Next Stop, St. Croix

After trekking more miles over the island than we sailed alongside, it was time to move on. Our next and final stop for this leg of the trip is St. Croix, 35 miles due south!

Leinster Bay

The last week in St. John we spent moored in Leinster Bay. We stayed so long we had to start with some serious water conservation efforts (aka no showers). Luckily we met a family from Scituate, MA of all places who were chartering a catamaran from Fajardo and were able to spare a few gallons of water to hold us over to get to St. Croix. 

Leinster bay was a quiet place with access to a lot of hiking trails and calm water… once we moved further from shore we didn't have to deal with the bugs anymore.

The Danish Guardhouse overlooking the critical waterways

The view of Tortola, BVIs from the Murphy House ruins looking over the Sir Francis Drake Channel. Could dinghy over there on a calm day if we wanted.

Looking over Leinster Bay and the Narrows

Isabela on the hunt again. Seeing as she has never actually caught anything before, I decided it would be ok to let her give chase to a Mongoose… turns out she can catch mongoose (of all things!). She made quick work of one in the leaves down by the beach. It wasn't a very good training tactic and she was unmanageable for the rest of our stay. Too many things to chase down.

The Murphy house ruins

We would stay longer but we're out of water!

No Frills and Sugar Mills, St. John

We found the perfect island for us; deserted beaches, long hiking trails, mongoose to chase, and crystal clear water. The national park service took over St. John and gave it to the public. There is a $15 mooring fee per night within the park borders to help maintain the park and prevent damage to the bottom from anchors. 

Over the course of 2 weeks we traveled only 6 miles along the north coast of St. John. Every bay had access to different hiking trails, snorkeling and hunting opportunities to keep us busy. After visiting a half dozen sugar mill ruins, we might get into the business. 

 The boiling room: the sugar cane juice would be boiled down in pots until becoming sugar crystals. Imagine working in this place in the tropics.

 The Sugar Reef mill, the last operational mill on the island was outfitted with a steam engine from Glasgow Scotland to crush the cane to release the juice.

 The Glasgow steam engine

Boiling pots strewn around the mill

 The latest sugar mill technology. The mills also had their own rum stills where they would ferment residual cane juice and distill rum. 

 The steam engine turned the large bull gear via a smaller gear creating enough torque to crush the cane. Other methods to crush the cane were windmills or horse/oxen turning the crusher on a circular patch of land. This mill was finally shut down after an accident with the bull gear… not a pleasant thought.

 Sugar reef bay

 Deer, one of the many hunting opportunities for Bela on St. John

Old growth trees, which escaped the clear cutting can be found here and there.

 Petroglyphs left from the natives who came to the island from South America. These were at a waterfall considered to be a sacred site. 

 Fluff from this tree were used to stuff pillows and beds. The stumps of healed branches were cut off and used as turtle decoys… to try to lure in sea turtles?

The last climb before the downhill to Maho Bay

Christmas Cove

After 3 days at Buck Island we took a short sail to Christmas Cove on Great St. James Island. We anchored front and center and were surrounded by charter boats having to pull their boats away from us with their dinghies when the wind shifted. It was entertaining to say the least. Also, Pizza Pi was anchored their providing us with gourmet pizza sticks and large pizzas at outrageous prices. 

 Jim, Corinna and Jack on the way over for cards and pizza sticks

Sailing With Ixion

After a week of cruising St. Thomas with our friends on Ixion we had the chance to take a short sail with Jim and Corinna and circumnavigate Little St. James Island. I'm not sure if the following info is 100% accurate but I'll take a stab at it; They purchased the steel hulled 1970's Endurance 20 years ago in the Great Lakes and over the years rewelded/reinforced the hull, refinished the decks, rebuilt the interior and redid all the rigging.  Not a small undertaking. We loved the opportunity to sail on their boat. Corinna (a licensed veterinarian) also helped us along  with dog stuff since leaving Luperon, including getting papers together to bring Bela back to the states when we fly back from St. Croix.  

It was a great sail, going from close hauled, to a broad reach to finally a beam reach to bring us back to the anchorage. We learned a lot of subtle things that we don't typically do on Sarah….

 Sailing to windward with Cruz Bay in the background

  A ship compared to Sarah (check out those turnbuckles!)

 Bela and I are trying to get into the shade that Jack typically doesn't have to share

 Marine Mammals (But not by choice)

 I'm still trying to figure out the worm gear steering (7.5 turns from lock to lock

 Close call with a charter boat… little did they know if they collided with Ixion they might have been cut in two. 

Buck Island Cliffs

There were a lot of dog walks taken on the island, one of my favorites was the cliff walk on the northern shore. The dogs and owners were occupied with keeping their footing and didn't bother with the seagulls. 

Corinna and Jack from S/V Ixion 

 Bela looking for her next route

 The council of cacti

 Break time

Some technical climbing for Bela

Buck Island

After a bunch of days anchored off of Water Island (not sure how many) it was time to move on… We met our friends in St. Thomas after last seeing them in Boqueron, Puerto Rico. We planned to head to Buck island to do some exploring. Being right off the major port, Buck island is a popular destination for day charters from the cruise ships. After checking the cruise schedule finding no ships in town for a few days we decided to head out there.  It was basically deserted except for a day charter here and there, so we had the place to ourselves.

 Bye St. Thomas, Thanks for the cheap Crown Royal!

 Ixion at anchor in Buck harbor

 Very Hitchcock'esque… it reminded us of our first stop in Boston with our friends Tom and Cynthia on Middle Brewster

3 boats, 2 Dogs vs. thousands of birds

Old meets new…

Had to watch our step with these things in the grass