We very abruptly realize that it is time to leave the BVI and seek refuge in the USVI. We previously spent only one night at St. John on our way over to the BVI. It is the one island that we are a bit sad to have missed, which I guess is a silver lining of this pandemic. We will now have countless days to spend exploring the beauty of St. John.
It’s time to go
After a fabulous and exhausting day diving The Dogs, we motored over to Lee Bay on Great Camanoe for a quite and peaceful night. The sunset is gorgeous and we have this cozy bay to ourselves.
After dinner, while relaxing in the cockpit, I read that the BVI has shut down its borders completely. The airport is closed, the ferries are shut down – no one gets in and no one gets out. That’s pretty terrifying to read. Are we stuck here indefinitely? It makes no sense that a country wouldn’t let someone leave. I mean, good riddance right? These are unprecedented times, though, and private vessels are the last thing governments think about when establishing laws. We discuss the latest development for a few hours and decide to sleep on it – nothing we can do now.
In the morning we wake up early and agree that our best course of action is to seek refuge in the USVI, where borders are still open and more importantly we are citizens (our boat is also USCG registered). We debate whether we should clear out with customs and immigration. While that is the legal course of action, we have slight concerns they could say no based on the latest order. We decide if that’s the case, we will simply leave anyways. St John, USVI is only two miles away from West End, Tortola.
We pull into West End and are able to successfully check out, with only some minor inconveniences and fees. We motor over the very short distance to St John and find a mooring ball to pick up at Leinster Bay. It feels good to be in US water.
Life at Leinster Bay
There were a few moorings open in Leinster Bay when we pulled up, but all are full now. There seems to be one or two moorings that turn over each day, so there are some boats still moving. Most boats are staying put, though. One could argue they are simply trying to conform with the COVID recommendations of “shelter in place.” The real reason is that they are afraid if they leave they won’t be able to find another mooring ball around St. John. Cruisers are starting to share info that all mooring balls are full and that causes a bit of a panic. Luckily, (unlike toilet paper) you can’t hoard mooring balls or some of these boats would have dozens by now.
Leinster Bay is a desirable spot, I’ll admit. It’s very protected with a small beach, hiking, and snorkeling all right here. Even better is that the mooring balls are currently free since the National Park is closed due to the pandemic. Normally each night would cost a steep $28. We enjoy paddle boarding around the bay and taking Monster on short hikes from the beach. There are lots of sugar plantation ruins in the area which provide some interesting sites to visit.
Our favorite spot here in Leinster Bay is definitely Watermelon Cay, which is just off the back side of the anchorage. We are able to take a long swim or a pleasant paddle over to the reef. In fairness, the reef is actually not that impressive, but we continue to spot lots of fun wildlife here including: nurse sharks, lemon sharks, turtles, eagle rays, and sting rays. Every day we see new people coming to Watermelon Cay either by way of small boat or via the island hiking trails. Normally all the snorkelers stay on the inside of the cay which has exactly zero coral. No one ever tries going on the outside of the cay where the reef and most of the wildlife can be found. We’ve started to inform other visitors of such when we can.
Since there is very little movement between bays, communities are starting to form. Here in Leinster Bay, a couple individuals have stepped up to organize grocery delivery and sharing of resources (namely drinking water). This makes sense and is probably great for most people. We on the other hand are more of independents – I mean we bought a boat to sail away from society. Also, the point of a boat is to MOVE.
On a calm day we take the dinghy (and Monster) a few miles around to Maho Bay. The beach is simply gorgeous and we are excited to let Monster run with so few people on it! We are also excited to see a couple empty mooring balls as we motor the dinghy around. This gives us the last push we needed to say goodbye to Leinster Bay. In the morning we will move around to a new spot.
Hopping around mooring balls
We choose to tie off to a mooring at Cinnamon Bay. There are half a dozen moorings here and they are all open when we pull up. We choose one that is spaced further away from the others to ensure we don’t feel bad about running our generator. It’s not one of those obnoxious Honda portable ones, but it’s still a bit loud. I’m not sure, but the beach here may be even prettier than Maho Bay next door. This place is just – wow.
We splash both paddle boards and take Monster into shore. This beach is so wide making it the perfect place to walk (or in Monster’s case run). There are a handful of people on the beach, but it’s mostly empty. The USVI has shut down all hotels and temporary lodging, so it’s only locals and cruisers on private vessels around the island. As we walk down a secluded spot on the beach, we spot deer! I’m not sure why, but I never imagined there would be deer in the Caribbean. St. John is covered in lush forest, so I guess it makes sense they could survive – it’s just unexpected!
We spend a few nights here at Cinnamon Bay. It’s a bit rolly with a small north swell coming through, but we don’t mind too much since that seems to keep the neighbors away. Everyone is trying to secure a “desirable” ball in the more protected bays since everyone is hunkering down. We’re pretty content to just keep moving every few days. We’re still doing our part by self isolating away from others. Our Instagram friends from SV Double Star came by to say hi yesterday (we’ve been following each other through BVI and now USVI), and we didn’t even invite them onboard. Crazy times.
