Now it's Tuesday, February 2, the 43rd anniversary of our first date. We're back in Leinster Bay, St. John, and snorkeled around Waterlemon Cay yesterday afternoon. I get a kick out of that name--looks like I transposed watermelon. We saw a turtle chewing down on some coral growth--something lettuce-like. It ate for a very long time without surfacing while lots of fish gathered around, eating the detritus that floated off. We swam away while it was still gorging.

While we were at Leverick Bay doing the laundry we encountered Ben Emory and his wife, whose name I didn't get (Thor's parents) from Maine, and met Mel Shaw, whose husband, Rob, we had just met when we dinghied over to greet the other J-46 (Jazolo) in the anchorage. We all had a great conversation about our various adventures, and that helped pass the time. The next day, while sitting at Leverick trying to grab the scant wifi signal, we met Ian and Chris Wilson, who have a Bavaria Vision 46, Kibo. They're heading down island, going first to Anguilla. After watching my video of boats pitching in the surf at the anchorage in Marigot Bay, St. Martin, they decided to forego a stop there. Wise.

The wind had really piped up, so we went back to the windward end of North Sound and picked up another mooring at BEYC. This time we got the closest one to the reception building, and although we often have trouble getting wifi while sitting in the lobby there, somehow we were able to capture a strong BEYC Lobby signal on the mooring. Heaven! Jazolo and Kibo have both moved to BEYC moorings as well. We had Mel and Rob Shaw for cocktails, and they were interested to see how our boat differed from theirs in big and little ways. They don't have a freezer, which is something they hope to remedy.

Having wifi on the boat makes us sluggish, and we stay put for several days. Having read the NYTimes article about how knitting is good for your health (akin to meditation), I've hauled my knitting bag from its hiding place and started knitting for the first time since last fall! In the past week or so I've done as much as I'd done in the last year (my prayer shawl knitting group knows this isn't saying much, but it does show good intentions!). I put on my iPod headphones, listen to a book, and knit away. Bliss. I just finished Jodi Picoult's Leaving Time, which I loved. It takes place in an elephant refuge in Botswana and an elephant rescue facility in New Hampshire, and I learned so much about elephant behavior--fascinating. I thought for sure she must've consulted the late Jim Laurita at Hope Elephants in Hope, Maine, since she's a Maine author, but he wasn't mentioned in her acknowledgements. Now I'm listening to Stephen King's Mr. Mercedes, and it's hard to put down. I'll have this prayer shawl finished in no time!

Once again the sailing cruise ship Wind Surf was anchored in North Sound and had people ashore at the Sand Bar, and once again it blasted the horn, raised anchor, and set sail. And once again, the people ashore did not hurry back, and once again the ship turned around and reset their anchor. See my blog of January 21 if you don't know what I'm talking about. We're wondering if this is standard operating procedure for them, to make people think they're going to be left behind, but it doesn't seem to have any effect on their shore-side passengers. No one comes running down the dock eager to reboard the ship. We're stumped and intrigued.

We dinghied out of North Sound, through the skinny channel between Saba Rock and BEYC, to take a look at Deep Bay, which friend Randy Woods had suggested as a possible anchorage for us. Lovely bay, with Biras Creek Resort's groomed beach at the head (although Biras has gone out of business for the time being, so the beach facilities will go downhill fast). The bay had the potential for being rolly, however, since it was a lee shore with just a reef protecting it, so we decided not to move there. It was a nice jaunt in the dinghy, though!

Finally, on Jan. 30, we weaned ourselves from BEYC's wifi and moved back to Leverick, planning to refill the water tanks in the morning. We went ashore and found no wifi signal at all, so went back to Bravo. Tom miraculously found an open weak wifi signal from an unknown source that our wifi amplifier was able to grab, and once again we had wifi on board. Tom has been carrying around some Barnes & Noble gift cards daughter Mary gave him (years ago, probably!), and there was enough signal for me to go online, figure out how to access his account, and help him choose some Nook books he can read on his iPad. Big accomplishment!

We've made an appointment at Nanny Cay Marina to be hauled and get the bottom painted (first scrubbing off the barnacles that are growing on the hull!) on February 10. First we have to exit the BVIs for a few days, in order not to exceed our time limit here. Our plan is to check out at Soper's Hole on Feb. 1, spend some time on St. John, then go to St. Thomas to do some major provisioning at Cost U Less, the Sam's Club-type store. So, moving closer to Soper's, on the 31st we had a wonderful sail down the Drake Channel, around West End, and over to Little Harbor on Jost Van Dyke. We picked up a mooring way up in the harbor, hoping to have a good view of the show put on by the brown boobies and pelicans dive bombing...but they weren't there this time two lethargic pelicans were sitting in their usual tree, but they refused to put on a show for us. In fact, it was an incredibly quiet night all around. No rowdy crowds at Sidney's Peace and Love or at Harris's, and no rowdy charter boats around us. No wild winds flipping our dinghy over. The most peaceful night we've ever spent there.

Monday morning we motored the short distance over to Soper's Hole, and had to circle a couple time before a mooring opened up. We picked one up next to Jazolo, the other J-46, and went ashore for wifi (I had to activate the float plan I'd created for checking into the US) and some provisioning at the great Harbour Market (the only 2-story grocery store I can recall). Then Tom went to check out at Customs & Immigration, and came back reporting it only cost $1.00 this time! Mel and Rob Shaw came over to invite us for cocktails, but we said we were leaving for Leinster Bay, having already cleared out. We'll see them again somewhere, I expect.

We motored slowly over to St. John so I'd have time to call Customs and clear in. It took all of eight minutes...longer than usual because the computer system was being balky, but such a time-saving method not having to go all the way to the end of the island to check in in person!

Salacia, another Salty Dawg boat, is already here at Leinster, so we greeted them as we came in. When we saw them in Hampton, VA, Tom recognized it as a boat our friend Don Finkle at RCR Yachts in Youngstown, NY, had sold. We took a picture of them sailing out of Hampton, and Tom emailed it to Don. We saw the crew at Nanny Cay, after the passage, and learned that one of the crew members had broken his leg on the trip but continued on to the end before flying back to Toronto to have it fixed. After we'd picked up our mooring here, Salacia's owner, Brian Rutter, and his wife and daughter came over to say hello. The crew member with the broken leg is doing okay, and apparently another crew member learned that he'd broken some ribs on the passage. It was rough out there!

I came out to the cockpit this morning to find Tom scratching bug bites. It was so still that we'd been inundated with no-see-ums, so I brought out the bug dope and Benedryl cream. Once the wind picked up a bit conditions improved. We'll spend one more night here before heading to St. Thomas.