We decided to dinghy into Frederiksted to walk around.  A Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship was in port so vendors were set up right off of the pier.  There was a large police presence around because of all of the tourists and access to the pier was restricted.   A live band played in a gazebo and Moko Jumbie dancers danced.  It was a festive and happy atmosphere.

Frederiksted has a cute boardwalk along the ocean, lined with shops and restaurants that seemed very nice.  However, if you walk a block off of the boardwalk, there was a sharp contrast in the buildings and services.  We went to a local grocery store there to buy ice.  On the way back, we saw where people enter the water to snorkel under the pier.  We plan to do that as soon as we have a day without a cruise ship in port. 

Because of the winds shifting to the North and our desire to snorkel under the pier, we decided to stay in Frederiksted until Saturday.  We’ve been working on the boat, cleaning and making repairs.  And, I’ve been working on my consulting.

Around 10:30a on 3.20.23 we pulled out of the marina.  It was bittersweet for me.  We met some wonderful people here and were feeling very comfortable living in the marina over the past month.  I was sorry to leave those new friendships behind.  However, after my nerves settled down, we had a wonderful sail to Frederiksted, which is a town on the western end of St. Croix.  The sun was shining high. We saw many leatherback turtles in the water and were sailing downwind with the jib harnessing the wind.  Schools of flying fish sailed in the air in front of the boat on our sail down.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see any whales, but that was OK.  It was a very enjoyable sail.

There is a Celebrity Sumit Cruise Ship tied up to the dock in Frederiksted.  (Royal Caribbean cruise ships docked the next two nights.) Because of the weather later in the week, we were unable to schedule our time here when cruise ships were not docked.  We don’t see that many people.  However, they have a loud band playing and the music is clashing with the music from the beach bar on shore.  I’m sure they will pull out this evening and a new one will dock by morning.  Frederiksted is supposed to be very sleepy when the cruise ships are not docked.

Saturday, 3.18.23, was when St. Croix celebrated St. Patrick’s Day.  The neighboring boat, Great Adventures, offered to take us into Christiansted to watch the parade.  So, around 10:15a, Mike and his daughter, Milly, drove us to town.  It was a beautiful, sunny day and everyone was in good spirits.  We parked a couple of blocks away from the parade route and walked into town.  We didn’t know quite what to expect but were looking forward to it.

The parade was a lot of fun. 

Onlookers were dancing in the street to extremely loud bands playing music on floats. 

Several local baton twirlers marched in procession, looking adorable. 

The jeep club had a large contingency in the parade. 

My favorite thing to see, by far, were the jump (Moko Jumbie) dancers on stilts.  I don’t know how they are able to balance while dancing.  They were very talented.

After the parade went past us, we walked down to the boardwalk. 

The party was just getting started there.  We bought something called a chicken pate, which was a fried dough pocket with chicken inside.  It was good, albeit fried.  We also got some ice cream to eat while walking around.  We saw a Heineken barge tied up to the dock.  They were getting ready to have a band play.  It was clear that the party would be moving to the boardwalk once the parade completely finished.  It was a lot of fun.

Today we are staying around the boat.  I have a lot of consulting work that I want to complete while I have good internet access in the marina.  Add in some boat chores, a swim, and an evening out at the resort’s Deep End Beach Bar for “Disco Bingo Night” and I have a full day planned.

Disco Bingo entailed DJ 40 playing disco music while people got up and danced between sessions of bingo. It was a lot of fun! We didn’t win any prizes, but had a really enjoyable time.

After a lovely, relaxing lunch, we headed to our next stop, the Estate Mount Washington, which was an old cotton/sugar cane/rum making estate.  While the site is privately owned, the owners permit anyone to walk around the grounds. 

We were the only ones there, which wasn’t much of a surprise since we got lost three times trying to find the dirt road on which it was located. 

The grounds were beautiful.  We saw the remnants of the windmill,

several out-buildings, large basins, and a cart. 

The family’s dog greeted us as we arrived and kissed my legs as I walked around.  The location also has a labyrinth that, when open, people can walk while reflecting on their thoughts.  When we were there, it was under repair so we couldn’t walk it, however. 

