Monday, January 11, 2010

01/04/2010 St. Martin to St. Thomas

01/10/2010 It has been quite awhile for me updating the blog. I have not made it the habit it was for me when I was traveling down island. I believe because everything was so new for me. I am no revisiting old haunts and hanging out in areas for weeks on end. I sometimes find this uninteresting to write about for myself, but others enjoy reading of my daily life that is so different from the life I left a year and a half ago. As I catch up on my writings, there may be little detail, but more the highs and lows of this part of the trip. The one thing I will be able to offer is plenty of pictures including underwater pictures. A friend of mine, Harold Fritts, asked me about the wild life I have seen since taking this trip. I had to tell him that most of the wild life I have seen and enjoyed has been below the water line. So here we go in trying to catch you all up with what has been going on for the last couple of months.
11/02/2009 I have spent the last couple of days in St Martin readying the boat for the next crossing from St Martin to St Thomas. I was planning on sailing into the BVIs but decided against it as I have a couple of boat problems that I need work on. One of them being the pump-out for the holding tank. I don’t want to be dumping raw waste into the water, especially co close to the reef structures in the BVIs.
I took a trip into Philipsburg one day. Philipsburg is the capital of the Dutch side of the island and where the cruise ships come into. I had a good time walking around and doing some shopping. I was able to pick up a couple of Christmas gifts while there. I got a kick out of the competition for renting beach chairs on the boardwalk along the beach. And the answer has been finally answered, size does matter.
I weighed anchor just as the sun was setting and sailed for St Thomas. I crossed with a full moon and clear skies. It was a picture perfect downwind sail with no issues. I wasn’t making good time, but the seas were easy and the auto-pilot did just fine. I made it into Charlotte Amalie at 11:30 on the morning of 11/03.
11/04 It turned out to be a good move to sail into the USVIs for a couple of reasons. The first was that I had an attack from my kidney stones. I have the issue once in a while, but I can usually apply some pain control with a couple of ibuprofen and plenty of water. This time it just didn’t seem to want to stop and caused me some concerns. I went and visited a local doctor in the marina and he ran a few tests. He did confirm it appeared to be a blockage by kidney stones and of course the pain went away right after the doctor visit. He ran some tests and we discussed visiting a local hospital for some x-rays after a second visit with him.
The second was with the holding tank. I decided to try and have the holding tank emptied using the pump-out at the local marina. There are not many pump-outs after you leave the US. What I found out was that I had a blockage in pump-out line coming from my holding tank. This was going to require major surgery. I went to a local hardware store and bought a snake. I then needed to disconnect to output hose to run the snake in. The problem was the holding tank was under pressure. I needed to relief the pressure before disconnecting the hose. To do this I needed to remove the toilet form the head and then, with patience, back pressure the tank through the input hose into a bucket. You talk about a crappy job!!!!! Yughhh!!!! I was able to relieve the pressure and then disconnect the hose and run the snake through. Afterwards I took the boat offshore out of Charlotte Amalie and pump-out the head. New rules, no paper allowed in the holding tank. I have heard of other boats doing this and I am sure it is a rule that is applied after clearing a plumbing issue like this.
11/06/2009 I then decided to get away from Charlotte Amalie for a few days. I sailed over to St John and picked up a mooring ball in Caneel Bay. Caneel is a famous bay on St John and there is one of John Rockefeller’s estates on the water edge. It is now used as a resort.
11/07/2009 Today I sailed over to Trunk Bay and Beach. This is a popular beach and there are many visitors here. It appears many people from the cruise ships that tie up in Charlotte Amalie take ferries over to St John and visit this beach for the day. I enjoy walking the beach and people watch here. I then went snorkeling off of the west end of the beach. I saw my first Hawksbill Turtle here.
Later that day I sailed back to Francis Bay. This is in my top 3-5 anchorages in the Caribbean. It is a large quiet anchorage. There is usually good wind that comes through a cut in the hills and the same hills block any large waves from building.
