Mar 19–Mar 31 Honeymoon Bay on Water Island near St Thomas was such a good spot for Jennifer that we spent 10 days there. She could swim or kayak to the beach every afternoon after school and play with a group of great kids including several girls about her age. Emily from "Wandering Dolphin" turned 13 while we were there - just 6 days after Jennifer. As a birthday gift Sharon from "Wendreda" took the birthday girls and her own 14 year old, Shelly, into St Thomas to shop at K-Mart and go to McDonalds. What a hit that was! Thanks Sharon, you are much more tuned in than we are to what makes teenage girls happy.
Besides kids on the beach, another hightlight of Honeymoon Bay was Movie Night on Monday. They stretched a screen up between 2 palm trees and projected a movie on it. The beach bar served popcorn and drinks. Those of us on boats sat on blankets in the sand or on plastic chairs while the locals came down in their golf carts and lined up in the back just like a drive-in theater. You get so engrossed in the movie you forget where you are until you hear the breeze blowing the palm leaves and the screen rolls a bit in the breeze. Then you feel the warm sand between your toes and see the stars. Ok, we're really in the Virgin Islands, now back to the movie. When the movie is over you kind of expect the lights to come on. Then you come back to reality again and realize you have to take the dinghy home.
St Thomas was within dinghy distance from Honeymoon Bay. We were able to do some provisioning and even found block ice for the first time in probably a year. Several boats from the old "Southbound Group" were in St Thomas. We saw Dodd from "Vesper Light" on one of our provisioning trips and had a nice vistit with him and his wife Rebecca. We hadn't seen Dodd since last June in Puerto Rico. He is by far the best story teller we've heard.
After Honeymoon Bay we headed for the British Virgin Islands. Our first stop was Norman Island. Many people believe this is the island Robert Louis Stevenson had in mind when he wrote Treasure Island. The snorkeling was great there and because of that there were charter boats everywhere. The anchorage at the Bight was like charter boat city and it had a real party atmosphere. It's kind of infectious, you can't help but get sucked up in their excitement. These people are trying to pack as much fun as they can into their week. They are also trying to pack as many people as they can on their boats and into their dinghies. 10 people in a medium sized dinghy was the most we've seen. It was riding so low in the water it was a wonder it didn't capsize, but they made it and their party went on.
Leverick Bay on Virgin Gorda was our next stop. As we left that morning we saw an inordinate number of boats sailing out of Nanny Cay. It didn't take long to figure out it was a big sail boat race and soon we were in the middle of it. Hey, there's "Hotel California Too", the 70' Santa Cruz we sailed on to Buck Island in St Croix. Captain Steve is in the race. Yacht Shots BVI was out taking pictures of the race boats and they got us too. You can see their photos of Opus on 'yachtshotsbvi.com->Yachts: Norman & Peter Island: March 2010->Opus' Leverick Bay was a treat. They offer free showers and free use of their pool to all boaters. We had another surprise there. Bobbie Bridges, who went to high school with Jim in Morocco, was there with her hustband Gary on a charter boat. She hadn't seen Jim in 40 years, but recognized Opus and us from our website. That called for drinks at the beach bar and lots of old stories and lots of catching up. It was a fun evening. Glad you spotted us Bobbie.
Mar 12–Mar 18 St Croix We arrived in St Croix the morning of Mar 12 after sailing all night, so Friday was a rest day. We anchored toward the edge of an anchorage and found ourselves right next to the seaplane runway – 40 flights a day between St Croix and St Thomas. The first few landings and takeoffs were fun to watch, but we were ready to move Saturday morning.
The next morning, after reanchoring we noticed a lot of green t-shirts on shore and went in to investigate. St Patrick’s Day Parade – the biggest in the Caribbean! What a show, spent the whole day in town. Sunday was another full day outing. We were invited to go to Buck Island on a 70’ Santa Cruz with 7 other people. It was a short fast sail and then good snorkeling around the island.
Monday was a birthday celebration. Jennifer had put in a request for a birthday meal of bacon and eggs. Jim outdid himself as usual. After an early morning shopping trip he made a terrific brunch of bacon, eggs, hashbrown potatoes with onions and fried bread. That evening we had John and Sam from “Imagine” over for dinner followed by chocolate fudge birthday cake that Jim bought and chocolate fudge brownies that Sam made.
Tuesday we continued our birthday celebration by sharing the rest of the cake with Peter, Christine, Hannah and Hayden from “Stolen Hour” and going to see the Mocko Jumbies at Protestant Cay. Wednesday was a day for more school and boat chores so we would be ready to move again on Thursday.
An 8 hour sail with the spinnaker brought us into Honeymoon Bay in St Thomas in time for Jennifer to go ashore and play with the kids from “Wendreda” and “Wandering Dolphin”. 9 kids between 2 boats and a beach she can swim to from the boat…Jennifer is going to love it here!
Mar 1–Mar 11 St Maarten Another 10+ days slipped by in St Maarten. We stocked up on groceries, propane, boat parts and rum so we were ready to leave on March 11 when the wind was out of the east and blowing us right to St Croix.
There’s always something going on in St Maarten. The first weekend in March was the Heineken Regatta. It draws world class racers and boats from around the world. We thought about watching a race or two and attending some of the big race parties and drinking some Heineken, but ended up staying put on Opus. We didn’t miss out on everything though. Many race boats were anchored or docked in Simpson Bay Lagoon. The “Match” races took place inside the lagoon right around us. They even asked if they could use Opus as the committee boat, but then decided against it. Team Russia came so close to Opus we could almost touch them. Jennifer went to one of the big race parties in Phillipsburg with the crew from “Lala”, a Vancouver 42 with 2 kids.
St Maarten is a pretty social place. We met 2 boats with people who had spent a lot of time in Oriental and found we had mutual friends. John & Janet from “Ventoso” returned to St Maarten and this time we got to meet their son Jamie. Jennifer had plenty of play dates and another sleepover. We said goodbye to “Wendreda” again, but hope to catch up to them in St Thomas in a week or so. Mega, a cruiser who we hadn’t seen since last March when he made a big splash as he fell off the dock on his way to our birthday party, showed up in St Maarten and stopped by to say hello. No big splash this time.
So off to St Croix. The trip was a sled ride with the wind behind us for 110 miles. The only sail up was the jib and Jim had to reef it to slow us down so we wouldn’t arrive in St Croix before daylight.