The USVI

As it is the first time we have visited the USVI, and as promised in the last weblog, here is a little about them. They are just across the Sir Francis Drake Channel from the BVIs, where we have spent a tremendous amount of time in the past.

They are made of three islands: St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. St. John is 19 square miles and is about 60 % parkland, and has 4300 residents. St. Thomas is 32 square miles with 52 000 people, and St. Croix is 84 square miles and has 54 000 residents.

Columbus came through here in 1493, and named all the islands, but not much went on until the Danes claimed the islands and started colonizing in 1650 or so. Apparently, by that time, the indigenous population of Carib or Taino indians were simply missing; likely killed off or captured for slavery elsewhere. The Danes took part in the slave trade to build the Danish West Indies into a thriving sugar cane and trading spot. The ruins we have looked over suggest that every plantation also made rum from the industrial waste (molasses, skimmings, and dregs) of the sugar industry. As international pressure mounted, the Danes abolished the trade in slaves in 1808, and abolished slavery in 1848, after over 200 years of it. They had their share of uprisings, as did all the islands as a result of the slaves typically outnumbering the whites by 10-15 to 1 on the islands. The Danes had a significantly vicious reputation as slave owners, but let's remember that their ancestry includes the famous Vikings, who were the fear of the European coast and often incorporated slaves in their galley ships.

When you read between the lines, however, it becomes more apparent that the true cause of the end of slavery in the Caribbean and possibly elsewhere was not moral responsibility, acts of an unhappy deity, or increasing public pressure. It was the development of the sugar beet industry which replaced the sugar cane industry. Near the end of the plantation era down here, rum's importance to the profits became larger. Unlike other islands, there seems little evidence of the industry attempting to grow other or varied crops, nor to import indentured servants. Indeed, it is apparent now, as one enters a store - no one is of East Indian descent, and not a bit of the rather expensive food is grown locally.

While hiking around St. John last week, we noticed that the hills are covered with very dry growth, and the soil looks terrible, with rocks sticking up everywhere. All drainage gulleys and streams are totally dry and quite rocky. There are interpretive plaques in some locations. These tend to suggest that the island was quite green and had a great topsoil when the Europeans arrived, but that the removal of all the forest on even the steepest slopes and the use of all surfaces for sugar cane and the servicing roads resulted in an easily eroded and ruined land. Virtually all of St. John was covered with sugar cane as early as 1733. Of course, some of the dryness in the region has to be attributed to the climate changes over the last couple hundred years. The picture of the falls and the petroglyphs from last blog would have certainly been nicer if it was taken hundreds of years ago when the stream never dried up. We understand that the other two islands presently have similar topography.

The US bought the Danish West Indies in 1917, when the Danes were happy to have the money and the US were nervous about German expansion. In 1927, all citizens became US citizens. Interestingly, it was quite soon after this, and right after the end of prohibition that the US government backed an attempt at a major rum factory in the islands to counter the poverty at the time, and that is the source of Cruzan Rum. I can say it is one of the better rums down here, but not the best. Still, the Cruzan line of rums has many flavours, and we're not finished tasting.

Finishing with St. John, one of the Rockefellers fell in love with the place in the 1950's and in 1956 bought a significant chunk to donate to the national parks. The St. John park has grown through purchases and donations since and continues to grow. The National Park Services has hiking trails, snorkeling trails, the maintenance of some of the ruins, interpretive guiding and lectures, and incorporates volunteers in a big way. We're going back tomorrow or the next day for another attack on it. We're also intending to revisit Coral Bay, which we found rather delightful, with older boats and free-spirited older individuals enjoying their time and taking up residence.

St. Thomas is one big tourist town. Indeed, we counted six giant cruise ships there in one day. Walking the streets when you are not looking for t-shirts or jewelry brings you up against hucksters and pushers who try to drag you into the stores. The cattlemarans, day charter powerboats, rental boats, etc., make the local harbours quite busy. We have investigated the hotels, and found them to be rather pricey for the most part.

St. Croix is a distant dark spot to the south, about 30 miles away, and we have not been there.

Today, we are in Christmas Cov,e watching over 100 boats in the Annual St. Thomas Regatta!

