N18 17.731 W64 53.421

This is the exact latitude/longitude where we crossed our outgoing passage and completed our loop on this trip with a total of 350 nautical miles (716 km for those of you with a metric bent.)

What a great trip we've had this time out; we've collected stamps in our passport from the US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, St. Martin and Saba, we've completed not one but two overnight passages and we've made new friends all of whom have shown us why we love coming out here and why we continue to pursue the dream of one day cruising full-time.

Mowzer was again exceptional and we continue to be so thankful for the excellent care that the folks at CYOA provide and hope that the many people who come aboard during the year enjoy her as much as we do.

Tonight we are tied up again at the dock at Frenchtown Marina, having made the hop from St. John to St. Thomas after another morning of delightful snorkeling and just sitting watching the view in Lameshur Bay. Can't quite believe that we've only been gone for two and a half weeks, it seems like the haul-out in Nanny Cay and arrival in Anguilla were absolute ages ago. I think we've both achieved a level of relaxation and calmness (except maybe turning around at the fuel dock) that we can now only dream of as we make our way back to reality.

Cheerio Mowzer – can't wait to be back aboard (and home) again!

Revisiting St. Croix

Having motored from Saba in light winds we were reluctant to make another crossing in the same conditions so based on the weather forecast for increasing trade-winds from the east starting on Monday, we decided to spend another day on St. Croix.

One of the main attractions at St. Croix is actually off at Buck Island, part of the Marine Park and home of exceptional snorkeling in a reef-fringed lagoon. However, when we looked into getting the cruising permit to go out to Buck Island, it is required that you fill out a carbon-duplicate form and submit it at least five days prior to your intended visit to see if you might be permitted to head out there. Based on the premise that a car rental wouldn't cost us much more than the fuel if we tried to head off early, and the fact that we were able to find a small car available at Budget on a Sunday morning, we indulged ourselves in a day on the island instead.

This island is so diverse in its climate and therefore the ecology – dry and parched in the east, wet and luxurious in the north-west, spectacular beaches and reefs all around. By the end of the day when (in our minds) a torrential rain-fall filled the streets with gushing run-off, we were thankful that we visited the rainforest in the morning when it was still sunny and dry. The Mahogany Road must be quite a sight with the run-off and there are multiple places where 'dish-drains' criss-cross the road channelling water down to the Creque Dam.

We found a road-side stand, the winner of the annual Cruzian wing contest not once but twice, for lunch and Henry reports that the wings were quite good. By mid-afternoon the rain was tipping down just about everywhere except at Point Udall at the east end of the island. On a whim we decided to go see The Hunger Games and with a Sunday matinee price of $5.00 each, that's the cheapest movie we've been to in years. Having just finished the book, I thoroughly enjoyed it and Henry seemed to as well.

Back to Mowzer for the evening with plans to head up to St. John in the morning – crossing our fingers for a bit more wind.

Exhausted Hitch-hiker Under a Full Moon

We departed Saba at 6:30pm just as the full moon rose behind us and we anticipated our overnight run to St. Croix with a forecast of fair winds for sailing.

Unfortunately the winds never showed up and the moon tracked it's way across the sky to beat us to St. Croix in the morning. What a difference from our overnight from the BVIs to Anguilla just two weeks ago. This time, we had one encounter with a fishing boat crossing our bow and could see one other boat far in the distance behind us running up towards St. Thomas. Other than that, we seemed to be alone out there. With the full moon and almost cloudless sky, it was never really dark and unlike the previous trip, there were few stars to be seen.

The only real excitement of the crossing was at about the mid-point when there was suddenly a light fluttering shadow past the foresail and into the rigging of the stowed mainsail. As I watched, an exhausted king bird landed on one of the lazy jacks and all he could manage was to grasp the line and then hang upside-down for about a minute. I thought he was completely gone and was contemplating how we would get the poor little thing out of the rigging when he revived enough to pull himself back upright. He rested on the boat for about half an hour when he finally decided that we were going the wrong way and he headed off to the south east across the ocean. I have no idea what the stamina is for this little land-bird and whether flying a hundred miles across open water is even possible for him but I sure hope he made it.

The sun rose, the moon set and we arrived at our way-point off the eastern end of St. Croix at perfect time to allow us to take the inside passage between Buck Island and the big island and make our way past the reefs and into Christiansted Harbour. We even had an escort for a brief moment by three dolphins.

Another overnight passage under our belts but unfortunately not one accomplished without motoring. We actually met the folks from the boat that had passed behind us in the night – they had opted to sail in the light winds and didn't make it into Christiansted until late afternoon when they had the misfortune to also miss being able to clear in with customs and immigration. We are not sure whether they were able to clear in later or had to wait out in quarantine until Monday. The cost to us for being able to get cleared was that we needed to refuel the boat.

Buck Island and back to St. John

Christiansted and St. Croix have stolen our hearts and we will definitely be back, but now it was time to move on. We had one more day planned in the southern USVI at Buck Island before heading back north to St. Thomas.

