First cruise to St. Croix: January 27 – January 29 (Subtitle: when will we stop making rookie mistakes???)

We covered a lot of ground in the six weeks since our last post. We have now sailed around St. John 5 times — three with just the two of us and twice with different visitors. We already have favorite locations to pick up a mooring (Lameshur Bay and Salt Pond Bay are very high on the list!) and have enjoyed both snorkeling and hiking. But even with 5 turns around the island, there are many places we have not yet explored. Most notably, we have not yet done the petroglyph hike. We are saving that for our daughter’s visit in mid-February.

Still, we thought it was time for a change of pace and decided to head for either St. Croix (STX) or the Spanish Virgin Islands. For no particular reason we decided on STX first and on January 27 we set sail for Lameshur Bay (St. John). In addition to being one of our favorite bays to snorkel and spend the night, it’s a great jumping off point for STX. With the prevailing winds, from there to STX would be one long tack (~ 4 hours give or take) on a beam reach to our destination.

We knew that the winds would be coming from the East at 15 – 20 knots and, as a result we’d see some good wave action, so we battened down the hatches. Or so we thought! As we were sailing and getting hit straight on by some some sizable waves, Zack very calmly said that he thought he saw water coming into the bow of our boat but he couldn’t see well due to the glare from the sun. With Zack at the helm, I took a few steps down the companionway and immediately saw that there was, indeed, water on the floorboards towards the front of the boat. As I continued forward to our guest cabin in the bow of our boat (the v-berth) the magnitude of the water “situation” became very clear. There wasn’t just a little water in the guest cabin — it was drenched; like someone sprayed gallons and gallons and gallons of water (think fire hose) on the bed, floor and walls.

I immediately did two things. First, looked up at the hatch in the v-berth to see if it was opened. It was actually closed but not fully cinched tight and the pressure of the wall of water from the wave was enough to breach the seal. Naturally, I then closed the hatch tight. Second, I reported the situation to Zack. My exact quote “now don’t curse but it’s really bad up here.” He came down, agreed it was really bad and didn’t curse. Instead we discussed whether we should turn around and head back to the marina or stay the course for Lameshur. Since it was a short sail and sunny day we decided to stay the course. Zack went back to the helm while I put everything wet into large trash bags and used a shammy to slowly, but with great determination, soak up the water. By the time we arrived at Lameshur, I had gotten up most of the water and bagged the wet things.

Staying the course was the right decision. Once we picked up the mooring we were able to lay out the wet sheets, pillows, comforter, etc. to dry and everything dried pretty quickly. We couldn’t easily get the mattress out of the front cabin so we moved it sideways which allowed us to give it some air circulation from below.

Fortunately, we’ve been retired long enough that we’ve settled into an “Hakuna matata” mode (it’s amazing how fast that happens) and didn’t get worked up over what was a fairly significant clean up project. We did, however, wonder when we were going to stop making these “rookie” mistakes! This trip was our first trip back out after our oldest son’s visit. He was sleeping in the v-berth and opened and closed that hatch to stay cool over night. You get great air circulation in that v-berth. He is not a sailor and it should have been fundamental to us that we needed to not only check that hatches are closed but that they are also fully secure. Being retired, we truly have all the time in the world. Still, I think we would have both preferred to spend our day in Lameshur Bay snorkeling or reading vs. cleaning a boat. Just mopping up the water and gathering the wet things is only part of the clean-up. The walls were covered in salt water so the entire font of our boat needed to be wiped down several times. (Yep, “repairs, maintenance and cleaning in exotic places” strikes again!)

Despite the water breach we did make it to STX. We decided to make our first stop Frederiksted. There’s a nice, calm, anchorage close to the pier, excellent snorkeling and, in full disclosure, a great little vegan restaurant with a really innovative menu — Jill still has her priorities! This visit though was more like a game of tag. We tagged the island — anchored late in the day after a great sail over and spent the night — but left early the next day. There was a disappointing change in the wind forecast just as we arrived on STX. We arrived on a Thursday (January 28) and by late on the day on Friday (January 29) the forecast was calling for Northerly swells with breaking seas 15 – 20’. NOT what you want to be anchored in. From our passage down here in November, we know all to well what it feels like to be in front loaded washer and it is not something you want to experience again if you can avoid it. So we decided to head back to our slip for a few days.

Now back at Sapphire and already dreaming or our trip back to STX and then onto the Spanish Virgin Islands!