Storyville Has Arrived!

St. John, USVI
Friday, February 17 - Monday, February 20, 2012
Our good friends, Deana and Troy on Storyville, have finally made it to the Virgin Islands! After a two-day run from Luperon to Boqueron, they made yet another 48-hour trip from Puerto Rico to the USVIs. We had taken a mooring in Caneel Bay, part of the USVI National Park, to await their arrival. When we saw Storyville's maroon sail covers in the distance, we jumped in the dinghy to play welcome party. With Storyville settled on a mooring ball 50' away from Pipe, it was just like Luperon revisited! We, Island Dream, and Toucan Dream all descended on Deana and Troy for hugs and some catching up before letting them get a nap; that evening, it was time for happy hour and a welcome potluck on Pipe. It was great to have the gang back together again!

Monday we moved over to Hawksnest Bay for some snorkeling in the morning, and continued on to Francis Bay that afternoon. It's incredible how close everything is in the marine park. Hawksnest is only a half-mile from Caneel, and Francis is maybe two miles from Hawksnest. You could easily spend a week here, but cruisers on a schedule and/or budget could still visit most of the anchorages in a couple of days. Either way, we're definitely getting spoiled. To think, we have an 80-plus mile long trip ahead of us to St. Martin in a couple of weeks...

Francis Bay turned out to be a great anchorage...the calmest one we'd had in the Virgin Islands so far. The bay was fronted by a small island that protected the mooring fields from swells brought on by fast ferries and mother nature. We enjoyed our first great night's sleep in weeks before getting up for more snorkeling and kayaking. Unfortunately, our first visit to St. John was a quick one; we and Storyville sailed to Jost Van Dyke later that day while Pat and Darnell stayed behind to wait for a package from the States. We're making our way to Gorda Sound to wait for a weather window to St. Martin, where our friends are visiting us on March 8th. We'll pass back through here in a couple of months, and hope to see more of what the park has to offer then. Till next time...

For more pictures of the Virgin Islands, please click here.