EXPLORING THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS - 11/29/02 - 12/16/02

Caneel Bay and Cruz Bay, St. John
After checking out of British customs at Jost Van Dyke, we needed to check into U.S. customs and imigration. The most convenient spot would be Cruz Bay in St. Johns. The only problem is there is no place to anchor or moor the boat there. So we took the suggestion of some more experienced cruisers and picked up a free mooring ball in Caneel Bay, just around the corner, and dinghied into the customs dock. Everything went smoothly and no charge to come into our own country, can you imgine that!  Caneel was actually a very pretty bay with a nice sandy beach and palm trees.  But we had business to attend to so after checking in, we were off to Red Hook in St. Thomas.

Red Hook, St Thomas
Red Hook is not a big town, but being on St. Thomas it had a lot of things we look for in a good port like, marine hardware store, grocery, laundry mat, internet access and even a good mail delivery service. Another good feature was the $1 taxis. For $1 per person you could get all the way to Charlotte Amalie, about a 20 minute drive.  This is where all the big cruise ships come in. It is also where all the inexpensive jewelry, booze and about anything else you wanted could be found.  After buying a needed pair of earrings, we moved on to looking for the best deals on the booze we like and checked out several interesting shops. After searching a number of stores, which all had great prices, we found out from a local that the cheapest booze can be found at Kmart!  Who would have thought we came all this way just to go to a Kmart!  We walked about a mile over to the Kmart and sure enough we found our favorite Bahamian Cocunut Rum for $6 per liter - it was $13 in the Bahamas. We also found both Tangerie and Jim Beam for $9 per liter and Rum for $3 per liter!  So we bought as much as we could carry and went on our merry way to find the $1 bus.  We figure if Kmart could sell liquor in the states for these prices, they would not be going out of business!

One of the not so pleasant things about Red Hook is the anchorage. While there we did have fun getting together with friends from Silent Passage & Noelia who had also stopped by to pickup a few things.  There is plenty of room and good holding, but the ferry traffic going in and out of the harbor really keeps you rocking and rolling all day long and into the night. So once we took care of business and went to church, we were out of there.

Facilities we found here:
* Marine store - Island Marine Outfitters.  Well stocked - otherwise their willing to order parts for you.
* Grocery - Marine Market - right across the street from the dingy dock
* Laundry - within 100 yards of the dingy dock.
* Dingy dock - west end of the marina.  Go to red bouy #6 and hang a right.
* Marina - American Yacht Harbor Marina.  Apparently a good place to leave the boat if necessary.  They also have diesel and gas.  Another good marina to leave your boat at is Crown Bay - around the corner closer to downtown.  Fuel is very reasonable there as well.
* Church - Cathedral of St. Peter & Paul - 340-774-0201. Mass times: 8:30am, 10:30am Sunday - take the $1/bus into Charlotte Amalie - church is several blocks out of the downtown area where all the shops are.
* Mail service - Red Hook Mail Service - 340-779-1890.  You can have packages sent to them and they'll mail things as well.  Also have private box rentals if needed for around $15/month.  Service right across the road from the marina.
* Internet access - cyber cafe available across the street from the marina.  Cost was $2/15 minutes and you used their computers.
* Transportation - taxi's everywhere.  But key is to take the $1 bus.  Not many people tell you about this.  Certain buses/taxis are designated as $1/buses.  Besure to ask the cost before you board.  You can take them all the way into downtown Charlotte Amalie.  A taxi ride would cost a lot more.  So look for the bus the locals are getting on - usually their not as nice as the taxi's, but much more affordable.  Look for the Vitran bus signs.

Leinster Bay (Waterlemon Bay), St. John
From Red Hook we planned to spend some time on St. John and take advantage of the free moorings provided by the park service. The first stop was going to be Coral Bay. We took a slightly longer route to go through relatively protected waters. This turned out to be a good idea since the wind was right on the nose. We turned two corners and each time we thought we would be putting out the sails, but instead the wind was right on the nose again. Not our day for sailing. So we called our buddies on Significant Other and they had enough of pounding into the wind as well so we stopped short at Leinster Bay. As it turned out, it was so nice we stayed an extra day. There was good snorkeling and good protection from the seas but still a good breeze for our wind generator. The beauty of the Virgin Islands it that everything is so close. The down side is that the shorter distances don't allow us to get a lot of sailing in because generally we need to run the engine to charge the batteries.  We haven't taken the sail cover off our mainsail since we've been here.  Mostly because the wind has either been on the nose or downwind to where we could just roll out the genoa.

