Tuesday, May 24, 2011

When it rains it pours


We said our goodbyes to Warren and Kathie, headed north to St. John and spent the next week bumping around the USVI checking out the different spots along the coasts. 

Kathie & Warren aboard Saralane
Christmas Cove, Caneel Bay, Cinnamon Bay, Francis Bay, Maho Bay and Leinster Bay just briefly, until the bugs started bugging us. We had some beautiful sunny days.... 


… and some rain. Lots of rain. Almost two weeks of rain.


And since into each life a little rain must fall… we plumbed our scupper drains into our water tanks to collect it. After a few minutes of hard rain to wash the salt and crud off the boat, we open up the drains to the tanks and let the rainwater in. We’ve filled our tanks a few times this way and are feeling pretty smug and self-satisfied about it.

We saw critters both flying and swimming....


And rays that seem to be both flying and swimming at the same time.



We're seeing some pretty interesting snorkeling styles lately. These first two are snorkeling 101....


Then came the advanced class.... they just jump right in.


Anchored off Caneel Bay in St. John was this BIG sailboat. To give some sense of scale... the little sailboat ahead of the big boat is about the size of Saralane. We're 40'.


Of course there were also the flowers - I still can't get enough of the flowers.


 Our last stop before heading over to the BVI to check in was to top up the fuel tanks. We stopped in Red Hook on St. Thomas for that... and are glad that we're only paying the diesel bill on the left and not the gas bill on the right!

The fuel dock guy saw me take this photo and said "I guess you won't need a receipt then?" Funny guy....
Off we went to Jost Van Dyke to check in to the BVI and I shot this photo of the blue car driving along Jost. See it? 


After a day at Jost, we headed over to Road Town to meet up with my dad and stepmom for a week. This visit holds the promise of yet more new and interesting snorkeling styles. Stand by...

3 comments:

Miles said...

Oh do I have some snorkeling stories. Apparently current doctrine requires the fins to be installed BEFORE getting in the water. BEFORE actually getting close to the water. So you either get the backwards shuffle or the flipper high step all-the-way-down-the-beach...Classic. Was that Francis Bay in the background of the snorkelers jumping off the cat?

Madeline said...

Hi Miles - We try to skip the beach entry/exit and go to and from the boat when possible. Otherwise... it's never pretty. The advanced snorkeling shot was Caneel Bay - it's really pretty but rolly anchorage when the ferries go by!

We'll spend more time over at St. John when we leave the BVI...

Lisa Keller said...

LOVE all the recent pics, especially seeing (and learning) about your Dad and Sue's visit! Does your Dad still have that big map in his study with pieces of yarn representing every trip that you all took? If so, he can break out some new yarn!
If you get a chance, blog your loose plans for the summer and fall - so fun following!! ENJOY (and nice tan by the way!!) xoxoLisa