From Culebra Puerto Rico, we headed off to St. Thomas our first stop in the US Virgins, which was a scant 20 nautical miles away. On our arrival to St. Thomas, we made our way into Long Bay and dropped the hook in Charlotte Amalie because we thought that we had to check in with Customs. But after a quick phone call, they said we were good to go, because we just came from a US territory. We walked around town and had a few happy hour drinks with buddy boats. Next day, left for Christmas Cove and grabbed a mooring ball and did some snorkelling around the rock formations in the bay. Our next stop was Muha Bay in Francis Bay on St. John, USVI. This was an absolutely spectacular spot with beautiful blue water and white sand bottom. Spent a few days there and did some hiking in the hills to historic sugar cane plantation ruins. There were some spectacular views from the top of the hills.

Next day we popped over to Watermelon Bay where we had heard that the snorkelling was excellent, and it did not disappoint. We have seen a greater variety of fish in the Virgins in comparison to the Bahamas. Some of the more interesting fish we have seen include porcupine fish, scrawled file fish, white spotted file fish, honeycomb cowfish and spotted trunkfish to name a few.

We really loved the island of St. John and definitely plan to visit again, as there are still numerous bays and anchorages that we missed on our first visit. The island is basically a national park that contains the ruins of Dutch sugar cane plantations, some restored, some not. There is amazing hiking. I went on a couple of hikes. Guillaume did one huge hike with Gregg on Simplicity II that was about 6 hours. They found a smoothie booth near the top, I kid you not. They thought it was a mirage, but indeed not, in fact the smoothie came with a shot of rum.

From Watermelon Bay on St. John we could see Tortola across the channel, Sopers Hole where we have planned to check in for the BVI’s. In hindsight Guillaume and I agree that the USVI’s were beautiful and that we rushed them somewhat in favour of spending more time in the BVI’s. Don’t get me wrong, the BVI’s are beautiful and amazing, but the USVI’s have just as much to offer (not to mention, a smaller charter fleet which makes for less crowded anchorages!).