Watermelon Bay, St Johns, USVI.

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sun 9 Mar 2014 22:13

18:21.8N 64:43.3W

 

Saturday 8th March

 

Complicated start to the day when before heading off to Watermelon Bay, we tuned into the Magellan Net which is a long range daily SSB radio net that we ‘belong’ to and check in to say where we are and find out where our various friends are at the same time. We heard ‘Bodyguard’ announce that he was just leaving the same bay as we were in and sure enough there he was motoring past us.  We have never met them, but have listened and spoken to them over the SSB radio ever since we first heard them when we were in Maine, USA and they were up in Canada. We waited until the net had finished before setting off ourselves only to get a call on the VHF radio from a boat called Miss Molly.  They are also involved at times with the Magellan Net and had just spoken to Bodyguard on the VHF radio who had mentioned that we were in the bay.  We had last seen Miss Molly in Marmaris, Turkey back in 2010 and so it was nice to have a quick chat before they sailed past us, barely 30 yards away, heading in the opposite direction!  By now Bodyguard were on the VHF hailing us and suggesting that we try to meet up when we get back to the BVI’s next week.  Quite a flurry of conversations and a real blast from the past.  The sailing world is so much smaller than you might think.

 

We pottered slowly round to Watermelon Bay under just a scrap of sail even though the wind was very light, purely because we wanted to take our time as we were using the water-maker to refill our tanks and it takes a while even when making over 60 litres an hour.

 

There were a number of available mooring buoys when we arrived (anchoring is not permitted) and we made our way almost to the head of the bay where the water was dead flat and crystal clear.

 

In the afternoon we went on a snorkelling expedition to the adjacent protected area and had been a bit concerned that it was very below par, before reaching the back of the small island and discovering that things improved dramatically on the windward side. Nothing like as interesting or dramatic as Buck Island or even the bays on the south side of St Johns, but still adsorbing, interesting and fun.  They are making huge efforts to protect all of their coral and this is clearly beginning to pay off.

 

It was a cloudy day which is very unusual and the evening became very warm and stuffy with an equally unusual absence of any breeze.