Denny on Board

Denny & Suzie arrived late on Monday 2/15 shortly after the marina lost power. Of course, one of the only reasons to be at a marina is to plug in and blast the air conditioning, so not having power at the marina makes things fairly unpleasant. Fortunately, the blackout only lasted a few hours and we were able to sleep in comfort our last night in the marina. Or, I should say, it would have been comfortable if we weren't nervous about getting out of our too-small slip the following day. The marina claims the slip is 23' wide, but that's being generous, I think it's about 20'. The pilings at the entrance of the slip are 23' apart, but they are offset to the left of the finger pier a couple feet (facing into the slip). So from the edge of the finger pier to the right piling is definitely less than 21' feet (our beam). The only way for us to get in or out is at an angle. It took us about an hour (!) of careful maneuvering with the dock lines to get out of the slip. We moved the boat backward a foot at a time, repositioning fenders and lines until the boat was angled correctly and the transoms were between the pilings. It sounds crazy, but we managed to get out of the slip without touching either piling or the dock. Ironically, the marina had plenty of space on the t-head face docks the whole time we were there. They just wanted to put us in the smallest slip possible to keep the face docks open for larger boats (which never came). Thanks American Yacht Harbor! We were so happy to be out of that slip.

After leaving the marina, we headed straight over to Trunk Bay on St. John to check out the snorkeling and beach. This is one of the best beaches on St. John and was packed with tourists enjoying the sand and water. The snorkeling wasn't so good though. The water was kind of murky from a large northerly swell. After Trunk Bay we headed over to Francis Bay to spend the night. Sadly it was not a Friday so there was no prime rib to be had.

On Wednesday we went for a quick snorkel at Whistling Cay hoping to see the shark we saw a few weeks earlier, but he wasn't around. So we headed up to Jost Van Dyke to clear into the British Virgin Islands. We spent the afternoon people watching at the Soggy Dollar Bar. This place has a clothesline behind the bar where they try to dry all the wet money they get from customers. In the evening we went to Foxy's for Lobster.

Thursday we had to hurry over to Norman Island where we had arranged a rendezvous dive for Denny & Suzie. The dive shop instructed us to put out fenders on the starboard side so the dive boat could tie up, which we did. However, the dive boat came in a bit fast and slammed into the forward part of the starboard side where, of course there were no fenders. The divemaster said she must have lost her reverse gear on the way over. I suspect it was pilot error. Anyway, no big deal, there was no damage. But when they left we put out twice as many fenders for when they came back. She approached much more slowly on the return. Denny & Suzie enjoyed their two dives with the dive shop and the dive boat left them two complete sets of rental dive gear and 4 tanks. That evening after dinner we went over to the Willy-T for drinks. The dinghy dock was crowded but we managed to find an empty spot all the way up against the hull of the Willy-T. A few hours later we discovered why the spot was empty. It was directly under the galley sink drain for the restaurant and the dinghy was full of food scraps. Yes, the yachting life is quite glamorous.

Friday we took Denny & Suzie diving at The Indians and Angelfish reef. Normally, Amanda and I don't do more than one dive a day, but we decided to try two this time. Twice as many dives with twice as many people is four times the work and we were exhausted by the end of the day. But we saw some cool stuff so I guess it was worth it. At Angelfish reef we saw three stingrays hiding on the bottom within 5 minutes of going down. We also saw two sea turtles and a spotted eagle ray.

Saturday we decided that one dive was probably enough and headed over to the wreck of the Rhone, probably the most famous dive in the BVI's if not the entire caribbean. It was featured in the movie 'The Deep'. We got there and were surprised to find no dive boats. Usually the place is packed with boats and you have to wait to pick up a mooring, but not today. Amanda jumped in the water with mask and fins to try to locate the bow section of the wreck and found there was a really strong current. We decided that the current was too strong to dive the deeper bow section of the wreck and decided to dive the stern section instead. This allowed us to swim into the current and drift back to the boat if we got too tired. We saw the massive propeller of the Rhone, and followed the driveshaft up to the engine room. The bottom is littered with debris from the huge mail ship. It was a very cool dive even with the strong current.

After diving the Rhone, we headed over to Fat Hog's to return the rental gear. Then on to Soper's Hole for a night to clear out of the BVI's, then back to St Thomas to finish out the trip in Charlotte Amalie. This was the second time we stopped in Charlotte Amalie, and both times we were unfortunate enough to be there with southerly winds. The waves come straight into the anchorage, and there are 2-3 foot waves knocking the boats around. We tried to spend as much time off the boat as possible and took the cable car up the hill to Paradise point where there is an incredible view of the harbour. You can actually see all the way to Puerto Rico and St. Croix from up there. There were three cruise ships in town and it was interesting to talk to the passengers from the different ships. We met a couple from the Oasis, which is currently the largest cruise ship in the world. It has a "Central park" with some 13,000 trees and plants. Another couple from another ship told us about the crazy beverage prices on the ship. All the food is free, but beers are $6, mixed drinks are $8, and if you want Pepsi products, that's $50 a week extra. And they search all your bags to make sure you aren't bringing on any of your own beverages. I guess they must have figured out long ago that free booze means a cruise ship with 3000 drunk people on board. But I can't understand why they won't let you bring a six-pack of Pepsi on board.

