I have found that many McDonalds’s and Burger King’s have wi-fi in the restaurants now. And talking with many cruisers, it is amazing how much the independent cruiser is dependent on the ease of communications through the internet. Ten years ago, there was no internet. Prime communication was either by post card, letters and the occasional telephone call with dropping lots of money into a pay phone. I am now e-mailing, blogging, sending location updates via SPOT, doing my banking, etc. with the ease of finding a hot-spot to connect into.
I made it to the airport in plenty of time for the girls to check-in and then sit around for a little bit before they took off. An old time friend of mine that I made acquaintances with when I bought my trimaran, John Schnackenberg, flew in on schedule and I picked him up. He is planning on spending two weeks with me in the Virgin Islands. Twenty years ago he spent about
five seasons down here running a charter boat. John had built a Farrier F-25 and had quite a bit of multihull experience when I met him. He was a tutor to me when I started to sail Tri-to-Fly as I was all new to the multihull experience.He is now living in Sarasota, FL and when he is not running his painting business is still playing hard between sailing, hunting, skiing and traveling.
04/01/2009 April Fool’s Day. After finishing up some on-line work, getting fuel, provisioning we took off from the marina. We started out sailing towards Culebra. We had a good sail for about three hours and started to run out of time. It was time for the iron genoa, also known as the 9.9 HP Yamaha. We made it into the anchorage on the northwest end of Culebra that I took the girls to. We made it there at about 6:00 and as soon as the anchor was dropped and set, John went for a dive off the boat to baptize himself after being away from the Caribbean for twenty years.
04/02/2009 This morning we made it to shore and hiked over to Flamenco Beach. It was a good hike and the seas had settled down since I was there with the girls. There was a low gentle swell coming into the beach compared to the six foot breaking waves when we were there. After we walked the beach, it was back up the trail and over the hill back to the boat. We went for a snorkel on the reef heading south this time. As I jumped off of the boat I saw what I have been looking for a long time. I had my own barracuda shading under my boat. I haven’t been seeing any large fish. This one was. The barracuda like to hang out underneath boats to shade from the sun. It just sits there as I swam around. I was amazed at all of the fish and coral life. It was even more spectacular than last time.
After lunch we motored down to Dewey and caught a mooring ball for the night. We walked around town a little bit more than when I was there with the girls.
04/03/2009 Today we set sail again against the trade winds for St. Thomas. We had a great sail setting off on five mile tacks with good winds. We made it into Charlotte Amalie. This is the largest harbor in the area where all of the cruise ships arrive. As I was dropping the anchor, right next to me was Bravo 2 with good cruising friends Wendy and Graham from Canada. We spent the evening having drinks on the bow of their catamaran. They announced that they are getting ready to cross the Atlantic for a trip to Europe. The last time I talked with them they had pretty much squashed the plans for Europe. I am glad to see that I am not the only one that
wavers on plans and then goes forward.The only cruise ship for the day was heading out of the harbor as we were entering. It is a pretty town from the water. The main road for the island runs along the waterfront and there was loud music going until about midnight. The hill side is all light up with the homes and streets. John said it looked like Christmas to him. It was pretty neat from the water.
04/04/2009 Today we ventured ashore. I have heard all of the horror stories about Charlotte Amalie. As for myself, I do not see the issues. It
may be that the local governments have been working really hard to clean up the communities and make it more tourism friendly. I needed to find Customs to determine whether I needed to check in. There is an office right on the docks where we were anchored. I have had conflicting information as to whether I needed to check in with Customs when entering from Puerto Rico. The definitive answer is no.I have friends from the yacht club in Colorado that travel to St. Thomas every year, Bruce and Deanna Budy. They offered
to meet us that the marina and give us a driving tour of the island. We had a great time seeing the beaches and views from the top of the hills. We stopped and had a good lunch in an Irish pub in Red Hook. The beaches are wonderful here and I see how people can make this a vacation destination. We had a good time traveling and seeing the island from a different perspective.04/05/2009 Today we reciprocated with Bruce and Deanna and took them for a sail. We sailed over to Trunk Bay on the island of St. John. It is a
beautiful crescent white sandy beach. It is part of the US National Park System. Just off of the beach there was a stand for some cheeseburgers in paradise. We walked the beach and sat and relaxed. 
These two days gave me a chance to become closer friends with Bruce and Deanna. I have known them since I joined Colorado Sail and Yacht Club in 1997. When the club was struggling Bruce had made great efforts to keep things running and “volunteered” me to be Vice-
Commodore the year he volunteered to be Commodore. The club was in such dire straits that I am not sure if Bruce was ever elected Commodore, but I know I never was. We are both real happy to see how the club has grown and prospered since those days.
04/06/2009 One more day in Charlotte Amalie. I wanted to tour the town a little bit. From the bay it looked like a neat place to visit with its architecture and history. We didn’t make it too far into town when I remembered that I wanted to go to a local chandlery.We asked directions and given instructions to catch the local jitney. This is the local public transportation. Here in the USVIs they use one ton Ford pick-ups with a seating platform mounted on the chassis. These will typically hold 16-20 people. The cost is only $2.00 anywhere you want to go. We rode up the marina and found the chandlery I was looking for. The downside was that they did not have the cruising guide I needed, but the good news was that their other marine store located in Red Hook did.
We went back out on the road and stopped a jitney heading in the general direction of Red Hook. I asked the driver if he went to Red Hook and what the cost was. He indicated he did and the cost was $2.00. Off on another adventure. On this cruising trip, I think my favorite times have been using the local public transportation. I get a chance to meet locals, but finding a ride to where I am going is also an adventure. One of the favorite shows for my family is the Great Race. My kids always wanted to do this with me and using public transportation in foreign lands is a lot like what happens on the show.
John and I made it over to red Hook and found the chandlery. They did indeed have the guides I needed and also chart kits that I could not even find in the US. Another task completed.
04/07/2009 We headed towards the BVIs today. We are planning on making one or two stops to get there. As always down in this part of the world, the wind is blowing out of the east. With that in mind, as a cruiser, you either need to sail your boat by tacking back and forth to go forward or drop the motors. As sailors, we opted to the tacking and sailing all day. We would go on 5-7 mile long tacks away from the islands and then back in. This makes for real casual sailing, even though both of us are racers. With John on the boat we are trying to optimize the sail trim and keeping the boat moving as efficient as possible.
We sailed to Salt Pond on the east end of St. Johns. It is located just before Rams Head. We caught a mooring ball there and went for a swim. It felt good as I usually don’t swim in major harbors or harbors that have lots of cruisers and not much tidal current as the conditions are pretty bad with all the waste going into the water. When I made it back to the boat we decided to move on from there. There was a bad smell in the air, like and outhouse. We think there is a pond across the ridge from where we are and that it had a decay smell coming off it.
We sailed around Rams Head and into Coral Bay. We anchored in Coral Harbor for the night. This is a sleepy little town with a lot of construction guys and cruisers. We went into a town and found a local bar that had some live music. They also had on the TV the NCAA Women’s Final. It is the first time I ever watched women basketball. It was more interesting than the men’s final the night before.
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