The "Live-Anywhere" Boat - The Trip South, 2012-13, Part III, The Virgin Islands
Updated March 21, 2013

Great Harbour Anchorage
In the meantime our good friend Nancy Cline tells us that the "sweaters on trees" that we saw in Bermuda are actually a form of non-destructive graffiti art called (no lie) "yarn bombing," and the Bermuda Sun tells us that the artists responsible are Ami Zanders and Wendy Bassett. So good for them and their part in livening up St. George's.

We arrived late in the day for our first night in Great Harbour, Peter Island, and the anchor berth we would have liked was taken, so we anchored out in the middle, in 90 feet. It is nice to have lots of chain.


The View Out Our Door at Peter Island

The next morning, however, we waited until some boats had left and worked our way into an anchorage on a shelf right next to the shore -- it takes 2 anchors, one in the direction of the prevailing wind and one offshore. The advantage is that we lie right next to a reef where the snorkeling is good. No need to travel by dinghy.

Eventually we went back to Jost van Dyke, however, because Barbara is working as a volunteer reading tutor in the school, and because we like being a part of that community.


Cruise Ships in Road Harbour -- Look at the Smoky Exhaust!


Peter Island Sunset
While Barbara was busy in the school I put shelves in our hanging locker (I brought the plywood pieces, but they needed to be fitted), did a little maintenance on the generator (there is always maintenance to do), and put the doors (that we have been carrying around for a year) on the hanging locker. I also painted the head/shower bulkhead in preparation for putting in the head vanity (the counter and locker that holds the hand-basin).


The Jost van Dyke School

For some days one ear had been bothering me. It always felt as though I had just come out of the water and was also a little painful.

We had passed the little clinic building behind the school many times, and one day I decided to go along there and see if whoever ran it would help an itinerant American. There were no other patients, but the doctor, a good-humored, slightly rotund Scotsman, was in and when I explained my problem he just said "Sit down" and looked into my ear with one of those scopes doctors use.

He immediately said, "It's plugged up!", and checked that the other was all right. After he had irrigated the wax out, he agreed that I did have an ear canal infection and gave me some drops. "You should see a change after a couple of days. You'll be fine."

He then allowed that his computer was down so he could not give me a bill, but he said that perhaps I could make a wee donation to the clinic. When I azked for a suggestion, he said "If you're a millionaire, give alot, if you're broke, give nothing." Since I felt I fell somewhere between these poles, I gave him an amount that was much less than I would have paid at home, and this seemed to be satisfactory. I would have enjoyed spending more time with him in another context, finding out what his life was like, but that will have to wait for next year.


An Ocean Racer From Poland


Foxy's -- The Most Famous Bar in Great Harbour
At the end of February we cleared out of the BVI and in to the US at St. John. We collected our mail and did some shopping, and we had decided to spend the weekend on the north shore of St. John, where I knew a good anchorage.
Ali Baba's

In Cruz Bay we went to the St. John National Park headquarters and bought a topo map of the park that turned out to be a nice large-scale map, but one that did not show most features anyone would be interested in. Oh well.

We had lunch at the Beach Bar and after lunch went back to the boat, hoisted the dinghy aboard, weighed anchor, and set off for Waterlemon Bay.


National Park Headquarters, St. John

We were anchored there by 1700. The Park Service prefers that boats use moorings, since anchoring damages the bottom, but we are too big for their moorings. There is a promise of 'big boat moorings," but we have not seen any yet.

As a side note: the park moorings are on the honor system -- in every cove there is a "Mooring Payment Station," a float with a box where one can leave money.


Street in Cruz Bay


St. Ursula Episcopal Church, Cruz Bay

Perhaps we never looked at the right time, but the moorings were always full but we never saw anyone anywhere near that float, and others have also had the same experience.

One major reason for going to Waterlemon Bay was to walk in the park a little, and to revisit the ruins of the Annaberg Mill, which we had seen many years before but remembered only hazily.

