Friends from Savannah, Beth Logan and Steve Ellis, arrived at Charlotte Amalie late on the afternoon of Jan. 14. We got them settled in and oriented and had dinner aboard. Steve was heavily medicated for his cold – an affliction that nearly caused the cancellation of their visit – and was much quieter than usual, but as the week wore on he became more and more his usual voluble self. Next morning we departed Crown Bay Marina and motored up to Jost Van Dyke, where we checked in to the BVIs and had lunch at Foxy’s. Later that day we caught a taxi over to the Soggy Dollar, where our guests did some swimming and we all did some sunning and some drinking of Pain Killers, the libation which became the drink of choice during their visit, with those served at Soggy Dollar clearly the best.
On Jan. 16 we moved around the corner to the east end of the island, where Beth and Steve got in some serious beachifying on Sandy Spit. When they were suitably browned and toasted, we moved over to the mooring field just off Foxy’s Taboo. We took the dinghy in and hiked the short distance to the Bubbly Pool, where Beth and Steve enjoyed being thrashed about by the breakers that occasionally came crashing in. Next morning I returned alone and photographed the White-cheeked Pintail ducks (and several other birds) that populated a path-side pond.
When I returned to the boat we headed for the Indians, but found all of the moorings occupied. So we went in to Pirate’s Bight on Norman Island and took a mooring and dinghied over to the Caves and snorkeled there instead. Then, a visit to the restaurant/bar/beach at the east end of the Bight, for more Pain Killer sampling. And then a trip to the famous Willy T’s, for, um, a Pain Killer. We were on the upper deck when a couple of young things decided to honor the Willy T tradition and bare their upper torsos and jump over the edge. I had only Barb’s camera, which suffers from the usual point-and-shoot malady of a long delay between pressing the shutter button and actual image capture. #$*@!!!!
Next morning (Jan. 18 – are you keeping up with this chronology?) we moved over to the Indians and were the first to take a mooring. Great snorkel, after which we took the boat all the way back to Caneel Bay, St. John, USVI, so we could dinghy in to Cruz Bay in order to check in to the good ol’ USA. After some shopping and some lunch at the Beach Bar, we returned to TT2 and motored over to Cinnamon Bay, where we took our guests ashore so Beth could do some reconnoitering for a possible site for a family reunion. Later that day we had prime rib at the campground restaurant. Next morning we moved to Waterlemon Bay, where Barb took a break and the rest of us snorkeled. Then we took the dinghy to shore and walked up to the ruins at Annaberg Sugar Plantation. We were back on the boat when a dinghy approached our stern and its lone occupant asked about our boat name. Turned out he was on the boat Viking Spirit and is from Kristiansand, Norway, where our friends Lars Helge and Tove Brunborg live. Not only did Arild Anderson know the Brunborgs, he is a former colleague of Tove! Lite verden! (Small world!)
Waterlemon is such a popular place for snorkeling that we felt guilty about continuing to occupy a mooring after having already snorkeled there, so we moved over to Francis Bay, where Barb and our guests did some snorkeling along the point separating Francis and Maho Bay.
On Jan. 20 our guests did more snorkeling (along the north shore of Francis Bay) and then we moved to Christmas Cove in order to stage for our return to St. Thomas. Next day — you guessed it – Beth and Steve did one last snorkel before we moved to Charlotte Amalie. We had lunch at the Green Garden and our guests did some window-shopping before we sent them off to the airport in a taxi.
It was a great visit; we hope they enjoyed it as much as we did.