We arrived in St. Thomas, USVI on April 7th before Easter.  So had Easter potluck dinner on our boat with cruisers which was very nice.  The anchorage of Charlotte Amalie is pretty rolly so endured our stay there.  Plus no more roosters waking us up so we missed that.  Instead we have non-stop street traffic, airplanes, float planes and cruise ships as our vista but the high hills are very pretty.  We enjoyed our time with Sea Otter (Teri/Brit) as she was an amazing host by taking us by car around St. Thomas to see the island.  She also gave us a HUGE reduction in ticket costs to take the sky ride to the top of high hill to see the city.  The city is easy to get around via the safarri buses that cost around $2 so was easy to provision.  We are now in the black/rasta caribbean culture which is very different than the spanish.  Overall its abit more direct/tougher people.  They have endured a lot from their slave background so need to be open to what they are about.  

We were in St. Johns, USVI till 4-20 enjoying the snorkeling again since leaving the Bahamas. God’s provided a lot of diversity between Bahamas/DR/PR/Virgin Islands so the spirit doesn’t get bored. Its nice to have mooring balls @ $15/night to assist in preserving the reef as the water depths here are deep (quite different from the 10 foot average in the Bahamas)! The costs for safarri here are higher at $9 so we figured out how to get a bus ride on the southern circle route and then walk down a HUGE hill (about 1/2 hour) to our dinghy for $1 but they cancelled one bus so we had to wait for 1-1/2 hours.  So this is the life of cruisers which I wouldn’t have done living on land.  

Currently checked in at Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands so paid their $25 fees (weekends are higher).  This US and British Virgins are very close so only 7nm from St. John.  We are waiting for a credit card (company name change) and power supply for our laptop coming to St. Thomas so decided we might as well see some of the BVI.  Rose wasn’t that excited about the BVI as it does have a HUGE charter population which means crowded anchorages/worry about their skills/etc.  Its different if the sailboat is your home!  Its much more complicated to get insurance claims/boat repair done in strange countries plus we only have till July 1^st to get out of hurricane areas.  

We have decided to change plans and put Sojourn on the hard at Trinidad (Chagaramus? – near Port of Spain) this summer and Venezuela next summer. Price is higher but there are many reasons for this. We have also decided to come back north/west abit this fall/winter to enjoy these caribbean islands as we will pass them rather fast this year.  We really want to explore inland Venezuela and outer islands but this will have to wait abit.  We will then continue south to Columbia/Western caribbean 2009. 

We will be coming back to Mpls. From July 17-Sept 15^th as we were able to use frequent flyer miles via friend Vicki’s GREAT help. Vicki has been their to lend a generous hand and we sooo appreciate her! Its amazing how difficult it is down island attempting to book a NWA flight via the internet using miles or calling their 800 # when it tells you will have to call back as they don’t have any agents available.  We took a lot of things for granted when we lived on land! We look forward to connecting with family and friends again!  

Thoughts:

–        It still amazes me how you can go up to any cruiser to learn about your new neighborhood (harbor).  Common ones are WiFi, garbage, grocery, laundry, water/fuel, marine/hardware store, local buses, what’s happening here, etc.

–        We can feel summer coming as its getting hot/humid, more noseeums biting us and trade winds are being interrupted with rain/squalls/etc.  I am so glad that I packed loose dresses.  I rarely wore summer dresses in MN.  It could also be my change of life approaching – a local carib woman calls it her “personal summers”!

–        Our laptop Mfg. is under a lawsuit and after many signed documents and months, we were told that we had 13 days to get it to them back in the US.  Well, that would be simple if on land but this is our main computer for navigation/SSB/e-mail, ship/cost from BVI, etc…  Us sailors don’t lead normal lives that land based people understand!  This is just one example of stuff that happens.

–        Every 2 weeks we are cleaning the bottom of Sojourn via snorkeling so this is quite exhausting but good cardio exercise.  We noticed that our Micron Extra which is a fresh/salt water bottom paint doesn’t hold up as well as Micron 66 salt water only version.

–        We are now in slave country where there are 109 sugar plantations with only 3 mills driven by wind – rest by horse or people.  In 1840 most islands abolished slavery but these islands owned by Danes didn’t till 1847.  Slaves weren’t allowed to go to school till 1844.  With sugar and molassis comes RUM!

–        I guess we have traveled around 4800nm which doesn’t seem like much if you are driving a car at 60km but at our 6nm/hour its a lot of hours since leaving June, 2006.  We have been in 7 countries/jurisdictions.  There are lots ahead of us as it changes every few islands so lots of custom/immigration fees and currency.

–        They drive on the left side of the road here so I continue to almost get run over by looking the wrong way!  Plus what’s weird is that in the BVI they use US money.  

Keep the dreams alive!  

Love YouRose & Tom