Hello Folks,

America in the Caribbean - it exists; sort of. Following our rather full visit to the BVI's, we headed over to the United States Virgin Islands (USVIs) to meet friends Peggy and Sebastien. Hard to believe that was like a month ago so what the hell have we been doing? A little of this and that and quite a bit of nothing, which is very nice for a change. We'll get to this in a bit but a little history/info first.

The USVIs consist of three main islands - St Thomas, St John and St Croix plus some other smaller bits of land. Bonus points for those who can identify each of the flags in the lead photo. One is pretty obvious, the second should be obvious based upon where we are located, but what is the red and white one? That my friends is the flag of the fine country of Denmark, who by the way used to own these islands now called the USVIs. St Thomas, St Croix and St John became Danish colonies in 1754 and things were going along fine in terms of economics until the end of the slave trade. After that the islands became a bit of burden on the Danes and they became interested in selling. The US tried a couple of times without success but fears of German submarines setting up shop in WW1 pushed things along. The US bought the islands from the Danes in 1916 under the Treaty of the Danish West Indies. The cost was 25 million in gold coin which works out to about a ½ billion today. Those Americans were capitalists and opportunists right from the beginning.

So where does that leave the folks from these islands in terms of statehood - American, Virgin Islanders, Caribbean??? To be honest I am not sure but a quick check on Wikipedia refers to the USVIs as an "insular area of the United States" while the UN calls them a "non-self governing territory" and "an organized unincorporated territory of the United States." Clear as mud. They are organized based upon a US act from 1954 which was supposed to be temporary until they put their own constitution in place. As Canadians we know full well that constitution thing can get a little tricky and here the USVIs are in 2016 and five constitution conferences later with no constitution. It is all a bit confusing to me but the bottom line as I see things is people here in the USVI do not get to vote in US elections, but they are more than welcome to fight and die for their sort of country. Politics...

OK back to the world of SeaSparrow where no such constitutional crisis exists - I'm Captain, Debbie is the Admiral. As mentioned we came to the USVIs to meet our last guests of the season, Peggy and Sebastien, who were also trying to escape the always lingering Winter that consumes most of Spring back home in Nova Scotia. We met up with Peggy and Seb in Charlotte Amalie (pronounced "a-maul-li-a") and spent a day or two checking the town out. Charlotte Amalie is on the island of St Thomas and is the capital and largest city in the USVIs. It is the closest thing to home in the Caribbean in terms of hustle bustle and access to anything you need. All the fast foodies are here as are Home Depot and K-Mart, etc. It's great in terms of convenience of provisioning anything the boat may need, as well as access to bars and restaurants. The major drawback is the noise and rushed life that we haven't seen anywhere else we have travelled. Sirens and impatient drivers honking horns are the norm here in Charlotte Amalie. Our first day with Peggy and Seb we decided to go the grocery store in the morning but had a hard time staying focused with several distractions along the way.





We did eventually get to the grocery store but by that time Peggy was totally distracted in her new environment and sort of forgot about the bread and eggs bit for other staples.



Somehow the boat did get stocked and we headed out for our trip around the VIs. Our first couple of nights we went looking for some peace and quiet that would also allow some snorkelling and swimming. We went to a small island called Buck Island for the first night and looked for turtles as well as an old ship wreck.

Putting Seb to work





We did spot lots of turtles but couldn't quite capture a clear pic this trip but here is a photo to make it seem like we got a good shot. (photo credit to Gael Mac).



After a second night in an isolated bay we basically had to ourselves, we spent a night anchored in Megan's Bay which has an awesome beach some refer to as one of the ten best in the world. I think we all agreed the ten best thing was a bit of a stretch but it was beautiful and we were able to swim ashore from the boat to the beach bar for a great beach day with food and drink.



Following our time at Megan's Bay we headed back to Charlotte Amalie so that Peggy and Seb could catch their flight home after an all too short visit onboard SeaSparrow. Before leaving however we did mange to find a very interesting concept in rum bars called Bones. Bones is a rum produced in the USVIs and they have a store on the main street of Charlotte Amalie that advertises "Free Sample" and "Pour your own rum" drinks. Sounded too good to be true but we thought it best to check it out so that we could protect others in case this was a scam of some sort. The details are a bit fuzzy but the advertisement was quite accurate and we managed to somehow get permission to keep topping up our drinks with rum as they went down and still call it the same drink. The dangerous effect of this pour your own drink approach (at least for Seb and I) is that the "drink" gets progressively stronger as time wears on until basically we are adding rum to rum in a never empty glass. I don't think this is what the owner had in mind with his advertisement but the bartender seemed OK with this as she was telling Debbie and Peggy her life story and boyfriend problems. Seb and I quickly lost interest in the boyfriend and maintained our concentration in never allowing our one drink get to the bottom of the glass.





To show that we did actually get out and site see a bit of Charlotte Amalie here are some pics of the area.

View of the harbour



Climbing the 99 steps



To get to Blackbeards Castle, which was closed so our pic is through the fence.



Love the daycare system on this island.



Also let us not forget the mandatory beanbag pictures with our guests.



Since Peggy and Sebastien's departure Debbie and I have been doing something we rarely if ever do - nothing. We have been relaxing as we are not in a rush to get somewhere or do something. To say we have done nothing isn't quite accurate as we have tackled a few boat jobs and have started the process of getting ready for hauling out and storage. We have stayed in Charlotte Amalie for the most part but this is a noisy place at the best of times and crazy loud when Carnival is on as was the case for the last week or so. Carnival actually went on for the whole month of April but the last week saw the bands setup and play loud music until 2 or 3 in the morning every night. In an effort to get some sleep we moved a couple of miles away to Water Island and found a great anchorage that again we had to ourselves. It was within walking distance to another bay that had a beautiful beach and lots of great people who basically anchor in the bay all year. We are now back at Charlotte Amalie to provision one more time before leaving tomorrow for the Spanish Virgin Islands - Culebra and Vieques. Following that we will make our way to Puerto Del Rey Marina by the 16th of May, haul out on the 17th and be home on the 22nd. See you all soon and save a lobster (the real ones with claws) for us.


Jeff

SeaSparrow Blog Musical Selection - Tennessee Waltz - Bonnie Raitt and Nora Jones