The park is full of ruins from the 18th and 19th centuries, when the U.S. Virgin Islands were a Danish possesion. there are so many of them that many are not even signposted -- except with stern warnings that climbing on them is dangerous. The Annaberg Mill, however, has received a lot of attention. It was the largest plantation on St. John, and has been stabilized and partially restored as an exhibit of the sugar mill period.


Ruins From the Danish Period of St. John

We had a very pleasant walk along the beach, then on a former road leading through the woods parallel to the beach. We met several people whom we did not envy, heading the other direction, laden with coolers and beach chairs, toward the beach (nothing special, we thought) at the head of Waterlemon Bay.

As we walked we heard an amplified voice that sounded like preaching, and we wondered what was going on; unbeknownst to us we were there on the second day of the Black History Month festivities at the Annaberg Mill. These turned out to be great fun, and although the crowds did not make it easy to take good photographs of the mill ruins, they were thmeselves very photogenic.


A Noble Tree in the Park

This was a real communmity festival, and once the formal speeches were over the MC alternately introduced, praised, and teased the various groups of performers. School children were there in uniform (one had the feeling it was not optional) and many other people in Sunday clothes. Very few tourists.

We were happy to have stumbled on this party and we watched and listened to the good music for quite a while, until there was a break for lunch. The food smelled good, but we were not ready for lunch yet, so we moved on through the woods to the ruins of the Annaberg School.


Part of the Annaberg Sugar Mill Ruin

There were supposed to be several schools built in the 19th century to a single plan by the Danish authorities in order to educate the slaves' children, but apparently this was the only one completed.

It was not used long, perhaps because the slaves were freed shortly after it was completed, and the former slaves moved away frorm the Annaberg Plantation to other parts of the island where there was more work.


Some Parts of the Mill Look Very Much Like Fortifications

It wsa very pleasant walking through the woods of the park, but Barbara had commitments to the school, back on Jost, so on Sunday (by now it was March 3rd) we headed back to Great Harbour. Because there is an extra charge on Sundays, we waited until Monday to clear in, but the joke was on us, as March 4th is a holiday, so we paid the extra anyway.

The Immigration lady was not accommodating, and instead of simply clearing us in again, restarting the clock, said that we had to go to the main Immigration office in Road Town on Tortola to get an extension of our time in the BVI. This was quite annoying, but on the Thursday back we went to Road Town. We found the proper office after some searching (everything has moved around there since we last spent any time in Road Town), waited more-or-less patiently for our turn, and finally received permission to stay in the BVI for another month.

We did some shopping, but were a little out of phase with the supply boats, so the choice of fresh produce was very limited. We had a nice dinner, however, at Village Cay Marina.

Friday we went back to Jost, but rather late in the day, so we had to anchor farther out than we liked. The next day, when most of the boats had left, we shifted to a berth closer to shore, further up into the bay. This was especially good because there was a heavy ground swell running.


Looking into the Syrup Room at the Annaberg Mill

NOAA forecasts talk about a "northerly swell," but to the locals it is simply a "ground swell," and of course in Great Harbour, open only to the South-east, it does not appear northerly at all.

Moving made another complication for us, however. A charter boat, Los Escapados managed to snag our chain with its anchor and managed to tow us a little distance before their windlass blew its breaker under the strain.


Dancers at the Black History Festivities

A chase boat from the charter company arrived and helped them get clear -- we were all right for that night, but the next morning we shifted our berth yet again. This was getting a little tedious.

It does not seem that the charter companies require much experience before renting their bareboats out, and it is certainly true that many sailors (who may sail OK, although I haven't seen much of that either) have just about no experience in anchoring. The only drawback to spending time in the BVI is the huge fleet of charter boats (by which I mean bareboats, not crewed charters) that descends on every harbor each afternoon.


The Band

I am always a little hesitant to be away from the boat between 1:00 and 4:00 in the afternoon, the time when the moorings are all taken and boats have to anchor.

