St. John to St. Croix, USVI

Our next stop on St. John was Salt Pond Bay on the SE end of the island. From here you can hike along several trails leading up from the beach. This hike took us to Drunk Bay on the windswept eastern coast. "Drunk" is dutch Creole for "drowned." Hikers have left their mark by constucting figures out of the bleached rocks and coral. It's like walking through a boneyard!

Look like anyone you know?

This trail took us to Ram Head, a rocky cliff 200 ft above the Caribbean.
Beautiful view!

Merengue in Salt Pond Bay, part of the Virgin Islands National Park. Anchoring is prohibited here but moorings are provided for $15 per night. This is an effort to protect the sea floor from anchors and the chains that tear it up.

We left St. John on Feb 7, 2008 for the 35 mile crossing to St. Croix. We had been watching the weather for weeks and it seems like there are always big seas to deal with in this passage. We sailed in 17-25 kts with 6 to 7 ft seas. There was the occassional 10 footer just to keep you on your toes! We flew along doing over 6 kts with reefed sails. But the constant rolling takes its toll. The 2 brackets that Jim had installed on the front edge of the solar panels to help stabilize them snapped in two. Another trip to the hardware store and more repairs!

When we arrived in Christainsted Harbor we motored around looking for a spot to tuck ourselves in. Usually that is not a problem, one of the advantages of a small boat that will fit into spots where many bigger boats can't go. But the harbor was packed with boats and after circling through several times, we had to resign ourselves to anchoring on the outer edge, right next to where the sea planes took off and landed. They took off only about 100 yards from us and idled past us after landing, often coming as close as 50 ft. The pilots wave as they go by! Thankfully they only operate during daylight hours!

Take-off and landing.

The day after we arrived in St. Croix, Christainsted was holding a "Jump Up." A Jump Up is an island expression that means to dance. The festivities included food, music, late-night shopping and an appearance by the Mocko Jumbies Stilt Walkers. We ate shrimp roti, sampled fresh squeezed sugar cane juice and drank rum out of a coconut.

Steel Pan music. It was great until Jim said, "What's this song?" I had to tell him it was For All We Know by The Carpenter's. After that he wanted another rum!

The Mocko Jumbies, sitting on top of a van as they dressed in their costumes.

Jumbies were evil spirits. Mocko Jumbies are pretend spirits used to chase away the evil ones. The Mocko Jumbies have their faces covered so the real spirits can't recognize them.

Christainsted Harbor.

Fort Christainsvaern, completed by the Danes in 1748. This fort never saw battle.

Is this thing loaded?




We rented a car to tour the island. If you haven't noticed yet, there are 3 things we don't pass up while traveling. The first is forts, the second is brew pubs (yes, we did try the one on St. Croix) and rum distilleries. We'd like to think at least 2 out of the three have historical significance. On this day we stopped to tour the Cruzan Rum Factory.

Molasses fermenting in the tanks. Great aroma!


Rum aging in the barrels.


Jim aging in the bar!

Caribbean Colors.
Happy Hour at Angry Nate's Restaurant on the waterfront.


As of today, we are just hanging out waiting for the weather to change. We'll head back to the U.S. or British Virgin Islands and then on to St. Martin where our friends Mike and Marcia are meeting us on March 1st.

Gotta go now. It's Valentine's Day and Jim is cooking Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner. We've got a nice bottle of red wine to go with it. Life is good!

Culebra to St. John, USVI

Getting the boat ready to head to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Here's Jim changing the oil. People don't believe us when we tell them he has to hang up side down to do it!

Two good things about changing the oil, the engine runs better and you get increased oxygen to the brain!

Here's Bailey trying to ignore all the swearing coming from the engine compartment.

The Dinghy Dock Bar, Packer headquarters in Culebra. Unfortunately we had to watch the Pack lose in overtime.

Oceanfront property that is still reasonably priced. Two stories with a front and back porch!

Approaching Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. We've been here many times before and it's always fun to come back. But it seems new again when you come by sailboat. You look for different things in a location when you're cruising vs vacationing.

The anchorage in Charlotte Amalie, busy and crowded.

The 99 steps.

Blackbeard's Castle above the waterfront.

Nightfall over St. Thomas.

After leaving Charlotte Amalie, we headed to an anchorage at Christmas Cove. As we were approaching the bay, our friends Hans & Kristin on Whisper hailed us on the radio. They were less then a mile off our starboard side, heading to St. Thomas. We hadn't seen each other for awhile. We'd been hanging out in Culebra and they'd just returned from St. Croix. They changed course and joined us in Christmas Cove. The four of us went snorkling (saw a Reef Shark) and then had drinks and dinner on Merengue. It's such fun when a new landfall reunites you with friends.

This turned out to be a beautiful but uncomfortable anchorage. We rolled all night and slept very little. The next morning Whisper headed to St. Thomas and we moved on to St. John.

Everyone at home think we're doing something so unusual but there are lots of cruisers out here. This boat, Time n Time hails from Racine, WI. We met the owners while hiking on St. John.

The island of St. John is only 9 miles long by 5 miles wide and about two-thirds of it is National Park. We hiked for 5 hours on this day and saw plantation house ruins, petroglyphs that are believed to be the work of Taino Indians and the ruins of a rum factory. The landscape is beautiful! Afterwards, you return to the boat for a swim in clean, clear water.
The overgrown ruins of a manor house.

Petroglyphs, carved into rock above a reflecting pool.

Ruins of a rum factory.



By the late 1700's almost the entire island was deforested and planted with sugar cane. This factory became steam-driven when slavery was abolished.

Today we are in Coral Bay, the small, bohemian town on the east end of St. John. We headed in to get some ice, fresh groceries and to update this blog. Internet is not always available so we grab it when we can to let you know where we're at. Later today we'll head back over to one of the anchorages on the south-side of St. John. Life is good!

Culebra, the Spanish Virgins

Hi from Culebra, one of the Spanish Virgins. We arrived 2 weeks ago and have been thoroughly enjoying our time here. It has the essentials that cruisers look for; protected anchorages, markets for provisioning, internet, etc and all on a beautiful little island.

Our depth sounder hasn't been working and was sent back to the states for repair while we were in Vieques. So here's Jim doing it the old fashioned way, with a lead line. Thanks to our friend Reed for making it for us. I inched the boat up into the anchorage and Jim measured the depth. Merengue has a shallow draft that allows us to go places many sailboats can't.

This sign sums up the feeling in Culebra. Very laid Back! It doesn't have the down island feel you'll find farther down in the Caribbean because after all, it is part of the U.S. and very Americanized. But there aren't big resorts and fast food restaurants to take away from the small-town charm.

We rented a jeep for a day to explore the island which is only 7 miles long. Here's some shots of the beaches of Culebra....... Zoni Beach

Tamarindo Beach

View from a hilltop road with Puerto Rico on the horizon.


Carlos Rosario Beach

Flamenco Beach

We are currently anchored behind a reef that is just outside the main harbor. We just calculated and have traveled almost 4,100 N.M. since leaving Milwaukee. And small world, the sailboat anchored next to us is from Traverse City, MI. Another Great Lakes sailor!

The wind is over 20 knots and the seas outside are up so no snorkeling and no heading to other islands. Oh well, guess we'll just have to hang out here for a few more days:)