Crown Bay, St. Thomas

Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sat 24 Nov 2007 14:28
18:20.017N  64:57.118W
 
On Thursday (Thanksgiving), we motored the very short distance to a marina in Crown Bay, which is about two miles west of the town of Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas.  Bill ran off to the airport to get his flight home arranged for Friday while Don and I restored the boat to order, starting with a major wash down to get rid of the crust of salt that had piled up on every possible surface.  The ocean really is quite salty.  Imagine that.  Later, after a 'real' shower, we made the long trek into town for a Thanksgiving dinner of what else?  Fish.  We are in the Caribbean after all. 
 
A summary of our voyage follows.  Also, given that our voyage was very similar to the Caribbean 1500 rally that had started the week before, we decided that our trip could be considered a rally of one.  Why not?  If the US government can have an 'Army of One', why couldn't we have a 'Rally of One'?  Of course, all rallies come complete with prizes for various above and beyond type accomplishments, so we have compiled a list of above and beyond accomplishments and associated titles.
 
Voyage summary:
Norfolk, VA to Water Island, St. Thomas:  9 days and 4 hours.  Don would like me to point out that this came extremely close to his original estimate of 9 days and 10 hours.
Time spent motoring:  31 hours
Time spent sailing:  189 hours
Distance traveled:  Approximately 1,400 miles (Don plans to calculate a more accurate estimate in the near future so we can brag about our average speed.)
Number of days without seeing anything but sea, sky and each other:  7
Number of fist fights among the crew:  0
Number of times mutiny was threatened by the crew against Captain Don:  0
Largest ocean depth encountered:  the Puerto Rican Trench - the ocean is over 3 miles deep in this area
Furthest distance from the closest land:  approximately 400 miles (after turning due south we were quite a ways from Bermuda, the Bahamas, St. Thomas and the US coast)
Number of wildlife species seen:  3 - Bill saw a few birds and some flying fish, plus the boys caught two yellow fin tunas.  No whales or dolphins this time.
Highest winds encountered:  40 knots - the night of the flying pears.
Lowest winds encountered:  3.6 knots - for less than an hour during the third day.  In general the winds were extremely steady and averaged between 15 and 20 knots
Lowest temperature:  64F - the first night out
Highest temperature:  86F - when we arrived in St. Thomas
Number of degrees of latitude traveled:  18 (from 36 degrees in Norfolk to 18 in St. Thomas).  This equates to about 1,100 miles traveled due south.
Number of seasickness episodes:  Anne: 3, Bill: 1, Don: 0
Number of times a full night of sleep was achieved:  Anne: 0, Bill: 0, Don: 0
Number of daytime naps:  Anne: 15, Bill: 9, Don: 9
That about sums it up.
 
Now, the prizes for above and beyond accomplishments:
Most Outstanding Captain, Navigator, Helmsman, Weather Man, Fisherman and Overall Rock of Gibraltar:  That would be Don.
 
Most talented crew member:  Bill.  His many talents include, but are not limited to:
    Illumination Specialist:  no one could hold a flashlight better than Bill when the sails needed to be reefed or when Don was grilling tuna in much less than perfect grilling conditions
    Official Voyage Photographer:  All the good pictures are those that Bill took.  The others are mine.
    Music Coordinator:  All good music came from Bill's Ipod and Bill's harmonica.  Special recognition goes out to Bill for the particularly calming music (mostly Kathie's favorites) Bill played for Anne during the night of the flying pears and throughout various seasickness episodes.
    Most Diligent Watch Officer:  Bill was the only crew member that was never late for his watch (Anne was the other crew member). 
    Most Appreciative Eater:  It didn't matter what was fed to Bill - rock hard, rubber-like broccoli, apple crisp with the skin still on the apples (oops), lukewarm chicken soup, mushy lasagna, stale crackers, mutant-like, half-cooked brownies, etc.  He always said, 'Oh!  This is delicious!  This is excellent!'.  We are waiting to hear the weight loss report from Bill after he gets home.
    Most Talented Fishmonger: Whether he wanted to or not, Bill got stuck with the job of gutting and cutting up the fish while Don sat to one side and instructed.
    Sunniest Attitude:  A more pleasant guest to have aboard in tight quarters for 10 days would be tough to find.
    Most All-Around Helpful:  Our decision to ask a third person to join us for the trip was a good one and Bill fit the bill beyond our expectations.  We would not have completed the trip as smoothly as we did without Bill aboard.
 
Food Provisioning and Preparing Expert:  Anne.  Far from a gourmet cook, but at least most of the meals were already prepared and in the freezer for quick and easy access and no one starved or came down with scurvy.  The best trick was boiling water for pasta on a moving stove top - not a drop was spilled.  Also, the only food casualties were the flying pears (which we briefly thought about leaving in a sealed bag on deck to ferment, but decided the resulting liquid would be scary) and some moldy melon and cucumbers - not too bad.
Overall Good Sport:  Anne.  Despite the jokes about the wild motion, lack of sleep and length of the trip, it really was a good experience - excellent preparation for the many more like it we will undertake on our own in the not too distant future.
 
Attached are some pictures taken by Bill and I along the way. 
Picture 1 is Bill's official portrait wearing his new, official World ARC Harmonie crew shirt, taken while sitting in the captain's chair dockside at the Crown Bay Marina.
Picture 2 was taken by Bill while underway on day 8.
Pictures 3 and 4 are particularly nice sunset and sunrise pictures taken by Bill along the way.
Pictures 5 and 6 are proof that we really did try to send and receive emails and updates to the blog while underway.  Picture 5 shows Don working diligently at the computer to link up the satellite phone with email.  In picture 6, I am holding the satellite phone out in the cockpit while Don tries to transmit from the computer down below.  What you don't hear is Don yelling, 'Hold it straight!  No!  Not the way the boat is tilted!  Straight up!  Make sure the antenna isn't blocked by the rigging or sails!  Are you sure you are holding it straight!  Don't stop holding it up!  I'm not done yet!  Are you sure you are holding it straight?'  And on and on.  It's true.  Bill was there and he heard it too.
 
Enough about our voyage down here.  The burning question now is, what are we going to do?  After a major accomplishment, most people go to Disney World, but we are going to stay right here.  We have about a month to find our way down to Antigua, where we will meet my sister Margy and her husband Rick for New Year's.  Antigua is only about 160 miles from here.  Given that we often traveled more than 160 miles per day on our way here, we suspect we will have no trouble getting to Antigua by 12/27.  We plan to relax, yes relax, and slowly travel around the US and British Virgin Islands as well as St. Martin, Nevis, Barbuda, etc.  We have plans to spend at least one day in the near future sitting on our butts in the shade in the cockpit reading a book.  We have not done that at all since we left in July.  I know that is hard to believe given our retired state and all, but we really have been busy doing this and that since then.  After Antigua, we will have a couple of weeks to get to St. Lucia where we will meet up with the other World ARC rally boats.
 
Over the next month we will try to get our satellite phone/email troubles worked out, and will send updates to the blog every couple of days.  If we go more than a couple of days without an update, it's only because we are having trouble with the satellite phone and have not been in a port for a while (we plan to spend quite a bit of the next month in various anchorages, and very little time in ports). 
 
Happy Thanksgiving!  We hope your turkey was as good as our fish and strawberry daiquiris.
Anne
 
 

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