The race weeks were over, Bob flew home, and we began to think about moving on. We got a couple days of rain, so we had to resort to running the engine to keep the batteries charged up. The first time we did so, the engine overheated right away. I checked the engine room and found antifreeze in the bilge. I soon found that a drain spigot had failed allowing the coolant to escape. The local Yanmar dealer had one in stock, so I installed the new one, refilled the coolant, and we were good to go.

Three Hour Tour

The weather wasn’t conducive to sailing between the islands, but it was fine for moving around to Jolly Harbour. We weighed anchor, put up the sails, and had a lazy downwind trip around the end of the island. Three hours later the wind was failing as we approached Jolly Harbour. We motored into the channel and the engine overheated again. We swerved into the anchorage and dropped the hook next to Morgan on Nirvana. I had been on the radio with Debbie on Chimayo when the engine overheated. Bob from Chimayo was visiting Morgan and they heard the conversation, so they came over to help. We had them tow us into a mooring in Jolly Harbour.

I dug into the cooling system and found that the raw water impellor had lost some blades and they had lodged in the heat exchanger. I replaced the impellor and added more coolant. We motored around in the anchorage for a while until we were satisfied that we had found all the problems and got all the air out of the cooling system.

Southbound to Guadeloupe (May 13)

The weather cleared and we headed south to Guadeloupe. The trip was a bit windy and bumpy, but all went well. We cleared in in a little shop in Deshais and spent the night. The next day we awoke to a deck full of ash from an onshore trash fire.

In Deshais we wake up to a deck full of ash from a trash fire

We worked our way down the coast to Anse a la Barque. This small anchorage has a boat ramp and is home to a lot of little local boats. We stayed here once before and each time there were only one or two other cruising boats. We went ashore to drop off our trash and met a local fisherman who had a boat load of nice fish. We bought a couple of big Mahi steaks and the fisherman threw in a small tuna. Good eating!

Tiny anchorage of Anse a la Barque

We were up early and worked our way down to Dominica. We made good time and eventually grabbed one of SeaCat’s moorings in Roseau next to Mark and Willie on Liahona. This mooring couldn’t have been more than one hundred feet off a small dock behind a boatyard. The boatyard seemed to be a local gathering place in the late afternoon and early evening. If we were any closer we would have been part of the crowd.

On the mooring in Roseau – the dock is closer than it looks

Hard working local fisherman

 Martinique (May 16)

We were up early the next morning. Liahona was already gone. We set out for Martinique. Again the wind was up in the high teens and the waves were up, but we sailed along pretty well. The current and our leeway were setting us west pretty badly at first, but as the day went on the current subsided and we were able to work our course back to Martinique.

We anchored in St Pierre at the northwest end of the island. We went ashore to check in, but the customs/immigration computer was in the tourist office which closed early that day.

Quaint St. Pierre

Despite the experience that comes with sailing around the world, this cat anchors right on top of us. Later they move.

The next day we motored and sailed down the coast to Grand Anse d’Arlet. We found the customs/immigration computer in the restaurant at the end of the dock and cleared in. This anchorage is a beach with a row of restaurants and small guest houses and not much more. We have always liked it.

The beach at Grande Anse d’Arlet

Perhaps the ugliest catamaran made

The next day we walked around to Petit Anse d’Arlet, the next bay south. This is a real village with all the amenities of a small Caribbean village.

The beach at Petit Anse d’Arlet

Church in Anse d’Arlet is right across from the dock – very convenient at the end of a sea voyage

St. Lucia (May 19)

Once again we were up early and headed south towards St. Lucia. There were wind and waves in the forecast, but we expected all to go well. Unfortunately the wind angle, waves, and current set us drastically west. Our GPS shows us the bearing to our waypoint and so the day was spent trying to get our course over ground as close to this bearing as possible. Sometimes we actually did better by pointing the boat a little more away from the destination so we could gain speed to cut down the effect of the current.

We were pushed almost five miles west of St. Lucia as we reached the top of the island. The only reasonable course was to sail towards the island and the tack back to Rodney Bay. Our eventual landfall was between Castries and Marigot Bay and we had to sail close to shore to tack back.

Rodney Bay is huge. We tried anchoring on the south side in front of the beach and hotels. It took three tries before we found enough sand to hold the anchor and even then most of the holding power was because it wrapped around a big rock.

Next: Laid back in St. Lucia

Antigua Sailing Week is five days of round the bouys racing off Antigua’s south coast. Add in the feeder race from Guadeloupe on Friday and the race around Antigua on Saturday and you have sailing/partying marathon.

Our friend, Bob Starbird, has raced for Peter Morris on his Frers 43, Jaguar, for a number of years. When Bob found out we would be in Antigua around Sailing Week, he asked me if I would be interested in crewing on Jaguar. I jumped at the chance. Bob put me in contact with Peter and I was on the crew.

You Can Check Out, But You Can Never Leave

Coming up to Sailing Week I realized that some boats go from Antigua to Guadeloupe on thursday before Sailing Week to do the feeder race on friday. I talked to Sailing Week chairman Kathy Lammers about finding a ride to Guadeloupe and she put me in touch with Steve Schmidt on Hotel California Too, a Santa Cruz 70. Steve was anchored almost next to us, so I helped him with a couple boat projects. I got invited to join him and some friends for a day to watch the Classic Regatta from his boat. A few days later I sailed with him to Guadeloupe.

