We left St. Croix on Tuesday, 2/7/12 and, despite rough weather forecast, decided to stick our nose out there to see if we could make more easting. Wind and sea conditions caused banging and waves in the boat. Not wanting to break the boat, we decided to turn around and head to St. John at 3:30 Wed. morning. We picked up a mooring ball in a hurricane hole in Coral Bay by 11:30 am. This is a beautiful, protected bay, supposedly where "the hippies go to die". On Thursday we swam ashore and hitch-hiked across the island of St. John to Cruz Bay. The next day we sailed around the east end of the island and had a rare downwind sail to Francis Bay. Our next stop was Trunk Bay for a daystop to enjoy the beach and snorkeling. On Saturday, 2/11/12 we made our way to Magens Bay, St. Thomas. This is listed as one of the ten best beaches in the world by National Geographic. We surprised my brother, Lou and his wife, Martha there- they had just arrived on the island the day before. Leiby built them a sand structure greeting. Martha and I did some grocery shopping and Lou and Leiby brought the boat around the island to meet us at Bolongo Bay, where my parent's condo is located. Leiby and I spent the next 3 nights anchored at Cowpet Bay. Lou and Martha joined us for a daysail on Tuesday, 2/14/12. We sailed from Cowpet Bay through Current Cut north- through Middle Passage between Grass Cay and Thatch Cay. Tacked to get to White Bay, Jost Van Dyke, BVI. Picked up a mooring ball there for lunch- crazy anchorage, there were breaking waves right behind us from a nearby reef. We went SE through Thatch Island cut and then west along the north coast of St. John, back to Cowpet Bay. The next day Leiby and I motored east up Sir Francis Drake's Channel and anchored at Virgin Gorda. We left Virgin Gorda early on Th 2/16/12 and had a beautiful sail all day toward St.Maarten. We lost our fishing lore, "Brett Michaels"- stolen by a fish as we dropped off the bank. We name our lores after rock stars. Our most successful one to date has been "Cindy Lauper"- one we have also lost. "Steven Tyler" has not produced anything for us yet, not even a bite. Ronnie Van Zant caught a barricuda before reaching St. Thomas. Old, rusty Meatloaf does not produce for us, either. But our new lore, "Pink" caught us a nice sized dolphin fish right at dusk. At 6:30 pm we decided to head for Saba instead and altered our course. This was a perfect point of sail all night . Just after sunrise we were moored in Fort Bay and Leiby went ashore to do the customs thing. This is a unique island- only 5 sq miles but over 3000 ft high. It literally touches the clouds. We switched our anchorage to Ladder Bay, where a set of crazy steps go up the sheer cliff. This is where goods used to be off loaded, before the harbor was built. The anchorage was very international- we shared it with French, German, Dutch, Norwegian and English boats, not one other fellow American. On Sunday, we hiked up Mt. Scenery, the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The trail includes 1064 steps. Yesterday, we left Saba before 5:00 am and had a one tack sail to St. Maarten. We anchored in Simpson Bay and went through customs. We are looking forward to having one of our daughters, Tasha, join us tomorrow for 9 days. Pictured: moored in Coral Bay; sitting in the mangroves; sand sculpture greeting for Lou and Martha; the Magens Bay shot; Lou on deck at Bolongo; breaking waves during lunch; the dolphin fish; the stairs in Saba; moored at Ladder Bay, Saba; hiking up Mt. Scenery; a town from Mt. Scenery; in the clouds at the top of Mt. Scenery.
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