11/08/2009 I went hiking today. The two primary activities on St John, besides doing nothing and relaxing, is hiking and snorkeling. It is mostly US National Park. I hiked over to the Annaberg Sugar Mill ruins and then over to Leinster Bay. In the sugar days, Leinster bay was used as the anchorage for loading the unrefined sugar syrup onto the ships for travel back to Europe. I later found out that the Danish did not manage their own mills here and the best way to protect their profits was to refine the sugar in Europe in a controlled environment.
I took my snorkeling mask with me and snorkeled part of the bay along the shoreline. There are some interesting fish and the water is real clear.
After the swim, on my way back to Francis Bay, I decided to take a detour and hiked up to the camp ground on Maho Bay. This is a camp ground run by the National park Service. There are what they call tent cabins built on the hill side with wooded decking sidewalks built between each of the cabins and to the cafeteria and steps down to the beach. It reminds me a lot of Boy Scout summer camp, with the difference of the tent cabins. The tent cabins are built of wooden decks and have two rooms. There is a sleeping area that has two spring cots with a pad, just like the old boy scout days. This room is completely enclosed with screening and the second room is a sitting area with an igloo ice box and propane camp stove. There is flaps that can be let down for privacy or to keep out the weather, or the flaps can be left up all night if you want to allow breeze to blow through.
Sometimes when I have too many things going, the cooking goes awry. This would be over cooked sausages at any level. I chalked this one off as a total loss.
11/13/2009 I spent the last few days back in Charlotte Amalie. I had problems with the holding tank again. This time the hand pump started to act up. It was not as messy a problem this time. I had to take the pump out and inspect it. The problem is in the output rubber valve. The rubber has dried out and would not allow a good suction when pumping the valve. I cannot get replacement parts in St Thomas. I have friends coming down in a couple of weeks, so I ordered them up from West Marine and Richard will deliver them to me when he and his family come down. In the mean time, as a back-up, I took the pump out that is used as the emergency bilge pump. It is the same pump and I was able to re-configure it for pumping out the head.
11/14/2009 Today I sailed over to Christmas Cove. The weather has been very unstable. As I was leaving Charlotte Amalie, I caught a picture of this tail coming from the clouds. It never did form a tornado, or waterspout. The next day it rained all day. You don’t see that down here too often. If the rain lasts longer than 15 minutes, it must be a major storm. The fresh water is good for cleaning off the boat though.
This cove is in my top three anchorages in the Caribbean. It is located on the west edge of Great St James Island on the southeast coast of St Thomas. It provides protection from all weather except west-southwest weather, which is very rare here. I plan on staying here for the week before The Allen’s arrive for Thanksgiving trip. My plan is to do nothing. A lot of people talk about doing nothing and it takes a lot of concentration to do nothing. There is a thin line between doing nothing and being lazy.
While I was here I did a lot of snorkeling. There are two small reefs here in the cove that attracts many fish. There would be sometimes up to three charter boats bringing people in to snorkel. It is a great place for beginners. The water is typically less than 12 feet and it is real clear. When I snorkeled the reef along the shore, there was a school of Spadefish. They swarm around me and follow me as I swim along the reef. Also on the reef is a Porcupine fish and in the bay are many Southern Stingrays, three Spotted Eagle Rays and a barracuda.
I also spent three days building a jigsaw puzzle. This is the second puzzle I have done that is of New York City and lost a piece. As I say, it takes a lot to do nothing for a week. I will say I enjoyed it. When thinking of the future, I can see how vacations will be finding a place to just hang out. No need for sightseeing or taking in attractions. It is very restful, even when I am on an extended vacation as it is.
11/20/2009 I sailed back into Charlotte Amalie today to get ready for my first guests of the season. Richard, Leslie and Taylor are arriving for their second annual Thanksgiving trip to spend it on No Rush.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

sounds like you had a great trip - just wanted to let you know that the campground at Cinnamon Bay is part of the National Park on St. John, but that Maho Bay Camps is operated by the company: Maho Bay Camps and privately owned. The beaches at both Maho Bay and below Maho Bay Camp are both part of US territory (as are all beaches up to the high water mark, even when adjacent to privately held land) and the Trust for Public Lands has recently acquired the property that encompasses larger Maho Bay (adjacent to Maho Bay Camps, on the penninsula of "Little Maho" on behalf of the National Park.