Meeting friends in the US Virgin Islands

The Virgin Gorda Baths

We spent a few days at the beginning of March at Virgin Gorda, anchored in one of our favorite spots near “The Baths”. Each night we had several neighboring French-flagged boats. This anchorage isn’t mentioned in any of the English guidebooks, but I wonder if there is a French guidebook that extols its beauty. We had a nice couple of days visiting Spanish Town, swimming, snorkeling, and exploring the unique boulder formations of The Baths.

Our month in the BVI was almost up, and we had some business to do in the USVI, so we decided to get over to Jost Van Dyke to check-out of the BVI. Most of our sails so far have been close-hauled motorsails as we made our way eastward in the BVI, but this was a fast and luxurious broad reach westward back to Jost Van Dyke, which was over too soon. We arrived in Great Harbor and decided to pick up a $30 mooring on a whim, because one was available. What a great decision!  It turned out to be a huge night at Jost Van Dyke, and the anchorage was packed a few hours later. Even our new friends on “40 Below” were there. We were entertained that evening by the raucous activities in the harbor, and the next day we dinghied in to check-out of the BVI and sailed over to Cruz Bay, St. John to check into the USVI. We headed straight over to anchor in Red Hook where we’d be meeting up with old friends, Kristi and Will, and their newly arrived guests.

Rockhopper at Anchor

When we left the British Virgin Islands, we had all sort of “ideas” of what we wanted to do in the USVI; we avoid the use of the word “plans”. We were between spending a day or two in St. Thomas then a couple days in St. John, or maybe we should go ahead and spend several days in St. John. Well, I guess that is the reason we avoid the word “plan” because we have been thrilled with events over the past week that never could have happened if we let “plans” get in the way. 

We met up with Kristi and Will and their friends, Denise and Gary at the American Yacht Harbor and had a delightful dinner. Red Hook was a miserable anchorage with high winds and swells coming into the Harbor. Boats were dragging around and we had to keep an anchor-watch up over night. We hated to leave since we wanted to spend more time with the gang, and Kristi and Will suggested we anchor near their home in Secret Harbor. 

Secret Harbor...maybe it really is a secret!

Secret Harbor is a resort on the southeast coast of St. Thomas and the guidebooks barely mention it; however, it is a wonderful spot to spend a few days. At this point, I’ll start to use “generous” a lot, because Kristi and Will generously let us use their laundry and their lovely home as a base camp; they generously bought us wine, fed us, and took us to the grocery store; they generously gave us care packages every time we showed up at the door; and they generously shared their friends with us. We all had such a great time, dining at the unique places in Red Hook, listening to fun music, and hanging out at the Secret Harbor beach. We were thrilled to have everyone over for sundowners (and midnighters) one night and then went for a day sail over to Little Lameshur Bay on St. John one day. We joined Denise and Gary on a ferry trip over to St. John for the early St. Patrick’s Day parade and had an amusing time perusing the lovely shops of Cruz Bay. Before we knew it, a week had passed! Now Denise and Gary are back on a plane to Connecticut, Kristi and Will are both at work recovering from entertaining us all week. We feel like we have a new set of lifelong friends, and I’m sure we’ll meet up with Denise and Gary when we find our way up north year later this year. All of this fun has also made us start to reconsider some plans for next season, and we might try to find a way to spend a few months in the US Virgin Islands next year.

Now it is time to straighten up this boat and get her ready for the 20 hour passage over to St. Martin and ready for our own guests!  Seana is coming in for a few days, and then Cara will be right behind her, so our aft cabin will finally be housing guests March 20-30, rather than acting as a utility closet.  The next update will be coming from St. Martin…same latitude, new longitude.

Rockhopper Anchorages:

18°25.267N 064°33.752W; Buck Island, Tortola, BVI; 01-02Mar16

18°26.330N 064°26.659W Valley Trunk Bay, Virgin Gorda, BVI; 03-05Mar16

18°26.492N 064°45.087W Great Harbor Mooring, Jost Van Dyke; 06Mar16

18°19.561N 064°50.681W Red Hook, St. Thomas, USVI; 07Mar16

18°19.036N 064°51.199W Secret Harbor, St. Thomas, USVI; 08-14Mar16

18°19.088N 064°43.566W Little Lameshur Bay Mooring, St. John; 10Mar16