12/24/2009 Christmas Eve. A good friend of 
mine, Harold Fritts, is visiting for Christmas week and looking forward to some good relaxation. Mine and Harold’s relationship goes way back. When I was working at Motorola, Harold was a contractor for US West, the local phone company. The project I worked on allowed me to make my way into becoming a Sales Engineer. We then worked together at Cisco for many years and have stayed in contact after he left. I was able to spend time with him and his wife Teresa when I was in St martin last year.
I have been getting ready for Christmas on the boat. Last year I was in the Florida Keys the beginning of December and experience my first Christmas season in a tropical environment. It was a little strange for me to get use to Christmas decorations on green grass and palm trees. I have spent my whole life in areas that are typically cold, and if we are lucky enough, snowy. I was looking forward to Christmas on the boat and have been working to enjoy the Christmas season. It has been a little different. I do have about 250 Christmas songs on my iPod, so that was enjoyable. I strung a set of lights around the salon and it gave it a Christmas feel in the evening with the music.
I also got a Christmas tree for the boat. It was a little 18” tall tree that had a few lights on it. I bought a package of Christmas bulbs and I hung some sea shells that I had collected last year from Vieques on the tree. I must digress though to a story about the tree. This tree has a plastic stand. After the first week of having the tree standing behind the salon, the socket where the tree attached to the base started to crack and the tree wobbled and would using fall over if I was in any waves. I decided how to fix the problem. I would use plaster of paris to fill the base. This would lock in the socket and lower the center of gravity on the tree and keep it from falling over. Nothing ever seems to be easy though. I mixed up the plaster of paris and poured it into the base. I then stood the tree upside down to allow the plaster of paris to set. I then looked down at my hands and they were wet and white. The plaster of paris was leaking through the base where the socket was cracking from the base. As I said, it is not usually easy to fix things on the boat. I then had to take the string of lights off of the tree and wash the tree down before the plaster set. How I am going to deal with this crack. Super glue of course. If you can’t fix it with duct tape or super glue, it can’t be fixed. It worked. The glue sealed up the crack. I was able to pour in the second batch of plaster and it did not drain down the trunk of the tree. The tree also never fell over again through the rest of Christmas.
I also went Christmas shopping. I had been picking up some gifts along the way, but I still needed to do some shopping. It is not like running down to the mall of several malls in the area here. There are no malls. But I am in the middle of a tax free shopping zone and it is what most of the people on cruise ships do when they come into port here, just like about every other port. I cannot figure out why people feel the need to shop so much when they go on vacation. They can by this same stuff at home or on-line, usually for the same price or less. But I digress. I did feel like I was under the pinch to get my shopping done just like I was home because I needed to get it done in time to mail it home in time. It typical fashion I did it with no time to spare. So I had a lot of the same feelings about Christmas here as if I was back home. I have also got use to the idea of Christmas in a tropical environment. You can adapt if you want to.
12/25/2009 Merry Christmas!! We are having wonderful weather here, with light winds. Today we motored from Red Hook across the sound to St. John and made a stop at Trunk Bay for some beach walking and snorkeling. We are being real laid back with no time tables at all. I was surprised at the number of people on the beach today, so we are not the only ones enjoying a different style of Christmas.
Later that day we motored down to Francis Bay. Harold had stayed at the
campground in Maho Bay. This is right next to Francis Bay. We were told that the cafeteria puts on a good dinner for Christmas so we decided to check into it.
That night we went for a delicious dinner that included roasted turkey, fresh made mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, baked ham, sweet yams, fresh vegetables, salad, rolls and butter. My plate was filled and my stomach was filled when the plate was empty, just like being at home. The food was very good and there were a lot of campers there this week. The dining hall was full.
Side note – another mile stone has just been hit. I have now typed over 100,000 words into this blog.
