USVI & Safe cruise ship travel

Governor of the US Virgin Islands, Albert Bryan Jr.,  joins Poppy Harlow & Jim Sciutto of CNN to discuss his letter to Florida Governor DeSantis and the safe resumption of cruise ship travel to the territory.

 

 

 Keep up the good fight to keep the islands safe.

Stern Words for USVI Covid Situation

Dr Hunte-Ceasar is fed up and has stern words for us concerning the Covid-19 situation in the US Virgin Islands.

Listen to her and take heed...

 

Get vaccinated and stay on track. We are almost there... 

 

New USVI Covid-19 Regulations Sept 8 2020

First of all, I would like to say that I wish they would implement one of the UKs new protocols which is coming into effect next Monday. They are having bars and restaurants recording the names of their patrons daily and keeping this info for 3 weeks to aid in contact tracing. Simple, yet effective... Like wearing masks.

On Tuesday, September 8, 2020, USVI Governor Bryan held a Covid-19 press conference where he moved the territory from Stay At Home to Safer At Home (Yellow Alert phase).

• Businesses deemed non-essential are now allowed to open,
• Beaches are now open until 4pm on weekends and holidays, with no restrictions during the week. Gatherings are limited to 50 people. Facial coverings and social distancing protocols remain in effect.
• Boats are NOT allowed to raft up together. Keep a 12-foot distance.
• Restaurants will be allowed to resume dine-in operations under the following conditions:
  • No serving of alcohol at bar counters
  • No more than six persons per table
  • Tables must be 6 feet apart
  • Employees must wear facial coverings at all times
  • Patrons should wear facial coverings whenever they are not seated at a table
• Churches and houses of worship may reopen with a maximum of 50 people and will be allowed to serve communion according to guidelines of the Virgin Islands Department of Health.
• Private school campuses are allowed to reopen provided that they adhere to Department of Health guidelines.
• Visitation to nursing homes and senior assisted living facilities remains prohibited.
• Hotels and other accommodation providers are prohibited from accepting new leisure guests until Saturday, September 19th.
• Casinos and gaming establishments may reopen beginning September 19th under protocols established by the Department of Health and the Casino Commission.
• 100% of visitors and residents returning home will be required to provide a negative PCR test result in order to enter the territory or will be required to quarantine for 14 days on arrival. Further details are to be announced.

The Governor also said that he expects testing at the territory’s airports to begin by the end of the month. He also said that the situation remains fluid and restrictions could change at any time.

“As a community, we are trying to find a new normal. Our success in this endeavor is dependent on our willingness to adhere to the health guidelines and restrictions,” the Governor said. “Although we are now in week three of the moratorium on leisure guests, the virus is still being transmitted through person-to-person contact. This continues to be the most prevalent mode of transmission for the virus. We must all commit to doing our part to keep each other safe.”

So it goes...

New Supermarket in Christiansted, St Croix

Sea Side Market, the new grocery store in Christiansted, St Croix has finally opened. It has replaced Schooner Bay Market which closed several months ago.

It is basically across the street from the Canegata Ballpark, just down from the laundramat, short walk from ACE/Gallows Bay Hardware.

Prices vary. Many things are higher than Pueblo but a some are similar or lower. Even if we buy something that costs a bit more, we save on the time that it would have taken walking up to Pueblo in Golden Rock.

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Leaping Lizards... Uh... WHALES!

Yesterday when we were having a cup of coffee outside around noon, we saw a couple of big splashes offshore. Could that have been a giant ray? No... It kept happening and then we saw TAILS.

HOW COOL

Sorry, but no pictures. I wasn't going to miss out on the action while going to fetch my camera. Besides, it would probably have been too small to see anything.

So it goes...

BUDGET MARINE now in Christiansted, St Croix USVI

BUDGET MARINE St Croix has relocated to a much more convenient location in Christiansted. They are located in Gallows Bay across the street from Customs & Immigration and the commercial dock with the small cargo ships (and the ferry when there is one).

We tie up our dinghy to the small fishing dock at Gallows Bay. You could also pull your dinghy up on the beach, walk from Christiansted, or drive if you have a car as they have a large parking lot out front.

This Saturday, June 8 2013, Budget will be having a Grand Opening Celebration beginning around 11:00am.  We've were told that there would be a simple BBQ with hot dogs, raffles, prizes, music, etc.

