With a few final adjustments from Ashton and Smiley we had a working engine at last. Our maiden voyage was to sail over to St John so that Lee could complete the electrical installation. We had installed two new 190 amp batteries fixed side by side in the cockpit locker. One was just for the engine and anchor winch. The other would supply the navigation equipment, VHF radio and all the rigging lighting as well as cabin lights, radio and so on down below.
Sailing Away from Nanny Cay
We took on 120 gallons of diesel. Motoring out of Nanny Cay we hoisted the sails for the first time. There was a light breeze. After the storm the winds were unusually south westerly and so an upwind sail to St John. That meant tacking. It soon became apparent that gaff rigged cruising boats cannot point very high. Once we were closing on the eastern end of St John I noticed a water spout between us and St Croix… the sea equivalent of a tornado. Whoa! To get away from it Jon fired up the engine revs to 2000 rpm and motored the rest of the way into Coral Harbour – the hurricane shelter on the south side of St John, stowing the sails underway. As the daylight faded we could make out Lee’s trimaran so went about 100 yards ahead of them and dropped the anchor.
Lee and Mary were now the proud patents of a baby girl they called Sequoia. The next day Lee was hoisted up the main mast in the bosun’s chair (Jethro’s swing) to wire the mast head light and radio antenna. He could use his 110 volt soldering iron to make connections powered by our portable generator. He did all the instrument panel wiring and connections to the bunk lights. The radio cassette player in the aft cabin was connected to speakers in the cockpit as well. What utter luxury. The electric lamps above our bunks were much brighter than the paraffin lamps had been. That night I stayed awake reading until after midnight.
Monday 13th October was Columbus Day and therefore a public holiday. Jethro and I hitch-hiked into the capital called Cruz Bay, admiring the beautifully unspoilt countryside in marked contrast to St Thomas. We left Jon and Lee working on board.
We learned from our lift driver that Laurence Rockefeller had bought up more than half of the land in St John in the 1950’s and made it a National park. That explained the contrast. He had also bought land on Sage Mountain on Tortola and gifted that to the BVI as their rain forest National park. I took our passports and the boat documents in to the quaint little Customs House on stilts with a sign outside reading “10 people maximum”. Passports stamped again, we were cleared back into the US territory.
Clearing into Cruz Bay USVI
There was a pretty wooden yacht at anchor in Cruz Bay called Sea Legs. We watched a young blond American guy lowering a wheelchair into the dinghy alongside then shuffling into the dinghy himself. I wondered if he had lost his legs in Vietnam.
We said goodbye to Lee, Mary and Sequoia the next morning and left Coral Harbour to motor under just mizzen and jib to charge the batteries and headed for the North Coast. It was very rough and choppy as a result of the weather caused by the passing hurricane and I was sea sick for the very first time. Jethro slept soundly in the cockpit.
We tucked into the sheltered bliss of Leinster Bay inside Watermelon Cay where we anchored on sand in 15 feet of turquoise water. Once we settled back on the anchor we fixed the swim ladder and went for a snorkelling session over the reef a couple of hundred yards away. We spotted star fish, sea urchins and enchanting stagshorn corals all teeming with multicoloured fish. Next morning we dinghied ashore and walked up to the Annaberg windmill ruins. It was an extensive sugar plantation when the island was under Danish ownership in the 18th and 19th centuries. Over 600 enslaved Africans had worked here. A sobering thought.
Red Hook, St Thomas, USVI
We sailed over to the Eastern tip of St Thomas the next day and dropped anchor in Red Hook. There was Tern VI at anchor, with Roger taking on charter guests and provisions. Jon went ashore to track down bilge cleaner and rubber gloves. All that choppy sailing had stirred up the grimy depths of rust and sawdust and goodness knows what else. He planned to run 40 feet of small chain through limber holes either side of the keel to help clear the sludge away. Jethro and I stayed on board enjoying watching all the comings and goings, and playing Lego.
On Sunday morning we were all sitting at the table in the cockpit having a bowl of of cereal. We looked up at the sound of gospel music coming from the shore. It was stirring to hear them belting out gospel music with such gusto. Jethro said ,
“Why are they singing so loud?”
I replied, “So that God can hear them in the sky.”
“Where does he live in the sky.”
“ On top of the clouds in Heaven.” he thought for a few moments then said ,
“How does he come down to do his shopping?” I had no answer for that.
With a double layer of bin liners in the old cold box Jon managed to fill it with sludge from the bilges which he then rowed ashore to a dumpster. A large proportion of the nasty cocktail was dead cockroaches. That night there was a thunder and lightening storm. After running around closing the deck hatches and locking the open port holes Jon noticed we were dragging anchor and getting too close to other anchored yachts. Action stations demanded motor on, anchor up, navigation lights on and a hasty move nearer to the mouth of the bay. We had both donned our foul weather jackets for the first time. Jethro slept soundly through it all.