USVI - 2009

As promised, a small blurb first about the sail to St John, USVI. When we left Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke the skies looked ominous, with a whole bunch of small squalls looming. We had already cleared out so figured, what the heck, we won't have any problems - and we didn't really. I say that now and think of the last blog where I said we are better sailors now than we were then. This kind of showed itself because of course after we left JVD, it seemed all the squalls combined into a line to windward of us and then descended with a crunch.

We had the main and foresail up as we were sailing but the wind picked up quickly so we started to take the f0resail down but before I took the first full pull on the furling line, the wind and rain and total blindness hit us. We immediately turned into the wind to take the stress off the sails and keep us upright but we had left it a little late and I had to use all my strength and a few good primeval howls to bring the sail in. ho-hum, all in a days work.

We got to Caneel Bay, just around the corner from Cruz Bay, where customs reside, about noon. Practically the entire island of St John is a national park so there is no anchoring but the mooring balls are relatively inexpensive and very well maintained so we picked up a ball and went in to clear in and take a look around Cruz Bay. This is the capitol of St John and quite an interesting town although the prices and the kinds of shops they have are very much geared to tourists and cruise ships. Of course all of USVI is a very popular spot for american tourists as it belongs to the US, is fairly easy for them to get to and is duty free.

We stayed in Caneel Bay for 2 days and decided to sail down to St Thomas - Charlotte Amalie to be exact - to stock up and maybe do some Christmas shopping. When we were home in September Cheryl was thinking ahead and got me a Christmas present but of course I am very much into today and maybe tomorrow - further than that and I get confused - so I still had my shopping to do. Charlotte Amalie is the capital of St Thomas and is really kind of a neat city. We went for a long walk down the waterfront street and also checked into customs to ask for clarification on something we had been told by the Cruz Bay customs - that we didn't need to bother checking out when we left. The lady in customs said it was a good thing we had gone there because of course we do have to check out and knowing their paranoia, if we hadn't checked out they would have sent Homeland Security after us!!

After staying a couple of days in Charlotte Amalie we decided to sail up to Francis Bay on St John. This blog is running on so we will pick up the next blog on the way to Francis Bay.

On Caneel Bay

Then and Now

Here we go again - time to catch up!!

We last sent something about Tortola and what we were doing there so we will move on from there and talk about the rest of our BVI time.

We finally met with Clive and talked about the boat and how best to look at our decision to go home and look after our first love - our acreage.

For those of you who did not get the message, we have been having very bad luck with the renters we have had at the acreage.When we were home in September we were both very upset by the condition of the grounds as left by the last tenants and also with the seeming lack of interest by the tenants living there in September. Well, that situation got very much worse so with great sadness and regret we made the decision to sell Mystic Journey and come home. There were other factors of course - missing things going on with family that we wouldn't be able to instant replay and of course the ongoing expense of maintaining the boat. Overall it was the only sensible decision - of course for those who know me (Griff), when has that ever been a factor.

So, Clive was helpful and we did the paperwork necessary and the following day we left for Norman Island. This is a medium sized island with very little on it but a couple of restaurants and maybe a resort. The water is clear and the snorkeling is good though, so we spent a couple of days relaxing after quite a bit of pesky boat work. From the boat we watched three pelicans on the shore 'diving' from the rocks into the water. When we snorkeled past we could see why. The water between the large rocks was teaming with little fishes. The pelicans didn't have to dive very deep to get a beak full. We also saw some fish species that we hadn't seen before - a large grouper under the boat, a French Angelfish, Stoplight Parrot Fish (their tails are striped red, green and yellow down the middle). We also saw a ray, Sargent Major Fish and many, many more. The coral wasn't that spectacular, but the fish variety was. Unfortunately no pictures - no camera.

After we left Norman Island we stopped in Nanny Cay to fuel/water up, touch base with Clive and then sailed around to Little Harbour, Jost Van Dyke. We had a few reasons for going that way. We had enjoyed JVD both previous times we had been there, we wanted to see if our license plate was still up at Foxy's (it was although our signatures had worn away) and there are customs there so we could clear out before going to USVI. We stayed the first night at Little Harbour and the second at Great Harbour, where customs resides. As with most anchorages we have been in in BVI, both of these harbours had mooring balls. In Little Harbour we had barely picked up the mooring line when out came a couple of local boats. One was from a restaurant on shore with his menu. The other was Cynthia from Harris' Place, another restaurant. She had her menu, but she also was there to collect the $25US mooring fee. We were the first ones to pick up a mooring that day and we watched her do the same with every boat that came in after us.

While at Great Harbour we went for one of our normal walks - as usual mostly uphill - and we got adopted. There was a little dog - about 15" long and 6" high, with a back leg that had obviously been broken and not set. The paw as turned sideways and the leg didn't bend at the "knee" joint. Anyway, he adopted us and followed us on our journey. If we stopped, he would stop and wait in the shade and when we started again, he would stay with us. He was obviously known by the natives because three of four of them called him by name and tried to get him to come to them but he stayed with us all the way. The walk included some pretty steep uphill work but he persevered. He finally left us after we got back down to the village. Cool!!

Something we had both forgotten was the amount of constant wind up here. Maybe it is because it is the winter season and we are farther north or maybe we just have faulty memories but whatever the reason, our wind generator loves it. Of course there is also a lot more rain on a regular basis too but we take the good with the not as good.

The reason for the title relates to the wind and the sailing. We sailed from Fat Hog Bay to Norman Island to Nanny Cay to Jost Van Dyke (and we are now in Caneel Bay, St John, USVI) and each leg seemed to go so much quicker that we remembered. Just in case we were both getting Alzheimer's, we checked our logbook for the last time we were here and in fact we are getting around a lot faster. The other nice thing about the wind is we can sail everywhere, even though we have to do some tacking and gybing and stuff. It is so nice though to leave the anchorage and within minutes be sailing at 7-8 knots with total quiet. Of course we have to keep an eye out for "charterers" (you've heard of "them" of course) but the whole experience really shows how much our sailing skills have improved. We may even be sailors some day!!!

So, that is it for the BVI's for now. The next blog will be about our sail to here (nice big squall - high, high winds) and about some of the revisiting we are doing.

Stay tuned.