St. Thomas, USVI

We spent five nights on anchor in Charlotte Amelie harbor. View of the town, from the boat, by day,

and by night.

 Then we spent one more night on one of 23 free moorings, first come first served, in Christmas Cove on the west side of Great St. James island, 

about five miles east of Charlotte Amelie and one mile from Red Hook. 

We motored those five miles, not to avoid beating but because there was virtually no wind.  We snorkeled and due to a failure of communications about “which rocks” we were referring to, got separated. I panicked, raced back to the boat and got into the dinghy to search for Ilene, but she is a good swimmer and did not need help. She was impressed with the corals and saw a sea turtle. I saw a big ray, about 4 feet wide, swimming near the bottom, about 20 feet below us – the water was so clear.

I have been to St. Thomas several times in the past. My first visit was on the USS Hammerberg, DE1015. This was 1966 and we anchored out in the Harbor for about three days. I took the Law School Admissions Test aboard, administered by my superior officer, who the Educational Testing Service of Princeton NJ sent the test to keep in his safe, along with $25 (which was a lot more money then) and a stop watch. I mistakenly thought I had done terribly on the test and that night I got drunker than I have ever been, before or since, in some bar in Creek Alley (of The Momas and the Popas fame). Apparently, I am a happy drunk because instead of arresting me, the Shore Patrol carried me back to the launch which took me out to the Hammerberg. In subsequent years I attended a Bar Association meeting at a resort on the island, visited it as a passenger on cruise ships with by brother and sister in law and on various BVI charter trips to cab it between the airport and the ferry.

Though posted as reserved for Marina guests, those guest’s large boats are at its docks and have no need for the use of a dinghy in port.  I spotted “Knickerbocker” a magnificent yacht normally docked at the head of the Oyster Bay dock and reputedly owned by he owner of Madison Square Garden. So in reality, this dinghy dock is used by everyone except the Marina’s guests, including folks who live aboard their boats out in the harbor and work at the busy hub, parking their dinks at the dock eight hours a day, five days a week. This is the dock from which we said farewell to our guests and it is convenient to supermarkets, bakery, self service laundry and phone store.

Here is Lene at the other dock, at the seawall at the edge of the downtown area of the city, with part of the anchored fleet in the background.

We used this dock to get to a jewelry store in which Lene got emerald and diamond “huggie” style earrings for her birthday, a wifi bar, various lunches and the Synagogue.  For lunch we ate at local places. I had my first taste of "fungi" polenta with okra -- not bad, and the runner up was stewed oxtail.

The synagogue is one of the oldest in the western hemisphere, founded in 1796 and rebuilt in 1856, with sand floors and a Sephardic interior architecture. I had visited it in the past, but this had never been on a Friday night. Their prayer book is the same one we use at home. Services start at 6:30 and it is open to the public. The rabbi gave an excellent sermon against religious fundamentalist violence being a form of forbidden idolatry. The congregation of about 30 people in attendance,was  1/6^th black. The post-service “oneg” (literally “delight” actually refreshments) included olives and herring in addition to wine, challah and cheese.

One day we took the bus to Redhook, a sailing center at the eastern end of the island. The fare was $2.00 per person each way. We got a new reefing line to replace the one that had chafed through again, and I taped a thumb lock out of the way, hoping that this lock is the culprit that has been eating reefing lines. We also got a chart book for the Dominican Republic.  I had thought that this was the last chart book we would need and that the two for the southern Bahamas and  northern Bahamas, since they overlapped, eliminated the need for the book for the central Bahamas. But no, while A overlaps a bit of C, only B has the detailed views of the ports and anchorages of the Exumas and Eluthera, so we still have one more chart book to buy.
On the bus we met Cathy, who suggested we visit Hassel Island, by dink, but wear stout shoes for the thorns.
Here is Lene at Careening Cove, 

where we visited an enchanted sail loft which does not advertise because “I have too much business already”. The island is about .2 miles wide by .8 miles long, oriented generally north to south, and divides Charlotte Amelie Harbor into two halves as Prudence Island divides Narragansett Bay into western and eastern passages. But the thorn filled path to the various British fortifications of the early 19^th century, when the British briefly occupied St. Thomas, were approachable only from a new and rugged dinghy dock further south. The VI National Park service maintains the trail and its sights. First the storehouse:

Then, a bit higher and most seaward, the Prince Frederick’s Battery, renamed Fort Willoughby during the occupation of St. Thomas by the Brits in the early 19^th century:

 And finally, a view of the anchorage and Charlotte Amelie from Cowell’s Battery, at the summit, 267 feet above sea level. Its guns, when they were there, commanded both the east and west entrances to the Harbor.

 The battery later served as a signal tower so warehouse operators in port could gather their stevedores when a vessel was sighted approaching the port. Radio obviated the need for such a tower. We were the only dinghy and only people to visit during the time we were there. Here is a view of all three military sites and the steep path to the top one, taken from ILENE when we were exiting the harbor.

One morning we awoke to see a black freighter at the far end of the cruise ship dock. And it looked like it had more crew than a freighter would need. And it was called  "Kennedy" and flew an American flag.

 What could this be? I went over and asked. She is the Mass Maritime Academy training ship with 700 students aboard, far from her home at the eastern end of Buzzards Bay, the southwestern entrance to the Cape Cod Canal.

One beef about St. Thomas: the authorities have apparently permitted someone to operate some sort of outdoor venue with a DJ screaming his “lyrics” along with his “music” at megadecibel levels on Saturday and Sunday evenings and well into the following mornings, thereby disturbing the peace and tranquility and sleep of the entire town.

From Great  St. James our plan is to continue our westward migration from the US Virgins to the Spanish Virgins, Culebra and Vieques, formerly known as the Passage Islands. From here on until we get to Virginia, we will be visiting only new ports -- hardly uncharted, but new to us as sailors. We have plotted out our route and time, with five extra lay days and five additional potential weather delay days between February 14 and March 14 to traverse the waters between Great St. James and Grand Turk Island in the Turks and Caicos, when and where we plan to pick up our next guests, two lovely ladies from Portland who were Lene’s friends and now are our friends.  This month includes four long passages between 75 and 115 miles, so we have also built in rest days for the days after each of these passages as well. Lene is worried about these passages, especially the dreaded Mona Passage, but we will be heading west, the easy direction, and will wait for good weather windows.

Posted from Bahia Honda, Culebra, Puerto Rico.