St Maarten, The Virgins and Family, with Pictures!
Hello Everyone,
Yes, we're still sailing!
Been a while since my last update. My daughter Julia and her husband Morgan came to visit at the end of February, and then I flew back to California to spend time with my Mom and my youngest daughter, Theresa. I'm back now and we're sailing again.
Ken has written a couple of interesting updates since my last entry. Check them out below, Feb. 9th, 25th and March 10th. I've also updated the photo gallery with our Virgin Island photos.
In my January 28th update, I shared with you Theresa's visit, the delivery of our new dinghy and our trek north from St Lucia to Nevis. From Nevis we sailed to St Kitts where we spent one night. Then continued on to St Maarten. The passage from St Kitts to St Maarten was an all day sail covering 60 plus miles. The first two-thirds of the sail was easy, calm seas and light wind never gusting more than 15 knots. Then conditions changed. The wind picked up, started blowing 25 to 30 knots on the nose, the seas became confused and we slowed down considerably. We had to motor into the gusting wind, neither comfortable nor fast. Normally this slow down would not have been an issue, but to get into the St Maarten Lagoon one has to pass under a draw bridge that opens at 5:30 p.m. If we missed the 5:30 opening, we'd have to wait until the next morning at 9:30. Although we could have anchored outside in the bay, it would have been uncomfortable. Very rolly! Fortunately we made it in time and passed under bridge in line between two mega yachts.
The channel through the St Maarten draw bridge is quite narrow. Many of the mega yachts squeak by with just 12 inches to spare on either side. The St Maarten Yacht Club bar is situated just past the bridge on the lagoon side. At 5:00 p.m. it's $1.00 beer. At 5:30 it's mega yacht vs narrow channel. It's truly something to see these yachts (tens of millions of dollars, 200 plus feet in length) maneuver through the tiny channel. Cheap beer and cheap thrills, fine entertainment!
Aurora had no problem maneuvering through the channel. =^) Once past the bridge we found a spot in the lagoon and anchored. No sooner had the anchor set and Ken was checking out our neighbors. He spotted Daniell Storey, our friend's Dave and Michelle's boat anchored just across the lagoon from us. Not long after, Dave and Michelle spotted Aurora from their dinghy while on a return trip to Daniell Storey. They stopped by to say hello as last time we'd seen each other was in Bequai. Of course we decided to get together and what better place than the St Maarten Yacht Club bar! We're not above cheap beer and thrills. =^)
Ken and I spent a week on St Maarten. Last season our friends Dave and Kathy came to visit us while we were in St Maarten and we toured the island with them. This season we stayed near the lagoon, focused on boat chores and waited for packages to be delivered. Ken worked on the water maker. A pump had gone out. The new pump was being delivered to us in St Maarten. As the part was under warranty, we had to send back the original pump. However there was a catch. The cost of the pump was covered under warranty, but not the cost of postage for delivery and return of a 16 lb part between the Caribbean to San Rafael, CA! It's never simple.
In addition to boat parts, we had our mail delivered. No custom or brokerage fees in St Maarten! It's a duty free island. One can just pick up a package whereever it's delivered. We had ours sent to the local MailBox store that accepts and holds deliveries. Of course there is a $2.50 fee for this, but that sure beats the $60.00 per package brokerage fee in St Lucia not to mention any duty charged by customs.
Christmas was in February for us this year. Due to the high cost of brokerage fees and duty, we had most of our mail held until we reached St Maarten. Thus many Christmas presents, cards and letters didn't arrive until mid February. Fun to open packages and to read letters and cards from family and friends.
Our next destination was Virgin Gorda. From St Maarten we made the 78 mile passage to the British Virgin Islands. It was a long day as we left at 4:00 a.m. Our engine died just after we left so we sailed the entire passage. I like sailing so that was enjoyable. However, as the engine was on the fritz we had to anchor under sail. Not easy when the wind is blowing hard, as it was that afternoon. However, we got into Virgin Gorda Sound around 5:30 just before sunset and found a fairly empty, wide open anchorage just inside the sound. We headed into the wind, dropped the sails and then the anchor. All went well. Ken then changed the fuel filters on the Yanmar and the engine was fine. We had gotten dirty fuel somewhere and it clogged the filters.
