ate lunch, I took my computer back to the boat and brought back our set of dominos. We all moved down to a large table at the Cyber Cafe, now pretty much empty, and played a game of Mexican Train dominos. We have not played dominos since we left Grenada in 2009, but it came back quickly. It takes quite a while to complete a game of Mexican Train, and we were still playing late in the afternoon when they wanted to move our table to make way to set up the band that was playing tonight for the full moon party. We just picked the table up with the game intact and moved it out to the beach where we finished our game.
The full moon party is why we came to Trellis this weekend. We have stayed in Trellis Bay many times before, but have never been here for the full moon. Aragorn Art Studio, in conjunction with the Cyber Cafe, fill several steel sculptures with scrap wood, and after dark they get lit. Two of these sculptures are on land, and five of them are in the water just off the edge of the beach. We had watched all afternoon as several guys worked at loading the wood into the sculptures. The Cyber Cafe also puts on a large buffet dinner for the occasion. Since we had a good table, we just stayed. We bought one dinner ticket, and I got a huge plate of food, with ribs, chicken, stewed goat, mac & cheese, rice, steamed vegetables, and lasagna. There was more than enough food for both of us on the plate. In addition to the bonfires, there were dancing girls, a band, and four jumbies. A couple of the bonfires proved a little problematic to get lighted. They do this every month, so you would think the guy lighting them might know to light the upwind side so the wind does the work of spreading it, and he might use some accelerant like lighter fluid or diesel. When the fires were dying down, we headed back to the boat.
GPS N 18-26.817 W 064-31.910 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10601.
Mar 17
D & Don and Doug & Anne moved on from Trellis today. They were heading over to Virgin Gorda to The Baths. We decided not to make that trip, as we have been to The Baths several times, and boat parking there is at a premium. We said our goodbyes last night, and when we got up in the morning, they were already gone.
We spent pretty much all day reading and watching the charter boats come and go. It can be quite entertaining watching charter boats pick up moorings. It's also fun in a place like this, where there is a large reef/sandbar right in the middle of the anchorage, to watch them run aground or at least abruptly turn at the last minute when one of them finally sees the difference in the water color indicating shallow water. This shallow water is even too shallow for a dinghy to cross in some places, and we saw many of them run aground.
The book I am reading now is Lone Survivor. I have read a bunch of Randy Wayne White books recently, which are about a black ops guy who gets in and out of trouble all the time, but they are fiction. Lone Survivor is about Navy Seals, their training, and the tragic loss they suffered in a mission gone wrong in Afghanistan. There are a lot of similarities in the black ops subject material, but it is chilling to keep remembering that this story really happened.
About 16:00 we walked to the airport, which is less than a quarter mile from the dinghy dock, to get some cash from the ATM. We found that the ATM was apparently empty. Unlike the one at Nanny Cay, which flashes an "Out Of Service" screen when it's empty, this one made me go through all the motions before it said it couldn't complete the transaction.
With the cash acquisition attempt failed, we had to drown our sorrows. We went to De Loose Mongoose for happy hour. (They take credit cards.) We met up there with old friend Ron from Island Siren. We first met Island Siren in 2007 on our way south. They settled in Trellis Bay in 2008 and Ron now runs CERTA, a company that train emergency responders. We caught up with what Ron's been up to since we last saw him last season. In that conversation we learned that Da Loose Mongoose, is under new management yet again . Last year a young couple was running it with a lease to buy deal. That didn't work out and now some other guys are doing the same thing.
GPS N 18-26.817 W 064-31.910 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10601.
Mar 18
We originally planned to move on today, but yesterday evening when we paid our mooring fee, Danny the collection guy told us that he gives real cruisers their fourth night free. Can't pass up a free mooring, so we decided to stay one more day. We have no plans to be anywhere soon anyway.
I finished reading Lone Survivor today. The movie had just come out as we were leaving the States, so we did not see it. I don't now how the movie compares to the book, but it is definitely a harrowing and tragic story. I can't imagine going through what it takes to be a SEAL, let alone what this SEAL went through in this story.
