12.27.2021-1.2.2022 St. Thomas -> St. John -> St. Thomas

Our first week in the USVI has been split time between St. Thomas and St. John - and neither has disappointed!

After Charlotte Amalie, we sailed to another anchorage called Christmas Cove at Great St. James (small island to the east of St. Thomas). We were able to bring the full mainsail up and it took us about an hour and a half. This area was definitely a charter-hotspot as there were several boats and people, but it was a nice change of pace. We were able to snorkel (the cove had a small reef) and paddleboard during the two days we were there!

We were able to dinghy over to Red Hook to setup a mail receiving service. While there, we also came across a local vet office so I stopped in to say hi and inquire about how they're doing with COVID (because Ollie may eventually need another health certificate if we stop in the Bahamas on our way back to Florida). It was really nice being back in Red Hook, which is where we did our sailing lessons back in April 2021 :)

Next, we attempted to sail over to Caneel Bay in St. John - I say attempted because there was a lot of "traffic" on the water between the ferry that runs between St. Thomas and St. John and other powerboats. We ended up motoring most of the way which took us about 45 minutes. Caneel Bay is just north of the popular tourist area Cruz Bay (where we spent a little time pre-sailing lessons). We chose Caneel Bay because it's part of the St. John National Park Service! We were able to pick up a mooring ball and take care of payment ($26/night). Caneel Bay was a mix of cruisers, charters, and tourists. It rests between Honeymoon Beach (which has a small bar) and the former Caneel Bay Resort (which was destroyed in Hurricane Irma back in 2017).

What I loved most about Caneel Bay was all the sea turtles!!! Daily we could see 5-10 coming up for air and swimming a bit on the surface before diving back down for sea grass from our boat! We did a fair amount of snorkeling and paddleboarding during our stay, but we never came across one while in the water.

We stayed in Caneel Bay through New Year's and it was an awesome find! We had easy access to get to land by taking the dinghy over to Cruz Bay. We were able to do some shopping for more UV protective clothing and sightseeing of the island. One night we brought Ollie with us for happy hour at The Beach Bar, which is where we had pre-sailing lesson drinks! He was a huge hit and made so many new friends (several people on vacation were dog-sick from leaving their own pets at home, so Ollie helped!).

On New Year's Eve, we decided to hike part of the National Park. We took the dinghy over to Cruz Bay so that we could start Lind Point Trail. Our plan was to hike from there to Honeymoon Beach (where we were moored). It was a great outdoor activity with awesome views, and the terrain reminded us of back home in Arizona :)

180-view from atop Lind Point (looking out over Cruz Bay)

Once we got to Honeymoon Beach, we decided to checkout the Bikinis Bar & Grill! It was pretty cool to see the mooring field from the beach rather than the beach from our boat :)

We decided to keep New Year's pretty low-key and stayed in and lounged with Ollie :) We're pretty excited for what 2022 is going to bring for our new lifestyle!!

On Sunday, we needed to head back to St. Thomas to start our upgrades process (more to come in the next post!). We again were able to bring up our full mainsail as we departed Caneel Bay - it was actually a bit entertaining to see a lot of the charter boats' people in awe of sails being up! We plotted the long way so that we could sail instead of motor, which took us about 2.5 hours. We planned to anchor near Water Island (just slightly west of Charlotte Amalie) but the area had several moorings in place and we couldn't find room. So instead we headed over to west side of Hassel Island (around the corner from Charlotte Amalie) to anchor.