Virgin Islands 2016
1/4/2016 We
left St. Martin just before 3 in the afternoon to do an overnight passage to
St. Thomas, USVI. We had a great sail with the main and jib up until about 2:30
in the morning when the wind died and we could only make about 3.5 knots. The
seas went down from 4 to 5 feet to 3 to 4 feet making the wallowing better. We
started the engine and motorsailed the rest of the way. We got to St. John the
next morning and had thought of anchoring in Cruz Bay but there was no room. We
tried Red Hook too but no luck so we went to our old standby in Brewer’s Bay on
St. Thomas. We checked in with immigration by phone and rested for the
afternoon. We found a laundry at the Nisky Center, a short bus ride away and
had lunch at Tickles restaurant near Crown Bay Marina, all right there behind
Nisky Center. We also explored Charlotte Amalie the capital of St. Thomas which we had not had time to do on our previous visit.
NOTE: If you want to see a photo better, click on it and it will go full screen
 |
| Sunset on our first night back in St. Thomas |
 |
| Legislature building in Charlotte Amalie |
 |
| Fort Christian, now a museum |
 |
| Pretty home with a great view |
 |
| Blackbeard's Castle |
 |
350 year old Dutch church
|
 |
| Dutch church |
1/9/2016 We
moved over to Lindbergh Bay which is a short walk to the airport so we could
pick up Connor. We anchored near the Best Western Hotel and met his plane that
evening then had dinner at the restaurant at the hotel which was quite good. Unlike what we had heard, the folks at the hotel were accommodating and welcomed us to tie up to their seawall.
 |
| Yeah!! Connor brought a King Cake from Haydel's |
1/10/2016 We
sailed over to Great Lameshur Bay on St. John, had a swim and then sailed to
Coral Bay the next day because we were looking for a place that would have the
college BCS National Championship game on. We went in and ate at Skinny
Legs—great burgers!! Of course, us old fogies were tired so we went back to the
boat and Connor went back in later to watch the game which started quite late
here. Unfortunately, Alabama won but Clemson put up a very good fight.
 |
| Connor and Liz Ann sailing to St. John from St. Thomas |
 |
| Yes, we made Connor do the face in the sign photo |
The next day
we sailed back to Great Lameshur Bay and walked to the Tektite Museum and VIERS
camp. The museum is an exhibit of the underwater habitat that the government
(NASA and the Navy) built in Great Lameshur Bay back in the 60’s to study the
effects of isolation and confinement on small group dynamics, and to test
saturation diving equipment and the effects of saturation levels over long
periods. The scientists lived underwater for about 60 days and then other
groups followed for various lengths of time. The VIERS camp is open to groups
such as college students, hiking groups, retreats, etc to come for various
lengths of time and stay at the camp while studying the environment etc. We met
two groups of college students from New York who were there for two weeks doing
studies. One was studying frogs and one was studying fish bats. How about 2
weeks in the Virgin Islands for college credit! We weren’t allowed to take photos of the
museum but here is a link for those interested:Tektite Program,
Greg and I
also hiked over to see the petroglyphs on a trail about 2 miles long going over
some steep hills. At least it was shady most of the way. The petroglyphs were
very worn with time and we almost missed some of them.
 |
| Gigantic termite nest on hike to the petroglyphs |
 |
| The mass of vines were kind of creepy, looking like snakes |
 |
| Old stone wall from a former plantation |
 |
| These were the petroglyphs that were easy to spot |
 |
| Nice pool at base of petroglyphs |
 |
| Almost missed these petroglyphs at base of rock |
 |
| Closer view of the lower petroglyphs |
 |
| Looking at Little Lameshur and great Lameshur Bays on walk back |
1/13/2016 We
headed back to Lindbergh Bay on St. Thomas to go to the Fed EX at the airport
to pick up Connor’s passport which he had left at home. We needed that before
we could go to the British Virgin Islands. We got the passport and then moved
over to Brewer’s Bay for the evening.
