So … is today the day? The weather forecast is only slightly better
than yesterday. But hey, better of any
type is still BETTER! We decided to
just go for it. Our options were
open. If we got out there and it was
simply too rough, we would head back to port.
The winds and waves would carry us back to port very comfortably. There were a couple of places we could stop
within the first couple of hours if it was unbearable. OR … we could make it through the cut and to
the north coast of St. John where we planned on spending the night.
Once we got out of the channel and into open
waters, the seas grew. We had a little
protection from one of the out-islands but I think that only broke up the waves
and made them ‘choppier’, rather than nice rolling seas. But we persevered. It was rough. Every few waves, there would be a ‘knock us on our
ass’ kind of wave that would heel the boat right over on her side. We’d right ourselves, check below for any
damages and continue. We approached the
northerly turn into Current Hole channel that ran between St. Thomas and Great
St. James Island and tried to make the turn.
The 6-7 foot waves were completely on our starboard side and sending us
violently tossing about. It actually
knocked me off my seat at one point when I wasn’t prepared. Shit … I learned my lesson! We decided to abort the turn and head to the
sheltered waters of Great St. James Island.
This was a wise choice. As we approached the shallows off of Great
St. James Island, the waters calmed.
Okay, maybe “calmed’ is a relative term after the last hour or so but it
was enough to allow us to head north through the cut.
We were a little apprehensive. All the documentation on this cut warned of
higher than normal winds, unstable sea conditions and currents up to
4-knots. Considering we’d been doing
less than 4-knots for some of today, head into the wind all morning, this was a
little unsettling. Would we be slipping
backwards? But, we pushed through. It was awesome. The winds howled through the cut at about 35-40 knots but it was
almost slack tide. There was a slight
current (in our favor) and we managed to maintain our 4-knots through the cut
and to the protected waters of the north side.
YIPPIE!!!
Traveling this coast was so much nicer than
the south coast of St. Thomas. It was
sheltered from the trade winds and considerably calmer seas. Before long, we pulled into Francis Bay, St.
John, USVI and took a park mooring ball.
The water here is deep (over 50 feet deep right up to the protected
swimming area) so a mooring is really your only option.
Once settled, we lowered the dinghy and went
ashore. First, stop … to pay the $15
mooring fee for the night. $15 isn’t
too bad. Most moorings cost between
$25-$50/night … sometimes even higher.
We gladly paid the $15 for a nice protected harbor. It was funny. In the middle of the bay is a floating platform, much like a
floating swim platform that you see in so many lakes up north. But this was owned by the National Park and
housed the little box and forms to pay your mooring fee. We stopped there and took care of business
before heading ashore.
Once ashore, our plan was to take the nice
walk, passed the salt pond and to some plantation ruins. It started out a beautiful walk along a
really nicely maintained boardwalk. The
path that was cut through the trees made it seem almost mystical. Birds chirped and serenaded us. Thousands of tiny red crabs scurried into
holes as we passed. Lizards would perch
alertly, observing our every move and scampering out of our path if we got too
close. It was awesome. AND … I didn’t see one spider (my biggest
fear!). But about 10 minutes into the
walk, it happened. OUCH! I got a bite. A few seconds later … smack! … I got another bite. Soon Larry was swatting himself frantically
too. Those DAMN mosquitoes!!! We scurried the short distance to where the
path met up again with the cove, before it turned and took you to the
ruins. Hike was over. We ran and submerged ourselves in the salt
water in an attempt to free ourselves from those nasty buggers!
The walk back along the beautiful, white
sandy beach was horrible. It’s like a
swarm of mosquitoes found a smorgasbord and weren’t about to leave. We got back to the dinghy as quickly as
possible. Even as we left shore, I
could see at least 10 of those determined little biters all over Larry’s
t-shirt. He accelerated the dinghy
until finally, they were left behind.
Now, we just hope we are far enough off-shore that they won’t feast on
us tonight!
Back on Soulmatie, we decided to clean the
boat bottom. We just had the bottom job
done before we left but already little barnacles had attached themselves
everywhere. I don’t know if it’s the
bottom paint we used or if it was poorly applied but whatever the case, it was
horrible. Personally, I like ‘hard’
bottom paint. The paint goes on and
dries to the touch and seems to last a long time. When we bought Soulmatie, she had an ablative paint. This means it is supposed to come off to the
touch. Theoretically, stuff doesn’t
really stick to the paint and therefore easier to remove. I think it’s a marketing scheme to make you
have to get bottom jobs done more frequently.
When we originally had her hauled, our bottom was covered with
crap. We’d cleaned it several times
since we had Soulmatie and you could see bottom paint missing from where we
attempted to get all the growth removed.
I really wanted to go with a ‘hard’ paint but at the haul-out yard, they
said once you have an ablative paint, you have to continue with this type
(unless you want to pay several thousands of dollars to have the hull
completely cleaned down to the bare fiberglass and start over). We went with an ablative paint again.
It’s crap.
Every time we brush against the hull, we get green paint on us. My fin has green paint all over it from
where I kicked the rudder trying to get lower on the boat to clean further
down. And every place we scraped the
barnacles off, you can see a definite difference in how much paint seems to be
there. Personally, I don’t think they
did a very good job applying the paint.
It wasn’t thick enough. I don’t
think this paint will get us very far at all … let alone, around the world!
We had a quiet evening and enjoyed the calm of not
being in St. Thomas … and luckily, it was mosquito free!
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