We have been in the shop a couple of times and the owners seem genuinely friendly, helpful, nice people (and Max the dog, too!)

They have a fridge stocked with ICE CREAM and drinks which is super cool... PLUS they now have a beer license and will be able to sell cold beer!  We are looking forward to seeing what they will have on offer.

They have a consignment table for recycling your unwanted bilge treasures and they might be having a book swap shelf in the near future.

More soon come!

Feel much better now

I'm not as ratty as I have been.  We have new internet service and that has made us happy campers.

At the beginning of November (election day), the day before our monthly subscription with BroadbandVI our frustrating ISP (INTERMITTENT Service Provider) for a couple of years expired, we went shopping for a new service.

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BroadbandVI was just getting worse and worse. One day we tried and tried to get online all morning and finally did after 1:00 pm and then only for 45 minutes. Very stressful. Such a time waster and a good cause of rattiness. When I called their office I was told that we (hotspot users) were no longer "part of their reality"... We are real enough when they take the $60/month! So, we were as mad as hell and weren't going to take it anymore.

Over a year ago when I called BroadbandVI to complain about their crappy service, the technician told me to check AT&T.

We went to Sunny Isle shopping center and stopped first at Radio Shack to find our internet solution. They only had plans that required contracts, while we wanted month to month service. The lady at RS told me that she uses Choice Wireless at home and she was happy with them. She suggested that we go a few doors down and visit AT&T.

So, off we go in search of the internet grail...

At AT&T I only had to wait about 30 minutes which wasn't bad as they had a display with the names of waiting customers and you could see your name rise slowly to the top. Nice feature. The lady I had was very nice and helpful. She showed me their MiFi device that was the size of a credit card that could connect up to 5 computers. It was only available if you took a 2-year contract and had a pretty hefty early termination fee. She suggested that I try Choice Wireless. She even hunted down a phone book so I could get their number.

I called Choice and talked to someone in the States. We were happy with their no-contract plans and we had a nice walk of a mile or so to their local office. We had to wait a bit but that was good because we could see what sort of service and care they gave the customers. They did not seem in a hurry which is good as I'm always nervous that I'm taking too much time and there are so many people waiting behind me.

It was our turn. You have to buy the modem/radio/antenna (call it what you will) but it was on special offer at only $10 instead of the normal $99 AND the first month of service was only $10. Such a deal. We opted for their middle plan of $55/month (up to 3Mbps and yes, we have downloaded files at that speed) with UNLIMITED usage.

The Greenpacket 4G Modem has an omnidirectional antenna so it works well at anchor. It allows for 5 devices to be connected via wifi. We are getting such great service. Sometimes it's so fast you don't realize that the page has changed, and at the slowest times, it is running at about the best speed that we received with a BroadbandVI hotspot. They told us we have two towers near us... one at Hotel on the Cay which is the resort on the little island in Christiansted and another at Mount Welcome. When I was at the charter yacht show on St Thomas last month, the boats who had the same plan as ours were very happy with it.

While we were at Choice, we decided that we should get a smartphone so we could check our email & do other stuff when necessary when we are off the boat. The sales rep told us that they were going to have a Black Friday sale so if we could wait we could get another great deal.

So, with a few days left on our AT&T GoPhone plan which was $50/month for unlimited long distance, texting, and dumbphone data (which I never used), we went back to Choice Wireless and bought a Samsung Galaxy II (50% off) and their monthly smartphone plan (50% for 1st month). The smartphone plan is $65/month but has UNLIMITED data. With AT&Ts plan, it was also $65/month but with only 1GB of data and then $$$ for each GB thereafter. We lucked out again because Choice was offering a free month of service if you kept your old phone number. Such a deal...

This has made our lives a bit easier... and every little bit counts. Thank you Choice Wireless and keep up the good service.

So it goes!

Picking Up a Mooring

Bareboaters... Here's a tip:  The term "picking up a mooring" does not apply when you are leaving.

Gallows Bay Moorings, Christiansted, St Croix, US Virgin Islands
(Click photo to enlarge)

I heard someone's anchor windlass going and I thought "oh, the catamaran must be leaving... but wait, they're tied to a mooring".

I looked outside and yes, they were still tied to their mooring but there was a person in the water diving between the cat and the mooring ball... The chain is going tick-a-tick-a-tick-a.

