Once we'd spent time at Christmas Cove on St. James Island, recovering from our stay in Charlotte Amalie, we headed to St. John and have been here ever since. On the sail over, we could see Jost Van Dyke in the BVI, and saw the strangest sight..... a FIVE masted sailboat anchored over there. I was thrilled that when we were anchored in Maho Bay, it sailed past just before sunset so I could snap some pictures. It was so huge I thought it must be a cruise ship, but I don't think so because we haven't seen it since. There are the most fascinating boats around here! But I digress. The weather has been uniformly wonderful. We waken to clouds sometimes, but within a few hours it's sunny and warm. The steady trade winds keep it from being too hot most days, and there's often a short-lived shower or two. We don't mind, because it keeps things lush and cools the air a bit. It can be raining a boat length away, and clear and sunny overhead, and we've seen marvelous rainbows and sunsets.

The island of St. John is 2/3 National Park, and it's gorgeous. Lush and mountainous, and fabulous views of the British Virgin Islands from the north shore. All the islands are in close proximity, so we don't have to worry about weather windows to go from one place to the next. Cruz Bay was our first stop (for information on the National Park, a few fresh groceries and Internet), Caneel Bay just for overnight (rocky anchorage and only a beach resort on shore), and then Maho Bay, which we really loved. It was very protected, despite being on the north shore, because it's part of deep Francis Bay. It boasted a beautiful beach visited by people from land as well as the mooring field, but was quiet, not rowdy, had trails ashore, and was stunningly beautiful. The snorkeling has been fantastic everywhere in St. John, especially in Maho Bay. I think it ranks as my favourite now, which is why I chose it for the map location of this blog entry.

Next was Waterlemon (not Watermelon) Bay, where we toured the ruins of the Annaberg sugar plantation. Even Ralph, who doesn't usually go for historical sites, found it interesting. There are "Friends of the Park" volunteers who have worked to restore the ruins, and they're very knowledgeable. I wandered for ages with my camera.

Thinking we had a good weather window, we did left Maho Bay headed for St. Martin to meet friends. While sailing the fairly narrow channel between St. John and Tortola I counted 36 sailboats crisscrossing back and forth! Once we made it to the open sea, the wind turned out to be stronger and too much on the nose. We would have had to either motor or sail considerably off course, and decided we didn't want to beat into it for 100 miles (17-20 hours), so we decided to explore the south side of St. John instead. Hansen Bay was nice and sheltered, and Ralph saw lots of sea turtles. I finally saw one! (Well, I saw its head sticking out of the water. At least it's a start.) At Hansen Bay I made a sun/rain awning to rig over our big front hatch so we can leave it open even when it rains.

Our next stop was an overnight stay in Coral Harbour, a small town that had thriving little restaurants and bars but not much else. It's pretty and unspoiled, and lots of cruisers end up putting down roots here. Some of the boats were so encrusted with sea life you'd wonder how they were still afloat. There were derelicts here, too, just like in Benner's Bay. Old boats, some that don't even have engines, are pretty cheap and there's a whole subculture we also ran into in St. Augustine of people living aboard who might otherwise be homeless. (One very nice man I met in St. Augustine lived in the woods for 2 years to save for his little boat.) Sad, but better than being homeless on the streets of Toronto, that's for sure.

Great Lameshur Bay was lovely and had some hiking trails that we sampled, and a few days here also gave me time to replace the vinyl windows in the dodger. We can actually see out of them now! (Seriously, they were so sun damaged we had to stick our heads out to the side to tell what colour the channel markers were.) The Beast (my Sailrite sewing machine weighing over 50 lbs.) has definitely earned its keep this trip. The only project I have left for now is making sheet bags to tidy up our lines in the cockpit.

Today it was back to Cruz Bay, and we've now circumnavigated St. John. We're anchored at Caneel Bay again and will go back into Cruz Bay tomorrow to do laundry and fill up with gas and water. We may have to backtrack to Salt Pond before leaving St. John's, as some very nice people we met today told us it's their favourite spot and we missed it. Next stop: the British Virgin Islands (BVI)!