April 8 to April 10th Great Lameshur Bay to Francis Bay St John US Virgin Islands

April 8^th We had a working morning cleaning the boat, Robbie was doing maintenance so Jess and I cleaned the boat inside and out. La’dagio called to say they were coming to join us in the bay.

Robbie and I took the duck round to the next bay Little Lameshur, for a swim which has a nicer beach than our bay, but the anchorage is not as good.

It was lovely to see Laust and Monika again, and they called over in the duck to invite us to dinner on La’Dagio. We did it the “Australian way” and took our meat for the Bar B Q, our drinks and we made a Caesar salad. This ended up being very rushed as I thought it was an earlier than it actually was, and we were supposed to be there at 5pm and as I was starting to make the salad Robbie said “you realise its 10 past 5”, shriek and I ran for the shower and Jess and Robbie finished the salad.

We had a great night and Laust and Monika had a fantastic gravy made from Ox Tail that Jessie and we begged for the recipe, it was delicious. We ended the evening with shots of JM Rum and coffee.

 April 9^th Monika and Laust invited us to go with them in their very beautiful and large, duck to Coral Harbour. This was perfect for us as we needed to stock up on some fresh food and it was a good excuse to have lunch out. Once we got out of the protection of the bay it became quite rough and bumpy.

Jess was in the “suicide seat” right in the very front of the duck. She got quite wet but loved the ride. I also copped a big splash and was wet through. I was quite scared because the waves were so big and choppy but everyone else looked very relaxed. I found out later that Monika also was a little apprehensive. But it was fine and it’s such a safe duck it was really good.

There was no dinghy dock and it was very shallow water in the harbour but Laust found a small buoy to tie up to and we waded into shore. We were very surprised to find a very well stocked small supermarket, which even had Marlborough Sav Blanc! We decided to have lunch at the small restaurant which was very pleasant. After lunch we did a quick snatch and grab of groceries and then set off back to the boats. It was a much more pleasant trip back with the waves with us, rather than against us.

We all needed a nana nap and then later Laust got his new drone out ( he has replaced the one he sadly lost when crossing the Atlantic) and he was filming the two boats but just managed to miss Robbie falling in clothes and all off the duckboard. He was trying to sort the duck rope out and fell in. Thanks Laust for the great shots!

 Jessie loves to fish too, so her and Robbie were in in their element with all the Tarpon around. Robbie also hooked a Barracuda (he thinks) which completely snapped the line off. After dinner Monika and Laust dropped by with a very nice bottle of red wine and we all sat out in the cockpit while Jessie tried to hook a Tarpon and succeeded in hooking them but they are very wily, fight very hard and always get off. She managed to hook and land a small shark though! Monika and Laust had never seen a shark caught. Monika let rip with an almighty scream when Robbie grabbed it by the tail to pull it out of the water, to get it off the line. We are all very used to this from our time in Australia, particularly in the Whitsunday Islands and Barrier Reef trips. It was a usual night time entertainment for one and all to hook a shark. Of course it’s always catch and release. Unfortunately the photos didn’t turn out very well. We all had such a good time with lots of laughs.

April 10^th *1457Monika and Laust came over and we sadly had to say farewell. Monika is soon flying back to Denmark to work and we are heading to Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. We have so enjoyed their company. We will most likely see Laust again as he takes La’dagio through to Florida. We departed Great Lameshur Bay around 10am and we headed to Cruz Bay as we thought we had to clear out. We anchored in the very small area to one side of the entry buoys and quickly took the duck off and went into the customs dock. We were served by a very helpful officer who kindly informed us we didn’t need to check out. This was a surprise. Apparently we only need to check in to the British Virgin Islands when we arrive.

We then carried on to Francis Bay a nice large bay with a lot of moorings, and some very nice beaches with a few spare moorings. Jess and I were able to easily pick up the mooring line. The pay station was a small timber pontoon with a waterproof box with the envelopes and information and a locked collection box for the payments.

There was a trawler style boat on the mooring behind us that at first I thought was a Nordhavn, but it wasn’t – just a look alike.

We went for a duck tour around the bay which was very pleasant and we even saw an Australian registered yacht but there was no one aboard. We stopped and said hi to the trawler behind us and then went and watched the sunset from the fly bridge.

Jess made Pizzas for dinner which were very good and we watched True Lies with Arnie and Jamie Lee Curtis.