Saturday, April 11, 2020

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI
18.20.016N

Tropical Easter Flower

64.55.440W

Well, today was the day we got busted!

We began our day by walking about a half mile into town to go to the Post Office to retrieve our care package.  We entered and got in line.  Stayed within our 6’ delineation marked on the floor and after about 15 minutes reached the clerk.  We asked for our general delivery package and was told that we had to go to the next room to get our package.  Dale explained that he had previously picked up a general delivery package right there.  She said she would check but that in the future, general delivery packages should be picked up in the next room.  She came back and said that the package wasn’t there. 

I called our daughter for the tracking number as the clerk walked Dale over to the next room where there was a very long line of people waiting for parcels sent to their P. O. boxes, nothing about general delivery.  She asked if we had a tracking number and to write it down on a piece of paper.  We did and went to hand it back to her but were told to get in line and give it to the clerks handling the boxes.  Dale took it in stride, which I found amazing as he hates waiting in line.  I wasn’t happy and the longer we stood there, the less happy I was, as I looked up the tracking number on line and found that yes, it had been delivered 2 days earlier. 

When we got to the head of the line, they took our number (and 5 others standing in line), I showed them on my phone that their tracking info indicated that it had been delivered.  I could see that the woman who took our number, handed it off to another, who went to the other side of the building, where we had been originally, came back immediately with the package but put it on the table by the window.  The woman who took our number gathered all of the other packages and handed them out and then took more numbers.  Then the woman who had actually found our package, told the woman at the window that she couldn’t tell if we needed to sign for it or not as it clearly had been inspected by customs (it contained all sorts of cooking ingredients, soaps, and candies – who knows what it looked like on an x-ray machine.) The woman in the window handed out the next group’s packages before she looked at ours, asked for an ID and then gave us the box.  REALLY?  Dale started to open the box there but I persuaded him to go back to the first side and open it in front of the clerk who said that it wasn’t there.  I know, petty, but I wanted to make a point.  We had been standing there for over an hour.  Dale had kept track of it. 

We walked back, stopped at the supermarket for a couple of items and then to Wendy’s for an early lunch before making it back to the anchorage. 

Rum Truffle

As we approached, we saw Texas Crewed moving behind us and that Rum Truffle had arrived and was taking their previous position.  We maneuvered between them and over to Opal to drop off a purchase we had made for them.  They told us that while we were gone, the Harbor Patrol had come through the anchorage with lights, sirens and bull horns, stopping at each of our boats to inform us that we had to fill out anchoring permits and a heath questionnaire that could be found online at the Department of Natural Resources.  We had heard previously that they had been considering some type of permit, certificate and fee but we thought it would have been through Customs and Border, Coast Guard, even Harbor Patrol but Natural Resources, that’s a new one. 

In any event, we returned to the Palace, located the website, proceeded to fill out the forms, locate a photograph of our boat and copy our Florida registration, print out the forms to sign, scanned and returned everything.  Not once were we asked the date we had arrived but that we now had to monitor our symptoms for the next 3 days and self-isolate for the next 14.  Since we’ve been in the country since March 16, I think it’s a little late.  Now we wait to see what happens next.  When we arrived in March, there were different rules in effect.  These rules became effective 1 April. 

At this point, I’m terrified that we’ll be told to head to St. Croix to check in as they are not allowing boats to check in here as of the first of April.  St. Croix is a day away.  Did I mention that my hair is falling out in handfuls?  Dale says its stress.  Ya think?

We ended the day having drinks and nibbles on Opal.  Texas Crewed joined us on board but Rum Truffle hung off the side in their dinghy as they are social distancing. 

Tomorrow I’m having everyone on our boat for an Easter dinner.  My faith is always with me but I don’t preach or make a big point of it.   In fact, I love to speculate about extraterrestrial possibilities, I’ll give you a run for your money on the latest conspiracy theory and I can swear like a pirate when the mood strikes.  This past year has been very trying and I’ve been a bit grumpy lately.  I need to remember to be thankful for what we have and lean into the winds that are blowing hard against us all.  Times such as these have me returning to that faith, gathering inner strength from something I can’t explain but I know who made it possible.  A Blessed Easter to all; and a silent prayer that not all of my hair falls out. 

Friday, April 10, 2020

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI
18.20.016N
64.55.440W

I didn’t write yesterday because, to be quite frank, there wasn’t anything to write about.  Dale and Gerry found a reason to run to a marine store (shockingly Dale didn't find a thing he needed), Nicky and I stayed back.  The huge yacht that had been a fixture at the marina left today.  Dale said that we’d have to be careful when we approached the dinghy dock from now on as there is probably a reef left behind. 

