 grandmaR's U. S. Virgin Islands Travelogues | | | | Title [Click to view] | Travel Year | Pictures | | By Land and By Sea | February, 1997 |  5 | | Adventures in Paradise - Charter of Tackless II | November, 1997 | 8 |
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| Page Views: 2,128 Last Visit to U. S. Virgin Islands: November, 1997 | Adventures in Paradise - Charter of Tackless II by grandmaR - last update: Jun 27, 2008 |
Departing - Thanksgiving 1997 - Thursday Nov. 27th | Flying over the Caribbean Sea |
We are flying today (Thanksgiving) because we are using a pass and flying standby. Everyone else is already at their destination by Thanksgiving day. |
| St. Thomas below us with anchored boats |
Arriving St. Thomas We got up at 4:15 am with a taxi scheduled for 4:45. The taxi arrived at 4:50 and the fare to the airport (6 miles) was $8.00 plus $2.00 tip. We stood in line and checked two bags because this is an American Eagle flight with not much luggage space. When we got to the boarding area at 5:25 no one was there. Boarding started at 5:30. There were at least two other non-rev passengers there, and the plane had at least one empty seat. The plane took off more or less on time. Bob said it sounded like it was powered by ten thousand angry bees. They gave us something to drink. The flight was rough and bouncy, especially the landing where we 'skidded' or 'crabbed' down the glide path to the landing. The flight didn't get a gate right away, but we got off on time at about 7:23 a.m. The walk from gate 1 to gate 43 took about 10 minutes. The wait at security was 6 minutes. When we got to the gate, we boarded right away, and pulled away from the gate on time. There were many kids on the plane including one whiner, and some Orientals from the Orient (i.e. reading books in Japanese or Chinese). The plane was not full - we had a seat between us. They served us breakfast (French toast, melon and yoghut). They showed a movie with Martin Short in it, but we didn't pay for the earphones. Took a nap (we were up early) and read instead. Later in the flight they served us a drink and pretzels. We landed on time, and our bags were first off the plane. We claimed them from the conveyor, but forgot to call Don and Gwen (the charter captains), and instead got a taxi to Tickles ($14.00 plus a $3.00 tip) where the boat we chartered, Tackless II, was tied up. |
| Tackless II at her mooring in Feb 1997 |
First Afternoon We had a short undocking lesson, and motored directly into a small breeze - it was very calm - around the side of St. John past Reef Bay (we could see the chimney of the sugar mill there). We moored at Great Lameshur with a trawler and Dr. Batty's boat. We had roast beef sandwiches, raw broccoli spears and carrots for lunch/snack. |
| Bob jumping in - other boats in background |
Snorkeling Bob and I went snorkeling for about a half a hour. We saw sea plumes, a common purple sea fan, brain coral, encrusting star coral, turtle grass, long spined urchins, a conch and a red encrusting sponge. Also butterfly fish, angel fish, blue tang, a parrot fish, sergeant majors, and grunts. We also heard a lot of clicking which I understand is shrimp. |
| Reef Bay to Salt Pond Bay |
Thanksgiving Dinner We had Thanksgiving dinner - turkey, dressing and mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans, parsnips and cranberry sauce. Dr. Batty's boat left the anchorage. The trawler moved. They had Christmas tree lights on their mast. We saw cruise ships coming into St. Thomas. Venus was in the sky. We went to bed at 8:30 or 9:00. The boat has a nice rocking motion. |
Friday November 28th 1997 Breakfast today was scrambled eggs, bacon, watermelon and guava, toast and jelly. We moved around to Salt Pond, St. John. Gwen and I did a dive for 50 minutes at 50 feet. We saw juvenile spotted drum, trumpet fish, green moray, spotted moray, nurse shark, flameback angelfish, green angelfish, rock beauty, French grunt, various parrot fish, squirrel fish, goat fish, queen triggerfish, surgeons and blue tangs, branching fire coral, pillar coral, common sea fan, sea whip, star coral, brain coral, red boring sponge, barrel sponges, and purple bay sponge |
| Underwater - just learning to use the camera |
Friday afternoon Gwen gave Bob a resort course off the rocks at Salt Ponds - 25 feet for 40 minutes. He saw 4 queen triggerfish, pillar coral, sergeant majors, smooth trunkfish, Spanish hogfish, squirrelfish, black bar soldier fish, angel fish, Nassau grouper, a juvenile drum and a school of sennett. (Identified with Gwen's help). Then we had lunch (seafood salad and hot bread) and pulled the anchor and motored outside of the headlands, where we raised the mainsail and unfurled the jib and sailed out toward St. Croix. We tacked back past Coral Bay and anchored at Hurricane Hole. Before dinner we had hors d'oevres of Italian torte, and dinner was pasta and hot bread with chocolate sticks for dessert. Finished up about 8 p.m. and went to bed. |
Saturday, November 11, 1997 Overnight there were large gusts of wind at intervals. The goats on the hill were very noisy, but it was very calm and I slept well. Two ketches are rafted up in the anchorage, plus Captain Fatty Goodlander's boat. We got up about 7:30, and had breakfast (sausage, eggs, rolls, fruit). Left the mooring , got underway and sailed towards Roadtown, Tortola, BVI |
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| grandmaR's U. S. Virgin Islands Travelogues | | | | Title [Click to view] | Travel Year | Pictures | | By Land and By Sea | February, 1997 | 5 | | Adventures in Paradise - Charter of Tackless II | November, 1997 | 8 |
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