Sunset Sail on the Roseway

During the winter months, we on St. Croix have become accustomed to seeing the red sails of the 137 ft. schooner Roseway along the northern shores of the island. For the past couple of years the big ship has made St. Croix its winter home, where it operates the World Ocean School, running programs for local schools in which 7th graders get to integrate lessons in math and science while having a unique sailing experience. Here's a photo of the Roseway by Pranas Robert Karalius, courtesy of www.worldoceanschool.org.



Built for fishing in 1925, this lovely ship had stints as a New England Coast Guard pilot during World War II, and a windjammer out of Camden before its refurbishing in 2002 and rebirth as a school. My brother-in-law Alex remembers sailing on the Roseway one exuberant summer in Maine when the schooner catered to high-spirited 16-year-olds. We told this to the captain who says he is amazed at the number of people he meets who have a connection to the Roseway.



We recently enjoyed one of the sunset sails the Roseway offers for the general public. As we got underway, all passengers assisted the crew in raising the big red sails.



The schooner took us north of the island for about an hour. We enjoyed the sun setting behind the Maroons on the northwest corner of St. Croix.



We returned to a lit Christiansted Harbor.



And watched the crew lower the sails for the night.

Sailing the BVI

Last week we spent it sailing around the British Virgin Islands, one of the world's top sailing destinations and conveniently near St Croix. We flew to St. Thomas (here's a view of our St. Croix neighborhood from the plane) and chartered a 40-foot catamaran there. Then we sailed to St. John and worked our way up the island chains with stops in Jost Van Dyke, Tortola, Virgin Gorda and Anegada.



Days were spent sailing, swimming, snorkeling, napping, drinking and eating great food on board and at local restaurants, taking pleasure in the magnificent scenery and simply relaxing with our friends. Here are some of us enjoying happy hour on the boat.



For me, the best part of the trip was reveling in the full moon glow over the water, swimming with sea turtles and feeling Poseidon's expansive embrace. My favorite spot was Loblolly Beach in Anegada, pictured here. Anegada in general is a spectacular place. Very flat and very small (only about 200 residents), very shallow (hundreds of ship wrecks, making for great diving) and fabulous snorkeling. Not much to do but admire the surreal colors of the island.


The day of our return to St. Croix reminded me of what a wonderful place this is. We began the day on St. John with fabulous snorkeling in Great Lameshur Bay. We sailed back to St. Thomas and returned the boat. A 20 minute plane ride took us back to St. Croix. We went home, dropped off our bags and headed out to Coconuts on the Beach in Frederiksted to get our Kurt Schindler fix (our favorite musician, pictured here). Bob and I left the show midway and drove 10 minutes over to the Whim Museum grounds for a performance of Bluegrass music under the stars. When Bluegrass was over, we returned to see Kurt finish his last set.