I heard from Texas Crewed that they were intending to head in our direction today. 

I read various facebook entries.  I am gathering several clever names for the current virus or the corona situation:  WuFlu, Coronapocalypse, coronaithians.  By the time this is all done, there should be loads of astute descriptions. 

Texas Crewed

Today, we were supposed to go to the Post Office as one of our daughters sent us a care package but it was closed.  
Texas Crewed did make it.  Once they were anchored, we all gathered our shopping bags, dinghied in and fought for space at the dock.   We were on our way to the taxi area, when our previous driver saw us and met us half way (the taxi drivers are really hurting with all of the cruise ships gone).  We all piled in and took off for the Home Depot and Cost U Less experience.  When they were done, we teased Gene and Renee that we would have to fill their dinghy with the groceries they purchased and they could ride with us.  After sitting on a mooring ball for a month with no provisioning to be found, they really needed supplies.  They no sooner emptied their dinghy onto the boat than they headed back out again to shop at Kmart and the little grocery store across the street. 

Dale Trying to 

Dull the Edges

Things didn’t seem to be as crazy this time.  No long lines but we did have to stay the 6’ distance between each person.  Dale got in trouble for stepping too close to the woman in front of us.  The guy keeping everyone in line said that there had to be 6’ between each shopper; if you were married, 10’.  I saw a joke about a couple who had gone shopping but when they got home and took off their masks, the lady realized she brought home the wrong husband. 

Dale busied himself for the rest of the day putting heavy duty plastic around and blocking areas between the solar panels.  If you remember, I told you that we had severed our main sheet during the night on our transit from Puerto Rico to here.  It was such a clean cut our only thought was that it had slipped around one of the sharp corners of the solar panels and then sliced through when tension came up suddenly.  Hopefully, this will take care of it.  If that wasn’t the issue, we’ll have to go back to the drawing board. 

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI
18.20.016N
64.55.440W

Once again the birds were up at the crack of dawn, so that meant we were too.  Dale and Gerry were going to make a run to Red Hook on the other end of the island to Budget Marine and Nicky and I were going to tag along and possibly jump off at Price Smart; you never know what we might find.  In any event, Nicky had not had a good night and begged off, so I decided to stay back as well. 

Once the guys left, I made use of my time by doing dishes from last evening.  So what? You might ask.  You’d be right, if we’ve used the engine transiting.  We would have plenty of hot water and you simply turn on the tap as you would at home.   However, at anchor, we use sun showers (like the kind found in camping stores) to heat our water.  So, I attached a halyard (since I’m a wimp) to lift the full and heated sun shower off the deck and over to the hatch closest to the galley sink, dropped the shower hose through it and wrap it around my faucet and proceed to do the dishes.  Once done, I run outside to use the halyard to lower the sun shower itself down the hatch, then run back in and over to the sink to refill it.  Once filled, I move it to the floor (OK this time I man handle it) and position it below the hatch, run back outside and use the winch (since I prefer to be a wimp in this matter) to raise the halyard with the attached sun shower back up through the hatch back outside and onto a relatively flat surface to reheat the water.  In case you’re wondering, we have a second sun shower for its intended purpose; a shower.   The only thing to keep in mind in that regard is timing.  You don’t want it tepid and you don’t want it scalding hot.  Life on a boat!

It was about this time I started getting notices on my phone that purchases were being made.  The first one from Budget Marine meant that Dale had found another elbow for the water heater should he need one.  The second purchase was from Price Smart and the amount indicated to me that Dale had found another ice maker.  Not sure if I had mentioned that the little one we had purchased in Ft. Pierce was starting to make very loud and very disconcerting noises; the kind that mean its getting ready to blow up or catch fire. 

Sure enough, a short time later, I hear a dinghy pull up to deposit my husband with large box and grinning from ear to ear.  Yep!  He had found another little ice maker.  What I hadn’t realized was that this meant that he was now free to disassemble the first one to tinker with.  He set sup the new one to sit for the manufacturer’s recommended one hour before using.  Now he was free to tinker with the first one to his heart’s content. 

I was happy to see that he spread an old towel on the outside table prior to his surgical endeavors (he is trainable!) before laying out his tools and taking the outside cover off.  I’m sure it was longer than I remember but it was only a brief time into his surgery when I heard him say “surely it can’t be just that!”  Next thing I know, he’s back and plugging the little darling in.  And, it’s working.  Without the noise.  Apparently, we now have 2 working ice makers.  He found that a tiny little wire about 1” long had caught in a position switch thus preventing that switch from allowing the rotation process to continue with its cycle.  In other words, it got lost on its way to making ice.  Once the wire was zip tied out of the way, the little gem was back in business.  I suppose one way to look at it is, we were running it for long periods of time; with 2 ice makers, we can now cut that time in half. 

