January in the US Virgin Islands

After enjoying a wonderful new year celebration aboard Magus in Culebra Puerto Rico we headed east to St. Thomas US Virgin Islands on New Year’s Day. Fortunately it’s a short journey since it turned out to be one of those days…

First off we had been up after midnight, a rare occurrence in our lives. Of course we had a cocktail or two the night before to toast in the new year. Our easterly course heading meant straight up wind and the wind and seas were pretty sporty that day.

Half way into the journey mechanical troubles began, first one engine started acting up then the other. We powered both engines off for a bit and bounced around pretty good in heavy seas.  Jeff was on his knees with his head down in one engine compartment then the other – pretty sure he was ready to “swallow the anchor” and move back to land at this point.

Jeff is a very handy guy and did get an understanding of what was happening with the engines before too long.  We were able to restart them and were safely anchored in Charlotte Amalie well before sunset.

He usually likes to have a project or two in the works to keep himself occupied but at this point Jeff was a bit overwhelmed.  Since our arrival in the tropics a week prior, our freezer had been having trouble.  It ran constantly while trying to keeping up, as a result we needed to run the generator often. Then the generator started giving us trouble with the added load.  During the New Year day journey he had also tried unsuccessfully to dump the holding tanks.  His list of projects was quickly growing.  On the plus side, he was gaining intimate knowledgeable of all major systems on board along with several less important ones.

That day Jeff was clearly overwhelmed but I am happy to report that we now have a great system for the freezer which is drawing significantly less power and holds the temperature at about 12 degrees; Jeff replaced some parts on the generator and it has been running great for several weeks; after consulting other Antares owners the holding tank issue seems to be resolved and both engines have been doing well since New Years day.

 

We spent about two weeks anchored in Charlotte Amalie where we had access to the resources we needed for Jeff’s projects.  No matter what the age of your boat and it’s onboard systems it is very important to be able to diagnose and correct problems.  Glad that Jeff is good at these things; he has been knocking projects off the list and things aboard Echo are great these days!

 

 

The past month has involved a lot of work but we did take time to enjoy life too. While in Charlotte Amalie we reconnected with our friend Herman from White Wing along with “Texas Larry” who we last saw in Luperon DR.  Through Herman we met Robin and Rick of Endangered Species, they are spending some time in the Caribbean after circumnavigating. They are fun people and have some great stories from their travels.

Jacaso was also nearby.  We met Jack and John in the DR too and last connected in St. Martin last spring.  They were in the process of selling their boat with plans to buy a motor home and travel the U.S.

We explored at bit of history in Charlotte Amalie – “99 steps” and Blackbeard’s castle.

 

 

 

We connected with our daughter’s friend, Danielle. She took us on little tour one day to see some areas of St. Thomas we had not yet been to.

 

 

 

We also took the opportunity to do some big shopping to restock the freezer now that it’s running so well. We had been using public transportation for the past few weeks. Safaris are open air busses that charge either $1 or $2 per person per trip. They are well used by locals and often full. People are very nice but you do often encounter interesting characters who can be quite entertaining. The day of travel with Danielle by car was a welcome treat!

Danielle’s parents, Doug and Vivian, were were visiting from Michigan for a week and  a day with us aboard Echo. We Picked them up in St. Thomas, had a beautiful sail, snorkeled in Christmas Cove on Great St. James and enjoyed a great dinner in Cruz Bay St. John before they headed back to St. Thomas on the ferry.

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Other friends were spending a week in St. John from Michigan and visited us for an overnight stay.  We picked up Laura, Bernard, Donna and Paul in Cruz Bay one morning then headed over to Jost Van Dyke and cleared in to British Virgin Islands. We stopped in at Foxies where we first introduced the group to Pain Killers then moved over to White Bay for some swimming and yet another Pain Killer. We anchored near Diamond Cay for the night, had a great dinner at Foxies Taboo.  We visited the bubbling pool the next morning then had a nice leisurely sail back to Cruz Bay.  We really enjoyed their company and think they enjoyed their stay aboard Echo. We know Laura from high school and were happy to have made the connection here in USVI.

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A few other highlights of our month include my unique pedicure at the Caribbean Fish Spa. I was intrigued with this as soon as I saw the place but it took me a few days to convince my self to give it a try.  It involves a tank of small fish sucking the skin on your feet leaving them nice and smooth.  It was pretty cool and I plan to visit again soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Christmas Cove we found an outstanding new business.  There’s now a boat in the anchorage that makes and sells gourmet pizza called Pizza PI.  This is a great Pizza and we took the opportunity to invite Chris, Yanni, Rick, and Robin over for pizza and drinks.

 

 

We have very recently connected with Jason and Gail of Two Fish.    We met them last fall at an Antares Owners get together in Annapolis.  Although we have not seen them since, Echo and Two Fish leap frogged their way down the coast and made the long passage from Florida to the Virgins.  We started with Pain Killers at Foxy’s and ended up with a wonderful dinner at Harris’ in Little Harbour.  Great to catch up again!

 

We and Echo are all ready for a few groups of visitors starting next week.  It’s our plan to hang in the Virgin Islands until mid March since it’s such a great place to entertain company.

Late March we intend to continue south visiting islands we missed last year.  The current plan is to be south of the hurricane zone by the start of the next season.

To all of you in Michigan, we are very sorry to hear about your weather.  We are also very happy not to be there!

 

Sending warm thoughts your way!

~ Jeff and Mary ~