The United States Virgins belonged to Denmark until 1912
when the US bought them for 24 million. It consists of 3 main islands, St
Croix, St John, and St Thomas plus a bunch of smaller islands and cays. However,
while the dollar is the currency, cars drive on the left side like the BVI. The
United States Virgins are a world apart from the British Virgin Islands (BVI).
Where the BVI is set up for bare boat charters with tons of moorings available
for rent and very few private moorings, the USVI only has moorings for rent on
St. John where as in St Thomas all the moorings are private. St John was mostly
bought by Rockefeller in the 1950s and donated it to the National Park service
so 75% of St John is a National Park, while St Thomas is the where the majority
of the people live and is the major port and airport.
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| USVI |
We had a great sail to St. John’s Caneel Bay where we
took a mooring and then took the dinghy into Cruz Bay to the National park
dock, because it is free, but if you dock at the customs dock you have to pay a
fee. We then trucked ourselves over to the customs to check in. It was painless
and free. We then went back to the National Park Service and got a Golden Eagle
card. This card reduces the mooring fees from $15 a night to $7.50 a night. The
next week was spent
exploring the various bays and anchorages in St John and St
Thomas.
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| Part of Plantation Ruins at Caneel Bay |
St. John is a
beautiful place with many wonderful bays to explore. Each has moorings and in
most areas you are not allowed to anchor. This protects the bottom, the coral,
and the sea grass. Caneel Bay is a really nice place with several great
beaches, Solomon, Honeymoon, Caneel resort and Turtle. Caneel Resort is a high
end resort with beaches, water sports equipment, Scuba diving, restaurants, etc.,
plus the ruins of a big Sugar Plantation and distillery have been made into a
restaurant. Each of the beaches has good snorkeling and nice coral and lots of
colorful fish. However, the ferries go by frequently so it is a very rolly
mooring field.
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| iguanas are everywhere |
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| Leslie pays the mooring fee |
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| Caneel Bay Resort |
Hawknest Bay is a quiet mooring with two great beaches
and a rock headland with some great snorkeling. There is a short hike up to the
ruins of a sugar mill and the beach is edged with trees so there are a lot of
shaded beach spots.
Trunk Bay is a popular bay as it is readily accessible by
car and has a large parking lot, but it only has 4 moorings, and a large dinghy
mooring tie up. The beach is beautiful! It has soft white sand and is one of
the only ones with lifeguards. It also has a snack bar, beach changing houses
and showers. There is an underwater snorkel path with underwater plaques with
descriptions of the underwater inhabitants. We can’t wait to share it with the
grandkids.
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| trutle with fish hitchhikers |
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| Stingray with fish |
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| Petroglyphs |
Maho Bay and Francis Bay are right next to each other and
are very protected and beautiful places. Maho has a restroom and a covered
picnic area. The beach is beautiful sand with palm and Sea Grape trees
providing shaded areas on the beach to lay and enjoy the day. It has a parking
lot and some interesting “off street” parking.
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| Off street parking at Maho Bay |
We learned a great beach game
here called beer Frisbee. I went snorkeling around the mooring field and saw a
bunch of conch, several turtles, and some stingrays as well as an Eagle Ray. Conch was still in season so we found a legal
one and yum….There is also a trail from here up to the center road, which we
hiked. It goes up 1000’ in less than a mile. Then from the road you go across
the street to the Reef trail which goes down to Reef Bay and the ruins of
another Rum distillery. On the way we saw a dozen white tail deer and a half a
dozen Mongoose. We also took a side trail to see the Petroglyphs made by the
natives hundreds of years ago. Then we had to go back the same way. All in all
it was a 4 hour trip.
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| One of many deer |
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| Leslie on the Trail |
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| ruins of the distillary |
Francis Bay is separated from Maho by a headland with an
eco-campground on it. The camp ground has platform tents and a cafeteria as
well as diving and water sports equipment. Francis Bay is another sandy beach
which has a board walk hike through a salt pond and a mangrove forest. In the
north corner I went snorkeling and saw a number of turtles and sting rays.
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| A platform tent at the Eco-center |
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| Long Bay with a cruise ship in |
St. Thomas is the populous part of USVI. We tried to
anchor at Honeymoon beach, but after two attempts, and being too close for
comfort to boats on mooring, we gave up and headed to Elephant Bay. Here again
there are a ton of moorings and if you anchor you are out almost in the channel
in 35’ of water. So we went on. We ended up going through Haulover channel, a
narrow channel separating St. Thomas and Hassel Island, to Long Bay and dropped
anchor in a cove off the Coast Guard Station surrounded by a pirate fleet. It
was then an easy dinghy ride to the dinghy dock at Yacht Haven. Yacht Haven is
right next to the cruise ship dock and is a big complex with many stores,
restaurants, bars, and a walk into town, Charlotte Amelia which is one mile.
The walk to town on the water front is nice, but you can also take a Safari Bus
for $1 to anywhere in town and for $2 all the way to Red Hook at the end of the
island.
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| Safari Bus |
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| Pirate Fleet next to us |
Red Hook is a busy place with ferries to St. John and
Tortola leaving every 30 minutes so the anchorage is rolly even though it is
well protected. Ashore are the usual array of stores, bars, restaurants,
eateries and a dive shop. The big stores, up country, are a $1 ride by Safari
Bus and there are Home Depots, Kmart, Office Max, Napa, McDonalds and others. Definitely felt like we were in civilization
again.
We explored Lindbergh Bay and its access to the airport,
we will be able to anchor and pick the kids up by dingy. We then went to the next bay on the west side
of the airport, Brewers Bay and discovered a beautiful, calm bay with white
sand beach and tons of turtles and sea life.
We have found many options for when the kids and grandkids get here next
month.