Our late afternoon was a re-run of yesterday. We walked to the airport again, and left with nothing again. We then went to Da Loose Mongoose for happy hour and ran into Ron again. He came ashore this time with a duffel bag and a few other things. He is delivering a boat to St. Maarten tomorrow, and will going from here to the boat this evening to get an early start. Boat deliveries is something else Ron does down here.
GPS N 18-26.817 W 064-31.910 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10601.
Mar 19
Happy Birthday to Me! Yes, I have survived my first year of my 60's. Getting old ain't for sissies.
We are leaving Trellis Bay today. We are heading back to the USVI, which means we have to check out of the BVI. It has been fairly windy for the last couple of days, so I don't know what conditions we might find once we are out of the bay. The first mile or two will be right into the wind and waves, but then we will be going downwind, so it shouldn't be too bad even if it's rough.
We found better than expected conditions outside Trellis. Once I turned east out of the bay, we motored straight into the wind and waves. We did put the dinghy on the davits, so I'm not worrying about it getting bounced around, nor is it slowing us down towing it. After the two and a half miles around the eastern end of Beef Island, we turned on a course that let us motor sail parallel to the south coast of Tortola, all the way to the west end and Soper's Hole, where Custom & Immigration are.
As we entered Soper's Hole, we passed Tom & Leslie on Far Haven on their way out. We spoke on the radio and said goodbye, as they are staging in Virgin Gorda for a run to St. Maarten in a few days. We also found Lee & Sharon on Allegro in the harbor. Once we were on a mooring, we launched the dinghy and went to the dock to have lunch and hit the grocery store. We met up with Lee & Sharon at the dock and said goodbye to them also, as they are also heading south soon. We had lunch at Pusser's, and then stopped by Harbour Market for a few things.
I dropped Barb off at the boat with the groceries and then went to Custom & Immigration to check out. Checking out is usually pretty quick and easy, and this time was no different. I purchased a couple more forms that I will need in a couple weeks when we check back in, and paid my $.75 (yes that cents) to leave the country. I have no idea what that fee is for, but who cares?
We raised the dingy again and motored the three miles to Francis Bay, St. John. We had thought about going around to the south side of St. John, but that would have meant motoring about five miles back into the wind to get around the east end of St. John. Instead we were moored in about half an hour, sipping a cold arrival beverage.
It was about 15:30 when we arrived in Francis Bay, and I immediately called US Customs & Immigration to clear in. The officer that answered asked if I could call please call back about 17:00, as they were very busy. I said sure. At 17:00 I called back and got a female officer. She also quickly asked if I could call back. I asked what time they closed and she said 17:30. So, at 17:20, I called back and got the same lady. She again wanted me to call back. I confirmed they closed in seven minutes, and she said yes. She saw the flaw in the plan and asked for my float plan number, the name of the boat, our names, and my phone number. She said if she didn't call back we were good to go. She never called back. Of course I don't have a check-in number now, but nobody has ever asked for that anyway, so I'm not worried. It is kind of humorous though that you try to play by the rules and they don't have time for you. I'm sure many people go back and forth between the USVI and BVI without checking in or out of either country. There seems to be no enforcement. But I don't want to be the one guy who gets to be the example like a fisherman was a few years ago down here.
GPS N 18-21.957 W 064-44.844 Nautical miles traveled today 18. Total miles 10619.
Mar 20
This morning we saw our first dolphins of the season. There were two making their way through the anchorage. We have seen lots of turtles, and some large rays, but until today no dolphins. Now that can be checked off the list.
MoonSail has two bathrooms, a.k.a. heads. The forward one has been part of our storage area since we left, and we only use the larger aft head. Over the years I have had a couple of occasions to scavenge parts from the forward head to make repairs to the aft one. I have always eventually purchased new replacement parts, but not bothered installing them, since we didn't use the head anyway. Well, since we plan to list MoonSail for sale after this season, I need to start addressing all the little projects that have not been important to our day to day use of the boat. Getting the forward head functional again is one of those things. So, today I replaced the vented loop in the toilet output hose. The vented loop makes it impossible for water to siphon back into the toilet. Years ago the one in the aft head developed a leak (not pleasant) and I stole the forward one to replace it. Today the brand new one that has been riding around with us for years went in.