Hotel California Too even looks fast at anchor

The Santa Cruz 70 is a downwind sled designed for the Transpac. Steve had Hotel California Too custom built as a cruising boat. The modifications included a shorter mast and a cutdown stern that can be used as a dance floor when their isn’t a dinghy parked on it. Despite these and other modifications, the boat flys. The trip to Guadeloupe took us eight hours on Compass Rose, but only six on Hotel California Too.

Jaguar (pronounced jag-u-ar)

Jaguar and crew were waiting when we got there.  They had to deal with emergency repairs to the high pressure fuel pump in Martinique, but they made it. The next morning we lined up for the race. Only about half of the race crew had been available to deliver Jaguar up from Trinidad, but the wind was such that we didn’t fly a spinnaker, so we did OK short handed. Of the available jobs, I selected mainsheet duty figuring it would be simple. Wrong! The sheet is setup to be trimmed from either side of the boat, so there are winches and traveller controls on both sides. If you are not careful, you can let the double-ended sheet work its way to one side of the boat and then you don’t have enough line to manage the sail from the other side. The whole boat is like that. For example, there are three genoa traveller tracks with position controls on each side and two spinnaker poles. During the racing with the full crew on board I shared the aft end of the boat with two other crew who worked the check stays and the hydraulic controls for almost anything you can tweak on a boat.

The feeder race was a warm up for me. By the next day the full crew had arrived and we went out for a short practice sail. (While I was practicing, Jackie was doing the around the island race on Hotel California Too).

Jackie races around the island on Hotel California Too

Practice was a bit bumpy, with a lot of people trying to learn new positions on an intricate race machine. One crew member dropped out after the practice. The next day was the first race and there were still a lot of rough edges. Another crew member dropped out with a sore back, so we were getting shorter handed. Peter said he was looking for one or two more crew, so I approached Sam (Samantha) and Jon from Imagine of Falmouth who are part of the crew for Hotel California Too. They had met Peter before, and all agreed that they would join the crew.

The rest of the races went much smoother. We had to skip the second race one day because of an equipment failure so that was our throw out race. Our best finishes were a 4th and 5th and we finished the series 7th of 11 boats. El Ocaso, a J120 out of California won the class and was top boat in the regatta. We felt we did pretty well with a 30 year old design against primarily much more modern equipment.

Jaguar going to weather

Racing was tricky because the best wind seemed to be close in to the cliffs

Things got pretty busy during tacks

Spinnaker run

Lay Day

We had a Lay Day in the middle of the series. The organizers scheduled a beach party with lots of fun events. I entered a heat of the stand-up paddleboard race to fill out the field. I had the lead out to the bouy, but had a lot of trouble turning the board. I forgot about the skegs at the back of the board. Then I fell off a couple times and the guy in second passed me. I figure I did pretty good considering I have never been on one before. The experience confirms my opinion that it’s a pretty silly way to get around on the water.

Beach bums Allen (Mendecino Queen), Eric, and Bob (Jaguar crew) hanging out on Pigeon Beach

I got volunteerd to enter the sailing race on Laser Picos. The deal as one kid from the local sailing program and one adult. I asked him if he knew how to sail and he confidently replied, “Yes”, so he got the helm and mainsheet and I got the jib – about the size of a handkerchief. We sailed well, but need to work on tactics as we got squeezed at the first mark. The lead boat didn’t know the course and with the exception of a couple of us, the rest of the pack followed. The organizers were more interested in having fun than having to explain to the first boat across the finish that they didn’t Complete the course, so we didn’t quite win, but we did have fun.

Captain and crew (Eric)

Next: We leave Falmouth Harbour

To borrow with minor modification from the website: The Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, hosts between 50 and 60 yachts every year and enjoys a wonderful variety of competitors including traditional craft from the islands, classic ketches, sloops, schooners, and yawls making the bulk of the fleet, together with the stunningly beautiful Spirit of Tradition yachts, J Class yachts, and Tall Ships….

and

“To be eligible for the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, all entries should have a full keel, be of moderate to heavy displacement, built of wood or steel, and be of traditional rig and appearance. Old craft restored using modern materials such as epoxy or glass sheathing, or new craft built along the lines of an old design, are acceptable. Vessels built of ferro-cement may be accepted if they have a gaff or traditional schooner rig. Fibreglass yachts must have a long keel with a keel-hung rudder and be a descendant of a wooden hull design.”

The yachts begin arriving well before the event.  To get a good spot in the marina?  No, so they have time to polish and varnish and put on a spectacular show.  A substantial part of the event is the Concours d’Elegance judging.  Even Old Bob, a ferrocement cruising boat that is a favorite with the crowd gets scrubbed, polished, and painted.

Some of the boats lined up in Antigua Yacht Club Marina

Carriacou sloops – fast, classic workboats

We watched the five days of racing from the cliffs above the mouth of Falmouth Harbour and from a couple of friends’ boats.  The view from above was hard to believe because there were so many beautiful classic yachts sailing Antigua’s south coast.  The view from spectator boats let us get up close and personal with these amazing yachts as they passed by.

Check out the guys on the bow sprit. Setting the headsails is not for the faint of heart.

