Back in the “Duty-Free” World

After a wonderful two days waiting out the weather in Tortugas Bay in Culebrita, we figured the seas had calmed down enough to retry the 17-mile passage to St. Thomas. This time we had a relatively tame passage motor sailing across the usually boisterous Virgin Passage with 15 knots right on the nose (that's what we should have named our boat "Wind Right on the Nose.")

St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands peaks out from behind the clouds.

After a few hours of sailing it was exciting to spot the mountain peaks of St. Thomas peeking out from the clouds, and passing famous Sail Rock to port and later the verdant green hills of St. Thomas on the left. We entered the US Virgin Islands from the southwest motoring along Water Island on the right and later Hassel Island. Luckily there was a marina right before we entered Charlotte Amalie so we had a relatively easy time filling up with diesel and water. Since it's always windy, one of the challenges is finding a fuel dock (sometimes that alone is a challenge) that is situated favorably to the prevailing wind so you can get the boat in and out unscathed. Crown Bay Marina was a piece of cake.

We motored out and passed through a very narrow channel called Haulover Cut to enter the spacious bay of Charlotte Amalie. Ringed with houses and businesses running up the hillsides, it reminded me a little of Hong Kong harbor on a micro scale. Charlotte Amalie is a major cruise ship port, with two to five cruise ships in the harbor at any given time and the place to visit if you enjoy duty-free shopping.

Back to civilization after several weeks in the hinterlands.

We arrived on a Sunday when there are no cruise ships, so the town was fairly deserted. We did the normal "in port things," checking out laundry places, going to the local grocery story, walking up the hill to K-Mart to get additional supplies, and then dinging back to the boat.

"We get to go shopping and eat out at nice restaurants."

Since it was Mother's Day, we decided to dine out, but very few restaurants were open on a Sunday. We finally found the Green Parrot on the waterfront and settled in for drinks, appetizers, and a great meal. Except . . . Walter had found his favorite drink in life, guava juice, at the grocery store earlier and downed a quart. Then he had some sweets and latter at the restaurant Walter ordered his second favorite drink, a Pina Colada. At some point he started acting weird (for him this means being quiet for a period of time) and finally got up from the table and took a short walk along the waterfront to clear his head. According to Christa, our medical expert, he probably spiked his glycemic index with all the sugared drinks and just need time for it to all work through his system. This is what happens when you are away from civilization for a long time and then get back and want all your favorite things at once.

If Sunday was quiet day, Monday was crazy day as we awoke to two huge cruise ships rounding the corner headed for the cruise ship dock. The town now came alive with all the shops opening to service the hoards of Bermuda-short-clad Americans freed from the frozen confines of Michigan and Iowa. We had a number of parcels containing boat parts, etc. shipped to General Delivery in Charlotte Amalie, so Walter took off downtown to the Post Office while Meryl headed to the other end of town to get started on the laundry.

Your friendly local iguana.

After walking the length of the town (and having the bejesus scared out of me by a big iguana that darted out in front of me) and waiting in line, it turns out that the General Delivery is handled at another post office - you guessed it - about three blocks from where Meryl was doing the laundry. Hoofing it all the way across town to the second Post Office, it turns out all the packages were there except one (which should have arrived a week ago). Walter had to go back to the boat, open the computer to find the tracking number, print out the receipt, and then head to the Post Office later to try and track it down.

Second project was getting our SCUBA air tank filled. We found a dive shop in a hotel on the waterfront and lugged the tank across four lanes of traffic trying not to get killed by crazy drivers. Once in the dive shop the owner informed us the tank (brand new) had a leak in the o-ring seal. No wonder I ran out of air so quickly last time I was cleaning the bottom of the boat. The dive shop owner (Admiralty Dive Center) was a good guy and got everything set right so it was back to the boat to drop off the tank, then pick up Meryl with the laundry, back to the boat to drop off the laundry, then back into town for some shopping.

If you are into serious jewelry and bling-bling shopping, Charlotte Amalie is your heaven. Rows and rows of high-end designer and jewelry stores, interspersed with duty-free this and that.

When you get cruise ships in port, you get lots and lots of shopping.

This is considered one of the best rums on the market, but it is very difficult to find in the Caribbean.

We both really liked this local artist and ended up buying a small water color by her.

Meryl actually found a beautiful painting by local artist, and Walter found the last bottle of Pyrat rum, purportedly the best rum in the world, for only $26. We bought gifts for the grandkids and kids and finally made it back to the Green Parrot for drinks (no Pina Coladas this time).

This street entrepreneur was trying to see the super model some $5 sunglasses.

Charlotte Amalie is a great place to people watch and outside the Green Parrot was a constant parade of local color. My favorite was a tall, sophisticated black woman who was being pestered by a guy trying to sell small folded-grass animals he makes and another street vendor selling sunglasses. Worth the time to just watch their interactions. I felt sorry for the grass animal guy so I bought his creation for Meryl. Back at the boat it was nice to just sit in the cockpit, have a sundowner, and enjoy the night lights of this very busy port from the tranquility and security of our boat.

Ganesh is Fatty Goodlander's, a well know sailing journalist, new sailboat.

As we were leaving the next morning for St. John I noticed a familiar boat anchored nearby. I passed closely and sure enough it was a sailboat called Ganesh that is owned by a character called Fatty Goodlander. Fatty has been sailing forever and writes a number of columns in various sailing magazines around the world. One of the articles I had recently read was about the purchase of this "new to him" boat and all the modifications they have made. When you read a lot of articles by a single author it almost seems like you know them.

Another boat anchored near by was Distant Shores, a Southerly 49 (the boat I would buy if I were rich) owned by Canadians Paul and Sheryl Shard. They produce an extensive series of sailing videos, several of which Meryl and I have watched, about sailing around the world. The have a series of cable TV shows in Canada and the US with over 30 million viewers. Nice work if you can get it. We ran into them again later in the trip and got a chance to visit and see this incredible boat.

This is all "déjà vu all over again" for us since we've been reading/preparing for this trip our whole lives and now we're anchored next to some of the people whose articles we've been reading over the years. Kind of like playing minor league ball for a long time and suddenly finding that you're playing in "The Show."