Sad Day - John & Eleanor depart (Wed Dec 1)

The title pretty much says it all, but we did manage to enjoy a wonderful breakfast at the Frenchtown Deli before John and Eleanor had to catch their taxi to the airport.  According to calls home, the weather has been grey and mucky and so we enjoyed the beautiful clear sunshine of the morning in St. Thomas.

Here we are on the dock right in front of Azzurra - two sister ships getting acquainted.

Being in town, we decided to visit ScotiaBank and see if we could set up an account to make the banking with CYOA easier; it is so irksome to have to pay wire transer fees and losses to currency exchange!  However, since 9-11, US banks have had onerous compliance regulations placed upon them and with us not being residents we’re unable to set up an island-side account to simplify the whole process.  Looks like we’ll have to settle for a US$ account at our Canadian bank which will at least help with the Fx rates if the dollar drops either way in the future.

With all that put aside and few groceries in hand, we set off from CYOA (with a little help from our dock-side friends) and headed up to St. John.  Our plan is to spend the next couple of nights on the south-side of St. John, away from the northern swell, exploring an area we haven’t seen before.

Tonight we are on a National Park mooring ball in Greater Lameshure Bay.  Beside the muted lights of the half-dozen boats in the anchorage, there are absolutely no lights ashore since we are surrounded by park-land.  The brightest thing in view is the massive cruise ship hovering on the horizon as it slowly tracks eastward, letting its passengers enjoy dinner before hitting the open waters and crossing over to St. Martin.