Why did they drop an anchor on top of the mooring they were tied to? What is the state of that mooring now? It's probably not that they don't care about the probable damage done, but they more than likely don't have a clue that they might have pulled out one of the two mooring screws and have made yet another one of these moorings unsafe.

This is why you should always dive and inspect the mooring you have just tied to... especially before leaving your boat unattended. 

So it goes...

JetBlue airlines: NEW routes: San Juan to St Thomas & St Croix

Jet Blue airlines announces that starting December 12, 2011 it is launching twice daily service between San Juan, PR and St Thomas, USVI and daily flights between San Juan and St Croix, USVI.

 

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Sept. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --

JetBlue Airways (Nasdaq: JBLU), Puerto Rico's largest carrier, today announced that it will launch San Juan Luis Munoz Marin International Airport's (SJU) twice daily service to St. Thomas (STT) and daily service to St. Croix (STX) International Airports - the airline's 69th and 70th destinations - on Monday, December 12, 2011, three days earlier than originally scheduled. Customers seeking a jumpstart on a vacation to the U.S. Virgin Islands can also save money on flights today through 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, September 23, 2011 at www.jetblue.com/new, where trips are selling for as low as $39 each way for travel through February 15, 2012.

JetBlue's schedule between San Juan and St. Thomas, effective December 12, 2011:

SAN JUAN to ST THOMAS	ST THOMAS to SAN JUAN
Depart - Arrive 8:25 a.m. - 8:53 a.m. 3:15 p.m. - 3:43 p.m.	Depart - Arrive 9:30 a.m. - 9:59 a.m. 5:30 p.m - 5:59 p.m.

JetBlue's schedule between San Juan and St. Croix, effective December 12, 2011:

SAN JUAN to ST CROIX	ST CROIX TO SAN JUAN
Depart - Arrive 2:25 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	Depart - Arrive 4:04 p.m - 4:44 p.m.

Read the full JetBlue press release for Puerto Rico to USVI flights.

JetBlue's inaugural service between Boston's Logan International Airport (BOS) and St. Thomas will operate for the winter season with five weekly departures beginning December 15, 2011 and will operate nonstop on the southbound flight and direct via San Juan on the northbound flight to Boston.

JetBlue's schedule between Boston and St. Thomas, effective December 15, 2011:

BOSTON to ST THOMAS	ST THOMAS to BOSTON
Depart - Arrive 9:35 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.	Depart - Arrive 3:20 p.m. - 7:29 p.m. (+1 stop SJU)

• Flights operate 5 times a week effective December 15, 2011
• Northbound flights will operate via San Juan, PR

Read more about Boston/St Thomas here.

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Check out our Nautical Greeting Cards and More store We only make a few pennies on purchases but everything helps and we appreciate it!

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Disappointed in St Croix, but Junk Food Day!

Well, I could really go on a rant about this but I'm not going to... My brand of contact lenses has been discontinued so I needed a new prescription for a new brand. OK, seems sort of silly but it's been a few years since my last exam so I went to Sterling Optical in Golden Rock shopping center near Pueblo for a new Rx. Let's just say that I am EXTREMELY disappointed in their "service" and skill set. I would NOT recommend.

Today, July 21st, is Junk Food Day! You can find some interesting recipes at Serious Eats.

ENJOY!

Gasoline Prices at fuel dock in St Croix, US Virgin Islands

Yesterday we bought 4.5 gallons of gasoline at St Croix Marine in Christiansted, US Virgin Islands and surprise... the price has gone up yet again!

Fortunately, we don't use much. We have a 5HP two-stroke outboard motor and we only use it 2 or 3 times a week. Our new Honeywell generator doesn't seem to take as much fuel as the Honda. We've had many cloudy days so it has been necessary to run it more to keep up with computer consumption.

2011 (price per US Gallon):

• May 17: $4.55 (a 21+% increase in 5 weeks)
• April 23: $4.25 
• April 7: $3.75
• Feb 4: $3.65
• Jan 6: $3.35

Diesel is currently (May 17 2011) 10 cents cheaper than gas at $4.45/gallon

At least their water has been a bit cleaner lately :)

So It Goes...

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Hurricane Tomas is sending rain our way

Hurricane Tomas has started with his trick & treating...

