St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands

We gave Brit, the lifeguard, grief about bringing
 an umbrella on our hike but the kids loved it.

We spent a few days on the beautiful beaches of St. John. Matt has fond memories of the area from his childhood and chartering with friends in his youth. I think it's fun for him to share the memories with Conrad and Mark.

We have mostly had good wind for sailing between anchorages, although sometimes the windy nights can be noisy and roll-y. We are required to use moorings in St. John, which is new to us because we almost always use our anchor. I was a little stressed about picking up moorings because we had only done it once before and we have seen plenty of boats embarrass themselves trying to pick up a mooring. But Matt puts the boat right over the ball and has set up an easy rigging system. So far, we have picked up each mooring on the first try and haven't dropped the boat hook in the water. Of course, there's always a first time. Don't think I'm getting cocky or anything.

Annaberg Sugar Mill ruins. The kids loved
 the dum bread samples baked fresh on site.

We have been buddy-boating with Brit from Halcyon and Darya, Oren, Mika, Gur, and Arbel on Del Max. The kids and adults are having a lot of fun together.

As Brit says, he's just a big kid.

It's nice to get back in the water again, especially as the weather heats up. Just enough rain appears each day to ensure frequent rainbows.

The place is lousy with turtles. It's great.

Our next stop is the British Virgin Islands, which is right next door but doesn't have the home court advantage of the U.S.V.I.s. From what I can tell, that mostly means that the Customs and Immigration process isn't necessarily quite as easy and our SIM cards probably won't work anymore.