Monday 19th February

Lameshure Bay, St John Island
US Virgin Islands

18 18.858 N
64 43.357 W

We thought we’d start out fairly early today and make our way over to a snorkeling spot known as The Indians, so just before 08.00hrs we hauled up the anchor – no easy task as it was set quite firmly and we were surrounded by charter boats which had anchored over top of our anchor. We thought we were going to have to wake some people up to get them to move away from our anchor but in the end we managed to avoid them and get our anchor on board. With Mark at the helm we motored out of the harbour following Dale and Lorie towards the snorkeling spot which was about an hour away. The water was like glass and there wasn’t a breath of wind anywhere so our motoring speed was pretty fast. At one point we had to radio Dale to ask where he was going as he seemed to be heading somewhere that we weren’t going to – he said that he was just doing the scenic route – yeah right Dale! Dale and Lorie arrived at The Indians a few minutes before us and were lucky enough to grab a mooring that someone was just vacating. The mooring balls around The Indians are limited, I think there are about10 of them and at any given time there must be 20 boats wanting a mooring, you aren’t supposed to anchor around places that have moorings so we had to put the motor to idle and spent the next hour waiting for a mooring to become available. With all the other boats waiting it gets to be a bit of a race to get to a mooring that is being vacated and there is no honour amongst charter boaters – they don’t wait for their turn, it’s a case of whoever gets to the mooring first wins! Once we finally got tied onto a mooring it was time to put the snorkeling gear on and hit the water. We had borrowed a spare mask strap from Dale to replace the one on Gerry’s mask that had perished so Mark had no excuse to stay out of the water this time. Mark claims he’s a crap swimmer – his words not mine! I’ve seen a lot worse and I think he underestimates his ability, he stays afloat and moves forward – that’s a good start. As it was his first try at snorkeling Mark found it a bit confining to wear a mask and had difficulty getting use to the breathing through the snorkel but he did very well for his first attempt, we just hope he will try it again as it does get better with perseverance. Rose and I took off and went all the way around The Indians, looking at the beautiful reef fish which are every colour of the rainbow. Gerry and Mark headed back to the boat and when we had finished snorkeling Rose and I joined them, showered off on the transom (back step of the boat!) and then we quickly dropped our mooring line as there were other boats waiting. The weather was supposed to be closing in and we were meant to be getting some rain so we decided to make our next stop at Lameshure Bay - back on St John Island in the US Virgin Islands. The Bay was protected from the weather which was coming from the North. As we motored around to the bay the clouds began gathering and the wind picked up, we snuck into the bay just ahead of the first few splashes of rain and tied up to a mooring ball. Gerry Rose and Mark took the dink into the ranger’s hut and paid our mooring fee whilst I fiddled about chopping up vegetables and fruit for dinner. On their return Gerry had a sleep for a couple of hours and then it was cocktail time, we were going to Dale and Lories’ boat for the event so I mixed up a batch of strawberry daquiries, made a crab dip and then it was time to go. Another couple that Dale and Lorie knew from their travels joined us for cocktails and we spent a couple of hours drinking and exchanging stories before heading back to our boat. We just beat the rain which began in earnest shortly after our return, Our Bar b que dinner almost turned out to be a steamboat but it was quite delicious anyway. We weren’t quite ready for bed so we dug out the videos and watched Johnny English for the millionth time before retiring.

Saturday 17th February

Leinster Bay, St John,
US Virgin Islands

18 21.909 N
64 43.429 W

Saturday dawned with sunshine and light winds. A quick check outside revealed the arrival of a cruise ship about the size of Wolverhampton. We encountered a slight problem with the aft head in the early part of the morning – it wouldn’t pump out so Gerry ended up taking the pipe work apart and removing all the gunk from the pipe. During the removal of “stuff” – use your imagination here after all it is a toilet, he discovered a cap from the top of a bottle blocking the pipe – the culprit of the pumping problem! Once the pipe was cleared Gerry changed out the joker valve for good measure and then cleaned up the mess resulting from the investigation. Gerry cooked up a quick breakfast…gluten free for those afflicted and it was into the dink for a shopping trip at the Straw Market in St Thomas so named because they used to sell items such as hats made from straw. These days there is nothing made of straw but everything else you can think of. The ladies set off in search of bargains while the guys went on a shopping trip of their own. Gerry had to collect a Valentine piece of jewellery but we found time for a large espresso before returning to the store to collect the item. Then it was back to the dock to find the sea had picked up and Gerry had the fun of ensuring the ladies sitting in the front of the dink caught plenty of spray. Back on board it was time to haul the dink up and head off under power out of St Thomas harbour with a hapless Mark at the wheel and nodding sagely at the detailed instructions. The destination was Leinster Bay – about 14 miles as the crow flies from St Thomas. Unfavourable winds meant we were under power for much of the bay but the sails did get an airing. On arrival we anchored temporarily until a mooring became free. It was then time to try snorkeling for Rose and Mark – complete novices. Rose took to it well and saw all manner of fishy stuff off the reef including three barracudas – not the most friendly types in the world. Mark – not the keenest of swimmers – was given a reprieve from drowning as the mask he was going to use broke. Rose even survived an attack of cramp to get on board in time to see the sun go down and for rum punch to appear. Then it was dinner and more rum punch in the picturesque anchorage.

