Here we are again, in the beautiful US Virgin Islands! Since we spent months here last season, we weren’t in any rush to sightsee. It was a good time to catch up on some editing and get boat chores done. We sailed the short 15 miles from Culebrita to Brewers Bay on St Thomas.

Brewers Bay is a somewhat quiet anchorage on the West side of St Thomas. It’s right next to the airport. The planes fly in/out all day and it’s a cool thing to watch. One drawback is it’s mostly deep water and the holding isn’t great. We got lucky and set anchor in about 20 feet. Our friends Jenny and Steve were a little further back in about 30 feet of water. Another annoying thing about this bay is all the debris at the bottom. You never know what you’re dropping your anchor on top of. Unfortunately, Jenny and Steve got an old mooring line caught on their anchor and only noticed when they went to leave.

Nick was able to get out the compressor he uses to clean Satori’s bottom. This allowed them to breathe underwater while untangling the mooring line. Steve dove down a couple of times and finally got the anchor clear. It wasn’t as dramatic as you would think but it could have been.

The next stop on the tour was Charlotte Amalie. Lined with cruise ships and shops, this is a cruiser’s nightmare haha! It’s fun to watch the Disney ship pull out of there but besides that, its full of people and there are many charter boats and tours in and out all day. It can get uncomfortable in thee as well in a South wind and swell. We stayed as long as we had to then moved on to Christmas Cove.

The famous pizza boat “Pizza Pi” is permanently moored there. We make it a point to order a delicious New York-style pizza every time we stop. Yum! After a snorkel and a pizza, we made our way to St. John. This is our favorite spot in all the VI’s. It’s beautiful with a perfect beach around every corner. There are sea turtles and fish everywhere!

After hanging out in the USVI’s for a while, it was time to move East to St. Martin. This was exciting because it would be a new country for us and we looked forward to the french delights we had heard so much about. Satori and Archipelago sailed together via the Anegada passage. It started out great! The waves were not that big and we had wind in our sails. That turned south after a few hours. Even though the waves were not that big, they were messy like being in a washing machine. The boat was all over the place.

I felt seasick most of the trip and Arthur was miserable. He couldn’t sit still which he does when he’s uncomfortable. The poor guy spent most of the trip in his bag. At least he is somewhat calm in there. None of us slept very much at all. Come to find out, most cruisers we spoke to that sailed that route had a miserable trip like us. There is something about the currents that make for an uncomfortable passage.

Boy, we were happy that was behind us! Now…time to drink wine and eat all the cheese! 🙂