St. Croix to St. John

Wednesday, we're still in Frederiksted, and finally, there is no sign of the outrageous rains of the previous day.  We were ashore before 9:00 am, a quasi-record for us.  As there was an on-shore sea running, we locked our dinghy to the massive cruise ship dock, and, as there was a ship on it, we gingerly snuck off the dock through the significant security, posing as 'cruise ship' people.  It is a reverse bias these poor officers have - if we're white, we belong - and white people all look alike!

It was flawless to catch a bus (the revamped bus system here is a month or two old, with beautiful new mid-size buses), and head on to the Centreline Road towards the Cruzan Rum Distillery.  Upon exiting the bus, we were barely 100 metres down the road before a local picked us up and delivered us to the gate of the distillery.  I do not think it is just that these people understand the value of tourists, but that they are truly nice people.

The tour itself was short and informative, delivered by a lady called Charleen, originally from the southern States, with lots of patience.  It was the earliest tour of the day, and likely the smallest, with only 7 people.  What did we learn?

Their molasses is all imported, and comes from many locations in South and Central America, and Dominican Republic.  Some good product used to come from Haiti years ago, and some might come from the Demerara region of Guiana, but Charleen was not sure.

The process of brewing the molasses beer or wine is pretty simple:  They mix up a smaller vat (still massive) of yeast and molasses with a little water, and warm it with a coil of warm water.  After a day or so, they deliver this to the much larger vats, and add more molasses and water until it is ~1 part molasses and 4 parts water, and let brew  with cooling water in the coils so that more alcohol can be made before the yeast burn themselves out from a combination of heat and alcohol.  The distillation tower is next, in its own 5 storey building (the second tallest building on the island).  From there, all the rum goes into barrels supplied by the sister company, Jim Beam, and goes into a mighty large open warehouse for aging.  A pound of dry oak chips are added to each barrel to enhance the flavour.  The pictures below do not really show how massive this building full of aging barrels is.  We include a picture of 4 bottles showing how ageing affects the rum over 6 months, 5 years, 10 years, and 15 years.  The  portion left in the bottle also demonstrates what portion is left in the barrel after that time.  No wonder good booze costs so much, if so much is lost in the barrels!

White is the cheapest and quickest to make and on the far left, is the darker and more time-consuming expensive rum!

When the time comes, the barrels are taken to a cracking station, put through filters (white rum goes through the smallest filters), and pumped into large steel tanks set up as containers.  The containers are actually shipped to Kentucky to a large blending and bottling factory there.  So, the molasses doesn't come here, the rum isn't bottled here, and you wonder why the rest of the process is here.  Well, there is tradition, but also there is the very stable weather that allows a constant environment year round for both brewing and ageing, which we would agree, is highly desirable for a product of constant quality.

Charleen giving us a great education on rum making!

We also went to their tasting bar, where while tasting various concoctions and ages, we also sipped one nice rum punch and a nice pina colada.  We both agreed that having that much rum before 11 a.m. could be quite habit-forming.

Leaving Cruzan, we had a 20+ minute hike to the island's botanical garden in George Estate.  The walk did not dampen our spirits a bit, but we could not find much nice to say about the garden.  It was interesting to tour the plants through the ruins of a Danish plantation of the mid-1700s, but the plants and trees just were not at their best.  I guess we were totally spoiled by the botanical garden in Deshais, Guadeloupe.  Still it was a nice walk.

Here is a picture of the only plant with any colour.

Here is a picture of a seed, apparently of a palm from the Seychelle Islands - nowhere near here.

The bus ride back to the boat was also easy and pleasant, as was our effort to get food and drink back on board.

This policeman had a sense of humour and locked up a cruise ship passenger for a photo op!  The guy said, "Hey, there aren't any handles in here and I can't get out!  The policeman just smiled...

Also in Frederiksted, we found this bird sitting on a solar panel.  He was looking at me rather judgmentally, which slowed down my instinct to shoo him off the panel.  Although the look might be common to the species, there is a chance he was hit by a blade of our windmill, and had reason to be full of contempt.  As it was, he left a big dump on the solar panel for me.

A Brown Noddy landed on our solar panel and left us a bit of a mess to clean up!!

