Francis Bay, St John - USVI (Jason this is the real one!)

Weeee're back!

Had a pretty good sail from Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas to Francis Bay although we sailed to the wind and not to specific waypoints. The difference is - sailing to waypoints you preplan your course and sail it based on setting up legs designed to get you from point A to B to C etc, meanwhile missing things like rocks and islands and all that stuff. You put the course into the chart plotter and the handheld GPS and then go from point to point. That works if you have winds and seas that cooperate. It is also usually used on longer trips.

Sailing to the wind is just what is says. You know where you are going but you get there using the wind to its' best advantage - each leg is sailed using the wind most advantageously. It usually involves lots of gybing and coming about (tacking) and is great for up here in the Virgins where the sailing is kind of line of sight due to the islands being so close. You still use the chart plotter but more as a map of where you are in relation to those rocks and islands you still want to miss!!

Anyway, back to Francis Bay - we were actually heading for Maho Bay, which is a small bay next to Francis Bay that, on the charts, seems more protected. As I said before, all of the National Park anchorages are protected so mooring balls are mandatory. When we got to Maho, we picked up a mooring ball and then of course the first thing we check is to see if we have wifi. Our friend Dave on Daniell Storey had said there was wifi in Francis so we hoped Maho would have it too but no such luck so we moved about 500 yards/metres into Francis Bay and were able to get a fair signal.

Francis Bay has 28 mooring balls and access to 3 beaches, Francis Bay, Maho Bay and what Cheryl and I called Little Maho. It is in the middle and has a path that leads up to an Eco-camp type resort. You stay in little cabins or tents BUT, because it has "Eco" attached to it they are still able to charge $155.00 Us per night. Go figure.

Some of the things we have done while we have been here - walked to Trunk Bay and Cinnamon Bay by accessing Maho beach and going southwest from there. Walked to Coral Cove (they call it Love City because it is a haven for hippies who still believe they are hippies) by heading southeast from Francis Bay beach. It is funny that although they are side by side, Francis Bay beach and Maho Bay beach do not connect over land and the roads that run behind them are different "highways".

We also walked to Watermelon Bay which is part of Leinster Bay on the north side of St John. While visiting these places we accessed the Annaberg ruins - an old sugar mill and Annaberg school about 5 miles away from the mill. The school was set up to educate the children of the ex-slaves who stayed to work when they were supposedly emancipated. There were supposed to be 5 schools set up but only one got used. This was all during the time that St John belonged to Denmark. The US bought St John from them for $25 million back in the early 1900's.

We also saw ruins of another sugar mill at Cinnamon Bay and we would periodically explore ruins that had no name and no way to tell what they had been or who used them. Incidentally, none of these ruins have been restored in the manner that most historical sites we visited down island have been. Local people have done some volunteer work but that was more just brush clearing and rubble removal and putting up signs that say don't climb on the ruins.

Needless to say, all of these walks that Cheryl and I went on were up and down hills that were constructed with no need to worry about snow so of course they were STEEP!! The shortest walk we did was likely 2 miles and the longest about 8 miles so we were definitely getting our exercise. Oh and we visited the "eco-camp" and noted in the mini-store they had there that the crunchy Cheetos (I used to have a weakness but got all better!!) were $7.70 US and when we looked at the same thing in a store in Coral Cove, they were $3.95 US. Eco-camp indeed!!

On these walks we also noted more animal life than we usually have seen on other islands. Of course we saw the usual goats and sheep, chickens and dogs. However we also saw deer, donkeys, pelicans and lots of termite nests. We even saw a row of termites going across the road. Termites are blind and follow each other head to tail. On the trees you can see their trails as raised dark brown lines on the trunk. There was a similar line going across the road. At one point it had been broken open, presumably by the sheep that had run ahead of us, and you could see the termites themselves. We have also seen lots of fish, both snorkelling along shore and beside the boat. Lots of fingerlings in both places. The fingerlings were so thick that at times you really couldn't see beyond the school. The numbers certainly explain why the pelicans are also numerous here. They sort of "jump" off the water, coast a couple of feet and then head back into the water beak first. Then they float and you can see them 'tossing' the fish from their beaks to their throats. Very interesting to watch.

I wanted to do this blog to catch up because we are hoping to do a Christmas blog from Caneel Bay, which we are going back to tomorrow so we will have a strong Wifi for Christmas Day.
So, next blog - Christmas!!!!