This appeared to be standard practice for setting this sail

View from the hilltop of the start of one of the classic classes

Just how many sails can you fly on two masts?

Spirit of Tradition class – a modern yacht built to look like a classic – except of the hi-tech sails

Elena, a 136 foot Herreschoff design

Old Bob, a 40 ft ferro-cement boat (left) may be one of the slowest boats, but she and her fun loving crew are crowd favorites. Jambayla (right) is a 73 ft wooden Windward Schooner recently built with traditional materials

Watching a race from Nirvana 64. L to R Capn. Morgan, Steve (Sailacious), and Laurel (Here Today)

Watching the race from the Santa Cruz 70, Hotel California Too

Parties

It may surprise you, but yes, there are parties associated with the regatta – pretty much every day.  In addition, Mount Gay Rum sponsers happy hours at many of the local establishments.  You purchase three Mount Gay Rum drinks and you get your choice of either a Mount Gay Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta T-shirt or a voucher that can be turned in for a Mount Gay Antigua Sailing Week red hat.  In other words, you can drink yourself a wardrobe.

Jackie and Janice (Sailacious) show off their new Mount Gay Rum t-shirts

Our friend Peter (Jabiru) stands in on saxaphone with a local band

Shirley Heights

No trip to the English Harbour/Falmouth Harbour area would be complete without a visit to Shirley Heights.  This is an array of gun emplacements and military buildings overlooking English and Falmouth Harbours which is a great vantage point for spectacular sunsets.  You can munch on local food and get cool drinks from the bar while listening to a pan band.

Sunset from Shirley Heights

 
Cream Tea Party

There are many parties and events associated with the regatta, but there are none like the Cream Tea.  Held at the Admiral’s Inn in Nelson’s Dockyard, the Cream Tea boasts wonderful food served by ladies dressed in high style for afternoon tea.  The entertainment is gig racing held in English Harbour off the back lawn of the Inn.  A grand time was had by all.

Jackie selects some tidbits to go with her tea

Julia (left) and her photographer friend.

The gig racing was fun and entertaining

Next: Antigua Sailing Week

Nonsuch Bay is a fairly large body of water protected from the waves by a reef and a couple islands. The wind, however, blowes unabated so the anchorage is breezy, but relatively calm. Antigua has placed some free mooring balls behind the reef between Bird Island and Green Island, so you can sit on a mooring and and look out eastward to sea. This is quite novel, because most anchorages are protected by part of an island, so the eastward view is usually a mountain.

You can just see the waves breaking on the reef that protects Nonsuch Bay

We had barely settled after tidying the boat from the trip when Jackie spotted a woman with a windsurfer in the water nearby. She appeared to need help. It turned out that the mast had broken loose from the board and she was looking for a tow to the beach. We already had the dinghy in the water, so I gave her a ride to shore. (Let’s see – I’m here for half an hour and Jackie is arranging for me to go to the beach with some French girl in a bikini….)

I rescue a windsurfer

We tried some snorkeling by Bird Island, but there wasn’t too much to see. We later heard that it is better out by the reef. We took a hike on Bird Island one morning and spoted some birds. There were a lot of humming birds and Bananaquits. One of the best places to spot birds were in the Century Plant flowers.

Hummingbird having some lunch

A bullfinch sits on a Century Plant flower

A couple of anole lizards pose for us. They are everywhere on the islands

Our dinghy waiting under a palm tree on one of the Green Island beaches

There was a little excitement the day before we left to go back to Falmouth Harbour. The bay is a popular place for kiteboarders because there is a beach to stage from, the wind is steady, and the water is flat. There were obviously some people giving lessons.

Some of the kiteboarders sail pretty close to the moored sailboats. One guy landed in the water right in front of our boat, but he was able to get back up and sail off without getting his kite caught in our rigging. A little later he wasn’t so lucky and snagged a mast with his kite. Someone in a support boat came by and helped him get the kite loose.

A kiteboarder's kite caught in the rigging of the boat next to us.

The rising sun shines down through clouds to the east

Falmouth Harbour is just west of English Harbour, home of Nelson’s Dockyard.  The dockyard was built in the seventeenth century and is the only continuously working Georgian dockyard in the world.  Most of the buildings have been restored and are homes to modern businesses such as restaurants, clothing shops, a bakery, and a sail loft.

Looking down at Nelson's Dockyard

Pam and Jeff on Foggy Mountain invited us to join them for breakfast one morning in Nelson’s Dockyard.  They have met a group of people who make it a daily event.  We had a lot of fun, so we often joined them.  The group is made up of mostly retirees.  One of the locals refers to the group’s table a Pensioner’s Corner.

Breakfast in the Pensioner's Corner

The old dinghy dock between Nelson's Dockyard and the Antigua Yacht Club Marina

Crawling around in the old dinghy dock

Falmouth Harbour is separated from English Harbour by a peninsula called the Middle Ground.  There is a trail from Pigeon Beach near the mouth of Falmouth Harbour that climbs up over the Middle Ground and ends at Nelson’s Dockyard. Along the way it passes the remains of an old barracks and three of the forts that guarded the harbours.

We have spent a lot of mornings hiking the trail and a few “roads” on the middle ground.  These were exercise/bird watching hikes, but also helped us to figure out the best vantage points for watching the upcoming vintage boat races.

