FINALLY OFF THE DOCK!!!

We finally moved off the dock and out of Compass Point Marina!  What a relief!  The good thing about that marina was that it was a safe place to be for hurricane season, tucked into the mangroves.  And it provided us with a land base for easily going back and forth to get supplies and boat parts.  But we were more than ready to get out!  

At Compass Point, people just push their derelict boats into the mangroves

Rats & roaches love to play on this work platform

The view of Compass Point Marina from the top of our mast

Other than those benefits, that marina was expensive and nasty.  A couple of cleats and a few pieces of wood to tie up to cost about the same as a month's rent.  And there weren't even facilities there such as restrooms, showers, or laundry.  The water there was the most polluted of all US waters, and it was hot and muggy with no breeze.  It was loaded with mosquitoes and sand flies.  At around 5pm every day (bug-o-clock) we’d rush inside and close up the boat to avoid getting eaten alive.  We HAD to run the air conditioner in our cabin to avoid suffocating.  We got a couple undesirable 6 legged creatures on board (roaches!), and a boat down the dock from us got a four-legged creature on their boat (a rat)!  There were also lots of creepy two legged critters (alcoholic burnouts) in the vicinity.

St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Mangrove Lagoon to Secret Harbour

Salt Whistle departing Compass Point Marina

Underway from Benner Bay to Secret Harbour

Although this move was less than a mile in distance, it felt like a different world.  We moved from stinky swamp land to island paradise.  Our new temporary home was Secret Harbour, right in front of Aqua Action Dive Center (our former employer and our good friends).  We tried to secure everything so it wouldn't fall or slide around, but inevitably we learned that some things needed to be secured better.  It’s a real challenge…imagine your home was tossed 20 degrees from side to side and everything that would fall or slide! 

Happy to have arrived safely to Secret Harbour

Now we can keep the boat open and let the breeze blow through

Skeeter and Momo, happy to get to spend an evening outside

Our friend Jake from S/V Pura Vida followed us in our dinghy just in case, since this was the first time our boat actually moved since Skeeter installed our new engine.  It was the first time in a year and a half that S/V Salt Whistle was moving under her own power.  The old engine used to move counterclockwise when running forward, and the new engine moves clockwise when running forward….so we had to run the engine in reverse until we could get to clean water so Skeeter could change the propeller.  He switched the transmission cables so when you move the throttle at the helm station forward we'd go forward, but the engine was actually running in reverse.  So we had to drive it slow and easy so we wouldn't hurt the transmission.  It was rougher than we had anticipated, but we still made it over successfully with no problems!  

How the Caribbean should be