12/26/2009 Today we came up with the brilliant idea of “let’s go for a hike”. Most of St. John is a US National Park. There are many hiking trails through the forests of the island. On a map at the campground there is a trail drawn in that is not shown on the typical public maps from the park. We were told that this trail is not maintained. It would jump us to another trail I had wanted to do 
when I was here last Spring. It would allow us to hike across the island from the north side to the south side into Reef Bay.
We took off a little later in the morning and Harold told me with total confidence that we would find a bar at the far end and we would enjoy a cold beer when we arrived. Just in case I packed a couple liters of water with us along with our cameras into my pack.
The unmarked trail was a hike straight up the side of the mountain to a road that runs through
the island. We guess it was between 2-3 miles and all up hill. The road ran along the ridge. Just down from where the path came out to the road was the maintained trail that took us down to Reef Bay. This path was all downhill. It was a wide path and had stairs cut in. Now I understand the difference between a maintained trail and a non-maintained trail. There were several interesting items to see along the way including this tree that we took pictures in front 
of and an old plantation. We also saw a Key Deer. These are small deer that I have also seen on Pine Key in the Florida Keys. At the end of the trail was a steam run cane mill. It was out of commission, but it shows that sugar was still being processed here at the turn of the century at least. We made it all the way to the bay and there was no bar for a cold beer. We decided we would have a cold beer at the campground when we made it back.
We started back up the trail. Since it was all downhill coming, it was all uphill going back. We were drinking the water I brought, but my pack still felt quite heavy. I wasn’t sure what was causing that. We were hoofing it pretty good and were feeling the burn when we made it back to the road. There was a family sitting there that we passed on our way down. They asked if we had made it all the way to the bay. We indicated that we did and they told us that we were moving pretty quick as they had just made it back up. We were impressed by that and then knew why we were so tired as we were moving pretty fast. We then worked our way downhill on the non-maintained path and looking forward to the cold beer at the end of the path. When we made it to the campground, the tiki hut that served the beer was closed. We were meant to drink our beer on the boat. We figured we did between 10-12 miles that day with two climbs over the pass. Later on I was looking through my pack to figure out why it was so heavy. I had found a marine store annual catalog that I forgot I put in there when shopping the last time.
12/27/2009 I thought I would be feeling real sore today after yesterdays hike, but I actually felt the best I have in a long time. The exercise really helped. We hung around the bay for the morning and took the dinghy over to Cinnamon Bay for awhile. There was some surf there and we swam in the water.
Later that day we went west to Cruz Bay. This is the “large” population center on St. John.
There are many bars and restaurants here. I know of a jazz group that plays every Sunday here. Harold I went there to have a couple of beers and listen to the great music. During one of the sets, the group let sit in three younger players. These guys were fantastic. It is probably some of the best music I have heard in the islands.
12/28/2009 Finally some winds. We sailed today over to Leinster Bay. I have been wanting to
go there to do some snorkeling and check it out as an anchorage. It is in the National Park so we did need to pick up a mooring. The history of this bay was that this is where the ships would come into the collect the unprocessed sugar for shipment back to Europe.
I swam around Waterlemon Cay. I had been told about this place and that it was a good snorkeling area. I was a little disappointed as there wasn’t much in the way of fish, structure or coral, but there was a nice group of turtles swimming around.
12/29/2009 This morning I went for another snorkel along the shore line of the bay. The shore line is a little interesting. There is a drop off along the ledge and coral clumps through the area. The interesting thing for me was that I had an
octopus swimming towards me. I was glad I had the camera with me this time. I was taking 
pictures of it when it suddenly stopped and started to flair its tentacles. I wasn’t sure what was going since I was looking through the camera viewer. When I looked up there was a barracuda sitting there watching the octopus and me. The octopus settles to the floor of the bay and I had a hard time seeing it. The barracuda decided to follow me around. I figure the barracuda was interested in the octopus, but was afraid I would attack him if he attacked the octopus.