White Crowned Pigeon - a new bird for us

Where do little bugs come from?

Like most of the islands, Antigua has a bus system.  Many of the buses are vans, but there are quite a few larger buses that look like they came out of tour service.  Fares are cheap so we’ve taken the bus a few times.  The buses run from here to the bus station in St. John, Antigua’s capitol.  From there we have caught buses to Jolly Harbour on the west coast and to the shopping mall, grocery store, and cinema complex in St. John.

Bus station in St. John, Antigua

Jackie and Debbie shopping at the produce market across from the bus station

Next: Nonsuch Bay

I’m not sure how the term “beating to windward” evolved, but I suspect it was because you can take a beating trying to sail into the wind and waves.

This blog entry starts with us in the Virgin Islands having to work to windward across the Anegada Passage to reach St Martin.  First we had to fix some problems with the boat, then we wanted a weather window where the wind would be enough from the north that we could sail to St Martin.  We watched the weather develop and it looked like if we worked out way north around Virgin Gorda we could gain an angle to the wind sufficient to sail to St Martin.  It wasn’t perfect, but we also had to consider when our nephew, Richard, could fly home from the various islands we might visit.

We had overnighted at Marina Cay in the British Virgin Islands and early the next morning we worked our way up around the north side of Virgin Gorda.  We ducked into Gorda Sound to put the dinghy on deck for the crossing to St Martin.

You can sail most of the eastern Caribbean by leaving early in the morning and arriving in the afternoon, which makes for pretty easy trips.  But the distance to St Martin is such that we would be hard pressed to do it in a day, so the typical approach is to start in the afternoon, sail overnight, and arrive around dawn the next morning.  We had the dinghy on deck by noon.  We had a good sail up for the second half of the trip to Virgin Gorda, so we elected to leave right away and hopefully tack a bit north to give us a better wind angle for the trip to St Martin.  As luck would have it the wind dropped and we fought to make progress against the waves and current.  We never quite achieved the wind angle we needed, so we started the engine and motored towards St Martin.

We had to head almost directly into the waves.  They weren’t very big – just enough to bounce the boat around.  This would be annoying during the day, but it’s very disturbing in the dark.  Both Jackie and Richard got seasick and I wasn’t quite as settled as on other passages.  We did get a few hours of sailing in, but then the wind shifted and died.  The trip may very well be the most uncomfortable we have experienced.  We had hoped for a good crossing so that Richard (and we) would have a fun passage, so we felt very bad that it was so miserable.  To his credit, Richard stayed upbeat the whole time.  We wouldn’t hesitate to have him on a passage again.

We approached Marigot Bay, St Martin, as the eastern sky began to lighten.  We had never come in the French side before, so I was feeling my way in as the sun began to light the bay.  I noticed a ketch off to our right and moments later I heard Mark on Liahona hail us.  We knew they planned to cross the same night as us, but their boat is so much faster than Compass Rose, that they waited until well into the night before leaving the Virgin Islands.

We both wandered around the bay waiting for the bridge to open.  We then followed Liahona around to the NW part of the lagoon to a nice anchorage away from the crush of cruising boats farther east in the lagoon.  There was a hotel that let us beach our dingies and provided internet access, a bakery where we got croissants for breakfast and crepes for lunch. Just down the road were a pharmacy and a grocery store, so we could get most of what we needed pretty easily.

Looking out into our anchorage in Simpson Bay Lagoon, St. Martin

St Martin

We looked at St Martin mostly as a stepping stone to the rest of the Leeward Islands so we didn’t plan to stay too long.  Many of our friends were treating it the same way.  Sailacious, Here Today, and Nirvana were already there, but left within a couple days.  Persephone arrived a few days after we did, but planned to only stay a week or so.  We expected Chimayo a day or so after we would leave.  Only Liahona seemed content to stay a little longer.

Hanging out with Willie and Mark from Liahona

Dave and Lori anchor Persephone in the rain - we get to do this later in Antigua

This was also the jumping off point for Richard.  We dinghied across the bay to a restaurant for lunch, then we walked across the street to the airport.  Some things can be so much easier in the islands.

Speaking of jumping off...while out for a walk we came across some boys doing backflips off the French bridge

While in St Martin we met up with Jon and Carol, formerly of Aldebaran.  We hadn’t seen them since we were anchored together in Bequia last spring.  They had just sold their boat and were living in an apartment for a few weeks before flying back to the US.  We got together a couple times, once to go the the Friday night party at Barnacles and again to go to Sunset Beach for an afternoon.

Jon and Carol at Barnacles

You might think that the big Sunset Beach attraction is the sunset, but that’s not quite it.  The beach is at the west end of the airport runway.  The planes typically takeoff and land going west to east.  When a jet takes off people stand by the airport fence and get blasted by the engines – sandblasted if there is much sand on the road.  The runway is a bit short so planes landing come very low over the beach so they can use as much runway as possible.  The Sunset Beach Bar even posts the schedule of major airline arrivals so you know when to watch for the planes.

Can you imagine getting this close to a runway in the US?

