S/V Nada: ST.THOMAS

Approaching St.Thomas

We left Culebra February 4th in a 15kn wind, making long tacks toward St.Thomas and motoring the last stretch. Approaching Charlotte Amalie the sea traffic thickened with sailboats, power boats and ferries, but in a large St.Thomas Harbour anchoring was no problem. We found a spot close to the shore and that made it easy for us to visit Charlotte Amalie, provision there and find a marine supply store, as we do in every larger port.

Charlotte Amalie is flourishing once again, as it did in the year of 1840, when it was the headquarters of the shipping lines for ships running between North and South America. It was owned by Denmark then and sold to the US in 1917 after the downhill from prosperity and natural disasters.

Charlotte Amalie deserves the tittle of being the Capitol of all US Virgin Islands. Everything is there, three or four cruise ships a day, mega yachts, sailboats, ferries, hydroplanes in a bay, on the shore hotels, shops of all kinds, restaurants. We have not seen as many jewelry stores yet, not even in Gibraltar, what we thought was the Capitol of trading diamonds.

The jewelry street

Yacht Haven Grande

Giant leaving the port

Hydroplanes leaving and coming every daylight hour

The main road with fast traffic runs along the shore, taxis and safaris, convenient and inexpensive transportation on the island, $1 or $2 anywhere you want to go. Also fun, if you like racing on the two way road, guessing, weather the open wagon will make the curve without turning over. A challenge for those, who like to drive themselves and rent a car. Driving is on the left side of the road.

Houses within the town are the mix of well maintained and falling apart, the sign of well to do and barely sirviving, built next to each other, but nice homes isolating themselves with with high fences. Hi up in the hills the homes with the magnificent view are seeded in a forest, green after the rainy season.

After the sunset, the sounds dissapear into the night, the lights on the surrounding hills meet with the stars. We are small in this overwhelming view.