Great Lameshur Bay, St. John

At anchor in Great Lameshur Bay

Storyville attached to a mooring

When we left St. Thomas last week our anchor windlass motor decided to give up the ghost. What that means is that, in order to anchor, we would have to do it all manually. Given the fact that we have a 45 lb. anchor and at least 100 feet of chain attached to it, that doesn't sound like a great idea to us (especially Troy, who would be playing the part of the manual windlass!). So, fortunately for us, Great Lameshur Bay, and all of the other bays on St. John that fall within the Virgin Islands National Park, have mooring balls. These mooring balls will make our life much easier while we wait for the motor rebuild kit to arrive. Even better, the cost of the moorings are $15.00 per day, paid by the honor system into a "pay station" and the money goes to the park service.

Normally we try to avoid paying for moorings as that can add up quickly and take a bite out of the cruising budget, but with the anchor issues that we are having, it doesn't sound like such a bad idea. Plus, this bay is pretty remote and it's almost impossible (almost impossible in this case is defined as a $35.00 taxi ride, one way) to get to town. Since we don't want to part with $70.00 for a taxi ride that is probably 5 or 6 miles one way, we have decided to lay low and enjoy our time in this beautiful bay. Fortunately we are well provisioned and have been able to enjoy our time here in the beautiful bay. For some great information on the park, click THIS LINK.

So, how have we been spending our days? With a little work, a lot of relaxation, a little rain and lots of sunshine.  All of our buddy boats have moved on to the British Virgin Islands while we chose to remain here and wait for our repair kit. We will catch up with them in the next week or so.  In the mean time, we've been filling up our days quite well with:

• Swimming/Snorkeling
• Beach Walking
• Hiking
• Kayaking
• Cooking (and, of course, eating)
• Reading Books
• Watching Movies
• Working on boat projects such as:
• Installing the Mack Pack on the main sail
• Working on a few sewing projects
• Removing the anchor windlass in preparation for the repair
• And just enjoying each other's company and having fun with Luna

Even though we are in a remote bay, we discovered that the Virgin Islands Environmental Research Station or VIERS located here has WIFI that you can purchase by the hour, day or week.  With our Wirie booster, we are able to have Internet on the boat, even in this location. VIERS was established for environmental educational activities and scientific research. Get more information by clicking THIS LINK.  Thank you VIERS!

Life has no auto-settings. No batteries. You gots to wind it up! ~Jeb Dickerson