After having left the Spanish Virgins on January 24 or so (it was a Saturday) we headed for St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands (USVI) and arrived by noon time. In fact the whole time we were in Culebra we could see St. Thomas in the distance. The long voyages were over and we were into line of sight sailing. After having been in Culebra for a little over a week and in anchorages where we were the only boat, St. Thomas was a shock.
On arriving in St. Thomas there were priorities to deal with; a hair dresser appointment for Liz, and a stop at the local diesel engine shop to pick up a spare part we had chased fr
om the Turks & Caicos to Puerto Rico. This one only cost us $8 instead of the $25 we were charged in Puerto Rico. When you need the part you pay whatever it costs.
St.Thomas was a culture shock, we were back in the consumer driven USA. What was a treat was the grocery store at the marina. It carried all the things we were used to seeing on the shelves. We had to control ourselves so that we didn’t buy all sorts of things that would have spoiled over a few days on the boat. We headed further east along the coastline of St. Thomas to a marina where we put in for a few days to get laundry done and all of the other mundane things we take for granted when we’re at home.
We then skipped by the rest of the US Virgins and headed directly to the BVI (British Virgin Islands) a total of 10 miles further east. We arrived in the BVI on February 3 and decided that we would hang out here for a while. Check in with customs and immigration was just a formality on the westernmost island of the BVI, Jost Van Dyke. We dinghied up to the dock and entered the police station to inquire where customs was and to our surprise found a customs officer manning the front desk.
The next day we sailed and motored up to Cooper Island to visit the Cooper Island Beach Club (CIBC not to be confused with the bank). After two months of passage making and finally getting the boat down to where we wanted to be we decided we needed some “land” time. It turned out that there was a vacancy for the following week and we took it. More to be said about that later. In the interim we found a quiet little bay behind Peter Island where the bareboat charterers do not go. It’s scary watching these people, often 8 on a boat, jockeying for the best places in the anchorages without any regard to what’s around them and seemingly little if any experience in boat handling. We almost lost our dinghy to one boat where the fellow was so focused on what was further ahead of him that he passed within 15 feet off of our stern and failed to see our dinghy. We wondered if we had been this bad when we chartered here 15 years ago.
On arriving in St. Thomas there were priorities to deal with; a hair dresser appointment for Liz, and a stop at the local diesel engine shop to pick up a spare part we had chased fr
om the Turks & Caicos to Puerto Rico. This one only cost us $8 instead of the $25 we were charged in Puerto Rico. When you need the part you pay whatever it costs.St.Thomas was a culture shock, we were back in the consumer driven USA. What was a treat was the grocery store at the marina. It carried all the things we were used to seeing on the shelves. We had to control ourselves so that we didn’t buy all sorts of things that would have spoiled over a few days on the boat. We headed further east along the coastline of St. Thomas to a marina where we put in for a few days to get laundry done and all of the other mundane things we take for granted when we’re at home.
We then skipped by the rest of the US Virgins and headed directly to the BVI (British Virgin Islands) a total of 10 miles further east. We arrived in the BVI on February 3 and decided that we would hang out here for a while. Check in with customs and immigration was just a formality on the westernmost island of the BVI, Jost Van Dyke. We dinghied up to the dock and entered the police station to inquire where customs was and to our surprise found a customs officer manning the front desk.
The next day we sailed and motored up to Cooper Island to visit the Cooper Island Beach Club (CIBC not to be confused with the bank). After two months of passage making and finally getting the boat down to where we wanted to be we decided we needed some “land” time. It turned out that there was a vacancy for the following week and we took it. More to be said about that later. In the interim we found a quiet little bay behind Peter Island where the bareboat charterers do not go. It’s scary watching these people, often 8 on a boat, jockeying for the best places in the anchorages without any regard to what’s around them and seemingly little if any experience in boat handling. We almost lost our dinghy to one boat where the fellow was so focused on what was further ahead of him that he passed within 15 feet off of our stern and failed to see our dinghy. We wondered if we had been this bad when we chartered here 15 years ago.