After that little excursion we took No Rush back into Charlotte Amalie. Harold was getting off of the boat for the night to make sure he got a good night rest before he began flying all the next day to get home. We had a great time together and it was a real relaxing trip for the both of us.
mine, Harold Fritts, is visiting for Christmas week and looking forward to some good relaxation. Mine and Harold’s relationship goes way back. When I was working at Motorola, Harold was a contractor for US West, the local phone company. The project I worked on allowed me to make my way into becoming a Sales Engineer. We then worked together at Cisco for many years and have stayed in contact after he left. I was able to spend time with him and his wife Teresa when I was in St martin last year.I have been getting ready for Christmas on the boat. Last year I was in the Florida Keys the beginning of December and experience my first Christmas season in a tropical environment. It was a little strange for me to get use to Christmas decorations on green grass and palm trees. I have spent my whole life in areas that are typically cold, and if we are lucky enough, snowy. I was looking forward to Christmas on the boat and have been working to enjoy the Christmas season. It has been a little different. I do have about 250 Christmas songs on my iPod, so that was enjoyable. I strung a set of lights around the salon and it gave it a Christmas feel in the evening with the music.
I also got a Christmas tree for the boat. It was a little 18” tall tree that had a few lights on it. I bought a package of Christmas bulbs and I hung some sea shells that I had collected last year from Vieques on the tree. I must digress though to a story about the tree. This tree has a plastic stand. After the first week of having the tree standing behind the salon, the socket where the tree attached to the base started to crack and the tree wobbled and would using fall over if I was in any waves. I decided how to fix the problem. I would use plaster of paris to fill the base. This would lock in the socket and lower the center of gravity on the tree and keep it from falling over. Nothing ever seems to be easy though. I mixed up the plaster of paris and poured it into the base. I then stood the tree upside down to allow the plaster of paris to set. I then looked down at my hands and they were wet and white. The plaster of paris was leaking through the base where the socket was cracking from the base. As I said, it is not usually easy to fix things on the boat. I then had to take the string of lights off of the tree and wash the tree down before the plaster set. How I am going to deal with this crack. Super glue of course. If you can’t fix it with duct tape or super glue, it can’t be fixed. It worked. The glue sealed up the crack. I was able to pour in the second batch of plaster and it did not drain down the trunk of the tree. The tree also never fell over again through the rest of Christmas.I also went Christmas shopping. I had been picking up some gifts along the way, but I still needed to do some shopping. It is not like running down to the mall of several malls in the area here. There are no malls. But I am in the middle of a tax free shopping zone and it is what most of the people on cruise ships do when they come into port here, just like about every other port. I cannot figure out why people feel the need to shop so much when they go on vacation. They can by this same stuff at home or on-line, usually for the same price or less. But I digress. I did feel like I was under the pinch to get my shopping done just like I was home because I needed to get it done in time to mail it home in time. It typical fashion I did it with no time to spare. So I had a lot of the same feelings about Christmas here as if I was back home. I have also got use to the idea of Christmas in a tropical environment. You can adapt if you want to.
12/25/2009 Merry Christmas!! We are having wonderful weather here, with light winds. Today we motored from Red Hook across the sound to St. John and made a stop at Trunk Bay for some beach walking and snorkeling. We are being real laid back with no time tables at all. I was surprised at the number of people on the beach today, so we are not the only ones enjoying a different style of Christmas.
Later that day we motored down to Francis Bay. Harold had stayed at the
campground in Maho Bay. This is right next to Francis Bay. We were told that the cafeteria puts on a good dinner for Christmas so we decided to check into it.That night we went for a delicious dinner that included roasted turkey, fresh made mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, baked ham, sweet yams, fresh vegetables, salad, rolls and butter. My plate was filled and my stomach was filled when the plate was empty, just like being at home. The food was very good and there were a lot of campers there this week. The dining hall was full.
Side note – another mile stone has just been hit. I have now typed over 100,000 words into this blog.
