The Cruising Life: May - August 2021

Firstly, Maxscene is no longer the “boat with no name”, she is now called APOTA (All Part Of The Adventure) and we are cautiously optimistic that Tim her new owner will take her on a whole new set of adventures, we really hope they have fun.

I have learned new skills, the rays
were a big success

Welcome platter & Captains
famous rum punch

Well chartering is quite a different kettle of fish. Generally the people are super fun, easy and happy to tip, means we must be doing a fair job too. Each charter however, is different, so there is no repeat formula, keeps us on our toes.

View of St Thomas from the top of the Cableway

USVI is made up of 3 main islands – St Thomas, St John and St Croix. The BVI is still closed to external chartering yachts and is issuing hefty fines to anyone transgressing their borders so chartering happens around these 3 islands currently. The airport is on St Thomas so most charters start there, either from the bay of Charlotte Amali or Red Hook. A 7 day charter would typically involve circumnavigating St Thomas and St John. The majority of St John is a nature reserve so no tender boats on beaches nor anchoring (mooring balls only) around most of the island.

A yacht paying their dues

The mooring ball system here is on an honesty basis, in each bay there is a floating platform with a letter box on it and a smaller box containing envelopes and brochures. You are expected to collect an envelope, fill it in with your mooring ball # and yacht details and $26 cash per night of using said mooring ball, then deposit it in the slot of the letter box. Interesting system!

St Croix is a bumpy full day sail away, each way, so reserved for longer charters and guests with strong stomachs. We made a brief trip to St Croix in May with Bertie and Teresa, down by ferry and back by sea plane, or so we thought. Turned out to be a comedy of errors weekend, the car rental company had an issue with everyone’s credit card and drivers license except mine – I haven’t driven a vehicle since leaving South Africa in 2018 and whilst they drive on the same side of the road here, the wheel is on the wrong side. It was mandatory for me to leave the company in the drivers seat – we all needed a drink after that. We were only there for 2 nights,

The St Croix ferry

Interesting bar in Frederiksted

Actual return trip

Perceived return trip

Johnny cakes for breakfast - closest
thing to a Caribbean vetkoek

The Promenade in Frederikstad

Bertie & Kevin chilling while we shopped

Craft vodka sampling at the brewery

Not buying this one

first night the waitress forgot half our dinner order, the second night, after drinking many happy hour cocktails whilst diligently waiting for the dinner service to commence, we were informed the gas in the kitchen had run out and there would be no food, all patrons were summarily booted and the restaurant closed until Wednesday when the next gas delivery happened. We managed to find steak and rolls for blotting paper. Next day great excitement as we were to fly back by sea plane, Kevin was like a kid in a toy shop, we arrive at the seaplane airport only to discover the booking was wrong and we were flying back by normal aircraft, mad dash across the island to get to the airport and sadly for Kevin an item that remains on the bucket list for now.

A fun weekend nonetheless

Thankfully chartering has some funny sides –

On one charter we were sailing across the bay, pointing out the young sailors that were out in their optimists, obviously taking part in a club sailing event, to guests, in the middle of the bay was a stationary Dream Yacht charter boat that we assumed to be the bridge boat (the one from which races are orchestrated) for the race as the fleet full of kids is heading for it at full speed. We get closer to it and realise that it is simply a bare boat charter, in every sense of the term. A bare boat charter is a rental boat without crew, well this was that and all the people on board were bare too, guess they took the term literally. Seriously hope the race fleet tacked before getting that eye full.

And the time when the plastic container in which a piece of fish which was marinading for a special diet lunch ended up in the sink at the bottom of a pile of dishes during a rough crossing. Kevin, whilst washing dishes, innocently turns to me and says “Donna, why is there fish in the dishes” and there he stands with a soap sud covered piece of salmon in his hands!!

Pizza Pi - a floating pizza
parlour in Christmas Cove

Making the pizza's inside the floating boat/oven such a
novel idea - we order pizza for guests and they eat them on
board

Or when we are moving along to get to a bay to drop anchor and serve lunch only to get sideswiped by a wave and the container of cooked rice goes flying – rice all around the galley and saloon, looked like confetti at a wedding

And the day the fresh sushi grade tuna was off, replaced with backup frozen crab cakes that ended up in a bowl of water whilst defrosting and became unsavable crab mush – eventually lunch become crispy fish fillet salad and the best lunch of the week – my nerves!!!

One charter of 2 guys finished this
entire Tequila selection in 7 days
The white bottlehand painted, sells
for USD$150.oo per bottle and they
got through 2

It also has its challenges, weather – we had to spend 3 days in Maho bay as hurricane Elsa went past and whilst it certainly is a beautiful bay the guests eventually felt like they were in the movie Groundhog Day.

Mechanical – often after dropping anchor Kevin has to graciously doff his captains hat and don his plumbing hat, fix a leaking pipe or blocked toilet, then refit the life guard hat as he zooms off in the tender to make sure no one is lost or injured whilst snorkelling.

One guest managed to lock his bathroom door on the inside and close it, effectively locking himself out of the bathroom, right when he needed to use it, in another incident the pin of the lock flew out of the bathroom door and straight into the toilet bowl – we have systematically been removing locking pins from the bathroom doors!

New wooden steps and it
looked brand new

New ladder looking
rather dismal

The swimming ladder parted ways with us during a rough passage on one charter, doesn’t sound like much but it is the only way to get back on board from the water and critical as Vivo is fairly high off the water. The chaos when Kevin jumped in the water to check the anchor, discovered the loss and was effectively marooned in the water off the back of the boat. We jury rigged a spare for the rest of the charter then spent a couple of days scouring boat yards for a suitable replacement, the fit is difficult. Eventually we found a rusty old ladder that would work and once we had cleaned it up and replaced the wooden steps it looked like a new one.

When one of the guests exclaimed “God Bless the inventor of air-conditioning” upon opening the saloon doors we knew we had at least won that battle - the units need/needed replacing, they are old.

Human – it’s quite amazing how many minor medical issues can occur on a charter, from stings and bites to sprains and infections (we found out the hard way that finding professional medical help on a Sunday in the USVI is a serious challenge). Also diets, allergies and eating habits certainly keep us on our toes.

This 5 boat tandem charter for 35 guests was a challenge
here Kevin was directing photography operations

But we can proudly say we’ve managed, quite successfully, to hold it all together. We’ve mastered the online shopping app’s, the 24 hour turnaround’s between charters, 3 in a row charters, a tandem charter involving 5 different yachts and 35 Vietnamese American guests, driving & rental cars, marina’s and their regulations and we’re still smiling.

Feeling right at home in the Pussers Pub,
Tortolla, BVI

We stayed at Fort Burt Hotel, gorgeous views

In between we had to do a visa run, I only get a 90 day visa on arrival using the ESTA waiver. The BVI’s had opened to allow vaccinated travellers access via the ferry so, after jumping through the many hoops still in place, we were off to the BVI for 3 days, caught up with some chartering friends and had some fun in Tortola.

The home of the original and best Pain Killer cocktail

We had a quick visit from Rod and Claudia at the beginning of August, was great to give them a taste of how we live, what we do and how beautiful the USVI’s are. Now we are sailing to Carriacou where all the companies boats will be put on the hard for hurricane season, we will fly to the States and do some road tripping, visit family and generally have some fun before heading back mid October when we will be crewing a smaller Elba 45 catamaran called Champagne for the next charter season.