My other task was to arrange via e-mail for the mount I need to replace on the solar panel to be shipped from St. Maarten to Budget Marine in Nanny Cay. By doing this now, I can avoid special order shipping charges, as it will come with their regular monthly order, and it will be there when we get into Nanny Cay to haulout in mid-April.
The rest of the afternoon was spent reading. Dinner was a recent addition to Barb's repertoire. For the second time she made grilled fish tacos. The fish was tilapia that we caught from our freezer.
GPS N 18-21.957 W 064-44.844 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10619.
Mar 21
My head repair duties continue. The showers on the boat do not drain into the bilge as some boats do. They floor pan is several inches deep and as you shower, you flip a switch that pumps the collecting water overboard. I could see the pump yesterday as I replaced the vented loop, and it looked pretty rusty. I tried the switch, and the pump did not run. So today, I first verified that when the switch was on there was electricity to the pump. There was, so the pump is dead. Fortunately, I have a spare that I picked up at a consignment shop years ago. It was an exact replacement, so with a bit of a contortion act with my left hand, I got the pumps swapped out. Another step in head restoration.
Not wanting to risk overexerting myself, the rest of the day was reading and playing on the computer.
GPS N 18-21.957 W 064-44.844 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10619.
Mar 22
Today's big activity other than reading again, was lowering the dinghy and taking a ride. We tooled around Francis and Maho Bays and stopped and paid our mooring fee while we were out. There were three teenage boys sitting on the raft where the mooring fee payment box is. They had been paddle boarding and had stopped to take a break. I'm not sure they realized what the real purpose of the raft was until we came up. After we deposited our envelope they seemed to take an interest in the box, but there's no way to get the envelopes out without the key or a torch.
GPS N 18-21.957 W 064-44.844 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10619.
Mar 23
We are going to American Yacht Harbor today. I sent our friends Clyde & Lynda an e-mail letting them know we would be on St. Thomas for a couple days, hoping we could perhaps get together. Clyde responded later in the day that they had been in Maho Bay on their boat overnight. They apparently came in after we took our dinghy tour, and we didn't see them.
We dropped our mooring and headed to Red Hook about 11:30. It takes about an hour to get there, and I had called first to make sure the slip we were assigned was already empty. We will be backing into the slip, which means the dinghy can't be on the davits for us to be able to get on and off the stern. But, I didn't want to tow the dinghy all the way, especially across the potentially sloppy open water of Pillsbury Sound between St. John and St. Thomas, so we had it on the davits. Right near the marina, there are lots of moorings that are all private. A batch of them belong to Island Yachts, which is a bareboat charter company that operates out of the marina. They have more boats than slips, so they have half a dozen moorings for the extras. One of those was empty when we got there, so we picked up their mooring for a few minutes while we lowered the dinghy and tied it to the bow of MoonSail. I then hailed the marina on the radio and asked for a dock hand to meet us at our slip. We dropped the mooring, and I backed all the way from the mooring to the slip. Last time we did this, getting our lines on the pilings was a hassle, so this time Barb had the windward forward line ready to try and loop around the piling as I back in. I got us as close as I could, and on her second try she got the line around the piling. I stopped the boat and tossed the stern lines to the two dockhands waiting for us. One of them them hopped aboard and helped Barb get the other forward line on the other piling, and rig a spring line. I kept using the engine to keep us off the dock while they got the spring line in place. All in all, it went pretty well.
We were hungry, so before even plugging in or anything, we went to Molly Malone's for lunch. I confirmed with the bartender that getting the NASCAR race on one of the TV's later wouldn't be a problem. She assured me that even though the NCAA basketball tournament is underway, we could also get the race.
We went back to the boat and got plugged in and Barb gathered some laundry together. We haven't done laundry in almost a month, so she is going to do some today and some tomorrow. While she started the laundry, I went back to Molly's and watched the race. Barb joined me when the laundry was done. Unlike last time I tried to watch a race here, there was no rain delays, and the whole race got run as planned.
