St. Thomas

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Okay, so life in paradise is not always what it is cracked up to be (although that might be hard to believe if you follow the travel blog). That’s because I always try to focus on the good parts of our trip when I sit down to the computer and write, reminiscing our recent adventures and going thru the pictures. But the truth of the matter is that this isn’t a vacation out here all the time. It’s a very challenging life. We both have broken many toes and have sustained a multitude of other boat bites and permanent damage- we are always hurting ourselves as this is a very physical lifestyle. And traveling is hard work, tedious, and exhausting when sailing against the trades. The boat breaks all the time, like for example we blew out our main sail on the way to St. John the other day. So what do we do now? Well, we have to get the rip in the main sail repaired before we can continue on so therefore need to find a sail loft. But wait… I’m getting ahead of myself. We first have to take down the main sail, do you know how difficult that is? The main sail on a 50 foot boat is HUGE and weighs close to 80 pounds. And somehow we have to take it down and fold it up into a tiny little bag so that we can give it to the guy to repair it. It literally took us hours to get that darn sail off and put away, what a frustrating process.

So now we are here in St. Thomas, waiting for the repairs. But it is not all that bad. The island is hustling and bustling with activities. There are tons of great restaurants and bars within walking distance of the marina (always a plus) as well as tons of great amenities. We have a gourmet grocery store down the street, so time to load up on goodies. And a vet across the way, so Kona went in for vaccinations and a check-up. There is also a laundry facility here, perfect because we have a couple of loads. And a chandlery to buy all our much needed boat stuff, like courtesy flags for all the foreign countries we will be visiting and a “French for Cruisers” dictionary (much needed seeing that we will be going to many French Islands here in the Caribbean). Never a dull moment. So we are busy as bees here, taking advantage of being in a big port to get everything done before we sail off and find island paradise again.

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Photos

Red Hook
Red Hook, St. Thomas- what a busy port.

There She Blows!
The rip in the main sail that occured on our trip from Culebrita to St. John, just another day in paradise... not!

Atop the Mast
Jay got this great picture of our boat, when he was hoisted up the mast.

Comments

[Sailor Sue]

Rip Shmip
Yikes...that is quite a rip. Those Caribbean winds can get ugly. So you're getting closer to us. Throw in a tack or two and get the hell here! Well not here...Montserrat... because we'll be gone by Friday. How about Antigua. We'll be there in a week or so and probably staying for awhile. By the way.....look for sailing vessel Bellagio. Our cruising friends Kathy and Kerry are currently in BVI and taking their time about moving on. Their next stops will be Peter and Norman islands. They're lots of fun too but being that their Canadians....they're metric. So be prepared.