At Coral Harbor, we dinghied over to the dinghy dock and Norma treated us to lunch at Skinny Legs. "Best burgers on the island!" That comment makes us laugh, because almost every restaurant we've been to has said that. However, these burgers WERE delicious. We took a walk around, found a man selling fresh fruit and homemade bread (there's breakfast tomorrow!), and went to Pickles Deli to buy a bag of ice.
Once we got back to the boat, we decided to head back to Lameshur for the night. It's a much more peaceful, protected, and picturesque bay. We actually got to sail back (yahoo!) instead of motoring, so that was Norma's thrill for the day. When we arrived, there was only one mooring ball left in the entire anchorage--and it was the one we left this morning. Perfect! Home again.
Monday, January 16, 2017
We had a lovely downwind sail all the way to Red Hook this morning in twenty knot winds. We were deeply reefed, and we were still going at over 6 knots. We had decided to go to the American Yacht Harbor marina for the night, because Norma wanted to take us out for a nice meal on her last night with us. When we arrived at AYH, the winds were howling straight into the bay and Carey didn't think we could make a safe landing at a dock, so we turned around and motored over to Great Bay. It's a little rolly here, but definitely more protected so we are going to make the best of it and go out for dinner at the Ritz. Woohoo!
After lunch, just as we were about to dinghy over to the Ritz beach for a walk around the area, it started to rain. We delayed our departure for a few minutes and then we were off. We hiked along the road and did a big loop until we were back at the Ritz. It's not really safe to walk along the road, because it is narrow and the drivers don't always move over for walkers. Yikes!
Back at the Ritz, we made reservations for dinner and Norma picked up a flyer for places to eat in St. Thomas. There was a 2-for-1 coupon inside for Zest, the frozen yoghurt shop right there at the Ritz, so we wandered over and made ourselves some delicious sundaes. As it turned out, the coupon was for $20 off, so we got all three for free! Now, that's my kind of deal!
We returned to the boat, cleaned up for supper, and dinghied back to the beach for dinner at Essenza. Norma was treating us, and insisted that we order drinks, appetizers, sides, and mains. Well, allrightee! We all had really delicious meals, then ordered a chocolate dessert to take back with us.
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
After breakfast, Norma started packing and cleaning. Talk about a perfect guest--she cleaned everything in the vee berth, even the ceiling! It looks great now. Thanks, Norma!
We had a light lunch, shared the scrumptious chocolate dessert from the Ritz, and then dinghied Norma over to the Ritz just after 1:00 so she could catch a cab to the airport. All went as planned.
Wednesday. January 18, 2017
We sailed away from Lameshur Bay at 8:30 am. The forecast was for 20 knot winds (about 40 km) and 6 foot swells, and that's pretty much what we got. The swells were on our beam, for the most part, which made it quite a roller coaster ride--sideways. By 9:00, we could see the island of St. Croix which was still 35 nautical miles away. We were hand steering because our batteries were low and the autopilot takes too much juice. We are depending on our solar panels today, because we aren't running the engine. We saw several flying fish skimming above the water and then we saw two frigate birds grab a flying fish above the surface right out of the air. Very cool.
We've seen a couple of power boats out here today, but that's about it. At home, we wouldn't go out in this weather, but that has more to do with docking than sailing. It's no fun docking in high winds. Ugh. On this ocean passage we go over the Puerto Rico Trench which is 12,732 feet deep here! Wow! That's a lot of water under our keel.
When we arrived in the Christiansted Harbour, we fuelled up and then looked for a place to anchor. It's very crowded, so that was tougher than it should have been. We finally found a spot we thought would be protected, dropped anchor, and then was told the Coast Guard didn't want anyone anchoring that close to their underwater power cables. Aaaarrrrggghhh! We lifted anchor and headed for the anchorage near Altoona Park. It didn't look nearly as protected, so we prepared ourselves for a rolly night. Also, it's too far to the shore and too windy to take our dinghy off the bow. Hmmmm, I guess we'll stay onboard for tonight.
Thursday, January 19, 2017
The anchorage near Altoona Park at Christiansted Harbor wasn't nearly as rolly as we expected, so we both had a good night sleep. However, we decided to make a move that would work better for us. The long dinghy ride from this anchorage would take us forever and use up all of our dinghy battery power (if we could safely launch the dinghy at all). We decided to go east about three miles and stay at the Green Cay Marina. They have laundry, restaurants, wifi, and power to recharge our boat and dinghy batteries.
