I understand that you New Englanders had a pretty mild Christmas, with temperatures around 50 degrees. Well, add a measly 30 degrees to that, throw in some swaying palm trees, and a 20 dinghy raft up to take in the Davis Murray and the Barefoot Band and you have a Christmas Eve in paradise. Add a turkey dinner ashore followed by some reggae music and that about sums up Christmas Day! But I suppose you want to hear more details about our week and we’d love to share them, so here goes…
We left off last week with our exploits in Francis Bay on St John, USVI’s. We continued to stay there through Christmas – a one week stay in total and the longest time we spent in one spot since Hampton, VA. We met up again with our Maine friends — Alex, Gulley, Alasdair and Azaline — the hearty campers over at Cinnamon Bay. They offered to shuttle us all over to the southern extreme of St John, a point of land named Rams Head for an afternoon hike. What a delight it was to see parts of the island by car, and when we arrived at the parking area for the hiking trail, we immediately settled into the path down to the water’s edge and waited for the rest of the group to be shuttled over.
As we hiked up the trail to Rams Head, views reminiscent of the California coast unfolded before us. If you’ve ever taken Highway 1 along the midcoast towards Big Sur, you’ll find these views very similar.
At the top of Rams Head, we were rewarded with sweeping views of the USVI’s and BVI’s, and it was time for another one of our simpleton cracker-oriented picnic lunches!
All around this part of the island were Turk’s Head cacti. They produce candy-corn style fruit that is a bit rubbery, but I suppose satisfying if you had nothing else to live on after being abandoned here by mutinous pirates. Here’s our youngest pulling out one of the fruits.
On the way back, we diverted to Maine and took a walk by this snow-lined trail……
oops, sorry, it looks like snow, but it actually is tiny salt crystals blown ashore at Salt Pond Bay. The trail carried us a short distance beyond to Drunk Bay – an odd name, probably from those old pirate days — but today there’s not a drunk in site. Instead, it was the workshop of some whimsical flotsam-based artists. You have to look closely at this picture, and don’t feel bad if you can’t tell right away, as I stood around these rocks for at least 30 minutes before Karen told me what was under my nose…. a whole bunch of ‘people’ shaped formations, made from the right-sized rocks, coconut husks, coral fragments and anything else in the vicinity. Have a look for yourself.
On Christmas Eve day, more and more boats started pulling into Francis Bay for the holiday. If you are wondering what this place looked like and why we chose to stay there a week, here’s a view from the surrounding hillside, and Thalia’s tiny speck. Knowing that we are 47′ feet long, you can imagine the size of those three motor yachts!
The Carib1500 rally boats had been planning for awhile to have a Christmas Eve rendezvous here, so it was no surprise that about 20 boats showing up that evening at the stern of Splinter Beach, Davis Murray’s boat, for a little musical serenade. We all brought appetizers to share and Davis and his buddies provided the ambience.
Not long after the music stopped and everyone was tucked into bed on Thalia and the lights were out, a very strange sound was heard onboard. We were being boarded by a big barefooted Santa! This fella said he had come by way of St Martin, where he left his reindeer and hitched a ride on a duet of dolphins to St John – who could question a story like that?! We awoke the boys who, after less then an hour of sleep where already so comatose that they remembered very little from the big guy’s visit, but that didn’t dissuade them from opening his presents the next morning!
On Christmas Day, we were in need for a little exercise, so we took in a hike over to the Annaberg Sugar Plantation. This site contains the ruins of one of many sugar operations on the island. The Danes architected these sites, as you might imagine from the remnants of this windmill. When the wind was blowing (which it seems like it does with unabiding consistency day and night), the sugar cane harvested from the nearby hills was passed through rotated drums at the base of the windmill. From this process came the sugar juice which flowed downhill in a trough to another building that heated and carefully processed the juice so that it would become crystalized sugar. If the temperature wasn’t monitored just right in the kettles, the result would be molasses, which as we all know ends up in Grama’s wonderful holiday cookies, so all was not lost. Finally, they would take the spoils from the sugar pressing and process it at the distillery into rum – once again, not a bad byproduct of the process. Now, if the wind was not blowing, which again I can not imagine happening as it is howling here day and night, they employed a team of oxen at a turnstile-type setup to press the cane.
