Tag: St.John

Cindy & Kerry’s Visit

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Crystal’s sister Cynthia and her wonderful boyfriend Kerry joined us at the end of February.    With their adventurous and outgoing personalities they explored the beautiful beaches of St. John & soon knew their way around the hotspots of Love City.  They  were on a first name basis with many of the locals within a few days.   Mike and I were able to get a couple of extra days off on a weekend so we all sailed over to the BVI’s, Jost Van Dyke to experience the local flavor of the infamous Foxy’s & the Soggy Dollar Bar.   We soaked up a little too much flavor that day and Cindy’s camara took the brunt of it when it, along with Cindy went for an unexpected salt water swim.     Back on St. John while Mike and I worked, Cindy and Kerry decided they would hitchhike out to Coral Bay and hike out to the battery where a cluster of old Dane cannon are lying on the ground amidst the stone walled ruins.   They were picked up by a wonderful long time local, Georgia Wells.   When she heard they were planning on hiking out to the battery,  she took them on a personal tour of the battery and the ruins of the soldiers quarters as well.    Mike and I planned on meeting them at Skinny Legs after work.  When we arrived we found Cindy , Kerry, Georgia and a number of our other friends all gathered around a large picnic table, enjoying a few drinks and swapping stories.    It was a wonderful visit.   Kerry was rarely seen without a huge smile.

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Family Visit #1

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Funny, as soon as we went back to work…..family began to visit.    It has been a real treat to see familiar faces from home again, even though our time with you is limited.   One of the hardest things about cruising is being so far away from you all.   Our first visitors arrived in January.  Michael’s stepdad Vince and Mike’s Aunt and Uncle,  Barb and Glen Berndt.    Mike’s Mom Lori was also expected but as life so often does, it took an unexpected turn when Mike’s sister Kathy was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  Lori flew out to Colorado to be with Kathy while she underwent surgery.    Vince, Barb, and Glen, did their best to explore the island and carry the stories of our fun time together, back to share with her.

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Our lowly state…

Our lowly state…

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Months have passed and no word from s/v Dancing Dolphin, one can only think the worst.    Has she met with foul play?  Perhaps blown off course by a gale, sent to Davey Jones Locker by the mighty Neptune or   dashed against the rocks marooning Mike and Crystal on some deserted Island?    Sorry to tell you No, although it would make for a much better story.    The reality of our situation is actually much, much worse.  We have chosen to plug back into society for a while and are currently living and working in the US Virgin Islands.   Here is a brief recap of how we ended up in this lowly state, although I don’t think I am going to solicit much pity form those of you experiencing freezing temperatures.    We have spent the last few months caring for the home and cats of our dear friends Chris and Elsa Angel who have been in the states dealing with health issues.   Chris offered Mike a job working as an electrician in addition to the house sitting position.   I stumbled into my job while we were riding the ferry to St. Thomas to look for a vehicle (a story unto itself).  Our friend James Clayton M.D. just happened to be looking for a medical assistant for one of his Doctors.   Right place, right time.  I did an impromptu interview and was hired and working 3 days later.   God works in mysterious ways.  We have spent a couple of months plugging back into society.  We have opened a checking account at a local bank picked up a P.O. Box for mail, and are considering getting a local discount card for the market here.   What a strange feeling to have to jump so many hoops and to learn a whole new set of rules to fit back into society after living free spirited and independent for so long.   “You’ll need two forms of picture ID for most transactions.”  You CAN drink and drive, but make sure you have your seatbelt on, and don’t even think of answering you cell phone while driving! (Oh yea, we have one of those now too!)  I miss my life aboard DD where the most difficult decision was whether to read 1st then snorkel  or vice versa.    I don’t mind though.  The people that I work with are some of the coolest and most professional people I have encountered.  Mike seems to be enjoying working again too.  Chris’s foreman is competent and kind and runs the business much like Mike ran BearWire.

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Arrival on St. John

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Mike and I made our way to Great Cruz Bay on St. John and picked up a mooring near our friends Ken and Katy on s/v Diana.   We will spend the winter here taking care of our friends Chris and Elsa Angels’ house and their cats until they return from the States in early April.   We have spent the last couple of weeks getting reacquainted with life on the rock or as s/v Daniel Storey likes to call us…..CLOD’s  Cruisers Living On Dirt.    Mike has reconnected with a number of old friends and we have made quite a few new ones thanks to introductions by Ken and hitchhiking from the house down to town while we looked for a vehicle.    Michael is working again for Angel Electric and I am working as a Medical Assistant in a Family Practice.   I came by the position by chance as we were riding the ferry to St. Thomas.   We ran into an old friend Dr. James Clayton who owns and operates 3 family practice clinics, 2 on St. Thomas and one on St. John.  He asked if I was looking for work.   I did an on the spot impromptu interview with his office manager in the Red Hook Clinic and was working within a couple of days.     I will be working mostly in the Red Hook but will rotate occasionally into the other 2 clinics and work primarily under Dr. Mark Livingston.   We purchased a Car on St. Thomas that ran for all of 2 days before it decided to begin acting up.   We had to negotiate with the Car Dealer to get a different car.   We are did our best to get into the Christmas spirit.  We attended a great Christmas performance by the St. John Singers in the old Moravian Church.  There are a number of houses sporting Christmas Lights and decorations.  But truthfully, it just seems wrong to see a plastic snowman under a palm tree.   I put up our little table top Christmas tree that I had on the boat last year here at the house.    We have 3 days off together and so perhaps we will hop aboard DD and go for Christmas cruise.    S/V Daniellstorey, s/v Sanctuary, and s/v Diana and all here in the neighborhood and so we will try to plan to spend some time with them over the holidays.   Many of our friends and family are happy that we are settled down in one place for a bit and we have plans for visits from a number of them already.   We are looking forward to seeing them all.  It has been nearly a year since our last visit with anyone from home.   I am missing our traveling adventurous life on the boat but working again is opening up other opportunities.   It also makes me appreciate that much more my time off and the subtle pleasures this Island life offers.

