We’ve had a fantastic ten day cruise in the US Virgin Islands with my girls and my brother Andrew’s family. Here’s the play-by-play of the first few days:
My daughter Emily (16) and I arrived on Sunday 12/18 by non-stop flight from cold Boston to glorious St. Thomas (StT). I’m still amazed that you only have to stand a single 4-5 hour watch to jet above an eleven day sail. We took a taxi ride over the mountain to Red Hook, a ferry ride to Cruz Bay, St. John (StJ), a taxi ride to Great Cruz Landing on Great Cruz Bay (GCB), and finally a dinghy ride to Heron on her mooring. The journey was easy, but the intricacy of it made the arrival all that more exotic –like going up the river in Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” or in Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now”—only different. We kicked back in the evening light, happy to simply take it all in. Ahhh.
Heron was an especially welcoming sight since the Proper Yachts team who takes care of Heron in GCB (Steve, Ashley and Veronica?) had already put some food aboard, cooled down the icebox, opened up the boat, and had put up the bimini and the ensign. They had also re-done the varnish work, polished the stainless and the gelcoat and had cleaned everything to Bristol condition! Despite having to patch several years of poor varnish work, they had produced a surface on the teak toerails that looks as if it was sprayed on -- the best since the boat was new. I shouldn’t be so surprised since I counted at least seven big Hinkleys in the harbor under their care. It is true in my case that a sailor’s mood can be predicted by the status of their boat’s bright work.
On Monday 12/19, Emily and I had brunch on the beach at the Westin Hotel on GCB. It was an indulgence of overeating in a stereotypical beach resort setting—just what we needed. After recovering from the carbo crash, we took Heron out for a sail along the south coast of StJ to Ram Head and back. We close-reached out and broad-reached back in NE18. The mountain tops of St. Croix were visible above the horizon 30nm to the south. I called my in-laws Sam and Shirley, who spend winters on StX, that their island was still there. The uninhabited green slopes of StJ dropped steeply to the turquoise ocean—the opposite of our own beautiful Buzzards Bay marshes and slate gray water! The sea was 80F; the air was 85F. It was still warm when the breeze picked up or when gusts blew down from the hillsides. Ya gutta luv de tropics.
On Tuesday 12/20, we retraced our steps to the SE corner of StJ, headed for Coral Bay. Under full sail, beating into 23-30 apparent and an ocean swell, the two of us were “in our glory”. At one point we crossed tacks with a gorgeous red Hinkley 50-something. The contrast was notable: Heron was under full sail (#3 jib and main) hard on the wind without dipping the rail, two people aboard in tee shirts, shorts and sandals and big smiles. The Hinkley was under deeply rolled main and staysail, rail under, five solemn folks in full foul weather gear in the cockpit, headed for Saltpond Bay in the lee of Ram Head. I know, I know; it’s just cruising and I’m being a jerk. But any two boats on the same water at the same time define a race... We dipped their stern in salute. I later learned that they are mooring-neighbors in GCB, where Heron is surrounded by a flock of gorgeous Hinkleys.
The wind continued to honk down Sir Francis Drake Channel as we tacked close aboard Leduck Island into Coral Bay. We screamed off onto a reach into Hurricane Hole and dropped the sails. Not a single house or boat was within sight; this part of the island is in the national park and probably appears as it did 300 years ago when slave traders and pirate ships lurked in this bay. Having nothing but Trader Joe’s canned goods aboard (good stuff, but it gets tiring), we motored around the corner to Coral Harbor. What an odd place it is!
Each harbor has its own boating sub-culture. You can usually tell by the type of boat and how it is equipped and maintained. This could be the subject of an entertaining book. The BVIs are loaded with charter boats from the Moorings charter base in Tortola. Many of them motor from beach bar to beach bar and enjoy a week-long party—honestly. The woman seated in front of us on our return flight recounted her sailing vacation as the sequence of beach bars they visited: Foxey’s, Willie T’s, etc,. etc. Some families do have fabulous charter vacations, snorkeling and hiking throughout the BVIs. Since it’s rare that a week-long charterer will go through the trouble of checking in/out through customs to go between the US and British islands (and they are all equally beautiful), the USVIs have far fewer charterers, and have more cruisers and live-aboards. Cruisers (like me) are mostly from the US east coast and spend too much time or money working on their boats. Many cruisers have jerry cans of fuel and water strapped to their deck, RIBs (Rigid hull Inflatable Boats) with big outboards on stern davitts, photovoltaic panels or windmills, etc. etc. Some of these are gorgeous voyaging yachts. Others have short waterlines that can’t reasonably carry all that stuff (without dramatically raising their wetted surface area, center of gravity and angular moment of inertia) and so wallow more than sail. I watched them hobby-horse and corkscrew down waves coming out of the Chesapeake. But the Coral Bay fleet is of a different sort. There are no charterers here and the very few cruisers stick out like the odd dog in the pack. Heron looks like an alien spaceship. Most are much shorter than elsewhere. Many of the boats there have no masts; even more have no sails. Some look like they were recycled from Katrina or another fatal storm in the late 70s. Many haven’t moved in months or years. They have barnacles growing up the topsides and just a few remaining shreds of sun-bleached canvas. I didn’t see any moorings. Except for the occasional presence of an odd rowboat on the stern, or an occasional raised hatch, there are no signs of life aboard. I’m guessing that they serve as a floating bedroom for someone who is living close to (or under) the edge. I’d like to imagine that they are an eco-friendly tuned-in peace-loving floating camp of idealists, living John Lenon’s “Imagine” or Bob Marley’s “One Love”. But I doubt it. More to follow.
Jay
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