April and May were fairly quiet months for us. We stayed around St. Thomas and St. John’s in the USVI bouncing around our favorite anchorages. Restaurants and bars were all closed by order of the governor until mid April when the restaurants opened for take out only. Luckily we got to spend some extra time with Makenzie and Ella because travel in and out of the USVI was still possible. Makenzie stayed with us for three weeks in early April. Then both girls came down in May. Mak stayed for one week and Ella stayed for 2 weeks.

But first, our boat played an April fool’s joke on us with a little electrical fire! Apparently at some point, tucked deep inside the wiring, someone spliced some wires that corroded over the past couple of years and eventually caused a small fire and a couple of days of time re-wiring everything that melted.

After spending the day fixing the wiring, and running into town to get wires, connectors, etc at the hardware store which involves a dinghy ride to the beach, a 1/2 mile walk to the bus stop, and then a 15 min bus ride – then repeat backwards to get back to the boat from the hardware store (which Shannon had to do TWICE that day!) everything was back together and working.

The next day, Makenzie flew into town!

Our next stop was Magen’s Bay on the north side of St. Thomas. The beach here is one mile long of beautiful white sand. You must have good timing for entering and exiting this bay, as the north swells can make the process very uncomfortable if not. The bay was very empty of other boats and the beach deserted. We got excited thinking we had our own private beach.

As it turns out, the governor closed all beaches from April 6 to April 20. And they were serious. The National Guard was out patrolling the beach everyday from sunup to sundown. This may not seem like a big deal except you could not even walk across the beach to get to the road to go for a walk. We were essentially stuck on the boat or swimming around the boat.

Dolphins came into Megans Bay to visit one day…

We all found plenty to do during this no land time…

We spent two nights at the dock in Charlotte Amelia doing laundry and re-provisioning. This was our first dock time since early January.

An added benefit was we got to eat take-out food from Tickles Pub, so we did, breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was a nice treat!

We went to the local grocery to provision the boat for the next couple of weeks. Look what we found here in St. Thomas, USVI!

Then it was back to the anchor and back on the hunt for more treasures from the sea. The beaches are even back open now!

The first week of May, Ella and Makenzie returned for another visit. Mak was only going to be on the boat for a week and we had lots to celebrate since we did not know when we will see the girls again. We are headed to Grenada at the end of the month and they are still pretty shut down. No air travel expected into the island until July or even August.

Then we had to say bye to Mak. She needed to get back to Boone and start training for her life-guarding job at Grandfather Country Club.

Addie shared a lot of info in her posts about the new friends we made this spring, but I had to include this photo here too. Getting to visit and dine with Bob, Louis, Mimi, Fabio, Rita and Patrick at the restored Fortuna Mill Plantation was a very unique experience. Bob is so kind to open his home to all of us.

We hope to see our new boat friends again too!

Maybe we will visit Fabio and Mimi (on Endless Summer) in Italy this fall!

We are excited that we get to see Jake and Stephanie (and Daisy and Roscoe) from Dream Catcher in Grenada later this summer.

The month of May had one more celebration for us…

May 26th we got to sit down and dine inside at the Green House restaurant on St. Thomas. This was the first day for dining inside. It was momentous because we ate here on the last day before they closed everything for Covid on March 20. Hoping it is a sign that things will get back to normal before long.

Coming up next month:
Sailing to Grenada!