Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

We woke up in time to enjoy the festivities of Independence Day at the island. They had markets and food and live music and it was really cool. We all walked around checking things out. I bought a necklace worth $21 for only $10, so Mum should be pleased that i got it half off. We then later got poised at the top of this hill to watch the fireworks go off at the bay, and they were spectacular. I enjoyed every second of it. So then later, when we got back to the beach, i had to swim back to the boat in the pitch black to grab the dinghy and head back to the beach to pick up the rest. It was as scary as it sounds. I was swimming while admiring the phytoplankton illuminating around me as i swam through. But in the distance, way in the pitch black depths of the sea, i was seeing bright flashes of light getting bigger and brighter. I have no idea what it was, but oh my god. I was trying to convince myself that it was so unlikely that i’d be eaten by a flock of barracuda or a battalion of squid, but the thought still lingered. Fortunately, i wasn’t fish food and the mission was a success.

The morning began with John and I dinghying over to the main dock. John took the trash (rubbish) and I sat down outside the customs office. John joined me briefly before walking round the bay to the ferry terminal. (Don’t get a picture in mind of a seaside town – Great Harbour really is just a bay with a few restaurants and a couple of buildings.) I was dreading the cost of checking out as I’d seen a professional skipper check in and out and it cost him nearly $200. In the end I only had to pay $2 which I still don’t understand as there was a clearly stated exit fee of $5 per person. Even John paid this on the ferry. There was a large form to fill in which I later learned I could have done on the boat had I had the forethought to collect it early.

It was an easy sail over to Cruz Bay, St John from Jost Van Dyke and we were there within 90 minutes. We anchored in a temporary location while we cleared in and checked with the parks office. Clearing in took a bit more form filling but was otherwise smooth. We then went back to the boat to find an anchorage close to town. Our guide stated there were places to anchor but after three attempts, there really wasn’t any room. We anchored just off a reef to kill a little time while we waited for John to arrive. I was able to briefly acquire an internet connection and was able to upload Sam’s and my logs but not all the pictures. At about the time John’s ferry was due to arrive we up anchored and headed back to the temporary anchoring area. We met up easily enough and all went for a walk around town. The town itself was very much the most bustling place we have visited this vacation.





We lunched then went to the supermarket to reprovision. Back on the boat we motored out of town and went round the corner to Trunk Bay where we moored for the evening. The guidebook said this could be a rolly overnight spot but we stayed anyway. There was no one else there so it was great to have the place to ourselves.



Sam, John and I snorkeled for a while. I saw 4 turtles including one which had lost a rear flipper. Sunset was spectacular. After the sun had set we saw rays of red light streaming over the horizon. I reckoned this was the sun being occluded by mountains on Puerto Rico some 60-160 miles away.



As we had very little ambient light an no other boats around us, we finished the night off with stargazing. We managed to catch a few shooting stars and pick out a few orbital debris / satellites. Today marks the halfway point through our vacation. It already feels like an eternity. Looking forward to the second half. By the way – Ben’s poison ivy rash on his ankles has improved substantially. He’s fully fit and will be able to scuba dive with us when we get back to the BVIs.

We sailed around to some islands as usual, but there is this one place called the Soggy Dollar Bar. It gets its name from the fact that you have to swim to get to the shore. We went there, i had some of their “famous painkillers” and it was pretty good. Later on we went to an island where the others walked, but my knee pains started to kick in again so i decided to rest it while i read my book. Later on we went to a place called Foxy’s, which was fun the last time we went there because it had good music and dancing and such. This time it was just like a regular restaurant, but the food was really good. We later made plans to go to the USVI’s, so we were getting prepped for KFC’s and McDonalds on every corner.