Welcome to the Chronicles of
St Thomas, USVI
10/31/2006
Happy Halloween! Hopefully the day will be filled with treats and not tricks, for all of us! We are sitting off the coast of St Thomas, waiting for a pilot so we can head in. Today is a busy day in St Thomas, as there will be 6 ships (including us) in port today. Of course, this means that we all need to get into port, and you know how it goes, we all want to go in at the same time! So now, we see rush hour in the high seas. There is a cruise ship (could be the Legend of the Seas, which we saw yesterday at St Maarten) ahead of us, and another coming up on our stern. You can see the one coming up behind us in the morning view, if you look closely (on the horizon, a little left of center): To add to the chaos, we (and I am sure most of the other ships), are entering US territorial waters after going to at least one foreign port. That means that we have to be seen by US Customs and Immigration people before anyone gets off the boat - all 1950 passengers and 900 or so crewmembers. It does make it easier when we get back to NYC, because we will have already done the immigration stuff, and not have left US soil before NYC (we have today and tomorrow in Puerto Rico for port calls), but you know it will be crazy for the immigration officers today. Oh well. If you have never seen this on a cruseship, they have everyone march down thru one of the larger venues on the ship, go by the Customs guys, who check your papers, then they usually scan your ships card. Basically, they figure if they see everyone of the ship, and all the paperwork is in order, then they are all set. Once it gets going, it really isn't too bad. Because of the sheer volume of people, and the pace at which they do it, there are ways to spoof the system, but its always a little different, so it would not be the easiest exercise. But it has to be 98% efficient, and I guess that is better than many of the otehr ways to get in to the country illegally. Of course, a cruiseship is one heck of a comfy way to get smuggled into the country! Today, we are headed over to the Winifred, an old wooden racing yacht. There we will be going to some inlets and beahes, doing some snorkeling, lunch, and seeing St Thomas from a totally different perspective. While the island will be over run with passengers from the 6 cruise ships, we will be on a yacht set up to take on only 6 passengers! And last I heard, there were only 4 people booked on this trip. I rather like the idea of a private tour! Maybe they will let me drive this one, too! Oh yeah, for those of you who will ask (and I know you are out there!), all the batteries are charged! Now I just have to remember to bring all the gear! Time to get ready for the day, get out the pirate flag for the daysail, and prepare myself for the inspection! Hopefully I'll pass! We'll see you later. Until then, cross your fingers for me, and Keep Smiling!!!
1800 You know, sometimes, things are just perfect. The sun has just set, the air is starting to cool with a slight breeze, the lights of the city have just come on (as have the lights on the Glory), and everything is calm and beautiful. I am with my wife on a beautiful ship, in a beautiful harbor on a tropical isle. I just spent the day swimming on a private racing sloop, eating some home cooking with people who I arrived with as close friends, and I found 2 more. What more could a man ask for? Okay, besides the winning lottery ticket.
By the way, here is the evening view: Well, when I last wrote, we were on the verge of getting docked, meeting the people from Customs and Immigration, and finally getting on to our tour! 2230 Unfortunately, I had to break off to get dressed for the early show that they were having this evening, which went right into dinner, and then the costume party up in the Crow's Nest. Nothing like a back to back schedule of events! Okay, so we finally get into port, about an hour and a half late (8:30 or so) because, we find out, that there is only one pilot in port this morning (union labor dispute, from the sounds of things). We go with the first group of people to the Immigration guys, because we have an early excursion (no one ever asked if we had an early ship's excursion - I planned this trip myself!). We got our pretty blue cards, gathered our gear, and went off to find a taxi.
The American Yacht Marina in Redhook is about a 20 minute drive from the cruise ship piers (one of two piers set up for cruise ships in St Thomas). We got dropped off, and set about to find Sharon and the Winifred. Luckily, I had emailed her earlier about our delay (and since we were the only people sailing with her today, it wasn't a problem). We found Sharon (the Captain of the Winifred) with her dinghy at the pier. Once introductions were made, Sharon tells us how to get into the dinghy. Gayle, who had a bad experience in a relatively small boat in Newport, is freaking out internally, because this is the smallest boat she has ever seen 5 grown people (and I am not a small grown person) be in! She doesn't realize that the Winifred, all 47 wooden feet of her, is tied to her mooring a hundred yards from the pier. She was much relieved when she saw the yacht.