1/14/2016 We
had Connor put in a route on the chart plotter from Brewers Bay to Jost Van Dyke, BVI and we sailed over there to
Great Harbour. We checked in and had our obligatory drink at Foxy’s. We were
actually disappointed at Foxy’s: the internet was lousy, the service was
nonexistent and the prices were higher than most other places we have been.
 |
| Foxy's decor |
 |
| Having our drinks at Foxy's |
1/15/2016 We
motored around to Little Harbour the next day and hiked up a path to the top of
the hill where we had a 360 degree view around the island. There were pretty views but not much shade and it was awfully hot. That
evening we went in to Sydney’s Peace and Love Bar for happy hour where you serve
yourself. Connor made us drinks and then we went to Harris’s restaurant for
dinner. You get a free mooring ball if you have dinner there. We were the only
ones there but Ms Cynthia made us a great dinner and was a very good host.
Connor had a great lobster which we had leftovers of the next day in an
omelette. Greg had a grouper which he really liked.
 |
| View from the hike in Little Harbour: our boat is to the left |
 |
| Farther up the hill |
 |
| Liz Ann and Connor |
 |
| Connor mixong drinks at Sydney's Peace and Love |
 |
| Nighttime view of Harris's dock in Little Harbour |
1/16/2016 We
set sail for Norman’s Island and had to take a mooring in the Bight. There are
so many moorings and mostly very little deep water outside of the moorings so we
couldn’t find a place to anchor.
 |
| The caves at Norman's Island |
 |
| Mister Bean and his Happy Arrrr show |
1/17/2016 We
left the next morning for Leverick Bay, Virgin Gorda to meet up with friends,
Carl and Leslie on S/V Frolic. Greg has been friends with them since his Navy
days. We had to cheat a bit and motorsail to outrun a squall. We anchored in Leverick Bay and
visited with Carl and Leslie on their boat. The next evening we went to the
“Happy Arrrh” show with Mister Bean at the marina. We also met Lance and Karen from S/V Bon Temps. Many people dressed as
pirates for the occasion so we loaned Greg’s pirate costume to Connor and he
fit right in. We went back to Jost Van Dyke to check out and then sailed back to the USVI the
next day.
 |
| Connor meets Mr. Bea |
 |
| Liz Ann and Leslie with Mr. Bean |
 |
| Mr. Bean singing his pirate songs |
 |
| Carl gives his parrot a drink |
 |
| Another table of pirates |
 |
| Liz Ann and Leslie drink for having to put up with their captain husbands |
 |
| Connor takes a shot at the conch horn blowing contest |
 |
| our group at table: Lance, Liz Ann, Karen, Leslie, Carl, Connor, Greg |
1/20/2016 We
motorsailed again to Caneel Bay on St. John, took a mooring temporarily so Greg
could take Connor into Cruz Bay to check back in to the US. We checked in by
filing our float plan online and then calling in but since Connor doesn’t have
a local boater card, he had to go in in person. Then we went over to Christmas
Cove, anchored and ordered a pizza from the pizza boat for lunch. After lunch
we went over to Honeymoon Beach on Water Island (part of St. Thomas) and
anchored for the evening. It took us 3 tries to anchor as the bottom is not
great holding and it was crowded so we couldn’t get very close to shore. We
went to the beach and had dinner at Dinghy’s Restaurant. We had lionfish
sandwiches that were excellent!
 |
| Dinghy's Beach Bar at Honeymoon beach |
 |
| Relaxing on the beach and watching the sun set |
1/21/2016
Greg and Connor took the propane tanks in to Krum Bay to have them filled and
then we took the boat into Crown Bay marina for fuel. Boy, was that convenient. only had to walk a hundred yards from the dock to the filling station. We then sailed over to
Lindbergh Bay and anchored and had lunch before walking with Connor back to the
airport. We moved over to Brewer’s Bay and watched his plane take off a couple
of hours later.
 |
| Walking back to the airport. Had a great visit. Sorry to see it end! |
1/22/2016 We
found an orthopedist on our medical plan here in St. Thomas and Liz Ann got her
cast off. She has to get a splint made because it is not totally healed. In
addition, the base of the little finger also had a fracture that was missed by
the doctor in Antigua. We spent the
weekend catching up with friends Mike and Kate on Horizons and whom we had met
in Salinas, PR last May. They clued us in to the Anchor bar in Charlotte Amalie
which has great free wifi and we went on a Sunday and even though the bar was
closed, the wifi was on and we sat in their little courtyard using the
internet. We also ate at a great little Mexican restaurant called Greengo’s in
Charlotte Amalie. On Monday Liz Ann had her splint made and we spent the rest
of the time there waiting for weather to go back to St. Martin and start our trip
south back to Grenada.
 |
| Enjoying another happy hour at sunset |