We took the laundry to the boat, and then went to Island Time Pub to get a pizza for dinner. The place was packed, so it was a good thing we planned to get the pizza to go. We got a couple drinks from the bar, placed our order, and found a spot out on the deck to sit. When the pizza was ready we returned to the boat to eat. The area was hopping with activity tonight. There are six bar/restaurants within a few hundred feet of us, and they all seem to be packed. There is different music coming from each and some kind of liquor promotion going on at one. It wasn't a problem though, as by the time we went to bed things were winding down.
GPS N 18-19.530 W 064-51.069 Nautical miles traveled today 7. Total miles 10626.
Mar 24
While Barb worked on the rest of our laundry, I did a few boat projects. First I gave the deck a cursory wash down. We haven't had any rain in several days, and we were salty from the trip over. My main project was to find a leak in our propane system. The propane system is totally contained in a locker on the aft deck except for the hose that runs to the stove in the galley. There is an electric solenoid that controls the flow into the boat. The leak is somewhere between the tank and the solenoid. I know this because with the solenoid closed, if I shut the tank valve, the pressure bleeds off. We have been putting up with this for the whole season and we just turn the tank valve on and off each time we use it. The first thing I did was replace the O-ring on the end of the line where it screws into the tank. This resolved 98% of the leak, but the pressure would still very slowly bleed off. I went and bought an empty spray bottle and filled it with soapy water. I have done this before, but not found the leak. After soaking every connection, I finally noticed tiny bubbles forming at one of the connections. I took it apart, cleaned it, applied Teflon tape and reassembled it. Problem solved.
Barb finished the laundry and we went to Molly Malone's again for lunch. We had been talking to the bartender yesterday, and she was all nervous because there was supposed to be a Health Department inspection today during her shift. We sat at the bar to eat, and I asked her if the inspector had been there yet. They had not so she was still nervous.
When we got back to the boat after lunch, we heard a boat named Nutmeg hail the marina. Nutmeg is a charter cat crewed by old friends from Grenada days, Paul & Jeanette. We had seen them once this year and once last year, but they had guests so we didn't get to chat. They were calling the marina to dock at one of the t-heads and pick up there next guests. We thought it would be funny to be there to take their lines like we used to back in Grenada. So we walked to the B-dock t-head with the real dockmaster. As they approached, Jeanette handed me a line and it wasn't until she actually put the line in my hand that she recognized me. After they were tied up, they gave us a quick tour on Nutmeg, and then we went back to Molly Malone's where they ordered lunch and we visited. Before their food even came, they got a call from the airport that their new guests were in a cab and on the way, so they had to get their food to go and run off to prep the boat. We wished we could have visited longer, but it was good to see them.
One of the reasons we came to the marina was to do grocery shopping. Barb has been trying to meticulously plan the meals for the next couple of weeks, so that we don't have a lot of stuff leftover when we haul. She made a list, and we walked up to the road planning on taking one of the safaris to the store. There was a regular taxi driver sitting at the entrance to the marina and he asked if we needed a cab. So, even though it was more expensive, we hired him to take us to the store and wait for us to return. That was easier than having to call a taxi and wait when we were done shopping. We got the shopping done pretty quickly since we didn't need too much, and he took us back to the marina and dropped us right at the head of our dock.
Happy hours around here tend to be from 15:00 to 18:00. Yesterday when we went to Island Time Pub, it was packed. So we thought we'd start early today so we could sit at the bar. A little after 15:00 we were there with prime corner bar stools overlooking the marina. After happy hour, we went back to the boat a heated up the left-over pizza from last night. When you start early, you also end early, and we were in bed about 20:00.
GPS N 18-19.530 W 064-51.069 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10626.
