We are enjoying our second morning anchored offshore in
Frederiksted, on the west end of St. Croix, USVI. The view is of a long sandy beach with palm
trees, across flat, blue water, with low, rolling hills in the background.
We originally landed in Christiansted, on the north side, in
the middle of the island, after sailing 6+ hours last Thursday. It was one of the best sails we've done on
Cat Tales; with a variety of winds on the beam over relatively flat water. We had departed at 8:00 from Christmas Cove,
just a half hour or so before Tarantela left from Charlotte Amalie; but we
remained just specs of sail to each other for all of the trip. As we finished our anchoring, Al phoned us to
say he was making a short detour to buy some water from Green Cay Marina, and
also to brag that he had not only caught two mahi mahi, but had thrown back
three tunas. I just about started to
bang my head. I had dismissed the
fishing because there was too much sargasso to keep the hook foul.
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| Al proudly showing us his catch of the day! |
Of course, supper was aboard Tarantela, and we supplied rice
w/pigeon peas to complement the fish and Michelle's two salads. The meal was fantastic. We did our best to reciprocate the next day
with Chicken Alfredo, after we had explored Christiansted on foot.
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| Laurie and Michele and Al on the waterfront. Cute little boat in the foreground! |
Saturday night was the "Parade of Lights", with
boats decorated with lights touring the very vibrant and crowded waterfront
walkway. These really were spectacular,
with flashing lights, music, live bands on some of the larger boats, dancers,
and even a seaplane made up to look like Rudolph. The walkway was set up like a
"jump-up", with the regular bars supplemented with beer and liquor
stalls, barbecues, and other confectionaries.
And there were Jumbies! These well-dressed
tall fellows were talented crowd pleasers; swooping, stooping, high-stepping,
and posing.
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| Talented Jumbies!! They could lean over to shake a hand or take a tip!! |
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| Rudolf! |
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| Over 20 of these beautifully decorated boats! |
Sunday, we moved the boats to Frederiksted, and enjoyed the
beach bar, before saying goodbye (temporarily) to Tarantela, who left in the
morning for the Spanish Virgins.
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| Isn't it nice they had just a wee bit of room left for a nice snowflake decoration! |
Monday, after Tarantela left, Dawn and I tore down the boat,
installed the new VHF radio that I had picked up from the Christiansted
chandlery, installed the last of the Raymarine equipment, and tidied up a lot
of wiring. It took all day, and there is
still more to do. ...But it will
wait.
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| Laurie took all the electronics off this panel in order to cut or reconfigure openings for the new equipment. He ran wires through tiny spaces all day in a sweaty 30 degrees. A cool swim and a beer were in order at around 4:30!! |
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| New VHF radio in the center, and Raymarine repeater for the outside GPS unit. The repeater will show us AIS, wind speed, depth, and direction etc. The car stereo came from Canadian Tire at home and works great! |
We're doing some work right now to
determine where we go, ashore. We have
to choose from (if they are open): the Cruzan rum distillery, the Whim restored
museum/plantation, the St. George Village Botanical Garden, and some place that
advertising beer-drinking pigs. Many
things on this island are only available when a cruise ship is in port. Even the visitor's information centres close
their shutters otherwise. Transportation
is the biggest issue, with buses running erratically.
Indeed, we had intended to go offshore to the Buck Island
Nature Preserve to do some walking and snorkeling, but to get permission, you
have to find the right office (which we have not found open when we did find
it), fill out some forms, go somewhere and get your boat papers and passport or
drivers license photocopied, submit them to the (still closed) office, and then
wait a few days while they "process" the application and give you a
free pass. They are actually lucky that
the office is never open; as I would have loudly explained such terms as:
"value added processes", "conflicting objectives", and
"CHICKENSHIT RED TAPE".
We hope to return to the northern part of this little chain
on Thursday or Friday, so we can pass in our liferaft and fire extinguishers for
inspection, a little hiking, and again enjoy the company of our friends aboard
Aspen, Tarentela and Silk Pajamas. You
can bet we'll be doing some fishing on the way.
