October 18, St. John, USVI
From our last post we went to St. Croix, about 40 miles south. We went to Christensted, first. By the way, the recent hurricane sank or destroyed 40 boats there. It was a cute fun town, better than we expected. A little wharf, kind of charming. And a lot of boats (well, 40 less now, I guess). Apologies in advance as there are no pictures for awhile. Camera #2 bit the dust. We still have the low-res underwater and a video camera. I'll be posting video clips soon.
Then we went to Buck Island. I think each of the Virgins has a Buck Island (Buck must have been some kind of guy). This one was the pride and joy - a must-see if you go to St. Croix. We are a bit spoiled, though, and found it ok. One side is a reef-protected area with an underwater snorkel trail. We found the markers unkempt and full of growth - average. Then we went to the west side, where, on the weekend, ALL of the locals hang out. Kind of fun, but a bit cramped.
From there we went to Salt River Bay, where Colombus landed on November 14, 1493. Not much has changed in the last five centuries. Well, it was pretty quiet anyway. When we came in, there was a huge north swell running and the entrance is a solid line of reef with a little entrance. The weather report stated, "Dangerous marine condition with 7'-8' swells and 10'-14' breakers with some over 16'." Yep, they were there. A wall of huge breakers were rolling in and it was a bit dicey for awhile, as I tried to see how close we could go while having an exit in case I changed my mind. We made it ok as the closer we got, I could see the narrow entrance. It was hairy though. Once inside, we were stuck for a couple days, however, as the breakers relentlessly pounded it outside preventing our exit. We just looked at each other and read books for two days. (Living on a boat with someone is not easy - sometimes you NEVER get more than a few feet from them).
Finally, we got a break and left. From there we went to Fredriksted on the west coast. Nice, quiet, and not much to do. When we were ready to drop anchor (the only boat in the area) we got some shouts from a park, "Hey do you have any f...ing weed?" A bunch of a^%&**s were hanging out, so I had to change our anchorage. After hanging out with some nice older locals, we got our Vitran (one dollar!) bus back to Christensted. We were going to go to Cheeseburgers in Paradise for dinner but the bus didn't go there as it was a few miles out of town. So we improvised and went to a place on the wharf. When we left, we found out the last Vitran bus wasn't coming due to some problem. Taxi's are cost prohibitive. I noticed a girl walking by that I noticed at the bar earlier and asked her for info, as she looked like a local. In fact she was. Her name is Stephanie and she owns a 60' catamaran that her parents gave her and she does charters. Whoa! She knows everyone there so she took us back to the bar to find a ride. Bingo! We hooked up with a guy who took us back. That is not uncommon. Just people helping people out all the time. I love it.
We left the next day, sailed to St. Thomas as Christine was heading out for a month to visit friends and family. We had a snafu just before she left and it sucked. As soon as she left, I was bummed, but tore into chores like a maniac. I did the laundry, cleaned up, and headed to Compass Bay Marina so I could do some major engine work. We had water in the oil, oil in the bilges, water pumping out of the water pump seal, and an altogether rough idle with a bit of smoke. These things are generally not good.
In the blazing hot Caribbean sun, I put in about 50 hours of work over the week, (I will spare the details - it really sucked), but a huge tropical storm was coming (Omar) and I had to get the hell out of there. In fact as I woke up, it went to hurricane status and was headed directly for the virgins. Problem is, I had one cylinder not firing (BAD news). And if I stayed there I was f***ed. So, I got the mechanic over to help me and he found a pushrod that popped out from under a valve. And NO damage! The best possible scenario. He put it back, I paid him, gave him a 12 pack of beer, and ran out of there headed for St. John to ride out what was to be Hurricane Omar.
It was a rough ride - no boats were out and there was a small craft advisory. Less than a few hours ago I had much of the engine in pieces spread all over the cockpit with oil and grease everywhere. Now I was on a mission to protect Gypsy Cat and myself. I did not know if the repairs where all good as there were many things that I did. But, everything held.
