Customs at US Virgin Islands

Today we got to St Thomas USVI. We cleared out of the BVI earlier today. Both Rocky and I have a visa for 10 years that we applied for while still in Australia. We had to get this because we only had a one way ticket because we would leave on our boat. Australians do not have to get s visa but can get an online visa waiver. Gail and Grant, our friends travelling with us have such a thing which states 'valid till 2014 sometime. So we thought we were all good. After Rocky had filled out numerous forms for the boat and I filled out personal forms for us we were told that we had to wait and someone would interview us all together.
In the mean time Gail and Grant did not have to do anything yet theirs was different Ok so finally we were ushered in. Rocky had to go to a counter and Gail Grant and I had to stay on this red carpet exactly on this line. Gail had to go to another counter where she was told that her visa waiver was only valid for 90 days and as they had come into the country in January their time was up. The visa waiver is valid for 2 years and within that 2 years only 90 days from entering the country
Rocky and I had finished our clearing in by then and taken somewhere else. The official explained to Rocky that as the captain of the vessel he was responsible for his crew. Fair enough we thought. We had to leave and take them back to the BVI The only other option would be for Gail and Grant to pay $585 each to get another waiver only for Puerto Rico. That being ridiculous Rocky said ok we will sail back but can we please stay on our boat on anchor till the morning.
No said the official you need to leave now.
Rocky got angry because by then it was late and we would have had to sail in the dark which he did not want to do in the dark. So he said to the guy 'the US government is putting our lives at risk'.
Well he did not take kindly to that and said rocky was offending the government. He asked if anything was wrong with our boat. Then a lady official came and told the other official to step back. He and Rocky were standing quite close. IThe man started talking again and Rocky said 'I must stop you there' where the guy said that Rocky was not allowed to stop him rocky did not listen to him and told him that he as the captain was responsible for his crew. I dont think the guy heard this so I sort of stepped in front of Rocky because I was afraid that they would put him in jail that is how angry that guy got. Anyway I said I was sorry he got offended and that it was not meant that way. He started pointing at me with his blue plastic gloved hands but did calm down.
At this point we asked to discuss the options with our friends so they went and got them. Although we told them we would go back with them Gail and Grant opted for paying. Then they let us wait some more and started the paperwork.finger printing and taking photos. We had to pay cash and since we did not have that much the official escorted Grant and Rocky to an ATM. Grant could only get $ 300 from the machine and when Rocky tried it had run out of money.
We scraped the money together with a few dollars short that they took from their kitty.
They had been told that if they wanted another waiver they would have to go back to Australia to do it. This is where they did something nice because Gail said that she was so disappointed that she could not go to America. They gave them a different kind of visa till October that they can use to go to US mainland as long as they stay in US. So now they can actually fly from Puerto Rico to US mainland and tour there till October. So now it looks like they will leave us in Puerto Rico when we head from there to Curaçao.
What a day this was

St Barth and St Martin/St Maarten

We had a great Sail from Barbuda to St Barth. We left at 4 am and arrived in less then 10 hours in St Barth. This is about 70 miles. St Barth is a very upmarket island. There are hardly any black people and it is mostly designer shops and cute boutiques with it being French. Gustavia is the capital and the bay is full of boats.
We spend a few days there enjoying the free showers and visiting shell beach and gourmet shops. There were huge waves so the sleeping was not altogether comfortable. We went around to the north of the island in a bay with free moorings. Here we were called by another boat to ask if we wanted fish. They gave us 2 big bags with Mahi Mahi or dolphin fish. All beautifully filleted into thick steaks. Wonderful. After 2 nights we sailed to St Maarten. We had to wait for the bridge to open for us to be able to go into the lagoon. There we finally met up with our friends from Me Gusta (Rick and Miriam ) and Nenufar (Claude and Céline).
Rick had his brother visiting who had hired a car. St Maarten is divided with a French side and a Dutch side St Martin and St Maarten. And the story goes......
The French and the Dutch were very amicable. So when it came to dividing the island a Frenchman started walking one way with a bottle of wine and the Dutchman walked the other way with a bottle of gin. Where they would meet would be the border. So the Frenchman drinking wine got further then the gin drinking Dutchman and the French part is bigger. There has never been a problem between them here. It is in the Dutch town Pilipsburg that the cruise ships come.
Our friends left to sail to the Virgin Islands and we were leaving about a week later for an overnight sail. We ran around still doing all kinds of things and rushing together the last opening when we realised we had not cleared customs. So now we are waiting till Easter Saturday night to go to get the good winds. The great thing about this is that our Dutch friends Marlene and Loud on Rafiki are here as well and we get to see more of them. We keep meeting them but always for a short time.
Yesterday 28 was our wedding anniversary so we got dressed up to go to the shore for dinner. Rocky spotted a boat that had run aground so we headed over to help. Three of us went aboard to hang on one side to tilt it over. They pulled a halyard with a dinghy and later followed my suggestion of all things to pull the boom to the side as well. We did get the boat moving and sailed into the marina. The owner got wine out and we shared their dinner. With 4 extra that was not enough so Rocky bought 3 pizzas. We had a lovely time with them and never got to eat in the restaurant.

