As mentioned in our previous blog we arrived in St. Thomas US Virgin Islands on Valentine’s Day and are anchored in Brewer’s Bay next to the runway of the airport. It is described that this bay is not very attractive due to the fact that it is next to the runway with a surprising amount of flights during the day. But we like it especially since the airport is not only used by large airlines, but also by local carriers with small planes and even seaplanes. It is very interesting and not disturbing since at night there is no traffic. The bay is deep but the beach is very nice with directly behind it a major road into town with $1.00 bus fares in open buses. In this area is also the US Virgin Island University. On the island side of the bay is a very high mountain of about 1,000 ft. high. A little north/west is a valley with some very nice houses and at night it is very pretty with the street and house lights.

St. Thomas is a tourist destination with on many days cruise ships in the harbor. Not the place we find very attractive. The capital city is Charlotte Amalie founded by the Danish who owned the US Virgin Islands until 1917 when the US purchased the islands for $25 million. The old town has many old buildings with Danish architecture. The well preserved ones are occupied by an endless amount of jewelry stores that have the outside very nicely restored, but I think that the interior is disgusting. Especially the small alleys are really beautiful and interesting. Directly behind the tourist shopping area is the remainder of the old town and the buildings are very badly maintained which make them interesting but not nice. So this built a love/hate relationship for me with the tourist shopping industry. The buildings are preserved but used in a bad way. This is of course just my opinion since many tourists are visiting the island and enjoying the tax free shopping. On Friday the harbor had 5 cruise ships and the front streets with all the stores were so crowded that is was hard to walk on the sidewalks. The area that is well maintained without the jewelry industry is an area on top of the 90 steps. Dorothy with her knee problems did not want to join me to climb these steps and waited for me in the park. Due to this I did not spend sufficient time to explore this area, but the buildings are really very nice and remind you of the old Danish buildings in Copenhagen, but in a much nicer environment. Copenhagen does not have the mountains like St. Thomas.

We also took the cable car up to Paradise Point that is only open on cruise ship days. This is a very nice ride and the view on top is beautiful. We had a cold beer on the terrace enjoying a great panoramic view of the harbor and the city; we met 2 German ladies traveling on a cruise ship and shared some great stories. Instead of renting a car and driving on the left side with hairpin curves, we took a bus tour that took us to beautiful places with great views but also to tourist centers like “Mountain Top”. But the admission also included a Banana Daiquiri with generous amounts of rum and that was a good compensation. The bus tour also took us to the botanical garden that was absolutely beautiful and this location also served a free rum punch. So we had a good morning with great views, a nice ride and 2 rum beverages; we love retirement!

But it was not only fun, work needed to be done on the boat. I used the Brownie’s Third Lung Hookah diving system that my son gave me to clean the bottom of the boat. For someone like me who has never been under water this is a fantastic experience. Instead of a tank you get the air from a compressor with a hose and a normal regulator. And it was necessary, we had a lot of hard marine growth, but it was easy to remove. However, I did not have sufficient weights to keep me down and I bumped my head several times against the boat.

Then the starter battery of the generator died. Good heavens we have jump starter so we still could start the generator. The battery shop did not want to deliver so I took the old battery out carried it over the beach to the road and waited for a taxi or bus. Suddenly a nice lady approached me and asked me if I needed to go to a battery store and offered to take me to the place. She knew where the store was waited for us outside and afterwards dropped us off on the beach. The next day she drove us to the airport to pick up the mail that Heather our daughter-in-law sent us by FedEx. She brought us flowers from her own garden and some delicious cake. Her name is Wanda but I call her an angel. Wanda and her lady friend from Germany visited us on the boat and we had a great time.

We needed a modification on our mainsail cover and on Hassel Island is a very famous Sail Loft Manfred & Brandt. A nice older German gentleman came to our boat on Sunday to take measurements, but we had to go to Hassel Island to pick up the cover. This morning (02/21/13) we left our anchorage in Brewer’s Bay around 7:30 and took a harbor tour with Island Girl to Hassel Island. I did not want to anchor in the little bay of the island and temporarily anchored in the main harbor at Yacht Haven Grande just in front of the city of Charlotte Amalie. After we got our new sail cover we left the harbor and sailed along the south coast to the east side of St. Thomas to Christmas Cove west of the St. James islands. We are now lying on a mooring buoy with a fantastic view of the numerous lights of St. Thomas that indeed remind us of Christmas. Tomorrow we will sail a little north/east to St. John.