Mar 25
Molly Malone's is known for having good breakfasts. So, about 09:00 we went there. Barb ordered Eggs Benedict, and I ordered a shrimp omelet. We also ordered mimosas. After awhile, we heard a commotion between the two waitresses and somebody in the kitchen. From what we could hear, there was no Eggs Benedict. If this was true it would affect us and a guy a few tables away who also ordered it. After a bit, the waitress brought an omelet and put it in front of me, and then informed Barb there would be no Eggs Benedict because one of the chef just walked out, and he's the one who knows how to make the Hollandaise sauce. Barb said she would take it without the sauce, but that left me to start eating before hers is even being made. I had just taken my first bite of omelet as the other waitress came around the corner to our table. She said "Too late." As I chewed my bite, she said "That's a veggie omelet isn't it?" I confirmed indeed that it was a veggie, not the shrimp I ordered. She apologized to the guy at the next table who was waiting for a veggie omelet and went to get him another. Nobody asked if I wanted to return mine and get what I ordered, so I just ate what I had. Barb's food came pretty quickly and we ate. We never saw our waitress again though. I finally went to the bar myself to get refills on our mimosas. Our waitress finally returned and explained that she was helping in the kitchen since the chef left. We asked for the check and made sure she knew to adjust the price of my omelet. Needless to say, our last visit to Molly's left us disappointed.
Our last ask in the marina is to fill our water tanks. While Barb got things below ready to move, I filled the tanks. When I was done I coiled the hose and stowed it, then unplugged our shore power cord and stowed it. Then I tried to call the marina office to have them come read the meters so I could check out. When we ran the marina in Grenada, one of my rules was, when a boat calls the marina on the VHF, somebody better answer them. That was usually me, but if I didn't answer and they called a second time, either Barb or the bartender should answer. It drive me nuts to hear people hail a marina five and six times and not get an answer. These are places that have half a dozen people at least with radios in the office, and at the fuel dock. So, when I called six times and got no answer I was irritated. I even tried calling once on their working channel instead of channel 16 thinking maybe they forgot to change the channel back last time they spoke to somebody. Still nothing. So, I went to the office. I said I needed somebody to read my meters, and asked if they had the radio on. The girl was quite defensive as she said of course it was on. I let it drop rather than ask why the heck they didn't answer it then. In a few minutes the dock guy had read our meters and I paid. If there was an alternative to American Yacht Harbor on the east end of St. Thomas, I'd be there in a heartbeat.
Rather than picking up a mooring again when we leave the dock so we can raise the dinghy, we are going to do it in the slip. To do this, I looped both of our stern lines back to the boat instead of having them tied on the dock ends. Then I slacked the stern lines and pulled up on the spring line. This moved us forward in the slip, off the dock, about six feet. I was then able to get the dinghy behind the boat and we raised it. Now we just have to get untied and out of the slip. The two lines that the dockmaster put on one of the pilings are not looped back, so they have to be pulled loose with the boathook. We got the lazy bowline off (lazy meaning the line that is doing nothing given the wind direction). We then took the lazy stern line off. Now the dilemma was the spring line. It was holding us off the dock, but it was going to take me a couple minutes to get it off the piling with the boathook. My fear was that once the spring line was loose, we would drift back and the dinghy could hit the power pedestal and damage it. About then another boater walked down the dock. I asked him to just push on the dinghy, keeping us off the pedestal, while I got the spring off. He did, and as soon as the spring line was off, I got to the helm and gave us a little power forward. The guy then threw off our other stern line as Barb got the windward bow line which was just looped around the other piling. It actually all went quite well, even though it was a little more complicated than usual.
Our destination today is a whopping two miles from the marina. Christmas Cove is an anchorage on the west side of Great St. James Island. Great St. James Island is just off the east end of St. Thomas. Several years ago with some kind of grant money, moorings were installed in Christmas Cove, and they are free. Many of our friends have stayed here before but we have not. We know that old friends Don & Heather from Asseance are here now and will be for several more days. When we got to Christmas Cove, all the moorings were full. It is however a very popular spot for day trippers to come snorkel. So, as we were driving around, we saw a boat drop one of the moorings. We boogied over and snagged it before anybody else came.