Vacation in St. John, USVI

 

We're actually sitting on the west side of a little island called Water Island, which is actually inside St. Thomas Harbour, or the port of Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas.  Two large cruise ships, the Royal Princess and the Carnival Glory, are going by at sunset.   Royal Princess played "Love Boat" with their horns, while Carnival Glory is broadcasting a pretty acoustic guitar with a live singer that sounds familiar but we can't place.

We've seen Walter Piescik and Dana Dornebush into a cab at the airport after a very fun week's visit, and shopped for more provisions with Kristin of Silk Pajamas, and have had a lunch, and that's enough for a day.  Walter and Dana are from Boston.  We met them here in the islands on their own boat "Madness".  Madness is on the hard in Boston waiting for snow to melt!

However, we see from the calendar that we have been naughty with weblogs, and, since we have a signal, here she comes.

We arrived in St. John, USVI, on the 13th, after a rather boring 15 hours of mostly motorsailing across the Anegada Passage.  We snuck a few hours of sleep behind an island of the BVIs before drifting across to check in before lunch in Cruz Bay, on the far west side of St. John.  We found a very tight place to anchor in the bay, in an area where you are allowed only 3 hours, and cleared customs and happily found a grocery store to provision.  After that, we just cooled our heels in nearby bays until it was time to pick up Dana and Walter on Wednesday, the 18th.  During this time, we were able to spend evenings with Joanna and Bill of s/v Baidarka, and Kristin and Terry of Silk Pajamas, so it wasn't total isolation and "cooling our heels" then, was it?

Still, picking up our two guests was the start of an action-packed week that had us in quite a few bays, snorkel adventures, hikes, and a few lovely eateries as well.  We had a wonderful time and got truly caught up.  It had been a few years since we had seen them.  

At this point, we intend to continue exploring St. John, and will start with an easy sail back to that lovely nature park island tomorrow.  We intend to tell you a little of the history and the geography of the area in a future blog.  St. John is like no other island we've been to.  It's almost all nature park with mooring balls to protect the seabed. 

We finally got rid of our wheat moth problem and haven't seen any signs for 12 days now.  Let's hope that never happens again!

hiking in St. John USVI

Walter and Dana and Laurie

Playing on the beach

 

Cute creatures people have made out of coral

Laurie posing

This barracuda (4 foot long) hung around under and around our boat for a full day!  We nicknamed him Barry and enticed others to swim to our boat to take a peek.

Walter was brave enough to swim with him to get close ups. 

Petroglyphs on a trail in Reef Bay dating back to around 500 AD with the Taino Indians

Can you see the resemblance?

2 stunning spotted eagle rays that kept our attention for more than a half hour!

Heading for the Virgins

We are back in Anse Marcel at noon on Tuesday, where we almost went nuts with the jet skis; but they are quiet so far, and we have run in and cleared customs and immigration using the dockmaster's computer. This place is certainly beautiful enough when the little buggers are not present.

We have spent all of our intervening time in the northeast part of the island - indeed the last full day enjoying Orient Beach. We got out for a lovely Creole lunch at Chez Leandre on the beach, and got to walk the complete crescent of the long beach. The sail over there was fantastic, with us putting the main up all the way for the first time this season, and cruising closep-hauled in 12 knots of wind, making 6-7 knots in a kind sea. Sometimes we forget what Cat Tales can do for us when the conditions are reasonable.

We've continued to battle wheat moths, removing material, cleaning, and trying to catch each little bugger. We've caught a few of the "caterpillars" and many of the moths; and the new hatchlings are dying down - last one was over 30 hours ago, so we're hopeful that we have stopped the cycle. Dawn has reorganized all the foodstuffs, and there are new rules and procedures to be followed in the future. Nothing is safe in any plastic bag. Heavy plastic containers will replace all retail containers, and volumes of all materials will be reduced.

The trip to St John, USVI, is about 95 miles to the closest anchorage, so it looks like we might start moving out of St. Martin at midnight. Chances are, if we are sleeping well, we'll say heck with it and leave at 2 a.m. The weather should be good with 10-15 knots from the north-east, and the seas are down from days of low wind; so we should have a lovely time, with both of us catching some sleep before the sun makes that impossible. We will likely survive if we have to anchor in the dark, but we'll avoid that if practical.

Grand Case, St. Martin

 

With seldom any, and often poor internet service, we have been rather sketchy with our weblogs.  Apologies to anyone who still looks to them for entertainment or information.

