Lately all of us have been feeling like we were long overdue for a change of scenery. So we did a thing…
A few days ago we moved to the dock at Sapphire Beach Marina here on St Thomas!!
The slip we wanted finally opened up and we made the move as soon as Peter had another day off. As much as I despise dock life and would much rather be at anchor, it’s really the best option for us right now. There just aren’t very many good options for being a liveaboard permanently based in USVI. Ideally, we would love to be in an anchorage that has good protection from waves and open ocean swell, water clean enough to swim in, and easy access to shore, but that really doesn’t exist on St Thomas. Plus, Brig is at the point where he really needs to run off some energy every day and meet some other kids his age, so dock life is the next best thing.
Peter is currently signing on long term for a really awesome job opportunity (more on that to come!) which means we are ready to plant some roots again. Some days I can’t stop thinking about how much I loved our mooring in Sopers Hole on Tortola, but then I remind myself that it’s not even close to being how it was before. There’s nothing there for us right now. Our new life after Hurricane Irma is here… on a different boat, just an island hop away. I absolutely love living in the islands and eventually I hope to love it here as much as I loved our home in BVI.
Sapphire has a pool and a really nice beach. There’s a beach bar/restaurant, coffee shop, smoothies, and ice cream. It’s close to the safari taxi route and there’s even a taxi stand by the restaurant. Parking is free, but you have to pay for showers. There’s self service laundry on site. Water is cheap at only .10cents a gallon reverse osmosis. The slip rental cost is pretty pricey but we don’t have many options to choose from. We get a decent breeze on deck but it’s coming from our starboard side so it can get pretty toasty down below. In the evenings it’s imperative that we get screens in all the hatches and zip up the cockpit or the no-see-ums and mosquitos can get pretty vicious. Our electric bug zapper racquet gets used once or twice a night even with the screens in. I think the part I like the most about our new home is that we don’t get ferry wakes anymore!! Those Tortola ferry captains lay on the throttle and when we were out in Christmas Cove we got some catastrophic wakes every now and then. Nothing like red hook gets – but still.
I think this will be a good thing for us. At least we are still able to live Where The Coconuts Grow