Next we motor up to a neighbor bay, Hawknest, where we grab another free mooring. After a very rolly night, we decide it makes sense no other boats are here. We continue on a few miles to Caneel Bay which is right outside of the main town, Cruz Bay. It’s been almost three weeks since we went grocery shopping, so we figure it’s about time to get some fresh veggies. We pick up a dive mooring at the back of Caneel Bay which makes it a short dinghy ride into the town dock. As we are walking towards the grocery store, we run into our new friends that were moored in front of us at Leinster Bay. They are still on that mooring, and walked 5 miles into town in order to get a new propane tank. Wow! Others in the bay had encouraged them not to leave since they wouldn’t be able to find a new mooring. We share our experience, explaining how many open moorings we’ve seen – granted, not always the most protected in all conditions, but still. We bid them farewell, offering to take them back to Leinster Bay on Sea Monster (after we provision) if they are unable to hitch a ride with someone. That propane tank is too heavy to walk back 5 miles.
Upon arrival at the grocery store, we are pleasantly surprised to see everything well stocked – or at least stocked to island standards. There is even toilet paper and hand soap on the shelves. People are doing a good job keeping at least 6 feet apart and the store is monitoring how many people enter. No one (including us) is wearing a mask at this point, but we are diligent to not touch our faces and to wash/sanitize our hands immediately before entering and upon exiting. Overall, it’s a pretty normal shopping experience.
Paradise at Henley Cay
After one night in Caneel Bay, we decide to hop over to yet another mooring ball – this time at Henley Cay. We are able to see Henley Cay from Caneel Bay; it’s only a mile or so away. There are two moorings at Henley Cay and they look so idyllic in the setting. When we passed by yesterday, we were pretty sure we saw some reef near one of the moorings. Some online research confirms there is indeed good snorkeling there. That entices us even more!
After tying up to our mooring, we are excited by the amount of coral we can see below us. It’s always amazing to just jump in off the boat and be right over reef. There is a small beach on the cay, so Monster and I paddle to shore while Matt gets some work done.
Once Matt finishes working for the day, we hop in the water to explore. We first start out swimming towards the second mooring, because it seems plausible there would be reef over there too. We are correct. In fact, the reef under this mooring is even better! It’s quite expansive really, and being shallow in depth makes the colors of the coral all that more vibrant. We spot a couple reef squid, but nothing else super impressive. It’s just a pretty, peaceful time snorkeling. Once we cover most of the area, we head back towards the reef near our boat to explore some more. Eventually I get too cold, so I head back on board with Monster. Matt kicks around for a bit longer and spots an eel! I’m not sure why, but we have spotted very few eels this season. In fact, this is only the second one with the first eel being at Culebrita in Puerto Rico.
We stay at Henley Cay for two nights before continuing on our way. The only bad thing is that we realize there is a strong current that wraps around the cay. This means that snorkeling is only good during slack tides – we simply got lucky our first day. Also that the mooring ball will get stuck under our hulls making a very annoying “knocking” sound. An okay price to pay I suppose.
Meeting up with old friends
We leave Henley and head back in the direction we came towards St. Francis and Maho Bay. Our friends onboard SV Dorothy Rose are on a mooring in St. Francis and we’re trying to coordinate a short visit. We initially met Dorothy Rose in Bimini at Honeymoon Beach where we were swimming with the sting rays and nurse sharks. Bimini was our first stop in the Bahamas and very early in our time of owning a boat. They had also just bought their boat and Bimini was their first stop as well. It felt like we were starting off on the same amazing journey! Later, we ran into them at Staniel Cay in the Berries and then again in the Exumas. We joined them onboard for drinks and lively conversation during our time at Wardrick Wells, Exumas. And now, we are once again in the same location here in the USVI.
As we approach St. Francis Bay, we are a bit disappointed with how many moorings there are and how close together they are placed. We decide to pick up a mooring at the nearby Whistling Cay, which is within easy dinghy distance to Dorothy Rose. We also know that Whistling Cay has good diving/snorkeling. We took a quick dip in the water here on one of our dinghy rides from Leinster Bay earlier. Now we are able to just jump in off the back of our boat and start swimming. The reef here is very similar to the BVI with sharp jutting rock mountains, covered in thin coral. It’s a very dramatic type of reef. We spot lots of the usual fish suspects along with some reef squid and turtles. Matt also finds a new fishing lure sitting on the bottom – nice!
It get’s a bit late, so we decide to visit with Dorothy Rose tomorrow. After waking up and getting some work done, we decide to go ahead and motor over to the large mooring field since we think we see some open balls. We figure we can always retreat back to Whistling Cay at night time. This also allows Monster and I to paddle into the gorgeous Maho Beach. Along our walk we spot a baby lemon shark! After speaking with some others, it sounds like this shark can be found along the shoreline most days.
Once the sun starts to head down in the evening, we take the dinghy over to SV Dorothy Rose to finally catch up with our friends. We enjoy some socially distanced beers and swap stories from the past months. It’s so fun to catch up and laugh about all our “boat problems.” We finally head back to our boat late that night to catch some shut eye.
The next morning, we head back over to Whistling Cay for another dive and another night of solitude. Continuing to move around (even if just a mile or two or less) and spend lots of time underwater is helping us to keep our sanity and a sense of normality during these crazy times.
Check out this underwater video from our adventures in St. John. at Watermelon Cay, Henley Cay, and Whistling Cay.
After a couple weeks here on St. John, we are so enchanted with its beauty, but also ready to mix things up a bit. We are thinking we will head over to St. Thomas for a couple weeks next while we continue to see how this pandemic plays out.
