February 2010

Patience (?)

The Virgins

We have decided to head for North Carolina and find a marina and then do something but we're just not certain what that something is.  At least the first step has been decided upon, but looking at the weather all we can see are lows sweeping down from the northwest creating snow storms along the Atlantic Coast and gale force winds offshore.  So being prudent mariners, we have decided to stay put for the time being.

Even though we would like to get underway, it's not hard to show some patience and just hang out in the Virgins. We visited the BVI's and went to all the usual places and then tried to visit some of the places that we missed on our first tour.  In Anegada we had a lobster dinner at the Anegada Reef Motel where we had spent New Year's Eve 2002/2003. Anegada is composed of limestone and coral and at its highest point is 28 feet above sea level.  Columbus named it Anegada, the "drowned island".  Since it is encircled by a reef charter boats are allowed only if they have a captain aboard.

Next it was down to Virgin Gorda Sound for a few nights then off to Cooper Island where we found a nice litle anchorage that we had all to ourselves. Next stop, the Indians for a snorkle. We stopped at Cane Garden where we wanted to spend a couple of days but the swell was too bad to get off the boat so we left the next morning.  We also wanted to stop by Ivans and/or The Soggy Dollar bar but again decided not to stop because of the swell in the anchorage.  All in all we spent about 10 days weaving in and out of the charter fleets and had a good time meeting the vacationers who were escaping the cold weather back in the US and Canada.

But we needed to change oil in all the engines and investigate buying some parts so we headed back to St John, USVI where we could use the mailing address of our friends Tom and Amy. We wandered around St John and through Tom and Amy have met many of the locals and recent arrivals.  Although the USVI's are part of the Virgin Islands they are quite different.  As Tom and Amy's Sadie Sea t-shirt says, "Same latitude, Different attitude".  The USVI belong to the US of course, but you can't vote in national elections, any taxes paid do not go to the national treasury but rather stay on the island and a great many of the younger arrivees work in the entertainment business (fire shows etc).  This high risk occupation does not attract people who are into maximizing income.  In fact we can't find anyone (save our friends on the Sadie) who is into maximizing income.  Of course that is what makes the island what it is.....relaxed and layed back. The fact that it's a national park means there are many "isolated" beaches with a few mooring balls and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay.

Well we keep watchng weather and things are improving so tomorrow we will head in to buy grocries, maybe we will be underway by St Patrick's Day.

Click on the "smiley face" to go directly to flicker to see the entire set of photos of our time at St John. 

Back     Next