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We woke up at 6:00 am, very eager for this year's Island Hop. It was a yearly tradition, but we weren't able to do it last year because of bad weather. We made coffee and got our stuff together. Marty called and tried to get us to believe that it was raining and we would have to cancel. We know him too well, though. He laughed and admitted that it wasn't raining at all. However, he seemed to jinx the weather by doing this. He rode his motorcycle over to our hotel, and was absolutely soaked by the time he arrived. There wasn't enough rain to cancel the trip, but there was a shower, and he rode right through it.
He arrived at 7:45, drank a cup of coffee, and then we were off to the American Yacht Harbor in Red Hook. We usually park along side of the road (which is actually quite precarious due to ditches, no shoulder, etc), but they are in the process of building a new shopping center and garage. Because of this, they put up guard rails and there is much less free street parking. We parked in the garage under the marina for $12. We brought our snorkel gear to the boat, said hello to Matteus (owner of See & Ski, whom we have rented the boat from every year), and then walked across the street to Marina Market to buy provisions. We stopped at the deli counter first to put in our sandwich orders. I ordered the strange tangy combination of turkey, cranberry sauce, and dijon mustard. Craig ordered turkey with cheese and bacon. While we waited for the sandwiches, we wandered the store gathering the rest of our supplies. We got Sun Chips and (at Marty's suggestion) thick Lay's chips with Sea Salt. We also got banana nut muffins, Mountain Dew, a case of Heineken, and Mike's hard cranberry lemonade. There was a cute little 5-liter keg of Heineken, and we took a photo op of Marty pretending to conceal it under his shirt. We picked up our sandwiches and Marty picked out a variety of yummy baked goods. Craig grabbed a bag of ice (Bumble ice! Like from Rudolph!) and we checked out. We carried our stuff across the street and loaded up the boat. We usually need our passports, as we tend to enter the British Virgin Islands. However, Marty is in the process of getting a passport, and he didn't have his birth certificate with him. That was ok, we would stay in U.S. waters today. It was a bigger boat than we usually had (a 31-footer) so there was plenty of room for the four of us. It was a nice boat and had a Garmin GPS and a CD player. We were on the water by 9:00. We cruised around, enjoying the sunshine. I had gotten a little bit of a burn yesterday, so I covered my shoulders with my sarong to try to protect them. Craig tried to stay under the awning with Marty so that he wouldn't get burned. Craig was the first mate on this voyage, raising and lowering the anchor, etc. We passed the rock which looked like a ship and reportedly was used for target practice by pirates. We passed Congo and Lovango and headed over to St John, where we dropped anchor for a while and enjoyed watching the pelicans soaring and diving straight into the water. we saw the house near Mick Jagger's that is still under construction, 6 years later! Now that's "island time." It is a sprawling meandering villa/castle which is absolutely gorgeous. When we continued past more of St John, we saw the windmill base from the Annaberg Sugar Mill Ruins at Leinster Bay, which we had visited in 2004. Then we headed back towards St Thomas. We dropped anchor at Lindquist Beach, where we had gone swimming on our Wild Thing trimaran ride in 2002. We ate our sandwiches here at around 11:30. It was a very relaxing day. We had nothing really on the agenda, and we justcruised around at a liesurely pace. The weather was beautiful. We wanted to swim at some point, so we kept an eye out for a nice place to drop anchor and swim ashore. A lot of the bays were too rough though, so we kept looking. We meandered around to the back sides of some of the little rocky offshore islands. The Garmin GPS was a fun toy, and we were entertained by looking at our bearings and the depth readings. We broke out the snacks: Sun Chips and the Sea Salt Thick Lays. The Sun Chips seemed to be coated in Sea Salt as well, since we were on the water. We passed by Coki Point, one of our favorite spots on the island. We passed Magen's Bay, one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, according to National Geographic. Marty's apartment overlooks this lovely heart-shaped bay. We continued around St Thomas to the westernmost point: Botany Bay. We found a secluded beach on Sandy Bay and anchored the boat. We swam ashore, and the water sure felt refreshing after a day in the hot sun. The water was a gorgeous turquoise blue and there were cacti clinging to the cliffs. There was nobody on the beach, though there was a staircase leading up somewhere (they just kind of disappeared into the trees). Marty kept stepping on areas of sand and water bubbled to the surface. We enjoyed the beach for a while and then swam back to the boat. We cruised around some more, hanging out for a while at Great St. James and Little St. James, and returned the boat at 4:45. This was the first year that we weren't making a psychotic dash to the harbor to try to beat the 5:00 deadline. Marty parked the boat like a pro in the tight spot, in the last mooring. Matteus watched and was impressed by Marty's driving. We paid for the boat, unloaded the cooler, and headed back to the room. We sat on the patio and watched the sunset. Marty had to go home to take care of his dog Freddy, so we said goodnight and promised to meet up again tomorrow. We didn't feel like heading out again, so ordered two pizzas (cheese and pepperoni) from Senor Pizza in Red Hook. They delivered it to the room. It had a thin crust and was very garlicky. We were so tired after our day in the sun that we almost fell asleep at the dinner table. We then migrated to the living room and watched some really hokey shows on the Discovery channel. In no time at all Craig was fast asleep. Steve and I got a chuckle but we soon follwed suit. Realizing that we had all fallen asleep in front of the TV, and decided it was time to go to bed. We were asleep by 10 o'clock. |
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