Tropical Diversion: Back in the US

After 8 months we are finally back in the U.S. Well, U.S. territory that is. We made it into Red Hook, St. Thomas early Sunday morning. It feels really good to be back in the U.S. though.

When we left St. Martin we noticed that the starboard side starter was going out so when we got into Red Hook we ordered a new one, which is suppose to be here on Friday. That’s the other good thing about being back in the U.S., you can get parts shipped down at a reasonable rate and time frame. Wes is still dealing with a couple of other things that are needing his attention while we wait for the starter-the autopilot isn’t working so that made it for a long 99 knots over from St. Martin to St. Thomas being that you had to stay at the helm and steer the whole time. We left St. Martin at around 9:30 am on Sunday and there was little to no wind so we had to motor the whole way. It took right around 20 hours to cross over and we got into Red Hook while it was still dark (very dark since there was no moon) but luckily we were familiar with the anchorage and we were able to drop anchor without too much trouble. We probably should have planned that a little better and left later in the day so we would get in when it was light, but we made it ok.
We are now in Charlotte Amalie’s bay because Wes was craving Pizza Amore’s pizza since we haven’t had really good pizza in quite some time and boy was it good. Charlotte Amalie is pretty nice and it is where most of the cruise boats come in so there is quite a bit of shopping and many other conveniences such as a Kmart, big grocery stores, home depot, Wendy’s, Subway and Hooter’s (which will come in handy for watching the Bronco’s on Sunday). But we plan on hanging around here for a week or so.