Working in St. Thomas

It’s been a bit since my last update so I thought I’d let everyone know what I’ve been up to. I’m still in St. Thomas but I actually now have a “job”. I’m working for Quantum Sails as a “sail-maker”…doing repairs on old sails and selling and installing new ones. The owner of the loft (in this industry, they are called “sail lofts”) is a great guy and has been doing it for 11 years here in St. Thomas. I’m learning a lot and if I continue to sail, the skills will definitely help me down the line.
Christmas was spent on other boats with friends. I had brunch with my friends on s/v Ketching Up (Noel, Ashley and their 3 boys) and dinner on s/v Astor. Richard and Lany on Astor are the ones that so gratefully donated their old auto-pilot and SSB tuner back in Panama City when I got hit by lightening. They were here in St Thomas and put on a great Christmas dinner. I plan on heading to Antigua for the classic boat races in April. Astor asked me to crew for them and seeing it as a chance of a lifetime, I committed. The raceing lasts for 4 days, then I’ll most likely work my way back North and make plans for hurricane season come May.
New Years: It was time to get out of St.Thomas for a bit so I headed over to Foxy’s on Yost Van Dyke for their infamous New Year’s party. The anchorage was parked full of boats and the party lived up to its reputation. My parents read my blog so I can’t tell too much but if you ever have the opportunity to be there in the future, make it happen! I stayed for 4 days and let the crowd disperse before I attempted to raise my anchor. I was afraid that I probably had 3 other anchors on top of mine.
Anyway, I plan on heading to Puerto Rico next month to visit some friends from college. They’re staying in a 5 star resort and I can’t wait to take a long, hot shower! It’s been 1.5 years since I stood in a shower and could let the water run….needless to say I’m looking forward to it.
The boat is doing great. The water is clean enough that I can make water here in the anchorage. I’m anchored right outside a new marina that’s filled with Megayachts. We’re doing some work on two of them now. The larger one is the 2nd largest in the world. It belongs to Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle. It’s appx 420 feet and stores a helicopter below deck in the bow. We got to see very little of the boat while on board but they have 5 tenders with one of them costing 1.5million (just for the tender!). To think that I’d love to have a new 15hp Yamaha on my dinghy but I’m too cheap to buck up.
Anyway, the owner is selling the loft and if it goes through, I may take some time off and get my Captain’s license. I’ve been making a lot of contacts and think I could get on one of these megayachts for the summer, maybe try to get on one gong to the Med or something. Who knows, tomorrow’s a different day.
Just spoke to my very good friends, The Millers, in California. They plan on coming down sometime in March or April and I’m already looking forward to it. This will be their 2nd trip (Steve’s 3rd) so I guess they enjoy the boat and island lifestyle. Depending on where I’m at, we’ll hit all the best anchorages and see if we can find some trouble at the same time.
I think that just about covers all my updates. Sorry I don’t have any new pics but I’m too cheap to buy a camera (but always willing to accept donations!). If anyone wants to visit, it would be great to have you all!
Dan