Friday, April 3, 2020

Cinnamon Bay, St. John, USVI
18.21.271N
64.45.532W

Cinnamon Bay

Well the word is out (or others saw us here) and now all of the mooring balls are taken in Cinnamon Bay and one small boat anchored closer to shore. 

We had a bit of a sleep in this morning, as there isn’t anywhere we’ll be going in the next 10 days or so but we had heard that the cruisers had organized a bit of a ‘cruisers net’ at 8 am, so we tuned in to hear what they had to say.  I actually wished I hadn’t.  It was all CoVID-19 related and although some was relevant, some was petty, but most was well-intentioned.  Right at the moment, all USPark Services are suspended. No one is collecting fees, garbage or taking care of the picnic/camping areas on shore.  However, as all of the mooring balls are full and are at a premium should anyone try to leave, it is believed that the Park Service is considering reinstituting some sort of fee; particularly if you want to rent a mooring ball for a month.  Enterprising folks on shore are offering garbage collections at a premium price and taxis are now starting to offer service from the area bays to the grocery store.  Apparently the USVIs are trying to institute a health questionnaire to be completed when a boater requests a long-term anchoring permit.  The problem lies in that the information suggests that regardless of whether you intend to anchor for long-term or not, you are now required to request a permit, which of course, comes with a fee; this is either a new policy instituted within the last 2 days or incorrect.  Regardless, it doesn’t apply to the Park Service and with the constantly changing rules, its hard to keep up.  It was suggested that the Park Service would institute the use of the same health questionnaire to comply with government mandates but that would mean, putting park employees back to work.

Some cruisers tried to suggest a dinghy raft up for a type of social hour but were shot down by somebody threatening to write to the governor’s office regarding our lack of social distancing (or the perception of our lack) and that person got on the radio and read a letter from the governor’s office detailing the do’s and don’ts pertaining to the virus.  Others pointed out that we were about as socially distant from one another as you could possibly get.  As a person who likes to have all my I’s dotted and T’s crossed, this is very confusing and giving me palpitations as all of these new rules come with hefty fines for non-compliance. 

Then lastly came the news that there are some boats who are throwing in the towel on their dreams and organizing a flotilla north along the 65^th longitude to return home.  They’ve chosen the date of April 8^th to leave.  Dale and I looked at each other; we certainly hope they’ve checked the weather and all are seaworthy enough to complete an open ocean transit of that length.  We’ve seen boats that are questionable.  Most boats come this way by island hopping all the way down.  A week at sea is a whole different ballgame. 

After, we turned off the radio, I asked Dale if we had a Plan B or C should this lock down be extended for another length of time.  When we first arrived, it was supposed to be 2 weeks.  Then it was extended to the end of April, which means we can still island hop our way to Trinidad for hurricane season but if these lockdowns stay in effect for any longer than that, we’ll be moving much more quickly and being forced to take more chances as we won’t have the luxury of waiting for good weather windows.  I’ve already written to our insurance company to see if they’ve made any provisions for the lockdowns as they require us to be below a certain parallel by hurricane season.  Trinidad, our destination below that parallel,  is in lock down at the moment,  What do we do if they don’t open?  Should we stay or should we go? Since this is still iffy, we shelved the discussion to a later date. 

Gypsy Palace in Cinnamon Bay

What we didn’t realize was that during our discussion, Gerry had climbed to the top of his mast to check on his anemometer (wind indicator) and took a few photos of the bay and us.  Nice photos!

For a good portion of the day, Dale and I kept busy with little projects.  I started my brightwork polishing (shady side first) and Dale did some wood working on a broken step and cracked fiddle support, then replaced the gasket in the front lazarette.  Unfortunately, shortly after he fixed the broken step, I broke it again using them.  Guess that means, he has something to do tomorrow as well.   

We had Gerry/Nicky and Gene/Renee over for sundowners and once again, had great food and wonderful comradery but didn’t decide a thing.  Once the swells started up, and the rocking started in earnest, we bid our farewells to everyone and went inside to hold on.  This could be a long night.