Heading South

 

Annaberg sugar mill ruins on St. John and the spectacular view

Geology: Vertical beds with a lava flow intruded on the left side near Maho Beach, St. John, USVI.  Maria is providing scale, ha!

Maho Beach concession area.  This is new since 2017 and provides some refreshing drinks for beach people!

St. Thomas, USVI.  This is Long Bay, where we anchor close to Charlotte Amalie.

Maria visiting the Annaberg sugar mill on St. John

View of the British Virgin Islands from St. John.  The BVI's have become unfriendly to sailors so we won't be visiting them.

St. Thomas, as seen from our National Park mooring at Maho Bay, St. John

Maria enjoying the wind at Maho Bay, St. John

Maho Bay (foreground) and Francis Bay (background) on St. John, USVI.  The National Park mooring field is where vessels can tie up and stay.

 

S/Y Aspen – April 21, 2022 – Log #182

Aspen Position: 18 degrees 21’ N, 64 degrees 44’ W

Francis Bay, St. John, USVI

 

Heading South

 

Easter has come and gone down in da islands. 

 

Easter is a very important time of year because it heralds the end of high tourist season and the imminent migration of sailors in preparation for the looming hurricane season.

 

Some of our friends departed early this year, but the majority of sailors are enjoying lighter winds and smaller seas in the Caribbean, now that winter winds have thankfully moderated.

 

Maria and I forgot how easy things are in the USVI.  Cheap National Park moorings on St. John, an endless number of restaurants to choose from and even boat parts that can be flown in via USPS are just some of the attractions of being in US waters again.

 

Our daily entertainment in the Virgins is watching enormous charter catamarans jockeying for a mooring, with their guests basking in the warm sunshine as the crew works to entertain and feed them. 

 

We have never seen so many 50–60 foot catamarans in one place before, as the enormous catamarans have multiplied in the USVI since COVID hit.

 

It seems people simply want to enjoy themselves once again with more disposable income than we thought existed.

 

Those who have dreams about buying a catamaran and sailing away have to get on the proverbial waiting list for up to three years until a new catamaran is available.  Used catamarans and even monohulls are selling faster than a greased pig, or so the saying goes.

 

What are Aspen’s plans?

 

Sailing south, of course! 

 

Some COVID restrictions are still in place further south of the USVI.  So, Aspen will head offshore again, making landfall in Carriacou, Grenada which is sailor friendly.

 

After all, Maria needs to get her sea legs back and enjoy those wonderful sunrises and sunsets, out on the big blue, or so Captain Steve tells her.  Hmmm.

 

Sail on, sail on Aspen…

 

Steve and Maria

PS - More pictures can be found at:  http://syaspen.blogspot.com/

1.     You can follow Aspen’s route here: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV_Aspen

2.     Aspen will also have a Garmin tracker working so you can follow along:  https://share.garmin.com/SYAspen