Stella anchored off the beach
We just dropped off Logan’s aunt, Lori, at the airport here in St. Thomas and we have decided to let our hook get stuck here in Lindbergh Bay for a while. Logan and I have moved pretty fast for the past year, but hosting guests on vacations makes us some seriously busy bees. With Lori aboard we decided to sail, sail, and sail some more…and catch a few beaches in between.
We opted for Lori to take a ferry from St. Thomas, USVI (the cheapest/easiest place to fly into) to West End/Soper’s Hole in the BVI – that way we didn’t have to deal with customs and immigration just for a pickup. The original plan was to leisurely make our way northwest to Virgin Gorda, but after checking out the weather, we decided to take advantage of the ONE light wind (15-20kt) day we had to make all of our upwind progress. So it went like this,”Hey Lori, great to see you! Let’s throw your stuff onboard and beat upwind for five hours…we’ll explain the rest later…” LUCKILY sleepy and naive Lori said, “Sure, sounds good!” So off we sailed…for one of the best sails of the year. Once we rounded the west end of Tortola, we made a couple of tacks in some stiff but consistent wind – we were zoomin’. Waves crashing, miles melting away, Stella Blue was heeled over and showing off for our guest. “This is why we do it”…sung to the tune of Montell Jordan.
We made it to North Sound in Virgin Gorda and lived it up. We took on some challenging hikes on land and were rewarded with some stellar views of the sound. Â We lounged on a PRIVATE beach and then caught a ride up to Hog Heaven to watch the sunset over the sound with Red Stripes in hand. The tone was set for the week.
We left the Bitter End hoping for a relaxing down wind sail to Monkey Point for lunch and snorkeling and then on to Cane Garden Bay for a couple nights in beach bar heaven. It started out that way… We picked up a ball in Monkey Point on Guana Island and were greeted by brisk winds, poor water clarity and some disappointing snorkeling. An OK stop for lunch, but we decided to head out pretty quickly. Five minutes later the skies opened up and rain and wind drenched Stella Blue and of course her crew. That went like this,”Wow, the sheets of rain look beautiful against the green islands….ugh, this is choppy and miserable!” We were also battling a north swell as we made our way to Cane Garden, which even with the rain and wind didn’t disappoint. This place is seriously paradise. It’s low key enough to be completely relaxing, but because of the cruise ship passengers that come in between 11a and 3p, there are plenty of beach bars and restaurants to check out. We ate, we drank, we lounged on beach chairs (something Logan and I have never done together this entire year!), Lori and I even tried out paddle boarding. This was acceptable.
Thursday we woke up to…a toilet that wouldn’t flush!!! Seriously?! We pulled out diagrams and our head (boat talk for toilet) re-build kit – planned to spend the day as plumbers in paradise (good business name?!). But eventually admitted that this was more of an issue than we could knock out in a few hours. The good news is that we were on a big island with lots of marine services. We decided to head back to Soper’s Hole for the night while we got a professional to shed some light on our ‘shitty’ situation. LONG story short, less than 24 hours later we had a perfectly functioning head with confidence that we would be fine for years. Just part of the “adventure package” on the Stella Blue charter 🙂
The next day we all checked back into the US, picked up some groceries in Cruz Bay and made our way to my second favorite place down here – Maho Bay in St. John. As soon as we were secured to the mooring ball, Lori had jumped overboard and was swimming to the beach. Ultimate happy. We grilled on the boat for dinner, we had cocktails in our cockpit, and decided this may the perfect bay…
That’s how cruising goes – always full of the unexpected. It turns out that things don’t just automatically settle down when we have company aboard. But we are having a blast sharing our new way of life with family – the good stuff and the messy stuff. So now we hare anchored in St. Thomas, missing Aunt Lori and trying to work on our plan for the next few weeks. We have our one year wedding anniversary coming up tomorrow, then it’s time to get movin’ and groovin’!! Hurricane season feels like its quickly approaching.
Great pictures!
Thanks!
jajaja, you guys are seriously having too much fun! I am starting to wonder if you really intend to come back this way.
It’s hard for us to imagine too! No such thing as TOO much fun 🙂
Fantastic place to celebrate your first wedding anniversary.
Many good wishes are sent your way Gillian & Logan.
Just found a beautiful green scarf with St. Thomas written on it. My mama,
your great grandmother Lucy brought it home to me many years ago.
Love
Grandma JeanE & Grandpa Larry
It was a happy day! This place seems to get better and better…
That adventure sounds amazing. I’m glad you took me up on the recommendation to hike virgon gorda. Definetly a little challenging, but totally worth it.
Keep doing amazing things!
Steve!! That’s the plan 🙂 It was funny, I kept commenting that I was glad we all wore shoes (in lieu of flip flops). What a rarity.
Happy anniversary Gillian and Logan!!! Uncle Fred and I spent our honeymoon on St. Thomas and St. John, so it makes me particularly happy to know you are there celebrating yours! Love you guys – love hearing about your great adventures – you are studs!
Aunt Liz
Thanks Aunt Liz!