s/v Moosetracks: US Virgin Islands

We arrived in St Thomas USVI and the harbor was pretty packed but we found lots of friends in; Liahona, Jammin, Whitewing with Allegro & Kalunamoo arriving later and met some people we hear a lot on the radio nets like; Nirvana 64, Dolce Vita and Miclo III. So it’ a pretty busy harbor with a good amount of social activity. We enjoyed our first evening on Nirvana with Morgan & Lindsey, Mark & Willie, Bill & Coleen, a lovely start to our stay.

Relaxing on Nirvana

Our first walk ashore - the founding fathers bell

Over the next few nights we also got well caught up with our good friend Herman who we have known for years.We had Herman and Larry over for happy hour and they reciprocated over the next few days, so nice to have friends in an anchorage like this.

Herman and Larry

Charlotte Amalie is a great place to get parts shipped in from the USA so our great friends Terry and Alma did us a huge favor and collected all our spare part orders and consolidated them for shipment in one USPS flat rate shipping box. So it all shipped for only $18 a huge saving for buying in the US and very little extra to have it sent out, thanks so much T&A.

The USVI is part of the US of course but it is also a duty free island (Like St Maarten) so it’s cheap to get lots of alcohol here so we took advantage and stocked the boat. This is also the best place we found to get our soda stream cartridges (CO2 gas) refilled as they will do the old style tanks for $25 each, we also had 3 paintball tanks which Kalunamoo brought from the US for us to refill so now we can have fizzy drinks for another year! So it’s been a great stop for much needed parts and re-stocking.

We took a walk up to the Cable Car ride as it was shut on the Saturday we went, however the walk up is energetic and well worth it for the views of the bay and across to St Croix.

A Christmas tree in the restaurant

View of the Harbor from the top

Hassell and Water Islands from the cable car restaurant

We also took a walk around Hassell Island one afternoon to see the abandoned shipyard from 1960’s. Apparently they just walked away and left everything so lots of equipment is still on the island and the local park volunteers have tried to display it and preserve it as best they can.

Devin admiring the relics

Creque Marine Railway

Nicely Painted

Lots of mechanical artifacts

Old engine

Remains of the railway slipway

We also took the trail up to the battery remains on the top of Hassell island and had lovely views out over the harbor.

Shipley's Battery

Inside the battery

There were great views of thew 4 cruise ships too.

We attended the lighted boat parade and Christmas festivities in Charlotte Amalie. It's done for the locals as the cruise ships were not in the harbor overnight and the whole town seems to enjoy the party. We met up with lots of the other boaters and had a great time.

A motor yacht

A pirate ship (reindeer?)

A sail boat

Steel pan bands were playing in main street

Local talent was on at the pavilion

Into our second week our dear friends Pete and Dee of s/v Windlass arrived after a quick trip up the windward and leeward Islands from Grenada. We cruised with them for our first 3 months in 2012/3 and had such a wonderful start to our first year cruising with their help and support. So we were really looking forward to catching up this year, so this is great. We had Herman join Pete, Dee and us for a walk around the south end of Hassell Island and we all had wonderful views there too.

Herman, Liz, Pete and Dee

Devin, Liz, Pete and Dee

The next Battery

Exploring the ruins

Harbor views

Signal Station ruins

Well it was time to move on, Christmas was almost upon us and we had plans to meet up with Sailacious and Emily Morgan in Francis-Maho Bay on Christmas eve, So we moved around with Wind Lass to anchor there. Emily Morgan, Bones and Anna arrived from St Martin a few hours later.

Wind Lass and Emily Morgan in Francis Bay

Moosie had arranged a play date with Pluto so Anna and Bones brought him straight over in his snorkeling bubble (aka water proof bag).

Anna with Pluto

We shared the anchorage with quite a lot of yachts and these two need a mention. The first is because of the name - really weird and the other because it's so ostentatious.

OK we like the Moose part but what is the flying about?

A really cool addition to your yacht ?

On Christmas eve we all attended a pot luck arranged by the bay hosts Sailacious, Steve & Janice. It was a fun afternoon with great company, entertainment and food.

The entertainment from s/v Music

Great company at Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful Christmas aboard Emily Morgan with Anna, Bones, Pete and Dee. What a feast with such wonderful cooks and great hosts. After Christmas Anna and Bones were soon off to prepare EM for a charter that they were fortunate to get for 10 days. So we enjoyed a walk around to Cinnamon Bay to enjoy the ruins with Pete and Dee.

Christmas day lunch for the neighbors too!

Wind Lass

Emily Morgan

We then moved around to Waterlemon bay for some snorkeling and hiking from another lovely spot.

Arriving at the Annaburg Sugar Mill

Windmill

Oven

Boiling Room

Outside the boiling room

Next we left for Round Bay to spend New Years there with Windlass. It was a pretty breezy day tacking up the Francis Drake channel to go around the East end of St John, but we took our time and made it with a few tacks.