The restaurant owner at Compass Point is just following our Government rules -- masks unless seated at table - no parties larger than 6 - no standing/sitting at the bar. This allows us to have tourists and locals dining.
The dinghy dock in Coral Bay has been there a long time - I have a photo from 1917 with the same stone dinghy dock There are no public or NPS moorings in Coral Bay..
Our grocery stores have been banned from dispensing plastic bags for over 2 years. Most stores will follow that law. Bring reusable bags to go shopping.
There are no marinas on STJ.
Glad you were able to enjoy the USVI - Thanks for bringing the family - it is VERY different cruising here than BVI bar hopping. Because of the BVI closure the STJ NPS mooring situation is very overstressed. We have never had this kind of bareboat traffic to deal with -- hopefully it will settle down some if people do some research on visiting all of the USVI's and outlying Cays. STX has some of the best snorkeling/diving in the Caribbean - Fredericksted Pier is an awesome snorkel !!
I was surprised there were no snorkeling, swimming or water oriented comments in your report - did the kids have a good time??
There is also a CostUless store mid island STT and provisioning for 8 would be easier there. [No Bags at all! bring reusable ones.]
Eventually combining the USVI with a trip to the Spanish Virgins will become popular as the BVI fees continue to increase and charterers discover the peaceful cruising grounds west of the BVI.
The thing is - we never actually went to BVI for bar hopping thing. Enjoy Anegada and Soggy Dollar bars, but mostly pick quitter bays to stay. And cook a lot on a boat. So I guess that's why USVI felt great on the first try!
I didn't mention snorkeling because it kinds goes without saying that snorkeling is great everywhere there. We snorkeled probably an hour every day and kids spend another two hours jumping from the boat roof non-stop... Water is so warm....
Traffic is pretty bad right now, but there is also plenty of anchoring grounds. We never felt rushed to fight for the ball. But eventually we just settled to sailing earlier in the day. It's not like you have to do 3-4 hour hops as in BVI...
As for Coral bay - if we knew about reusable bags - that would be great help. But nobody mentioned it anywhere. And once you spend 20+ min riding to the town - nobody was enthusiastic to go back for bags... There is a dinghy dock near Skinny Legs, but not by Dolphin, we didn't found one. We had to leave dinghy in shallow and stony water and tie it to the tree....
