Thursday 5 March 2020

US Virgin Islands has a spotty reputation with cruisers for some reason, but we've found it quite congenial. The place is a center for boating with all the support one might want. As a tourist destination it has great bars and restaurants. It has all the Caribbean feel and tropical weather (including hurricanes), yet enjoys many of the advantages of the contiguous US. Post office treats it the same - for example, there is regular free and fast shipping from Amazon. You can find all the variety of food and products as in the lower 48 including fresh produce.

On the negative side cruise ships come in every day during the season making Charlotte Amalie one of the busiest destinations in the world. As many as five ships with sixteen thousand passengers on some days. A million and a half cruise ship cattle a year herd through (a little harsh?). Maintaining a low profile is appropriate when the terminals are full.

Founded in 1666 as Taphus, which means beer house it was renamed for Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel, queen consort to King Christian V of Denmark-Norway. After fifty two years of negotiations the US coaxed neutral Denmark to sell the Virgins in 1917 for twenty five million dollars by threatening to attack them. Not nice. Secretary of State Robert Lansing probably got on Santa's naughty list for that one. They and he wanted the islands to keep the Germans from getting them during that little misunderstanding that lasted, with a twenty one year intermission, until 1945.

Sunday

After less than five years, plastic oarlocks on AB dink have rotted away. Bought better Caribe units in St. Maarten, but prefer professional unglue old (with heat gun) and install new. Repair shop, accessible by water, scheduled for Tuesday, is on other side of Charlotte Amalie and since wind increases tonight and Secret Harbour (a different one) has poor holding (plus rolly) we're off to Water Island.

Bought small Yamaha portable generator in Darwin that had not been unwrapped until this afternoon. Why today you may ask? Panda has begun overheating and cleaning raw water intake screen did bupkis. Changing raw water pump will take awhile (might just be impeller, but with weeping seal it needs replacement) so batteries get charged meantime. Oddly, after servicing with oil and petrol the thing ran and it's quietish. Couldn't be that easy, of course, so new power cord had to be fabricated out of loose parts and at 1000 watts it's sloooooooooow.

Along with big wind, biblical deluge is approaching so there'll be no excuse for avoiding work inside tomorrow on Fixme Panda. In case of crumbling impeller, manufacturer thought to install screen downstream to catch broken blades. Of course generator is so tightly engineered it's nearly impossible to access - nothing that patience, a few bloody knuckles and a smattering of profanity won't put right.

Rain has come in early so expect a wet ride into Tickles Dockside Pub (it's got to be good) to meet Tim for dinner. Perhaps we'll offer a libation to Chac, the Mayan god of rain to knock it off while we're out. Anyway, it wouldn't seem right if we didn't occasionally enjoy SDB, soggy dinghy butt.

Jack & Jan