12/26/2009 Today we came up with the brilliant idea of “let’s go for a hike”. Most of St. John is a US National Park. There are many hiking trails through the forests of the island. On a map at the campground there is a trail drawn in that is not shown on the typical public maps from the park. We were told that this trail is not maintained. It would jump us to another trail I had wanted to do 
when I was here last Spring. It would allow us to hike across the island from the north side to the south side into Reef Bay.We took off a little later in the morning and Harold told me with total confidence that we would find a bar at the far end and we would enjoy a cold beer when we arrived. Just in case I packed a couple liters of water with us along with our cameras into my pack.
The unmarked trail was a hike straight up the side of the mountain to a road that runs through
the island. We guess it was between 2-3 miles and all up hill. The road ran along the ridge. Just down from where the path came out to the road was the maintained trail that took us down to Reef Bay. This path was all downhill. It was a wide path and had stairs cut in. Now I understand the difference between a maintained trail and a non-maintained trail. There were several interesting items to see along the way including this tree that we took pictures in front 
of and an old plantation. We also saw a Key Deer. These are small deer that I have also seen on Pine Key in the Florida Keys. At the end of the trail was a steam run cane mill. It was out of commission, but it shows that sugar was still being processed here at the turn of the century at least. We made it all the way to the bay and there was no bar for a cold beer. We decided we would have a cold beer at the campground when we made it back.We started back up the trail. Since it was all downhill coming, it was all uphill going back. We were drinking the water I brought, but my pack still felt quite heavy. I wasn’t sure what was causing that. We were hoofing it pretty good and were feeling the burn when we made it back to the road. There was a family sitting there that we passed on our way down. They asked if we had made it all the way to the bay. We indicated that we did and they told us that we were moving pretty quick as they had just made it back up. We were impressed by that and then knew why we were so tired as we were moving pretty fast. We then worked our way downhill on the non-maintained path and looking forward to the cold beer at the end of the path. When we made it to the campground, the tiki hut that served the beer was closed. We were meant to drink our beer on the boat. We figured we did between 10-12 miles that day with two climbs over the pass. Later on I was looking through my pack to figure out why it was so heavy. I had found a marine store annual catalog that I forgot I put in there when shopping the last time.
12/27/2009 I thought I would be feeling real sore today after yesterdays hike, but I actually felt the best I have in a long time. The exercise really helped. We hung around the bay for the morning and took the dinghy over to Cinnamon Bay for awhile. There was some surf there and we swam in the water.
Later that day we went west to Cruz Bay. This is the “large” population center on St. John.
There are many bars and restaurants here. I know of a jazz group that plays every Sunday here. Harold I went there to have a couple of beers and listen to the great music. During one of the sets, the group let sit in three younger players. These guys were fantastic. It is probably some of the best music I have heard in the islands.12/28/2009 Finally some winds. We sailed today over to Leinster Bay. I have been wanting to
go there to do some snorkeling and check it out as an anchorage. It is in the National Park so we did need to pick up a mooring. The history of this bay was that this is where the ships would come into the collect the unprocessed sugar for shipment back to Europe.I swam around Waterlemon Cay. I had been told about this place and that it was a good snorkeling area. I was a little disappointed as there wasn’t much in the way of fish, structure or coral, but there was a nice group of turtles swimming around.
12/29/2009 This morning I went for another snorkel along the shore line of the bay. The shore line is a little interesting. There is a drop off along the ledge and coral clumps through the area. The interesting thing for me was that I had an
octopus swimming towards me. I was glad I had the camera with me this time. I was taking 
pictures of it when it suddenly stopped and started to flair its tentacles. I wasn’t sure what was going since I was looking through the camera viewer. When I looked up there was a barracuda sitting there watching the octopus and me. The octopus settles to the floor of the bay and I had a hard time seeing it. The barracuda decided to follow me around. I figure the barracuda was interested in the octopus, but was afraid I would attack him if he attacked the octopus.After that little excursion we took No Rush back into Charlotte Amalie. Harold was getting off of the boat for the night to make sure he got a good night rest before he began flying all the next day to get home. We had a great time together and it was a real relaxing trip for the both of us.
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