We saw planes come in even lower than this

On to Antigua

After about a week we were ready to go.  Our next stop was Antigua.  It was too far to go in a day, so again we were faced with an overnight passage.  We watched the weather and picked what looked like a pretty good forecast.  The seas were supposed to build the day after we planned to leave, so we wanted to be in just after dawn.  We caught the 11:00 AM bridge opening and left St Martin.  It was a beautiful day with calm seas, but light wind.  We motored about three hours to St. Barts and then the wind filled in.  It was not quite as north as we expected, but it worked.  The trip was pretty uneventful. The wind picked up a little as did the seas, but never enough to cause a real problem, although it just bumpy enough that it was a bit hard to get to sleep. 

Motoring the flat seas between St Martin and St Barts. There was a string of these fishing floats the whole way between these two islands

Compass Rose really flew and we soon realized that we would reach Antigua in the wee hours of the morning.  We already had the main down so we reefed down the jib and mizzen to slow the boat down.  Still we were off Jolly Harbor on the west side of the island at about 4 AM.  Jackie was asleep, so I just kept sailing down the island.  We turned the corner which brought the wind too far forward to sail, so we dropped the sails and motored the rest of the way to Falmouth Harbor.

We went through some rain, but it cleared just before we entered the harbor.  We had never been here before and there are a couple shallow areas, so we carefully felt our way around.  We saw some dark clouds appear over the hills, so we hurridly found a spot and dropped the anchor as the rain started.  We were a bit close to another boat, so we moved after the rain let up.

We got settled and then met Steve and Janice from Sailacious at the dinghy dock.  They walked us over to customs in English Harbor and showed us around a little.  Then it was back to the boat where we relaxed and caught up on the sleep we missed on the passage down.  It really felt good to be here, because we shouldn’t have any more overnights between here and Grenada and we should be able to avoid passages to weather as well.

Next: the Antigua-Barbuda experience

We took one last walk around the salt marsh before we left.  When we got there in December, the marsh was completely full with water all the way into the mangroves.  Winter is the dry season and the marsh is quickly turning into a mud flat.

Sea of mud - you can see all the little footprints from the wading birds

This yellowlegs must be a juvenile - running around in the mud with no boots on

We got a good look at some little crabs.  Usually the hide in their holes when we approach, but that day they all stayed out.

This crab is really much smaller than he looks in the picture

Even the crabs found the mud to be a challenge

We saw other cool things on the walk, like a humming bird that posed for us.

A hummingbird poses for us

We often see termite tunnels that cross the path, but that morning we came across one that didn’t have the roof on it yet, so we could see the termites working on it.

Termites working on their tunnel. You can see the walls on each side

The boardwalk was extended since the last time we visited.  Some locals took cut offs from the boards and made this design – looks a lot like a compass rose.

Jackie and Richard check out the compass rose

We finally started the journey.  Our first stop was West End, Tortola – better known as Sopers Hole. Since we were just staying overnight, we were able to check in and out of the British Virgin Islands in one stop.  While there we picked up some provisions and fuel.

We then started out for Virgin Gorda, but decided it was too late to get there before dark, so we divirted to Marina Cay.   After spending so much time in murkey Charlotte Amalie, anywhere we could swim was a delight and the water in Marina Cay is very inviting after a hot day motoring.  Richard and I really appreciated that skinny guys can float in salt water.

We even try a little water ballet.

Next: St Martin – really!

Published

We mentioned to Laurel, the park ranger who leads the birdwalks, that we had picures of the Manta Rays in Francis Bay.  She later asked if they could use them in the local Audobon magazine.  We got published!

Click on the link: Feb 2012 Bananaquit and check out page 3.

Marina Break

We had been rolling quite a bit in Charlotte Amalie and Superbowl Sunday was fast approaching so we decided to take a break and spend a couple nights in Crown Bay Marina.  Our friends Bob and Debbie on Chimayo  also came into the marina.  Janice and Steve on Sailacious and Dave on Persephone anchored out, but came in to watch the game.

There are a few big yachts in the marina, but most other boats are not too ostentatious.  Then Bob pointed out the boat at the end of our dock and one almost across from us.  The one across the dock was Ella Bleu, John Travolta’s sailboat, and the one at the end of the dock was Blue Guitar, a powerboat formerly owned by Eric Clapton.

Blue Guitar and Ella Bleu

More Visitors

A friend of ours, Dave Daniels, needed to move his boat back to Florida and was looking for crew.  Our friends Don and D had considered helping him, but the logistics couldn’t work out.  I mentioned the situation to my brother, Dave W, and he was interested.  After a few emails and a phone call or two he was on board.  Two other crew had been lined up, so there would be four for most of the trip.  The others were Lori, a women Dave D had met when she was visiting another boat, and Jake, a friend of Dave D.  Dave W flew down and spent a day and night with us before we turned him over to Dave D.  The trip went pretty well.

