An actual vacation in the USVI

Scheherezade II

We flew back to St. Thomas on the 4th of May; we took delivery of the new dinghy (a Caribe LT10, chosen by the very scientific method known as: It Was Available) on Thursday afternoon and Susan and JP spent Friday morning getting it ready for use and ensuring it could hang from the existing Cato davits.  We took a brief test spin and though we honor the Walker Bay (Scheherezade I) for her 16 years of service, we must say that the inflatable (aka Scheherezade II) is very comfortable and roomy.  In the days since, we can also say she is notably drier.

 We made a couple of provisioning runs to the excellent Moe's across from American Yacht Harbor in Red Hook; AYH very kindly kept us in the same slip for the added two nights' stay and we treated ourselves to dinner out at the very good, rather hidden Three Palms in the complex to celebrate.

On Saturday morning the 7th, we made an epic passage around to from AYH to Great Saint James, picked up a mooring in Christmas Cove, and ordered from Pizza Pi, the well-known "pizza boat" of St. Thomas, which provided dinner and two breakfasts from two delicious pizzas.

On Sunday morning, we actually sailed Raconteur around to the north side of St. John, to Maho/Francis Bay, where we lazed for three nights - unheard of for us - and yesterday we moved around about a half mile? to Leinster Bay / Waterlemon Cay.  It's a quiet week in St. John, it seems; none of the mooring fields have been full.  We will stay here another night; Susan snorkeled yesterday (she and JP snorkeled in Francis too) but I am lazy and the wind is blowing the dickens (gusts to 35).  

We've been cooking on board every day, as most of St. John is National Park, so it isn't the BVI-type experience of sailing from bar to restaurant every day.  Last night it was my mom's potato salad and my version of smash burgers; JP made a beef stir-fry one night, we fried pork chops Ree Drummond-style, and we had a fresh pasta en brodo with a Susan salad.  We are trying to use up as much of the liquor on board as we can, before the shipping adventure.

The ship (Marsgracht) is on its way to Port Everglades; the load date is scheduled for the 19th.  We will continue our vacation until early next week, and then make our way to the surroundings of Charlotte Amalie to execute the long list of things to do.  We have an AirBnB for the 18th and 19th, and a flight out on the 20th - if the dates hold.

Here is Susan, exercising the rusty skill of blowing the conch horn at sunset a couple of nights ago.