A Week Aboard S/V Sabado: 12/25/2022 – 1/1/2023
You can watch this week’s YouTube video here. 🙂
Last Sunday, we picked my parents and brother up from the airport. We brought everyone back to Sabado and celebrated with some champagne while we watched the sunset, then headed to shore for Christmas dinner.
The next day we lounged around the boat. It rained periodically but was warm enough to swim, so we took our paddle boards to the nearby waterfall and swam in the clear, blue water before heading to shore that evening for a pasta and wine-filled dinner. 😍 Tuesday was similar; we swam all morning, showered, got dressed, and took a new crew photo in front of a rainbow!
We went to shore to mosey around the local shops, swung by the grocery store to reprovision, and met up with friends for dinner and cocktails. By Wednesday morning, we were ready to get moving, so we decided to go for a quick sail! We pulled up the anchor and hoisted the main. It was all smiles at the helm, despite it being a little more crowded than usual! 😉
Once we made it out of the channel, we brought out our jib and shut the engines off. It was a sporty sail; we had about 20-23kn of wind and 4ft seas. We bounced around for a couple of hours but noticed the wind was forecasted to pick up to 30kn, so we tacked back toward our anchorage and dropped the sails. My brother even learned how to furl in the jib!
Later that evening, we decided to motor around the corner to Frenchman’s Bay for the night. We got there just before sunset, and it was empty! My mom and I took the paddle boards to shore and found a tree swing to hang out on.
When we returned to Sabado, a new boat had joined us in the anchorage- our friends RJ and Jenna with their charter guests. Ray blended up some pina coladas, and RJ flew his drone, capturing some amazing photos of our boats!
My dad grilled us up a steak dinner, and we all went to bed relatively early.
Thursday morning, we went for a swim off the back of the boat before sailing over to Christmas Cove. The trip took us a couple of hours, but we had a blast! The wind was strong, and the seas were sloppy, but our family seemed to enjoy the action. We sailed with the main reefed and eventually reefed the jib down too. We tacked a couple of times before pulling into our anchorage late that afternoon.
Christmas Cove is known for its resident floating pizza shop, Pizza Pi VI. We placed our order and then took the dinghy over for pickup! It’s a novelty attraction, but they really do make the pizzas fresh aboard their boat, and they are good!
We ate our pizza in the cockpit and watched the sun begin to set. Suddenly, we heard a splash. One of the blocks from our dinghy davit system had fallen off. Thankfully it seemed to be floating, but the current quickly carried it away from us. So, I jumped in, fully clothed, and grabbed it.
Ray got his tools out, and he and my dad engineered a solution while I showered and hung my clothes out to dry.
We motored to Caneel Bay the following day and picked up a mooring ball. The trip took us under an hour. We didn’t bother to raise the sails because the wind was right on our nose. I dove in to check the mooring and got cleaned up for a family photo before dinner on shore in Cruz Bay. We ate fresh fish at The Longboard, then strolled down to Mongoose Junction for some ice cream. ❤️
Saturday morning, we dropped my brother off at the ferry dock in St. John so he could make his return flight that afternoon out of St. Thomas. It’s always frustrating when our boating plans don’t align just right… We couldn’t make it to St. Thomas in time to drop my brother off at the airport, and we missed Ray’s family, who were in St. Thomas for the day on a cruise ship. The uncertainty of our schedule has caused us to miss out before, but it still bums us out every time. ☹️ Hendricks Family, if you’re reading this: we are so sorry we missed you! I hope you had a fantastic time on St. Thomas, and I look forward to our paths crossing again soon! ❤️
While we were on shore, Ray and I stopped by the market and then met back up with my parents on Sabado. We dinghied to the beach after breakfast to explore, swim, and lounge around. Later that afternoon, we took the dinghy to Henley Cay to do some snorkeling! We jumped in and were immediately impressed with the healthy coral and the diversity of the fish! I took some GoPro footage that will be in next week’s video, but here’s a quick sneak peek… 🦈
The best part was- we were the only people there!!
We spent the rest of the evening sipping cocktails and chatting while the sun set on 2022.
I hope you all had a great week and a happy New Year! 🍾