another USVI charter report

[ughmo2000]

The Boss and I left for St. Croix Nov. 11. It was iffy as ATA had an engine cowling fall of their plane causing a delay but we finally made it! (It''s not an adventure if everything goes right but I don''t even want to talk about the flight home!)

Upon our arrival we were met by Rob and Kim Jones of Jone''s Maritime. Fantastic people!

They talked with us a bit then led us to our home for the week, a beautiful 50'' Gulfstar CC ketch to freshen up and get our gear stored. After a day of play with, "No worries" Matthew, known around the island as "Chew" (you''ll have to ask for yourself) and full provisioning by Kim, we headed off with Capt. Rob for the crossing to St. John during the tail end of the worst rains the VI''s have had in 113 years. Truly a natural disaster but excellent sailing nontheless.

Capt. Rob was excellent. Entertaining, (an ex-professional musician), funny, a great cook, (Mexican night is still in my dreams!) somehow knew exactly when to "dissapear", and shared a tremendous amount of knowledge with us on sailing the islands, anchorages, beaches, local history, and many other subjects.

We spent our days sailing leisurly laps aroud the islands, catching a ball or dropping anchor for lunch each day then sailing for several more hours to yet another great anchorage where we all swam until we were ravenous.

As we were early in the season, our evenings were spent with few other boats. Evenings found us on deck counting stars and planning our next trip with Jone''s Maritime! Oh yeah! We''ll definitly be visiting the Jones'' again!