One of the other things we liked about Leinster Bay was access to some terrific hiking trails. We hiked several miles both days.  One of the hikes took us by the Annaberg Sugar Mill ruins of old sugar plantations and the residences that went along with them. The estate and mill was built in the 1780s.  The windmill tower of the sugar mill and factory, slave quarters, vats for making molasses and rum, storage rooms, and part of a dungeon are visible.  The stones were made of ships' ballast, stone, and local coral.  In the early 1900s, a local cattle farmer lived here and used the building remains for storage and livestock pens.  East of the bay you'll find the reins from an estate house and later a reform school.  While here, folks from the Discovery Channel were filming for a special to air sometime in September.  The hikes took us up some fairly steep paths where we saw many different types of vegetation and the view were spectacular.  Saw lots of organ cactus, wild pineapple plants that looked like aloe, a tree the locals call monkey no climb because it has spikes all up its trunk and lots of soldier crabs crawling along the path.  Oh and one can't forget the donkey's - which left their mark on the trail as well.  Two days of snorkeling and hiking and we were off to another port.
 

Annaberg Sugar Mill ruins

Soldier Crab - isn't he cute!!

One of many large Pipe Organ cactus we saw - overlooking Lenister Bay
 
 

Coral Bay, St. John
Coral Bay was a nice anchorage with lots of boat in the harbor. The town was small but had a couple of resturants and one we were told we shouldn't miss - Skinny Legs. We went in for a cheeseburger and greek salad with Pete and Mary on Noelia and had a great time and a great meal. There were a few small groceries for those in need of small supplies.  The anchorge was a bit exposed to the SE winds we had that evening so it was a bumpy night but George (our wind generator) liked it so it wasn't all bad.

Mary, Fred, Debbie & Peter - enjoying a couple burgers & salad at Skinny Legs
 

Great Lameshur Bay, St. John
We headed over to Great Lameshur Bay where we found other boats from the rally - Silent Passage, Noelia & La Buona Vita.  Picked up a free mooring and headed ashore to explore.  It was getting pretty late so we didn't venture too far.  We can't say enough good things about St. John.  The trails are excellent and well maintained.  The snorkeling has been terrific and let's not forget those free moorings.  The next day all the five boats  decided to get together for a hike.  We took the Lameshur bay trail that led us to the Petroglyphs.  Then we took a trail down to see Reef Bay and the Sugar Mill ruins there.  Nobody seems to know for sure the origin of the petroglyphs.  Some stay they are the work of the fierce Carib Indians who took over the island from the gentle Arawaks, but there is some recent evidence that the symbols are of Ashanti origin, carved by slaves.  In the rainy season, there is a waterfall by the petroglyphs.  It was an awesome day of hiking, learning and exploring - about 6 miles total.   That evening we had a dingy drift party.  Its where everyone gets in their dingy - brings a drink and snack to share.  You tie up to one another and float to wherever.  Had 5 boats rafted - lots of fun.

The group at the Petroglyphs

The Petroglyphs - notice their reflection on the pool of water
 

Caneel Bay, St. John - 12/6/02 - 12/9/02
Our day started off by sailing over to Red Hook, St. Thomas.  We've been waiting on a package to be delivered - but unfortunately it had not arrived.&  It was a washing machine (which I'll tell you more about later).  Its a long story, but with my sisters help back home, it was determined that the unit was not shipped UPS as I was told, but was sent regular mail.  The service in St. Thomas said if that was the case that it would take 3-4 weeks to arrive.  We can't wait around that long, so I told them to refuse delivery of it when it finally arrives.  The anchorage in Red Hook was so bouncy/rolly that we decided not to stay and to head across the way to Caneel which should provide better protection from the waves.  We lucked out and was able to get the last two available free park moorings.  We had stopped by here previously just to check into customs at Cruz bay.  Now it will be nice to take a closer look.  Ashore you'll find the Caneel Bay Resort.  A very nice, upscale place to stay.  The grounds of the resort were once the site of a Danish sugar factory.  They've done a terrific job in preserving and landscaping the ruins remaining.  We took several hikes while staying here one of which took us into Cruz Bay.  We hadn't spent time in Cruz Bay before so it was nice to check things out there as well.