With the engine working and a bit of light left, we motored across the sound and picked up a mooring in Leverick Bay, a place we've been twice before. Unfortunately we misremembered that there was an immigration and customs office in Leverick Bay. We had planned to check in in the morning as it was after dark by the time we got settled. Well the morning came and we figured we'd check in at 9:00, but then Ken found that we had fast, free internet access. Something we did not have in St Maarten. We got involved with e-mail, and updates and news and, well, just didn't make it over to the customs office as planned. The customs folks found us. As mentioned we misremembered that there was an office in Leverick Bay. The customs office was 5 miles away in Spanish Town. The officer understood about the engine problem and not checking in the previous night, but he did not understand why we had not checked in first thing in the morning. His lack of understanding was such that he fined us $300! Could have been worse, BVI Customs can fine you up to $5,000 and impound your boat. Oops!
The irony is that Ken always checks us in as soon as possible even if we have to pay the after hours charge. He's anal about it! So the one time we relax, we are fined. Guess we won't do that again.
From Virgin Gorda we sailed over to Road Town on Tortola, the largest of the British Virgin Islands. We spent a few days in Village Cay marina getting the bottom of our dinghy repaired as well as having our fuel polished. Fuel polishing is just another name for cleaning. The engine died due to dirty diesel, so we had to have it cleaned. A process of sucking out the fuel from each tank, running it through a filter and then returning clean fuel back to the tank. Check out the photo of the gunk that was in our diesel! Nasty. Once that was done, we sailed over to Norman Island for a night and then on to Peter Island. We returned to Tortola briefly to clear out before heading to the USVI to pick up Julia and Morgan on St Thomas.
Oh yes, on our brief return trip to Tortola the engine died again! This time we were entering Road Town Harbor just as a huge cruise ship was coming in. With a working engine this would not have been a problem, we would have just motored out of her way. However, one does not want to cross the bow of a 900 foot, 2000 passenger ship under wind power alone. Not to mention we received a 5-blast notice from the cruise ship. This means "get out of my way!" So instead of continuing to the anchorage we knew, we turned left and headed toward a different anchorage.
Ken tried the engine again. Still no motor. Wind had picked up in the harbor and was blowing 20 to 25 knots and now there was a reef right in front of us. Ken tried the engine once more and this time it sputtered to life long enough for us to avoided the reef. We headed into the wind and dropped the sails. At this point, we were planning to just drop the anchor, but it wasn't to be. The windlass (anchor winch) got stuck and Ken couldn't get the anchor down. With no motor, no sails and no anchor we were at the mercy of the elements and floating right toward a large, anchored catamaran. Fortunately there were people on the cat and I yelled out to them, "We've lost our engine." A young man from the cat jumped into his dinghy and pushed us away from their boat, but now we were headed toward a concrete dock, but at least we had someone in a dinghy to help maneuver us. Another dinghy showed up. I was able to toss a line to the dinghy off our bow. He pulled us to a mooring ball while the second dinghy pushed us and kept Aurora from bumping into the dock. Once secured to the mooring, we were safe and could look into what the engine problem was. Couldn't be a dirty fuel filter as we'd just had the fuel polished and changed the filters in Virgin Gorda. What could it be? Ken thought it might be a clog in a fuel line or possibly one of the three fuel tanks the engine was pulling diesel from was empty. Guess we'll never know. However, we've not had a problem since. We don't know exactly what happened. But once we made sure the engine was running again and we calmed down, it was time to dinghy over to customs and clear out.
Then it was on to St Thomas with a short stop at St John to clean into to the USVI. Julia and Morgan were to arrive the next day, Feb. 19th, for a week long visit.