 We woke up Wednesday morning totally undecided as to whether or not to sail north.  The internet data Dawn was calling up on her smartphone (Thanks Hugh and Liz) called for easy winds, but from the wrong direction most of the day.  Our morning chat with Denis of Tiger Lily II (our weather guru) through the SSB channel suggested that Friday or Saturday would be a better day, with winds directly from the east but with 5+ more knots of wind.

We discussed it, and decided that tacking back and forth all day would still be better than dealing with 20+ knots of wind, and hauled up the hook.  We set our objectives rather low, hoping to make it to a safe harbour at the west end of St. Thomas before dark.  Our efforts were dismal, with motorsailing and our heading being either half way to Culebra, or back to St. Croix, until about 11:15, when we got some strong wind from the southeast; totally unforecasted.  I think we were in a massive squall system that had set up.  The sun disappeared, and the wind was at times rather strong; but it didn't rain and we were making excellent time towards Christmas Cove to the east of St. Thomas.  Indeed, we got in and tied up to a mooring ball in flat water by 3:30, more than two hours before dark.   Although we were totally salty, and the ride was very bumpy, we had made a great crossing with nothing broken.

Yesterday, after breakfast, we went in to Compass Point Marina, in Benner Bay, to deliver our liferaft for inspection to Caribbean Inflatable.  Actually, we followed the directions provided by the Marina for an anchorage just outside the channel entrance.  The dinghy ride was easy, the contact was made, and we also got to a Budget Marine chandlery and a grocery store across the street.  With our boat laden with beer, wine, and other necessities, we were dinghying back to our boat when a very excited man with 2 dogs on an old houseboat waved us over.  He insisted our anchorage spot could net us a $1000 fine, and suggested we hightail it out of there.  We'll have to do some homework before we return next week for the raft.

I was able to spend the rest of the day on little chores; one of which was to dismantle an antenna system I had installed for ham radio "stingers" so I could install a new antenna for the "AIS system".   The stinger system is a set of antennas made up of coiled wires that could send and receive on particular wave bands.  Each antenna also had a sliding piece that went up or down to pick up a specific frequency, and was locked in place with an allen screw.  I remember having to get out to the corner of the boat in the rocking north Atlantic to change antennas and adjust the tips so I could talk to Herb Hilgenberg and then communicate with John or the Mississauga Net.  It was very scary, and very wet.  These days, I only communicate with Denis, on his special net.  Ham radio is slipping away in regards to usefulness to us.   It is primarily just a way that two old fellows can make contact across a thousand miles and ask:  "Did you get my email?"

We also attempted a calibration of our wind instruments on our new Raymarine i70.  Here is a picture of the calibration under way on the repeater inside.

Finally, Dawn and I have taken our first dip in the ocean that was just for fun.  Here is a beautiful French Angel Fish from Christmas Cove.

Dawn took this French Angel photo yesterday just before sunset close to the back of the boat!

 This morning, we woke up before 7 and decided to take advantage of the calm of the day to motor 5 miles upwind.  We are now settled into Francis Bay, St. John, with Silk Pajamas and Aviva.  I have finished replacing the hinges on the toilet, and Kristin just dropped by to ask if we were interested in a hike for later today.  We said yes.

Frederiksted, St. Croix, USVI

We are enjoying our second morning anchored offshore in Frederiksted, on the west end of St. Croix, USVI.  The view is of a long sandy beach with palm trees, across flat, blue water, with low, rolling hills in the background.

We originally landed in Christiansted, on the north side, in the middle of the island, after sailing 6+ hours last Thursday.  It was one of the best sails we've done on Cat Tales; with a variety of winds on the beam over relatively flat water.  We had departed at 8:00 from Christmas Cove, just a half hour or so before Tarantela left from Charlotte Amalie; but we remained just specs of sail to each other for all of the trip.  As we finished our anchoring, Al phoned us to say he was making a short detour to buy some water from Green Cay Marina, and also to brag that he had not only caught two mahi mahi, but had thrown back three tunas.  I just about started to bang my head.  I had dismissed the fishing because there was too much sargasso to keep the hook foul.

Al proudly showing us his catch of the day!