There are two downsides to Christmas Cove. One is the ferry wakes. Ferries running between Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas and anywhere, pass right by at high speed. Fortunately, the ferries don't run after dark, so similar to Caneel Bay, it calms down for the night. The other thing that initially struck me as a problem was the attack of the boatloads of one-horned butt fish. Snorkelers. They come on small boats of six, sail boats of ten or twelve, party catamarans of twenty or thirty, and one large, loud boat called Sea Blaster that holds about a hundred. Sea Blaster has his perfect spot to anchor, which leaves him swinging within a few feet of our mooring ball. When I say Sea Blaster is loud, I mean loud. It has big throaty twin diesels that the captain loves to rev. While I initially found them to be annoying, it turned out to be fun having them there. For one things, watching all the cruise ship people who probably paid a lot of money for thirty minutes of snorkeling is fun. It was amusing listening to them scream through their snorkels when they saw the huge barracuda that hangs out waiting for Sea Blaster's twice a day visits. It helps that the crew put out a box of ballyhoo off the stern juts before the people started getting in the water. As close at they were to us, we could just stand on the bow, where we saw the barracuda, several rays, a puffer fish, several good sized trunk fish, and a bunch of other smaller fish. While I was on the bow, the captain of Sea Blaster was on his stern helping people re-board the boat. He yelled over to me and asked if that was the Puerto Rican flag I was flying. (The Puerto Rican flag and Texas flag are very similar.) I just answered that no, it was the Texas flag. He laughed and said he knew that. He likes asking Texans that because sometimes they get quite insulted. As with the ferry wakes, by late afternoon, the day-trip boats are all gone.
At 17:00 we went over to join Don & Heather on Asseance. We have not seen them since 2008 in Grenada, although we have kept up with their travels via the Coconut Telegraph. We were joined by another couple Mike & Crystal. Mike & Crystal were cruisers that came down after we had gone back to the States to work. Don & Heather met them in Grenada and got to know them several years ago. Mike & Crystal ended up in St. John working a couple years ago. Then they scored the gig of becoming the caretakers for a villa on a private island here. Little St. James Island is just around the corner from Christmas Cove, and they watch it and live there. Nice deal. We all visited for several hours and didn't get back to MoonSail until 22:00.
GPS N 18-18.641 W 064-49.919 Nautical miles traveled today 2. Total miles 10628.
Mar 26
The day-trip snorkeler show continues. Some come twice a day, some once. Some come in the morning for snorkeling, and then come back for a sunset cruise where they park, snack, watch the sunset and leave. It really is quite a show.
My only productive work today was fixing chips in the gelcoat. Over the years there have been numerous chips in the gelcoat from various things being dropped. I picked up some simple repair goo at the marine store when we were in the marina a few days ago. I filled all the chips today. You can still clearly see the places where the chips were, but since they are now white, they are not nearly as noticeable as they were.
GPS N 18-18.641 W 064-49.919 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10628.
Mar 27
Another day spent pretty much just reading and watching the show go by. The one thing we did do, was dinghy across the way to the St. Thomas Yacht Club with Don & Heather from Asseance. The ST. Thomas International Regatta starts tomorrow, and tonight is their welcome party. It is open to the public, so we are going to go mingle with racers. The place was pretty crowded and we got drinks. Don & Heather took the opportunity to buy a couple of souvenir shirts from the event. We hung around for awhile chatting and listening to FlipSwitch, a band we heard here in St. Thomas last year. We headed back to the boat right around dusk. We didn't want to get run over in the dark crossing the fairly busy channel between St. Thomas and Great St. James.
GPS N 18-18.641 W 064-49.919 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10628.
Mar 28
The St. Thomas International Regatta starts today. The first race starts at 11:00, but by 10:00 many of the boats were already zipping around practicing. About 10:15, the wind started picking up significantly, and it was apparent we were going to get a pretty good squall. Lots of the boats that were already out, started sailing through the anchorage, most with just their mainsails up. This brought them close to land and calmer water while the squall passed. Most of the ones sailing around through us were IC 24's, which is a J24 hull with a new one-design deck and cockpit. We had to just assume that if the skippers were good enough to race, then they were good enough to zip around us without hitting anything. That's probably a rash assumption, but for more than half an hour they zipped around and there were no incidents that I know of. Barb took quite a few pictures of them sailing by us.
There is a large sailboat on the mooring to our north, and it is the mother ship to one of the race boats. They have been here longer than us, and they raft the race boat to the mother ship each day. They came back in from racing after only an hour. They must have broken something. We watched all afternoon as they worked on the mast. They were drilling and riveting from the base of the mast to about halfway up. I'm guessing they were putting in some kind of reinforcement.
