Gallows Bay,
Christiansted,
St. Croix, USVI
17.44.911N
64.41.908W

The wind remained constant during Dale’s watch and had started moving from astern of us to abeam of us. When I came on watch at 2am, the seas had moderated to a comfortable level and the wind was holding steady at 10-13 kts abeam to slightly astern. Feeling lucky, I unfurled the main sail and away we went. I’ve made up my mind that our boat sails much faster and more comfortably than it motors. At one point after the winds rose more, I saw 7.8 on the knot meter. Wahoo, we were making up for lost time!!

By the end of Dale’s watch at 8 am, St. Croix was well within sight and in spite of the conditions of our transit, we were right on time. I took over at 8am and brought the Palace around Udall Point, the eastern most point of the U.S. and then around between St. Croix and Buck Island. A couple of dolphins welcomed us to the area. by playing on our bow wake.

Dale came up early and we rolled in the sails to enter into Gallows Bay in Christiansted, St. Croix. Dale insists that I look up at the wind index instead of the wind gauges when we’re turning into the wind to bring in the sails and it was when I had done a 90 degree turn that we realized the wind index was stuck. I guess all of those high winds took their toll. I brought the Palace back until the sails started flapping and figured we were close enough. I noticed a little later that the arrow had straightened itself out so maybe its just a little bent and gets stuck in certain directions.

We wiggled our way through the reefs protecting the island and tied up at St. Croix Marine around 11:30am. This is not a place you would want to enter after dark; talk about switch back and hairpin turns.

Dale is still not happy with the outboard, so as soon as we cleared customs, we immediately started looking for a Mercury repair shop to haul the outboard to for servicing. We found one about two doors down (probably why Dale wanted to come here) and made arrangements to meet with Bruce, the service guy, tomorrow to watch over his shoulder so that Dale can fix it in the future.

We signed up for internet service and sent out a couple of e-mails telling those who were following us that we had arrived safely. We also requested that our regular mail be forwarded to us as we haven’t checked it since leaving Trinidad. We straightened up the Palace then fell into bed for naps and ended the evening with dinner in the marina restaurant.
We plan on staying here for a few days waiting for our mail and renting a car to tour the island. Although we were stationed in Puerto Rico for three years, we never took the opportunity to visit St. Croix in all of that time. We hope to make up for that now.