Pillsbury D’oh Boy!

Position: 18°20’40″N 64°55’09″W

In the wee hours of the morning of our tenth day at sea the twinkling lights of St. Thomas appeared on the horizon. Then our cellphones sprang into life and we slowly reconnected with the outside world.

It’s safe to say that the British Virgin Islands (BVI) have handily out-marketed their American cousins and most of the Backstreet Buccaneers headed directly there. In fairness, several boats were crewed by Brits who had run out of time on their visas. Marlon’s paperwork still wasn’t complete and that meant we had to stay in US territory.

As an American, landing in the US Virgin Islands is easy. Providing you haven’t been to another country between leaving the States and arriving here, you just turn up. Puerto Rico, on the other hand, has special Homeland Security status that requires all kinds of clearances. Even if you’re visiting from St. Thomas.

Havoc

Just over a year ago hurricanes Irma and Maria wreaked havoc on the island and things are slowly returning to normal. Tourism, a key industry here, has been hit hard. Most of the big resorts remain closed as they rebuild. Long-term rentals for construction workers are taking up a lot of spare rooms.

Our taxi driver told us cruise ships finally returned in October. We saw as many as four of those gigantic floating hotels docked here at one time. Although just for the day. We had cruised the Mediterranean on one of them, the Nieuw Amsterdam. Carol’s dad, Bob, had organised a family reunion for his 85th birthday celebration. That trip made us unexpected fans of cruising.

Besides property damage, the hurricanes stripped trees bare and spread tons of leaves around. Nature took care of the trees and tropical greenery has returned. Power lines are back up, generators are working, roads are getting repaved and kids are in school. Moreover, happy hours are cheap, and you don’t have to fight your way to the bar. Which is just as well since we’ve had a challenging week boat-wise.

Pillsbury

The list of small boat jobs included washing Marlon and putting his BVI paperwork in order with the help of a local vet. That done we decided to visit the St. John National Park, a terrific marine sanctuary. The park has lots of moorings available for a modest fee. As I’ve said before, the National Park Service is one of the better uses of our tax dollars. People really should get out and take advantage of it. From there it’s a short hop to the BVI.

But a lively crossing of Pillsbury Sound, the body of water separating St. Thomas from St. John, put a rip in our aging jib, and a speed bump in our plans. D’oh!

Heading back over to Red Hook at the east end of St. Thomas, we anchored for a night in the rolly harbor. After taking the sail in for repairs, we’d planned to go back to St. John under power. As we raised anchor, though, our electric windlass died. Double D’oh!

Normalcy

After much ranting and vocal expressions of frustration, I reached out to our Backstreet Buccaneer companions for help. Bill and Rebecca from Moonlight Serenade and Ken from Loon have been terrific. Besides advice on swinging wrenches, they reassured us that this kind of thing is all a normal part of cruising. Bill said, just remember, when things get really dark, keep pushing forward and they will brighten up again.

Kind of like St. Thomas’ recovery from two of the world’s worst hurricanes within a month of each other. It’s taking time, but things are definitely brightening up here. Come visit!