We had spent enough time in Christiansted by the first 4 days but due to another Tropical Wave moving through on Wednesday and the wind then veering to North East we were stuck and had to spend until Sunday before we had our first opportunity to head North back to St Thomas and then back to the BVI’s.
Wednesday saw some absolutely extreme weather with 35 knot winds being experienced in our anchorage, which is pretty sheltered behind Protestant Cay. We spent the day watching the lightening and catching water. We managed to collect 30 litres of fresh water just from one storm.
The rest of time was spent studying for my Yacht Master exam and relaxing. We had already made some very nice friends in Christiansted and it would be a shame to leave but we promised that we would come back at some point.
Sunday arrived and we departed St Croix at 05:30. We decided to run what they call a ‘dead ship’ with no power. We have become so used to using computers for navigation and route planning so it was time to go back to the traditions of navigation and switch everything off; we even had emergency navigation lights at the ready for clearing the channel. Everything went well and with two reefs in the genoa and one in the main we were averaging 6 knots and at points 7.1 knots. We had carried out our current vectors,Leeway calculations, estimate positioning and dead reckoning and once land was spotted a few fixes put us only 1 nautical mile out of our destination. I must admit it was great fun and we will hopefully not use the chart plotter as often moving forwards.
We arrived back at Christmas Cove as we needed to stock up with fuel and water from Red Hook the following morning. Our friends from Yacht Demeter were also there so we enjoyed a night of conversation with a few beers.
The next morning we departed and carried out the water and fuel run. After this we headed to the North Side of St John as we had missed this on the way down. I must admit St John’s is a gorgeous island. We visited Trunk Bay, Hawknest Bay, Cinnamon Bay and settled at Maho Bay for the night. The islands reminded us of St Lucia with it’s green high mountains and the sound of the Jungle. The water was clearer than we had ever seen and the beach a dazzling white.
We were happy in Maho and spent a lovely evening listening to the thousands of creatures nearby and the sound of water crashing on the beach.
We needed to head back to Tortola to stock up on food and get some washing done. The next morning we departed the US Virgin Isalnds and St John’s heading back to Tortola and The British Virgin Islands.
We now only have 10 days left before Troskala is hauled out and we are not counting.
magneticdeviation 