Yesterday morning I sat on the back seat, ate my cereal and looked out into the crystal clear water. I watched a school of one inch fish swim by and could see the sandy bottom and little coral head full of marine life. I’m getting a little weepy thinking that after five months, this is the end. Here are a few screen shots off of our chart plotter from the seven weeks we spent in the Virgin Islands.
The black lines are our tracks. The wind comes from East or North East most of the time, so the zig zag lines are when we tack up wind, and the smooth lines are a beautiful sail down wind.
Another cool link to follow on us is Argus. Here is our Argus page. Eric found some guys who are trying to fine tune charts. I guess that some of the depths were last checked over 100 years ago. They noted that hundreds of boats a year sail around with a gps and depth sounder, and so made a device to collect these positions and depths. Whenever we have wifi, the data is automatically uploaded to their system and displayed on a chart. We just started this a few weeks ago, and it’s only updated when we have wifi. To keep track of our most current position, check the FindMeSpot. Every ten minutes or so our position is updated via satellite.
After the Aanonson’s left we went to the U.S. Virgin Islands to take care of business. First off, lets get checked into the United States. Eric’s research showed that if we wait until we get to Ft. Lauderdale, we’ll have to take a cab to customs and immigration. Apparently, you can’t take a dinghy, bus, or walk, you must enter by a car or cab. Next, lets get that dinghy registered. After sailing in Mexico several years ago, our first stop was San Diego. We immediately got a ticket for not having all the right gear and paperwork in the dinghy. When I was in the USVI a few weeks ago, I found that the registration is done at the airport and we need a notarized bill of sale from Rodney. With all the appropriate paperwork in hand Eric went over to the airport only to find the offices closed for Carnival.
Ok, what’s next on the list, Fuel. This is a rare sight, Makai at the fuel dock. We topped off in Grenada at the end of December, Antigua the first of March, and now in the USVI. 102 gallons at $4.58/gallon for diesel. We took on more fuel this time, but the bill was less than Antigua. We also loaded up on groceries and did some precooking. I made taco meat, refried beans from dried pintos, ground beef to go with pasta, hamburger patties, a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough and a batch of oatmeal raisin. We also got fresh milk for the first half of the trip and box milk for the second half, fresh produce, but we’ll run out before we reach Florida, plenty of crackers, lunch meat and cheese and chips.
The kids wanted to get in a few of their favorite activities. Since Scott taught me how to tow a skier, or knee boarder in our case, the sisters have been enjoying this activity.
We’re anchored on the west side of the airport. The planes don’t make much noise, and best of all, there aren’t any jet skis.
Roy of course, is fishing. The clear water is cool because you can see the fish bite the hook.
A few days ago he bought a crappie rig that has two hooks. With two hooks, he was able to catch two fish at once.
Then of course there’s Topaz. She loves to swim and chase the fish. Soon she’s going to be tied up in the cockpit with nowhere to go and nothing to do for a week. When we reach the U.S. there will be ‘No Dogs Allowed’ signs all over the beaches.
We set up the boat for traveling. Eric went around and made sure all the lazarette latches worked, we hoisted him up the mast to check the rigging and lines 70+ feet up. We also put thicker traveling lines on the jib and set them up with blocks at the toe rail for a downwind point of sail. Rodney reminded us to move the lines a little in or out every day to reduce chafe and wear on the same spot day after day.
The ends of the jib sheets were fraying, so Roy went to work with his Boy Scout line whipping skills.
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The girls and I decided to check out the Carnival Parade, since that’s what is holding us up with the dinghy registration. While we were at the grocery store someone said it started at 10am, but they thought it would be late, maybe noon. That’s good since it was already 11am. So we rushed back to put away our groceries so we wouldn’t miss the parade. Back at the dinghy dock, I noticed a police officer carefully checking the dinghy and tender registrations. Oh, bummer, I don’t want a ticket and I don’t want to miss the parade, so I sent Genny back with the dinghy to ask Eric for a drop off. Then we wandered around looking for the parade route and finally got dropped off near the staging area and found out that the parade would be 6 hours long, so we didn’t miss anything. There was plenty of activity, but no one was moving forward. The narrow sidewalks were lined with ‘çamps’ of families. Each group had a huge spread of food, a full bar, and comfortable chairs. After walking and wondering for over an hour, I asked a few questions here and there and pieced together that a troop only comes by every 20 minutes or so, and sometimes there are long gaps. The Rose Parade or Macy’s Thanksgiving parade, this isn’t!
Even though we were hot and our feet hurt, we did see some neat groups. This one is three trailers of steel drummers two levels high. When they played the whole rig bounced up and down to the rhythm. They were a highlight.
I’m not sure if the Fire Service is here for safety or just because the view is better from the top of the truck. We also saw plenty of happy police officers. The crowd was all very quiet and civil, in fact I’m pretty sure some of the people were napping.
This troop was hilarious. They had people dressed like nurses or doctors and the patients had fake butts sticking out of their gowns.
The showgirl Mardi Gras style costumes were beautiful. And no one was shy about the amount of ‘girl’ that had to fit into that tiny costume.
The people were all ready and willing to pose for pictures. Whenever they saw a camera pointing in their direction, they would stop and pose.
As we came up through the Caribbean Island chain, we missed Carnival several times. They all have their own schedule, some in February, April, and August.
I didn’t realize this but there are not only British Virgin Islands and U.S. Virgin Islands, but also Spanish Virgin Islands. These are the hand full of islands between St. Thomas and Puerto Rico 60 west of here.
