February 25 Charlotte Amalie Harbour, USVI

We came back to Charlotte Amalie Harbour yesterday, having spent the prior few days back in beautiful Christmas Cove. One of the twist-locks for our enclosure bit Craig hard at the base of his little piggy. It was just this side of needing stitches which I did not want to do…needles in feet are a special kind of pain I reserve for only my worst enemies. Instead, he is on no swimming restrictions and receiving daily wet to dry neosporin dressings. It is healing very nicely. We came back to this busy harbour to eliminate temptation to swim and to prepare for travel over to the Spanish Virgin Islands. They are only 20 miles away or so but mostly desolate (our favorite) so we do our usual…extra provisioning and a fuel dock for this thirsty girl. The harbour bustles with cruise ships and large motor yachts coming into Yacht Haven Grande. Port Louis Marina in Grenada ought to take lessons. This place is pristine and secure. No dinghy engines get stolen here, to be sure. The anchorage is pleasant and calm with many anchored yachts. Even with all the activity, there is a small turtle who swims around my boat ever day and this tern spent the morning with me doing laundry.













For the record, Craig and I have spent the last year eating island fish, island octopus, island conch, island chicken, island pork, island goat, island mystery meat and island stuff I’m not sure what it was…things we caught and things other people caught…from fruity restaurants to roadside grills to momma and son pick-up truck-mobile things…from the Bahamas to Grenada. But every once in a while, something uniquely American catches our eye and a crave starts. It itches like all hell. You scratch and then succumb. Today it was a Hooters. Even completely immersed in island culture as we are, sometimes you just gotta have a hot wing. Craig didn’t mind the eye candy either. So we feasted today on hot wings, debating fake (Craig) v. real yet enhanced by lingerie engineering (Angela). No alcohol involved, so no picture of the hooters in question.












We never tire of the super yachts. We were enjoying a sundowner in the cockpit when we noticed what looked like a helicopter landing on a motor yacht coming into the harbour:

We will leave tomorrow or the next day, depending on wind/weather. We are excited to head to the Spanish Virgins…clean and uncluttered. There are a couple of bays on Vieques that are bioluminescent so that is high on my must-do list. I love seeing phosphorescence in our boat wake and the word in our guide books is that one can swim in the water here and the sparklies stick for a moment. I'll do my best to capture it on film. (Skip. Darling. I need you and that fancy camera pronto!!) Otherwise, we will play and explore...nothing on the schedule until Michael Nauman comes in on March 16th to help us passage from Puerto Rico to Turks and Caicos. That will be quite a run.
More later!