Once at Coral Bay, St. John, it was evening, and all I could do was start
getting the boat ready for a mother of a hurricane. I was up most of
the night (again). Each new report brought more bad news - direction
was steadily on us, increases in wind speed, etc. Before dawn, I got
the report that it upgraded again to Category 2, and was expected to
increase further and still headed directly on us.
(The "H" in the red area is my exact location) I went over to my
spot in the mangroves that I scouted out early last month just in case of
emergency (you ALWAYS have to have a hurricane plan in season). (Me
last month)
And this was where Gypsy Cat was going to ride it out alone. We are
talking about 120-180 mph winds possible and I get off at less than 100mph,
if I can. So I spend about 8 frantic hours getting her ready. A
half day to prepare and that is it. Ignoring the pouring rain,
stingrays, crabs, etc, I tied her off in the mangroves with 7 lines abeam
and forward, with 2 stern anchors hand set about 150' out. Gypsy Cat
has 9 lives and 9 lines to hold her - seemed fitting. A nice network
if I say so myself. I put chafe guard everywhere. I stripped her
bare, tied down everything else, rechecked constantly and said goodbye.
I grabbed my emergency kit with handheld waterproof VHF radio (it got wet
and died - liars), Spot messenger satellite communication, waterproof
flashlight, etc., with a fresh set of clothes, some food, etc. threw it in a
"dry bag", put on my bright red poncho, and hopped in the dinghy for a 2
mile ride. The last weather report was that it was going to go to
Category 3 and possible tornadoes could be expected soon. Great.
And I am all alone with a ways to go. Now, I am so sore and tired, and
I know I have a dinghy ride from hell. The little 3.5 hp dinghy motor does not like
water above the prop. And there were whitecaps and rain and it cut out
about 50 times. Each time a wave would break over it it would die.
And I drove on trying to hold a paddle as a wave shield, each time it died I
had to keep trying to pull-start it, and even paddled
frantically off the bow in between. I honestly thought I would lose it
on a rocky lee shore at one point, and my plan was to ditch the dinghy just
before it hit, and swim across to a little beach where there was a rental
property. Somehow, I made it around the corner though.
Finally, at the dinghy dock, I tied up 3 bow lines to an angled dock, along with a stern anchor and walked through the mud river street to a bar, Skinny Legs, which was the only place in town that was open. I was soaked head to toe and left a large puddle of water behind me. The "dry bag" holding all of my stuff was soaked as well. I sat in the corner like a hobo. They were closing so I got a quick burger and beer (my only meal that day). Wolfing it down as they put up chairs and tables, I walked to the Emmaus Moravian Church. A concrete structure built in the 1700's. That was the safest place to be.
There was the Red Cross there, Department of Homeland Security, Police, and the church lady, Ms. Francis. Wow. Dropping everything I got into unloading the trucks, setting up cots, getting the generator set up, etc. There were only 5 others that took the shelter though. Well, after all the action, most everyone went to sleep (except the cops). Being my first hurricane, I stayed up to monitor it. All the power went out of course, along with all of the radio station towers. Only one radio station, a talk show in St. Croix was up. I could monitor it all night, as it upgraded to Category 3, which is a major hurricane. As the evening wore on, Hurricane Omar started a slightly more east movement. When it reached St. Croix, it missed it to the east. I knew we were good at that point and would not get a direct hit. When it passed us to the east as well, I could see the eye of the hurricane (I kept going outside to watch every half hour). Every lightning strike, you could see the FAST moving clouds from the north, and eastward - the eye - had no clouds. It was blowing a steady 130 mph with gusts to 180mph at that time, but we got nothing over 60mph, I think, where we were as it went by. Fully relieved, I took a 2 hour nap till dawn.
Since then, I retrieved Gypsy Cat (no damage), and spent the last few days putting her back together, cleaning mud and debris from everywhere, washing the lines and stowing, etc. Jeez, I need a vacation!!! So, you see, there IS more to cruising than easy sailing, beautiful beaches, margaritas and such.