Crew l to r: Lori, Dave White, Dave Daniels, and Jake

Playing  Tourist

While in Charlotte Amalie Jackie and I played tourist a little bit.  When brother Dave was here we walked up to Bluebeard’s Castle, which turned out to be a hotel that had decided to cash in on the fame of Blackbeard’s Castle to get some toursits.  After Dave left we trekked up to Blackbeard’s Castle.  According to their website:

“Blackbeard’s Castle, St. Thomas Skytsborg Tower (meaning sky tower), was built in 1679 by the Danes as a watchtower for the harbor of Charlotte Amalie. It is located at the highest point on Skytsborg Tower Government Hill. Danish Soldiers used Skytsborg as a vantage point to spot enemy ships and protect impressive Fort Christian from attacks. Fort Christian is at sea level, which was ideal for warding off attackers with canon fire, but did not offer a good enough view of the incoming ships before they entered the harbor. It is not known what year Skytsborg Tower took on the name of Blackbeard’s Castle, but the infamous Edward Teach, commonly known as Blackbeard the Pirate, did sail the Caribbean waters in the early 1700s. It has become part of the lore of the island that he used the Tower as a vantage point for his own treacherous purposes.”

The tour up to the castle includes four historic houses and the Caribbean World Amber Museum.

View of the harbor from one of the houses. Can you guess which boat is Compass Rose?

Looking west from one of the historic homes

Pirates of the Caribbean

We also took the dollar bus to Red Hook at the eastern end of the island.  The attraction was a salt marsh where we did some bird watching, but we didn’t see anything spectacular.

Lounging Lizard? We saw this iguana walking the dock at Red Hook

Picnic on the beach at Francis Bay

Green Heron at the salt marsh

A pelican roosts on our bow

A little after this was taken a turtle came to visit and then a dolphin tried to run over Janice

went bird watching at the salt marsh (as you can see this was a recurring activity)

At the salt marsh: Jackie, Eric, Bob, Debbie (Chimayo)

Great Aunt Jackie with grandnieces Willow (l) and Sumer (r)

Double Rainbow over Charlotte Amalie

This boat anchored right by us. Would you cross the Atlantic on it?

Rising Sun

Moused. Disney Magic's anchoring location requires private boats to move.

Our view of the harbor entrance as we prepared to leave for St. John

Elusive (really!) Mangrove Cuckoo

Nephew Richard relaxes on the beach

Not too far into planning for their visit they heard of a friend of a friend who needed help moving his boat from the Dominican Republic to St. Thomas.  What luck!  A sea voyage and a vacation!  The trip down went well and the day after they arrived their skipper brought them over to St. John on the car ferry so he could help them get their gear to our dingy.

On the day D and Don were to arrive Jackie and I went on a birding tour of the north side of St. John.  We saw a lot of cool birds.  In a marsh next to a road we saw a Green Heron down a fish and a Snipe – the bird you never find on a snipe hunt.

Green heron about to devour a fish

After bird watching we met Don, D, and the rest of the crew in Cruz Bay.  We had lunch, did some provisioning, and then Gordon gave us all a ride back to our dinghy.

We hung out in Francis Bay for a while snorkling and watching for Manta Rays.  We eventually spotted one, but it was on its way out of the bay, so we didn’t get a very good look at it.  We did do a trip into Cruz Bay so we could visit the Tap Room and do some shopping.  As I understand it, the Tap Room started out by making beer, but couldn’t keep up and now has it brewed for them in the US using their recipe.  They have a lot of good brews at the Tap Room and Don and I set to sampling them while the ladies went shopping.

Does Don seem a little fuzzier than usual in this picture?

The ladies spot an elusive Blue-eyed Beer Peeper

Needing a change of venue we crashed and bashed our way upwind, then rolled downwind to Coral Harbor in Coral Bay where we went to dinner for Jackie’s birthday.  The next day we moved across Coral Bay to Long Bay.  This is one of our favorite “off the beaten path” anchorages.  Nice snorkeling and a cool little lunch spot just down the road.

Vie's Snack Shack - Cool little lunch spots like this are spread around the Caribbean if you just take the time to check them out

Even the Bannaquits think Vie's is a great place for lunch

A Green Antillean Hummingbird stops moving just long enough to get its picture taken

While in Long Bay we were discussing which boats where in the bay next to us the previous day.  I got out my binoculars to check the boats out and discovered Mane Bris anchored there.  We had met Hal and Inga in Grenada as had Don and D when they were there a couple years before us.  We dinghied over to say hello.  It turns out the top half of their mast broke off north of Puerto Rico and they were motoring back to Grenada to fix it.  They were leaving the next day, so we invited them over for dinner.

(l to r) D, Don, Eric, Hal Inga

Hal and Inga left the next morning.  Last we heard they were in Martinique.

We moved out of Coral Bay and around Ram Head to Salt Pond where we picked up one of the park moorings.  Salt pond is a little gem on the little visited south coast of St. John.  It has good snorkling, a very nice beach, good hikes, the salt pond for bird watching, and it’s on the bus line so you can get around the island for $1.

We did some snorkling along the edges of the anchorage each day.

Barracuda don't bother you, but they give you a disquieting evil eye

We had fun hiking up to Ram Head, the rocky outcropping that separates Salt Pond from Coral Bay.

Rose among the thorns. I have to keep reminding myself that this is an arid climate and the cactus outnumber the palm trees

Don and D explore Ram Head

View of Long Bay - our favorite anchorage in Coral Bay

On the way back from Ram Head we explored the salt pond – a bird watching area.

A bird watching...

After the bash around the island to get to Coral Bay, the downwind sail to Christmas Cove was a refreshing  journey.  We picked up a mooring and went snorkling with Janice from Sailacious.  She led us to an area we hadn’t checked out before and found an amazing number of fish.