It wasn’t too long after that when we received a telephone call from DHL asking where we were located as they had a delivery.  Dale’s rebuild kit had arrived.  When we told them we were on a boat in Charlotte Amalie Harbor, he said not a problem, he’d meet us at the dinghy dock; did it all the time!  Twenty minutes later, I have a very contented husband.  He’s had a good day.  In fact, he even took me to dinner.  Granted it was Wendy’s take out but we did eat it in the park by the marina.  And we didn’t get arrested.  All in all, a good day. 

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI
18.20.016N
64.55.440W

I think my posts are going to become monotonous because we’re just killing time, as is the rest of the world. 

We began our day doing a type of rain dance.  We try to leave our hatches open for ventilation when we’re sleeping.  When it rains, we have to jump up and run all over the place to close them.  The early part of the morning was spent opening and closing said hatches due to the rain not making up its mind whether it was going to drop or not.  Then when it did rain with a little more than a spit, the water gathered on the sun shades and broke one of the tent poles I use to hold them up (so Dale doesn’t have to stoop when he’s getting on and off the boat.)  A quick repair later and we were back in business. 

Dale kept busy sanding down all of the fiddles on the boat to keep any others from swelling to the point of cracking their cradles (for lack of a better name for them).  Then he smeared 5200 all over the place trying to glue part of the starboard rub rail back into place as a bandaid until we can get to Trinidad and haul the boat for a better repair. 

He also found a drip type of leak on the water heater.  You may recall that he had replaced an elbow connection a couple of months ago to stop a major leak.  Today’s find was just a drop or so.  He covered the water maker located in front of the water heater with a massive amount of plastic to keep it from getting wet; just in case.  Since Gerry needs to make a run to Budget Marine again tomorrow, Dale will tag along and pick up another elbow in the event this one has a scratch on it.  Apparently, if you’re not careful in attaching the elbow to the metal, scratches can keep the plumbers tape from adhering into the tiny creases completely. 

I wish I could tell you what I did today but other than typing the blog, making a couple of telephone calls, taking care of e-mails, regular housekeeping chores, chopping vegetables for fajitas and marinating the meat, I can’t remember anything noteworthy.  It reminds me of days when Dale would come home from work and ask what I had done with my day.  I know I kept busy but I’ll be danged if I can remember how. 

This evening we had Gerry and Nicky over for dinner.  The main topic of conversation remains what to do about all of the changing rules.  Dale’s fall back is:  sit here and wait until someone comes by and says we’re not complying with whatever rule is in effect that day.  Then comply.  I don’t know, sounds kind of haphazard to me.  We’ll see.  Stand by, I may have to call for bail money. 

Monday, April 6, 2020

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI
18.20.016N
64.55.440W

The avian alarm clock went off this morning at the crack of dawn and continued relentlessly for the next couple of hours, so there was no choice but to get up and start the day.  Dale began a bit later by calling Budget Marine to see if first, they were open and second, if they carried float switches.  The guy he was transferred to said that they didn’t have float switches but when Dale asked if they had bilge pumps, he readily agreed that they lots of those.  Dale took the information into consideration and decided that it was worth the $2 trip over to see what they had, as you can’t have bilge pumps without float switches.  Sure enough, when he and Gerry make the trek, they found an entire wall of bilge pumps and their accompanying “bilge float switches”.  Apparently, you have to use the full name to make any headway. 

In the meantime, the guys had left one of the dinghies behind so that Nicky and I could make a grocery trip.  As Nicky wasn’t quite ready, I thought I’d make a couple of quick calls to straighten out a bill I thought had been paid a year in advance.  It ended up taking me an hour to clear up.  The long and short of that little episode was that their online account information didn’t match their in house information and their IT department had to fix the problem.  I’m getting less tolerant in my old age, so when they were going to give me the IT department telephone number to call, I told them it was their problem but until it was straightened out, I wouldn’t be renewing my contract with them.  I probably need to up my St. John’s Wart dose. 

