We had a great 10 day trip out of St Thomas over Thanksgiving break.

The best part: All the people we met, both vacationers and residents. We had some awesome conversations and shared some great stories and experiences. We had a great time partying at Pirates and Willy T's and scootering around Anegada.

The worst part: Lots of rain and heavy winds which was exciting at times but not quite the vacation weather we were hoping for. As everyone has said, it was worse than usual. It was still warmer than home!


When: Nov 28-Dec 9, 2013
Boat: Sarah Sue from CYOA
Where: St Thomas, St John, Sopers, Norman, Cooper, the Dogs, Virgin Gorda, Anegada, Jost van Dyke, Norman, St Thomas

Four of us chartered Sarah Sue from CYOA.

Sarah Sue is a 2006 Lavezzi 40, a four cabin catamaran. She was very roomy and comfortable. (Well, except for maybe our tallest person who could have used a football helmet - he actually drew blood on the top of his head more than once.) Like our previous experience with CYOA, everything on the boat was in good working condition. We appreciated the layout of the galley, the space and the storage. (Although some of the storage was hard to reach - we had quite a few bad jokes going on whenever we needed to reach the valve between the water tanks - usually all you could see was someone's bottom and legs.) Given all the rain and my crew's love of AC, we ran the generator every night. Sarah Sue did not sail a very close haul at all - tacking felt like doing 180 degree turns! If you are looking for a spacious, well working, reasonable cat, she's great. If you are looking to sail lots, I'd probably go with a different boat.

We flew into STT and rented a car from Avis and drove to CYOA. We got in late (I don't think we've ever gotten into STT on time) and given the hour and the fact that it was Thanksgiving, our options for dinner were limited. We ended up at Banana Tree which had good food and an awesome view.

The next morning we did our grocery shopping at Cost U Less and Pueblo. (Cost U Less is a bit like a Sam's Club.) Neither one had bagels that we could find so we grabbed those at Frenchmen's Deli which is right by CYOA.

We did our check out which went well in spite of the huge gust of wind in the middle. (Depending on the day we had gusts of winds between 30-50 knots most days. Everyone we ran into agreed it was the worst weather we'd seen at that time of year.) After our checkout sail, we dropped the sails and motored out. We caught a mahi-mahi during the first hour of the trip. We had great coconut-curry fillets that night and fish tacos a few nights later.



We spent the night in Watermelon Cay. I had high hopes of seeing the fields of starfish that were there last time but they were gone.

The next day we went through customs at Soper's and then on to Norman. We grabbed a mooring ball in the Bight near the Caves. Our friends snorkeled around to the Caves and Frank and I went in to Pirates. We visited Pirates twice during our stay and had a great time there. We got drenched on the way back (yeah for hot showers!) That night it rained so hard, I couldn't see any of the boats moored around us except for the light from the group partying on the Promenade. (I could have done without the light shining right on us and the loud music but I was grateful to be able to do a quick visual check!)

The next morning we headed to the Indians and then for a sail around the south side of Norman to try to catch some fish. We ended up at Cooper where I got to swim with a dolphin!

(We also had our first scuba equipment problem. Our friends ended up giving up on scuba diving after they had numerous equipment problems/failures. The equipment was all stuff they brought from home and we were able to fix the first problem at Cooper.)

The next day we snorkeled at Wreck of the Rhone and then the Dogs where we had a close encounter (but not too close!) with a jellyfish.

The happy hour at Saba Rock was *packed*. Last time we were there we got to feed the fish. This time I couldn't even see the fish through the crowds of people. The Bitter End Yacht Club was closed for the week for a private party so we got a ball cheap from them. The next day we moved over to Leverick, rented a car and explored the island. Hog's Heaven does indeed have a great view! (And we had no rain that day.)



The following morning we filled up with gas and water, did not pick up the cat (as in real live, furry cat) looking for a ride, and headed to Anegada.



It started out with a beautiful, quiet sail except for the two guys staring over my shoulder. Turns out you need to be going 7 knots to fish. Luckily we ended up motoring because the weather got to be way more than I was comfortable sailing. Gusts of 40 knots, lots of rain and less than 75 feet of visibility. We went slow and waited for the weather to clear. The way into Anegada was really well marked - it looked liked there were more channel markers than last time. We went in in a line of boats … There was another group very excited about the speeds they had gotten sailing in 30 knot winds.

That night, in a slightly misty harbor, we all got a private bagpipe concert. It was beautiful and all the applauding from the boats made it feel like a community. We ran into the musician Maxime Langevin later at Willy T's and got a video of him.

We enjoyed Anegada immensely. I particularly enjoyed riding around the island on scooters. I was the only one in my group who had never ridden a motorized two wheel vehicle so the woman we rented the scooters from had me go around the roundabout twice. She also kept reassuring me that my group would not leave me behind and not to go faster than 15 mph. (I kept thinking, where would they go? I know I'd find them at Cow Wreck.) The rain was a bit painful but the puddles were fun!





We also got to check out the rooms at Loblolly Bay - beautiful one and two bedroom apartments - and spend the afternoon at Cow Wreck. We stopped at the Anegada Beach Club in between and had a great coconut conch slices appetizer.

The hammocks at Anegada Beach Club weren't strung quite right for us!



We had planned on a long sail to fish the next day but the weather looked awful so we went direct to Jost van Dyke. We had a great dinner at Cosair's and enjoyed hanging out with Vinney.

The next day brought even stronger winds (but no rain.) We tried heading up to Monkey Point but soon decided that was not going to be a comfortable ride in the swells, so we headed around to Norman. A lot of people were seeking refuge in Soper's Hole and in their hurry to get in there to get a mooring ball, they were doing some rather stupid things. We made it through the crazy drivers and over to Norman where we had an awesome snorkel along the south side of the bay and then a great time at Willy T's and Pirate's. We met a ton of friendly people all complaining about the weather and having a great time joking and swapping stories.

That night in the Bight was rather crazy. One boat came off its mooring, one boat lost its dinghy and another one had their dinghy flip over during the night. That was just what we heard about in our little corner.

The next day we headed back to St Thomas. We went around the south side of St John and gusts were up to 50 knots, visibility was down to almost zero at one point and the swells were huge. The swells were actually quite amazing and beautiful if you weren't worried about whether it was safe or not. We tried to get a picture of the swells but couldn't do them justice. We decided a video might have worked. We called ahead and spent the last night docked at CYOA. Still lots of wind but since they tied us up I figured I could try to sleep. (And be grateful that I don't have to dock boats in 30 knot winds.)

The next day quite a few of the catamarans came in so we got a chance to check them all out and plan for our next trip!

A great trip full of fun people.