Barbuda

Barbuda is considered a jewel in the Caribbean. It is 27 miles north of Antigua and still part of Antigua. People can not buy land there but they can build wherever they want because there is plenty and it belongs to every Barbudian. We arrived and anchored near this long beach after an eery motoring over a complete flat sea with the sky reflecting in the water so you wouldn't know what is sky and what is water. We arrived in low bay where we were rolling badly all night. There was nothing on the shore just very steep beach. We moved around the next day to a more sheltered place and went for a walk. A moon landscape (or what I think the moon looks like) with lots of donkeys. We had to walk 3 miles to clear out with customs and then walk the same back. Very Dusty and hot. I bought a fish in a shell which tasted like meat. The people were very friendly

Antigua

We arrived in Antigua on a Friday evening after the finish of the yacht race RORC 600. Friends had invited us to a party on this mega yacht owned by someone from Microsoft. That was fantastic sooo much food and drink and all free. After the food we went to the yacht club where a fantastic band played and everybody was dancing. We had a great time. Antigua is the place for the mega yachts though. It all seems a bit over the top. Mick jagger's yacht 'Cinderella' was in the harbour. Our friends had seen him but he told them not to take a photo.
We hiked up Shirley Heights and got hopelessly lost. We did get to the top though and had a fantastic view. I preferred to coconut crush drink to the view though. It is a mixture of coconut water, coconut cream, pineapple and ice.
Wonderful concoction a bit like piña colada without the rum I suppose.
We spend a bit of time with Graham and Gina from Curlew and also met up with our Dutch friends Loud and Marlene from Rafiki. We sailed around the island to Nonsuch bay where we anchored out behind a reef. Ah the tranquility (lol) but this one for real. We snorkelled and generally just relaxed.
After that we sailed around the island again to Jolly Harbour. Lovely place with a great supermarket. That is as long as you hang on to your docket because the security is there to look at your docket if you get something like a carton of beer. Grant actually left his docket on the counter and the checkout girl put it in the bin. Gail asked if she could look in the bin but the girl said it would not be there and she did not remember Grant. We had a great time looking at security camera finally spotting Grant and then they still had to go through the bin to find the offending docket. Anyway 'when in Rome' so now we keep our dockets.
We go to the pub with a big pool every afternoon happy hour 2 for one cocktails and Grant his bucket of beer.
Today we went to St John (capital) on the bus. I don't know how people would like to hear gospel songs through loudspeakers in the mall in Perth, but here it sounds divine. I have twisted my knee and had strapped it up to walk. While I sat somewhere this guy comes to me selling aloe vera plants for burns. Except he did not want to sell it to me he told me to take the bandage off because you can not do that in this hot climate. 'That is why your foot is swollen. I had actually thought that my strap was getting tight of my fit flops. Good advise and my foot went straight away back to normal.
On the way home home the bus driver said that with the lords help he would deliver us safely to Jolly Harbour. Well The Lord must be with him because we are now safely sitting on the yacht with a cup of tea.

Walk to the waterfall Deshaies

In Deshaies you can follow the river up the mountain to a waterfall. The book says about 3 hours climbing through the river over rocks and then you can get back in 15 minutes via the road. Well the 3 hours there was about right. It was a huge climb over big boulders where you often had to pull yourself up. You come across beautiful ponds. It was very arduous but also very beautiful. When we went back via the road after about 15 minutes I started having horrible cramps in my shimmer came past a convent and a quaint little graveyard. We could see the bay way in the distance down below. I did not think I could walk all that way with these cramps. Then this ute drove past and reversed. It was a priest who had noticed my limp. He took me in the car and the others in the back down. It was still 20 minutes by car so so much for 15 minutes walk.

Deshaies

We had a easy sail along Guadeloupe coast to the northern fishing village Deshaies. We went there because very high seas and wind were predicted for 4 days. Just crazy the weather here. We already had a night and a day here with a lot of wind when last night it started to become like a storm. Just as we were going to bed Rocky noticed the boat in front of us coming closer. And yes it was dragging. Grant and Gail were in bed already but grant got up when he heard us taking out fenders. By then the boat was very close and it seemed like everyone on it was asleep. In the end a guy got up and started telling us that we had come forward (like against the wind). He insisted that he was in the same spot as he swayed from next to us by now to right in front so Rocky had to push him off by his solar panels. He told us that he was on his own and we should leave. We had already let out more chain while he was still asleep (as much as possible without getting too close to the boats behind us). Anyway he kept reanchoring and at one stage ran over our chain and snapped the snubber (this is rope lifting the chain to keep weight of the windlass machine to take up and drop anchor). After about 6 goes he finally left at 4.30 this morning.
Besides that everything is sweet.

Guadeloupe Les Saintes

We had an ok crossing from Martinique to Les Saintes. When I say that it means quite a lot of wind from a not so favourable angle and high waves. However we sailed and used the motor only to charge the batteries for a bit. It was very crowded in Les Saintes but we managed to find a mooring ball not too far from the dinghy dock. The first day we saw lots of children chasing a mother and baby dolphin around the bay. These dolphins were truly playing with them Leaping out of the water and staying just in front. The kids had been doing this for hours and some had to rest holding on to our dinghy.
These dolphins were there every day. We hired scooters for a day and cruised around the island. It is a totally enchanting island. On our last day there Dan and Debbie from Lady Hawk were next to us. It was lovely to see them again. We had exchanged emails but had not seen them since Puerto Rico last year. This is the lovely thing people cruise around here for years so you keep meeting up. Many island have a cruisers net on the VHF radio and people tune in in the morning get to hear who has arrived or who is leaving. They supply weather information and buy and sell things. It is great.
Anyway we very much enjoyed our stay in Les Saintes which is part of Guadeloupe. After 3 days there we set sail for Deshaies in Guadeloupe.