We had a great visit with Morgan and Julia and no engine problems! As they were with us only a week, we didn't make any long passages but visited the islands close by. After provisioning in St Thomas and getting settled in the boat which took a day, we returned to the BVI and picked up a mooring in Soper's Hole. That night we joined the partiers at Bamba's Surfside Shack for the monthly full moon party. Not only was it a full moon that night, but also a total lunar eclipse! Quite something.
And Bomba's was quite something, too. The surfside shack made out of driftwood has been the site of Bomba's infamous parties since 1976. His full moon parties are renowned. Quite a crowd attends. They're not fancy, the shack is on the beach just off a narrow one lane road. That night the party was so large it spilled over into an area across a narrow street where a band was playing and shroom tea was being served. Rumor has it the 'shroom tea is really Lipton's. I imagine at one time it was made of something more hallucinogenic. Lots of panties and bras lined the ceiling of the shack. If we had stayed late enough probably would have seen a few females add to the decor. But we left long before the wee hours of the morning. In fact, we had hoped to see the full lunar eclipse from the boat, but it was not to be. A cloud hid the moon moments before the earth's shadow fully eclipsed it. =^(
From Soper's Hole we sailed over to Cooper Island where Morgan, Ken and I snorkeled the wreck of the Rhone, a British mail ship that sank over 100 years ago. Ken and I dove the wreck last season and with Theresa and Erik in 2004. It was interesting to see the wreck from 30 feet up. One gets a different view, the whole picture instead of the details. Fun afternoon. Julia opted for beach combing while we snorkeled.
From Cooper we sailed to Norman island. We had drinks on the Willie T, a famous party boat. In 2004 the Willie T was still handing out free T-shirts to any one (women especially) who jumped naked from the cabin roof. In June of 2004 Ken and I took our children, Julia, Theresa and Erik as well as Morgan to the Caribbean and chartered a boat for two weeks. As a result of that trip we're a 3 T-shirt family. But I'm not telling who jumped! I understand the government put an end to the jumping in 2005 because someone got hurt. Last season there were signs upstairs, no jumping. But on this visit the signs were gone. Bar tender said they don't encourage jumping, no more free tees, but they don't discourage it either. A "don't ask, don't tell" policy seems to be in place.
Norman has some lovely hiking trails that cover most of the island. Julia, Morgan and I took advantage and walked most of them. The island is not developed, so much of the walk was akin to a walk in the woods. Quite beautiful with the Caribbean Sea on one side, Sir Frances Drake Channel on the other and the Bight filled with boats.
Much of St John is a national park and that was our next destination. We cleared in with immigration and customs in Cruz Bay and then headed out to pick up a park mooring. Anchoring in the Virgin Islands National Park is extremely limited, one must use a national park mooring ball in most cases. Just like in any U.S. national park, you pay a fee for day or overnight use, but in this case it's a mooring use fee. And just like in the states it is the visitor's responsibility to find the pay station. In Maho Bay the pay station was located on a small boat in the middle of the mooring field. On the boat was the familiar cylindrical metal container with a drop slot for the fee and a plastic box holding forms. No one on board, just an empty boat. Different, but it worked. We dinghied up, paid our fee and went on to enjoy a fine snorkel around the reef off of Whistling Cay.
We spent two days enjoying St John Island and then it was time to take Julia and Morgan back to St Thomas to catch their plane home.
We said good-bye to Julia and Morgan on Tuesday, Feb. 26th and on Thursday, Feb 28th I caught a plane to San Francisco to visit my mom and daughter, Theresa. Last July when we were out to visit, Julia's wedding, doctor appointments and catching up with family and friends kept us very, very busy. This time I wanted to focus on my mom and daughter. Mom is 91 and lives in a wonderful retirement community in Vallejo. Life moves at a different pace when you are older, slow and easy. Our week together was so, slow and easy. We did a bit of shopping, completed a jigsaw puzzle and visited. Good seeing Theresa again, too. She's a Producer at EA and is working in their Emeryville office on a game called Spore. Fun that she works in production as it was my field.
