Charlotte-Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI

We slept in a little.  These late nights are catching up with us.  But after a couple of cups of coffee, a really good breakfast and a lot of ‘vegging’, we were ready to head ashore.  Is today mail-day?  We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

The walk to the Post Office is just a few blocks past the Kmart.  We took our dock cart with us, optimistically believing the package might be there.  They searched and they searched but came back empty handed.  The clerk told us that the last update in their computers still showed that it cleared out of Puerto Rico.  If it cleared thru Puerto Rico yesterday, you think they would have put it on a plane and it would have been here within hours.  Damn … what’d they do, put it on a boat?  If that’s the case, we might as well set up permanent residency because it may never get here!  So much for paying for priority!

We sulked on the walk back.  Damn, we just want to move on.  There is so much more to explore and hurricane season is fast approaching.  June 1^st is the start of hurricane season.  Hmmm …do the storms have calendars?  Do they know to stay away until at least then?  Actually, everyone tells me I don’t have to worry about hurricanes in this area until late August.  September and October are the heaviest volume of storms and June thru August rarely see any.  The key word there is ‘rarely’.  This is our home.  This is our life.  I want to make sure it’s protected and safe.  I don’t want that ‘rare’ storm to destroy our hope and dreams!  I want to move on to safer waters!  Damn the USPS … where is our package???

Another workday.  We have goals we’re trying to achieve before we leave. There has been no playtime in St. Thomas.  Work … work … work.  I sure hope it’s worth it and that someone actually is reading this crap.  If they are, we really need to move on so they have something more interesting to read!

Lindbergh Bay and Charlotte-Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI

We spent the night in Lindbergh Bay.  At first the internet connection was quite good/consistent but by late afternoon, it was intermittent and then completely void.  URGH!!!  We had so much we wanted to do.  At least I got the update sent yesterday.

This morning I woke about 7am with the intent of continuing the internet work.  Unfortunately, fate had a different idea because I was still unable to connect.  Double URGH!!!

Where the hell is our package with our long range WiFi antenna?  I’m sure it would have made all the difference in the world.  Or, at least I hoped it would!  That’s what it’s meant for … pulling in weak signals!

We tried most of the morning and I was eventually able to connect for a few moments at a time.  I was trying to upload yesterday’s update to the blog.  I would get one date loaded and before I could hit save, it would crash … connection lost!  It was too frustrating for an early morning task!

As the morning progressed, the winds picked up.  It was blowing from the South-SouthEast and causing uncomfortable waves in the bay.  The boat tossed back and forth so violently, a bottle on the counter fell into the sink and broke one of our coffee cups.  Yes, our fault for having ‘glass’ coffee cups but I just can’t bring myself to drink coffee from plastic!  Hate it!!!  Maybe after all these cups are broken, I will have learned my lesson and replaced them with unbreakable ones?

It didn’t take long before we both agreed … we needed to head back to town.  No internet, rolly seas and the decision was an easy one.

We anchored back in our old spot.  After the anchor was set and we’d backed down on it sufficiently to be comfortable it wouldn’t drag, we were within 10-feet of our old anchor point.  Now is that good or what!

We checked on our package this morning and it said it cleared through San Juan, PR  (today).  Hmmm … will it get here and cleared so we can pick it up or not?  It still had an estimated arrival date of today but there’s the million-dollar question … package or no package?  I have my doubts.

We headed back over to the kiosk (Da Lime in Da Coconut) so I could finish up some internet tasks.  I really wanted to get the Blog updated with the latest email sent so that everything is up to date.  I worked and Larry took the walk to the Post Office.  Half an hour later, he returned with no package.  Damn!  They told him it most likely wouldn’t be in until tomorrow (Saturday).  The Post Office was open until noon on Saturdays so guess what our Saturday morning task would be …

Back on Soulmatie for the evening and more work … all these projects have become like a full-time job!  I know it’s because we have so much set-up and stuff to do and we’re still learning.  Hopefully, people will actually read our blog and all this work isn’t in vain!

Where does time go?  1:30am and it is time for bed!

Charlotte-Amalie to Lindbergh Bay, St. Thomas, USVI

We still have a lot of work to do, so we decided to head back to Lindbergh Bay where we can sit on the boat all day and still get reasonable Internet connectivity.  It was a quick and uneventful trip to the bay.  We did the necessary “pump-out” task and should be set for a while.

We’re learning a lot about the Amazon features.  We’ve found a few issues in the stuff we posted online and have been trying to fix them.  It turns out, it takes 24-48 hours for the fixes to make it to the Kindle Store to replace the prior entry. We didn’t know that.  We’ve been redoing things several times wondering why the “fix” isn’t happening … Duh!!!

We will continue sending emails until the end of May.  If you’re interested in pursuing our adventure, we will be providing the link to the website OR you can already subscribe if you have a Kindle device.  (Amazon only offers blogs on Kindles.  You can’t get it through other E-Reader apps like Kindle for PC or Kindle for Iphone.  If they ever do, we will update accordingly).

If you are interested in our 2006 Bahamas trip or reading the book I’ve finally finished, you CAN get these with only an Amazon account and use them on either the Kindle devices OR by downloading the other free reader apps (for PC’s, etc).  If you do purchase either of these, your comments/critique would be appreciated.  Just like with sailing, I’m a student when it comes to writing and never to proud to ask for input.

So … as you can see, we are still in St. Thomas.  Much longer period here than we originally anticipated but we have ordered a bunch of stuff the was delivered to Carl’s (Larry’s brother).  He has now collected it all, repackaged it, and sent it to us.  Thank you every so much Carl.  Hate to admit this but … you’re the best!  It “should” be here Friday (tomorrow).  We’ve been told by all the locals NOT to expect it on time.  When it arrives, we finally get to continue our adventure and I promise, the updates will be a lot more interesting!