On our way south, we stopped very briefly in St Thomas and a bit longer in St John. St John seemed worth another visit to us, but mostly, we were excited about heading to St Croix, about 30 miles south of the other USVIs.
As we continue along since St Martin, Grete and I have managed to continue running three times a week which has been a great way for us to get some time without the kids and vice versa.
We are still shockingly slow and each run somehow seems harder than the last, but we’re doing it anyway and feeling better as a result. Running has opened up sightseeing much further afield than walking and also gives us a solid excuse to take two showers on run days, which is quite the perk in non-air-conditioned boat living.
St John
Given the wind shift to the south, our desire to go to an eastern or southern anchorage was called into question. We decided to go ahead and anchor in the southeast for a couple of days, and we were really glad we did.
Hansen Bay/Coral Bay
We anchored in Hansen Bay, named after one of my best friends, Erik (not really, but hey). Most of St John is a national park and as such anchoring is not allowed (there are mooring balls, which we generally do not like). Hansen Bay and Coral Bay are not within park boundaries though, so we were able to anchor. There were a few boats in the smallish bay when we came in, so we stayed on the south side. The depths were really strange and did not align with the charts at all. We were supposed to be in 20 feet of water and it was over 60. We pushed in much further than what we anticipated and ultimately dropped anchor in 32 feet. We saw one of the other boats pull up anchor the next day and on their chain was an elaborate, and large, piece of what looked like siding from a house. I knew then that things were unlikely to go super smooth with our setup.
The kids never actually went ashore here, although Grete and I did so we could get a run in. It was a 2.5 mile dinghy ride into Coral Bay for our run, but it was glassy first thing in the morning so the ride over was so nice.
We also passed by this bar and grill that was named after me.
There is supposed to be a wreck in the anchorage that is a late 1700s schooner. We never found it despite two trips into the water and searching from the surface in the dinghy, but did see a plastic kayak on the bottom that based on the coral growth on it had been there for several years, perhaps a decade. Still, not the slice of history we were hoping for. Like every other place we’ve snorkeled in the USVIs (and most of the Caribbean), all of the coral was either dead, or of one or two types with no healthy looking growth. We did get to see four green sea turtles and got to watch them eating in shallow water, so that was cool. The day we pulled in, some really loud (probably drunk) tourist on the beach was also spotting turtles. How do we know? Well, because every time he saw one he screamed it out to his friends ashore at the top of his very powerful lungs - TURTLE, GUYS, A TURTLE.
When we got back to the boat, since we were in the water anyway, I decided to go re-check our anchor since we were planning to get underway the next morning. Good thing I did because our anchor had turned with the wind shift and was wedged under a large rock that would have caused problems when we tried to pull up. So, I dove down to the mess, shoved the rock over, then lifted the 73 pound anchor out of the bottom and moved it about 4-5 feet away from the rock. Just as I finished clearing the debacle, I was desperate for air - I’m not a 22-year-old Navy Diver any more - so I started my 32 foot ascent. As I did so, my right calf and foot cramped up really tight. So, I frantically one-legged my way back to the top and took a breath of some of the sweetest air I’ve drunk in a long time. The effort wasn’t for naught though, because the next morning we pulled our ground tackle out without incident and headed around the northeast end of the island.
Cinnamon Bay
We wrapped around the island back to Cinnamon Bay where we stopped on our way down south. It is a pretty and calm place and got out away from the southern swell. We awoke our first morning to a pelican on our bow pulpit, and despite our concerns, he didn’t poop all over everything. Another pelican (or maybe the same one), did poop up there a day or two later though.
We had a super calm morning and needed to measure our rig for our new headsail, so we took advantage and dropped the genoa to get our measurements. Unfortunately, I overlooked the document that told me that we had to take two sets of measurements so even though we got the first type, we put the sail back on and hosited it back up before getting the second type. Guess we’ll have to do that when we get another calm day.
Grete took our few days here to get a jump on scheduling next year’s schooling for the kids. It’s a lot of work, but dang our kids are smart and need to be pushed.
Mother’s Day passed while we were here so I made pancake breakfast and we all spent the whole day on the beach with cold beverages and friends. It was a fun few days of hours upon hours at the beach but it was time to get going and make our way south.
Rendezvous Bay
Rather than circle around St John’s west end and then go south to St Croix, we postioned around on the southwest side the day before heading to St Croix which shortened our trip by about two hours and let us spend an evening in a new place. We had pretty good sailing all the way around and the anchorage is outside the park, so again we could forego mooring balls and crowds that come along with being in the park. It was a bit rolly since it’s pretty wide open to the south, but for an overnight positioning anchorage, we don’t mind that. I got in to dive our anchor and there were tons of Tarpon around the boat. If memory serves there were 7 or 8. The kids had a great time playing in the water off the stern for an hour or two and we grilled burgers at sunset.
That night, I tried to empty our waste tanks and they wouldn’t drain. So I had to go in the water with the plunger to set things loose. It was soooooo creepy. Not the toilet, that is something I’ve seen dozens of times, but the fish. Our hull had at least a dozen white, bottom-sucker fish stuck all along it. Each fish was about three feet long, so the sight was really, really strange. I did what I had to do and got out before those aliens ate my brain.
St Croix
Oh my goodness. The sail down here was, I think, our fastest and best sail yet. We averaged well over six knots and were just generally moving very well. Good weather too, so not only did we get down there, but we got to enjoy the journey too. We have had several friends spot whales lately and even had them get very close. We weren’t quite that lucky but did get to see some whale spouts a couple miles away for a half an hour or so. Pro tip: if you are in beam seas do not spend several minutes trying to find whale spouts in binoculars. I didn’t get sick enough to have to bring the puke bucket into service, but i did not feel good for a bit afterwards.
