Another week in the Virgins, around & around we go:

Once we finished mourning Nicol’s leaving, we sailed around the corner to the outer anchorage at Charlotte Amalie, called Elephant Bay. It was a true weekend sail, passing by several different races and squeaking past all sorts of vessels packed into the sparkling Sunday afternoon waters. We dropped our anchor at N18 19.345 W64 57.385 to put us in good position for dinghying into Krum Bay on Monday morning. Krum Bay is the industrial body of water on St. Thomas, and holds the desalination plant, several working ferries, and a couple of propane companies…we were there to refill our propane tanks. It was all serious business there in the bay though, so once we got our tanks filled we were on our way once more.

We decided to move over to the south coast of St. John for Monday night to give us a good departure point for our 35 mile sail to St. Croix on Tuesday. On the way over we caught a small fish called a Cero…just a perfect dinner for two! As we came into the area we planned to anchor in, we were thrilled to find Little Lameshur Bay all to ourselves. We picked up a mooring close to the pretty beach at N18 19.145 W64 43.590, went for a swim, and managed to keep the place to ourselves the entire night…what a rare treat in the Virgins!

We sailed to St. Croix on Tuesday with clouds looming overhead. There were a few squalls underway, but they only made our trip faster, and we reached our anchorage after an unexpectedly short 5.5 hour sail. The rain held-off just a bit for us to anchor in Christiansted at N17 45.095 W64 41.815. Jack was there on Dionysus, waving us in; he said it had already been raining two days straight on St. Croix. The next morning brought more downpours and Reinhart decided to break out the rain collection gear. I was surprised when he collected 5 gallons of water in less than half an hour! The rain showers came to an end and allowed us to tour Christiansted and see the old Dutch port city for ourselves. We met a local liveaboard named Ken, and he gave us the skinny on where to go that evening and invited us over to look at his project boat, a motor-sail named Diana. We had hamburgers at the Brew Pub listening to a great guitar player in the misty evening. It was drizzling the entire time and the temperature dropped into the low 70s; I had to wear long pants; whatever happened to “I like cold weather” Mindy? I’m not the only one whose temperature is changing; Reinhart has taken to wearing sweatshirts on these “cool” 70 degree evenings. We had originally planned stay another couple nights, but strong NE winds were in the forecast, and we decided to head back up to the northern Virgins on Thursday before the weather moved in.

We certainly left before the weather came in, and had to motor north the entire time in incredibly light and variable winds…I polished all the brass, Reinhart polished all the stainless, and Jack revarnished his teak on the way! We decided on Great Lameshur Bay for the night and we both picked up moorings over the reef area at N18 18.910 W64 43.300. We were over the side quickly and snorkeling the reef in yet another downpour; there were lot of nice fish, but we were most pleased with the large sea turtles in the bay. The next morning, Jack was off to St. Thomas to prepare for his daughter’s arrival, and Reinhart and I moved Maia around the corner to Little Lameshur Bay which was empty once again. It didn’t stay empty for long though, but we’d only have one neighbor that evening. We did a little more snorkeling and enjoyed it even more than the day before. The next day we took a long hike to see the mysterious St. John petroglyphs, and of course, we finished off our day snorkeling, this time with beautiful Queen Angel fish and a majestic Spotted Eagle Ray! The charter boats had figured out where the best anchorages might be during these NE winds and our quiet little bay was packed by Saturday night.

We sailed back to the BVIs on Sunday and had an unlikely scare on the way: we heard a frantic Mayday call on the VHF (only the second time for me) from a single hander whose sailboat was up on a reef. Once he gave his coordinates, we realized he was just around the corner from us at N18 20.55 W64 39.71. We dropped our sails and motored in his direction, listening to his conversation with the Coast Guard and a rescue vessel, and worrying when he no longer answered their calls. It took us about 10 minutes to come around the point and see his boat, a lovely blue-hulled 40 footer, being rocked against the reef. We let the coast guard know we were in sight of the boat, couldn’t see the man anywhere, and said we’d stand by until the rescue vessel arrived. Minutes later, we saw him in the water attempting unsuccessfully to reboard the boat. It was frustrating watching him struggle and not being able to help him in any way, other than relay the situation to the rescuers. He disappeared from of our sight for 5 minutes causing us to think the worst. He had, however, boarded his dinghy, caught between the boat and the reef, paused to regain his strength, and boarded his boat from the other side. He gave a big wave to us once he was back on board and radioed the rescuers, who were just coming around the bend. The rescue vessel ended up being a 200 foot NOAA research vessel with a smaller boat on board for the actual rescue. We were asked to leave the area as things got crowded, but NOAA and the Coast Guard each thanked us for standing by and relaying information. We were just relieved he was safe and uninjured. Seatow ended up coming on scene to take care of the boat, and we heard from them a little while later that the boat probably didn’t fair as well.

We composed ourselves from all of the excitement and completed our sail to Jost Van Dyke, anchoring in Great Harbour at N18 26.600 W64.45.065. This time we’d be meeting Jack’s guests on their week-long circuit, but we were here a day early and just had some hammock and reading time. The next day we met Jack’s daughter Jen and her husband Sean, and proceeded to do the JVD bar crawl, finishing up at Foxy’s for dinner. On Tuesday April 3, Reinhart’s Birthday, we were off to Cane Garden Bay on Tortola, where we anchored at N18 25.675 W64 39.665, and were thrilled to have wifi access once again. We had drinks at Myetts and a cozy birthday dinner on Dionysus. Jen and Sean are just as delightful as Jack, so it is wonderful to spend some time with them. We’ll be joining them for a sail to Norman Island to snorkel the caves, and then we’ll probably make our way east to Virgin Gorda while Dionysus sails back to St. Thomas for their flight home.

We’ve got 7-10 more days left in the Virgins before we make the short 80 nm crossing to St. Martin. Thanks so much for all of the well wishes and we’ll try to update you as much as possible.