Sailing to St. Thomas

Saturday 23 Mar, USVI day 7: Sailing to St. Thomas and evening in Charlotte Amalie.
Today we will finally pull ourselves away from St. John and make another (small) step west to St. Thomas. We hoped to drive around St. John but being US spring break (schools are off) it’s a busy few weeks here, and no rental cars were available. The first island we couldn’t drive around! We will really miss this tranquil Maho Bay and the gorgeous beaches on this coast.

By 10:30 we have made our dinghy trip to the mooring pay station and posted our $130 for 5 nights into the post box hoping it will actually get into the right hands! Then we slip the mooring and gently sail downwind with just the genoa. We are in no hurry to cover the 11 miles to Charlotte Amalie, the main town in St. Thomas harbour.

Just as Oana has settled herself into sun bathing on the aft deck (“baking” as she calls it) we see a familiar yacht approaching us from our starboard quarter. It’s s/v Gale, the Swan 66 captained and crewed by our friends Christian and Eva, along with the owner Gerry and his nephew. Like us, they are sailing downwind with just their genoa. Well actually it looks more like a sporty blade jib than a genoa.
On Gale’s foredeck Eva takes photos of us while we take photos of them.
They are heading to Cruz to check back into the USVI after a few days in the BVI. Again we wonder why the 2 set of islands don’t come to some arrangement to simplify movement from one to another. It’s not like illegals can walk to USA from the USVI! As we reach Cruz they head up behind us to anchor and we continue across the strait to St. Thomas.

As we pass through the narrow passage that separates Great St. James island from the main St. Thomas island, which is very narrow, we see a lot of racing going on around us. One fleet this side, kids racing small cats the other side and an offshore race with large yachts heading west with spinnakers. It seems so long since we have raced a sail boat. We do miss it.

Rather than going dead downwind along the south coast of St. Thomas we head out towards Capella islands and right through the tail-enders of the offshore racing fleets. Then gybe onto starboard tack and head directly towards Charlotte Amalie.
After 2 hours gentle sail we turn the engine on and wander around the harbour looking for the best spot to anchor. We decide next to the Yacht Haven Grande and just out of the lee of the massive cruise liner, Norwegian Dawn, which is tied up while her cargo temporarily invades the duty free shops in the town. We anchor there in 9m of water, probably our deepest anchorage this year. It’s only 1pm and damned hot so we decide to wait till it cools off before venturing into town.

At 5pm we dinghy ashore and leave the dinghy in King’s Wharf. There is only one other rather shabby dinghy there and we really wonder if there must be another dinghy dock somewhere. Hopefully it will still be there when we get back!
Once in town the architecture is immediately strikingly different to other Caribbean towns. USVI was previously under Danish sovereignty until 1917 when they sold it to the US, who apparently valued it for its strategic position for approaches to the Panama Canal. A bit odd, because we are nearly 1000 miles from the canal! Anyway, the buildings are in Danish style and whatever that means, it’s clearly different. It must have been a bustling town and water front when the Danes had it. You can feel the wealth in the stone structures. No hurricane was going to knock these buildings down! But alas, the shops contained in these buildings are strongly influenced by the 21st century cruise liner culture – all brand named shops and diamonds, and all firmly closed now that the last cruise liner of the day has pulled out of the harbour.

We walk to the end of town, which quickly gets more run down away from the glitzy shops. Then into French Quarters. Here we actually find some people and several bars and restaurants in among colourful houses. This little zone of town is proudly French with several mini Eiffel towers around.

As we walk back into the town, along the shoreline we find and investigate a mini market. And as we walk in, we bump into Vicki and Terry who sailed with us just yesterday! Along with their sailing instructor, they are provisioning for their week of sailing on a 40ft cat. The Caribbean is indeed a small place sometimes!

Although we are on a mission to walk the town we cannot resist buying yogurt and some fresh fruit for breakfast. We haven’t had fruits for a long time…So we head back to Cloudy Bay to get it into the fridge.

From there we head into the Yacht Haven Grande marina to see what is there. The dinghy dock here is crammed … a better sign that there might be more life than in the main town. Like most IGY marinas, this one is set up for super yachts and it is certainly quite full of them. And behind the glamorously filled pontoons is a very nice area with shops and bars. Much more upmarket than anything in the town.

While walking around, soaking up the scene, we spot the super yacht Milk & Honey. Another coincidence. Last year we met them on the island of Canouan where we had a great night out with the crew, then again in St. Lucia. We can’t access their pontoon due to security gates, otherwise we would have gone to say hello. So instead we keep an eye out for them as we wander the bars. But no sign of them anywhere. Maybe they have guests on board and are not allowed out to play tonight.

So we settle into a bar called The Tap and Still which make their own beer, brewing in huge vats behind glass walls next to the bar. One IPA and Irish red ale later and I’m quite happy. Oana sticks to cider. It’s a nice place with very pleasant ambience and music – unusual for what is essentially a US sports bar.

Back on Cloudy Bay the wind has completely died and we are rocking gently in the swell, but not too badly. For once we have good internet here, so we make the most of it to post blogs … 6 days pending now. Oops, sorry about that readers!