Of course, supper was aboard Tarantela, and we supplied rice w/pigeon peas to complement the fish and Michelle's two salads.  The meal was fantastic.  We did our best to reciprocate the next day with Chicken Alfredo, after we had explored Christiansted on foot.

Laurie and Michele and Al on the waterfront.  Cute little boat in the foreground!

 Saturday night was the "Parade of Lights", with boats decorated with lights touring the very vibrant and crowded waterfront walkway.  These really were spectacular, with flashing lights, music, live bands on some of the larger boats, dancers, and even a seaplane made up to look like Rudolph.  The walkway was set up like a "jump-up", with the regular bars supplemented with beer and liquor stalls, barbecues, and other confectionaries.  And there were Jumbies!  These well-dressed tall fellows were talented crowd pleasers; swooping, stooping, high-stepping, and posing.

Talented Jumbies!!  They could lean over to shake a hand or take a tip!!

Rudolf!

Over 20 of these beautifully decorated boats!

 

Sunday, we moved the boats to Frederiksted, and enjoyed the beach bar, before saying goodbye (temporarily) to Tarantela, who left in the morning for the Spanish Virgins.

Isn't it nice they had just a wee bit of room left for a nice snowflake decoration!

 

Monday, after Tarantela left, Dawn and I tore down the boat, installed the new VHF radio that I had picked up from the Christiansted chandlery, installed the last of the Raymarine equipment, and tidied up a lot of wiring.  It took all day, and there is still more to do.  ...But it will wait.   

Laurie took all the electronics off this panel in order to cut or reconfigure openings for the new equipment.  He ran wires through tiny spaces all day in a sweaty 30 degrees.  A cool swim and a beer were in order at around 4:30!!

New VHF radio in the center, and Raymarine repeater for the outside GPS unit. The repeater will show us AIS, wind speed, depth, and direction etc. The car stereo came from Canadian Tire at home and works great!

We're doing some work right now to determine where we go, ashore.  We have to choose from (if they are open): the Cruzan rum distillery, the Whim restored museum/plantation, the St. George Village Botanical Garden, and some place that advertising beer-drinking pigs.  Many things on this island are only available when a cruise ship is in port.  Even the visitor's information centres close their shutters otherwise.  Transportation is the biggest issue, with buses running erratically.

Indeed, we had intended to go offshore to the Buck Island Nature Preserve to do some walking and snorkeling, but to get permission, you have to find the right office (which we have not found open when we did find it), fill out some forms, go somewhere and get your boat papers and passport or drivers license photocopied, submit them to the (still closed) office, and then wait a few days while they "process" the application and give you a free pass.  They are actually lucky that the office is never open; as I would have loudly explained such terms as: "value added processes", "conflicting objectives", and "CHICKENSHIT RED TAPE".

We hope to return to the northern part of this little chain on Thursday or Friday, so we can pass in our liferaft and fire extinguishers for inspection, a little hiking, and again enjoy the company of our friends aboard Aspen, Tarentela and Silk Pajamas.   You can bet we'll be doing some fishing on the way.

Still Preparing for the Season

Cat Tales has just arrived at Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke, at lunch on a Tuesday.  We  have been motoring from North Sound, Virgin Gorda, since a little to 9, using the motoring time to make all the fresh water we could hold, and to charge the refrigerator until all was in danger of freezing.  Dawn passed out beers, and I said:  "Ahh, the traditional 'anchor beer'", Dawn said:  "Unlike the beers for no reason we've been drinking at lunch and every other time."  I pointed out that it is too late in our lives to try to play for higher moral ground in this particular area.

We have been sitting in Drake's Anchorage, North Sound since Saturday, and have charged our physical and emotional batteries there in the flat calm after both our hard week on the hard and the bouncy time anchored off Spanishtown with the chain pushing noisy boulders of coral around.

We have enjoyed that anchorage, first with Kristin and Terry, of Silk Pajamas; with whom we have had a great walk over the hill of Leverick Bay resort and a nice lunch, and with whom we also enjoyed a lovely batch of sundowners a few nights ago aboard Cat Tales.  We were joined during the sundowners by a couple of cruisers, Fred and Dorothy, of s/v Aviva, who have recently arrived from the Virginia area.  It was great to again expand our list of friends down here.  Last night, Steve and Maria of s/v Aspen arrived from the Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour, and all 4 couples got together for a real nice casual dinner at the resort.

