Month: May 2021

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Saddened By So Much Trash at Coki Beach

coki beach

Scott and I had one full day left to relax and enjoy St. Thomas and our group decided to check out Coki Beach, which was a 5 minute walk from our hotel.  We headed out early in the morning around 9am and already the sun was heating up and we were breaking a sweat.  Along the beach in front of the hotel, workers were working hard to remove a seasonal algae called Sargassum.  From the air, we could see miles of the algae, which is a major nuisance to Caribbean beaches and is threatening tourism.

Located on the other side of the peninsula, Coki Beach is well known for snorkeling. It is generally considered the best shore snorkel on the island, so we couldn’t wait to check it out.

As you approach the Coki Beach entrance, you’ll find a cemetery and many wild chickens running around. At first, I wasn’t sure if we had entered at the right location, but there was a very large sign at the entrance. 

What made me question this?  To be honest, it was a dirt lot and trash was everywhere.

Is this really the famous beach?

As Maria and I walked towards the beach, we passed so much garbage plus some extremely gross items that I can’t even mention publicly. We were both horrified to say the least.  The blue water caught my eye immediately, but then so did all of the trash along the beach. The beach was filthy and unsafe. With bottle caps, broken bottles and other sharp objects, this was not a place to hang out for the day.

The four of us looked pretty defeated and sad, as this was not what we expected at all. We made the decision to head back to the hotel and spend the day there.

I’ve thought about that day a lot, because it wasn’t the only place we came upon so much trash. There was garbage on all three islands we visited.

I have to ask, what is the answer and how can we help?  Being 6000 miles away, we can’t jump in our car and do a beach clean-up. However, there has to be something we CAN do. If you have suggestions or know of ways, please leave your comments for us. We know there are organizations like 4ocean and ocean conservancy who are working hard every day to help clean our planet, but is there a specific organization that is concentrating on the Virgin Islands? I found a Facebook Clean up page, but there was not much action on it.  Please let us know – we want to help!

What a beautiful spot to relax

Our friends were staying on the opposite end of the resort, next to the hilltop infinity pool. After our trek back from Coki Beach, we headed up that way to spend the day by the pool. Instead of taking the golf cart, we opted to climb over 200 steps to get to the pool! Be sure to watch the video of Scott climbing!

The pool overlooked Water Bay and Thatch Cay (pronounced “key”) island. From the pool deck, the views of Water Bay are gorgeous and in the distance you can see Thatch Cay, which is an uninhabited 230 acre private island that is actually for sale. For information, click here.

Due to covid, you still had to wear your mask when you ordered drinks from the patio side, but if you swam up to the bar, you didn’t need to wear one. Needless to say, we spent a huge amount of our time in the water. Even with plenty of sunscreen, I got a bit sunburned, so don’t let being in the water fool you.

Staying in for dinner

Since we were flying out the next morning, we opted to hang around the hotel for dinner and take it easy. The hotel has one bar/restaurant, Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville which sits right on the beach. The food was good and the drinks were perfect. Our only complaint was everything shut down at 9pm, including the bar. Strange. So we called it an early night and headed back to our rooms to pack.

Be sure to tune in to our next blog and episode, as we take a sea plane to St. Croix, which is about 42 nautical miles south of St. Thomas.

caribbean vacation

As always, thank you for following our journey! Please be sure to subscribe to our blog and our YouTube channel, and follow us on social @BoatingJourney #BoatingJourney

Cheers, Scott and Ally

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Exploring St Thomas

St Thomas

Our group stayed at the Wyndham Margaritaville Vacation Club on the east end of St Thomas, near Red Hook. There isn’t much around where we stayed, so the four of us headed into Charlotte Amalie (the capital) to check things out and do a bit of shopping.

Before I get too detailed about touring St Thomas, I do want to address some comments we have gotten on YouTube and social media. Some people have asked us “what does a trip to St. Thomas have to do with boating?” Great question! Our channel and blog were created so that Scott and I could document our journey on how we learned to boat, buy a boat and eventually liveaboard a boat in the Caribbean.

With the pandemic and high demand for boats, it is near impossible to find a liveaboard right now. We have to be patient and wait for the market to settle down. In the meantime, we’re doing everything we can to spend our time on the water. For this trip, remember it was supposed to be a bareboat charter that got transformed to land due to the pandemic. Hopefully that answers everyone’s questions.

Once you arrive in Charlotte Amalie, you’ll notice that parking is very limited. We finally found a parking lot with a 2 hour limit, which was free. In hind site, I wish we would have researched Charlotte Amalie a bit more, as we completely missed out on a tour of Fort Christian!

Jewelry stores galore

Walking down Dronningens Gade we came upon jewelry store after jewelry store. It was Saturday around 10:30am and some stores were not open yet or at all. Everyone was practicing safe covid protocols and they were very friendly. One jewelry shop owner, also owned the Belgium Chocolate store!

The morning we headed out, I realized I could not find my watch anywhere. Now I was on the hunt for a new one, but really did not want to spend money on one. (Luckily, I found it a few days later).

