An Open Letter to St. Croix

The cruising guides suggest that St. Croix is seldom visited because it is so far off the beaten track of the rest of the virgins. This has some truth, 40 miles of good but rough sailing, but let me suggest some other issues. First the main anchorage in Christiansted has a mean roll that one cannot get away from. Now there is a solution to this; the inner harbor has enough room for a handful of dedicated transient moorings in among the local boats. This would require cleaning out some of the junk on the bottom and brining order to the current mooring/anchoring chaos that exists.

Second and at least 50% of the reason for going there was to visit Buck Island, a national marine park. We arrived smack dab in the middle of a bureaucratic special as they had just changed the process to acquire the necessary permit. We arrived on a Friday afternoon, dutifully inquired on Saturday, returned Monday as instructed, completed all necessary paper work including three different offices to visit. We were then told that a notice of their decision would be mailed to us in 4 days.... I returned on Tuesday just to make clear that we would not likely be at our U.S. mailing address, to which I was assured that we would receive it via email. As I sit here in beautiful Cane Garden Bay Tortolla I am still without my permit, long past 4 days, and unfortunately long past our visit to St. Croix.

Lastly, while not the fault of St. Croix, and not one easily remedied is that it was a difficult place to get around. As without anchorages one was required to move about the island via car. Too bad because the one day we took a rental car the stunning beaches, snorkeling and diving opportunities seemed to abound.

We are now in the BVI's along with the charter fleet, which now doubt is at an off season low. Just so they swarm about and provide some good entertainment, particularly during anchoring.

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