I eventually locked up the boat and jumped in the dink to head over to Opal.  Oops, forgot the key to the dink, so I crawled out, unlocked the boat, found the key, locked the boat back up, started down the steps and remembered I needed to take grocery bags with me (just not quite used to that yet). So back up, unlock the door, grab the bags, lock the door, down the steps to the dinghy, place the key where it needed to go (I think it works on some type of contact method; when the key is in place there is no contact, so the motor starts.  To stop the motor, you pull the key out.) then over to Opal.  Nicky saw me coming and was perched on the back ladder of Opal ready to step/fall into our dink.  Off we went to the dinghy dock, pushed and shoved our way in, secured the dink, walked to the street, found a couple of shopping carts previous boaters had left at the gate, and walked over to the grocery store to stand in line outside of the store.  Eventually we were allowed in and shopped at our own pace as the guys weren’t with us.  By the time we were done, the guys had returned and were waiting for us to help load everything back into the dinks and return. 

Park Monument In St. Thomas

By the time the groceries were put away, it was lunch time and Nicky and I had already talked about a Roti run.  If nothing else, it would be a little exercise if they were closed.  Luck was with us and they were opened.  Not sure if I mentioned this before but Roti’s are an Indian curry dish of chicken and potatoes in a type of tortilla.  We took our treasures and walked to the park.  Of course, it was empty of everyone but the chickens.  So we used the checkerboard table as our picnic table and spread out for a leisurely lunch before waddling back to the dinks. 

Later in the afternoon, the guys tested Gerry’s SSB to see if it was working and presto!  We could hear him.  Whatever he did, worked.  Apparently, he gave it a good cleaning, greasing and reattached everything.

The rest of the afternoon was spent mindlessly filling time.  There’s only so much reading you can do and I had just finished reading Atlas Shrugged which has to be as long as War and Peace (which by the way, is amazing (Atlas Shrugged) in that it was written back in 1957 but described what is going on in today’s political and ideological climate with amazing foresight).  I pulled out some adult coloring books for just such an occasion and discovered I had a duplicate book, so I searched through my pencils and found a set that I could take to Nicky.  She had mentioned that she hadn’t brought hers and wished she had done so.  I bagged them up and took them over to her. 

We finished the evening eating left overs and watching a news program out of Puerto Rico (sort of).  We watched it when the boat would swing in the direction where we could actually see and hear the program.  At one point, we just had to turn it off before someone, who wasn’t taking a high enough dose of St. Johns Wart, threw it out of the hatch. 

Sunday, April 5, 2020

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI
18.20.016N
64.55.440W

Today was a lazy day.  At least for me. 

We woke to sea gulls making a huge racket circling the anchorage.  I suspect, with fewer fisherman out, the birds are searching for fishing chum closer in.  At least that’s my guess as I don’t recall them being here a couple of weeks ago. 

About mid morning, Gerry popped by, then he and Dale made a garbage run into town and dropped by Griffin on the way back to catch up on the local gossip.  Apparently, there are 2 flotillas heading north.  I didn’t get the skinny on the second one. 

When Dale got back, he decided to keep busy by cleaning the shower sump pump.  It became one of those little jobs that turned into a big job.  It was not only full of water but apparently gnats had decided this was the perfect place to lay their eggs.  Yuck!  I’m glad I didn’t see the worst of it.  In any event, he decided that the float switch (that had been acting up) wasn’t worth salvaging and would just replace it with the one on the guest side (as we aren’t expecting guests until July).  That’s when the job grew.  That one was corroded.  Again, he tried to cut back to “clean” wires but was unsuccessful.  So now we need 2 more float switches.  If you remember, he had replaced our port bilge pump float switch with one that was too big but he was able to “McGuyver” it into place to work; which it has.  That makes a total of 3 float switches needed.  As no marine stores are opened today or at least we had a problem trying to catch a “safari” bus the last time we tried on a Sunday, he thought he would put it off until tomorrow as there is a Budget Marine in Red Hook on the east side of the island.   He checked the Budget Marine website and found that they carried the right ones in their catalog but that doesn’t mean they’ll have them in their stores.  He’ll check by telephone tomorrow.  

After that, he fixed the step (again) and returned the fiddle support.  Then he sanded the fiddle a bit as he suspects it’s swelling due to the constant humidity causing the hang up.  Once done, it was time for a nap. 

I, on the other hand, worked diligently on puzzles.  A couple of word puzzles; a couple of Sudoko puzzles; a crypto puzzle and then made a pasta salad for dinner.  There were a couple of peppers that needed to be used before they went bad.  Add a fresh onion, some celery, boil some pasta, then look out Rachel Ray!

We gathered on Opal for Bubba Burgers and Nicky added some caramel laden brownies for dessert.  We kicked around the fate of the world and decided that we had best stay here until we know what is happening further down island.  We can’t believe some of the rumors we’re hearing about restrictions on St. Lucia keeping boaters from visiting one another on their respective boats.  That would definitely cramp our style.  Too bad, Dale really liked St. Lucia.  I’d love to learn the stats on boaters developing CoVID-19 as we haven’t heard of any. 

