Like a Virgin (finally) (with apologies to Madonna)

View looking out from Annaburg Sugar Mill Ruins, St. John

We made it to Saint Thomas in the US Virgin Islands (USVI), our final destination for this cruising season! We left Puerto Rico in the midst of rumors of rules changes, lock downs (i.e., leave now or never), marina gates locked so we couldn’t go out to the grocery store anymore, boats being told to leave, boats being told they can’t leave, anchored non-US boats being awoken in the middle of the night and told to get moving while the police stood by and then escorted them out of Puerto Rico waters – well, you get the picture.

We left Puerto Rico on Wednesday morning, April 1, and with a combination of very nice sailing and motor-sailing we dropped anchor 28 hours later on Thursday afternoon in Charlotte-Amalie on the Island of Saint Thomas. Our friends and buddy boaters on St. Somewhere, Altitude Adjustment, and Timmie’s Run followed us a day later.

Charlotte Amalie Harbor, Long Bay, viewed from Hassel Island

We went for a hike on Hassel island in the Charlotte Amalie Harbor. Saw some mongoose! The beaches here are often rocky and full of shells in contrast to the beautiful white soft sand beaches in the Bahamas.

Getting into St Thomas was disturbingly easy. We called in on the CBP ROAM app (an online immigration system), we had a very quick video chat with a Customs official, were asked a few questions and were allowed entry into the harbor. No health check, no temperature taken, no quarantine period – they are nuts.

The Charlotte Amalie harbor is really set up for the cruise ship business. They have some huge docks for ships and the main street along the harbor is designed for gawking tourists hot on the trail of trinkets and other over-priced duty free keepsakes. These stores were shuttered, there are no cruise ships here, restaurants and bars were closed and the docks were pretty empty. Once ashore the buildings and other structures look tired and worn, the streets were dirty, and there were some panhandlers, something we haven’t seen in a long time. Shockingly there was scant evidence that the stay at home order was in effect as lots of people were meandering about and the traffic on the harbor road would compete with many a large city in the US. We had a distinct feeling that people, and perhaps the Government too, are not taking this very seriously. There are currently 37 COVID cases in the USVI, spread between St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John. If you are interested in the statistics of growth of this disease, let us know and we can send you some data and analysis that our daughter Kate has been doing weekly.

MB did make a grocery store run to get some fresh produce as our plan is to go hide out for a few weeks to limit our contact with people. They were limiting how many people could be inside the store at a time, people were keeping their distance inside and there were tape strips on the floor to keep the check out line spaced out. Some people wore masks and the check out people had plexiglass separating them from customers. So they definitely are making some efforts, it was just the number of people out and about that bothered us. Meanwhile David filled up our diesel fuel so we were ready to leave.

New regulations came out the day after we arrived that require cruisers to find a place to moor or anchor and then stay put until April 30. This, we think, is smart as it will help minimize contact between people. We decided to head for St. John where most of the island is a national park. We figured fewer people will be there and there are hiking trails so poor Riggs can get some exercise. Lots of good places to snorkel are also nearby so we won’t go completely stir crazy. The only problem is cruisers have all flocked to USVI because most of the other Caribbean islands have closed borders so it is very very crowded. At least cruisers are used to being self-isolated and are following the rules about not congregating together. Normally in a crowded harbor full of cruisers, you would see dinghies zipping back and forth for social get togethers. Our social time now consists of dinghying over to a friend’s boat and chatting while we sit in our dinghy and the friends stay on their boat, thereby maintaining a safe distance apart.

We are on mooring ball in Francis Bay, St John. Truly a beautiful spot to hang out for awhile. Lots of boats in here.

View of harbor from one of the beaches.

USVI is very restrictive about where you can anchor, especially around St. John. In many places you have to use a mooring ball placed by the park (and charged a fee) and are not allowed to drop an anchor. We motored from anchorage to anchorage looking for a mooring ball or a place to drop our anchor. We found one place but the water depth was 70 ft which requires a whole lot of anchor chain/rode to be put out. We motored on to Francis Bay and as we were slowly motoring around looking for a good place to drop the anchor, a boat dropped a mooring ball right in front of us and left!!!!! We were so lucky!

Francis Bay is so picturesque, nestled in between mountains on three sides. There are two lovely beaches for hanging out or swimming (although we just heard there is going to be an announcement shortly closing the beaches…sigh). The water is a beautiful turquoise blue and there is some good snorkeling right in this bay near where we are on our mooring ball. Sounds perfect, right? The negative, and it’s a big one, is that this anchorage is on the north shore and is therefore susceptible to northerly swells. We rocked and rolled all night these first two nights. Not pleasant. It will probably be like this for another day before the wind switches around. We were able to go for a much needed hike today on the Francis Bay Trail and over to the Annaburg Sugar Mill Ruins. We went with some friends from other boats (staying 6 feet apart of course!) and it was so nice to talk with people other then each other! We have been swimming around the boat each afternoon to cool off. The water is crystal clear and a delightful temperature.

This structure used to include a windmill to power rollers that crushed the sugar cane and made the juice that was then boiled.

David, Mike and Brian practicing their social distancing. We are looking out at Tortola and the British Virgin Islands.

Looking out over a salt pond that we walked around and back out at the Francis Bay anchorage.

It has been a very stressful last few weeks as we constantly tried to understand the ever changing regulations coming out of governments. Often the proclamations were in Spanish so we would have to wait for translations and sometimes the translation does not make sense. Different organizations and locations within a country interpret and apply the rules differently. For instance because we are in a National Park now, we are governed by federal rules rather than the Virgin Island Department of Natural Resources rules that would apply to us if we were anchored in a different bay. We feel like we are in a safe place now and don’t think we will be asked to leave for at least a couple weeks which is a relief. We realize we are blessed to be in such a beautiful place and able to stay away from other people so we can stay healthy. We still don’t know when we will haul our boat out for the hurricane season and how we will get ourselves and Riggs home. Only one airline is flying between St Thomas and the US right now and they are down to one flight five days per week and still cancelling flights often. We are just going to relax here for a bit and reassess the situation in a few weeks. We have plenty of food and can make our own water so we could stay here for a couple months if we needed to.

We pray that you are all staying healthy back home!

Thanks!

David and Mary Beth