Woles

Flummoxed. No dew on the hatches this morning.."Do I hear a chicken?"

And why is Amelia nicknamed the Princess (among many others)?  She's added a new step to her morning routine:  Sit on the table & stare at Mama while Mama brushes her teeth.  Petted by Mama for 5-20 minutes, depending on how late Mama slept.  Medicine.  Breakfast ("You don´t need coffee!  Breakfast!"). Hop up on the table and stare at Papa's spot until he wakes up to give her some lactose-free milk (if Mama hasn´t given in yet.  "Splash some over here after you pour some in your coffee, stingy lady!").  Morning nap if Daddy oversleeps.  Daddy gets up.  Beg for more milk then treats.  Take a second run at breakfast.  AND NOW, head out on deck to lick up some morning dew.    Heaven forbid you miss a step...

We're saaaaaiilinngggggg!

Halfway across the Virgin Passage. 10 miles to Brewer's beach. "Is that a whale?  A dolphin?  It's big but it's not moving?" {turtle pops his head up}.  "Dude!  He is huge!"

Arrived!  Anchored in Brewers Bay, St Thomas, USVI--right next to the airport I used to fly into!  (No airplanes on approach until we entered the anchorage. We thought we were lost!). This is our first pelican, who landed on the bow to assist with cleaning our fish. "Are you gonna eat that?"  Mine!

Summary:  Total time 4:06, total mileage 20.2, average speed 4.9 kts (1/3 motor sail, 2/3 motor)

We're privileged to spot the four dolphins that frequent the anchorage, according to a Professor at the University.  It's two mama's and two babies.  They swam through anchorage, along the beach with babies playing and doing spins.  We get asked if we see a lot of dolphins and the answer is "not as many as we would like!" but other cruisers have had better luck.

For a girl from the midwest, today's snorkel was like swimming in the Springfield Bass Pro or Shedd Aquarium saltwater fish tank. A ray (unidentified because he was under the sandy bottom except for eyes & tail), lots of blue fish turning black near coral then turning white over sand (doctorfish?), bottom dwelling (orangespotted?) goby giving me the stink eye, pink big eye blackfin snapper (? Beautiful & my first. Also giving me the stinkeye), lots of speckled black smooth trunkfish, Angelfish, butterfly fish, blue tang, purple & yellow damselfish and one those floating twigs with eyeballs (he was friendly. We hung out for awhile). Couldn't find the resident turtle. We need an underwater camera!

SW wind?  WTF?!  It's amazing how quickly The Captain can get a swell bridle on in the middle of the night. 

#unprotectedanchorage

Sailing tip:  Even the most experienced cruisers forget the ocean swell can arrive the night before the forecast wind shift (ie not just us!)

Hey, look what showed up in the mail today!  My iRocker SUP!  A huge thank you to our friend Wendy on sv Altona II for introducing us to iRocker and to Dale at the Dinghy Dock for buying my kayak.

As previously mentioned my gadgets have all switched themselves to Espanol (including recently, YouTube ads). Yesterday, The Captain's texts switched themselves to French. Communication is getting interesting!  (Did he call me a tard?!)

Mother Nature.  She's running the show.  The winds have been weird this last week.  Trade winds should be out of the east.  It's been several days since the cold front clocked through south and west.  The forecast was for NE winds this week.  However, we're still bobbing around between SE and N!  I suspected the wind coming over the island mountain affected the winds in our anchorage/bay along with some current, which other cruisers concurred.  However, today, we dinghied around to the south side of the airport to Lindbergh Bay, hoping to relocate.  We were surprised (but not totally surprised) that there is a south swell still rolling in, despite the forecast of NE winds.  There was only one monohull anchored (bobbing like a cork) & a cat departing!  I guess the boat is really swinging to the SE wind!

Some days as cruisers, we arrive and happen upon an amazing experience.  Other times, we have to stay somewhere long enough to experience something amazing!  After deciding not to relocate this morning, we headed into town for some grocery shopping.  On the return, as we hopped on the safari, a woman behind us, said "Hurry!  Hurry!  I have to get to the beach!  Are you going to beach?  Do you have your snorkel gear?"  It turns out she was volunteering with a group from the university to count turtles!  When we arrived, she grabbed a bag of groceries and lead us around to the UVI Marine Science dock and introduced us to Steve and John who work at the university!  We talked turtles (they've counted 17 in one day!), dolphins (we saw the 4 in the bay yesterday!), rays (yep!  Seen em), buoys (They also collect data.  Maintenance is contracted out--the one below was getting it's chain scrubbed!), wildlife in the tiny bay behind their dock (all kinds of birds & tarpon), no wake zones (jet skiis are banned.  Yeah!) and whether or not you should use a powered sup in the swim zone (NO).  They added us to their contact list!  (Odin is in the top right)

Stand by for Part 2, underwater camera pics of Brewer's Bay!