Leinster Bay
St. John, USVI
18.21.883N
64.43.321W

Good Grief! Now we know why there weren’t very many boats in this anchorage. We rocked all night long. Normally the cruising guides warn you about conditions like that but they must have missed that part for Buck Island.

We awoke to a beautiful morning and hoisted anchor by 7:15 am. We eased our way out of the anchorage, rounded north along the protective reef, then unfurled our sails and romped between 6 - 7.5kts across the passage to St. John, arriving on the south side of St. John by noon. That has to be a record! We tightened our sails to negotiate the cut into Pillsbury Sound and then pinched really, really high to ease by Blunder Rocks. Dale did a really super job squeezing every inch we made windward in order to stay on the same tack and not add to the hull tally for these notorious rocks.

We continued on towards Jost Van Dyke and by 2:30pm made our first tack in front of Sandy Cay to head back towards Leinster Bay on the north side of St. John. A passing rain shower ruined our chances of negotiating Thatch Cut on this leg but it also provided the double rainbow we spotted as we headed back across. Instead of tacking two more times, we turned on the engine and arrived at Leinster Bay by 3:30 pm.

The same National Park Service volunteers that were here back in February are here again and recognized our boat. We put the dinghy back together again and went by to say hello before heading into shore to pay our fees. Regretfully, we didn’t have enough time to snorkel Waterlemon Cay as I had hoped we might, but once Gerry & Nicky get here maybe I’ll have another opportunity.

Tomorrow we want to slip into Road Town to pick up our sat phone before heading west to St. Thomas for the night. After that, we’re back to Roosey for the last days before it closes.