On to Hansen Bay, St. John, US Virgin Islands
28 January 2017 | Hansen Bay, St. John, US Virgin Islands
Bill/Some sprinkles
After spending two days at Lesser Lameshur, we dropped our lines to the mooring ball and took off for Hansen Bay, out near the east end of St. John. The nice thing about being out here is that the incoming swell is less as we are in a more protected place and it doesn't cost $13 a night. Taking a mooring ball in one of the bays in the US Virgin Islands National Park cost $13 a night and double that if you are not a "senior" citizen. At least that's one perk for being an old foggie. We'd spent two days there decompressing after the long 26 days in Charlotte Amalie working on figuring out what was wrong with the engine and getting it fixed. I'm proud to report that she's running nice and smooth and after hitting the water tank with the infra red gun, almost 50 degrees cooler than what she had been doing. Now she's showing about 147 in the tank and it had been 193 before so I think we finally found the problem. In a month or so, we will drain out the coolant and check the heat exchanger again to see if there has been any more build up of what sludge might have been left in the system.
We made the 4 mile trip earlier in the day and were here in time for a nice spaghetti lunch and a good rain storm about 1600. It came in waves with white out conditions making it impossible to see the other side of the bay.
Tomorrow, time permitting we'll so some snorkeling here and then take of Francis Bay on the north side of St. John. It's back in the park and we will have to pay again but at least you get a mooring ball(if you get there in time before they are all taken). Tonight, we are at anchor trying out the new swivel on our Rocna anchor. We'll see tomorrow how well she comes up and if she's straight.
There are about 5 other boats here in the anchorage with just about all of them on locally owned mooring balls. Some have huge amounts of growth on their bottoms so they haven't been used in quite some time.
We want to be back in Charlotte Amalie by Tuesday as we have another package coming from Defender(replacement for a broken part that just came in) and to get our phone and internet service renewed. It's supposed to end at midnight on January 31. Meanwhile we sit back, relax and enjoy not working so hard on the boat.
Here's another picture about our anchor swivel. This time a picture of what used to be on the chain