Passages: No. 10 The U.S Virgin Islands – St Croix and St Thomas.

We arrived in Christiansted, St Croix on Monday morning 9 April 2018. We dropped anchor a few times as we were not happy with our location and the way we were swinging towards another boat close by.
According to the sailing website, we could ‘check in’ at the Customs and Border Protection Dock

Government House, Christiansted

which was at the marina, about 1km from where we had anchored. Easy!!! Well we hadn’t considered the effects of Hurricane Irma and Maria. We took the dinghy down and motored to the marina, however Customs and Border Protection were no longer there, since the hurricanes had destroyed their buildings. As a result, we now had to go to the airport which happened to be on the other side of the island. We knew (from a past bad experience) we had to phone the Customs and Border Protection immediately on arrival, to inform them that we had arrived, but we don’t have connected mobile phones other than Skype and we require Wi- Fi for that. We had the numbers to

Fort Christianvaern

phone them…… but ……We asked at one of the

waterfront restaurants if we could use a phone which they kindly did, however we could not get through and we later found out these numbers had all changed since the hurricanes (even though the numbers were still posted at the marina). We thought the only thing to do was to go to the airport, but you would think finding a taxi would be easy. Nothing ever is! A cruise ship was in town, so the taxi rank which is usual full, was empty as they were all at the cruise ship dock.

A very long story cut short….. we eventually managed to contact a Customs and Border Protection official at the airport, who said we were to come to the airport and that they would be expecting us but not during their lunch hour.

Downtown Christiansted, St Croix.

We found our way to the airport, seeing a bit of the island we hadn’t anticipated seeing – about 3 hours later we were back in Christiansted, enjoying a drink having been through all the red tape of being a foreign registered vessel entering U.S territory.

St Croix, like St Thomas is mainly geared for cruise ship goers. Lots of jewellery and clothing shops, all high-end names. We enjoyed walking around the town, admiring the old buildings with many still flying the Danish flag along with the US flag. As you looked around you could see how the hurricanes had affected the island, which was a recurring scenario as we travelled through to Fajardo, Puerto Rico, but I will write more another time. Many buildings on St Croix and St Thomas, still had the recognisable blue construction awnings over a large section of the structure.

A hen with her chicks wandering the streets

in Christiansted, St Croix.

One fascinating aspect of St Croix was the number of cockerels and hens with their chicks roaming the streets. It was as if they had ‘free range’ of the streets. When asked if they belong to anyone, the answer was ‘No! They belong to everyone’.
Part of the large anchorage on the western side of Protestant Cay, where we had anchored, was designated as the landing and take-off area for sea planes that fly between a few of the islands in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. It was fascinating to watch the whole procedure.

The sea plane, Christiansted, St Croix..

We also saw quite a few turtles while we were anchored behind Protestant Cay, which is always lovely to see and hear.
We stayed in St Croix until Thursday 12 April 2018 (Happy 21^st wedding Anniversary to us) when we decided to sail to Charlotte Amelie, St Thomas which was approximately 35 nmiles north. This was an enjoyable sail – but once again, we only saw two yachts in the 6 hours we were sailing, something quite rare for us since we had been sailing up the East Caribbean island chain.

The bay in Charlotte Amelie, St Thomas was huge, and we were spoilt for choice. Anchoring was easy and uneventful. We enjoyed three days in Charlotte Amelie, visiting a few of the many old sites of the town as we had done in St Croix. One can go on a self-guided walk, using a map showing a few of the historical buildings.
St Thomas was once home to many famous pirates like Bluebeard and Blackbeard. (Edward Teach).

Fort Christian

We saw Fort Christian which was built in 1672 by the first Danish settlers who used it as the first government house, church and community centre. At one time, it was also used as a jail and functioned as the first governor’s mansion. It is the oldest standing structure in the whole of the Virgin Islands.

Mel outside the synagogue.

We walked to the synagogue, which is the oldest synagogue in continuous use anywhere in the United States or its external territories. It is called Beracha Veshalom Vegmiluth Hasidim (Wikipedia link)

On the Saturday morning, we walked to Frenchtown for breakfast. As you enter the area, there is a small replica of the Eiffel Tower. Many of the people who live in Frenchtown are descended from French labours, originally who left Normandy and Brittany for St Barts in the 1600/1700’s and then emigrated to St Thomas in the 1800’s. The people in Frenchtown speak their own dialect, which is a mixture of Norman French, Creole and English. Bastille Day is celebrated in Frenchtown.

Downtown Charlotte Amalie.

Later in the afternoon, we went across to one of the main cruise ship areas – just to have a look. St Thomas’s population can double on days when cruise ships come to stay. Some people, as we saw while walking around, will just walk off the cruise ship to the main shopping centre at the terminal and that is where they will stay for the rest of their time in St Thomas. Each to their own I suppose.

Anyway, we were keen to get going as the glints of all the shops don’t appeal to Mel and me, so on Sunday 15 April 2018, we lifted our anchor and headed for Vieques which is sometimes referred to as the Spanish Virgin Islands and is part of Puerto Rico. We chose Vieques this time round, as in 2014 we sailed and spent some time in Culebra and Culebrita. We were tempted to sail to Culebra as we enjoyed the island so much, but we are trying hard not to visit the same places as in 2014, all the time. For those that have been following us from the start, Culebra was where we had a very unwelcomed visitor on our dinghy, who tried to get on our boat as well. The picture is to remind you of the ‘character’. Culebra also has one of the best beaches in the world – Flamingo Bay.

So, until next time I write about our sail and time in Vieques and Fajarda, Puerto Rico - Keep well and safe.

Bye for now.

Mel and Caryn

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