Guess that’s it for today.  Not much to report. 

Saturday, April 4, 2020

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI
18.20.016N
64.55.440W

Looks like I was mistaken with my estimate of sitting for 10 days. 

I woke up about 5:30am this morning thinking I heard someone calling my name.  I crawled out and took a look around.  There were 6 boats in Cinnamon Bay.  3 were pointed towards the beach and 3 were pointed towards an islet of rocks between Francis/Maho Bay and us.  Opal was in the second group, we were in the first. 

It had been a rolly night but nothing we haven’t experienced before, in fact the night before we left for Cinnamon Bay in Charlotte Amalie was just as bad if not worse.  However, at a decent time later in the morning we checked with Opal and were informed that they were in the process of leaving; they were not staying there for another night.  I guess it was pretty bad for them.  They dropped their mooring ball and did a slow circuit around, Maho Bay, continued on through Francis Bay and then checked the 3 mooring balls on the opposite side of the Bay from us and found it to be worse than where we were.  By this time, we had secured our boat and dropped our mooring ball to catch up with them.  I tried radioing Texas Crewed to let them know we were leaving, as well as sending them texts and finally e-mails but without success.  We finally were able to send a message when we got to St. Thomas. 

We did slow circuits through, Caneel Bay, Cruz Bay and Christmas Cove but there were no moorings available anywhere.  So, as you can see, we made our way back to Charlotte Amalie. 

Gypsy Palace's Code Zero

On the way back, we had very light winds just a bit abaft the beam (a smidge behind our shoulders when facing forward) so we unfurled the Code Zero and sailed ever so slowly on our return.  Gerry took photos of us, we took photos of them. 

Opal

We arrived about noon, dropped our hook (a couple of times as someone came out and glared at us when we drifted back; obviously too close for his comfort) and then lowered the dinghy when we learned that Gerry was going to drop one of the head sails to make a repair.  We popped over and assisted lowering the sail and then went back to retrieve my heavy duty sewing machine to restitch some of the material starting to come unraveled.  Nicky said that it will end up in a sail loft in any event but maybe we delayed the inevitable a bit longer.  After we were done and the sail was hoisted and furled, we were all sitting in their cockpit quietly.  Too quietly.  If we didn’t move, and soon, we were all going to be snoring as we were exhausted. 

We decided to forego the sundowners and catch up again tomorrow.  As I’ve said before, fresh air and sunshine will kill you. 

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. 

Thursday, April 2, 2020

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

Today finds us in Cinnamon Bay by necessity—but what a great find. 

We found ourselves rather anxious to leave this morning as it was a pretty rolly night, so we were up, dressed and moving around when we saw a dark monohull approaching rather quickly about 6:45 am.  We were surprised to see that it was Rum Truffle! 

The last we had heard, Rum Truffle was in the Cruz Bay, St. John area.  They circled around us, then dropped their anchor in front of us.  Next, of course, they lowered their dinghy where Mark climbed in and came over to say hi.  He explained that they had come in for a very short time to pick up a part for their generator from the post office and immediately were heading back to Caneel Bay where they had left a dinghy holding their mooring ball.  Dale gave him directions as to where to tie up his dinghy and where the post office was located in relation to the dinghy dock.  Mark roared off leaving Gina, his wife, standing on the back of their boat waving frantically holding a shopping bag.  Apparently, he never saw her (or forgot she wasn’t with him) and kept on going.  Dale and I looked at each other and declared that he was in BIG trouble when he got back. 

We ate breakfast, secured items within the boat, sent a few last minute e-mails, then hauled out our life jackets, headphones and turned on all of the instruments and waited for the 10 am departure time we had coordinated with Opal. 

At 9:45, we started hoisting our anchor.  With Rum Truffle resting only feet from where we had dropped it, we waited for the wind to blow them off to the side enough to scootch up, retrieve our anchor, then drift back so that we wouldn’t smack into them.  As Gina was on board with fenders ready and Dale had a boat hook in case we needed to fend off, we hadn’t needed any of it.  We did get a chance to say hello to Gina and relay our hopes that we would catch up soon.

Exiting Charlotte Amalie Harbor

We started our way out of the anchorage slowly to let Opal go through the same motions, as now their anchor was being guarded by a catamaran.  One of the joys in anchoring is that when you drop your anchor with the wind blowing in one direction, and pick it up when the wind is blowing in another, sometimes boats shift closer than you allowed for due to the differing lengths of anchor chains. 