Cactus we saw on the hike - looked like a bunch of snakes everywhere - but prickly!

One of the beautifully landscaped parts of the Sugar Mill ruins
 

BACK IN THE BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS

Soper's Hole, Tortola then onto Peter Island - Great Harbour - 12/10/02 - 12/12/02
Decided it was time to make our way back to the BVIs and work our way towards Virgin Gorda where we'll wait for a weather window to head further south to St. Martin.  First we had to check back in the BVIs.  So we decided to stop at Soper's Hole on Tortola.  Boy was this an ordeal.  Both Fred & Mike took grief from the custom's officials for one thing or another.  It was not a pleasant experience.  Next time we decided we'll check in at Roadtown or Jost Van Dyke - much nicer people there!   We did see Tom and Christine aboard Sea Wings there and had a nice, but short visit with them.  Then we took off again and headed to Peter Island.  We decided to venture to Great Harbour this time.  Found an excellent anchorage with great holding, no waves, but great wind for George.  He kept us fully charged for 3 days and that included us watching a couple movies!  There was also several outstanding reefs to snorkel along the southern shore.  Saw many different fish, sting rays, large tarpons, an eel and millions of bait fish in which at times there were so many it was hard to see the reefs.  I took my disposable underwater camera with me so I hope I was able to get some good shots.

Fred and I enjoying a moment in the hammock - Deadman's Beach

Amway owns Peter Island now.  We walked thru the beautiful resort - can't imagine what it must cost to stay here.   The hammock we're in is really for guests, but we snuck in a quick picture anyway.  Later Gus & Carol from Indigo joined us in the anchorage and we got together with them in the evening...lots of fun.  Unfortunately Mike & Jan's refrigeration went out.  They went over to Tortola to see if someone could take a look at it.  The only real place in town said they didn't have time to do anything til first of the year.  Must be nice to be that busy.  So they came back to Peter Island and we put their food in our freezer.  They plan to get it fixed while in St. Martin.

Virgin Gorda - Waiting for a weather window to head to St. Martin:  12/13/02 - 12/15/02
We said good bye to our friends aboard Indigo and headed over to Virgin Gorda along with Significant Other. The wind was on the nose, again, but since the batteries didn't need charging, we decided to break out the sails.  yea!  Wind was about 15-20 out of the east.  We had a wonderful sail under a double reefed main, staysail and partial genoa.  We arrived and found a great anchor spot between the Bitter End Yacht club and the beach to the north.  Virgin Gorda is the second largest of the BVIs.  Its known as the "Fat Virgin" which came about from Columbus, like many sailors far from home, who squinted at the horizon and visualized a reclining female of awe-inspiring proportions.  The flat southern part of the island is known as the Valley.  Here is where the main settlement, Spanish Town, is located.  English planters established Spanish Town in the late 1600s and, with prosperity of cotton and sugar plantations, it became important enough to be designated the capital of the BVI's.  That was until 1742 when the government headquarters was moved to Tortola.  The population peaked at around 8,000 in 1812, but due to the economy collapse with the failure of the sugar industry and emancipation of the slaves, barely 1,500 people now live on the island.  Bob on Rockhopper happened to be here as well so he joined us all for cocktails aboard Significant Other.  Unfortunately a little too much coconut rum was had by Bob & Fred - both of who were not moving very quickly in the morning.

Mike checked in with David Jones on the SSB, who does weather routing for the Caribbean area.  It appears that the winds are forecasted to diminish to around 10-15 on Monday.  So our plan is to leave late afternoon on Monday to ensure a daylight arrival in St. Martin on Tuesday.