This site is normally one of the main stops on the tourist route for those coming from the cruise ships over in St Thomas, but on Christmas morning, we had it all to ourselves.
That evening, we all cleaned up and headed ashore to the Maho Bay Campground. Now, this isn’t what you might picture from a typical campground state-side. There were no real tents visible. Instead, you rented your own canvas bound hut set upon pillars embedded into the steep hillside overlooking Francis Bay. At the top of this collection of sites, after climbing some 200+ stairs, you arrive to a picturesque open-air rotunda restaurant. Monday nights are normally a Caribbean buffet, but on this special day they were serving a traditional turkey dinner with all of the fixin’s. How could we turn this down – man (and woman) can not live forever on cracker and cheese picnics!
After dinner, we were pleased to hear that a local reggae band was planning to play for the crowd. These guys actual tour around the states too, and not just in the big cities, but small, coastal hamlets like Damariscotta, Maine. Once again, I provide you with a glimpse of the sounds of the Caribbean, to warm you up with tropical memories while the winter winds blow outside your window. The lighting was not great, but at least you can experience the music.
On Tuesday, after Christmas was behind us, we joined many boats that were vacating the anchorage. It was time to get down to business. We needed to head back over to Red Hook on St Thomas. The new refrigeration system I had ordered was in and we needed to get started on that project. The system I had chosen was an Italian one called Frigoboat, via a great reseller in Brunswick, Maine named Great Water, Inc. Now, I was a little leery about buying a refrigeration system to handle the heat of the tropics from a company in Maine, and frankly, I was a bit nervous about the whole ordeal because everywhere I turned and every radio chat I participated in, I got widely varying opinions about what was wrong with our current Seafrost system and what was the best system to replace it with for the tropics. These are some of the toughest conditions for a refrigerator, when the ambient temperature is 80-90 degrees and your boat is sitting in 80-85 degree seawater. I found that a lot of people like the current system installed on their boat, but was that because that’s all they had really experienced or had they tried many systems out, especially down here in the heat? I finally made the decision to get a water cooled system combined with the largest wraparound evaporator plate I could fit in the refrigerator, and then I kept my selection choice to myself. If I blurted out what I had just ordered, I would again be inundated with strong statements for and against my selection — geez, you would think this was a debate between abortion zealots!
Providing a little break from the refrigerator blues was this discovery of an iguana roaming the docks. Our youngest discovered this picture on the camera and, with a uneven, trembling voice, told me he had found a picture of something “very weird and scary!”
To get the new system in place required a lot of planning to run seawater to the compressor and then back overboard. I tapped into existing seacocks so that we wouldn’t have to haul out. The old Seafrost air-cooled system needed to be extricated from it’s home – and it’s control over our boating experience. There was wiring that needed to be upgraded too. So you can understand why after day 3 of the project, tensions were just a little elevated all around the family. We were at anchor in what must be the most rolly harbor in the area as ferry boat after ferry boat steams through the harbor. In order to get the plumbing installed, I need to lift up several floorboards, some berth and salon cushions and move gear and food around. With all of this stuff scattered around the cabin and tools to accidentally trip over, this was not a project that I can recommend for greater family bonding! Karen, did her best to hold it together while single-handedly keeping the kid’s schoolwork moving forward. On Friday morning I completed the final touches, flipped the switch on and was pleased beyond description to see the new digital thermostat click down from 85 degrees to it’s shut off point of 40 degrees in just over an hour. I’ll be having a word with Seafrost when we return about why their system can’t come close to this. My gosh, the frustration, angst, expense and headaches we went through since we arrived in Tortola over this refrigeration system are beyond words. It is a great pleasure to see this new system run, and cycle on and off, and keep our proverbial beer cold, and give a break to our battery bank. It was time to get out of Red Hook! We first hitched a ride into the interior of the St Thomas to what was described by many as the best grocery shopping around, at the Cost-U-Less. This was a Costco style store and a welcome change from the tiny, price-gouging markets throughout the islands. Back onboard, with every locker and bilge space stowed with stores, and cold food and drink in the refrigerator, we left Red Hook with the last few rays of daylight and motored over to calm, tranquil, familiar Francis Bay for a much needed night’s rest. We were excited to close one chapter and start anew.
We hope you have (or had) a great New Years!