If you can only spend a short time down here in the Virgin Islands, you must come to St. John. It’s a splendid spot to relax and it keeps pulling us back. At the end of last week, we were in Cinnamon Bay, on the northerly side of the St John. After spending several days there, the boys met a child from another family and in short order where playing and swimming at the beach. Her name was Azaline and she harkened from a rugged family from Maine. These folks came to St John for two weeks and, unlike 99.9% of the rest of the tourists who sought out comfy beds and air conditioned restaurants, her family was tent camping at the Cinnamon Bay campground! The campground has bare sites, canvas tent setups, and small cottages. I walked up to the tent site to see for sure that they were camping — I was quite impressed! Some might consider our life on a boat to be similar in style to camping, but when it rains at least we could get some positive protection out of the way in the cabin, and we could take a lot more of our ‘stuff’ with us. I must tell you, Maine breeds some hardy folks! While I was walking around the campground with my Sunday River t-shirt, I ran into another Mainer kid, complete with a big backpack and canteen. A few days later, we noticed we were anchored right in between two other boats that had Portsmouth, NH as their hailing port. Yikes, it’s a New England invasion!
Ahh, but I’ve fallen off track. Here’s a shot of the boys and Azaline getting a little beach time in.
We were having so much fun, and despite the fact that we were low on water, we decided to stay at Cinnamon Bay another night. The next morning, we joined up with Azaline’s family, her father Alex, mother Gulley, and brother Alasdair, for a hike and snorkel at Waterlemon Cay, right around the corner from Cinnamon Bay. They had come to St John before and had been on most of the hikes, of which there are plenty, so we appreciated being able to hang out with them. At Waterlemon, we hiked up a trail that was overgrown with every imaginable varietal of pricker bush in existence, but were greeted with a nice view at the top from the ruins of an old plantation home. The island is covered with these ruins, some preserved, but most in their natural deteriorating state.
Not only were we low on water, but low on food in general, so our picnic lunch at the ruins was a simple cheese and cracker affair. I think we’ve had some variation on that theme for the last 3 lunches, and sometimes dinner. It reminds me of my summer backpacking trip through Europe with my brother, Todd, when we frequently dined on crackers, cheese, and perhaps sliced pepperoni — ahh, the simple life!
Alex spotted an Aloe plant on the way back down, and after cutting a leaf and handing us all sections, we all rubbed the juice over our pricker bush cuts. I can’t say that it had an immediate noticeable cut, but I sure felt like a rugged Mainer as my skin was covered in the green goo!
In the afternoon, we ventured into the water around Waterlemon Cay for some fine snorkeling. I took some more underwater pictures and hope to get these up on the website, just as soon as I can fine someone down here that can develop images and make jpg’s out of them.
We invited the Smith family for a sail the next morning to Red Hook on St. Thomas. We had to go there anyway to get water and reprovision. However, these plans were cast aside when, in the morning, I discovered that one of our kayaks had floated free of it’s line and was no where in sight. The wind was blowing offshore, which didn’t help matters either. We quickly switched into search and rescue mode. Karen and the boys took the big boat, and I jumped into the dinghy. We started scouring the shoreline and the outlying cays that were downwind of Cinnamon Bay. We spent several hours searching and searching, but to no avail. They are colored a very bright orange, but floating low to the water and being easily subjected to the wind and current, it could be far out to sea on it’s way to the Bahamas by now. The night before had been rainy and windy, too, so we called off the search and headed into Red Hook and anchored. To our surprise, as we headed into shore, Karen spotted something orange tied on to the stern of a nearby sailboat. As we got closer, it resembled more and more like the style of our kayak. Sure enough, it was! These folks had founded it floating that morning as they crossed the waters from the BVI’s to Red Hook. We were so lucky! They wouldn’t accept our gift of a couple bottles of wine. I guess this is another favor that we’ll be “paying forward.”