I returned to St Thomas March 10th. Nice to be "home" with Ken and on Aurora. We're currently at anchor in Gallows Bay on the US Virgin Island of St Croix. We'll be here for a week or so. We have to return to St Thomas to pick up Ken's passport. Time for renewal, and the passport must be sent in. Thus we're in the USVI until his passport is returned. Paid for expedited service, so shouldn't take too long.
Where next? We don't know. Time to figure it out. All of our cruising friends have a general plan for the next six months, heading south to Venezuela or across the atlantic to the Med or will stay in the Virgins for the season. Some people are heading home to return to a land-based life. We haven't decided yet. Need to do so soon.
Safe Passages,
Maryann
And as always here are some pictures!
Yes, Aurora was right a home with the big boys in St Maarten! These are just a few of the mega yachts docked in the Lagoon at St Maarten.
Our new dinghy, outfitted, repaired and ready to go!
Here is the gunk from one tank of diesel. Water gets into the fuel and algae grows in that water. The black stuff in the strainer is the algae, or what's left of it after the cleaning process.
I mention boat work all the time, but rarely include photos of all that labor. So here I am polishing the bow plate on Aurora. =^)
St John off our port bow, Tortola to our starboard. We're sailing west along the Sir Francis Drake Channel as we head to Cruz Bay.
Setting sail from St Thomas, USVI. First day on the water for with our guests.
Julia takes a self-portrait as we leave St Thomas and head over to Soper's Hole.
Maryann verifying that the lines to the mooring ball are even.
South side of Norman Island, BVI.
The Bight on Norman Island. This bay is the home of the Willie T restaurant mentioned in the update.
We're in the Virgins, February 21, 2008.
Days end and sailors have found a place for the night. The Bight is full.
de Captain! Looks like he's just about to come up the companion way.
Yes, we're still sailing!
Been a while since my last update. My daughter Julia and her husband Morgan came to visit at the end of February, and then I flew back to California to spend time with my Mom and my youngest daughter, Theresa. I'm back now and we're sailing again.
Ken has written a couple of interesting updates since my last entry. Check them out below, Feb. 9th, 25th and March 10th. I've also updated the photo gallery with our Virgin Island photos.
In my January 28th update, I shared with you Theresa's visit, the delivery of our new dinghy and our trek north from St Lucia to Nevis. From Nevis we sailed to St Kitts where we spent one night. Then continued on to St Maarten. The passage from St Kitts to St Maarten was an all day sail covering 60 plus miles. The first two-thirds of the sail was easy, calm seas and light wind never gusting more than 15 knots. Then conditions changed. The wind picked up, started blowing 25 to 30 knots on the nose, the seas became confused and we slowed down considerably. We had to motor into the gusting wind, neither comfortable nor fast. Normally this slow down would not have been an issue, but to get into the St Maarten Lagoon one has to pass under a draw bridge that opens at 5:30 p.m. If we missed the 5:30 opening, we'd have to wait until the next morning at 9:30. Although we could have anchored outside in the bay, it would have been uncomfortable. Very rolly! Fortunately we made it in time and passed under bridge in line between two mega yachts.
The channel through the St Maarten draw bridge is quite narrow. Many of the mega yachts squeak by with just 12 inches to spare on either side. The St Maarten Yacht Club bar is situated just past the bridge on the lagoon side. At 5:00 p.m. it's $1.00 beer. At 5:30 it's mega yacht vs narrow channel. It's truly something to see these yachts (tens of millions of dollars, 200 plus feet in length) maneuver through the tiny channel. Cheap beer and cheap thrills, fine entertainment!