Buck Island is surrounded by reefs and has the protection of the National Parks Service. There is a small anchoring area off the west end beach so that is where we headed. Day-trippers come to Buck Island for the white-sand beach and snorkeling and a number of small and commercial craft shared the anchorage for the day but then cleared out before sunset. One boat that did come in to stay was flying a Canadian flag and so we made the acquaintance of Gilles and France on Belle Brize and shared some good stories over 'tit ponche and wine. We had a wonderfully lazy day in the sun although we did take the dinghy around into the lagoon formed between the island and the reef along the eastern end of the island to explore the underwater snorkeling trail, but the swell was up and made it very rough at the site so we headed back. We were rather disappointed to miss it until we exited the lagoon and were surrounded by a pod of 6 dolphins, including a mother and baby! This was our first dolphin encounter and to see them from the dinghy was amazing. We circled around and they came back swimming across our bow and along side for a few minutes before heading back to whatever had them occupied before we happened along. All of a sudden, missing the snorkeling wasn't so bad.

Saturday arrived and this was our travel day back to the northern USVI. We decided to make St. John our destination for the night and then we'll head down to St. Thomas on Sunday to welcome Caitlin and Jim! We upped anchor and were on our way by 7:30am, with a tip of our hats to Belle Brize as we departed. When we sailed south a few days ago the winds were from slightly south of east which put up sailing close-reach at about 60 degrees on the wind. This time the winds had moved more to the north and once again were in front of the beam. For much of the trip we were pinched right up to about 30 degrees and despite all the words that abound about cats not being able to sail to wind, we made 5-6 knots except when the winds dropped below 12 knots themselves. About a third of the way across we hit a line of squalls where we prudently motored around one with extremely heavy rain and wind gusts (it was time to charge our batteries anyway). Once the squalls had cleared out the winds settled to about 10-14 knots and with the lighter air it was about 3:30pm that we made the Flanagan Passage at the east end of St. John. For a bit of excitement, we had to navigate around one of the large cruise ships coming out of Road Town, Tortola, as we passed through the narrow passage.

As the sun was heading down, we came around the north side of St. John and into Francis Bay to spend the night. Our total distance for today: 42.5 nautical miles.

Christiansted – a day about town

Given that we toured the island yesterday, we spent today exploring the quaint streets of Christiansted. Much of the waterfront and shop fronts are maintained in their eighteenth century Danish style with Fort Christiansvaern anchoring the eastern end of the main area of town.

We are anchored off to the east past Gallows Bay near the fishing dock and Altoona lagoon. This has provided beautiful vistas of the sun going down over the yellow, peach and blue facades of the buildings. Now was our chance to explore up close.

Actually, we started the day with returning our jeep which put us walking back into town from the western side. First stop was St. John's Church built by the English in the mid-1700s and just like an English country church it was replete with old trees and a churchyard. Here the similarity ended as we clambered around the wonderfully eccentric Caribbean graveyard where you really do feel the spirits just below the surface.

Further on into town we took a personal tour of, actually we wandered around, Government House. This building is used as the seat of government on St. Croix which is actually administered from St. Thomas. But, the original house was built by a Danish merchant and the upstairs ballroom with ante chambers opening to the courtyard and the street was beautiful. The peace and calm of the inner courtyards, the neo-classical styling with Caribbean concessions to the heat and the ubiquitous yellow, leads to peace and quiet just yards from the bustling streets below.

Loved this - the Danish sentry boxes were decorated with hearts!

We meandered on to the eastern end of town where we found the scale house and Fort Christiansvaern. In the scale-house we met up with a tour of school-children and I was amazed at how politely almost everyone of them said good morning to us. This would never have happened back home. In fact, all over the island you are constantly greeted with a smile and at least good morning, good afternoon or good evening, if not further enquiry as to how you are enjoying your day.

The fort is pristinely maintained by the National Parks Service and while you get a feel for the architecture and the cramped quarters (it is not very big), it is so incredibly clean it is almost impossible to imagine the deplorable conditions the soldiers and imprisoned slaves or citizens would have found themselves in. The whipping post was tastefully removed by a former governor and with every surface freshly painted yellow, white or green, there is not a trace of the former conditions. The views of the bustle of the anchorage however, were pure delight and we happily watched Mowzer bobbing in the distance.

Lunch rounded out or visit of the waterfront where we scooped up some free wifi (we're a bit distant in our anchorage) and then back to the boat for some R&R. We have a dinner reservation at Rum Runners where we'll be heading once we've charged up the boat's batteries and lazed around on the trampoline in the sun and afternoon breezes.

Addendum: Funniest thing just happened in the anchorage. Suddenly this noise started up near the back of the boat and we rushed out to see what might be wrong with the engines or dinghy. It was a strange sort of pulsing noise. Luckily we were quickly put out of our worry as a fellow swam by with his horse - it was the horse puffing through it's lips that was the noise we could hear. He calmly headed off to the boat launch and I'd like to say he rode off into the sunset, but he was going the wrong way.

St. Croix - a magical isle

We love St. Croix!

