St. Thomas, USVI
18.20.222N
64.55.607W

It was a quiet night and we awoke to wild donkeys braying on the beach near where we were moored; alternative alarm clocks are unique to each island, I‘m learning. Due to the genset malfunction last evening, however, Nicky and I knew that we should probably make ourselves scarce when the tools came out in spite of the possibility of donkey spotting from the boat.

You’ll probably remember from my previous post about Leinster Bay, there is a nice little snorkeling island called Waterlemon Cay right here. So when the guys started demolishing the salon, we took the dinghy and went snorkeling. We saw rays, flounder, sergeant majors, about 20 barracuda (young ones with one big one patrolling the posse), butterfly fish and tiny little silversides. We even saw a couple of hermit crabs living in fairly large conch shells crawling along the bottom.

At one point we looked up from our snorkeling and saw the guys on either side of the boat hanging off the standing rigging, rocking the Palace from side to side. We didn’t want to hazard a guess as to what they may have been doing.

When we thought we were as waterlogged as we could possibly get, we headed back. We approached the boat slowly, so as not to disturb geniuses at work. We could see that the genset was running again; that was a good sign. We boarded the Palace and learned that the genset impeller had not disintegrated as they had speculated but instead had sucked up a gob of seaweed. How it got through the strainer is beyond anyone‘s imagination. In any event, it was working and we’re all happy campers again. (They had been rocking the boat to look for the cooling water being expelled from the genset).

We slipped our mooring lines and motored over to Soper’s Hole on Tortola to check out of Customs. Once that was done, we dinghied over to the brightly painted stores along the waterfront to peruse their wares. Inside the grocery store, Nicky and I had fun looking at what was available. Nicky was pleased to see several items from England. I was pleased when Nicky found some canned cream for me. I had been looking for something that didn’t need refrigeration.

We found the guys drinking ‘pain killers’ at Pussers and joined them for lunch. We placed our orders then took off for the jewelry store to see what they had to offer. We got back just as they were setting the food on the table. I think we’ve got this island time down to a fine science.

We left Soper’s Hole and pointed our bow towards, St. Thomas. We were all rather quiet on the sail back. I know I was thinking that the week had flown by and that they were leaving too soon.

We anchored in Charlotte Amalie Harbor in pretty much the same place as before. We cleaned up and headed to The Green House for dinner. As luck would have it, the same waitress was assigned to our table. She was a good sport, as was the man at the corner table to whom we sent our bill. (Another table had previously sent us theirs.) He plopped down a business card and sent our check back. We pondered what it would be like if we had the resources to pay a bill that someone sent to us in jest. Wouldn’t it be fun to be able to make someone’s day by paying it?

It was another fun filled day but tomorrow they would be leaving us. Dale and I both wish they had been able to stay longer. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye.