Maho Bay, St John (sent by satellite email) 

Yes, we are back at Maho Bay! We’ve been busy the last several days.  On Wednesday we lugged all our laundry into Cruz Bay and up a long hill to the laundromat.  Doing laundry is really one of my least favorite tasks, but since it had been almost a month, we were overdue.  This laundromat wasn’t too bad, and priced pretty well.  I knew we would be in there awhile, so I had the kids bring their math to work on.  However, the television in the laundromat was on full blast so there was really no way to concentrate.  And as always in the islands,  the show of choice is a crime/murder show.  I was sure Law and Order would be on next.  If I was an islander, and this was my view of the US, I would be so afraid of America and Americans!!  I am ashamed to say I watched back to back episodes on the Oxygen channel of wives killing cheating husbands.  (Actually Tessa and I watched them.  I know, “Mom of the Year”).  Just before the last episode was over, the power went out.  Dan and Tristan came back from the grocery store and said the power was out there too.  The whole island was out.  Now for the lesson in island patience!Luckily, outside the laundromat was a huge tree with a nice bench circling around it, taking advantage of the shade.  We moved out there, and Tristan did his math, Dan and I read our books and Tessa stayed inside talking to the lady who runs the laundromat.  An hour later, the power came back on. It was actually nice.  After the hectic pace of Ponce Puerto Rico, and Christmas in the US, it was nice to remember things don’t always go as you plan, and there is no since getting upset.  Just find a tree to get under and wait. That night we listened to the Star
Lady, on Maho Bay, show us the constellations.  It rained briefly during her
talk, and then we were treated to the rare “Moonbow”.  Well, all of us except
for Dan who had to dinghy back to the boat because someone left a hatch open.  A Moonbow is basically a white rainbow.  It shows up after a rain during a full moon.  Beautiful!!!  That night we stayed up as late as we could and watched the lunar eclipse.  That was amazing!  Tessa fell asleep early, but we woke her up when the moon turned red.  We should have some pictures of it, and when we get internet again, I’ll put them on the website.
On Friday, Tristan and Dan took the ferry from Cruz Bay to Charlotte Amalie to pick up the mail.  It was a rough ferry
ride as the seas were still high, and the ferry was weaving side to side. 
Dan said it was so rough, they wouldn’t let Tristan sit outside.  But they made it,
retrieved our mail, care packages from our friends Karon and Alan, and
cards from Grandma and Grandpa.  That was a nice treat!!!  Then it was a quick motor back to Maho Bay and dinner of Prime Rib at the Maho
Bay campground.  Very nice!!!  We will be here a few more days as
we are
doing  the Reef Bay Trail, a Park Service guided hike, on the
29th.
Then we should off to the British Virgin Islands!!

 This is probably the roughest anchorage we have ever been at.  It is like a freeway for all the boats including the ferry boat traffic.  The only reason we are here is to get free wi-fi and also to dingy into Cruz Bay.  We went into Cruz Bay to take a walk around town.  As we passed a row of buildings, we looked down and could see a man using a lathe, carving wood.  We watched him for awhile.  Tessa was really interested in what he was doing and didn’t want to leave until he stopped.  When he saw us watching, he came out to talk to us.  He told us he was working on a vase and that he sold them at the art store in town.  We told him we would go by and take a look at them.  As we started to leave, he told us to wait, and he brought out a wooden top he had carved and gave it  to Tessa.  How nice!!  You know, if I had a dollar for every time someone gave Tessa something, I could probably pay for this trip!!  We walked on down to the National Park Service building to let the kids play at the  park.  Two girls there, about Tristan’s age kept trying to get his attention, and kept asking Tessa questions about him.  It was so funny to watch him alternate between nonchalance and embarassment!!  When we got back to the boat, it was a mess.  A big wave must have tossed us around because everything that had been on the kitchen counter was now on the floor and the glass candleholders and my candleholder from the Dominican Republic, which I cherished, had fallen from the cockpit table and broke.  I hate this spot, but we need to stay one more day to get wi fi and to be close to Cruz Bay so we can do laundry.  Tomorrow night we will be back at Maho Bay, as they are having a Star Watch program and then we will watch the lunar eclipse.  I am really excited about that.

We went into Caneel Bay resort to pay our mooring ball fee.  The resort seems alright.  They don’t have the great beach that Cinnamon Bay has.  There is a golf course here and I think that takes all the resorts attention.  Tomorrow we will head back into Cruz bay to do laundry then leave this rolly anchorage and head back to Maho Bay for the eclipse!

    Yesterday we pulled into Cinnamon Bay. What an absolutely beautiful beach!!!  On Saturday nights, here in the Cinnamon Bay Camp Ground, they have a Star Watch, where a Park Ranger will tell you about the stars that you can see from St John. I love these talks put on by the National Park Service. After a great day on the beach, we beached the dingy and arrived at the amphitheatre for the 7:30pm start time.  Deanna, the National Park Ranger, led us through a sing a long (actually funny!) on the universe and then a slide show with images from the Hubble Telescope.  It’s very humbling when you see the images of all these other beautiful galaxies, that we know nothing about.  Deanna was very passionate about her subject and was really concerned about the light pollution.  I know more cities in the US are becoming aware of this and trying to change the lighting in their area.  I think this is so important.  When you can get out in nature, away from all the lights (or at least a majority of them) and actually see what you are missing, it’s an experience you’ll never forget.  She played a slide showing how the light pollution is viewed from space and of course the whole east coast of the US is lit up, but surprisingly, Puerto Rico was really bad!! The Bahamas were fine, and Dan and I laughed at Dominican Republic that was lit up on one end.  They must have photographed them during the usual power outage!!

After the slide show, we made our way down to the beach to look at the sky through her telescope. Along the way we dodged a few birds flying by which Deanna calmly referred to as bats.This is the first time for me, as well as the kids, of looking through a telescope.  The moon was so bright coming through the lens that it nearly blinded me!!  Deanna told us of the importance of the night sky, for celestial navigation, to planting crops, and for animal and plant life.  For example, on a full moon night in September, the land crabs come out.  And every August, and only in August, under a full moon, the coral spawns.  I didn’t know that.  The kids loved it!!  If Dan and I can get up on our soapbox for a minute, this is it.  Please, please, please, look at the sky more.  Tell your children to look up every night.  Coming up on the 20th of this month is the lunar eclipse with a full moon.  Please, take a few minutes out of your busy life and just enjoy the show!  Your spirit and your kids will be glad you did.  At 4:00pm today, the heavy rain we had been getting all day, finally let up, and we headed in to the campgrounds to hike the Cinnamon Bay Trail.  It seems we can’t get enough of the hiking!  Today’s hike was a 1.2mile straight up climb. The trail sign designated it as moderately steep and they weren’t kidding.  The narrow trail, wound its way up the mountain, over rain slicked rocks, and perched perilously close to steep ravines, before giving us a break of an amazing view of the harbor, three quarters of the way up the trail.  We were all surprised at how high we had climbed, and Alegria looked so small floating peacefully in the turquoise harbor.   The trial continued on before ending at centerline road, the major road that crossed the island. It was a let down that the end wasn’t more dramatic, but walking through the forest, seeing the luscious green plants, and listening to the birds singing was our reward.  We made it back down to the campgrounds as they were getting ready to serve dinner.  The menu was a choice of Strip Steak, barbeque ribs or barbeque chicken.  The steaks were Omaha Steaks, a particular favorite of ours.  Not bad for a campground!!  While we ate, the CSN band (Caribbean Sounds of Nature) serenaded us with steel drums and island songs.  We came back to the boat, tired and full.   The lights will be out early on Alegria tonight!