We were just having cup of coffee #3 out on the foredeck before walking up to Pueblo and it started to rain.

Christiansted, St Croix, US Virgin Islands

This was taken at 11:50am (Saturday). We'd rather have rain than wind, though.

One of today's chores was to replace the weatherstripping on the hatches above the bed...

So It Goes...

It's a Beautiful Day in Christiansted, St Croix

This morning when I stood up through the forward hatch to put our wifi antenna outside, I asked Bob for my camera because it was such a beautiful day... at least, so far at 7:45 am :)



I took this "snapshot" video with my funky little pocket camera. The quality kinda sucks but it should give you an idea :) We've had so MUCH rain (and more again yesterday) that today's sunshine was inspiring...

Yesterday, since it was raining, I worked on a new Amazon aStore for nautical greeting cards. Be sure to check it out for Christmas cards (yes, it's getting to be that time), calendars, and tree ornaments... We have lots of nautical & tropical cards to choose from so you don't have an excuse this year.  A real seasons greeting card means so much more than something received by email.

I read a sailing-oriented newsletter this morning which mentioned the kidnapped British cruising couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, who are being held by Somalian pirates. Tomorrow, October 22nd, will be ONE YEAR!  How horrible that must be. Haven't heard anything about them in such a long time.

UPDATE: OCTOBER 24th. The BBC has a story about the Chandlers.

We had another bee come in and try our "killer" coffee.  They really go for this stuff.  Unfortunately, it was almost a full cup as I was waiting for it to cool down a bit... So It Goes...

Speaking of "It's a Beautiful Day" here are two songs I've listened to this morning...

• White Bird by It's a Beauiful Day, and
• Beautiful Day by U2

Willow was playing on the bed tunneling under the blanket somewhat like a ferret.  Good thing we don't have a chainsaw! (and Bob is prudent and always removes the battery from the DeWalt circular saw).

Did you notice that yesterday was 2010-10-20 ??? I love bizarre numbers like that.

Hope we all have a beautiful day!

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Check out our Nautical Greeting Cards and More store We only make a few pennies on purchases but everything helps and we appreciate it!

Who ordered the karaoke songs???
Thanks

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Red Sky at Night

UPDATE: Saturday morning, Oct 2 2010:
I just looked at the St Croix Source and there wasn't anything mentioned. Maybe it was lights from the Fireburn commemoration. Was probably just one of those things... I'll try to remember to look tonight and see what's up.

A few minutes ago, just before 11pm, I looked out the companionway because the sky was red like a sunset.  I thought that it must be the moonrise but unless something really bizarre has happened, the moon doesn't rise in the south...

The clouds were pink and their light was flickering a bit like maybe there's a fire on the other side of the island. Hope not... Probably nothing, but it sure looked strange.

Of course, there's no news on the radio.  In fact, they rarely change the weather forecast over the weekend.  If Sunday's sounds familiar, it's probably because you heard the same forecast on Friday and Saturday. This is really bad when you're worried about an approaching storm.

Anyway, these fuzzy pictures are not a good representation of what I saw... Sort of take the two photos and average them out :)

Without flash - Should be more pink

Some sort of flash setting but I'm not sure what (too red)

Hope it's something simple like stadium lights or something... Maybe it will be in Saturday's paper.

Christmas Cove, USVI - New Moorings

They now have the article concerning the new moorings in Christmas Cove online.

Click here to go to the article: DPNR puts moorings in Christmas Cove to protect coral (April 25, 2010)

Don't believe the weatherman & new moorings in Christmas Cove

I haven't listened to the radio today to hear the weather, but it really doesn't matter because it is raining.  Didn't they say it would be dry Saturday, Sunday, AND Monday???

I just looked at WeatherUnderground and they say scattered showers and 40% chance of rain through Monday... So It Goes...

We went over to Gallows Bay and filled up some jerry cans of water. We also went to Schooner Bay Market for a couple of things (splurged on a couple of ice cream sandwiches... mmmm!). Noticed in the Virgin Islands Daily News that they had an article concerning new moorings having been installed in the north part of the Christmas Cove anchorage. Should have bought the paper but I thought it would have been online and I could have referred my dear readers to the link, sorry.  Anyway, as I recall there are 12 moorings for boats under 65 feet with a maximum stay of 10 days. No anchoring is allowed within this mooring field and there is supposed to be good clearance so the boats won't bang into each other regardless of wind direction, they say.  There's supposed to be a pamphlet, plus they gave phone numbers for Fish & Wildlife and probably DPNR (340-774-3320). No fees were mentioned.