Christiansted
Christiansted is a really neat looking town from the water.
We try not to be fooled anymore since we’ve seen some s@*thole cities in the Caribbean that look pretty from the water. This one turned out to actually be very pretty even while ashore. The exception being that we walked a few blocks in just after sunset and in addition to the junkies, and random dude trying to sell us stolen jewely, the roads and buildings were all in complete disrepair and the place had virtually no appeal. We didn’t make that mistake again though and kept our exploring to the parts of town that have been repaired since the last hurricane, in preparation for the next one :(
We arrived in town on our 14th anniversary but decided to wait a day to celebrate since we needed to feed the kids but had had a boisterous underway and I hadn’t prepared a thing.
There was good food in town, so we ate out slightly beyond the limit of our budget but it was worth it. As an added bonus, on our anniversary we got to eat dinner out and watch the local crab races.
Fira and I went for a walk one day to grab some eggs and other groceries to get us by for a few days.
Nearby was a beautiful cemetery so we walked around and explored.
We found a place that serves gluten free pizza, so obviously we had to partake. Oh, and Grete and did finally get that fancy night out to celebrate.
We spent a day walking around the historic Danish architecture of this lovely town and although I was apparently not bothering to take many pictures, I did get a couple.
One of our last days in town we rented a car to explore the island a bit and hit up Cost U Less for some cheap groceries. We went out east to Point Udall, the easternmost point in the United States, unless you count the westernmost point as the easternmost point since it is in the eastern hemisphere.
I had talked to a couple of park rangers the day before when we were walking around and they told me about a kite festival on the south shore, so we stopped there next. We got there right when it was starting, so there weren’t many kites yet but the ones we did see were really neat and people were pouring in so I imagine it just kept getting better and better.
Since it was Saturday when we took the car, we were not able to tour the Mutiny distillery, which was unfortunate because they make their vodka from breadfruit which seemed like it might be a unique process to watch. I did go ahead and pick up a bottle so I can at least try it.
Next stop was the Whim Estate. Since this island belonged to Denmark for so long, their plantations are different from other islands in a couple of ways. First, rather than have a bunch of plantations of all sizes, the Danes split the island up into plots that were 150 acres. So none of them were too large or small. Second, rather than rely on slaves and/or oxen to power the mills used to press sugar from the cane, the Danes used windmills. Make no mistake, slaves still did all of the work on the plantations, but the turning of the mill wheels was ultimately done by wind power. The fan blades have rotted away, but the stone base of the mill is still very well maintained and can be seen behind the chimney in the picture below..
The tour guide definitely phoned it in and didn’t really show us much but she did walk us around the main house in the dry moat and told us where to go to guide ourselves. We’ve getting pretty familiar with sugar plantations after over a year in the Caribbean so we did just fine.
When we first got there we were told to go wait at a picnic table to wait for the tour guide. There was a guy named Olu there who was playing drums and he talked to us about his array of African drums for about 20 minutes and taught us the basics of how to strike some of them, etc. Then he handed out drums and we all played together briefly. It was wonderful and his love of the history, and playing, of ancient African drums came across very well in his welcoming, educational, passionate discussion. I don’t even know if he works there, but he was the highlight for me.
Our last stop with the car, before provisioning was on the north coast at Annaly Bay. There is public beach access at the fancy resort so we went on down and enjoyed a stroll and a sit for a while. The lighting was good too and Grete got a good shot of the beach.
Frederiksted
Our last stop in the USVI was at Frederiksted on the west coast of St Croix. After several days in the calm reef-protected anchorage of Christiansted, we knew we were giving up some comfort, but we were excited to go. Most importantly we were excited because of the promise of good snorkeling from basically everyone who has ever been here. In general, I take such recommendations with a grain of salt since other than two spots in the BVIs and a couple of novelty dives, the snorkeling everywhere has been nothing short of sad. But, the recommendation came from friends who have been here, cruiser friends who have been here, guide books, and the web. So we were hopeful.
The prime dive spot is the massive cruise ship pier. Sounds strange but it was amazing. I’m not sure how deep the water is, maybe 20 feet, but there are sets of three massive concrete pilings every 30 feet or so for like 1/4 mile. Each one is a massive, healthy ecosystem.
I hate that Dublin doesn’t ever want to try snorkeling, but at least I get to check out the underwater world with my ladies (unless I’m dealing with poop, then I swim alone).
As always, my GoPro was nothing but trouble but in addition to the above I did manage to get a bit of footage of one of the turtles we saw as he dove down to the bottom. None of the video of the massive tarpon feeding frenzy or any of my vertical ascents of the pilings came out at all :(
We did manage to get a calm morning or two so we were able to drop the headsail again and get the rest of our measurements. New sail will hopefully be ready to be shipped to us in Puerto Rico next month.
Our friend Kody from Pensacola recommended a cool bar and grill right on the beach, called Rhythms at Rainbow Beach. The food was good, and the drinks were not weak and came in a bucket. Boom.
We spent an afternoon walking around town. Found the best playground we’ve seen in a long time…USA.USA.USA.
The clock tower and old fort right next to the pier looked alright, but not like anything special. Also, the clock tower has the right time eight times a day since there are four different clock faces all with different times and the hands never move.
There was another cool cemetery with vibrant colored graves and a near match on Grete’s dad’s name.
