Places We've Been and People We've Met

Since our last entry we have finally been out of the marina. We spent 3 days travelling to and from St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. I can't say we spent it sailing because we were only able to use the stay sail and motored most of the time, but we did get there.

We anchored in the harbour at Charlotte Amelie, the capital, and used the dinghy to get back and forth to town. We were able to get alot of the tools and household items we still needed - less expensive than in BVI because of the lack of duty. We met the most delightful lady there as we were finishing our shopping at K-Mart. She asked us if we needed a taxi. I had the impression that she was using her own car and wasn't really a full time taxi driver. As she drove us to the Ace Hardware for tools she gave a running commentary of the buildings we were passing and some of the history of the island.

We made the trip with Bryan Ruegg, the instructor from the school we had hired. He had an interesting history of getting his Captain's papers at the age of 23 and a degree in biology. He has captained gambling boats, worked on tall ships, works around the Cape Horn part of the year with other biologists, and teaches sailing. He was patient and helped Griff work through the problems we had with the engine on the trip. He met up with some of his friends from a tall ship and was going to set up a visit to the ship for us, but unfortunately we ran out of time because we needed to get back to Nanny Cay by Friday.

On the trip we stopped at Cruz Bay, USVI and Soper's Hole, BVI. These stops were just long enough to clear customs.

We thought we would share a little bit about the people we have met here in Nanny Cay. When we first were here we were in a slip next to the Tropic Star who is owned by Dave from New York. He was a wealth of information about which workmen were best for what jobs. He has been sailing for a while and stays in this area priimarily.

Then there were Burn and his wife Pat from Chicago on the Lucky Break. They too stay in the BVI area. Burn said they have been sailing for 10 years and didn't know a thing about sailing when they first bought the boat, but the boat taught them alot. They are selling their boat now because he has been diagnosed with cancer and does not have the strength to sail any more.

While Mystic Journey was still up on the hard we met Tom from Alaska. His boat, the Turning Point, was on the hard next to ours. He had been here for two months waiting for them to finish a job that should have taken 2 weeks. He decided to head out and come back next year to sail "down island".

As you can tell from what I said about problems with the boat that Bryan and Griff had to work on, the trip was not what we had hoped it would be but the reality is that the worst day down here on a boat we own sailing the Caribbean could not be a bad day.