Hanging in St. Thomas

We are still hanging out in St. Thomas waiting for the parts to arrive to fix the rigging.  We hope to hear something on that today.  But it certainly isn't a hardship having to stay here and there's lots to do to fill the time.

Easter Sunday we headed out to Honeymoon Bay on Water Island.  This little guy was surfing his way over.

Honeymoon Bay has a beautiful sand beach with a couple of bars.

We chose Joe's Beach Bar for rum punch, cold beer and conversation.

Jeannette and Bill on S/V Sea Lion arrived 2 days before.  We met in Luperon, Dominican Republic in 2007 and haven't seen them for over 2 years so it's been great to catch up again.

We've made several trips out around the island.  The bus system in St. Thomas, like most islands, is inexpensive and convenient.  I love that they are open-air and cooled by the breeze. 

One of our stops the other day was at an artist colony called Tillet Garden, a collection of shops and artist studios where you can buy clothing, jewelry, pottery, paintings and more.  It's usually pretty easy for us to look and not buy.  There's no room for all that stuff on Merengue! 

Yesterday we headed over to Hassel Island for some hiking.  Hassel and Water Islands are the 2 islands that sit just off shore from Charlotte Amalie in the bay.  95% of Hassel Island is part of the V.I. National Park system.  We didn't find the developed trails we were hoping for but we did manage to find the trail that leads to a few of the ruins found here.  This is the remains of a customs house.

The ruins of a fort guard the entrance to Charlotte Amalie harbor.

We love walking through these old ruins.  It was well worth the very wet dinghy ride to get there.  The wind has really been blowing and any ride to shore tends to be a wet one!

At the end of the day we have the view of a million city lights. 

On this particular day we were treated to a beautiful sunset where streaks of light radiated up from the setting sun.  We've never seen that before and don't know what caused it.  We don't think on it too hard, we just enjoy it!