We hoisted the main sail all the way as we were anticipating light winds and waited to clear the channel before deploying the jib.  Unfortunately, as what seems to be a normal occurrence, the wind was only slightly off the nose and we had to travel almost half way motor sailing before we turned to go through the narrow cut by Christmas Cove and turn off the engines.  This time, the current and wind pushed us along and we were able to sail doing 6-7 kts. 

Dale was on the helm when we entered Francis Bay and slowly made our way through the harbor looking for either a mooring ball or a place shallow enough to anchor.  Texas Crewed radioed information of a couple of possibilities but they had already been taken.  Although I found a couple of areas on the chart, they were fairly narrow and in a stiff wind, we might not like being on a spit of sand surrounded by deep water.  So, we motored back out and over to Leinster Bay (one of my favorite spots), circled the area without finding a single mooring ball available and the areas where we used to anchor before mooring balls came into existence, too close to the mooring field to allow us room to swing at anchor.  

Cinnamon Bay

We chatted back and forth about returning to Charlotte Amalie but for grins and giggles, we radioed Opal and let them know that we wanted to check out the areas I had seen on the charts.  Opal was in front of us so led the way.  When we approached the area, Opal spotted what looked like either swimming buoys or something farther to the west and headed towards it.  We followed.  The closer we got, the more we saw.  Here there were 5 mooring balls all by themselves!  We snagged two and settled in for the night.  We radioed Texas Crewed to let them know where we were (which was really part of the same bay, just a lot farther away). Now that we’re settled, we realize that we are totally exposed to anything from the north/northwest, regardless of whether its wind or waves.  For the moment, its fine; in fact, we love it but in the next couple of days, we’re expecting north to northwest swells.  That could prove to be really uncomfortable.  We’ll see, as we have no alternative except to return to St. Thomas.

Sunshine and fresh air seem to suck the energy out of us, so we’re off to bed early tonight.   

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

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

Happy Birthday Valerie!

Happy Birthday Gerry!

Today’s the day!  We get our batteries.  Dale called ahead and confirmed that yes the store received the batteries.  Then he called the marina near where we are anchored to schedule a time for the old batteries to be off loaded and the new ones to be delivered.  That would be this afternoon. 

In the meantime, Nicky and I loaded up our laundry and convinced the guys that if they wanted clean underwear, they really needed to help us cart everything to the laundry in town. 

A Day in the Laundry

Down came the dinks, across the harbor to the dinghy dock, push and shove our way in to secure the dinghies, hike the couple of blocks to the laundry (pray we could still do it ourselves instead of dropping it off—because you never get back everything you drop off) and then load up the washers and sit.  We were fortunate, we could do the laundry ourselves; apparently the police are leaving the laundromats alone for now; social distancing on your own instead.  Dale decided his time was spent best by crossing the street over to the grocery store to pick up some things and Gerry decided his time was best spent taking his dinghy gas can in to be filled.  Gerry was back rather quickly but Dale got stuck in a line and didn’t make it back until we were almost finished. 

Then we made the executive decision to have lunch at Wendy’s again, so Nicky and I went in to order lunch while the guys took the laundry to the picnic area in the marina to wait for us. 

Tweaker in Chief and the

 Tinkering Consultant

Once again, we had a pleasant lunch and when done, we made our way back to the boats.  Gerry, as Tinkering Consultant, came over to ours to help assist with the disassembling of the batteries and the assistance in sciencing as to how best to remove them from the salon to the dock.  The salon table was removed and placed on the refrigerator/freezer, all connections were not only disconnected but photographed and labeled.  Pullies were dug out, the decision was made to use main halyard for pulling the batteries out of the salon though one of the hatches, a pully on the boom would be used to move the batteries from the top of the salon to the pier and once all of the pieces and parts were ready, we started the engines and made our way to the marina.    

We tied up to the fuel dock and put the plan into action.  One of the marina dock hands was pretty impressed.  He even offered to let the guys use his golf cart type of vehicle to load the batteries on and move them out to the parking lot where the new batteries were being delivered.  The delivery guy commented that he had never made a quicker transfer of old to new to that marina ever!  The marina dock hand then drove the new batteries back to the boat where Dale, Gerry and I reversed the procedure and once again, had the new batteries loaded back into the salon within minutes.  As we had paid for an hour on the dock, the dock hand told us to just go ahead and reattach them while we were sitting there.  From the time we tied up until the time we dropped lines was less than an hour and a half. 

No Explosions!

We motored back to our original position and set anchor again.  Everyone was delighted that our plan and come together perfectly and the dang things didn’t explode when the switches were thrown. 