Early in our stay in Great Harbour a boat (not this time a bareboat) anchored a little close to us, but was all right as long as the wind, from the Northwest at the time, stayed as it was. The only trouble is that in the BVI a northwest wind never does stay put. It is usually caused by a frontal passage, and is a harbinger of squalls.Sure enough, about 1:30 the next morning we were awakened by a bump and went up to find a westerly squall with heavy rain in progress and all the lights out on the shore.


Barbara at the Ruins of the Annaberg School

The boat that had anchored too close was tight on our starboard quarter, her owner frantically getting up his anchor. He moved off and anchored some way outside, which was a good idea, and we picked up pieces of his port navigation light off the deck the next morning. As damages go, that was not too bad, and maybe he will learn from the experience.
Barbara Anchored in Waterlemon Bay

We had a very pleasant time getting together with my brother and his wife and their old friends the Barretts, who were cruising in the Virgin Islands on their boat St. Somewhere. We met them in Cruz Bay, on St. John, and had a nice leisurely lunch at the Beach Bar.

We would have liked to introduce them to our world at Great Harbour, but that was too far out of their orbit for the time they had.

I was approached by Baba, the owner of my favorite hangout, Ali Baba's, to make a small sign for him, as he did not have a computer printer. I did this (didn't take long) and since then was not able to buy a drink there. That might just be the best-paid half-hour of my life.


Maypole Dancers

By mid-March it was getting to be time for us to leave. Not that we were anxious to go, in fact quite the contrary, but we also wanted to see our friends in Boqueron. On Saturday (the 16th) we went over to Seddy's One Love Bar, a beach bar in White Bay, just arouond a point, to hear our friend Reuben sing again, and that evening we had dinner at Corsairs, where Roger always cooks excellent meals.

On Sunday the forecast northeast wind turned out to be the south-southest kind of northeast wind and it was raw and gusty. Barbara rowed in to church and said her good-byes in that world. On Monday she met her pupils for the last time and turned in reports on them to the Head of the school. In the afternoon we both went ashore and hung out at Ali Baba's, and Baba invited us to the barbecue that night, as a celebration of his birthday.


Liberty Star Kept Following Us Around

On Tuesday, the 19th, we went ashore and said final good-byes to Reuben and Baba and his wife, cleared out of the BVI for the last time, and went sadly back to the boat. We hoisted the small boats, lowered the red BVI courtesy ensign for the last time until next year, weighed anchor, and set off.

It is not a long run to Culebra, but we decided to do it in two days. We spent the first night in a quiet anchorage behind (west of) Great St. James Island, just off the southeast corner of St. Thomas. Barbara snorkeled some and I caught up on chores. The next day we ran along the south coast of St. Thomas and just about noon made up the red buoy on the southern end of the big reef south of Culebrita Island.


The Topsail Schooner Talofa Anchored Near Us in Great Harbour

We ran through the narrow gap in the reef protecting Ensenada Honda and anchored off Caya Pirata, just about where we have before. We cleared in by phone, again thankful for the Small Vessel Reporting System that the Customs and Border Patrol have introduced, and were back in the U.S. proper for the first time since leaving Chesapeake Bay in January.
`A Study in Contrasts - The Schooner Roseway and a Modern Yacht

Various people have asked for some photos of the interior of the boat, so I have appended a portfolio (I guess one might call it). There is practically no trim yet, nothing is really right, and there is still much to do, but I am really quite pleased to see the lower-deck compartments no longer being dark, but becoming the bright airy spaces they were meant to be. Real interior joiners should avert their eyes.
The Pilothouse Looking Aft


My Office in the Pilothouse


The Driver's Seat


The View Fron the Helm


Saloon and Galley, Looking Aft


The Stove and Wood Bunker in the Forward Port Corner


Saloon, Starboard Forward


The Forward Head


The Forward (Guest) Cabin




To see our track in Google Earth click: here

Part I
Part II
Part IV

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