US Virgin Islands
Lotus
Sat 6 Mar 2010 13:56
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Barbados was great, the people were really
friendly, the beach was nice and the beers were cheap. We only had to stay
for three nights as we got special treatment at the US embassy, seems being a
white European still affords some privileges when dealing with US
officialdom in these parts - terrible but true! So, we are now
in the US Virgin Islands having had to hot foot it out of the British
Virgin Islands; if we'd have stayed a day longer we would have had to pay a
$200 temporary import tax on the boat.
The US Virgin Islands don't differ greatly from the
British Virgin islands, with there being only a 5 mile stretch of water between
the two, this probably comes as no surprise, but there are significantly
less yachts cruising here and the place is definitely more
Americanised, better shops, cheaper food, massive portion sizes in
restaurants, louder people, louder people - oh dear are we doing the right
thing planning a long trip up the East coast of America! In preparation
for our visit we are
learning the lingo of our American friends, so 'we
dove on an awesome site the other day and so far we have not drug our anchor -
good job!', we think we'll fit in, in no time.
We have done some fantastic diving here, one site
in particular has been outstanding, it's called the 'cow and calf'', two
protruding rocks that remind passers-by of whales (the mammals not the
country!). Underwater canyons, swim through tunnels and ledges hide an aquarium
of aquatic life. On our first couple of dives here we saw a spotted moray
eel out of it's hole, swimming around (not very common), a graceful
spotted eagle ray and a curious turtle who wasn't at all camera shy. Our
last dive gave us a bit of a fright, coming out of an alley between two big
slabs, we nearly ran head long into a massive black tip shark. He was no
more than 10meters away, only about 2.5-3 meters long, but with a body
that would make Arnie Schwartznenegger look like twiggy, he was
huge!. Our view was soon obscured by the brown haze that seemed to emanate
from Johns swim trunks (he of course denies everything attributing it to a
very local algal bloom).
    We have now got replacement wind generator
blades (the ones that John stuffed a fishing line into!), they've been
a long time coming, it seems the only thing that the Caribbean people are quick
to do is suck their teeth at you. John has also bought himself a
new watch having lost his previous one to the deep blue, he was most
excited as it has all the boys toys gadgets, like compass, barometer and
altitude, he assures me he will read and re read the instructions until he
thoroughly understands them as he could only just turn the light on, on his
previous all singing, all dancing model.
Next stop Puerto Rico!
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