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
|