Our last sight of the Virgin Islands - Bitter End Yacht Club in Virgin Gorda
 

EXPLORING THE LEEWARD ISLANDS OF THE CARIBBEAN

St. Martin (the French side) and Sint. Maarten (the Dutch side) - 12/16/02 - 12/25/02
We left the BVIs at 14:30 on the 16th and after a very, very lumpy ride, we arrived in St. Martin around 8:30am the next day.  The wind was on our nose, as expected, but more velocity than anticipated.  It wouldn't have been bad if all the waves were coming from the same direction, but the seas were very confused so we were rocking, rolling and pounding much more than we would have liked.  Apparently this passage - the Anegada Passage - has a reputation of being rough.  We decided to try to put up the main and head slightly off the wind to stabilize us somewhat.  Fortunately Fred has a good grip as he was getting pushed all around on deck by the boom trying to get the main ready to put up.  Then we lost the halyhard.  Luckily we had shut George (our wind generator) down or the halyard would have probably gotten fowled in his propellers and that would have been the end of his blades.  Whew!  We were able to recover the halyard with a boat hook and eventually did get the sail up.  It helped, but not as much as we were hoping.  In light of the fun we had hoisting our main, our traveling friends on Significant Other decided not to try it and the continued pounding right into the waves....good decision on their part.

As you probably guessed no one got much sleep last night so Tuesday we were all moving rather slow.  We made it through and are very happy about that.  In looking back, next time we will make that passage in the daylight.  Would have made seeing the waves much easier and would have probably given us a better ride. Normally I would never suggest going into an anchorge at night, but Marigot on St. Martin is so open, no problem.

We went ashore to stretch our legs.  Lots of quaint bistros and duty free shops line the streets.   Tomorow, when we have more energy, we plan to do some hiking.

Marigot Bay & Simpson Lagoon

Fort Louis - checked it out on our hike

We started off exploring Marigot.  The town definitely showed its French culture with outdoor bistros / coffee houses.  Lots of duty free shops, but the delicious chocolate shop was Jan's favorite.  We were pleasantly suprised to find that most of the locals in the shops speak some English which made things much easier.  The US dollar is also widely accepted and at the time, pretty comparable to the Euro.  When asking for directions, we learned quickly that if we couldn't understand exactly what they were telling us, we'd give them a note pad and ask them to write it down.  Then we could look for the building, etc.   Much easier than trying to guess what they are saying.  One of the best finds was the market - there Wednesday & Saturdays.  The market is where vendors bring fresh fruits, vegetables and fish to sell.  We've been craving fresh fruits and veggies so we were very excited to go to the market.

Thursday the 19th was Jan's 60th birthday.  We heard all the good French restaurants were in Grand Case - just north of Marigot.  Decided to take the boats there to checkout the town.  Boy were they right.  One restaurant after another.   You could spend a month eating out and probalby not get to them all.  The menus varied from place to place and most had very nice atmospheres.  Mike & Jan found one that sounded good so they celebrated Jan's birthday day in style!

It was getting rather rough in the anchorage because the wind was picking up so we decided to head to the southern part of the island in hopes of better protected waters.  We ended up going to Simpson Bay because there we could checkout of the French side and check in to the Dutch side - Sint Maarten.  We ended up staying here a couple days.  Found several nice marine stores ashore in Simpson Lagoon - Budget Marine & Island Water World.  Best of all, their duty free!  In fact they ranked right up there with our West Marines back home if not better.  One thing about Sint. Maarten is that there are so many shops that whatever you need, you can probably find it on this island.  Also ran into new friends on the boat Voyager - Floyd & Joslin.  They are friends of a friend from back in Virginia.  One evening we checked out the local cruiser bar - Soggy Dollar.  Very good happy hour prices.  I can see why everyone goes there.

Simpson Bay was getting rather rolly because of the swells so we decided to move on to Philipsburg, Sint Maarten.   Here we found a very nice church - Saint Martin of Tours.  This is the port where the cruise ships come in and out of so needless to say there were lots of shops to enjoy.  This is also the home of the best internet cafe we've found so far - only $2.50/hour.  What a great deal.  The place is air conditioned and if you want you could enjoy a coffee and pastry while surfing.  Fred was like a kid in a candy shop.  He's been missing his Michigan and Xavier sports and was very glad to catch up.  We decided to stay here thru Christmas Eve.  Up until last week when we were singing Christmas carols in church, I was having a hard time thinking of it as being Christmas.  We did manage to spot a few Christmas trees around - but they were usually right next to a palm tree.  And with the 85 degree weather, we had to find our own version of a white Christmas.  And we did - instead of snow, we enjoyed a white sandy beach.  We went to mid-night mass with our friends, Mike & Jan.  The service was very moving.  The choir did a fantastic job and we enjoyed singing all our favorite Christmas carols.  At the end one of the natives did a very elegant dance to O'Holy Night.

