Out to Sea: *read the prior blog Sailing to Buck Island FIRST*

Tried to put up a video, but not sure if it works...

Onward and Outward

As we soon realize, a lot of the boats will motor over to the island, this makes for a lot of scenic pictures of the island and keeps the vessel in calm predictable seas.  In order to catch the wind however, you must go out farther to find it.  And this is exactly what we had to do!

Feel the Wind

 Rob and I are still excited at this point.  We have planned to sail to the neighboring island of St. Thomas for an overnight trip and now this is the direction we are headed so we know we will get an even better idea of how it will be.  Our enthusiasm, or should I say, my and Nathaniel's enthusiasm begins to dwindle as the swells get bigger and bigger the further out we go.  If I had to estimate, I would say they began at 5 feet and ended up at times 10 feet swells!

I found it difficult to do justice through a camera lens, but if you look at the pictures below you can definitely tell by the distance from the horizon to the front end of the boat:

and Boom!
Riding up the swell...

Christian of course moves to this seat in the front letting the spray from swells splash him in the face! Unfortunately, I had to put camera up for fear of it going over board.

Time to Tack

We head North for about an hour, about 40 minutes in, Nathaniel and I are no longer nervous, in fact, we both are starting to dose.  There is something soothing about boats after you overcome your inital shock and awe.

Soon we tack the boat (turn the boat, not as simple as it sounds) and we head East towards Buck Island.   It's not long before the swells diminish, the water changes from the rich blue to teal, and the enthusiasm returns.



A look back to St. Croix.... Look for the three pyramids.


We have arrived!

The beautiful nature preserve of Buck Island.
Once at Buck Island we swim ashore, walk the beach, explore, then swim back to the boat for a delicious lunch all prepared by the captain himself.  He explains that usually they can get right up to the beach, but without a motor, this proves to be entirely to risky.  He has decided to send another boat, a motor boat for us to use to finish our tour.  We are heading to the eastern end of Buck Island for the underwater snorkeling trail.

After lunch, I'm perfectly happy right here.

Hanging out on the boat

Just Keep Swimming...

Hello....


At this point I'm already pretty tired as is my buddy Nathaniel.  The clouds are moving in, the wind is picking up, and it's choppy.  We set into the trail and soon turn back, wimpy maybe, but whatever!  Rob and Christian swim the entire trial, seeing lots of species of fish and sea turtles.  They may be slightly more adventurous!



The motor boat takes us back to the Harbor, a fairly easy ride, rum punch included.  The perfect and needed ending to our sailing/boating adventure!

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