St Thomas - USVI

We left Culebra on the 30th March for Culebrita which is a small island to the north east. It is picture perfect with a gorgeous cove and a lighthouse overlooking it so we had to walk to the top for the fantastic views and a stunning picture of the cove. We enjoyed a snorkel in the cove but the coral was very damaged by storms with lots of sand on it there were some fish but nothing spectacular. We saw several turtles in the cove but they are all very camera shy! The next day we walked to the Jacuzzi which is a collection of rock pools that are refreshed by the sea and create their own whirlpool effect almost all day long.

Culebrita anchorage

Devin in the Jacuzzi

We arrived in Brewers Bay , St Thomas, USVI on April 3rd after the short windward crossing which we managed to sail a good part of. The bay is large but right next to the airport on St Thomas. The airport turns out to be a lot quieter than we expected and the internet from the Virgin Islands University here is good as is the local bus service to and from it. So we decided to stay here while we explored St Thomas. We had a nice relaxing first day just getting settled and the following day another boat asked if we would like to join everyone for a happy hour on the beach, well of course we did! We and a fun evening getting to know a few boats and finding out about transport and shopping. The following evening we had an English couple, Rob and Sarah from s/v Serafina over to play Mexican train and had a wonderful evening with them.

The next day we decided to take a bus ride to Charlotte Amalie and explore the tourist sights. We started at the local market in the heart of downtown where we found a long awaited set of paper mache animal figures which we can use for our tokens when we play Mexican Train Dominoes, just like the ones our mentors Bob and Norma use!

Mexican Train tokens

We then toured the sights starting at Fort Christian, then on to the Governor's mansion  and onto the 99 Steps. At the top of the steps we walked to Blackbeard castle and took the tour which included 2 preserved private houses and the Hotel 1829 which also has a rum exhibit with free tastings.
After this we walked down to the main street have lunch at Ideal Roti where we had a fabulous Chicken Roti. Then to walk off lunch we toured the shops on main street which are either tourist traps of trinkets or jewelry stores, not really our thing but I guess it’s all part of the scene here. We then visited the Synagogue which is the oldest in the Americas and very quaint. We finished off touring the market square where the locals sell produce but unfortunately we were too late in the day and only one vendor was left with a sad selection of veggies.

Fort Christian

Governor's Mansion

The 99 steps

At the 99 steps

Hotel 1829 - a strange place!

The Amber waterfall at Hotel 1829 - worlds largest

Blackbeard

Charlotte Amalie Harbor

Roti for lunch

A safari taxi - our way to get around

We took a lovely walk back via the supermarket to check it out and get some produce there. Then we rode the bus back to Bewers Bay. We relaxed a few more days and met some nice folks on Serafina (UK) Sailacious (USA) and Out of Africa (UK/SA). We joined them for a Braai (BBQ) on the beach as apparently for South African's this is the only way to cook!

We took one more day of shopping and exploring around Tutu Mall and Crown Bay as we wanted some fuel and oil filters which we found are in stock here as well as a replacement blender for the galley. So we had a nice wander around and got fully stocked on Rum and Gin at duty free prices as well as some much sought after Ice Cream too. So now we have empty wallets and full cabinets.

Roadside Iguana on the way from the taxi stand

Our next stop was Christmas Cove on the far side of St Thomas because there is a local dealer for our water maker there and they could hopefully diagnose why we had got slowly worse water quality. Well the technician lives on his boat in Christmas cove so he came over and after discussing symptoms and the fixes we had tried (new membrane, new filters, new primary pump) he surmised as Devin had that the Clark Pump was gone. A quick test on the port revealed it had a leak internally. So we need a replacement, well at over $3,000 for a new one we opted for a rebuilt one and to trade ours in. Hope fully it will come in less than $1,000 but we’ll see. Anyway here we wait, sadly it has very little internet but we can get our T-Mobile hotspot to work so we have email and slow internet. Well unfortunately a mix up finds they don’t have one in stock and therefore it didn’t ship, even worse they don’t know when one will be available!

Our first morning at Christmas Cove - a nice rainbow

So while we waited we had a call on the SSB while listening to the net from Sailacious & Out of Africa to join them for Easter Sunday and so we decide to go to St John’s for Easter Sunday at Maho Bay.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.