After seeing Denny & Suzie off on Wednesday, we got the boat ready to move and left on Thursday for Culebra. We had one of the best sails of the last five years and even managed to sail through the 60' entrance to Culebra's harbor. I put a fishing line out for the first time this season and managed to hook a 30 pound barracuda. I threw it back since they can carry a nasty neuro-toxin which can really mess you up. We're going to hang out here for a while and take care of some boat projects while waiting for a good weather window to continue west.

Red Hook, St Thomas USVI

Last week, we realized (duh!) that if we are in US waters, we should be able to pick up US television stations. Usually we just use the tv to watch dvds and stuff, but we figured it was Superbowl Sunday so we'd see what we could get. Turns out, a whole lot of nothing. Lots of spanish channels, a couple of pbs stations, but no major networks. Lucky for us, we moved anchorages from Francis Bay to the island of St. James. There we ran into Steve and Linda on Seaman's Elixir. We were not only pleased to see them again, but they were nice enough to invite us and another boat, Magus, to watch the superbowl on their boat (they have Direct TV...something we wish we'd installed on the boat...although we'd probably never go outside if we had it). We all had a great time watching the commercials (and, of course the game. Chris from Magus apparently had a lot of money riding on the Saints and was a very happy camper by the end.

We've been having trouble starting the beast (our outboard on the dinghy) ever since we came back to the boat. Kevin finally had it when we were leaving the superbowl party and the thing wouldn't start after something like fifty pulls. Exasperated, the next day he took apart the carburetor and cleaned all the jets. Now the thing finally runs, I won't say "like new" since it is over ten years old. But at least it is less "beastly".

We moved the boat over to Benner Bay to have a canvas cover made for the outboard. Kevin wanted it made with some padding in the back to protect Solstice's hull from the outboard banging into it. The lady took the outboard cover and went to work while we took the safari bus into town to do some shopping at Kmart. We spent all day in Charlotte Amalie, killing time to give the canvas shop enough time to get the job done. When we finally got back, we took a look at the cover and realized she had put the padding on the wrong end and would have to do the whole thing over. So the next day instead of going into town we just hung out at the boatyard bar, sipping rum and cokes and watching CNN. The final product looks pretty nice, at least now we can hide the beast. Next project is to clean up and repair some of the tattered patches on the dinghy...

We are now in a marina in Red Hook, St. Thomas. Getting into the slip posed a bit of a challenge. The slip is 23 feet wide. Our boat is 21 feet wide. Not a lot of room for error. We managed to wiggle in after two tries, but who knows how we will get out. If I had my way, I'd vote for just staying here with air conditioning, easy access to bars/restaurants and a chandlery...but I guess moving around is the whole point of having the boat. So we'll see if we can get out of here tomorrow without doing too much damage!

Back in the USVI

[Kevin's Post]After a few pleasant days in Fat Hog's we had to start making our way back to St. John to pick up our mail. Our new Coast Guard certificate was in the mail and our existing one was set to expire on Jan 31, so we wanted to get back in US waters before it expired. Especially after our fiasco in Martinique a few years ago. We had a nice downwind sail from Fat Hog's to Soper's Hole where we spent the night and cleared out the following morning.

Clearing back into the USA was very easy and required only a phone call to customs and immigration. In St. John we made landfall at Francis Bay, a beautiful bay on the north side of the island lined with white sand beaches. We were excited to be here on a Friday because there is an eco-camp here with a restaurant, and Friday is prime rib night. We met up with John from Sojourn and all hiked up to the restaurant for a wonderful (and cheap) prime rib dinner.

On Monday We took the boat over to Caneel Bay so that we could dinghy into Cruz bay and pick up our mail and some groceries. We had planned to spend the night, but could tell it wasn't going to be a good night's sleep, so headed back to Francis Bay where we knew it would be flat.

We've been doing a variety of mundane boat chores: waxing, cleaning, fixing, etc. But have managed to squeeze in some snorkeling and diving. Most of St. John is a national park and they have a number of dive sites with well-maintained moorings that you can tie off to and dive. One of these, Whistling Cay, is about a mile from Francis Bay. We took the big boat to avoid having to load all the dive gear in the dinghy. Unfortunately the visibility was pretty poor so we didn't see much, but we returned a few days later to snorkel and saw a lot more.

It's Friday again and we're still in Francis Bay. Guess what's for dinner?