What We Learned in St. John

We're exactly one month into this adventure, challenge, non-vacation, and our week in St. John USVI taught us a few things:

• St. John has a very cool vibe unlike any other Caribbean Island. Great restaurants (loved Longboad) and bars (Woodys) with live music and unique shops.

• The National Park Service manages all of their mooring buoys which are easy to pick up and get set for the night. They’re $13 a night for senior citizens, which we qualified for!

• We got our land legs back on hikes to see the view and ruins of a sugar plantation and dinghied to amazing beaches like Honeymoon which we moored near.

• We witnessed a double rainbow in the morning and the full moon on November 19th that was so bright, we really couldn’t look at it without moon glasses.

And last. What we learned as we go down the Caribbean chain. If you find something you want/like/need, get it now, because you may never see it again. Thus, our story about our Peddle Board.

We saw a guy on one in Francis bay on St. John and stopped him and said, “That’s so cool, where did you get it?” He said in Red Hook, which is over in St. Thomas. Margie looked on line and there was one Hobie Cat Dealer – the Official Hobie Cat Dealer a ferry ride away and his hours were Saturday and Sunday 11-5 and by appointment the rest of the time. We were thinking "Wow, what a great gig." Margie called John, the owner and set an appointment for noon on Monday.

We got up early, took the ferry to St. Thomas, and after completing our COVID test and errands, we asked our taxi driver to take us to West Indies Windsurfing to meet the owner, John for our special appointment. The address took us on a bumpy road toward the beach and so much bramble that our taxi drive swore about scratching his van and said he’d take us no further.

John’s more specific instructions once our taxi driver gave up said “don’t go to the gate. Turn left and go by the cat feeding area.” He also was surprised we were there so early. Margie said he were done with our errands and would hang out, thinking “beach bar, breakfast, while we wait at his shop on the beach.”

We went down the cat feeding path, past a body (alive, we presumed) in a hammock, to two ratty “grass” huts on a beach with seaweed, flies, wrecked catamarans and a dude trying to fix his dinghy. Not only was there not a beach bar, we could hardly discern West Indies Wind Surfing. There was a faded sign on one of the huts. John assured us he’d get there as soon as possible. So we hung out. Joe turned to Margie and said, "you asked John if he sold new ones, right?"

Ninety minutes later, John showed up. Tall, early 70s’s, former engineer, slightly disheveled. He went back to a shack which Joe was certain to unearth lots of old used stuff and he saw boxes and boxes of Hobie Cat and other water sports products. Not just in that shack but another shack and TWO large semi-trailers. Wind surfboards, kayaks, paddle boards, water skis, wake boards, surf boards, surf skates and all of the accessories – all new!

After another 90 minutes, we somehow pieced together all the parts we needed for our new peddle board. But now we had to get it back to our boat on another island.

John was kind enough to pile all of our pieces and parts onto his truck along with some other gear he was taking elsewhere and he took us to the ferry.

We show up at the ticket counter with a 10 ½ foot paddle board and the peddles, and rack along with all the other passengers who had regular suit cases. Our excess baggage was only $8 and we were on our way.

We said if we got four 70 pound bags from Denver to BVI over two days, we could make this happen. We schlepped the gear back to our dinghy on the dock then tied it to the back of it and towed it to our catamaran.

Setting up the rack together in the heat is a another story that we’ll leave for never.

We LOVE our new toy that is silly fun. Don’t confuse it with exercise. This is NOT a Peloton. It’s impossible to fall off of and we can turn it into a paddle board with just a paddle. We are ordering the cup holder for the boys to bring to us at Christmas.

We keep saying this is an adventure and we're not kidding. Much more to come.

The very famous peddle board

Making Connections photo on our hike.

We hiked on just about every island we visited.

Captain Joe

Loving St. John.

We didn’t live on sponge cake like Jimmy Buffet, but we did make a large bag of frozen snapper last a long time.