Aurora had no problem maneuvering through the channel. =^) Once past the bridge we found a spot in the lagoon and anchored. No sooner had the anchor set and Ken was checking out our neighbors. He spotted Daniell Storey, our friend's Dave and Michelle's boat anchored just across the lagoon from us. Not long after, Dave and Michelle spotted Aurora from their dinghy while on a return trip to Daniell Storey. They stopped by to say hello as last time we'd seen each other was in Bequai. Of course we decided to get together and what better place than the St Maarten Yacht Club bar! We're not above cheap beer and thrills. =^)
Ken and I spent a week on St Maarten. Last season our friends Dave and Kathy came to visit us while we were in St Maarten and we toured the island with them. This season we stayed near the lagoon, focused on boat chores and waited for packages to be delivered. Ken worked on the water maker. A pump had gone out. The new pump was being delivered to us in St Maarten. As the part was under warranty, we had to send back the original pump. However there was a catch. The cost of the pump was covered under warranty, but not the cost of postage for delivery and return of a 16 lb part between the Caribbean to San Rafael, CA! It's never simple.
In addition to boat parts, we had our mail delivered. No custom or brokerage fees in St Maarten! It's a duty free island. One can just pick up a package whereever it's delivered. We had ours sent to the local MailBox store that accepts and holds deliveries. Of course there is a $2.50 fee for this, but that sure beats the $60.00 per package brokerage fee in St Lucia not to mention any duty charged by customs.
Christmas was in February for us this year. Due to the high cost of brokerage fees and duty, we had most of our mail held until we reached St Maarten. Thus many Christmas presents, cards and letters didn't arrive until mid February. Fun to open packages and to read letters and cards from family and friends.
Our next destination was Virgin Gorda. From St Maarten we made the 78 mile passage to the British Virgin Islands. It was a long day as we left at 4:00 a.m. Our engine died just after we left so we sailed the entire passage. I like sailing so that was enjoyable. However, as the engine was on the fritz we had to anchor under sail. Not easy when the wind is blowing hard, as it was that afternoon. However, we got into Virgin Gorda Sound around 5:30 just before sunset and found a fairly empty, wide open anchorage just inside the sound. We headed into the wind, dropped the sails and then the anchor. All went well. Ken then changed the fuel filters on the Yanmar and the engine was fine. We had gotten dirty fuel somewhere and it clogged the filters.
With the engine working and a bit of light left, we motored across the sound and picked up a mooring in Leverick Bay, a place we've been twice before. Unfortunately we misremembered that there was an immigration and customs office in Leverick Bay. We had planned to check in in the morning as it was after dark by the time we got settled. Well the morning came and we figured we'd check in at 9:00, but then Ken found that we had fast, free internet access. Something we did not have in St Maarten. We got involved with e-mail, and updates and news and, well, just didn't make it over to the customs office as planned. The customs folks found us. As mentioned we misremembered that there was an office in Leverick Bay. The customs office was 5 miles away in Spanish Town. The officer understood about the engine problem and not checking in the previous night, but he did not understand why we had not checked in first thing in the morning. His lack of understanding was such that he fined us $300! Could have been worse, BVI Customs can fine you up to $5,000 and impound your boat. Oops!
The irony is that Ken always checks us in as soon as possible even if we have to pay the after hours charge. He's anal about it! So the one time we relax, we are fined. Guess we won't do that again.
From Virgin Gorda we sailed over to Road Town on Tortola, the largest of the British Virgin Islands. We spent a few days in Village Cay marina getting the bottom of our dinghy repaired as well as having our fuel polished. Fuel polishing is just another name for cleaning. The engine died due to dirty diesel, so we had to have it cleaned. A process of sucking out the fuel from each tank, running it through a filter and then returning clean fuel back to the tank. Check out the photo of the gunk that was in our diesel! Nasty. Once that was done, we sailed over to Norman Island for a night and then on to Peter Island. We returned to Tortola briefly to clear out before heading to the USVI to pick up Julia and Morgan on St Thomas.
