We headed back to Southern Star and settled Jess in. We also had to dry her bag out as it got wet on the ride home.
We went over to the chandlery and brought some stuff, Martin let us use his discount card, we met up with Laust and Monica also so went for drinks at the yacht club. We then headed over to Starlet for a game of 500. We agreed to go for breakfast the next morning over at Marigot Bay where the nice French bakeries are.
March 31st As we were heading off for breakfast we received a message that Robbies Mum was in hospital. We decided to go for a quick breakfast and then come back and ring Australia. Well we thought Mark and Jennifer knew how to get there, but they didn’t and nor did we. After 45 minutes riding around and we couldn’t find the place we ended up going back to Southern Star as we wanted to ring and see how Robbie’s Mum was. I cooked us some breakfast while Robbie did that. As we got back to Southern Star there was a yacht aground right in front of Southern Star. We helped to town them off which was no easy feat.
Robbie looked up where to go to find the others and we made our way over there only a couple of hours late! It was worth it, the pastries were to die for! We farewelled Monica and Laust, we are not sure whether or not we will see them again, but hopefully we will. Again, we have met some lovely people who we just seem to click with.
Later that afternoon Jess and I went shopping with Jennifer in Phillipsburg Jennifer got a new diamond put in her ring and it is stunning. I got some diamond earrings.
April 1st We hired car, and went and did the grocery shopping with Jennifer also. It was a good supermarket and we did a big stock up. They match 1 euro for 1 US $ which is very good value.
April 2nd Today we did an Island tour with mark and Jennifer, and of course Jessie. First stop was Maho Beach, where the planes come in very low over a lovely white sandy beach and everyone stands there and takes photos. The big jets air stream can blow you in to the water and the signs warn you it can cause death.
We made our way right around the island, stopping at the famous nude beach, Orient bay where we had a lovely lunch
April 3rd While Robbie took the rental car back Jessie and I took the duck and cleared out at the customs office, which is right in the channel where the bridge is. Of course while we were there the bridge opened and a heap of boats came through. Poor Jess had stayed in the duck to look after it, and just as well she did, as a boat went through quite fast and the swell pushed the duck up under the dinghy dock. There were two very nice timber tenders off a huge super yacht there and the young crews had left them and were standing around talking. Both boats were damaged.
We then went and picked up Robbie and got back to Southern Star and prepared to leave. We only took a couple of hours to get around to Marigot Bay, just on the other side of the island. It is so much nicer there and the water is crystal clear.
We all had a lovely swim.
April 4th Robbie dropped Jessie and me into town to go shopping, while he pulled the outboard engine apart. There is a flat spot and it is driving him nuts. Unfortunately by the time we realised all the shops were shut, he already had the engine apart. We had to wait for a couple of hours but that was OK. He got it going again and picked us up. We had a quiet night.
We then took the duck into town, walked around town, Jessie did a bit of shopping, we saw all the old buildings had a couple of drinks in a beach bar which was great people watching.
The big tarpon were hanging around the dock near the restaurant, and were being fed all the scraps. They were very big, very docile and happy!
We headed back to the boat and I cooked a chicken curry and we watched the movie Titanic (this was inspired by the Titanic photos and the first class menu for the 14th April 1914, at the No Bones restaurant) so it’s nearly 102 years since the sinking! Just to be in the spirit, we drank Caribbean rum while we watched the movie.
April 7th: Oh Oh, slept in until 8.45am eek – but first the rum kicked in and I slept, then the bad dock noises woke me up and kept me awake for some hours, then slept until 8.45am. We did have plans that we were going to take the duck to Buck Island and snorkel but Robbie let us sleep instead. At 10am we departed St Croix for St Johns, another US Virgin Island. As we departed out of the buoyed channel we got a visit from the US Coast Guard. They first hailed us on channel 16 on the VHF and asked someone to come down the back of the boat for a chat. Robbie asked did they want to board us and they replied no, we would like a chat. It sounded a bit ominous, but Robbie designated me to go down and they were real friendly, wanted to know where we were going and where had we come from. They asked us to let them know if we saw anything “untoward out there”, I said yes of course, and is it dangerous? No he replied, you will love St Johns its very nice. We had just read that a boat was boarded by “pirates” off of St Croix and a guy was shot just a few weeks ago. We were impressed that they made contact and were so friendly. Big shout out to Coast Guard St Croix!!
It was about 15 knots of wind but against us so it was not the most pleasant passage but it was OK, a bit lumpy and lots of white caps. We didn’t do too much apart from make lunch and just sit. Jessie stayed in the fly bridge the whole time, she wasn’t sea sick but she didn’t want to risk it so she just stayed put.
We arrived into Great Lameshur Bay on St Johns at 4pm. Wow, very nice crystal clear water, turtles popping up and only 3 other boats on moorings. There are about 8 moorings and they are all marked for certain sizes of boats. We are on are <60’ and there are also 61’ to 100’ moorings.
Jessie and I had a snorkel over to the reef on the East side of the bay, it was not spectacular but we saw a number of fish including a Lion Fish.
Jessie cooked dinner for us and we had another quiet night.