Here's a website for the National Parks Service for the US Virgin Islands:
http://www.nps.gov/viis/index.htm

Anyway, it doesn't look like we'll be doing any epoxy work this afternoon, but I have plenty of other things to do though... maybe take a pre-lunch nap :)

Whale sightings in USVI

This week there have been quite a few whale sightings off of St Croix US Virgin Islands!

Wintry weather in Christiansted St Croix USVI

Yesterday and today are quite unusual weatherwise. Time to break out the cocoa and SOCKS!  According to the weather service on the internet it was 67.6°F / 19.8°C last night. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr...

Perhaps it is my fault... I did a small load of laundry on Saturday afternoon. I hung it up on the lifelines and before they were quite dry, it started to lightly rain.  We had light rain all day yesterday, too.  Today is gray but it hasn't rained for a couple of hours so I think I'll hang up the clothes to finish them off in this strong breeze we are having.

About the laundry... This time I went to the laundramat near the Seaplane dock. Tie up your dinghy at Styxx though because it is really shallow over by the seaplane portion of the boardwalk and no place to lock onto, although I have seen dinghies just tie up with no locks there. The laundry wasn't as new and pristine as the one in Gallows Bay, but it is closer and nice enough. There were plenty of machines and the warm normal cycle only took 30 minutes. It had lots of water sloshing about, too.  The whole round trip took an hour at the most.

You can look at our PREVIOUS POST about Christiansted and read the section about laundry and check their location on our map.

Time for cup of coffee #3...

WiFi in the islands... St Croix (STX) US Virgin Islands

Well, last week we were without wifi for THREE DAYS! That really makes life difficult for us. We went to our mail service who is also an internet cafe, Surf the Net. I'm not sure of the name of the little street, but tie up your dinghy at the boardwalk in front of Styxx (they're closed now, by the way) and walk straight through there. There's a couple of steps and a ramp. Go up and Surf the Net is on your left.  Say hello to Sandy and her little dog Paula for us.

Surf the Net is also a great place for those people arriving in St Croix by cruiseship. We are told that Surf the Net is less expensive than the internet cafes at the cruise ship dock in Frederiksted, and you are probably coming to Christiansted anyway so take advantage.  See our previous post HERE about Christiansted.

We found an open network amongst the back alleyways and it was soooooooo sloooooooow, but free. It's much better to pay a couple of bucks rather than take an hour just to download your email, and that says a lot coming from Ms CheapSeats.

Anyway, as I was saying, we now have wifi service on the boat again in Christiansted Harbor. I called BroadbandVI last Thursday that we couldn't connect to any of their hotspots since noon Tuesday. The tech said that all their networks are up and running and perhaps I should dump my cache. They always try to blame it on the user.  I called back on Friday and told them that we can't access any of their hotspots' login page, plus other people are having the same problem.  He gave me to another technician who appeared interested in the situation and didn't try to blame it to user error.  Gold stars for that! He came out to Christiansted and had to replace some bits and pieces, and now it is working finest kind :)

So, to make a long story shorter, if you need to subscribe to a service while in Christiansted Harbor the correct hotspot to select out of that long list is BroadbandVI_Harbor (and NOT Harbor_v).

Good Experience OFFSHORE MARINE St Thomas USVI

We had a good experience yesterday that I'd like to share...

The day before yesterday we lost overboard the piece off the end of our dinghy pump hose... you know, that special adaptor necessary to inflate your Caribe dinghy? Bob is very good at finding things underwater but we couldn't look for it right away because we were going to catch a bus to go up to the mall.

Yesterday we went to St Croix Marine and they didn't have the Caribe adaptor as they are not a Caribe dealer. We then went online to check West & Defender.  Then we decided "What the heck? Let's call Offshore Marine in St Thomas and see what they have to offer."

Chuck in the parts department was very helpful. He said that they had just received a shipment of these thingies the previous day. Well, that's handy for us! As we are in St Croix, Chuck drove down and put it on the seaplane. Such service! The seaplane is still only $10 to ship a small package like this. It is faster and less expensive than Express Mail.

So, thank you Chuck & Harold.