Life here in the USVIs is about as chill as it gets. Every day revolves around the boat and the water and nothing else. We do a bit of boat working and learning in the mornings, spend the afternoons on the beach with friends, and are home cleaning up for bed as the sun goes down. Simple and enjoyable days pass quickly.
Cinnamon Bay is a pretty spot that the regular island tourists seem to miss completely.
Cinnamon Bay looking across at Francis Bay. The islands to the upper left are British Virgin Islands. It’s incredible how close everything is around here.
Bumfuzzle after a light rain sprinkled the decks.
There’s no spot to land a dinghy on this little rocky island, Whistling Cay, so we had to tie off and swim about 300 yards to get ashore here. The payoff was an excellent afternoon romp around this early 1800s customs house, built here to guard the pass between the Danish and British Virgin Islands.
No place could be better for kids’ imaginations. They found rock dishes, served a five-course meal of random discoveries, and worked together to lock the door.
They then took me on a “nature hike.”
The kids and their friends built this “fort” in the mangroves. It was meant to be top secret, but when the other family had to motor off again Ali and I were allowed in for a tour.
4 Comments on “USVI Bay Hopping”
You were on Whistling Cay, just across from Maho, Little Maho Beach and Francis Bay, when in the customs house. There used to be a wonderful eco-friendly campgrounds on the hill above Little Maho. I have sweet memories of staying there. Cinnamon might be empty because not a lot of tourists are back yet and I’m not sure if the way in from the road is blocked or not. They also had camping there along with a restaurant and facilities. It’s a shame you didn’t get to visit St. John before the 2 hurricanes in 2017. So much vegetation and coral were damaged and lost. But I love that Rock just the same. 🙂 Hope you continue to have good times during your travels…I enjoy following along.
Yes, St. John really won us over. More so because of the lack of tourists and cruising boats that had already moved on by the time we arrived. Other cruisers were telling us about that campground as well – and the fond memories of all the time they spent there.
I chartered in the VI for 10 or 12 times in the 1980s. I have a fond memory of sailing north through Fungi passage in a Stevens 47, unable to interest anyone else on board to look up from their books. I stopped sailing in the USVI after the first few times because it was such a pain to check in and out of customs on the US side.
What amazes me is how uncrowded your pictures are. Back then it was a zoo. We would practice “double boat time”, which involved setting the time 2 hours ahead. We would try to be anchored by 4 to find a space (which meant 2pm). We probably were unpopular because at 6am for everyone else the windsurfers were out and we were in full swing.
And now with COVID, customs is pretty lax. It was a safe haven for cruisers locked out everywhere else this season.
On the lucky side of COVID, we got the place to ourselves. No tourists, very few charter boats, and cruisers already on their way to their final hurricane destination. We avoided the USVIs back in 2007 as we knew it would just be sooo crowded for our liking. We’ve done that same 2-hour trick many times ourselves, not for the same reasons but to try to keep our routine for school and work. With no appointments – it never makes a difference.