Wednesday 20 Mar, USVI day 4, St. John: Full on chill out day. Beach bums in Cinnamon Bay, fit the hydroplane on the outboard and friends over for drinks.

We wake again to the boat surrounded by turquoise water in Maho Bay. Can’t get enough of this scene, will we ever be able to pull ourselves away from this bay, we wonder?
The recipe for today will be simple. Full-on chill out! We debated moving to Hansen Bay where there is a floating bar but Google images of it are not enticing enough to pull us away from Maho Bay.

After some casual pottering we set off mid morning to Cinnamon Bay beach which we briefly visited yesterday. When we arrive at 10:30 it’s still pretty empty and we get some wonderful photos of us in the idyllic water by ourselves. But the tranquility ends when a large group arrives and plonks themselves right next to us, complete with loud speakers and undesirable music!
The sky is about 80% blue except for a patch over us where a perpetual cloud seems to be forming from St. John’s high lands. But the shade is welcome as we lie on the beach and watch the world of holiday makers go by. By midday it’s full on with groups of people passing from the car park up the beach, armed with all manner of things: chairs, sunshades, cool boxes, snorkel gear and much much more. We feel a bit naked with our tiny rucksack. Well… and the dinghy!

We spend several relaxing hours like this, just laying in the sand at the water’s edge and being cooled off by the waves that make their way over our legs. And for serious cool off we go for a dip. Not too long of a dip though, as I need the scabs on my leg to heal (the ones from kitesurfing, didn’t manage to get new ones).

By 2pm we de-sand in the water and head back to Cloudy Bay for the rest of the afternoon. I decide to tackle a long standing project. We had already fitted a planing wing to the outboard strut, just above the propeller, which has been extremely effective to get us on the plane quicker and use much less fuel. But in the Annapolis boat show we spotted and purchased a similar device, only this one is secured below the propeller thereby protecting it if we hit a shallow area accidentally…. which we regularly do, usually at the cost of a new propeller!

So the outboard is removed from the dinghy and laid on the swim platform which will act as the operating table. There is a small corner of the swim platform left for me and tools. This is usually a recipe for either the tools or me, or both, to fall in the water. But amazingly for once I complete the hydroplane fitting without any incident.
The next decision is whether to remove our original hydrofoil wings, fitted above the prop, or leave them on. If I take them off I’m not certain the new one will have the same lift as the original, but leaving them both on will surely be too much lift. So off it comes and fingers crossed it works.
Once the outboard is back on the dinghy I check it out and it seems to be good. As suspected, not quite the lift we had previously but enough anyway. And compensated by the knowledge I can no longer damage the prop.

As we sip our afternoon tea we notice a dark hulled yacht entering and anchoring in Frances Bay. It looks very much like s/v Gale, the Swan 66 that we made friends with in Bermuda. We’ve been trying to meet up with them ever since we arrived in the BVI, and now here they are anchoring nearby!
So we dinghy over and sure enough it is indeed Gale! But they clearly have guests on board so we don’t disturb them. Instead we WhatsApp Christian and Eva and soon it’s arranged they will escape from the guests for the evening and come over to see us.
Seems ages since Bermuda and we spend an enjoyable evening catching up and talking about all the places each of us have seen since we last met. It was also Christian (and his brother) who tempted us to sail up to Alaska before crossing the Pacific, and we talk about that option again. Hmmm maybe? Should we? Could we cope with the cold again? We will park that decision again for now.

While Christian and Eva have cigarettes breaks sitting on the swim platform, our aft spot-light has attracted 10-15 very large tarpon fish swimming just under the surface. We are intrigued by their silvery scaly bodies and weird mouths. But most unusual are their orange eyes which occasionally catch the light and throw it back out in orange rays radiating from their eyeballs. Really spooky! Especially in the full moon tonight.
After several hours of chitchat and quite a few drinks later, we suddenly realize it’s nearly midnight. Christian and Eva will have an early start tomorrow as they sail with the owner to Anegada. So off they go in the dinghy back to their mother ship and we head to bed. It’s been very nice to do a bit of socializing for once.