This evening, we celebrated Gerry’s birthday.  Nicky made a wonderful meal with pork chops as the main entre.  I brought the chocolate cupcakes and the 2 pints of Magnum double caramel ice cream I had stashed in the bottom of my freezer.  I remembered that Gerry had really, really liked this type of dessert.  He popped a cork on some champagne and we toasted to his good health and many more years. 

Tomorrow, we’ll hoist anchor and go in search of some mooring balls in St. John.  Hopefully there are some not in use as Charlotte Amalie has been unusually quiet with less than half the usual number of boats at anchor.  Even the large motor yachts are moving on. 

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. 

Monday, March 30, 2020

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

Yesterday, as planned, we dropped our mooring ball at 10am, motored out of the anchorage, hoisted sails and sailed, yes I said sailed, back to St. Thomas.  We dropped anchor almost exactly 3 hours later.  There was a moment or two when we saw speeds of 7 kts but generally, it was 5.5-6 kts most of the way.  It was the second day of never dropping the dinghy, so on the whole, nothing much to write about.  A beautiful day and a delightful sail.  We did see Rum Truffle heading out of Charlotte Amalie just as we were entering and learned that they were on their way to Cruz Bay in St. John.  We said that we’d try to catch up with them in a couple of days. 

Today, Dale and Gerry started the day by detaching our mutual propane tanks and took off across the harbor to have them filled.  Our’s were at less than half full but not nearly empty yet.  However, as we have no idea as to what the future holds for us at this time, its best to be as ready as possible.  As you can see, they were greeted by one of the locals who showed a great deal of interest in them. 

Dale called the chandlery to ascertain whether our batteries had arrived and learned that although they had arrived on Saturday, they had not been released from customs as yet but were expected to be delivered to the store tomorrow afternoon. 

We did lower the dinghy today and headed into the nearest grocery store to pick up milk, bread and the essentials of life, like potato chips while Dale headed straight for the post office to pick up his meds.  However, as we passed by the marina that houses all the mega yachts, Dale called their office (as they are social distancing) and asked if we could use their fuel dock to load the batteries onto the boat.  They agreed and said to let them know when. 

Later, while putting the groceries away, Gerry consulted the internet to see if we could go to one of the local restaurants this evening for take-out and downloaded the limited menu they’re using so that we could place check marks on our selections.  Apparently they haven’t updated their website this week.  When we walked to their location to hand in our selections, they were closed.  OK, next choice.  Wendy’s is on the corner so we were happy to see that they’ve fixed the problem of only having take out at the drive up window and were granted entrance into the inner sanctum to order.  We asked the manager how things were going and he was happy to say that he’s only lost about 20% of his business but was concerned that he was informed today that things are to remain the same until the end of April.  Whoa!  That’s the first we’ve heard of this.  We were half expecting another couple of weeks but certainly not another month. 

We gathered our bags of sandwiches and found a picnic table at the marina to discuss our options.  We know of a couple of islands that are open in the direction that we need to travel.  However, that means that we’d have to skip several in the hopes that we can “Q” flag it though.  That entails traveling island to island without ever getting off the boat and anticipating that they would allow us to anchor for the night before moving on.  Nicky and I are of the same belief that if we are going to be stranded somewhere, this is the place to be as we are within walking distance of a grocery store, a laundry, a couple of take out places, the hardware store is just a “safari” ride away and there is a hospital in case of emergency.  As Opal is Australian flagged, Gerry is adamant that he has paperwork detailing their check out as well as their check in, so that he can prove where he’s been and for how long, if ever questioned.  Dale just wants to go to Foxy’s one more time.  None of us wanted to crush him by saying Foxy’s probably isn’t open now. 

We ended the day on Opal with a sundowner making plans to shop at Home Depot tomorrow and possibly hitting another Sams/Cosco type of store on the way back. 

No one knows what the future holds, certainly not us, but hurricane season is just around the corner, so we’re going to have to do something and rather quickly. 

Saturday, March 28, 2020

Francis Bay, St. John, USVI
18.21.859N
64.44.875W

I’d say that today was a lazy day as we never lowered the dinghy into the water but that wouldn’t be true. 

Our morning started about the same time but at a much slower pace.  Gerry popped by to pick up some seizing wire, as he’s been having a problem with his shackle pin trying to back out of his anchor.  As he lost an anchor during our original cruise back in 2006, he’s pretty cautious about making sure his anchor stays where it’s supposed to be.  Dale had a larger size seizing wire that he was going to try.  As he was here and his dinghy was already in the water, I asked for a quick ride to the opposite side of the harbor to take a photo (that I used in yesterday’s blog) of the little house. 

