Anchored in Charlotte Amalie - St Thomas 18:20.16N, 64:55.50W
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Thu 7 May 2009 23:56
|
We enjoyed a good downwind sail from Coral Bay for
17 miles, arriving in the main harbour Charlotte Amalie on St Thomas last
Tuesday afternoon. Two very wet dinghy rides ashore, as the wind is causing
quite a fetch in the harbour and we now have our provisions onboard for the trip
to the USA mainland. However, the tropical depression mentioned earlier is
persisting and causing a breakdown of the usual tradewinds pattern. Our current
weather is grey overcast skies, windy with regular dollops of heavy rain to keep
us running around the boat opening and closing hatches. Today (Thurs) the rain
is playing silly games. Starting and then stopping a few minutes later when we
have charged round shutting the open hatches!
The town of Charlotte Amalie has some beautiful
little backstreet alleyways with lots of Danish influence remaining from the
times when these islands were ruled by Denmark before being sold to the USA for
25 Million pounds in the 1700s. St Thomas is by comparison with the other
islands quite developed and is the location where visiting cruise ships visit
the USVIs. In three days however we have only seen one ship - Carnival Glory
visit. Another feature of the harbour is the scheduled seaplane service to
the other islands, and as yet the novelty of seeing these planes take off and
land in the anchorage has yet to wear off. The anchorage is also full of
cruising boats, more than we have seen in any other location since St Maarten or
English Harbour, many looking to move away from the hurricane zone once the
present spell of unsettled weather has cleared. So we are unlikely to be alone
on our voyage north.
|