Oh yes, on our brief return trip to Tortola the engine died again! This time we were entering Road Town Harbor just as a huge cruise ship was coming in. With a working engine this would not have been a problem, we would have just motored out of her way. However, one does not want to cross the bow of a 900 foot, 2000 passenger ship under wind power alone. Not to mention we received a 5-blast notice from the cruise ship. This means "get out of my way!" So instead of continuing to the anchorage we knew, we turned left and headed toward a different anchorage.
Ken tried the engine again. Still no motor. Wind had picked up in the harbor and was blowing 20 to 25 knots and now there was a reef right in front of us. Ken tried the engine once more and this time it sputtered to life long enough for us to avoided the reef. We headed into the wind and dropped the sails. At this point, we were planning to just drop the anchor, but it wasn't to be. The windlass (anchor winch) got stuck and Ken couldn't get the anchor down. With no motor, no sails and no anchor we were at the mercy of the elements and floating right toward a large, anchored catamaran. Fortunately there were people on the cat and I yelled out to them, "We've lost our engine." A young man from the cat jumped into his dinghy and pushed us away from their boat, but now we were headed toward a concrete dock, but at least we had someone in a dinghy to help maneuver us. Another dinghy showed up. I was able to toss a line to the dinghy off our bow. He pulled us to a mooring ball while the second dinghy pushed us and kept Aurora from bumping into the dock. Once secured to the mooring, we were safe and could look into what the engine problem was. Couldn't be a dirty fuel filter as we'd just had the fuel polished and changed the filters in Virgin Gorda. What could it be? Ken thought it might be a clog in a fuel line or possibly one of the three fuel tanks the engine was pulling diesel from was empty. Guess we'll never know. However, we've not had a problem since. We don't know exactly what happened. But once we made sure the engine was running again and we calmed down, it was time to dinghy over to customs and clear out.
Then it was on to St Thomas with a short stop at St John to clean into to the USVI. Julia and Morgan were to arrive the next day, Feb. 19th, for a week long visit.
We had a great visit with Morgan and Julia and no engine problems! As they were with us only a week, we didn't make any long passages but visited the islands close by. After provisioning in St Thomas and getting settled in the boat which took a day, we returned to the BVI and picked up a mooring in Soper's Hole. That night we joined the partiers at Bamba's Surfside Shack for the monthly full moon party. Not only was it a full moon that night, but also a total lunar eclipse! Quite something.
And Bomba's was quite something, too. The surfside shack made out of driftwood has been the site of Bomba's infamous parties since 1976. His full moon parties are renowned. Quite a crowd attends. They're not fancy, the shack is on the beach just off a narrow one lane road. That night the party was so large it spilled over into an area across a narrow street where a band was playing and shroom tea was being served. Rumor has it the 'shroom tea is really Lipton's. I imagine at one time it was made of something more hallucinogenic. Lots of panties and bras lined the ceiling of the shack. If we had stayed late enough probably would have seen a few females add to the decor. But we left long before the wee hours of the morning. In fact, we had hoped to see the full lunar eclipse from the boat, but it was not to be. A cloud hid the moon moments before the earth's shadow fully eclipsed it. =^(
From Soper's Hole we sailed over to Cooper Island where Morgan, Ken and I snorkeled the wreck of the Rhone, a British mail ship that sank over 100 years ago. Ken and I dove the wreck last season and with Theresa and Erik in 2004. It was interesting to see the wreck from 30 feet up. One gets a different view, the whole picture instead of the details. Fun afternoon. Julia opted for beach combing while we snorkeled.
From Cooper we sailed to Norman island. We had drinks on the Willie T, a famous party boat. In 2004 the Willie T was still handing out free T-shirts to any one (women especially) who jumped naked from the cabin roof. In June of 2004 Ken and I took our children, Julia, Theresa and Erik as well as Morgan to the Caribbean and chartered a boat for two weeks. As a result of that trip we're a 3 T-shirt family. But I'm not telling who jumped! I understand the government put an end to the jumping in 2005 because someone got hurt. Last season there were signs upstairs, no jumping. But on this visit the signs were gone. Bar tender said they don't encourage jumping, no more free tees, but they don't discourage it either. A "don't ask, don't tell" policy seems to be in place.
