Was suppose to be moving up the road to Paynes Prairie State Park early this morning. Good thing I looked at my day timer and found that I had actually written down that I was suppose to of been up there on Monday morning, not today. So I got on the phone to the office up there to see what that meant in the real world and it looked like they had cancelled my reservation after I was a no-show for the first 48 hours. So I thought I was screwed, but I went ahead and looked up my reservation info that they had emailed me when I made the reservation anyway. Imagine my surprise when I looked at it and saw that I had made the reservation for the same days, but in March instead of February. So now I thought I was really screwed. I had already stayed here two days longer than I had paid for, I had no reservation for where I wanted to go, and I had paid in nearly $200 for a camping reservation that I was never going to need. What a putz!

    It all turned out okay in the end though... as it usually does. First off I needed to cancel the reservation at the State Park, which was easy to do, even though it did cost me about $18 in fee's to do it. Better than losing it all I guess. Next I went over to the office here at Sportsman Cove and sat down with one of the ladies who does all the check in-out stuff for them. Again it turned out to be easier than I thought. She first off added the two days I had already over stayed into a new reservation and then signed me up for a two week stay, which actually works out to a full month since after two weeks there is such a discount that you can actually stay for 30 days for the same amount of money. So I'm set for how ever long I want to stay here. That will be at least 2 more weeks here and perhaps a little bit longer before taking off for the north country again.

    I hung out here at the trailer for most of the day just straightening everything up a bit and putting stuff away again. Will head into town tomorrow just for something to do, may try to take in another movie if there is one out there that interests me. I also need to check the theatres here in town again as I know there was at least one play that was going to be going on once I got back from St Croix.

   Speaking of which; there are more pictures from that trip below. Today's photo's are of a tour a couple of us made one evening on the wooden schooner Roseway. Built as a fishing boat originally, it had many lives before ending up abandoned and in bad repair in a port north of Boston. Bought from the bank for the grand sum of $10 it was then refurbished to the tune of nearly 1 1/2 million dollars.

    Today it is used as an ocean going classroom where school children can come on board and learn how to work with each other to hoist and trim sails as well as using more common school subjects such as biology, math and physics on projects done while afloat.

    During the evening hours they run 2-3 hour sailing trips out of the harbor and back as a way to make some additional money and as a way for the young crew members to make spending money from tips.  Below are a few photo's from that trip.

Sailing on the Roseway on St Croix on the U.S. Virgin Islands - Feb 12, 2013 



The schooner Roseway. Built originally as a Grand Banks cod fishing boat, it was actually bought and used as a private yacht to start out. Later it set a record as a Sailfish catching boat, catching some 80+ fish in just one day. It now lives life as a sea going school room that spends winters here in St Croix and summers in Boston and along the east coast.

Under the bow sprit is the fort in Christensted.

Looking forward before getting underway. The jib sail is attached out on the end of the bow sprit while the staysail jib has it's own boom that helps control the shape of the foot as well as making tacking easier.

Haven't seen one of these since leaving the Coast Guard many years ago, heaving lines with attached monkey fist. Among their uses is as a messenger line that can be attached to a dock line and then thrown ashore so the heavier dock line can be pulled in. They used these when we came back into dock later on.

A piece of fancy work that is used to cover up this manhole cover in the bow of the boat.

Every where you look everything is well ordered and ship shape.

A piece of fancy work to protect the deck from one of the main sheet blocks.

We all helped hoist up the fore and main sails and a few are now in the process of hoisting the jib and staysail. The mainsail alone weighs over 2,000 lbs, so it took a bunch of us to get everything up and pulling.



 

A couple of the crew tightening up the mainsail peak halyard.

A look at some of the shroud lines and the attached rat lines.

Looking up at the peak of the main mast and all of the lines that are needed to keep the masts in place as well as control the sails. There is yet one more top sail that can be hoisted up above the mainsail here. But it usually isn't set unless they are on a lengthy voyage.

Another view of the mainsail showing the 2nd row of reef points used to 'shorten' sail when the wind gets harder. The boat actually sails with one reef in the mainsail already, tied in as it makes it easier for them to sail if they don't have to worry about being over whelmed by gusts of wind.

Always nice to see the sun going down while at sea.

Looking west as the sun is setting over the end of St Croix Island.

The scene and colors were changing by the minute.

Heading back into dock and already out of the channel, it is time to start dropping the sails already.

It's wonderful to watch this crew go about the business of running the boat. Here they are dropping and tying down the fore sails.

Faking them down and tying them on.

Dropping the foresail and faking it down on top of the boom.

Getting ready to drop the mainsail.

Looking at the fort at Christiansted as the sun is going down.

I really liked how the light was striking the fort in this photo.

Back at the dock and all tied up for the night. A wonderful couple of hours out on the ocean. Now it's time to get back to the condo's for dinner and dancing. If I remember correctly tonight was 'Neva's Kitchen' turn to cater and it was barbcue night. It was yummy!