This morning we put the jib out and sailed to the northwest corner of St. John.  We had originally planned to go to a bay right next to the main town, called Cruz Bay, but that didn’t work out well.  It was very congested.  We tied up to a ball and were getting bounced all around because of boat wakes.  So, we decided to move a little further north to Hawksnest Bay.  At first we tied up to a mooring ball a little further out in the bay.  Again we were getting boat wakes and some swells coming around the side of the bay.  A mooring ball opened up closer to shore and we quickly maneuvered to pick it up.  It didn’t have a painter on it, which is an extended piece of rope off of the ball that we loop our ropes through.  Steve originally took the dinghy to the ball and added a piece of rope to make our own painter.  However, after we got tied up, he was able to adjust the ropes to holes in the mooring ball’s rope.  So, it will be much easier for us to pull the ropes off of the ball when it is time to leave.

This new ball is in a much nicer location in the bay.  It is approximately 30 or 40 feet from shore, so we can easily snorkel off of the boat.  In fact, as we were tying up, we saw a ray scurrying across the bottom of the bay, right beside our boat.  The water here is more of a pale emerald color than turquoise, though a lot of turquoise is also shining through.  While on the boat, we have seen brown fish with blue stripes swim right under the boat.  We also saw what we thought was a small shark skimming across the water’s edge, luckily swimming out to sea.  I’m hopeful that there are not too many of those around!  (In retrospect, we think it might have been a Tarpon.)  I’m anxious to go snorkeling here since we have seen so many fish already and the water is so clear.  Where we are, the water is also very calm, which will make snorkeling that much nicer.  Luckily we provisioned the boat fairly well before leaving St. Croix.  We had originally planned to go to the grocery store in Cruz Bay, however, since we were not able to stay in that area, our plans have changed.  That is the sailing life.  We have to be flexible.