Tuesday, November 19, 2013

We left the BVI's on Thursday, and motored in a downpour which reminded us why we reconfigured our new side panel windows...we got soaked...so first order of business here...put up the windows...and, clean them! Where is here you ask, why Maho Bay, St. John...yes, backseaters we have returned to the scene of the crime!
And it is as flat and calm and beautiful here, as we have never seen it. The minnows are jumping in WAVES that look like small crystal droplets popping out of the sea, and the larger feeding fish are thrashing and jumping as they dine.

OJ joins us here, and we share another amazing dinner aboard laughing. They leave on Friday as Mark has to head home, so we plan to meet up later when they are off the dock. Friday turns very swelly here, so we move over to Francis Bay, which doesn't prove to be much better, and we spend a rocky, rolly night.

So Saturday finds us heading over to the south side of St. John and Lameshur Bay where we will meet back up with OJ either today or tomorrow. We motor into the bay to find no other boats and so have our pick of the 15 cans here. Lovey, calm and private! We enjoy a nice snorkel, and watching turtles popping up all over the bay. It isn't until Sunday that Frank and Denise join us and Jim drops us off for a good long snorkel along the outer bay wall. To my friends who love to swim with the fishes....you will like it here! Turtles, spotted drum, eel, octopus, and one granddaddy Spotted Eagle Ray...magnificent!

On Monday the boys took a hike and Denise and I broke out her sewing machine and began one of her big boat projects, adding a window to keep the rain out of the cockpit. A big job, since the piece measures 4 feet tall by about 8 feet long....but with some KDengineering it now looks fabulous! Of course while it rained every night since we got here, it has not rained since we put the new window up to test it....grrr.

So today, more projects, more sewing, and more fun and laughter with our good friends on OJ!

We headed out around noon in the big dingy over to Salt Pond and took a short...but strenuous hike up, and I do mean UP, to the Concordia Café, which is associated with the campgrounds here. Unfortunately when we got to the top of the hill we discovered that they were closed on Tuesday, and closed for lunch anyway...grrrr! They actually will come down to the car park to pick you up and bring you up the hill to the restaurant...we can certainly see why! Although, when we tried to call halfway up the hill we discovered no cell service on the road...next time we will call from the anchorage!

Happily, there is a crazy little restaurant on the top of the hill called 'The Tourist Trap' which was open and happy to feed us lunch. It sits under an open tent on the corner of the hill, next to the guys house. He cooks in what looks like a garden shed, and we sit on plastic outdoor furniture and picnic tables, of which there are about 6, maybe 7 total...crazy island life. They have a street sign calling this Sugar Bird Hill, and I don't know if that is the actual name, but in the big cactus and tree we were next to had a hundred yellow finches which were happily eating sugar from the bird feeder.

After we took the much easier downward stroll we wandered past the salt pond. It's drizzling now, and we have discovered one negative of St John, at least at this time of year....MOSQUITO'S, great swarms of them, bound and determined to eat us alive. With gusto, we dragged the dingy back off the beach and had just a little trouble starting the engine, until we discovered the problem, simple human error, then we were off and running, batting mosquitos out of the dingy, while getting soaked in the rain...What a trip!

We spend a happy hour relaxing in the water swimming and attempting to board the paddle board from the water, which is not as easy as some make it look, before cleaning up and having a wonderful steak dinner, then to cap it all off, the starwatching before the moonrises tonight yields us 4 satellites and 3 shooting stars, with one streaking long across the whole sky. And amazing end to another great day!