Good news - brown trousers

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Wed 23 Apr 2014 02:51

Tues 22nd April

 

Once again Crown Bay, St Thomas lived up to the reputation we have conferred upon it as being one of the friendliest and most helpful places we have ever been to.

 

We found a spot in the anchorage which is never easy here as it is really just a mooring field full of buoys, but the huge looming presence of ‘Oasis of the Seas’ the world’s largest Cruise Ship did remind us of the need to give the cruise ships room to swing round when they turn here to leave the fairly narrow channel. Actually it turns out that she is no longer the longest in the world as her sister ship has now taken that record by a mighty 50mm.  (Although this might be because they measured the new one on a hotter day.)

 

We then went ashore and walked down to customs (25 mins) and found them shut for lunch, but when they reopened we were seen by the most helpful Customs officer we have ever met anywhere along our 25,000  mile adventure which has taken in some 44 countries.  In second place out of interest is the Customs officer who we saw at this same office just over a week ago!  She dealt with our paperwork and helped us complete it all correctly and patiently helped us along and answered our various questions – some of which related to the forthcoming carnival! But the real excitement came whilst she was trying to help us prepare the right paperwork for our long planned sail over to the Spanish Virgins.  It transpires that our American Cruising License (obtained in Baltimore, Maryland last May) which does not expire until the end of May 2014 gives Serafina the status of an American yacht. So when we sail to Culebra we only need to phone the authorities and give them the license number and that should be all.  The same should be true for when we then return to the USVI.  Wonderful news indeed.

 

In the afternoon Sarah visited the excellent laundrette here whilst I set off on the longish walk to the propane filling depot out of town.  We returned to Serafina in time to witness the Oasis of the Seas leaving which we have to admit was more than a little nerve wracking for us.

 

The wind had changed direction since we anchored and unusually was blowing from the south which pushed us to swing out into the fairway and the other two yachts who had been moored outside of us (in effect very nice buffers for us) had upped anchors and disappeared. The Oasis had to back out of its berth before powering its bow round and heading off out to sea. This then meant that she was backing directly towards Serafina and ourselves who were sat there helpless!  Oasis is 365 metres long and weighs 100,000 tons (we weight 16 tons..) and her 16 passenger decks towered over us as she inched closer and closer. We started our engine but held our nerve and she paused finally before turning with her bow and stern thrusters and then slowly moved away on her way out to the open sea. We took plenty of photos none of which do any justice to the proximity of this colossus,  nor did we capture the idiot in a rubber dinghy who felt it appropriate to cross under the stern of this massive ship and then stop just behind her as she was manoeuvring – it could only have been a dare?

 

But the real opportunity for the photo of the day came and went as usual with no camera to hand.  It was as we approached the anchorage we saw a seaplane making to fly past and presumably land in the main harbour, but at the last minute it banked round and touched down right beside us, almost as if it had not seen us at all!  We will shortly be posting a few photos of the seaplanes including one from Virgin Gorda where a seaplane taking off appears to be about to take out an innocent windsurfer.