More Virgin Islands

A hawksbill turtle cruising through a forest of Elkhorn coral (click on it to biggerate it). Even though they’re all on the endangered/threatened species list, we’ve seen them in most of quiet bays we’ve visited here in the VI, but especially in St. John.

The same turtle stopping for a snack in Frances Bay, St. John USVI. Observing these guys close up I learnt that they can hold their breath a lot longer than I can.

One thing that the Virgin Islands gives a cruiser is the tough conundrum: do you listen to NPR or watch PBS. Gotta say I miss both of these while cruising. OK, I’m an NPR and PBS junky. We are getting PBS TV in the US Virgins and half the British Virgins. NPR is playing on the radio as I write this. Listening over the past month I’ve learned that I was lax in not keeping a Happiness Diary; who knew you even needed one. I also learned that the Washington Healthcare Exchange worked better than most of the other Exchanges. Which is kind of depressing, as I’ve been battling with the Washington Exchange for two and half months now. I was hoping to write the definitive blog entry on getting a good deal with Obamacare for an ex-pat cruiser. So far I’ve ended up spending way too much time on hold and e-mailing about my appeal. I’m sure it all will be settled in our favor, real-soon-now.
Speaking of real-soon-now, I called the sailmaker who was repairing our sail on the day we were to pick it up– 9 days after we’d dropped it off. He was in his van driving to get the material to start the job. But he says it’ll be done on Tuesday... Real-soon-now.

These Parrot fish all seem to have distinctive, individual tail coloring

Tallships tacking up the Sir Francis Drake Channel on a windy day with St John in the background.

Paul