Since the Americans can sometimes be difficult to deal with, I approached the USVI with a bit of trepidation. This was augmented by the dark clouds over the BVI which dropped a lot of rain and strong 25+ knots of wind on me just as I was going through the very narrow passage on the northwest side of St. John with triple reefed Genoa and main. In the end the shower looked worse than it was, as the white waves being whipped up in this narrow section came about because there was a 1-2 knot current against the strong wind and Zanshin barely noticed them at all!
I took a mooring ball at Caneel bay, dinghied around the corner to the public dinghy dock (where I locked the Zandinghy, just to be safe) and walked to Customs and Immigration. I was given a form to fill out, which I did, and within a couple of minutes of presenting myself at the counter my passport was stamped, the old passport with the visa was checked, and my fingerprints and retina scan were complete and I was officially and legally inside the USA. I’d had a number of items sent to a mail drop called “Connections” which I looked for, walking all around the little town of Cruz Bay and taking a break at a little collection of stores and restaurants for a tasty sandwich. I finally found it, at the main intersection, and dropped in to say that my packages should be arriving soon.
After that task was done, I dinghied back to the boat, replaced the yellow “Q” flag with a USA courtesy flag and then motored against the wind and waves into the top corner of Maho bay for the rest of the day. There’s no open WiFi there and my BVI surf stick isn’t receiving a LIME telephone signal, so I finally had a day with almost no computer time in this lovely anchorage.
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