A Palometa watches the snorkelers

A couple squid swimming in formation

All good things come to an end.  We sailed to Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, so Don and D could catch a plane back to the states.

St. Thomas, USVI
I had a mooring in Honeymoon Bay because it was convenient to get people to and from the airport. We stayed there for a while after Jackie arrived, because it was easy to get to various stores, a laundry, and the safari buses to downtown Charlotte Amalie and the east end of the island.

When Jackie was flying down, someone on the plane told her about the sailing match races that were going to be held along the waterfront in Charlotte Amalie. We took a safari bus down the first day to see what they were like. A match race pits two identical boats against each other at a time. Much different from fleet racing where you have lots of boats racing each other. The boats were IC24s – a modified J24. There was a five person crew on each boat. The racing was often very close boat to boat and sometimes very close to the spectators in the grandstands. The replica of HMS Bounty was anchored in the harbor and came into play when the wind shifted a certain way.

right-click and open in a new tab to get the full effect

Did I mention that seaplanes land and take off in the harbor?

There were not many spectators from the general public, so it was mostly us, the racers, and their friends and family in the grandstands. During the first day someone from one of the support boats came around asking if anyone wanted a tour of the Bounty, so Jackie and I went. The ship is pretty impressive – especially when you consider people sailed boats like that around the world. Then we found out this replica is one third larger than the original vessel.

Jackie steers HMS Bounty

We later saw the Bounty in dry dock at the old submarine base.

HMS Bounty in dry dock

And speaking of repairs, we returned to Compass Rose one day in a hurry to get settled because Teri and Britt from Sea Otter were coming for sundowners and they were right behind us in their dinghy. As I got aboard I realized that something wasn’t right. The starboard bow for the bimini was bent in as was a stanchion.

The stainless steel tube in the center of the picture should be straight

Brit and I made a couple stops in the anchorage and found that a fellow nearby was single handing and trying to pick up his mooring. He missed and ran into Compass Rose with his bow sprit. Luckily, I found someone nearby to straighten the bows. So after a day’s labor and $10 to straighten the part Little Rosie was back to normal.

St. John, USVI

Once we got the boat together, we headed east to Coral Bay, St. John. Coral Bay is a large body of water with that encompasses many smaller bays. We anchored in Coral Harbor, in the NW part of the bay for a night. That is where I stayed with Dave and Mark for Thanksgiving. We could do a little provisioning there and take a bus into Cruz Bay to the “big” grocery store.

The next day we moved to the east side of Coral Bay and stayed in Hansen Bay for a couple nights. The bottom was hard and there were odd rocks here and there, so the chain clunked all night as the boat moved. After a couple nights we moved to Long Bay, the next bay over. Much quieter. This part of Coral Bay is very picturesque and is not real popular, so it’s not crowded. There are a couple nice beaches that vacationeers come to and a little lunch place, but that’s about it.

Compass Rose in Coral Bay

Francis Bay, St. John

Christmas Eve Day. We pulled anchor and moved counterclockwise around the east end of St. John. We had to start out motoring, but eventually rolled out the jib for a lazy sail to Francis Bay. Here we met up with about 20 cruising boats whose crews were there for Christmas. This was a big event for us, because we were finally hooked back up with Dave and Trudie on Persephone and Steve and Janice on Sailacious – people we hadn’t seen since early in the year in the Windward Islands. We met a lot of other cruisers there, but came to hang out with Bob and Debbie on Chimayo. Soon Compass Rose, Persephone, Sailacious, and Chimayo became known as the four Cruzateers.

Francis Bay and Maho Bay are next to each other and each has a nice beach. Francis Bay also has a hiking trail that goes around a salt pond that is home to a lot of interesting birds.

A ruddy duck - one of the many cool birds we saw in and around the salt pond at Francis Bay

(l to r) Eric, Jackie, Trudie, Dave, Janice, Steve, Debbie, and Bob - the Cruzateers (right-click and open in a new tab for the full effect)

The second was a dinghy raftup on Christmas Day. Twenty or so dinghies tied up together around a bouy and everyone passed around appetizers. Trudie brought a guitar and led us in a few songs. Dave put together a little video of the dink raftup. http://youtu.be/LzjEQNvMYhs

Leinster Bay, St. John
Chimayo took off to meet friends in Culebra, but Compass Rose, Persephone, and Sailacious moved to Leinster Bay, the next bay east. There is a small island and reef that protects the bay and provides nice snorkeling.

Sopers Hole, West End, Tortola, British Virgin Islands

Dec. 29. The three boat fleet sailed across to Tortola and checked in at West End. We picked up some provisions and made the mandatory stop at Pussers for Painkillers.

Why do we like Dave? He wears a Mount Gay Rum hat to the Pussers Rum bar

Cane Garden Bay, Tortola
The next day we moved clockwise around the west end of Tortola to Cane Garden Bay, so we would be there for New Years Eve. Dave had fond memories of going there some ten years ago. Things have changed a lot since then lots more beach bars and beach chairs lined up everywhere. Quito’s is still there and we listened to the owner, Quito Rhymer and his band play on the evening of the 30th.

Jackie visits the pelicans in Cane Garden Bay

Chimayo joined us there and the four crews did sundowners together on New Years Eve. Everyone went back to their boats to rest, but only Persephone and Chimayo actually made it ashore New Years Eve.

