US VI

March 10

We enjoyed our stay at Culebra, PR and from there moved over to Culebrita to dive/snorkel. Moved to a quiet anchorage for the night and tucked in with the turtle that welcomed us.

The next day we aborted our plan to dive as the water was too rough at the dive site so on to US Virgin Islands.

It only took a couple hours to get to St Thomas where we anchored outside the main harbor. At least until we almost got run over by a ferry boat. They cut it close enough and fast enough that the wake put our boat over on a 45 degree angle. Things that were not nailed down went flying inside the boat. Not a pleasant experience. So at 5:30 in the evening we upped anchor and moved to a pretty anchorage we had passd on the way in by the airport. Actually not BY the airport but at the end of the runway and off to the side. Seems like it should have been noisy but in reality the airport isn’t a busy one and the planes didn’t go over the boat so it really wasn’t a big issue.  The real upside was that we literally had a reef at the back of the boat so could dive from the LaaDeeDah instead of the dinghy.

So after an early morning dive we dinghyed into the big harbor and hit up the local dive shop where Gary got a new bc as his was acting up, had lunch, and stopped at the local market. We had been told the day before to stop at customs and immigration to check out so we could move on to British Virgin Islands the next day. Once we actually got to the office they said “Oh no. We have an agreement with BVI and you just need to check in with them.” Like everywhere, ask three different people a customs/immigration question,  get three different answers!

St Thomas is a bustling island with anything you could want. Really big cruise ships come into the harbor and offload passengers for day excursions and shopping. The interesting thing we noted was the prices for things were very reasonable. A 10 minute cab ride cost $4 a piece instead of $40-50 as in the Bahamas. Groceries were also more in relation to what you would spend in the states.

We decided to skip St John’s and go directly to BVI. Just west of St John’s is a really cool island called Little St. James Island. It stood out because buildings weren’t missing and construction had obviously been completed. A google search revealed it’s privately owned by American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Wikipedia. Seriously, that’s what it said.