Red Hook is a small town on the eastern extremity of the island of St Thomas. St Thomas is as close to the US mainland as you can get down here. Mail is delivered by the US Postal Service, there are many of the same stores as there are state-side, and everyone seems to be in a shopping frenzy! Davis Murray, one of the rally organizers, lives on his boat in nearby Simpson Bay. He was quick to spot us out in the anchorage and came out for a beer and a chat. Having lived on St Thomas for 15 years, he was a wealth of insight to us newbies. He regaled us with stories like the nearby Ritz-Carlton that when built was permitted for two stories, but they ‘accidentally’ ended up with five stories. After those surrounding locals who lost their view protested, the Ritz was fined just $25,000. Then, there was the island taxi association. These guys are everywhere, driving around in their modified pickup trucks that hold an incredible number of people in the back with an appallingly little amount of legroom. Here’s a picture of one.
From the way Davis described it, these guys commanded an unusual amount of control over the island economy. When the Ritz wanted to put airport shuttles into service for their patrons, the taxi association simply said no and that was the end of the discussion. It might seem like cute way to travel on the roads, but they empty your pocket book faster then the slots in Vegas. They charge a set fare per person, and in my estimation, the per person fare is close to what a traditional taxi would cost in the states for how ever many people you shove in it. But load up these taxis, with their five or six rows of seats, and these guys are making a killing! If any of you want to make a good income down here, just buy yourself one of these funny looking taxis and you’ll be good to go!
I’m not sure how it happened, but we spent three nights in Red Hook. We had some repairs to make, some groceries to buy, and we needed water and fuel. Plus, there is this thing called “Christmas” coming up and children on a boat want some of the traditions they are familiar with to be repeated. Planning for this takes time and effort, especially when in an unfamiliar place! It will not be the typical at-home Christmas, but we hope to make it special nonetheless!
Tuesday, late afternoon, we weighed anchor and returned to St John, this time to Francis Bay, still on the north shore, next to Cinnamon Bay. This is the spot where the Christmas Eve gathering of Carib1500 boats will be, and we’ve decided to settle in here for a week or so. Each day, a couple more familiar boats arrive in the mooring field. It is fun to see familiar faces and boats! We will miss seeing Heaven Won’t Wait over the holidays, but we did get to enjoy a holiday dinner on their boat before they flew home for three weeks.
We were greeted by several boats who had put up holiday lights, so we wasted no time in showing off ours! We had purchased three strings of multi-colored lights a while back and now had the opportunity to use them. We attached the center of this long string to a halyard and hoisted it up to the top of the mast. The two ends were then secured off to the fore and back stays to make a modified Christmas-tree shape. Of course, this took so much power that we now have to run our engine while we are “lit”! I guess that is what the other Christmas boats do as well. Everyone keeps their lights on for a few hours, then the anchorage goes dark!
Wednesday was taken up mostly with boat projects and school work. We went ashore in the afternoon for a walk and a swim, but it was otherwise a very mellow day — something we all needed. This week, both boys succeeded in getting their school work done by early Thursday afternoon. We shoot for this goal each week … however, this is the first week we have actually arrived at the goal! We took advantage of the free afternoon to snorkel and were treated to some great sights! I am sure we will return to this location before we leave St. John.
During the week, we were having some problems with our SSB radio and sending email through it. Since internet connections are difficult to find down here, it was our primary means of staying in touch with friends. After removing and checking nearly every electrical connection, including this deep dive into one of the cockpit lockers, I found a faulty isolator. We are now back up and running!
We ended the week with a relaxing cocktail and appetizer hour with our neighboring rally boats, including Arctic Tern, Asseance, and Braveheart.
The couple on the left, Heather and Don from Asseance are (yet another!) Canadian contingent down here. We first met them in Lockeport, Nova Scotia one late night as we pulled into the public dock there. We had a pleasant chat that evening and then bid adieu, having no idea that we would run into them at the first gathering of rally participants in Hampton! They are from Toronto and are on an open-ended trip through the Caribbean, including possibly through the western portion and Panama Canal. As a cruiser you meet many people and then never see them again, at least that is how it feels initially. Then, like Heather and Don, you can run into them suddenly again and you have the chance to share newfound experiences with each other. We don’t have our family with us this holiday season, but we feel blessed to be in the company of so many kind folks.
We wish you all the best during the holidays!