Otto and Linda Visit March 7th - 16th 2013

Otto and Linda arrived in St Thomas.  We were able to pick them up at the Crown Bay Marina after getting fuel. We motored over to Brewers Bay for the evening.  Ross and Diana joined us for dinner.  We had fun.  Here they are checking out the stars with Kirks iPad app.

Happy to be in warm weather.  Linda is wearing Otto's hat.

After spending a day anchored in Honeymoon Bay and enjoying a delightful party hosted by Diana and Ross we headed over to Culebra.  We hiked Culebrita to the top and visited the lighthouse.  This was a stop along the hike to examine cactus.

This view is looking towards St Thomas.  You can see it on the far left.  In the middle of the screen on the horizon is a little speck that is Sail Rock.  There is also a sail boat that is a little white blur to the left of sail rock.  The water colors were fantastic.

Pensive Linda studying her camera.  More fabulous water colors

Kirk at the lighthouse.

Tortuga Bay and beach.  We tried for two days to get to this place but the swell was too high and made breakers in the entrance channel.  Five foot breakers are a little much for us, so we hiked to this beach after reaching the mountain top.

Otto at the beach.  He was pretty thrilled with our location.

A much deserved rest

Back on the boat 

 Our trip back from Culebra was most eventful.  A whale came right along side the boat and blew through it's blow hole.  I was at the helm.  I looked down and could see the blow hole and all the water coming out.  Scared me like no other. It was loud!! The whale was right next to the boat.  We believe it was a humpback whale.  It then swam around us a bit and headed off.  Later on I thought I saw two whales ahead of us but dismissed it.  Then they appeared again closer.  Everyone was ready with their cameras this time.  Kirk took a movie,   if you look about two thirds from right to left and down about one third you can see a whale blowing and then a few more around it.  The excitement was seeing the tail!!   We were all cheering.

Linda got some good shots.  I was still at the helm.  We saw flying fish, Kirk caught a small tuna, and two whale sightings.   What a day.

We visited St John Island and found a super snorkel place, saw many different kinds of coral, some that were huge.  Saw fish that i had never seen before also.  I even swam with a turtle for a while.  I am so fascinated with the sea turtles.  We have seen so many and some are sooooo big with what looks like barnacles on their backs.  While in Trellis Bay waiting for Lisa and Steve in January, I watched one for about 10 to 15 seconds at the stern of the boat.  We even made eye contact.  It was so beautiful with the markings.  Still a highlight!! 

We also found a nice quiet bay for anchoring near Coral Bay which we have since been back to visit.  We had so much fun laughing and learning and rekindling our friendship.

We had a great time and were so sorry to see them leave.