Keri Joins The Crew

Baxter, Kala and I had a wonderful Christmas in Maho Bay and then headed over to St Thomas to pick up our friend Keri.  We were able to stop at American Yacht Harbor, go grocery shopping, fill our water tanks, and fully charge our batteries.

We met Keri at baggage claim and then took her to the dinghy.  It was the first time she had been picked up at an airport on a dinghy.  Shortly after, we saw our friends Sabrina and Tom on Honey Ryder and we all sat in Terrapin's cockpit for sundowners.  Baxter and I also conveniently arranged a good show for Keri by having the Queen Mary II leave the dock and slowly make her way about 100 yards from Terrapin out to sea.  Keri was thinking this vacation was a great idea - definitely a different world from her office in Atlanta!

Since the route from St Thomas to Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda was about 20 miles and would take most of the day, we opted to take Keri to one of our favorite spots - you guessed it - back to Maho Bay.  That would give us time to play (snorkel, paddle board, and hang out) as well as make progress back to the BVI.

From there, we sailed over to Spanish Town to check into the BVI.  We made a side trip to The Baths  along with a zillion of our closest friends.  Unfortunately, the crowds took away from the coolness of the geography and we're glad we did it but my patience needed a recharge.

As we sail around the BVI, we are doing our best to give Keri a taste of the cruiser life including ripping off a dorade off the front of the boat on a hard tack, toilets running over because we forgot to close a thru hull and we heeled over, as well as finding diesel in the bilge.  Ahh, gotta love the cruising life!  All of this, while Keri is at the helm learning to sail a wind angle with a light hand on the wheel.

We look forward to a fun NYE - wherever that may be!

Queen Mary II as she motored out to sea right next to Terrapin

"Capt Keri"

Views around here don't suck

Kala enjoying a little land life.

Maho Bay

Baxter and I don't typically get "sticky feet" and hang around any one place for more than a couple of days, but we just can't find any compelling reason to leave Maho Bay.  There are enough snorkeling spots to explore for months, there are great hiking trails right off the beach, a mini market if we absolutely needed anything, and the wind is howling everywhere but here.

We have even found ourselves in a routine where we wake up and paddle Kala to shore on the SUP, eat breakfast, work on boat projects or make conference calls, more paddle boarding, some snorkeling, and then dinner. What else do you need? Not one person here has reminded us of the rules about dogs on beaches (though Kala has not really broken any) and it is relatively quiet.

We have also been hanging out with Sabrina and Tom on SV Honey Ryder whose blog I've followed for a couple years and had the chance to meet through the Salty Dawg Rally. They are like-minded cruisers and it's been fun talking boats and passage stories over sun downers.

Alas, we will have to leave in a couple of days as our friend Keri is coming to visit and we are off to St Thomas to pick her up and then to the BVI to explore and celebrate New Year's. We also might see Skylark again (who all three of us miss hanging out with), Steve on Chandara, and maybe Logan & Gillian on Stella Blue (c'mon weather - cooperate please.)

Lots more adventures in store!!

The Metronome Syndrome

A metronome - you know, the thing that tick-ticks back and forth when you're playing an instrument to help keep time with the beat. Well, our mast was metronome-like last night in Hawksnest Bay. I almost felt like I was sleeping on a hammock. We had a great time there - with 4 or 5 Hawksbill turtles playing around and a good reef with some of the biggest parrotfish I've seen in the Caribbean, but it was time to say goodbye - there's only so much balancing my vestibular canal can handle without my body actually moving.

Between rainstorms we moved east on the north side of St John to Francis Bay.  When I went to the bow to pick up the mooring, it felt like someone was spitting in my face...wind gusting 30k right down a saddle. We looked at each other and decided to go to Maho Bay instead - which is 200 meters to the south. It was like someone switched off the wind tunnel and we arrived in a calm pool of turquoise water. Kala ran on deck with a huge grin. That's a good sign!

I think we might be here for a couple of days.

Back In The Groove

We have thoroughly enjoyed our mooring ball in Caneel Bay. Despite the wakes that occasionally roll through, we are so happy to be here vs. a nasty dock.

Yesterday, Baxter was able to run the entire port tank fuel line and I cut patterns for new cockpit pillows. A nice mellow day.

We might go check out a couple of other spots on the north side of the island and/or sail west to the Spanish Virgins for Christmas....or we might stay right here. 

We don't feel rushed or fussed….

That is my foot holding up our mattress while Baxter changes the fuel line connection (fuel tank is under our bed).

Old fuel line off (the brass line under the white line)

New fuel line connected

Around the generator and through the closet, to the Racor bowl we go.

Pirates of the Caribbean Alive and Well

The only thing that could drag us away from Lameshur Bay was looming repairs.

We had an appointment on Tuesday to get our fuel polished. If you'll remember, it seemed like our port tank wasn't working after being contaminated during our passage from the Chesapeake. 

