We left Culebra on the 25th of March the day after Nathan and Sarah left. We arrived in St Thomas. It was exciting to see a place that we had not seen since our honeymoon some 32 years ago. We went to anchor in honeymoon bay (we had anchored there on our honeymoon) but it was too crowded, so we ended up in Crown Bay Marina and got lots of chores accomplished. Fueled up the boat, did 7 loads of laundry, 2 runs to the grocery store, to the gourmet store at the marina, picked up much needed virgin island guide book and other supplies at the marine supply store. We went out to dinner which was nice.
The next day we went to Christmas cove on great St James Island, stayed the night on a nice mooring ball, next morning to St John island Coral Bay, where there are wild donkeys and goats all over the place. We ate lunch at a restaurant called Skinny Legs, where they had a sign up that said, "please do not feed the chickens, they cannot tell the difference between food and fingers". Kirk took my picture with the sign and with some of the donkeys, and the goats.
Then to a beautiful little anchorage we saw on our way to Coral Bay. We had planned on staying in Coral Bay but the water was dirty. The next morning we went into Cruz bay and had an awful experience with some guy yelling and cussing and telling us to leave about a private mooring ball. Really bad experience. Needed to check with the national park service in Cruz bay for permits etc. was a bummer.
We traveled around St John and it was a beautiful island, not developed as is a national park. Lots of mooring balls. In Waho bay we hiked up a goat trail with knarly roots and rocks to get to the store and saw an iguana about 3 feet long. There were deer in the woods also. It was a wild experience that I will not soon forget. Reminded me of Fangorn Forest in Lord of the Rings. Kirk took pictures but they are on his phone and will be in another post. Kirk ended up hiking down the goat trail to the boat and I carried a bag and a block of ice down 150 steps to the shore and kirk picked me up in the dingy.
The next day we went ashore and hiked around the island to a restored sugar plantation that was really interesting and also the remains of a school house. That was a good hike. Only problem was I "mash up my foot on the rock stone" (I have heel spurs) so I am gimping around.
The sad part of all the islands we have visited, starting in bahamas is that they were all taken over by European countries (Spain was a big player) the locals run off or killed or made into slaves and then slaves brought in from Africa for labor for the sugar cane and other profitable ventures. The conditions awful. No different from the usa with the slaves just prior to. Or with the slaughter of the American indian What makes man think he is superior to another and can take over by force is something I will never understand.
After our hike we headed towards the bvi's yeah we tried to clear in at Sopers Hole but was packed so we had to head over to the island Yost Van Dyke. Of course that felt like you were coming home. I do so love these bvi's. After partial clearing in (immigration was out of forms) we went to foxy's and kirk had a bananawacker. It was delicious. We were going to go back in that evening but there were boats anchoring and dragging near us so we stayed and watched the activities in the anchorage instead.
The next morning after going into see foxy and taboo (his black lab) and get wifi, we went to the end of Yost Van Dyke by Sandy Spit and Sandy Cay. Gosh they are beautiful. Just like the post cards. It was so rough and swelly that we ended up back across the channel to Cane Garden Bay. Kirk took video of the breakers. It was a swelly night but not choppy so much more comfortable than over at Yost Van Dyke.
The seas and winds have been extremely high here. We saw winds yesterday of up to 27 knots and seas that were very confused and swellly. Needless to say, we had a rough ride. To rough to sail in the direction we were headed. We went to Lee Bay which was fabulous. The pelicans were diving acrobats, the fish were abundant, you could see and hear the goats. We were joined by 3 sport fishers two of which were a sight to watch. They went stern to the shore and then rafted together. Kirk said he thought they might be from Puerto Rico, that he read they come over for holidays and Easter is next weekend.
I had a lovely morning this morning watching the sun come up over the mountain, the pelicans swooping down to the water, the goats bleating and of course the roosters morning song. Most of the bvi's have wild goats and chickens.
We are now in Trellis Bay which has wifi and so I am going to post this with no pictures so I can at least get up to date. Kirk has downloaded a bunch of pics and I think he is going to put them on the blog the next time we get strong wifi. The bandwidth just cannot handle pictures.
I also will try to get the rest of the cubralita pics up from when Nathan and sarah were with us
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