Dec 23-25 St. Thomas

Third post of the December cruise:

On Friday 12/23, with the wind still occasionally whistling in the rigging, we opted to enjoy a second night at Crown Bay Marina. The place was half empty since few boats were moving in those conditions. In the afternoon we took a ten minute ferry ride over to Water Island, took a short hike up a hill and down a hill, and arrived at a postcard perfect spot called Flamingo Bay. It is a very quiet and protected bay on the leeward side of Water Island with moorings and plenty of room to anchor; we’ll be back with Heron some day. We enjoyed an afternoon of snorkeling and eating at the beach grill with friendly folks from the UK who arrived by catamaran from the Queen Mary 2 cruise ship docked at Crown Bay . The seven of us were now chillin’ to the max, getting more and more reluctant to move anywhere.

On Saturday 12/24, conditions had eased so we were off to nearby Christmas Cove for more snorkeling. After a low-speed tour of Charlotte Amalie, we cranked up the engine to 2000 rpm to power into the wind and current along the south coast of St. Thomas.  But wait...  the stuffing box started spraying sea water all over the engine compartment. Here we go again. Arrrrgh. In our new adrenal-avoidant state, we just held 1700 rpm to keep it dry and watched the coast drift by at a sluggish 4.5 knots. We’ll adjust it later, mon. Island time.  Limping into the cove, we picked up a very protected mooring next to the prime snorkeling spot and got into the water. Wow. The variety of fish was amazing. This is what we came for, and this is the memory we will take home with us. Christmas Eve in Christmas Cove. Catchy, eh?! We did our Hanukkah menorah lighting ceremony and listened to reggae christmas tunes on the local radio station. Bizzah. Wicked bizzah. Jamie put together a yankee swap that had everyone laughing, taunting and playing Bananagrams. The beer was cold. Life is good.

Aside on stuffing box adjustment: We later found that our guardian angel mechanic had set the s.s. collar to compress the bellow only 1/8” from the neutral position. After talking with both PYI and New England Boatworks and downloading the instructions from the web (isn’t modern communications wonderful), we set it to 1” per the manufacturer’s specifications.  So far this setting has worked perfectly at all rpm.

On Sunday 12/25, we were challenged to make a decision. Should we jump back into the water or sail over to Francis Bay on StT? We swam, analyzed, agonized and swam some more until mid-afternoon when it was clear that we weren’t going anywhere. At least 70 boats of all kinds—power, sail, monohull, multihull, dinghies and huge yachts-- arrived from StT and formed two huge rafts between Heron and the beach. The place was rockin’ with great audio and the drinks were flowin’. A fine bikini-clad specimen wearing boots and a flowing red santa hat was water skiing amongst the boats. People swam, kayaked, dove and danced. One sailboat had folks halyard diving --where someone holds onto the middle of a very long line that is attached to the masthead on one end, and a fast dinghy on the other end; when the dinghy speeds away from the sailboat, the line straightens out and lifts the person high up and away from the boat, where they let go and dive into the water to the cheers of the adoring crowd.  Evidently this tradition is repeated every Christmas Day. By sunset, tropical peace and quiet once again reigned over the cove.