 

USVI

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May 23 – 30th

Arrived in St. Thomas and spent one day restocking a few meal provisions and picked up a couple of fans from Budget Marine that Michael will install in our cabin to make it more comfortable to sleep.   We enjoyed a meal out with David and Trudie and in the morning parted ways to head over to St. John making one stop for fuel and topping off our water.   Persephone has an excellent weather window and so will travel on to St. Martin.    We motored across to St. John and picked up a mooring off of Honeymoon Beach.     The moorings have been installed by the Park Service to help protect the reefs within the marine park and boats are required to use them within the parks boundaries at a nominal $15.00 per day.    We were greeted by a number of laughing gulls who had no fear of humans and found Mighty Mouse to be a comfortable perch.   After enjoying their company we hopped into Mighty Mouse and headed to Cruz Bay.   It had been 5 years since we were last here and we look forward to meeting up with many of our friends.  We walked around the town commenting on the things that had changed and those that hadn’t.     We stopped into Connections where we talked with Syd and Karen.  They had been awaiting our arrival and thankfully the part for our windlass that we ordered a couple of weeks ago to be shipped to them had arrived the day before.  It will be good to have a working windlass again and no longer have to haul the anchor up by sheer muscle.    We were invited to participate in the Friends of St. John, Beach to Beach Power Swim this weekend but with an entrance fee of $40.00 per person we opted to volunteer to help out instead.    We contacted Michael’s good friends Chris and Elsa Angel and met them for a wonderful Greek dinner at the Tamarind.   It was then that Chris told us he was competing in Foxy’s Wooden Boat Regatta over on Jost Van Dyke this weekend and that he could use some crew.    We had already promised that we would volunteer and help with the Swim, but I could see that Michael was chomping at the bit to get to race with Chris.   I suggested he and Chris head over for the race and some manly bonding time and I would remain on St. John and keep DD going while he was away as well as enjoy some girl time with Elsa and fulfill our promise to volunteer for the Swim.    We spent the next couple of days tracking down and visiting with our St. John friends,  surprising some, i.e. Jan and Lance by appearing at their by appearing at their businesses or in Terry (Sloop Jones) case slipping through his garden gate and up the path behind his home/studio.   We also enjoyed a wonderful Lunch at Skinny Legs’ with good friends Cindy and Paco Ward.   It has been wonderful reconnecting with old friends and an added delight when after lunch and while waiting for a squall to pass we met new friends Belinda and John and ended up spending the rest of our afternoon and evening sharing their company on the last evening of their vacation.   They had their own adventure when they ran out of gas on the way back from dropping us off in Coral Bay.   Welcome to the cruising lifestyle you two, where the unexpected happens and challenges us to draw on our wits and keep a sense of humor while working whatever problems we face usually in remote and exotic locations.    Mike and Chris headed out Friday (unfortunately without the camera) aboard Chris’ 37ft wooden Trimaran Rafiki to compete in the Regatta.    On Saturday,  I met up with Elsa and their dog Phinneus and enjoyed a wonderful hike to some old Danish Ruins.    An afternoon storm came up and I had left the Mighty Mouse on the beach.  I had set her anchor well above the tide line but when I returned that evening I found the wind and waves had caused the anchor to drag all the way to the waterline.  She had been pummeled by the rain and waves and was swamped.    It took me ½ hour of pumping to get the water out of her before I could head back to DD.    Lesson learned.    Tie off to something solid when leaving the dingy for any length of time.     I woke early Sunday morning and met the other volunteers on the beach to help set marker buoy’s and pick up water and station my dingy to distribute water to the swimmers.   We ended up with extra volunteers so I rafted up with the Whitback brothers an amazing couple of young entrepreneurs with a wonderful gift for boat building.  Check out their boat and website.   www.blacksailsvi.com.  We swapped stories, handed out water, and shouted encouragement to those making the long swim and then joined the swimmers and other volunteers on the beach for Lunch and the Awards Ceremony.    Mike and Chris sailed back from Foxy’s with a respectable 2nd place just behind Angelfire,  a 52ft Trimaran and regaled us with stories of their weekend of racing.  We enjoyed a final dinner with Chris and Elsa who were hoping we could stay a few more days, but as always we must keep pressing south toward Grenada and out of the path of potential big Storms that are predicted to come this summer.

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