Surprisingly, there were chickens running around loose everywhere in the USVI.

Heading up to the Mountain Top – Literally

When we were done shopping, we headed up to the world famous lookout spot The Mountain Top. This is not a road to take lightly! Google navigated us, while Ben stayed “Left” and got us to the top safely!

This infamous souvenir store is HUGE and also sells the world famous banana daquiri! You can read the history here. This has to be one of the largest gift shops we have ever visited. Be sure to watch the YouTube episode for the full tour!

Scott and I shared a banana daiquiri and headed out to the lookout patio and the views were absolutely stunning of Magens Bay Beach.

It was wild to see Jost Van Dyke and Tortola and be so close (yet far away). At least now, we have some perspective on the distance for our charter next February.

I was surprised to see so many fruit trees growing everywhere too. At the top of the mountain there was a mango tree right in front of our car.

Relaxing on St. Thomas

We had only been on St. Thomas less than a day, yet we had already done so much. After traveling 16 hours to get there, I needed some time to relax and soak up some sun. Our resort had two pools, one of which had great views of Water Bay.

The four of us wrapped up the day on St Thomas with a delicious meal at XO Bistro in Red Hook. I highly recommend this restaurant, but be sure to make reservations.

The next day, we head to Cokie Beach for a fun day. Tune in next week for a tour of the beach! As always, thank you for following our journey. You can follow us on social media @BoatingJourney #boatingjourney and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel for future episodes. (video link below)

Cheers, Scott and Ally

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We’re finally headed to the USVI!

usvi

Our channel wouldn’t be called Boating Journey if we didn’t always have a journey to get to our destination and this trip to the USVI was no exception. After postponing our bareboat charter to February 2022, we opted to keep our flights and visit all three islands in the USVI. The entry requirements seemed fairly straightforward so what could go wrong? We should know not to ask that question!

USVI Travel Portal

Before you’re allowed to enter the USVI, you must fill out the travel portal, upload your negative covid test and be approved to enter. According to the site, we needed a negative covid molecular (e.g., RT-PCR, viral or nucleic acid amplification) or an antigen (rapid) taken 5 days prior to arrival to the territory. Our friends, Ben and Maria were traveling two days before us and all of us were on a red-eye flight. Their airline stated they needed the test taken 5 days prior to departure, but when they uploaded it, it was rejected as it was actually 6 days prior to arrival.

Lots of travelers we know recommended we go to Walgreens for our test, so we made an appointment at the Tukwila location for Monday (5 days from our arrival date). When we arrived, we found out that they DO NOT do the test we needed AND the results would be ready in 7 days! Yikes. The pharmacist recommended we drive to the Burien Walgreens and when we arrived there, we were informed they don’t take same day appointments. Great!

Trying not to panic, I jumped online and immediately booked an appointment for 11am (it was now 10:25am) at Rite Aid and Scott did the same. The test was easy, as you simply pull up to the drive thru window, swap your nose and give the vial back to the tech.

After we handed our tests back, we were informed we would have our results in 7 days! OMG, this can’t be happening!

Trying not to panic now

If you search the web for rapid covid tests, there are many sites that will give you your results in a few hours for a large fee $200 to $350. Scott and I were so desperate, that we were about to sign up for one of these. Then I remembered seeing another rapid test site, called GS Labs. Before I tried booking it, I first made sure that they were CLIA approved by the USVI portal. Thank God they were! The closest lab to us, was back in Downtown Seattle, so I made an appointment for 11:30am. As we drove, I used Scott’s phone to book the appointments and in the process, I managed to book 4 appointments for myself and none for him! Luckily, they took care of everything and after about 40 min, we were all done.


Ironically as I got ready to drive away, one of the workers shouted out my name. Turns out an old high school classmate owns the business and not only that, but he’s close friends with Ben! Now remember, Ben and Maria still at this point hadn’t gotten their results and were scheduled to fly out the next day. So I called them and told them to go get another test at GS Labs (which billed our insurance, so we were not out of pocket). Two hours later, we all had our results and we were good to go! Talk about a journey.

Are we there yet?

This trip has been planned for over two years and we couldn’t wait to finally get on the plane! We flew out on Thursday night around 11:15pm and arrived in Miami the following morning.

The flight to Miami was about 6 hours and we had about a 2 hour layover before our 2 hour flight to St. Thomas.

Finally we arrived around 1:30pm (11 hours later) to St Thomas! Ben and Maria had rented a Jeep, so they picked us up. We stopped by the local Publix grocery store for some drinks and snacks, before heading to the resort.

Though the USVI are a US Territory, they drive on the left with American cars and the roads on St. Thomas are very rough and steep!

Ben took the route that Google gave us. During the rest of our trip, our drivers took a few other different ways, all of which were still pretty steep!

What you don’t see well in the route above were the hairpin switchbacks! Talk about white knuckle drive – on the left side of the road!

We were really impressed with Ben’s driving skills!

Welcome to Margaritaville!

If you do have a car, parking can be limited near the hotel. But they do have golf carts that will take you to your room.

Ben and Maria had a fabulous room up on the hill, overlooking the bay.