As we pull up to the Winifred, we meet Tommy, the Winfred's First Mate. He's a great guy, and he helps get us into the ship without any fuss. He also handles the sails, casting off of the line, getting drinks, and a plethora of other duties (kinda like Michael's job back at the studio!). This is a man who clearly loves what he does.
We head out across the channel to St John, and island that is at once a tourist destination, an exclusive big wig retreat (the Rockefellers bought up a good part of the island) and a national park. It also boasts some of the nicest beaches and snorkeling sites you could ask for. On the way, Tommy is pointing out things of interest - what islands are for sale and how much they cost, what condo and tmeshares are good to look at, what resorts we might want to try, etc. We also see some really nice sailboats.
We also catch the edge of a rain squall - actually, we miss the squall, but its a bit windy, and some rain makes its way to us. Naturally that means "break out the slickers," and this is what they look like - yes, they really are yellow.
And I have to tell you about this! Gayle caught a fish! Well, sort of... Tommy had put a line in the water, and Gayle said that if they caught something, she wanted to reel it in. Well, something hit the line, and ran. Tommy came over, followed closely by Gayle. He set Gayle up and told her how to pull the fish in, and reel it, then pull, then reel. Then the fish ran again! Then she pulled and reeled, and then reeled some more. Next thing you know, 30 yards back, Gayle has this fish skimming over the waves as she reels it in. It turns out that it was a baracuda - except that now it was half a baracuda. We think another, bigger baracuda took a bit out of the one on the line, and cut it down to a foot long! We were laughing so hard! I would have gotten a picture, but Tommy tossed the thing into the water before we got a chance. But, Gayle caught more than any of the rest of us!
Sharon was kind enough to indulge the "Where in the World is he Hat" thing, so here she is, proudly sporting the Timethief hat. She actually wore it all the way to St John, said she liked it, and I gave it to her. Here she is:
On the way to St John, I took a bunch of pictures. Here are a few:
We got to Kaneel Bay (and I don't think I spelled that right, but at the moment, I don't care), tied to a mooring, and got in the water. We saw all sorts of fish, including a pair of turtles, some stingrays, a spotted eel, and more. Tommy acted as tour guide thru the bay.
All too soon, our couple of hours snorkeling was done, and it was time to get aboard for lunch.
Then we headed back to Redhook. Of course, we needed the requisite group shot, so here it is. I simply cannot say enough good things about this outing! While I am really sad that this is our last day swimming in the Caribbean, especially knowing what awaits us weatherwise back home, if I was going to pick a way to round out this trip, I could not have done a better job than to end with this experience. Thank you Sharon, Tommy, and the Winifred. What a fabulous day. Once we got back on board, we cleaned up, had a snack, then got changed for the show, dinner, etc. It is Halloween today, so we were in our costumed finery. I was a pirate, complete with sword and pistol, while the girls were Pirate Pete's Angels (hey, I didn't pick the name!), complete with shirts and logos. I will try to get a copy of the pictures we had done downstairs, so you can see what we looked like. And we looked good! Tomorrow is San Juan, Puerto Rico, and another relatively early day. So I will end here, so those of you on the west coast can read this today, and the rest of you catch this tomorrow. I hope this finds you well, and until we meet again, Keep Smiling!!!
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All Images and Accounts of this Adventure are strictly the doings of the Author, and have Nothing to do with the Official Positions or Opinions of Timethief Photography, its affiliated divisions, or anyone associated with the company. If you have any issues with the accounts, how people or places are portrayed, or with any statements of fact, take it up with him! Of course, he'll probably be off on another adventure!
Copyright 2000-2006, Timethief Photography
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