Ram Head and Return

What a change in the weather from the past two weeks. Hard rain and winds had us hunkered down in our little anchorage for the evening and when the sun rose in the morning the sea was covered in whitecaps and the wind was still blowing at 20-25 knots from the east. Perfect for a downwind sail back to St. Thomas.

Before leaving our unnamed bay however, we went ashore for a hike up to Ram Head. In our hiking guidebook the beach is labelled as blue cobblestone which is certainly descriptive.

Reading on in the guidebook, apparently this was an area where maroon slaves hid out before the 1733 slave rebellion and although there is no groundwater, they survived on water in barrel cactus and the local seafood of whelks and conch. The cactus still inhabit the place giving it a strange scenery.

Such a rugged place with spectacular views along the south coast of St. John and the western islands of the BVI. With the wind howling, you get a real sense of just how powerful the sea and wind can be.

Easterly view into the bays of Hurricane Hole

Westerly view of Saltpond and Lameshur Bays

Mowzer and only one other boat in the anchorage - an easy but rugged climb

Ram Hill with the BVI in the distance

Bordeaux Mtn that we climbed over yesterday

Our final sail back to St. Thomas was quick and easy with following winds and seas - took us about 3.5 hours under genny alone and after we sorted out some radio confusion at the fuel dock we filled up and picked up a mooring at CYOA. Henry's getting really good at bringing Mowzer into the dock, but as he rightly pointed out Crown Bay is super easy especially when there's a big freighter just outside blocking all the wind!

Ashore, we enjoyed a couple of cold drinks at Hook, Line & Sinker and met up with Deb, Jay and Nancy there. Unfortunately Looney Bien has now closed - we never did make it there and had plans to break our last night habit of Pie Whole. Guess the greater plan was to keep us returning there which is exactly what we did.

As a final note, yes, we did manage to get through the whole bottle of rum from day 1. Final drinks on the aft-deck as the day winded down in St. Thomas.