It was our intention to truly explore the North Sound, but Al and Michelle of s/v Tarantella have been contacting us electronically to make our way to their location in the USVI to visit and head to St. Croix, so that is what we are up to.

We have also been spending daylight hours working on Cat Tales.  I have successfully installed a new chartplotter and GPS combo (Raymarine a75) at the steering station, and am working hard to wire up the accessories so we can see the information from our transponders regarding speed, depth, and wind direction/strength.  We also have a repeater (Raymarine i70) and an AIS transceiver to connect to this system.  So, you can see there's lots yet to do!!

Here is Jost van Dyke where we're presently anchored!

Last night, upon arrival back to Cat Tales from supper, we found that our toilet seat cover had simply broken off the toilet due to two disintegrated hinges, marking just one more failure.  Since launch, we have been dealing with a failed VHS radio, a failed inverter, failing toilet system (not just the cover), a broken door latch which lead to breaking hinges as I tried to repair it, and a failed stereo system.  Of course, we are thankful for what systems have successfully come back on line without needing much care - no worries.  Still, I keep reminding myself of Jimmy Buffett's words:  " If you like surfing, you'd better like paddling, too; because there is a lot of paddling in surfing."  Yes, often I remind myself, but sometimes my mind just comes back with  "F*&# off, Jimmy Buffett!"

The failures and need for raw materials and new parts are one of the things driving us over to the USVI early.  We'll see how that goes.

Launched again, this time in Virgin Gorda!

 

It is Wednesday, December 3rd, and Cat Tales is sitting behind a hill outside of Spanishtown, Virgin Gorda, BVI.  She was launched at noon yesterday after a pretty tough week of preparation.

In many ways Virgin Gorda has been kinder to the crew:  We worked on average from 8:30 until 5:15 each day, but locked her up and walked 10 minutes to a lovely apartment in a little complex called Bayview Apartments, operated by a lovely local lady, Nora.  We would arrive at the apartment just as the mosquitoes would start circling us, forcing us to go inside or risk Chikungunya, the newest virus to hit the region.  Showers, quiet, lack of dust, no mosquitoes, and air conditioning in the bedroom certainly helped us to revive for another's day of battle.

We found Cat Tales in good condition, and quickly worked through the basic steps of reinstalling the Flex-o-fold propellers, recommissioning the engines, and checking the basic systems.  Dawn outdid herself this year, cleaning and polishing the whole boat herself, while I attempted to install some new electronics and fix some other deficiencies.  She was motivated by last year's boatyard bill of $450 for some cleaning and application that amounted to $60 per hour for the most basic manual labour.   Frankly, Cat Tales has never entered the water looking so good, and Dawn deserves most of the credit.

Here is a shot of the old equipment which was working just so so.  The screen to see the charts was located inside the boat and was much smaller than the new and it was in black and white.  The screen had developed a few lines across it indicating that it was on its way out!

Here is the new screen.  Notice on the right hand side that Laurie moved the auto pilot to its new location.  It should be great once it gets fully functional!

 

Since yesterday, while bouncing in the bay, we have stopped the toilet leak, got the problems worked out of the refrigerator cold plate, and got the depth and wind instruments to provide us with some data on the new screen (that's right - we got launched without a working depth instrument).  Data from the old Airmar speed sensor still eludes us.  I just spent two hours working on the Tohatsu outboard.  After tearing her down just a little further than a layman should, the inability to start was traced to the safety cord that connects to the operator's wrist.  From some twist of fate, we have two aboard, and the part that fits under the stop switch is thicker on one than the other.  Of course, the thinner one would not lift the spring-loaded switch enough to remove the short-circuit that stops the spark from getting to the spark plugs.  I feel stupid, but if I were any "stupider" I'd still be out there pulling on that cord and whimpering.

We were stressed but lucky at the launch.  The boat got in just as the crew took a break, both engines started and spit water (well, there was a minor problem with a loose belt on a seawater pump, but I sorted it out immediately), and, with no launches during lunch, we took up space in the launching bay while I filled the spare diesel tanks at the pumps nearby, and we had a fun lunch with Steve and Maria of s/v Aspen, who arrived just as the bottom of Cat Tales touched water.