White Bay, Guana Island, BVI
We all rested and provisioned and continued east around the north end of Tortola to White Bay, Guana Island. We managed to anchor there in the rocky bottom, but it was difficult. We have never before tried so many times in so many spots to get the anchor to hook. The problem was that the bottom was very hard so the anchor wouldn’t dig in. As it turned out we stuck it in a hole and had trouble getting it loose the next day. White Bay has a nice beach where we gathered for sundowners, but just to the south is Monkey Point, a nice snorkling spot.

One of the neighboring boats in White Bay

Marina Cay, BVI

We were on the move again the next day to Marina Cay, just north of Tortola, where we celebrated Bob’s birthday. There is a small island and reef that provide protection from the waves, but leave a nice view to the east. Marina Cay has snorkling nearby, a restaurant and Pussers store on shore. Also there is the White House, a bar on top of the island. We spent the days snorkling and the evenings at the White House listening to Eric Stone play his brand of Virgin Island music. There is a bar tender, but he mostly hands the drinks to Kim, Eric’s lady, and the waitress for the bar. The place is small and it becomes like a party hosted by Eric and Kim. The rest of the crews moved on to other places, but we spent a third night there.

Four Eye Buttyerfly Fish

A ray sitting on the bottom

Manchioneel Bay, Cooper Island, BVI

We had a nice sail (the first since we left Coral Bay) to Manchioneel Bay, Cooper Island, on the south side of the Sir Francis Drake Channel. We capped the trip off with me approaching a mooring too fast and Jackie having the boat hook pulled out of her hands and into the water. We had a spare on board, so we were able to get moored and retrieve the other one. There is a fancy restaurant and guest lodging ashore, but we were there for the snorkeling just south of the bay at Cistern Point.

Jackie retrieves the boathook

Blue Tang

The Bight, Norman Island, BVI

Off we went the next morning. We had a nice downwind sail to Norman Island and picked up a mooring in The Bight. Norman Island is spitting distance from Coral Bay, St. John. Just around the point south of The Bight is a snorkeling spot with some small caves.

Glassy Sweepers in the cave on Norman Island

We try to pose for underwater pictures

We met back up there with the rest of the Cruzateers here. The Bight has Pirates, a bar and restaurant ashore. Afloat is the Willie T, a ship converted into a floating bar that is known for navel shots and nude diving off the roof of the boat for free tee shirts. We opted for Pirates, where we celebrated Janice’s birthday.

The Bight is a popular first destination for charter boats, because it is close to the bases, is easy to get to, and has good snorkeling and entertainment. The place fills up fast on a Sunday. Once the mooring balls are taken the charters have to try to anchor. One boat tried to anchor in front of us and drifted back until their anchor caught on our mooring line. After much ado and head scratching by the charterer, I finally dove in and unhooked the anchor.

Close encounters of the charter boat kind - the white thing next to their boat is our mooring ball

Trellis Bay, Beef Island, Tortola, BVI

The group split off again into different directions. We picked up a mooring at Pelican Island, just west of The Bight, to take advantage of some great snorkeling.

Coral at Pelican Island

Jackie and Compass Rose at Pelican Island

Then we headed for Benures Bay on the north side of the island. The bay is small and the anchoring area was crowded and we didn’t really want another close encounter with another boat, so we headed north around Peter Island.

We tacked northeast up the Francis Drake Channel and eventually decided to go to Trellis Bay, Beef Island. We had planned to go there a day later for the Full Moon Festival, but decided to go early. It was a good decision because there were few mooring balls available and not many places to anchor. Watching the charter boats come in a look for a place to drop the hook was very entertaining – especially after our experience at Norman Island.

Trellis Bay is a protected anchorage with a strip of gift shops, beach restaurants, and tiki bars. It is also right next to the Tortola airport. Part of the bay is marked off with bouys to prevent the masts from anchored boats from interfering with planes taking off. Spread out along the beach and just in the water are metal spheres. The locals fill them with wood and cardboard and then light them on the night of the full moon festival. The festival is a family friendly party with a buffet, music, and Jumbi dancers. It was a lot of fun.

Filling one of the metal sculptures with firewood and cardboard

Jackie dancing under the full moon

A Jumbie dancer

Francis Bay

The next day we got an early start and sailed to Sopers Hole to check out of the BVI and then sailed across the channel to Francis Bay. We took a mooring along the east side of the bay and Chimayo took the mooring right behind us.

We did a lot of snorkeling and saw lots of cool fish and coral.

Barred Hamlet

Parrotfish swimming in front of fan coral

A red hind hides behind coral

A trunk fish swimming over a ray

This turtle didn't seem to mind me swimming next to him

One morning Jackie called me up on deck and pointed out a dark spot in the water that was moving. It turned out to be a Manta Ray. Then we realized that there were at least three Mantas. We watched from deck and then took turns taking the kayak out to look at them. They seemed to be swimming back
forth between our boat, shore, and Chimayo. Once it appeared that they would stay around and not eat us, we got into the water and swam with them. We found that if we followed at a distance, they would eventually turn around and come back down their course. They must have stayed for at least an hour before they swam off. It was pretty awesome.

Manta ray with remora

Manta ray feeding

Next: we get visitors.