Living off the sea......

During the past week, "Persephone" has teamed up with the crew of  "Chimayo" for an all out lobster safari.  In the USVIs you are permitted to use SCUBA gear and snares to capture the spiny critters.  Since last Tuesday, we have been averaging at least one dive per day, and on several days we have done double dives.  We have been diving so much, we had to get a special package rate for 25 tank refills  at the local dive shop (final cost was $5/refill).   As of yesterday, the count was 13 lobsters captured; the largest was snared by Mike (sv 'Chimayo') weighing 7 1/2 pounds !  Mike literally had to wrestle the beast into the catch bag. (None of us had a pot large enough to steam him !!)   Most of the tasty crustasions have been in the 3-4 pound range...not the small 2 pounders seen down island.  For the past week,  the menu has been 'lobster anything lobster everything'....lobster dips, lobster plain, lobster mac and cheese, and lobster hors d'oeuvres.  Sunday is 'pasta night' aboard 'Persephone', so Debbie made up homemade lobster ravioli for Sunday dinner.  Mike and Crystal  of  'Dancing Dolphin' are living and working on St. John to replentish their cruising kitty and joined us for dinner. Each of the boats brought a dish to share.  There was so much food, we were all stuffed as much as the ravioli !!   Thanks, Debbie !!  (It was a bit confusing as 'Chimayo's' guests are also conincidently named Mike and Crystal !!)

It hasn't been all hunting...last nite, we managed to enjoy a few sundowners on the beach at Francis Bay, St. John, USVI----->

From L to R:  Mike, Crystal, Bob, and Debbie of s/v 'Chimayo; Janice
and Steve of s/v 'Sailacious' and of course 'Diver Dave' 

THE CRUZATEERS

St Thomas, USVI

CA Harbor

On Thursday, Persephone motored  (there was no wind for sailing) the 10 miles from St. John  to Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas.  CA is the capital of the US Virgins, and the #1 cruise ship destination in the Caribbean. Enough said ??

So, why is Persephone in a tourist trap?  One reason...the shopping.  NO, not beads and bobbles; but supermarkets, Home Depot, and K-Mart. It was time for a major reprovisioning.  We haven't had access to "American Stores" since leaving Puerto Rico two years ago. (literally !)  You know that the credit card is in trouble when you can see the bottom of the freezer, or when you start to weep when you enter Home Depot !   It has been three days of solid shopping, and shopping some more....

But, before you start feeling bad, there has been lots of partying also.  We met up with  friends on "Foggy Mountain, who have been here for about a week.   "Chamayo" arrived Friday morning and on Friday afternoon, the radio crackled announcing the arrival of "Sailacious".  Plans were immediately made for burgers ashore.  The eight of us had a blast at a local waterhole.

Last night, the party was aboard 'Persephone.  The "Cruizateers" (named coined by Janice of 'Sailacious') were back together.  Mohitoes were the specialty drink of the night served aboard....an entire liter of rum was gone by the third round !  The "Cruizateers" were the "Hangoverteers" this morning !!

The sun sets on Charlotte Amalie

The shopping is done, so it is time to leave CA.  Tomorrow morning 'Persephone' will leave St. Thomas and return to the serenity and sanity of St. John...not for the benefit of THE CREW, but for my Credit Card !!!



Not to

Paradise Found....

For those of you freezing your butts off up north, here is a Post Card for you from Francis Bay, St. John in the  US Virgin Islands....

And for those you who are still working....please keep it up !  I received my first Social Security check last week, and I need you to keep paying your taxes to help support this lifestyle !!  (And a special 'thanks' to D. Grover)  Off to pick up dive tanks this morning....gotta run.

Diver Dave

Paradise Lost......

Twenty years ago,  friends and I rented a charter boat for a 10 day sail around the British Virgin Islands.  Again, ten years ago, I was crew aboard s/v 'Pride' for another visit to the BVIs.  On both visits, the BVIs were relatively uncrowded, natural, and beautiful.  I have always joked that Cane Garden Bay, Tortola, BVI  is the magnificent beach where God goes for a 3 day get a-way !

Last week, 'Persephone' returned to the BVIs.  What a disappointment !  The place is over-run with tourists and worse...hundreds of charter boats.  Cane Garden Bay is (was ?) a large, white sandy, crescent shaped beach which Jimmy Buffett beautifully describes in song.  The Bay is now jambed with twenty-two (yes 22!!) beach bars//tee shirt-junk shops built right on the sand at the waters edge.  In front of each junk shop are white plastic beach chairs three and four rows deep; which rent for $5 USD per day.  There are literally HUNDREDS of these chairs littering the beach.  Think of the seating at an outdoor cathedral for hundreds of pasty white sun worshippers. (You can actually hear them sizzling in the tropical sun as they try and get a deep tan in a couple of hours.....I want the a Solarcane distributorship for CGB alone...I could get rich, quick !!)   "Where do all these people come from"  I asked ?   I learned that passengers of huge cruise ships are bussed from Road Town across the island to CGB for day trips.  The place is just over-run with the 'condo-commando' types serenaded by a cacophony of different, loud music from each of the 22 junk shops.  Just a nightmare !!

So,  we put CGB astern vowing never to return and circumnavigated Tortola clockwise to find less crowded harbors and good snorkeling areas.  Each and every harbor is now wall to wall mooring balls...set up primarily for the charter boat industry; which rent out between $25 and $30 US per night !!  What a rip-off !!  Simply there is no room to anchor as the prime anchorages are a carpet of moorings at outrageous prices.  The place is so crowded, you can't get away from the crowds even while snorkeling.... 

"Hey, Harold !!...I don't see no fish here"!!  "You dragged me here to see d' fishes" !!  'I told you that we should have gone to Miami" !!   Even the fish are disgusted and have left the crowds !!

So, we decided to move on to Norman Island in the southwest corner of the island chain; hoping to lose the crowds...wrong !  "The Bight" at Norman is a deep,  V-shaped anchorage with a great beach. When we arrived, again we found the entire anchorage carpeted with mooring balls....well over 100 !  Once we hooked up, I started counting charter boats from companies such as Moorings, Sunsail, and Horizons.  I conservatively counted 81 chartered boats in this ONE anchorage...all willing to pay big bucks for moorings and beers ashore.  (With 81 charterers boats in one anchorage in one night....how many hundreds of charter boats are plying the BVIs ?)   The charter business is a HUGE industry in the BVIs which has swallowed the natural beauty and laid back nature of the island.    What is left is a floating trailer park with a Disney atmosphere.  We couldn't wait to GET OUT...or should I say escape !!  We will never return to the BVIs; there is NOTHING there for cruisers. 

On Sunday, Persephone fled back to the sanity of St. John.  What a relief to be free of the maddening crowds of charterers.  Two-thirds of St. John is a US National Park.  Although there are mooring balls in most of the bays, they are very limited in number, and affordable ($7.50 per night).  As St. John is US, the hordes of charters in the BVIs  must clear US Customs to enter St. John and then re-clear back into the BVIs.  Most charters are unwilling to clear in and out of customs, so St. John remains relatively free of the hordes of charterers.  There is such a stark contrast between St. John and the BVIs....one is a shining example of resource management through the US Parks system versus the unregulated commercialization of  an entire island nation by the charter industry. 

For once, the US really got it right by preserving our chunk of paradise in the Caribbean !!