Strangers back in Paradise!
14 February 2010 | Sopers Hole, Tortola
Maggie
We have finally arrived! We are anchored in our favorite bay - Maho Bay on St John. It has been a hell week getting here.
We arrived in St Thomas on Monday, Feb 8, with most of our huge baggage intact. We stayed at The Crystal Palace which is an old famous estate house just above the St Thomas harbor. The owner Ronnie is descended from the original Danish settlers, and a good friend of our old cruising buddy Bettie who lives on St Thomas. He took us up to her place on the mountain to drop off our new inflatable kayak and other gear then to his guest house. From the balcony we could see all of the harbor and the massive cruise ships - some the biggest in the world. We didn't have much time to enjoy it since we were due to meet Bettie and Sig for dinner.
Next morning we dallied on the veranda too long before checking ferry schedule and finally found out the only morning ferry to West End, BVI was in 10 minutes! Fortunately Ronnie has enough pull on the island that they held the ferry for us! What a scramble even with only half our baggage! So we finally got cleared in to BVI and got ourselves and our junk to the boat. The boat was actually in the water and at a dock, so that was a big hurdle.
The sails got back on (they had been stored at Doyle Sails) but they forgot to make the new stack pack with our name on so we have to go back to pick that up in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile the mainsail just lays all over and has to be tied up with bungies. We had to go to the USVIs and stay at a marina in St Thomas to get 5 new batteries. On the way we stopped at St John and picked up our mailed packages - the fishing pole and kayak paddles and other stuff all arrived OK. Luckily there was a good sized super market within walking distance of the marina so I was able to provision on foot without renting a car. And Sig brought the kayak to the dock. We still have to go back to St Thomas to pick up the solar panels.
The good news is, we have arrived in paradise, we got the kayak pumped up and it works great so it was worth the hassle of getting it here. The terrible north swell caused by the storms up in the East Coast of the US have settled down, so we should start getting some good snorkeling.
So all is well in paradise and today is the first day of the good stuff.
Maggie