While still in St John, USVI we spent a couple of days on a mooring in Lameshur Bay. This is one of our favorites. The view from the boat is forested hills on three sides and the open Caribbean Sea on the other. There are two buildings that can be seen: the roof of the rangers cottage and a research facility at the dock. There are no lights at night other then from your fellow boats, pure peaceful paradise. I did some snorkeling and we hiked one of the trails to the petroglyphs. The hike was a lot harder then I remember from last time we were here, about three and a half years ago.
Squid aka: calamari
We are in the furthest bay
Termite nest, the dark lines are their covered trails
Sandbox tree, Stories are they would tie you to the tree for punishment
The next day we motored around the island and again picked up a mooring in Caneel Bay. From there we dinghied into town to do laundry and another burger at Tap and Still.
Saturday, Leap Day. we moved to Charlotte Amalie in St. Thomas. After lunch we went ashore and immediately ran into our friends on Peace. We had not seen them since last year when we went on a tour in Dominica with them. We spent a bit of time with them and then hit the grocery store. We stocked up once more with fresh vegetables and added more rum to our collection. Cruzan Rum is made in St. Croix and is inexpensive here. The next day Cori went out exploring one of the islands in the bay in her kayak while stayed and ran the generator to bring the batteries up. There was a small cruise ship in so a number of stores were open so we went ashore again. One of our stops was at a small bar. When we arrived there was one other couple and the bartender. It turned out three of us were from Minnesota, all being happy to not be there this winter. From there we wandered back to the Tap and Still for another burger. They have a really good burger. The next day we went ashore and walked to the Frenchtown district. The streets have French names and the French Bistro had authentic Cajun food and a feel of New Orleans. From there we walked to Crown Bay Marina. Cori wanted to check on her NOAA mark. Back in 2007 Cori's dad was in the islands surveying for NOAA. One of the marks he was able to rename and marked it as Cori. For her birthday that year he sent here the Lat and Long of her birthday present. When we were here before we found it and she wanted to check on it again. It needed a little polishing and she was able to borrow some polish from the mega-yacht that was docked next to it.
From there we caught a bus back to downtown to spend some quality time with Sydney, our favorite bartender at the Tipsy Turtle.
The next morning we pulled anchor and moved over to Brewers Bay. The downtown anchorage was getting rolly. We traded a rolly anchorage to one where the airport runway blocked the swell. The noise wasn't bad, there is a nice beach and it is quiet in the evening and overnight when the airport shuts down. We went ashore and collected more shells.
The next day, Wednesday the 4th, we pulled anchor and motor-sailed to Culebra. Culebra is part of the Spanish Virgin Islands and is a part of Puerto Rico. We were here around Christmas 2016. We just hung out doing a couple of little projects. On Friday we went back in for an early dinner at Zaco's Taco's. It seems to be the thing to do. After that we wandered to another bar for a beer and the view. Checking Facebook I saw that our friends from Dos Libras were at at another establishment. We quickly paid up and walked over. for a visit. We had met them the last time we were here and had not seen them since Grenada last year. They have now sold their boat and are living in Puerto Rico.
The next morning we motored around to the east side of the island and picked up a mooring to snorkel the reef. This is one of the better spots that I have snorkeled and I wanted to check it out again. We spent the night there and in the morning headed off for Puerto Rico.
Our plan is to move from Puerto Rico to the Bahamas and we wanted a chance to get caught up on some projects before then. We also have to wait out some inclement weather. First thing was to fill up on fuel. We were down 3/4 of a tank. My record show that we last filled in Guadeloupe last February before heading back to Trinidad for the summer. We took on 60 gallons, by my records we have traveled 975 miles since then. We do sail as much as we can. Once we were in our slip and all settled in our friends on Blue Moon arrived. We had not seen them since Trinidad last year. They are on their way back to the US also.
Today is rainy and we are taking care of some projects. I have redone the spicing on our anchoring bridle, it had gotten chafed, and I am running the equalizing cycle on our batteries. This is the main reason for going into a marina. I need 110 AC power to get the batteries to full charge and then run the cycle which can be an all day event. Once this is done they should hold a charge better. My records also show that this is the third time in almost four years since we left North Carolina that we have been to a marina.
We will be waiting out the weather for a good window for the jump to the Bahamas, possibly checking out the south side of the island while we wait. Time and weather will tell.
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