Christiansted isn’t a bad little town. It’s about a fifteen minute walk from the waterfront to a decent grocery store, laundromat, marine store, and big hardware store. There are also some pretty good restaurants. We’ve been grabbing take-out and having picnics on the grass in front of the fort—a scenic, quiet spot where we can all stretch out a bit.
Closer to the dock is Benticks—good for beer, bread, and candy bars. I always end up in conversations with the various riff-raff that hang out in front of liquor stores. The kids asked me one day, “Do you know those guys? Everyone always talks to you like they know you.” Geez, maybe I’m the riff-raff.
Ali lines us all up for haircuts one day. Ouest wanted to lop off a bunch, Lowe didn’t want his touched, and I didn’t really care one way or the other.
There’s some nice snorkeling near the boat. Loads of conch, and quite a few empty shells as well.
Nothing on a boat is easy. Our little sprayer on the back hose broke. No problem, just buy a new one at the hardware store and screw it on the hose, right? Nah, couldn’t be. Get home and find the threads were opposite male/female. So, back to the hardware store the next day, buy a hose, a fitting, and a couple hose clamps. Get to the boat, cut the old hose to attach the new fitting, but accidentally let the hose slip back through the hole where it slides back behind the water tanks. Take everything apart, get the hose back eventually, hook it all up, and watch it leak. Fiddle with it for a while, fix leak, put everything away, and somehow something you were sure would take one trip to the store and 2 minutes to replace has taken two days, two trips to the store, and a couple of hours instead.
Temps dropped into the low 70s and everyone was scrambling to find a sweatshirt. Ouest has been doing Spanish with a tutor for almost a year now. She gets a little homework each day, and has never once complained about doing it. Her teacher is awesome, and Ouest’s Spanish puts the rest of the family to shame.
One day we snorkeled off in a different direction and stumbled on an area full of small coral heads. A couple days in a row we found this stingray lying just like this.
Swimming along I saw a sudden cloud of black ink. I let it settle for a couple minutes then went down to investigate and finally spotted the octopus that shot it. He started out crouching down in the bottom, then slowly worked his way up to check me out. I couldn’t get him to reach out to me, but he hung out for a long time letting me get right next to him. He eventually slunk back down into a little crevice and we said goodbye. I thought I’d be able to see him again the next day, but he was gone for good.
14 Comments on “Various Riff Raff”
Have you taken the kid to Montpellier Dominos and fed the beer drinking pigs, it’s always good for a laugh.
http://www.stcroixtourism.com/montpellier-domino-club-st-croix.htm
Tom
Pat and I were just talking about it this morning (possibly renting a car this weekend) – and Pat said, that doesn’t sound like a me or kids thing – but definitely an Ali thing. ha ha
Love St. Croix! Cane Bay is a nice beach and snorkeling site with a good restaurant right across the street. Have to drive there, too far to walk!
We grabbed a mooring out there last weekend, lots of swell and boat rock, and not a good beach dinghy landing. Might go back over that way by car if we stay longer than expected here on St. Croix.
I see a Honda 2k is in the mix now.
Many, many trips to St Croix and hours spent in Christiansted before Hurricane Hugo. The island was absolutely devastated in that hurricane. It has suffered one or two since then. Based on your observations, has it recovered. Would love to visit again one day.
From walking around the two anchorage towns, still many destroyed homes/buildings. Underwater coral damage somewhat recovering. Funny how used to rundown towns we are that we forget that they could have been pristine at one time.
OMG! Worth a trip to St. Croix for the beer drinking pigs! Hope you guys go there.
There a Netflix documentary called My Octopus Teacher about a guy who has a year long relationship with an octopus. Highly recommended.
Your octopus pix are amazing-it looks so big & like you’re gazing into its eye-love it! Agree that documentary is a must watch with all your octopus encounters! We did get a kick out of your repair description….for that RV life seems simpler. My hubby recalls the cruising motto; “It’s always something.” LOL!
Yes, we have seen it! And yes, I cried. Amazing creatures.
If you don’t mind me asking, where did you find Ouest’s Spanish tutor? We’re headed back out cruising and looking for a tutor for our 9 year-old daughter.
Hi Jeff, we found her on fiver, and it is working out great. It was so hard for the kids to keep switching teachers, taking breaks, and then having to start from scratch each time – because every teacher wanted to see what they knew, where to start, do their own teaching thing. This way – we can take breaks but pick right back up where they left off last. No sponsor or discount for us – just don’t steal our teacher! 🙂 https://funspanish.net
Hey Pat,
Don’t know if you use your Honda gen for extended periods but I have a 1000W that I use in my Westy running a 600/1200 watt electric heater that works perfectly to keep us warm down to below freezing temps. Didn’t like getting up in my skivvies
At 4AM to refuel. Bought an extended marine fuel tank of 5/6 gal with fittings so it runs for several days without refueling, best thing I ever did for cold weather camping.