Wednesday, we're still in Frederiksted, and finally, there
is no sign of the outrageous rains of the previous day. We were ashore before 9:00 am, a quasi-record
for us. As there was an on-shore sea
running, we locked our dinghy to the massive cruise ship dock, and, as there
was a ship on it, we gingerly snuck off the dock through the significant
security, posing as 'cruise ship' people.
It is a reverse bias these poor officers have - if we're white, we
belong - and white people all look alike!
It was flawless to catch a bus (the revamped bus system here
is a month or two old, with beautiful new mid-size buses), and head on to the
Centreline Road towards the Cruzan Rum Distillery. Upon exiting the bus, we were barely 100
metres down the road before a local picked us up and delivered us to the gate
of the distillery. I do not think it is
just that these people understand the value of tourists, but that they are
truly nice people.
The tour itself was short and informative, delivered by a
lady called Charleen, originally from the southern States, with lots of
patience. It was the earliest tour of
the day, and likely the smallest, with only 7 people. What did we learn?
Their molasses is all imported, and comes from many
locations in South and Central America, and Dominican Republic. Some good product used to come from Haiti
years ago, and some might come from the Demerara region of Guiana, but Charleen
was not sure.
The process of brewing the molasses beer or wine is pretty
simple: They mix up a smaller vat (still
massive) of yeast and molasses with a little water, and warm it with a coil of
warm water. After a day or so, they
deliver this to the much larger vats, and add more molasses and water until it
is ~1 part molasses and 4 parts water, and let brew with cooling water in the coils so that more
alcohol can be made before the yeast burn themselves out from a combination of
heat and alcohol. The distillation tower
is next, in its own 5 storey building (the second tallest building on the
island). From there, all the rum goes
into barrels supplied by the sister company, Jim Beam, and goes into a mighty
large open warehouse for aging. A pound
of dry oak chips are added to each barrel to enhance the flavour. The pictures below do not really show how
massive this building full of aging barrels is.
We include a picture of 4 bottles showing how ageing affects the rum
over 6 months, 5 years, 10 years, and 15 years.
The portion left in the bottle
also demonstrates what portion is left in the barrel after that time. No wonder good booze costs so much, if so
much is lost in the barrels!
 |
| White is the cheapest and quickest to make and on the far left, is the darker and more time-consuming expensive rum! |
When the time comes, the barrels are taken to a cracking
station, put through filters (white rum goes through the smallest filters), and
pumped into large steel tanks set up as containers. The containers are actually shipped to
Kentucky to a large blending and bottling factory there. So, the molasses doesn't come here, the rum
isn't bottled here, and you wonder why the rest of the process is here. Well, there is tradition, but also there is
the very stable weather that allows a constant environment year round for both
brewing and ageing, which we would agree, is highly desirable for a product of
constant quality.
 |
| Charleen giving us a great education on rum making! |
We also went to their tasting bar, where while tasting
various concoctions and ages, we also sipped one nice rum punch and a nice pina
colada. We both agreed that having that
much rum before 11 a.m. could be quite habit-forming.
Leaving Cruzan, we had a 20+ minute hike to the island's
botanical garden in George Estate. The
walk did not dampen our spirits a bit, but we could not find much nice to say
about the garden. It was interesting to
tour the plants through the ruins of a Danish plantation of the mid-1700s, but
the plants and trees just were not at their best. I guess we were totally spoiled by the
botanical garden in Deshais, Guadeloupe.
Still it was a nice walk.
 |
| Here is a picture of the only plant with any colour. |
 |
| Here is a picture of a seed, apparently of a palm from the Seychelle Islands - nowhere near here. |
The bus ride back to the boat was also easy and pleasant, as
was our effort to get food and drink back on board.
 |
| This policeman had a sense of humour and locked up a cruise ship passenger for a photo op! The guy said, "Hey, there aren't any handles in here and I can't get out! The policeman just smiled... |
Also in Frederiksted, we found this bird sitting on a solar
panel. He was looking at me rather judgmentally, which slowed down my instinct to shoo him off the panel. Although the look might be common to the
species, there is a chance he was hit by a blade of our windmill, and had
reason to be full of contempt. As it
was, he left a big dump on the solar panel for me.
 |
| A Brown Noddy landed on our solar panel and left us a bit of a mess to clean up!! |
We woke up Wednesday morning totally undecided as to whether
or not to sail north. The internet data
Dawn was calling up on her smartphone (Thanks Hugh and Liz) called for easy
winds, but from the wrong direction most of the day. Our morning chat with Denis of Tiger Lily II (our
weather guru) through the SSB channel suggested that Friday or Saturday would
be a better day, with winds directly from the east but with 5+ more knots of
wind.
We discussed it, and decided that tacking back and forth all
day would still be better than dealing with 20+ knots of wind, and hauled up
the hook. We set our objectives rather
low, hoping to make it to a safe harbour at the west end of St. Thomas before
dark. Our efforts were dismal, with
motorsailing and our heading being either half way to Culebra, or back to St.
Croix, until about 11:15, when we got some strong wind from the southeast;
totally unforecasted. I think we were in
a massive squall system that had set up.
The sun disappeared, and the wind was at times rather strong; but it
didn't rain and we were making excellent time towards Christmas Cove to the
east of St. Thomas. Indeed, we got in
and tied up to a mooring ball in flat water by 3:30, more than two hours before
dark. Although we were totally salty,
and the ride was very bumpy, we had made a great crossing with nothing broken.
Yesterday, after breakfast, we went in to Compass Point
Marina, in Benner Bay, to deliver our liferaft for inspection to Caribbean Inflatable. Actually, we followed the directions provided
by the Marina for an anchorage just outside the channel entrance. The dinghy ride was easy, the contact was
made, and we also got to a Budget Marine chandlery and a grocery store across
the street. With our boat laden with
beer, wine, and other necessities, we were dinghying back to our boat when a
very excited man with 2 dogs on an old houseboat waved us over. He insisted our anchorage spot could net us a
$1000 fine, and suggested we hightail it out of there. We'll have to do some homework before we
return next week for the raft.
I was able to spend the rest of the day on little chores;
one of which was to dismantle an antenna system I had installed for ham radio
"stingers" so I could install a new antenna for the "AIS
system". The stinger system is a
set of antennas made up of coiled wires that could send and receive on
particular wave bands. Each antenna also
had a sliding piece that went up or down to pick up a specific frequency, and
was locked in place with an allen screw.
I remember having to get out to the corner of the boat in the rocking
north Atlantic to change antennas and adjust the tips so I could talk to Herb
Hilgenberg and then communicate with John or the Mississauga Net. It was very scary, and very wet. These days, I only communicate with Denis, on
his special net. Ham radio is slipping
away in regards to usefulness to us. It
is primarily just a way that two old fellows can make contact across a thousand
miles and ask: "Did you get my
email?"
 |
| We also attempted a calibration of our wind instruments on our new Raymarine i70. Here is a picture of the calibration under way on the repeater inside. |
Finally, Dawn and I have taken our first dip in the ocean that
was just for fun. Here is a beautiful
French Angel Fish from Christmas Cove.
 |
| Dawn took this French Angel photo yesterday just before sunset close to the back of the boat! |
This morning, we woke up before 7 and decided to take
advantage of the calm of the day to motor 5 miles upwind. We are now settled into Francis Bay, St.
John, with Silk Pajamas and Aviva. I have
finished replacing the hinges on the toilet, and Kristin just dropped by to ask
if we were interested in a hike for later today. We said yes.
