Virgins in the Virgins
30 January 2017
Simply, we have not visited the Virgin Islands previously.
The forecast was for some wind to arrive on Thursday 26th January so we had to leave the islands of Statia and Saba for another occasion.
We left St Kitts at 0905 and had a fabulous sail overnight to St John, US Virgin Islands in 15-18kts of beam reaching and broad reaching. Arriving at Cruz Bay to clear in at 0710 taking 22 hours for the 143nm at an average speed of 6.5kts - we had to reef down to enable a dawn arrival.
We picked up a mooring at Salomon Bay and dinghied ashore to clear in – Customs and Border Protection were very friendly and helpful, so it was quite painless. What was not painless was finding wifi.
The tourism office said free wifi in the park near the ferry dock – not working. The lady in the yoghurt and coffee place offering free wifi said she only knew how to turn on the music – wifi not working. We tramped the streets looking for somewhere to buy a mini SIM card … no, no, not open. Eventually we saw a sign for a café with wifi so went in. It turned out the café was closed down and it was now an estate agency, BUT on explaining our predicament the very kind lady showed us to a meeting room and signed us in to their wifi. Truly very kind.
So, why are we here? Well, the watermarker decided to spring a leak (partially fixed with epoxy putty) and we need a replacement part which is available in Charlotte Amalie on St Thomas. So we spent the weekend in Christmas Cove, Great St James Island, doing boat stuff and having a bit of a relax.
Our first impression of the USVIs is that it is very busy, but it has compensations as moored in our cove is a boat fitted out as a pizza kitchen, PIZZA PI, so you call ‘em up on VHF Ch16, order your pizzas and dinghy over to collect 20 minutes later. Quite remarkable.
So, now we are at anchor just off Charlotte Amalie, the capital, but may move back to St John as various Ocean Cruising Club friends are over there.