A Few Near misses

As mentioned in our last post we set out to cross the Anegada Passage last Monday but found the conditions too rough and headed back to Virgin Gorda.  We were quite disappointed to finally realize we would miss our rondezvous in St. Lucia with our friends Joe and Cheryl.  We had made theses plans some time ago and they threw out a few options.  St. Lucia was our choice and at the time it seemed to be a very reasonable one, but sometimes the universe has it’s own plan and overruled ours.  In the cruising world it is often said “you can tell us where to meet you or you can tell us when but you can’t tell us both”.  Thought we were covered… Hope Joe and Cheryl are having a great time in St. Lucia this week!

En route back to Virgin Gorda we then began to think we could connect with my brother Bill and his wife Julia who were visiting St. Thomas at the time.  They had made plans knowing it was unlikely we would still be in the Virgin Islands due to our commitment in St. Lucia.  Realizing they were still there we continued on toward the US Virgins but didn’t arrive in time to clear in so we picked up a ball in St. John so we could clear in at Cruz Bay in the morning and then hopefully catch up with them the next day.  That night we did connect by phone and found they were flying out the next afternoon. Yet another close encounter…

On a more positive note, we were able to change Sarah and Kristi’s tickets to travel to St. Thomas rather than St. Lucia and ended up with a small refund.  They arrive tomorrow afternoon and we look forward to a good visit and then possibly move on to St. Martin in time for Carnival late February.

We have been in Francis Bay, St. John since Monday and have passed the time hiking, swimming, snorkeling and liming (the island term for vegging).

Sarah’s good friend Danielle DeGain lives in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. We had been trying to connect since last December.   Between her schedule and ours it was difficult, but she managed to pick us up from the airport when we recently came back from Detroit.  It was a great help to us and so good to spend some time with her.  She teaches math at the University of The Virgin Islands and has lived here for a bit so is quite familiar with things (or tings, as they say in the islands).  She is picking Sarah and Kristi up from the airport tomorrow and getting them to Red Hook where we will be with the boat.  Hopefully she will spend some time sailing with us too.

Here are some pictures we took this week:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.