Friday 16th February

St Thomas,
US Virgin Islands

18 20.252 N
64 55.728 W

CONGRATULATIONS TO JULIA AND BRENDON ON YOUR MARRIAGE, WE WISH YOU EVERY HAPPINESS FOR YOUR FUTURE TOGETHER.

Today began with a general clean up of the boat and then we had to reassemble the bed in the V berth as Rose and Mark were due to arrive. Putting the covers back on the cushions turned into a job and a half – who’s idea was it to wash them anyway? Eventually we got it done and found places to store the things that normally live on top of the bunk – like the bike, the laundry basket, the cans of drink and some other odds and ends, we just have to remember where it all is now! Then we cleaned out the forward head, found a new place to keep the ice machine whilst we have our friends staying. At last we decided that we were as ready for visitors as we will ever be, we are really looking forward to having them stay and just hope that they can deal with life onboard a boat – it is very different to being in a house that doesn’t move around and the space is a lot more limiting. We have plans on where we want to take them and what we want to do whilst they are with us, I’m sure they will enjoy some of it (if we can keep them sober enough!). By the time lunchtime came around we were ready to go ashore so we radioed Dale and Lorie and arranged to meet them at the town dock. Once we had all met up we decided to try the paninis at the internet café, we must have been late for lunch as they had a very limited selection left but what we had were good. We sat chatting for the next hour and then it was time for Gerry and I to get a taxi to the airport – we didn’t want to be late to pick up Rose and Mark. The trip out to the airport always takes a bit longer than you imagine as there is traffic going all over the place, mostly on the road but you can never be sure. We waited for about 15 minutes and the plane landed, of course Rose and Mark were at the back of the plane so they were amongst the last to deplane. Just inside the terminal the Cruzan rum company had a stall set up and they were giving away free rum punch to arriving passengers, we couldn’t hold them back, they headed straight to the stand and helped themselves to a drink. Mark said it was the first but I’m doubtful! (Lucy, Katie and Matthew – don’t worry it won’t be us leading them astray!) Anyway after the drink we collected the luggage – they did really well, only 2 small soft bags, which was just as well as any more would have gone over the side of the boat and then we headed to the taxis and caught a 15 seater back to the dock. Dale had offered us the use of their larger dink to transport everyone plus luggage back to our boat so we loaded it down and then took off, geeze Dale did you tell Gerry to treat it like a hire car? He drove it so fast we were airborne and it skids into boats really well, as for fuel sorry there’s none left but we had to do a tour of the entire Caribbean before we got to our boat, I just know that you would have treated our dink with a lot more respect and decorum. We gave Rose and Mark a cooks tour of our boat and introduced them to the joys of using a toilet and shower onboard, I even wrote up an instruction sheet for them to refer to as the last thing we need is the toilet flooding and the boat sinking because of it. We gave them just enough time to unpack and then we forced them back into the dink and headed into town for drinks and dinner. We tried 2 places before eventually settling on a third and then we enjoyed a very nice meal and just a couple of drinks, OK so what if they were very large ones. We staggered back to the dink (we had our own one back now so it was a tighter fit going back) and roared back out to the boat where after showers and cups of tea we settled in for the night.

