Our position is 18:18.945N 64:43.328W

We had a very uneventful sail the 9Nm to Cruz Bay, St John, where we anchored in a temporary spot in order to go ashore and test out the validity of our American visas. The very efficient checks included taking our fingerprints. I was unsure whether this was to compare with the ones taken in London when we got our visas or in order to compare with traces from any future criminal activity. In any case we were deemed eligible to roam freely on American soil and left the office with only a stamp in the passport and a small white card to prove it. This was a bit of a comedown from the reams of paper issued by most of the Caribbean islands but the important thing was that we were on the computer!

St John is a very unspoiled island thanks in no small part to the fact that it is almost all a National Park, both land and marine. The effect of this is that there is restricted anchoring in a lot of places and where moorings have been laid they are often day time only use. While we were ashore we visited the National Park offices to get some advice on good places to go but the girl behind the counter was unable to tell us anything – in fact I think she was only there to take the money for the gift objects they were selling. As we were only allowed to stay for 3 hours in our temporary spot we returned to the boat and on the way asked a Dane on an adjoining boat whether he had any recommendations. As it appeared he was going to anchor off an island near St Thomas he was unable to tell us anything we didn’t know already. The harbour at St Cruz is an anchorage but it was absolutely full, mainly of boats on moorings so we decided to sail round the island and explore all the bays for a likely spot. It took us a couple of hours before we arrived at Great Lameshure Bay, nearly at the South East corner of the island, where there was a plethora of empty moorings. All the bays prior to that along the South coast had been full to bursting or else anchoring was forbidden and there were no moorings laid. Great Lameshure was delightfully empty of boats on the water and anything on shore apart from a small jetty and hut used by the park rangers and we were glad to find somewhere to rest. The mooring fees operate on a trust basis – ashore there is a box with empty envelopes and you put your money in the envelope having written your details on it and leave it in the box. Sooner or later I presume someone comes along and empties it. We went ashore to do this around 4.30 and stopped to exchange a few words with an American whose boat was on the buoy next to ours. It transpires he volunteered with the National Park (which probably entitled him to free mooring) and he was off for a hike. It seemed an odd time of day to set off, particularly as we were being bitten to death by small flies, and just after we got back to the boat it poured with rain. He did vouchsafe the information that we could walk to the next bay (about a mile and a half) and catch a bus into town and the busses ran hourly.

As this would give us an opportunity to see something of the island as well as the main town we set off the next day to walk to Salt Pond Bay. It was a rather hillier and steeper walk than I would have chosen but after seeking advice from some guys emptying a dumpster (see I speak American now!) we easily located the bus stop. There was one person seated in it and he divulged that a bus would come when it came so we settled down to wait. Initially he remained silent but after about forty minutes he started telling us a very convoluted tale about some women who appeared to have done him wrong. This started after he had a cigarette so I suspect it wasn’t normal tobacco. Someone else who had turned up to wait for the bus sensibly kept his distance under a tree. When the bus eventually arrived we all got on except our smoking friend who wandered off in the opposite direction so presumably he’d forgotten why he was there in the first place or else he was just barking mad. The bus proved one of the better value things we did as any journey just cost $1 and our trip lasted 50 minutes and went virtually everywhere on the island. The only downside was trying to take photographs from the bus window as we drove along (I couldn’t really ask her to pull over at the scenic places!) Once back in Cruz Bay we explored the town, ate a nice lunch, bought milk and experienced the Post Office to buy stamps for postcards. This involved a lot of queuing. The queue was periodically disrupted by people who were there to collect parcels being called forward out of turn. In spite of this several disgruntled parcel collectors, who thought they should have their own queue started complaining about cuts and what was the world coming to. If I’d been the single harassed counter assistant I’d have dropped their parcels on their heads, particularly as they apparently felt the only way to get cheap goods was to send away for them rather than buy things on the island. It was hard to see what sustained the economy of St John apart from tourism and Americans with winter homes and there were many ferries running between St Thomas and St John bringing visitors. Still it was time to catch our bus back if we didn’t want to do the walk back in the dark. (The busses only ran every 2 hours not hourly as our friend had indicated) When we got back to Salt Pond Bay we walked down to the beach to see if it was a nicer bay than the one we were in. There were certainly more boats there but there was an empty mooring and the beach was sandier but also much visited by land based visitors so we decided we were happy and very peaceful where we were.

First view s of St John                                                            Temporary anchoarge at St Cruz for clearing

The National Parks offices                                                  The crowded anchorage at St Cruz (St Thomas in the background)

One of the crowded bays on the south coast with no room fpr us    They certainly have faith in their foundations!

   Great Lameshure Bay

Walking to the bus stop                                                   Will the bus ever come??

Views from a moving bus.

The square at St Cruz

Typical roadside shack in St Cruz                                          The Lumber Store is now a shopping mall

Salt Pond Bay                                                                 These wandered across our path on our return walk. No mention of them in any of the books!

  Must have a susnset picture every so often!