Lyn's Log, 5th January 2007
US Virgin Islands

St Thomas, USVI
N18º19', W64º57'
11,785 miles.

We anchored mid morning on 3rd January in Cruz Bay, St John Island and rowed across to the Customs office. The only place to anchor was a small area in very shallow water on the other side of the fairway from Customs. We did our best not to be swamped by the constant of flow of ferries through the fairway. After Customs cleared us in we walked a little around the town to find it was not very different from ten years ago. There were some new development along the coast that looked very out of place but most of the island was National Park land and was kept unspoilt. We were amazed at the number of instructional signs, most being of the ‘Do Not’ kind, but by a church there was a ‘Thou shalt not park here’ and a ‘Thou shalt stop’ at the end of the road!

After a quick lunch on board we retraced our steps to Hawksnest Bay for some snorkelling. Much of the coral had a dusting of sand but there were some magnificent specimens of elkhorn and tube coral. We saw two cuttlefish which seemed to be able to swim both forward and backwards and were quite colourful when the sun shone on them. As I climbed back on board and Andrew was waiting to follow, he told me we had a lot of sharks under the keel and some were quite big. I was glad I was out of the water. I found some eggshell in our bin and threw some over the side. Sure enough the fish came up to investigate if edible. They were rather shark-like but their heads were flat on top, rounded at the front edge where the mouth was, with a sort of ridged pad. Looking in our reef book we identified them as Remora that stick themselves onto other large fish, though they were larger and their dorsal fins were not quite like the picture in the book.

We pulled up the anchor, hoping to leave the fish behind, and motored off to anchor behind Great St James island, which was a beautiful and peaceful anchorage. In the morning Andrew snorkelled around our end of the bay, and then we sailed down to Charlotte Amalie, the main town on St Thomas Island. The marina we had used ten years before had disappeared and a new one, strictly for superyachts, was still under construction. We anchored near the centre of town and rowed ashore to have a look around. It was a slightly upmarket version of what we had seen in St Maarten. Everywhere was selling precious stones, jewellery and watches. There was the odd liquor store and several restaurants. The road was full of slow moving traffic, most of it being open taxis with the drivers touting for extra customers to join their tours. There were six cruise liners around the bay. It took quite a while to find a shop where we could buy a loaf of bread. On the waterfront road we found three banks and enquired in each if they had a foreign exchange. "Yes", they said. "Then can we buy some Euros please?" First if took a little while for the bank assistant to understand we had said ‘Euros’ and then it was "You want Euros??" said in a manner that implied we must be quite mad. "You did say you have a foreign exchange?" "Well of course, but it only deals in US dollars. That is what we use in this country," they condescendingly explained. We resisted the temptation to ask why it was called a 'foreign' exchange. Why should we want anything other than dollars? It is just that we need Euros for Cuba, where we've been told they now refuse to accept US dollars and their own currency is unobtainable outside. Eventually one bank told us they might be obtainable in Puerto Rico, so we shall wait till we get there. After that we took a long while enjoying a snow cone.

We had thought the US Virgin Islands would be the best place to stock up before heading out to Cuba. There should be a big supermarket with reasonable prices. Its easiest to stock up when we are in a marina, so we headed for the only other one at Crown Bay to find they demanded a 50 foot minimum space at $84 a night, so after filling up with diesel we found a mooring buoy vacant off Frenchtown Harbour at $20 and stayed there for the night. This was right by Customs for clearing out the next day, and was less than a mile to the large supermarket. We had a very nice evening dinner and drinks there and did the shopping and Customs in the morning. After lunch we fitted the new oil gauge and found it showed much the same as the electrical gauge. This must mean that the pressure relief valve down in the sump is blocked or damaged. The new oil has helped so it should not be too much of a problem and we shall live with it for the time being.

That afternoon we left the buoy and went to anchor in Honeymoon Bay on Water Island, but were told that we could not stay as people were filming there, apparently a film starring Brad Pitt. The next bay was not so pretty but well sheltered and had just enough room for us. Before long we were welcomed by a ‘resident’ yachtie who was working on the island. He came aboard for a drink or two and then another ex-Brit came over. When our rum had all gone we went over to the other yacht where he had lots of ice and plenty of rum and cranberry juice. We chatted over another couple of drinks and nibbles until after dark. We returned to our yacht and cooked our stew but were not hungry and left it for the next day.

Saturday morning we rowed to shore and snorkelled around the ruined concrete pier and found some brain coral, amongst others, already growing on the concrete. Then we waved goodbye to our friends of the night before, and on 5th January sailed for the Spanish Virgin Island of Culebra where we could check into Puerto Rico.