So...we contacted Independent Boatyard near Budget Marine in St Thomas to ensure they still had the "work dock" available for us to tie up. They said they did and we needed to be there mid-afternoon before they closed Monday. So that's what we did.

Independent Boat Yard is down a fairly shallow (6.5') canal and is a bit run down and has poor water drainage so there are big puddles of oily, greasy water that get on you and the boat. The docks are work and don't have power or water. All of this is fine with us since we have been to more rugged places and we were excited about getting to the bottom of the fuel issue. What we had a hard time with was the extreme difficulty we had with the office staff. The "work dock" is just a place to tie up and sort your boat at 1.50/foot/day. There is usually no one on the dock so we thought the office staff would like to take our money for less than a 24 hour stay. We were wrong. Baxter had a very difficult time getting a time from them to schedule the fuel polisher (though he was their contractor) and then they tried to charge us for two days when we went to pay after being on the dock for less than 20 hours. I had a very animated "discussion" with the office secretary and the office manager who each changed their reasons for charging us for two days each time I pointed out why their argument was not valid. Regardless, I'm sure many people who are nicer than we are and don't mind a good verbal match would have let themselves be taken advantage of and paid for two days. Never, never, never going to this yard. They are pirates and crooks.  As we look back on our experience (which only lasted 21.5 hours), we can't figure out how they stay in business but we're certain it won't be our money that supports them.

Despite the yard, we did meet with Jacques (who is not associated with the yard) and it turns out after running fuel through his mega-filter contraption, we don't have dirty fuel. Yayyyy, right? Nope. If not dirty fuel, than what? We made a quick visit to Budget Marine for various supplies to change the fuel line and we cast off the dock lines as fast as we could. 

It was the first time we had been at a dock since the Chesapeake and all three of us hated it! It feels dirty and claustrophobic and like someone is making you swallow a nasty pill. Put some mean, psycho people on top of that and we were done.

We left St Thomas with 8 ft waves and threatening skies and picked up a mooring in Caneel Bay. It took all three of us a moment to take a deep breath, think of any positives we could draw on from the last 24 hours, and move on.

When life gives you lemons...think of your double rainbow happy place on Lameshur Bay and all is right again.

Mega fuel filter contraption thingy where our mattress usually goes.

This is NOT fun - can we go now?

Of course, everything comes out of both lazarettes.

Rainbow Bay

It was a rough ride from St Thomas just the eight short miles across Pillsbury Sound to Lameshur Bay on St John.  With the wind gusting 25+ and the bow being buried so deep in waves the anchor disappeared, only to come up the next wave and we would look UP to the bow.

None of that mattered after we arrived. The water was the prettiest we have seen in the US and we had great protection from the 1,000ft hills close by. There were only three other boats in the mooring field and we were quite content.

They even had an NPS dock so Kala didn't have to be a law breaker and touch the beach.  We proceeded to explore, hiking and snorkeling, all around.

The only thing I'd change about Lameshur is the name - it should be called Rainbow Bay. We saw so many and they were so bright...sometimes even double rainbows! How can that not make you happy?

Christmas Cove, St Thomas, USVI

Our new mood lighting which Baxter made look so easy to install (done in an hour)

Single rainbow…we couldn't believe how beautiful it was!

Double Rainbow - right over Terrapin.  When we're having a tough moment, this will be my happy place. 

Blue Tang City (aka Dori of "Finding Nemo).  I think they are saying "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.."

Waterfalls in the Caribbean are fun.

This is right after the deluge of rain (x3)

Petroglyphs carved between 900-1500 A.D. by the Pre-Columbian Taino natives and their ancestors.

Rainbows bring smiles

This is our remoray friend.  He LOVED us!! and was happy to help clean the bottom of the dinghy.

Terrapin likes her backdrop.

Friday the 13th

Being in a beautiful spot like Caneel Bay, we had our day planned full of hiking and snorkeling. Until...we turned on the diesel generator first thing in the morning to power up our batteries a little more.

You didn't really think our dirty fuel issues were resolved, did you? Baxter changed the Racor filters twice in about 20 min and there was still an issue with the port fuel tank (of course we just filled it in the BVI thinking it was good to go.)

Loooonnnggg story short, we sailed to St Thomas, dinghied about 5 miles to Budget Marine for odds and ends, found a fuel polisher and made an appt for next week, and bought more gas for the dinghy.

By time we were back to Terrapin, it was 4:30. Baxter had a conference call and then we took Kala to shore.  It was a long hot day but like I've said before - you have to work hard to get to the fun tickets in this sailing world.

The narrow cut that didn't even look as wide as our boat when we first saw it.

You know, just the regular cruise ship traffic.

Hey Baxter, can you touch that rock RIGHT next to you?

Beautiful views of the Caribbean

See, life is not always fruity drinks and sunsets.