Sailing Terrapin

The day Keri flew back to the US, our friend Verne who lives in Hawaii, flew into St Thomas. Verne joined us aboard Stella Blue a few times (click here for Verne's SB adventures) but this was his first introduction to Terrapin.

Unfortunately, Delta Airlines welcomed Verne with the message that they had lost his luggage and it was going to take 24 hours before he could have it. When you're on an island, that means if you want your stuff back, don't go too far or it might arrive the day you're leaving. So, we stayed at the dock in American Yacht Harbor for an extra night. We worked on quite a few projects and enjoyed the advantage of proximity to chandleries and restaurants.

The next day, Verne, Steve (from Chandara), Baxter, Kala and I headed over to Maho Bay on St John. As it just so happened, SV Georgia, SV Meander, and SV Honey Ryder were all in the mooring field with us. We went for a snorkeling jaunt to Whistling Cay and Little Cinnamon Cay and invited everyone over to Terrapin for sundowners. As it turns out, all of us were part of the Salty Dawg Rally (with Honey Ryder leaving from Beaufort, NC) but none of us knew each other before the passage.

Wednesday through Friday have been a bluster of activity since Verne was already a day behind due to the luggage delay. We have been to the Bight at Norman's where we snorkeled the rock pinnacles known as The Indians, Ocean Bay at Peter Island, and now Cooper Island. Verne rented scuba gear and he and Baxter dove the RMS Rhone (which is basically the Titantic of the Caribbean) and next dive on the list is Wreck Alley.

The winds have been relentless the last week with gusts over 30 knots and a consistent 20-25 from the east. Sometimes you wish there was an off-switch for even just thirty minutes. I'm not trying to be wimpy, but maybe just a normal trade wind of 15-20?? Sleep has been continually interrupted with thoughts of chaffed mooring lines or dinghies that drift away at night. Ugh! According to the forecast, the winds are here for at least a week, so I guess I just need to find a way to deal with it, i.e. Mother Nature sees this as MY problem :)