What was supposed to be a brief stop in St Thomas USVI on January 21st, turned into a week – long waiting game due to poor traveling weather. Every day the wind screeched through the anchorage at Charlotte Amalie as we watched other boats leave the harbor and bob up and down like tops, or turn around and come back. So we made the best of it by exploring the town and doing a lot of reading and of course watching movies.
A lot of the town’s attractions are cruise ship based, with multiple diamond stores and souvenir shops. There were also some really beautiful spots around the town, including the 100 steps and 3 Queen statue, once you get out of the cruise ship zone. The old buildings were beautiful and in some cases haunting in their decay, while the steep streets gave way to beautiful views of the bay.
As the days wore on we ended up finding some amazing spaces to pass the time, including the the Pink Palm hotel and restaurant. Pink Palm was an amazing find, that we wish had happened on the first day. Nestled in the hillside at the top of town, it offers amazing food and drinks, great views of the water and a fantastic vibe created by embracing and modernizing its seventies aesthetic.
Another great find was the art gallery called 81cvi. When we first visited 81cvi they were in between exhibits, but we had a nice glass of wine and chatted with the friendly owner for a bit. He invited us back to the opening night of two exhibits that were happening a few days later. The first exhibit featured artist Indra Lovely who makes amazing paintings, and the second featured Nicole Stewart, who created an entire exhibit of ceramic butterflies. Both have beautiful work and we had an amazing time at the opening night chatting with locals and the artists.
Finally on January 28th, we set out to the British Virgin Islands to meet up with our friends from Blue Mist to buddy-boat with them on the crossing to St. Maarten. Because we had waited out the weather for so long in Charlotte Amalie we sadly didn’t have much time left to spend in the British islands. We set out early in the morning and were pleasantly motoring along without much wind and with very manageable waves. We had just passed a bit of a dangerous cut with a lot of traffic and some current, when all of a sudden our engine high temp alarm sounded. We threw up the jib despite only having 5 knots of wind, and turned off the engine so Douglas could go figure out what the issue was.
He discovered that the issue was a shredded alternator belt, which also runs the cooling system water pump. An easy replacement under these conditions, but not an easy sail in so little wind! I was barely able to keep the nose pointed and maintain 2 knots of speed, which I need to steering. I quickly realized that I was heading straight across a shipping lane, with both a ferry and a cargo ship heading my way along with a lot of other small boats. I got on the radio to let them all know my situation, but no one responded. I stated my issue several times and tried to steer out of their way as best as I could. Douglas was fast, and I was very happy to have the old stinkpot up and running again.
The wind picked up and we did a bit of actual sailing but it required a lot of tacking since the wind was (as usual) coming from exactly where we wanted to go, so eventually we gave up and motored to Spanish town to check in with customs before they closed. We only had one night in Spanish town before we had to get to the other side of the island to stage for our passage. We made the most of that night with a trip to the top rated restaurant on the island, CocoMaya, for dinner. It was amazing and so fun!
The next morning we set out for Leverick Bay on the northside of Virgin Gorda. As we were pulling in to anchor we were happy to see Blue Mist and anchored close by. Within minutes we saw a dinghy heading our way with our two friends Ross and Louise. We spent 6 months with these guys in Luperon and then buddy boated from there to Puerto Rico with them and all along the PR coast. We became close life-long friends along the way. We had a great, yet short, stay in Leverick Bay catching up with them and planning our crossing the next day.