Mike & Jan came over to our boat for Christmas dinner.  But we almost didn't let Mike aboard when we saw his attire - a Ba Humbug hat.  :-)  But we were overcome with Christmas spirit and welcomed him aboard.   Thanks to everyone's efforts, we had a terrific dinner.

Mike showing his Christmas spirit
 

St. Barthelemy (St. Barth) - 12/26/02 - 01/2/03
We made it over to St. Barths.  Good morning (or Bonjour) as we say it here in the French Islands!  :-)  Much different from St. Martin which is also a French island.  Here, you won't find signs in English and not as many people speak English.  Its much more European.  The streets are nice and clean.  Several nice boulangerie (bakeries) here.  Glad to have a French guide with us.  Had to experience a coffee and quiche yesterday morning.  Boy do they make their coffee strong!  And you wouldn't believe the mega yachts that pull in here.  Last night we sat in the cockpit and probably watched at least 10 yachts come in - all well over 150 ft.  Our boat is looking smaller and smaller everyday we're here.  We might have to leave soon.  :-)  We're anchored outside the main harbor so we decided to dingy in and watch some of these boats Mediterranean moor.  It was amazing to watch them drop two anchors, then back into a tiny space that would make me nervous with our boat.  You would see the many crew on each boat run for bumpers.  And boy, do they have big bumpers.  Anyway, we've been having fun watching how the rich people live.  You couldn't tell the economy was doing so bad from the looks of this place.

Gustavia - the inside harbor

Dining at one of the local Boulangerie/patisserie (Bakery)

We found a Catholic Church right in town for Mass on Sunday. It was our first experience with a mass that was ALL in French. We did not understand a word. But we knew what was happening and could follow along and hum a few of the hymns. The priest was very passionate about his message and kept our attention for the entire 30 minute homily. He waved his arms so much they almost didn't need the fans in there.

Wanted to see more of the island so the four of us got a taxi.  It was a very nice tour that took us from Gustavia to Saint Jean, Salines, Grand Fond, Cul De Sac, Marigo and Lorient.  Stopped at several of these places to enjoy the view.  Our taxi driver did a great job showing us around.  It sure is a beautiful island - expensive, but very nice.

One of the breath-taking scenes we saw on our tour

The New Years festivities sounded like fun so we decided to stick around for all the excitement. They built a stage for a band on the waterfront right behind 10 of the biggest mega yachts. It was fun watch all the crew scurry around making sure everything was in place for the owners/charterers. Most of them were decorated with flags, lights and some with balloons.

We didn't last until midnight downtown so we headed back to the boat for our own midnight celebration. Well it turned out to be quite an event. As mentioned earlier, there were so many mega yachts that a lot of them were anchored out by us. So when midnight came they all started blowing their very loud horns and some started shooting off flares. We responded with our own noise maker, the conch horn. Boy were Fred's lips sore after that. But the big fireworks were provided by St. Barth on a barge. They had about 20 minutes of outstanding fire works for us to enjoy our champagne with. It was quite a night.

The next day Fred went in to town to find a TV with ESPN for the Michigan Game. The place was a ghost town. Not a single business was open with exception of one bar with French cable, no ESPN!  Lucky for Fred the game was on the Single Sideband Radio on the Armed Services Network. This made his day and it was a great game to boot.

Significant Other left on the 1st to head back to St. Martin to pick up the electric motor for their refrigeration system they had ordered. The other one died back in the Virgin Islands and they had given us all their food from the freezer to keep until they got it fixed.  I don't think they noticed we picked up a few pounds since then.  Boy will they be disappointed when they ask for their food back!  Yum, yum!!  :-)

We stayed in St. Barth an extra day since according to reports, it was the smoothest anchorage around with the northeast swell scheduled to hit the area. We wanted to put another coat of Cetol on our exterior teak wood.  So first thing in the morning we got started and got a coat of the new glossy Cetol in place. Wouldn't you know it, 30 minutes later is starts pouring and it rained on and off all day. Well that's why they invented sand paper I guess. We'll try again in St. Kitts.  But all that work, oh well.