Late in the evening, about 21:30, we were in the cockpit reading. Barb noticed that a sailboat to our south, seemed to be moving oddly. We wondered if they had come off their mooring. I looked through the binoculars, and I could see the mooring ball, and see that they were no longer attached to it. About that time a woman came on the radio asking for anybody in the anchorage to help her. She was alone on the boat, had come off the mooring, and was aground near the little island that sits in the middle of the anchorage. I hesitated to jump to action because I don't trust my dinghy very much. But after I heard Don reply that he was coming, I figured I better help too. I got to her first, just as she backed out of the shallow water she had been aground in. But, she was disoriented about where she was or which way to go. It's very easy for that to happen, especially when you just woke up abruptly to the sound of your keel crunching on the bottom. I pointed out a uniquely lit catamaran that was anchored between where she was and MoonSail, so she had a landmark. I knew her mooring ball was still where it had been, and assumed the pennant had parted from the main line to the bottom. I told her to circle around toward the catamaran and that I would go to the mooring ball. I got to the ball and was able to host it into the dinghy so I could inspect it. As I suspected, the pennant was gone, but the line to the bottom was intact. I was not lit up, so as she approached me, I yelled very loud instructions to her of how to turn and when to slow down. She did a perfect job of driving to me in the dark and stopping the boat right by me. She ran up to the bow and handed me a line, which I put through the shackle that holds the ball to the main line and passed back to her. We then repeated the process with a second line from the other side. Somewhere during this process, Don got there (Asseance is on the other side of the anchorage, and his dinghy was on his davits). By the time Don was there, we were secure, but together we then chatted with the woman about what went wrong. We speculated the pennant parted from the mooring, and were pretty sure of that since the thimble that the pennant line should have been around was still attached to the main line. The first thing she had done when she heard the thumping of hitting bottom was to run to the bow and see where the mooring was. When she pulled on her lines, they were limp, so she wisely untied one end of each and pulled them on deck. This made them ready for the re-mooring, as well as made sure no lines were in the water to potentially foul the prop when she started the engine. When she did this, she would have freed the remains of the pennant. Anyway, we chatted until we were sure she was calmed down and then returned to our boats. Of course this made me wonder about the security of our mooring, but once I got relaxed and went to bed, I slept all night without dreaming about it. During all of this, the Coast Guard and Sea Tow St. Thomas had heard the original call for help on the radio. Barb, who stayed on MoonSail, coordinated the conversation with them and then informed them that all was secure and no assistance was needed.
GPS N 18-18.641 W 064-49.919 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10628.
Mar 29
Early this morning, we went over to see Judy on Tivoli, whom we helped last night. It had occurred to me that where I had tied her lines might not have been the best place to do it. She had already thought the same thing and had gotten in her dinghy and redone them first thing this morning. While she was in hr dinghy, she also went over to the little island where she had gone aground, and found the pennant up on the shore. She brought it back to her boat and showed it to us. It appeared the thick rope had just rotted over the years and finally gave up. The fact that the thimble was rusting through and may have chaffed the line probably added to the problem. We learned that she is alone on the boat because her husband had to fly to the States for a week. They had put the boat on a mooring with the thought that she would be more secure than anchoring somewhere. Guess that didn't work quite as planned. We made a plan to join her for happy hour and get to know each other under calmer circumstances.
The races for the day got started at 11:00 again. There was no squall this morning, so no boats playing chicken in the anchorage. Falcon, the boat next to us, was back before noon again, and again they spent the rest of the day working on their mast.
Early in the afternoon, I suddenly heard Don on the radio, calling the boat next to him to tell them their mooring had just broken. Again, there was just a woman onboard, as her husband was out on one of the race boats. Don and I again jumped in our dinghies and headed her way. The woman had gotten the boat started and was able to avoid drifting into the two boats anchored behind her. Don went out to where she was driving around and boarded the boat with her, while I went to the mooring and pulled the ball up into the dinghy. This one had done exactly the same thing as the one last night. I hung there on the ball until they drove back to me. Don handed me the line, which I put through the shackle like they other. We're getting to be old hands at this. We got her secure and had a good laugh about being the bay rescuers.