Dale spent the better part of the morning trying to figure out why the float switch he had just replaced had suddenly stopped working.  He eventually found that the source wires that run from the electrical panel in the salon to the bilge were corroding and he had to strip the wires back to find “clean” wire before wiring the replacement switch back in.  Once done, it worked perfectly.  Now, we wonder if that might have been the problem with the original switch that he threw away as he doesn’t remember testing it separately once he took it off. 

We made water for a couple of hours.  I got a lesson on how to run the water maker in case I ever need to and Dale’s not around. 

Dale dug out the tax information again.  I had to download his Navy retirement info but in doing so, had to put in a new password.  Of course, you put in the information you think is accurate a couple of times until you finally give up; create a new password, only to find that it expires in a few months.  At least now I know that I didn’t forget the password, it just expired.  Then, once again, I excused myself to read below until he yelled down for bank information (which is a cue that he’s finally ready to file them).  Wahoo!  We get a refund this year.  Not enough to even pay off the credit card but every little bit helps. 

In preparation for tomorrow’s departure back to St. Thomas, we rolled up and secured the sun shades we had extended around the cockpit to keep it cool in the sun and Dale did his usual precheck on the engines.

Then this evening, we all gathered on Texas Crewed for sundowners and nibbles.  Gerry and Nicky picked us up as their dinghy was still in the water and we wouldn’t have to deploy ours.  Renee made a delicious home made pizza (she really has a talent for bread making).  They will be staying here and moving around to Leinster Bay in a day or two where we’ll meet up with them a in few days.  Opal has elected to return to St. Thomas with us for one last shopping trip (we hope).  Rum Truffle, who we thought would join us, was having starter problems and never left St. Thomas, so we’re not sure when they’ll be able to join us but we’ll follow up with them when we get back. 

So, as I started, not really a lazy day but then it was at a much slower pace.  Tomorrow, we’ll hoist sails and head back. 

Friday, March 27, 2020

Francis Bay, St. John, USVI
18.21.859N
64.44.875W

It was another quiet night and although we woke early, I laid in bed daydreaming while Dale fixed his morning coffee.  I heard Gerry approach in his dinghy and start telling Dale that noonsite, a website for cruisers by cruisers, was saying that the USVIs were starting to limit interisland travel.  This was exactly what I was afraid of when we left St. Thomas but Dale was much more calm about the news.  Needless to say, I was up and dressed in a heart beat.

Today was the day that we intended to scrub Opal and the waterline of Texas Crewed.  So we lowered the dink, loaded it up with the hooka, our dive gear and the various brushes and scrappers and crossed over to Texas Crewed to spread the message.  Gene was even less willing to accept the information as they had previously learned that not all things on that particular site are always true.  OK, obviously this needs further investigation.  We dinked over to Opal and started to transfer all of the equipment to their boat.  By this time, Gerry had actually contacted the Department of Resources on St. Thomas to verify the information and had been told:  no, it was not true.  So back to our original schedule of cleaning the 2 remaining boats and staying until Sunday before heading back to pick up our batteries, which are supposed to be delivered on Monday and check the post office to see if our mail has arrived. 

Gerry had cleaned the bottom of his boat about a month ago and Texas Crewed had scrubbed their waterline only 2 weeks ago.  Embarrassingly, both of the boats were completed in less time that it took to do just our boat.  Dale said Gypsy Palace won the dirtiest bottom, Opal came in a distant second but that Texas Crewed didn’t have enough to even be in the competition.  Sorry guys.  Once those were done, we returned to our respective boats and back to our regularly scheduled days of reading, blogging, napping, catching up on e-mails, or just internet surfing, etc.  Certainly not like the first time we made this trip when, like junkies, we were constantly looking to find a WiFi connection. 

Dale started getting antsy about 3pm, so we grabbed our garbage, sent quick messages to the other boats to tell them of our run to the garbage cans on the beach and then dinked over to each of them to pick up their bags.  Once deposited, we took a slow circuit around the anchorage to see the shoreline, stopping (or I should say slowing) to look at an old building on one of the smaller islands that had obviously been there for years that was still standing.  Dale wasn’t going to beach our dinghy on the rocky shore for a closer look.  Once back on the boat, he located our night lights for the dinghy and made sure they were in operating order so that we could start using them after dark.  We’ve only used the dink after dark a couple of times but sitting the cockpit and watching others, we decided it would be better if we did, as we do have the capability. 

This evening we gathered on Opal for our evening sundowners.  Nicky had outdone herself, serving shrimp, a cheese plate and pub mix.  I offered a couple of different varieties of quesadillas and Renee brought a selection of crackers with a homemade cheeseball.  None of us went home hungry.  Once again, as Nicky would say, we put the world to rights, laughed, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves before heading home with our dinghy light shining for all to see.