Norman has some lovely hiking trails that cover most of the island. Julia, Morgan and I took advantage and walked most of them. The island is not developed, so much of the walk was akin to a walk in the woods. Quite beautiful with the Caribbean Sea on one side, Sir Frances Drake Channel on the other and the Bight filled with boats.
Much of St John is a national park and that was our next destination. We cleared in with immigration and customs in Cruz Bay and then headed out to pick up a park mooring. Anchoring in the Virgin Islands National Park is extremely limited, one must use a national park mooring ball in most cases. Just like in any U.S. national park, you pay a fee for day or overnight use, but in this case it's a mooring use fee. And just like in the states it is the visitor's responsibility to find the pay station. In Maho Bay the pay station was located on a small boat in the middle of the mooring field. On the boat was the familiar cylindrical metal container with a drop slot for the fee and a plastic box holding forms. No one on board, just an empty boat. Different, but it worked. We dinghied up, paid our fee and went on to enjoy a fine snorkel around the reef off of Whistling Cay.
We spent two days enjoying St John Island and then it was time to take Julia and Morgan back to St Thomas to catch their plane home.
We said good-bye to Julia and Morgan on Tuesday, Feb. 26th and on Thursday, Feb 28th I caught a plane to San Francisco to visit my mom and daughter, Theresa. Last July when we were out to visit, Julia's wedding, doctor appointments and catching up with family and friends kept us very, very busy. This time I wanted to focus on my mom and daughter. Mom is 91 and lives in a wonderful retirement community in Vallejo. Life moves at a different pace when you are older, slow and easy. Our week together was so, slow and easy. We did a bit of shopping, completed a jigsaw puzzle and visited. Good seeing Theresa again, too. She's a Producer at EA and is working in their Emeryville office on a game called Spore. Fun that she works in production as it was my field.
I returned to St Thomas March 10th. Nice to be "home" with Ken and on Aurora. We're currently at anchor in Gallows Bay on the US Virgin Island of St Croix. We'll be here for a week or so. We have to return to St Thomas to pick up Ken's passport. Time for renewal, and the passport must be sent in. Thus we're in the USVI until his passport is returned. Paid for expedited service, so shouldn't take too long.
Where next? We don't know. Time to figure it out. All of our cruising friends have a general plan for the next six months, heading south to Venezuela or across the atlantic to the Med or will stay in the Virgins for the season. Some people are heading home to return to a land-based life. We haven't decided yet. Need to do so soon.
Safe Passages,
Maryann
And as always here are some pictures!
Yes, Aurora was right a home with the big boys in St Maarten! These are just a few of the mega yachts docked in the Lagoon at St Maarten.
Our new dinghy, outfitted, repaired and ready to go!
Here is the gunk from one tank of diesel. Water gets into the fuel and algae grows in that water. The black stuff in the strainer is the algae, or what's left of it after the cleaning process.
I mention boat work all the time, but rarely include photos of all that labor. So here I am polishing the bow plate on Aurora. =^)
St John off our port bow, Tortola to our starboard. We're sailing west along the Sir Francis Drake Channel as we head to Cruz Bay.
Setting sail from St Thomas, USVI. First day on the water for with our guests.
Julia takes a self-portrait as we leave St Thomas and head over to Soper's Hole.
Maryann verifying that the lines to the mooring ball are even.
South side of Norman Island, BVI.
The Bight on Norman Island. This bay is the home of the Willie T restaurant mentioned in the update.
We're in the Virgins, February 21, 2008.
Days end and sailors have found a place for the night. The Bight is full.
de Captain! Looks like he's just about to come up the companion way.
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