Virgin Islands – Visit by Erik and Cindy, Feb 28-Mar 8, 2013

Chuck’s nephew Erik and Erik’s wife Cindy flew in to Charlotte Amalie on Feb 28.   While anchored in the Bay awaiting their arrival, we saw an interesting sight.  Two helicopters circled the Bay and then one of them hovered over the dock at the Coast Guard Station.   It was difficult to see what was happening, but later examination of my telephoto pictures revealed that a superstructure suitable for mounting navigation aids was being tied to the helicopter.  When that was secured, the helicopter flew off, presumably to deposit the structure on some hazardous rocky outcrop.

We had a grand time with Erik and Cindy.  We snorkeled at Waterlemon and Christmas Cove, and after checking in to the BVIs in order to pick up an injector pump for our generator, visited the Bight area of Norman Island, where we snorkeled the Caves and the Indians, and of course we stopped in at Willy T’s in order that Erik and Cindy could experience that particular bit of tourist-madness.

While in Francis Bay, Barb took our guests on a walk to the Annaberg Ruins, where they were fortunate to arrive during an expo day.  On Friday night we again partook of the gluttonous meal at Maho Resort, and afterwards watched in fascination as a guest glass blower created a gnarled tree complete with green foliage.  On another day we all joined Hunter and Devi (Arctic Tern) and their guests Craig and Sharon on a hike over the Johnny Horn trail from Waterlemon to Coral Bay and back.   While in Coral Bay we had breakfast at the Donkey Diner, and then walked down to the little grocery store “Love City Mini Market”, which “has everything”.

Erik and Cindy:  great guests, welcome anytime.

Post Script:  On the day after Erik and Cindy’s departure, Mar 8, Barb took some amazing photos while dinghy-ing in to do some laundry.  See the last two photos in the album, below, of a daring rider on a “St Thomas JetRider”.  Barb later found literature which described the setup.  A 33 ft hose from the small boat to the two barrels on the jetpack unit.  Water is pumped at over 1,000 gallons per minute.

PPS:  Today, Mar 20, I am updating the photo gallery, below, to include three photos taken by Erik while he was with us.  I just got them through email a few days ago — hence the delay in their inclusion.