On our way to St. Thomas one of our guests caught a fish so we had fresh fish for dinner that night. After a rough night passage we arrived in St. Thomas and docked at the old Yacht Haven Marina. Amazingly our guests had actually slept on the trip over and were in good spirits. However, the air-conditioner on starboard had quit, and the starboard engine would not start. Since it was Sunday, nothing was open so we couldn't fix anything.

Next day our guests guests went snorkeling with our crew. No sooner had they left than we were on the phone and lined up a mechanic to fix the engines and generator and a guy to fix the air-conditioners. The A/C guy found leaks in the system and would fix them the next day when the mechanic would be there also. We rented an 8-passenger van so our crew could take our guests on a tour of the island the next day.

One of our guests was Charlie's grown daughter, Lisa, who was celebrating her birthday, so we all piled into the 8-passenger van and drove to Red Hook where we caught the ferry for St. John, one of my favorite islands in the Caribbean. After a delicious dinner there we returned to St. Thomas for cake and champagne aboard "Blue Star".

The following day while our guests were blissfully touring St. Thomas we played host to Don the mechanic who fixed the generator, at least temporarily, and gave Charlie advice on what to do with the starboard engine. Parts had arrived for the port engine so Charlie was able to get it running. As promised, the A/C guy fixed the leaks in the system so we could continue our trip.

The next day, after running errands and returning the van, we sailed to St. John in the afternoon and went diving. Charlie, a certified PADI dive instructor, gave one of our guests a great introduction to the sport. Next day we sailed over to Cinnamon Bay, St. John which I fondly remembered from a certain spring vacation fling in my youth. From there we moved on to Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands and investigated Foxy's a famous cruiser bar and restaurant run by a local musician appropriately named Foxy. Not much happening at Foxy's so we returned to the boat for dinner.

In the morning we sailed to Marina Cay, Tortola, and anchored there in the afternoon. A boat vendor selling everything from T-shirts to fresh produce pulled alongside our boat and our guests had a great time sampling his wares. Our passengers were all leaving the next day so we had a wonderful farewell dinner ashore.

The next morning Charlie and I had an unfortunate incident with the dinghy when we were taking our dog, Star, ashore. We ended up stuck on a reef and had a very hard time getting the dinghy off especially since neither of us was wearing shoes. Ouch! While Charlie took Lisa and her friend to the airport I snorkeled with our crew and the remaining 2 guests. In the afternoon we took these guests to the airport in Road Town. That night we and our crew collapsed in bed after an early dinner, relieved that our guests had had no inkling of our boat problems.

To be continued.