Thursday 15th February

St Thomas,
US Virgin Islands

18 20.252 N
64 55.728 W

After a short sleep in and breakfast we loaded up the dink and set off for the town dock. I wanted to do some window shopping, preferably without Gerry hurrying me along, but he wanted to come along. We met up with Dale and Lorie and split up into the boys and the girls and then set about doing separate jobs. The boys needed to go to the internet café as Dale had a problem with logging off his internet connection, meanwhile Lorie and I began browsing the art store and then the first gift shop we came across. It seemed no time at all and the guys were back with us asking where we needed to go next – they just don’t understand that window shopping isn’t an exact science – Lorie and I were just going where ever our fancy took us! Gerry wanted to go to a nearby marina to see if there was a chandlers there as we want to replace the jib furling line, the marina was a bit of a distance away and we were best off getting back in the dink and going around the harbour to another docking place. The other dock was a very rickety old floating pontoon which had half a dozen dinks already tied up to it when we got there but we managed to muscle our way into a space and secured our dink. We then set off walking to the new marina, which we discovered is still being completed, the docks are in place but the shops and facilities are not all complete and the chandlers we had hoped to find doesn’t exist yet. Having bombed out on that Lorie suggested that we make our way to the supermarket which was a short distance further on and she pointed out the laundry on the way. We had to buy a couple of grocery items which then meant a long walk back to the dink and then a trip out to the boat to drop them off. Having rid ourselves of groceries we returned to the town dock and stopped for coffee and then an early lunch. Lorie and I insisted that we wanted to continue our window shopping and told the guys that they could go back to the boats if they wanted – we didn’t need them to keep tabs on our spending but they said they wanted to come with us (I think they were just afraid to let us loose with all the duty free jewelry shops that exist here to satisfy the cruise ship patrons). Anyway we made them weary by going up and down each alley way of shops, with us looking at “stuff” whilst they tried to find the “bored husband seats” that seem to be strategically placed throughout the town. Lorie and I went into one jewelry shop where Lorie enquired if they had any conch pearls – she wanted to see what they looked like as I had told her about one we had seen in the Bahamas which was beautiful and cost about $5000. Anyway we were handed over to the owner of the store who produced 2 of the rare pearls from her select boxes beneath the counter and she proceeded to tell us all about how rare they were and the attributes of one of the particular pearls she was showing us, I didn’t think it was anywhere near as pretty as the one in the Bahamas but it was larger. The owner also drew a couple of settings which she though would show the pearl off to its best advantage, showing us chains that would complement the designs. Eventually Lorie asked the million dollar question – the pearl cost $7000 without any chain or setting, at this point Gerry appeared in the shop to see what was keeping us for so long. I jokingly asked him if I could have the pearl, his face was a picture and he just replied that he’d see us outside. I think at this point the shop owner realized that she wasn’t going to make a sale and packed away her pearls and other bits that she had got out to entice us without uttering another word. Lorie and I politely thanked her and left the store but I think she was a bit miffed at us for not being rich cruise liner patrons instead of grotty yachties! Lorie and I were unperturbed and continued our browsing with the guys following along, eventually they got bored and started to buy themselves drinks as we went, oh and some Belgian chocolates too! When Lorie and I stopped for a cold drink the guys finally agreed to take one dink back to the boats and leave us the other dink so we could finish our browsing and return to the boats when we were ready. By now there was only about another hour until the shops closed anyway so we made the most of the hour browsing finally making our way towards the open air market where I purchased a couple of sarongs then we headed back to the dink and Lorie dropped me off at our boat. Gerry had cooked up a batch of spaghetti sauce, Lorie made salad and we shared dinner before retiring for the night.

Wednesday 14th February

St Thomas,
U.S. Virgin Islands

18 20.252 N
64 55.728 W

Gerry had told me that we would be setting off at 09.00hrs, however at 08.00hrs he was up and ready to leave, as were Dale and Lorie, I had to quickly drag myself to consciousness and make my way out on deck where Gerry was ready to leave, having dropped the mooring ball and the motor was running. It took me a while to stop yawning and appreciate the new day. The forecast was 100 % wrong and the wind was on the nose so we couldn’t sail to St Thomas, to make it worse the swell was knocking us about a bit at the beginning of the trip, happily it dropped pretty quickly and the rest of the trip was relatively comfortable. We arrived at Charlotte Amalie harbour and dropped our anchor, the harbour was fairly full of boats of every description, including 3 enormous cruise liners which dwarf all of us. We took the dink off the deck and once it had the outboard attached we took off into the town dock, securing the dink with a padlock to the rings on the dock. From there it was a short walk to a local roti shop where we enjoyed a spicy lunch. As it was Valentine’s Day Dale had decided to buy Lorie a piece of jewelry so we headed off towards the duty free downtown shops. Dale has a favourite shop and we ended up there, Lorie picked out her gift whilst Gerry and I walked along looking at a few other shops. We bought a waterproof case for our camera, similar to the one Lorie has but it doesn't allow us to take the camera to the same depth as hers; then we found the internet café and had a coffee whilst we checked our email, Dale and Lorie caught up with us there and from there we walked down to the street market and browsed amongst the stalls which sell mainly souvenirs, I think I may have to return there by myself to make a couple of purchases. Finally we reclaimed our dinghy and put-putted back out to our boat. We had eaten so much at lunchtime that we didn’t bother with dinner and eventually went to bed.