Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI
18.19.985N
64.55.545W

First thing this morning Dale called the store where he ordered the batteries and learned that they should be delivered to the store later today and out for delivery to us tomorrow.  We can live with that.  Now, what to do with the rest of the day. 

We elected to grab up our bags, lowered the dinks, dinghied to the marina dock, walked to the Pueblo parking lot where the taxi’s hang out, negotiated a price for a taxi to take the guys to Home Depot, drop Nicki and I off at Cost U Less (kind of like a Sam’s) about a block away from Home Depot, wait for us while we shopped, and then take us all back to the marina.  (With the island in lock down, the taxies are suffering, so this was negotiated for a pretty good price, we thought.)  The guys walked over once they had finished and helped us finish our shopping; apparently, we never pick up enough rum.  The taxi driver returned us right to the walkway that led to the dinghy dock; what a prince!  We had loaded up probably more than we would have wanted to carry even a block. 

After we put away all of our groceries, Dale and Gerry left a dinghy for Nicki and I and took the other into Offshore Marine to see if they could pick up a replacement rebuild kit for our raw water pump (to replace the one they used earlier).  As we have two engines, it’s probably best if we always have a spare rebuild kit on hand.  Unfortunately, Offshore Marine had a sign on their door indicating “closed indefinitely”.  They tried Island Marine next, who checked their catalogs to see if they could order the part but had no joy.  On their way back, they spotted a boat by the name of Griffin who we had heard earlier on the Single Side Band (SSB) radio that the Seven Seas Cruising Association organizes for disseminating information among their sailing members.  We had heard that boats were being turned away in Puerto Rico and that if you planned long term anchoring in the USVI, you had to get special permission.  Since there seemed to be conflicting information circulating about both of those topics, they decided to go straight to the horse’s mouth, so to speak, to see if they could clear up some of the discrepancies.  Unfortunately, Griffin referred them back to the noonsite website.  So, it’s still a call ahead, speak with either the Coast Guard or the Customs & Borders Protection directly to get the latest information, as things seem to be changing on a daily basis type of situation.  As far as long term anchorage here, we learned that as long as you keep moving back and forth among the USVI, the term resets.  So, don’t sit for more than a month in any one place.  Not a problem, we like to hit the grocery store more often than that.   We’ll do fine as long as they don’t stop interisland movement within the USVI. 

In the meantime, while they were running around, Nicky was dropped off at our boat and we went over some of the Ancestry information she had gathered in trying to locate Gerry’s father’s family.  It’s another story of adoption but what she had found out was that yes, his father was adopted BUT, he was adopted within the mother’s family.  So now she trying to locate the father through DNA.  She’s been able to find the family but narrowing down the father has been a struggle.  Ancestry can be both fascinating and frustrating and she has been doing this a lot longer than I have. 

Later, Gerry and Nicky joined us on our boat for sundowners and nibbles.  I had made potstickers and an Asian inspired slaw that everyone said they liked.  Unfortunately, I used a ginger dressing that most likely can’t be replaced in the islands.  I’ll keep looking. 

Tomorrow is Gerry’s birthday so we’ll be having dinner on Opal.  I have a surprise that I brought all the way from Florida for it.  I think he saw that I picked up some chocolate cupcakes for the event but has no idea what else is in store.