Large wind chimes hung from a beautiful, massive tree while the wind gently blew. 

It truly was a serene estate that immediately made us feel relaxed.  It turned out that this was my favorite site that we have seen on St. Croix to date.

We were able to borrow our neighbor’s truck again, which was such an amazing gift.  We drove to the western side of the island to see some sites.  First, we found the Craque Dam, which is no longer in use.  I watched videos of it and thought it would be sort of interesting to see.  I also thought that we would have a 1.3mi hike through the rainforest to get to it.  Planning this adventure made me think that we would be on an “Indiana Jones” adventure.  The reality was that we drove up a small, winding road, through the rainforest, and parked right alongside of the dam.  We were able to walk along the top edge of the dam, but it wasn’t nearly as interesting as I thought it would be.  Murky water was caught on the back side of the dam and the front backed up against the rain forest.  In retrospect, I guess it was sort of a unique site to see. 

Next we headed to the Mount Pellier Domino Club, which was located in the middle of the rainforest.  It really was a dive of a restaurant in the middle of nowhere.  Their claim to fame is that people can feed the pigs a can of non-alcoholic beer.  The pigs will drink the beer and spit out the can.  Unfortunately, they only accepted cash and we didn’t have enough to buy a meal.  So, we drove along Mahogany Road back to Frederiksted and found a beach bar called “Rhythm’s Beach Bar.”  It had a pretty view overlooking Rainbow Beach and served good beach bar food.  As we were sipping our frozen drinks and looking out over the water, we saw a catamaran come in and anchor.  It turned out that it was “Great Adventures,” the owners of the truck we borrowed to explore the island. 

Today, 3.14.23, is laundry and chore day.  My conference call was rescheduled until today, so I should be able to get a lot of work done as well.

I have to say that everyone that we have met on St. Croix has been incredibly, over-the-top friendly.  When we arrived we had neighboring captains help us tie up to the slip.  Our boat neighbors took me grocery shopping.  The doctor made several boat calls and texted Steve multiple times.  Two local officers carried Steve’s Mom off of the boat and to the parking lot while two others assisted.  A local who was assisting drove us back and forth to the imaging center.  The woman at the resort’s front desk arranged for a wheelchair for us to use by calling a friend who had one.  This friend dropped it off at our hotel room.  And now a neighboring boat captain and his wife offered me the use of their truck while they were out sailing.  And, I’ve met so many wonderful, friendly people at the resort, all of whom are sending their best wishes to Marlene.  It has been so incredible to be surrounded by such nice people. 

The neighboring boat offered their truck to me to use so that I could get out of the resort for a little while.  It was incredibly generous. Steve and I first took the truck to go grocery shopping and to Home Depot. I finally was able to purchase throw pillows for our boat. It is the little things that can make me happy!

After a quick lunch, we decided to drive to a couple of sites.  The first place that we went is supposed to be the Eastern-most point in the United States.  They had a lovely monument there marking the spot.  The stone structure depicted two upside down “M’s.”  The views from the point were lovely as well.

Next, we drove to the point where Columbus landed in 1493.  Unfortunately, this site only had a sign marking where the landing took place.  The ruins of the fort were nowhere to be seen.  There was quite a bit of garbage around in the area as well.  So, historically the site was of interest, but visually, it was not. 

We went into Christiansted and walked along the boardwalk.  The water was incredibly clear, which surprised us.  The last time we were there, the water was quite rough and churned up.  We ended up eating at a restaurant right on the boardwalk, called “Nate’s Boathouse.”  The food was good and relatively inexpensive.  We had a front row view of the bay while people strolled along the boardwalk.  Service was quick, so we ate while watching the sun beginning to set.  After dinner, we strolled along an adorable stone alley on our way back to our car.  We were able to return to the marina just as it was getting dark.  We were warned that the drinking age in St. Croix is 18 and it isn’t illegal to drink and drive.  So, our friends recommended that we not drive at night.  This was one of those special days on our sailing adventure.  It was so nice to see some of the island and enjoy a meal out, off of the property.

St. Croix has many Iguanas roaming around. There is one location in the Mangroves, near our boat, where they frequently sun themselves. Fun fact: Iguanas can swim.