What an amazing experience!

I came away from my trip to the US Virgin Islands feeling totally energized and excited about the prospect of sailing again.  The St. Petersburg boat show is this weekend and I have joked to friends that I have cut up my credit cards to make sure I don’t do anything stupid.

I’m not going to try to explain all of the things I learned in a week of sailing instruction, but I will try to share the enthusiasm I have for my new hobby.

I arrived in Charlotte Amalie (the capitol of the USVI and primary city of St. Thomas) in the early afternoon with the intention of grabbing a taxi to Red Hook in the East End.  There are tons of taxis along with guys directing you to a van headed to your destination.  As soon as they have a full load, off you go.  The cost was only $15.00 per person and our driver was fairly cheerful (compared to subsequent drivers I had).  Including dropping off other fares, it took about 45 minutes to get to Two Sandals by the Sea Inn.

Sunset at the Sunset Grille

Two Sandals is a nice property on the hillside overlooking Red Hook and American Yacht Harbor on Vessup Bay. Two Sandals is clean, simple and relatively new.  The rooms are just big enough and have the usual amenities.  After dropping my bags and changing into shorts and a t-shirt, I walked into Red Hook to look around.  Red Hook itself is a ten-minute walk down the hill.  Be careful – driving is on the left side in the Virgin Islands (US and British) so as you cross the street, look right!

Red Hook has quite a few restaurants of various descriptions, a couple of gift shops, a good sized grocery (Marina Market), a pharmacy, an Ace hardware store, three banks and a couple of chandleries.  I’m sure I missed a few things but from a tourist perspective those are the high points.  Oh, I almost forgot the Red Hook Ferry Terminal.  There are ferries on the hour to St. John for $12 that takes you right into Cruz Bay.  Another ferry goes to Christiansted on St. Croix.  And still more ferries take you to the BVIs – Jost van Dyke, Virgin Gorda and Tortola.  The latter includes stops at both Road Town and the West End.

After wandering around a while, I hoofed it back up to Two Sandals and this time went up the hill and down the other side to the Secret Harbour Beach Resort.  There is a nice, somewhat secluded beach here and the resort’s Sunset Grille is right on the beach.  I couldn’t get a good estimate on the number of rooms, but I would imagine a room in the worst location on the property would be a three-minute walk to the beach.  There is a dive shop on the premises.  There was a 10^th wedding anniversary party going on with a bunch of 30-somethings having a great time.  I got one of the local brews, kicked back and just enjoyed hearing the lapping of the waves as the sun slowly set amidst boats of various sizes anchored on the inlet.  Compared to other parts of St. Thomas, the prices were very reasonable.  As I sat enjoying the view, a three-foot long iguana slowly made his way up the steps from the beach.  It started raining lightly as he came across the top step and he had his fill of fresh water as he meandered back and forth between the small pools of rainwater that accumulated.

View of American Yacht Harbor from Two Sandals Inn

Breakfast the next morning at Two Sandals was wonderful and included a warm chocolate chip scone, a yogurt parfait with granola and jam, coffee and orange juice served in a tall glass with a splash of grenadine.  Breakfast is served on the balcony overlooking the harbor, which provided a very pleasant atmosphere.

After breakfast I decided to head back into Red Hook to see if I could find my boat.  At this point the only thing I knew was that I was booked with Blue Water Sailing School.  I did not have the name of the boat, the dock where he was berthed or even the name of the skipper.  I asked various people where to find BWSS and no one seemed to know until I came across Sam, an instructor on a catamaran school that pointed me in the right direction.  It turned out that I would see Sam several more times during the coming days.  I wandered around Red Hook a bit more and stumbled across Lattes in Paradise, an open-air coffee and breakfast shop on the second floor of the American Yacht Harbor complex.  As I sat and had my medium latte with an extra shot, dock employees, shop owners, fishing guides and others with business in the Red Hook vicinity came by to grab fresh baked goodies and coffee, lattes or espresso made from freshly ground coffee.  It was fun to hear the banter going back and forth between these regular patrons as they began their day with a round of caffeine.