By 10:30, we were tied to a Green Cay Marina dock (A17). It's a little tricky getting tied up because it has spiles on the stern (which we had to lasso) and a tiny finger dock where we could climb on and off the boat. Good thing we have long legs! While we were tying up, a trumpetfish swam by. Trumpetfish are long skinny fish--very distinctive.
As I approached the office two very large, colourful iguanas speedily waddled toward me on the dock. They didn't seem phased to be that close to a human at all. One of them ran by me and jumped off the dock into the water. The other hesitated for a minute and then followed his brother to the edge. He didn't feel like a swim, I guess, and just sat there posing for me. I continued on to the office and saw four more iguanas on the lawn. Wow, lotsa iguanas!
Now that we have a decent place to stay, we decided to get a taxi to go back to explore Christiansted. Andy's Taxi arrived and he apologized for being late. He said his middle name is punctuality. I said mine was, too! He said, April? Yes, I replied, catching onto his train of thought. 'Taurus?' Yes! Bosom buddies right off the bat. LOL. Andy is an old guy who talks and laughs and knows everyone. He took us into town and said he would be back in a couple of hours to pick us up. Before he left, he pointed out the huge tarpon hanging around the docks looking for a handout. There were at least 12 of them and they were from 3-6 feet long.
We had lunch at Rum Runners. Their slogan is: The liver is evil. It must be punished. LOL. So, we punished our livers with a Rum Runner. After lunch we sauntered along the boardwalk that runs all along the shoreline. It's very pretty, with colourful historical buildings on one side and lots of boats moored in the harbour on the other side.
Andy picked us up around 4:10 (Mr. Punctuality, he's not), and we headed back to the marina to get our laundry done. Later, around 8:00, we went to Galleons Restaurant right here at the marina for an appetizer dinner. Yummy crab cakes and summer salad. Delicious!
Friday, January 20, 2017
This morning, we are headed out for a tour of the island.
St. Croix is located 35 miles south of the other Virgin Islands and has an area of 84 square miles, 28 miles east-to-west and seven miles north to south at its widest point. Its population is about 52,000. It is quite beautiful--moderately mountainous, green and lush. The tallest mountain is 1200 feet high.
Andy, the taxi driver cum tour guide, picked us up at 9:00 and took us sightseeing and told us about the island. Like the other Virgin Islands, they drive on the left side of the road here. There are 3 golf courses on St. Croix. Yesterday, on our way to Green Cay Marina, we saw the Buccaneer Golf Course which has a par three hole right on the coast. That beautiful coastal view would be very distracting when you're trying to make a putt. Mahogany trees line the roads here and we saw a mongoose race across the road. There are no waterfalls or freshwater rivers on St. Croix. They capture water from their roofs and it runs into a cistern. Next on the agenda was a tour of the Cruzan Rum Distillery. They make their rum with molasses. The tour was very interesting. The vat where they added yeast was bubbling and swirling, which was all due to the yeast. Talk about active yeast! No stirring or agitating needed.
After the tour, which took an hour instead of the promised half hour, we were given rum samples and a rum drink called an Illusion (coconut rum, mango rum, and pineapple juice). Delicious, but a little earlier than we usually drink. We jumped back in the cab and headed for Fredericksted, on the west end of St. Croix. It's a pleasant place and we took a short stroll along their waterfront, then back in the van with Andy. Andy sprinkled his sightseeing tour with biblical songs and stories. Hmmmmm, not exactly what we signed up for. We headed back toward Christiansted and Andy's air conditioning quit and his engine light came on. Carey encouraged him to pull into a service station so they could check the radiator. Carey helped him add water to the rad and make sure everything was okay. We all climbed back in and motored toward our marina, where we said goodbye to Andy. Not your typical day with a taxi driver, but everything goes in the Caribbean. No, no rebate for Carey's mechanical help from Andy, but none expected.
We walked to the Deep End, a bar and grill on the resort, for a late lunch. One of the workers gave us a ride in his golf cart, which was great because the bright sun is hot! It is so clear today that we can see right across to the islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and Virgin Gorda from our seats in the restaurant. The winds and swells have died down so our trip back should be much calmer.
Now, we are doing some maintenance (putting up the Code Zero sail, adding water, filling water cans, washing the salt off of the boat, etc.) and preparing to sail back to St. John tomorrow.
This is how much salt I can wipe off of the boat in one swipe. Yuck!
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