Happy Veterans Day!

Good day to all you fellow vets out there! I'm blogging from the park bench here in Cruz Bay St. John waiting for the Veterans Day Parade. Like many things in islands communities nothing is on schedule and alot of confusion reigns. But who cares! I'm a retired Vet.

So I snapped this gem of a picture from the dink of Christa tugging at her mooring in Coral Bay. The mooring sits behind a reef which is from where I took the shot. i did some snorkeling off Christa bow yesterday. The reef was very nice with all kinds of tropical fish and big ole lobster lodged under a coral head. Could be dinner!

My impressions of St. John are just as billed. A pretty mellow enclave indeed. It is much more mountainous than I expected with the roads very narrow, steep with all kinds of twists. This surely will impact my running as I don't think I can handle the hills! Where I'm based out of, Coral Bay, sits on the east end of the Island. I can easily see the British Virgin Islands but a scant few miles to the east. But, Coral Bay is a very small hippie town with all kinds of interesting folks. i have to say folks seem to be very friendly. Right out of the gate Bill from Marlat and another fellow who also lives on the island, Steve have been just great. For a new person who enters an unknown environment there kindness makes all of the difference. Bill took me to Cruz Bay in his ride and pointed out all the particulars, schooled me in the bus system and pretty much welcomed me to town. Beautiful! Of course this tone is in line with Jeff and Susan from Free Spirit who offered me the use of the mooring in the first place.

So logistics will be a challenge as not everything is within arms length. But then again when everything in paradise is easy it tends to be overun which I think is why Coral Bay remains a very unique outpost. But like all beautiful places the island of St. John is under significant development pressure. But back to logistics. To get ashore I take the dink and beach her, walk along the shore line sometimes in the water and at others, during low tide along the beach. Then up to the road where it is a half hour walk to the sleepy Coral Bay village. When it is calm I will be able to take the dink into town. But the good news is the bus comes along once an hour and for a buck will take you all the way to Cruz Bay on the west end where the ferry from St. Thomas arrives. Or you can just get off in Coral Bay. As an aside hitch hiking is standard here, but you don't stick your thumb out. You point with your index finger in the direction your going which can be tough because they drive on the left side here. Go figure. This explains why on day one I was dissed as I had my thumb out! The next day the finger got me to where I needed to be. So Coral Bay does have a small market with everything one needs, some breakfast joints and a very famous open air bar called Skinny Legs.

I think that does it for today's post as I'm tired of tying. On an admin note I've added a few more pictures to my google photos and I know I may have some grammatical errors but I'm typing fast and sitting in a park.

Later

Capt Chris