After checking out of Two Sandals I had a taxi pick me up and deposit me at AYH around 3:00 at a cost of $6.00.  Based on Sam’s directions, I met up with skipper Bill Miles and the other two students for the week, Paul and Beth.  More about my roomies later.  The boat, Prana, is a 1994 Beneteau 440 that is spacious and well maintained.  In fact, I actually thought it was a much newer boat when I first saw it.  I later learned that the boat is put in dry dock at the height of hurricane season for maintenance and was just put back into water a couple weeks prior to our arrival.

Next up, the beginning of my lessons and the experience aboard Prana.

St. Thomas sailing itinerary...

Here is my itinerary for my November trip to St. Thomas.

With all the delays plaguing American Airlines these days (don’t ya just love a good pilot’s slow-down?), I chose to use Delta SkyMiles for the trip.  And since you can depend on Delta to routinely screw things up in Atlanta, I chose flights that allowed for a two hour fifteen minute layover.  That way, when the plane from Tampa to Atlanta is 90 minutes late because a cabin steward slept in or they can’t find a widget to fix the whatchamacallit or the captain breaks a fingernail, I will still be able to catch my 9:44 flight to Charlotte Amalie.  That means that I have a 6:00 am flight out of TPA… good times!  As one of my ex-military friends likes to say, I’ll be getting up at “oh dark hundred.”

I arrive in St. Thomas in the early afternoon and will grab a cab to the East End for my one night stay at Two Sandals by the Sea Inn.  Two Sandals is a four-room B&B that overlooks the American Yacht Harbor in Red Hook.  I prefer small properties to the big hotels.  Traveling is all about the experience and I have found little inns and B&Bs to be more hospitable and interesting than large hotels.  You’re more likely to get the real scoop on local happenings, the best places to eat and the must things to see from the proprietor who has a vested interest in both your return and strong recommendation.  Ferries leave from the American Yacht Harbor Marina for St. John and the British Virgin Islands.  Two Sandals is also very close to Secret Harbor Beach so I will have plenty to keep me busy until 3:00 pm the next day when I join the other students for six days of intensive instruction aboard a Blue Water Sailing School vessel. 

The next six days will be spent applying all the material I’m reading for my American Sailing Association 101, 103 and 104 certifications.  Getting through all this material before I depart is going to be challenging because all of my reports and tasks at work need to be completed before I get on that plane.  All totaled, the material in the Sailing Made Easy, Cruising Made Easy and Cruising Fundamentals comes to 390 pages, not including glossaries, tests, check lists, etc.   I should have signed up a month earlier so I would have more time to digest all this information.  I even have a length of rope at my desk so I can practice knots while I work.  There is so much to learn and know.  How the hell did Columbus get here and back so many times?

Anyway, I end the week at mid-afternoon on Friday, November 9.  I am tentatively booked at the Villa Santana, a small inn on Denmark Hill overlooking Charlotte Amalie that was the home of Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna in the 1850s.  During one of his several exiles from Mexico, the man who defeated the likes of Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett during the 13-day battle of the Alamo is rumored to have stolen a substantial amount of Mexican silver to build his stately home.  Although the great house was destroyed by a fire 1986, all of the outbuildings including the kitchen, watch tower, the library, a wine cellar and his attaché’s quarters have all been converted into what looks like a very quaint inn.  I have reserved La Torre (the watchtower) for a price considerably better than most of the hotels on the island.  Villa Santana looks to be located to most of the major landmarks of Charlotte Amalie and I have located a scooter rental place that delivers, so I will have some flexibility in getting around.

I hope the last few days will be relaxing, because it will be my last vacation for the year.  I usually take five vacation days around the President’s Day holiday so that I get a full ten days off in February, but that will be three months after my St. Thomas adventure.

The next three weeks will be filled with studying and other preparations.  I picked up a pair of open-fingered sailing gloves today and I need to make sure I have plenty of sun block, extra pairs of glasses, sunglasses, quick-drying shorts and other items necessary for a week aboard a sailboat.  The weather should be pretty nice since we will be at the tail end of hurricane season, but I have to be prepared for anything.