Unfortunately, we were not so lucky. We were in the last building and our view was of a tree. Oh well, we were still in paradise!

The rooms were great, as they were kitchenettes that came with blenders! These rooms are actually condos and so we didn’t get housekeeping service. If you want extra coffee or towels, you have to go to the front desk and ask for them.

Time for some food and drinks

After checking in, the four of us headed to 5’Oclock Somewhere for a cocktail and enjoy the view and a few appetizers. Traveling to the Caribbean from the West Coast is exhausting, but worth it in the end.

That night, we took a taxi into Red Hook and grabbed some pizza at the Island Time Pub, which was fantastic! I highly recommend it and I don’t eat pizza! Overlooking the bay at Red Hook, the view is also fantastic!

For the next 10 days, we had a lot on the itinerary and we’ll share that journey with you over the next few weeks! Be sure to subscribe to both our blog and YouTube channel for the upcoming tour!

As always, thank you for following our journey! You can also follow us on social media @BoatingJourney and use the hashtag #boatingjourney. Cheers, Scott and Ally

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1909 MV Lotus Edwardian Cruising Houseboat

MV Lotus

Last month, Scott and I had the pleasure of touring a 1909 Edwardian Cruising Houseboat on Lake Union, the MV Lotus thanks to our tour guide and volunteer Scott. This vessel was originally built by Mosquito Fleet builder (see our blog about the Mosquito fleet here). At 92′ long, MV Lotus was commissioned by wealthy Seattle lawyer Maurice McMicken in 1909. She remained in the McMicken family until shortly after World War II.

During the period leading up to the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle, she was used as a floating lodge on Lake Union for visitors. Subsequently, she was again operated as a private yacht by the Gruye family, cruising back and forth to Alaska. She now belongs to a non-profit foundation dedicated to maintaining and sharing her history, and is once again operating as a floating lodge in Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands. (per MV Lotus organization).

It was the largest private yacht on the West Coast when she was built, and was constructed with all the latest amenities of the time: electric lighting, a state-of-the-art intercom system, and a gas distillate engine. Currently the boat is maintained by the MV Lotus Foundation and is available for overnight stays. It does not currently leave the dock, but it has in recent years.

The Tour Begins

Upon entering the vessel, you are taken back in time and into a lavish salon. The custom fireplace still works and the furnishings are almost all original or similar to the original. The original china for MV Lotus is still kept in the china cabinet, along with many old photographs and books.

The fixtures are all custom made and many are from Tiffany’s.

Maurice McMicken was not only an avid hunter, but he was a bit eccentric when it came to obtaining things he wanted. For example, he had a beautiful custom desk built, featuring a beaver on the lid. This piece of wood, actually came from the HBC Str Beaver 1836 after it wrecked. The Beaver was a steamship originally owned and operated by the Hudson’s Bay Company and served the remote parts of the West Coast and Canada. McMicken also had a painting of the steamship in the salon.

Sleeping quarters

There are three sleeping quarters, including the master stateroom. Each room has a sink that hot water can be poured into. When not in use, it’s tethered to the wall in some rooms.

The guest rooms, have a shared bathroom that has been updated with a shower.

Moving down the hall, you will find the master stateroom. Even for 1909, this room was very large and lavish. Notice the claw foot tub – on a boat!! Can you imagine filling that with hot water?

The MV Lotus was outfitted with an intercom system throughout the vessel. This was very high tech back in 1909.

Upstairs to the bridge and entertainment deck

From the master stateroom, you head upstairs and enter the bridge. Keep in mind, this boat traveled regularly up to Alaska and then through the San Juan Islands and around Puget Sound. Imagine having no electronics or GPS? All they had were paper charts, a compass and wheel.

Outside of the wheelhouse, you can see the original “brand” in the doorway threshold.

Remodeling the Upper Deck

Currently, the MV Lotus is under construction as they make repairs and minor changes to the upper deck. Normally, this is the place to hang out, enjoy the vistas and a cocktail or two.

Notice in the photo below, where the yellow arrow is pointing. This “base” is actually the soffit down the salon, allowing light in. Now that’s pretty creative!

When the MV Lotus is rented, the upper deck is used for dining and outdoor parties.

Check out the Galley

The volunteers on the boat, do provide some food and beverage service to customers. Typically a small breakfast, coffee and tea are provided to overnight guests. The galley still has the original stovetop plus they have added a newer model. Notice all of the cups are pointed in the same direction inward hanging from the ceiling. We were told that this keeps all of the good luck inside the boat and prevents anything from going overboard.

Best view on the lake

While the MV Lotus no longer cruises, it still offers the best view on Lake Union. As a venue or a weekend getaway, this is the perfect destination. Be sure to check out their website and come down and take a tour. The tours are free, however, the boat is supported by a staff of volunteers and a non-profit organization. Any donations, are surely welcomed.

As always, thank you for following our blog and YouTube channel. See the full tour in the YouTube link below. Be sure to follow us on social @BoatingJourney and use the hashtag #boatingjourney.

Cheers, Scott and Ally