Today, March 8th, 2014, finds us in Grand Case, on the French side of St. Martin.   Just now, two massively tall ships, a schooner and a 3-master, under Dutch flag, are pulling out.  It makes one want to read another Patrick O'Brien book.

We left St Eustatius on Monday, February 24th, just after 9 a.m., after signing into the Mississauga Maritime Net.  We took a long, swinging arc to get around the petroleum depot, and headed upwind.  The waves were rather large, but on a good angle to the bow, and we could make our appropriate direction with a comfortable tack upwind, with very little luffing with two reefs in the main and 3/4 jib in the 20 knots apparent wind.  The views were lovely, with Nevis, St. Eustatius, and Saba like great pyramidical towers all around us, and the motion of Cat Tales was not objectionable.  We had dismissed Saba once again, being rather tired of the rough anchorages of Basseterre and Oranje Baii; and rather again in awe at the difficulties of their approaches as described in the guide.

We came up to Ile Fourchue near St. Barts around 1:30 in the afternoon, and turned down 30 degrees for a lovely sail to the north end of St. Martin, passing under little Tintamarre, a favourite anchorage of the past; and put the anchor down off Anse Marcel by 4 p.m.  We enjoyed a lovely evening in the sheltered bay, and cleared into the country using the computer in the Port Captain's office.

We were disappointed that the advertised washing machine was not working, and were disappointed still when the nearby resort filled the bay with jet skis.  There is something obviously diabolical about these devices - whosoever gets on them thinks: 1.  They are doing something impressive;  2.  Everybody around them is as impressed as they are, and happy to be involved;  3.  Nobody minds the noise, the waves, even the spray that comes aboard as they pass as close as 10 feet going outrageous speeds; 4.  All swimmers can happily fend for themselves; and 5.  There is not a chance that they will lose control and sink you.  Indeed, these things either suck the brains out of the riders, or appeal to riders who arrive with their brains already missing.  We were reduced to quivering wrecks very quickly, lifted anchor and moved to the next bay: Grand Case.  And guess what?  It was Tuesday, the night of their weekly street party.

We went ashore, had a nice meal, and walked among the stalls and street entertainment.   We have been here every night since, leaving only to anchor elsewhere for day chores and a picnic.  We have been joined by Silk Pajamas, who were quite ecstatic to be here for the next Tuesday night when the street party was combined with the Mardi Gras celebrations - including one of their street bands and amazingly decorated dancers.  One girl had a torso that could wiggle and spin in a most hypnotizing manner - the whole experience is etched on my mind, replaying regularly!

Street party in Grand Case, St. Martin

Silk Pajamas left their boat anchored and came aboard Cat Tales for a trip to Tintamarre, where we enjoyed a different beach, lovely sights of other "boat people" enjoying the day, and the last of my calalloo soup.

Our chores have included anchoring off the French channel to the inner lagoon and dinghying across the 4+ miles to the chandleries and back.   We don't want to bore you with the regular maintenance of the boat, but failures have included two inverters, a shower hose, an outboard fuel hose, an outboard fuel tank, and miscellaneous small bits.  It actually has been a good season, but for the $1200 dollars worth of sail and sailbag repairs, and $400 worth of chain.

Heineken Regatta

 An interesting treat, here in Grand Case, is a view of some of the major races of the rather famous Heineken Regatta.  We have seen, in one direction, more sails than ever we have before, and some amazingly large yachts.  Those, who like me, are impressed by quality catamarans, would have enjoyed the main race being led by four great Gunboats as they raced to the east side of the island between Grand Case and Anguilla.  Lots to see.

We are being plagued by wheat moths, and Dawn has declared war.  Our cockpit is now filled with various food stuffs, as they and the storage areas go through cleaning and minute inspection for moths, worms, and cocoons.  It seems to have begun with a box of whole wheat noodles that were stored in their box inside a heavy sealable bag.  She found the bag with the guilty detritus in it, and after the food went over the side she attempted to rinse the bag before disposing of it in the garbage.  It leaked from a half dozen areas, where the worms had eaten their way out.  She has been watching and has killed somewhere around 4 moths a day coming out of the original area.  This is the second cleaning of the goods there.

We are now casting our eye for a weather window to the Virgin Islands.  The winds are expected to be light until late next week, so we are focusing on Friday, to avoid 20 or so hours of slatting sails in annoying waves as we drift down-breeze.