- U.S. Virgin Islands

Shelduck
Neil Hegarty
Wed 19 Feb 2014 17:24

U.S. Virgin Islands


19th February  Culebra, Puerto Rico.  18:18.385 N  65:17.977 W  Distance sailed 36 miles.

 

We departed Road Harbour in the BVI for the short passage to Cruz Bay, St John, USVI on Monday the 10th of February to check in there. When we arrived in the bay I could not see anywhere available to anchor so I went up a short channel to where the chart had a yacht symbol and found the customs there and were invited to tie up alongside and were quickly checked in. Thank goodness we had the 10 year B1, U.S. visa allowing us to stay for 6 months after each entry. This time we can stay until the 9th of August.

Two thirds of St. John is under the auspices of the National Park Service which has provided moorings in most of the anchorages to help preserve the under water reefs and sea beds from the damage of anchors. The Park has stringent guidelines that have helped to keep the island from the abuse of overuse. We noticed that most of the yachts moored in St. John were privately owned as compared with the BVI where they are nearly all chartered catamarans. 90% or yachts chartered in the BVI are sailing cats. To reduce costs the latest are motor only cats. The BVI is so full of charter boats that there are often races, sometimes among swimmers, for the last mooring. St. John is much more civilised. In the BVI we noticed that the largest number of charterers were Anerican with Canadians second and surprisingly in third place the French. In the USVI most yachts are private American or Canadian.

After the check in we sailed to the nearest recommended anchorage in Caneel Bay and picked up an available mooring at the far edge of the bay. We were soon visited by two Park volunteers in a rib who explained the mooring system. You can stay for up to seven nights and only pay for the hours of 17.00 to 07.00 at a cost of 15 dollars per night. 30 dollars in the BVI, Good value and very good value. They gave us the special envelopes to pay in a secure box on a small floating pontoon. There are four bay's to anchor in Caneel Bay, Hawksnest Bay, Trunk Bay and Francis Bay. Next day we moved early to be near the beach in Caneel Bay ant stayed put for six nights in all. Reading and swimming, watching turtles and people. When turtles lift up their heads in the water to look at you their faces and head look like those of a snake. 10% of the moorings are blue rather than white and these are for chartered/commercial yachts. We enjoyed watching the new arrivals each day, often the same boats, who usually stayed for less than two hours. On Thursday the 13th we somehow got the mooring rope between the keel and the saildrive and were given immediate by a Sunsail Skipper on OHM Sweet OHM moored nearby.

Sunday the 16th, Anne's wedding anniversary, I booked into Crown Bay Marina where we could check out of the USVI in nearby Charlotte Amalie. Our first night there was somewhat sleepless because there was a container ship being unloaded next door. All the containers had CROWLEY written in large letters on them. The ship left at 04.00 and it was peaceful for the rest of our stay. Crown Bay is also a base for cruise liners, taking two at a time, probably because it is near the airport.  Monday the 17th we took a Safari to the far side of the island to buy a small laptop with windows 7 on it. Having searched a couple of places we found one and the owner and his staff spent hours trying to transfer information from my existing laptop. Only partly successful, no emails transfered. Tuesday 18th back again to the computer shop to try to get things sorted. Emails did not transfer so I have to give up the use of the Satellite phone for the blog and use the internet when available and help from son Tom. I will miss the sattelite phone. My 7 year old laptop needs a new keyboard and probably got water damage on Shelduck over the years.

Wednesday 19th took another Safari to the Seaplane Base to check out. A lovely woman there helped us with the paperwork. In fact some of the nicest people we have met on this cruise, so far, have been in the USVI. The Safari taxi can carry 25 people, is open sided with benches and any lenght of journey costs 2 dollars per person. They travel very fast, come very often and will stop almost anywhere on the route, by request. An excellent service. 

 

 

 

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