US Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands consists of three islands: St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. Anchoring in Charlotte Amalie (named by the Danes after their queen, Charlotte Amalia) a thrill all is own, as we were surrounded by steep cliffs that poked the sky, dotted with sloping red roofs. On shore, we watched transfixed as waves of tourists crept like troops of ants in various modes of transportation to town, having recently disembarked from any one of the seven cruise ships docked in port.

You might gag, yet provisioning here for our down island voyages was a dream! We simply glided into the Pueblo Supermarket a couple blocks down the road, grabbing a cold chocolate Frosty from a fast-food chain on the way back. Wall-mart, a hospital, dentist, and chandleries are all a short walk or bus drive away for a couple bucks. Items can be easily shipped in from foreign ports -- St Thomas is a duty-free port. Having sailed down the thorny path from the Out Islands of the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, we were ready for the rush of adrenaline and easy living before venturing off again to nowhere.

Though American, the West Indian culture remains a strong influence in the islands: Calypso and reggae rhythms swirl through the air; curried meats, callaloo soup and mango-sweetened soups. I relished wandering through the farmer's market in search of new and interesting produce to experiment with. Callaloo soup became our favorite!

Carnival is an annual event held in April/May. Think steel drums, vibrant costumes, mocko-jumbies and fireworks! Then you soon will be dancing in the streets along with grandmothers and children in the streets, mesmerized by the sea of shifting color and music. It is a time of cultural celebration, with calypso shows, food fairs, queen pageants, steel pan shows and parades.

The ‘carne vale’, translates as a ‘farewell to meat’, traditionally a blow-out before the Lenten fast and Catholic by origin. Today in the West Indies, the religious roots have supplanted with a huge fete, in true West Indian form. Some are held to celebrate the end of the cane-cutting season or the zafra in Cuba or at Easter, as in Jamaica.

Soca music is the driving rhythm behind the street parades. It is expected that you will join in, so practice the ‘chip’ dance step. It's a flex-kneed left and right shuffle, which is very saucy. Those beside you will be ‘bumping’ and ‘wining’, bum on bum, bum on groin, and grinning from ear-to-ear. Try it to believe me! You might be sore the next day, when those fond memories of chippin' with the West Indians at Carnival will return to you during those cold months of winter, wherever you sail of get stuck on land!

In the early 1950s, US millionaire L. Rockefeller purchased large tracts of land, donating much of it to the US government. Today, it is a National Park and covers two-thirds of the island (5,650 acres underwater). Hiking trails and pristine reefs abound. On our morning walks, encountering a feral donkey in the middle of the road became a welcoming sight. If we were lucky, we’d spot the diurnal mongoose, along with a flurry of white tropical birds, and somehow end up with a gecko in my straw bag. For weeks thereafter, we relished his chirping, til he found a berth elsewhere.

We anchored at Leinster Bay to follow the Leinster Trail across island to Coral Bay, stopping at the sugar-mill ruins and watching for hidden petroglyphs along the way. At Coral Bay, we dropped by at Skinnyleg's' mojito bar for a cold drink, before heading back overland before dark. It’s a full day’s trek, well worth the effort. The kids of our troop like to picnic along the way in the shade of hardwood trees, while we parents tried to sneak in a biology or geography lesson.

Nicknamed ‘Love City’, St John’s town center (at Mongoose Junction), wafts a carefree, spring-break party vibe. Circumnavigators have dropped their hook here at the end of their voyages; still here today. Former hippies, sea captains, American retirees and reggae worshippers gather at quaint island spots at the end of the day to hoist many happy returns for their good fortune in being here. Walk thru the narrow streets and much waving and greeting goes on.

The local Post Office is excellent for receiving small packages from home. While waiting, linger at Great Cruz Bay, Cinnamon Bay, Trunk Bay and Caneel Bay to celebrate your safe arrival down the Thorny Path with your new cruising buddies. Our waning spirits were rekindled, when gunkholing along the north coast of St. John.

A commonwealth of the United States of America, Puerto Rico is a semi-autonomous territory whose constitutional status has long been a political oxymoron. The island’s cultural manifestations are similarly ridden with contradiction. Puerto Ricans love big American cars, but drive them more like they’re in Mexico City; they have served in numerous foreign wars under the banner of stars and stripes, yet share a closer historical identity to Cuba; they have exported over half of their ebullient population to the east coast of the United States, but still exhibit a fierce loyalty to their beloved Borinquen, the island they will always call home.

Latin rhythms thumped across the park, as we emerged from our dinghies at sundown to join in the weekend reverie in Boqueron, a former fishing village. Vendors selling freshly harvested oysters and hot meaty tacos fringed the narrow road that was cut-off from all traffic for the locals and out-of-town visitors, whom come to escape their urban jungles of San Juan and Mayaguez.

Night watches on “Scud” had launched recent topics of conversation over morning pancakes such as, “Dad, are space aliens real?” Obviously, the time was ripe to visit the vast Arecibo Observatory on the north coast, which had been featured in Carl Sagan’s hit book and Hollywood film of “Contact”. After renting a car in Boqueron, we hit the mountain roads, reveling in the picturesque views - a real pleasure after blue horizons of endless ocean!

The telescope at the Observatory is a bowl-shaped dish set into a natural hollow and is the largest of its kind in the world. It is used for studying the earth's atmospheres and deep space radio signals – deep space, as in extraterrestrial life. In a science lab!

The telescope remains stationary, allowing the rotation of the earth to change its field of vision. Incoming radio signals from outer space are then uploaded to an overhead platform and onto the lab on site. We walked across the suspended platform, gaining a real sense of the possibility of alien life, which becomes all the more convincing after we perused the detailed records and graphs in the viewing facility. The kids were goggled-eyed. Who’d ever heard of Exobiology til now? Night watches would never be the same again!

El Yunque is from the aboriginal Taino word for "Yu-ke" meaning "White Lands" or Spanish word for“anvil”, derived from the sound of the intense lightning storms sounding like a giant hammer hitting against an anvil.

Steep roads up Sierra de Luquillo make for an interesting ride. We stopped for waterfalls and to site tropical birds, taking trails through the forest. At the top, heavy rainfall fell in biblical proportions for an hour. We sheltered beneath the thick tree canopy, listening to the magical tunes of the rainforest.

Salinas translates as sand in Spanish, but beaches aren't found here. Instead, the geographical features make it an ideal ‘hurricane hole’, with its protected harbor, deep water and dense barrier of coastal mangroves. The town is interesting for its neo-colonial architecture, large central park and quiet center. We enjoyed a couple daily walkabouts, while waiting for the winds to die down for passage east.

Isla Culebra translates as, “snake island”, ‘little island’ and ultimate virgin (Ultima Virgen). Take your pick!

The island was once a pirate’s lair, run by the notorious Henry Morgan, due to its many hidden bays for launching an ambush on passing ships.

We love the gorgeous outside anchorage of Ensenada Dakity with its free moorings (18 17.22N, 065 16.92W). Be sure to enter at good light to see the studded reef. The quaint town of Dewey is at the end of the bay, named after a US admiral for his part in the Spanish-American War in 1898.