We have decided to sail back to the east coast. Our original plan was to stay in the Caribbean for at least a couple years. Our boat insurance requirement is that we are south of Grenada or north of Cape Hatteras during hurricane season. After spending March and April in the US and British Virgin Islands, we had planned to continue south down the island chain and then haul the boat in Trinidad and fly home for September and October. The Corona Virus scare hit the Caribbean in late February and was pretty serious by mid-March. Islands started closing their borders so we decided the best place to be was in the USVI. We have been in St. Thomas and St. John since March, watching the status of the various islands as far as their border closure and availability of flights back to the US. The hope was that islands such as Trinidad and Grenada would implement plans to open up their borders in time for boats to escape the hurricane zone by June or July. By the beginning of May, there were still too many unknowns on whether we would be able to get into Trinidad and leave the boat on the hard, get home to the US and then get back to the boat in the fall. The Salty Dawg organization has arranged several flotillas back to the US and we have signed up with the May 20 departure from the USVI.
This is bittersweet because we are really enjoying the lifestyle and we are leaving new friends; however, we are looking forward to seeing friends and family back home. One day, I’m excited about getting back to the US; the next, I feel bummed about leaving this beautiful place and the great friends we were “stuck” with in St. John. We were just getting settled in to the cruising lifestyle - getting to know other cruisers, getting all our boat systems up & running and settling in to a bit of a routine. Our solar panels keep the batteries stable during the day and we only lose 5 - 10% of their capacity at night. The 5KW generator is running very well, so every 3 or 4 days we run it for 2 - 3 hours to top off batteries, make water and heat up the hot water tank. The water maker is also working very well and we make about 90 - 100 gallons each time we run it. It gives us lots of freedom to use fresh water and take hot showers.
Soooo, we will stay a few nights at Yacht Haven Grande marina in Charlotte Amalie to provision and complete preparations on the boat. Then we will anchor in Magens Bay on the north side of St. Thomas to quarantine for a week to make sure we are all healthy before going offshore. We have our friend Pia with us and we expect to make landfall in Charleston, about 1200 miles. It should take us 7 to 10 days, based on weather. We’re looking forward to the sail and seeing family and friends when we arrive.
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