Puerto Rico is known locally as the "Big Hurry" and Vieques, which we visited in November, as the "No Hurry" and here on St. Croix they claim to be the "Little Hurry" island.

We have two days to spend on the island and we planned on one walking around the alleys and gades of Christiansted and the other hopefully driving over the island and discoving the sights, sounds and smells away from the 'city'. It turns out that the Agricultural and Food Fair is this weekend which endeavoured to change out plans vis a vis car rentals. After visiting the big agencies (Avis, Budget) we ended up with the local Olympic rentals. At first they didn't have anything available, but after much entreaty the ladies at the counter did indeed have a jeep that we could have for the day. In actual fact we could keep it til the morning! This set our plans in motion, literally, and we headed off from Christiansted to explore the corners of the island.

The east end, also known as Point Udall is the easternmost point in the U.S. and as such, they have erected a millenium, sun-dial type monument on the point. The views are spectacular over the Caribbean with only a very hazy St. John in sight to the north.

From the east point we headed along the south shore where the volcanic hills to the north slope gently into the blue of the ocean. About mid-way along, the industrial heartland of St. Croix is located with the Hovensa oil refinery and other busy-looking sights. The sheer magnitude of the refinery and the adjoining workers' estates aparently places this as one of the 10 largest refineries in the world. We rounded the airport and then not much further along the road, found the Cruzan Rum Factory - nirvana! We picked up a tour, did the requisite looks into vats of fermenting molasses and yeast, smelled the wonderful sweet sugary smells, admired the oak barrels and finally arrived at the bar where for the $5 admission we could enjoy any number of concoctions or mixes of the various Cruzan flavours. Wonderful stuff!

Fredericksted, on the western shore was next on the list and wandering the streets of this sleepy waterfront town led us to a delicious lunch of roti. The waterfront has been fabulously developed, including a massive cruise ship dock, but there is not much else infrastructure to support the influx. We enjoyed the stop but I imagine the big ship passengers head for other interests. The bay is surrounded by a wide sweep of sand to the south and we could definitely see ourselves coming back for a visit.

The north west corner of the island is covered in rain/cloud forest and the jeep that we had landed in, came in handy on the pot-hole strewn roads.

The end of the day brought us past Salt Pond where Columbus first landed on St. Croix in 1493, and killed some natives thereby cementing western relations with the locals, and then on into Christiansted where we enjoyed the sunset view from the boardwalk. All-in-all we enjoyed the variety the island has to offer from the steep uninhabitable hills of the north, to the arid, cattle-grazing slopes to the south and tucked inbetween the damp sugar plantation ruins of the rainy areas.

St. Thomas to St. Croix – via St. John

Have we got all the saints in there yet – definitely for the U.S. Virgin Islands!

We set off from St. Thomas and although the initial plan was to head straight for St. Croix, we decided that we would take a shake-down day and head up along the southern shore of St. John to spend the night. This would ideally put us on a better angle of sail to St. Croix and we knew that Lameshure Bay would provide an idyllic quiet spot after the hectic hustle and bustle of St. Thomas. And what better place to spend Valentine's day than a nice secluded bay with only a handful of other boats and no beach-bar in sight.

Tuesday morning we were up bright and early and were off our mooring ball by 8:30am. The direct line to St. Croix put us with 36 nm on a nice line just above beam to the wind. All in all the crossing took 6 hours and by the time we dropped the anchor off Christiansted it was about 3 in the afternoon – our longest passage yet. The sailing was absolutely spectacular with seas only 3-5 feet and the winds from 12-18 knots. The trades are a joy to sail in, especially after the shifty winds of the Ottawa River, and for much of the journey Henry had the sails so beautifully balanced that the boat steered itself to the perfect point of wind – and with no auto-pilot sucking up power!!

Christiansted is a pretty little town of Danish heritage that has been preserved in the store fronts along it's little narrow streets. We didn't do much exploring today but headed to Rum Runners for a coldie and appetizers (on Kirsten's excellent suggestion).

Generally the plan is that tomorrow we will explore the town and harbour and then try to explore the island on Thursday. We've heard that rental cars are hard to come by, but if we can't find one we can always enlist one of the local drivers to take up on a personal tour. Of course we'd love to get over to the Cruzan Rum distillery near Frederiksted and could find us at the eastern-most point in the U.S. There are great-houses left over from sugar plantation days, a rain-forest and numerous other sites to explore so we shall see what we can make of it.

CoverGirl

Surprise, surprise! I had an email from Adam at SAIL magazine this past week responding to a message I'd sent him back in November when the article for CYOA featuring Mowzer appeared. Along with some great comments about a "great boat in a great location" he commented that Mowzer was once again gracing the pages of the magazine - this time on the cover of the January issue!

And... we're back on count-down til we're back aboard in February. This time we're thinking of heading south to St. Croix for a week and then Caitlin and Jim are going to join us so we'll probably return to the BVIs. This will be Caitlin's first time there so the visit wouldn't be complete without heading to Foxy's or The Bight.