The background on these moorings is this: In 2010 the USVI DPNR (Department of Parks and Natural Resources) got a grant to install 22 moorings here. The idea was for the day boats to use them instead of anchoring, thus preserving the seabed. There was no charge for their usage, and there were no restrictions posted about who could use them or for how long. Since they were free they quickly became popular with cruisers to use for overnight stays. Unfortunately, the grant money that funded installing them, had no provision for maintaining them. So, they are on their fourth year of heavy use, with a the original equipment. Moorings always have to be maintained to watch for rotting of the lines and corrosion of the metal parts. I count 16 balls here now, meaning 6 have either broken from the bottom, or the balls have been run over by a propeller which means the line would now be resting on the bottom useless. Counting the two pennant failures that just happened, there are at least four balls without pennants. This makes it very hard to pick up from the deck of a boat without help from somebody in a dinghy. Anyway, they have become a perfect example of you get what you pay for. Unfortunately, many people won't know this and will continue to use them thinking they are secure.
I was really uncertain now about the security of these moorings, so I took a closer look at ours. The line where the pennant attaches under water looked ok, but was a little thinner than the rest of the line. As a precaution, we took a third dock line and ran it to the shackle and left it tied but slack. If our pennant does give way, we will still be tied to the bottom. As I was doing this I had another faux pas. As I have mentioned before, I have to run the dinghy motor with the cover off. That means there are spinning things exposed. As I was taking the new line from the boat to the mooring ball, with the engine idling, Barb yelled for me to watch out that the line didn't get tangled in the motor. Of course just as she yelled, it did. The motor stopped instantly as the line wrapped around the flywheel. It took me fifteen minutes to get it unwound. In the end nothing seemed damaged.
At 17:00, we joined Don & Heather and went to Tivoli for happy hour with Judy. We got to know her and their plans. They are leaving to cross the Atlantic in a month, so it was good that last nights events turned out to have caused no damage.
GPS N 18-18.641 W 064-49.919 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10628.
Mar 30
Today was the last day of racing in the regatta. We didn't pick up one of the sheets that described the various courses for the weekend's races, but today's were mostly out of our sight. We saw the boats come out in the morning, and then didn't see them again until they were returning through the cut to our north in the afternoon.
I started a new book today. The last few books I have read were Lone Survivor, Service, and American Sniper. These were all about the experience of Navy Seals in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past ten years. Today I started reading Twelve Years A Slave. It was not only obviously much different subject matter, but it was written in 1853. The style of speaking was much different then, and since it was written in first person, I found I was noticeably slowed in my comprehension of the story.
GPS N 18-18.641 W 064-49.919 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10628.
Mar 31
We had planned to leave Christmas Cove today and move to Francis Bay, St. John. But, we found out that our friends Chuck & Micki from coram Deo plan to move from St. Thomas to Christmas Cove today. So, we decided to stick around so we can get together with them and Don & Heather on Asseance this evening. We spent the day reading, and I finished Twelve Days A Slave. It was frustrating reading the book, to sympathize not only with the racial inequities of that era, but also the lack of communications and country-wide legal technology that helped enable such a thing to happen.
We had the usual complement of day-trip boats today, with their loads of one-horned butt fish. As we noticed the first day we were here, there is a large barracuda that hangs around the snorkel boats. He has been named Santa by the cruisers who have seen him here for years. (Santa - Christmas Cove - get it? Took me a while.) Anyway, late in the afternoon, Santa was hanging just off our port side. Maybe he didn't get enough treats from the snorkel boats and was hungry. He just hung there for fifteen minutes or so. Since I probably couldn't have gotten a decent picture without a polarized lens, I stole an underwater shot of him taken by friend Lee on Allegro recently and posted it in our pictures.
We got word in the afternoon that coram Deo was not going to make it to Christmas Cove today after all. They had a cooling hose on their engine break on their way here and had to stop. Nevertheless, we picked up Judy from Tivoli and went over to Asseance for a few hours for sundowners and snacks.
GPS N 18-18.641 W 064-49.919 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10628.