Day 1
Alarm goes off here in Bradenton, Florida at 4:30 a.m.
We are on the road by 6 a.m. for a target 9:30 a.m. arrival at the Marriott Miami Airport where we will be parking the car for a bargain $6/day.
No traffic at all, a stop for an Egg McMuffin (a VERY rare thing…), and we are on time.
We hook up with my friend Barbara in the airport – she landed from NY at 9:00 a.m. and we have a 12:20 departure on American for St. Thomas. Everyone in the airport is in masks and keeping a good amount of social distance. We sit at a table at TGI Friday’s near our gate and have a snack, since we know there will be no in-flight service to STT.
Everyone is cooperative and has masks on for the whole flight. We leave a little early and arrive a little early. All good.

We get off the plane in St. Thomas and they put us in two lines. There is only one other flight arriving at the same time. They ask you to stand together if you are traveling together in the line. They take our temperatures and we have our checked bags and are out of there in 20 minutes max. CYOA has sent a taxi that we share with another couple to the base – they are owners of a boat in the fleet and out heading out from that day (7/7) for 20 days….we are insanely jealous.

Arrival at the base is exactly as Jay describes in our briefing video – except that they actually do greet us on arrival – it was really great running into Rick and Christine from “Echoes” who were finishing up provisioning for their passage to Grenada. Only a quick hi and goodbye as they were quite busy but nice to see them and wish them fair winds.

We found Always Sunny, our Beneteau 38 for the week, on dock. Sealed from cleaning, we unlock the boat and stow our gear – turn on the AC for our last night of it since the rest of the week we will not have shore power. The boat is in great shape and we never had any problems with her the entire trip – everything was pristine and in perfect working order, including our dinghy.

We decided to keep it simple and hit just one store for provisioning. It’s only 3 of us on the boat and we will only be on for a week. We walk to Moe’s in town and run into Steve and Lou (same people we shared the taxi with) – we all decided to get our shopping done and we cab it back to base together about an hour later. We stow our provisions and head into Frenchtown for a bite to eat. Pie Whole had already done last call for pizza – which is kind of okay since we were planning on Pizza Pi in Christmas Cove the next night. We wander around and find Twisted Cork. The owner, Jason, is the only one working that night and doing a grand job of running the floor all by himself. We have a great meal and head back to the boat and crash. Tomorrow is our first big day and the weather is supposed to be frisky.

Day 2
I am always up super early and today is no exception. I wake up at 6 and manage to lie in bed and read until the reasonable hour of 7 – but then I want coffee.
Barbara and I go exploring for coffee and Brian starts puttering around the boat as usual. We hit up the Frenchtown Deli right by the base and get some great coffee and delicious breakfast sandwiches. Why have to clean dishes on the boat on the first day when there’s food nearby?
I should mention that we brought our own soft-sided Yeti cooler for the trip – something we have never done before. We packed it with some meat but the REAL reason for bringing it? ICE. It is NOT like the BVI, where ice is at the ready at most stops. There is Cruz Bay and Coral Bay and maybe Maho (we did not get there) and that’s pretty much IT, folks. So we needed the extra cooler and we were VERY glad we had it!
Justin from CYOA got us out of the slip – NOT your average slip – LOL – so they do not let you just pull on outta there! A chase boat came and grabbed him and we were on our way to Christmas Cove. It was “blowing like snot” (Justin’s words) and looking a bit squally, so we decided to just motor on out and see what we could see. Seas were very definitely up and it was a beat so – whatever – we’re on the boat and heading to Christmas Cove. Looking over at Little St James is a bit creepy (Epstein’s…..) but I had to snap a picture of the “temple” – just gives you an odd feeling. We grabbed a ball at Christmas Cove and settled in. Absolutely gorgeous. Two turtles who hung out quite a bit with us. We snorkeled, relaxed, and then dinghied over to place our order for one of the best pizzas I have ever had. SOOO good. Don’t miss it. We were all exhausted after our travel day and first day out and I’m pretty sure we were all crashed by 9.
More to come!