Just hanging out in St John

Not a lot to write because we've been doing a lot of not a lot, so to speak. St John is a lovely place just to take it easy and do very little, so we've been doing exactly that. A bit of school, a bit of swimming, a bit of walking and a bit of socialising. We've met a couple of other boats with kids and have spent some time with them, and we've met other kids on the beach for impromptu playdates. Then the local camp/resort had a movie night which turned out to be 'Finding Nemo', an all time favourite on this boat, so we took a few beers for the adults and popcorn for everyone and had fun watching that.

Yesterday we walked to the ruins of a school built to educate the children of slaves but, only opened a few years before emancipation, it rapidly fell into disuse as plantations closed and people moved towards the two main villages on the island, Cruz Bay and Coral Harbor. Nearby is one of those plantations with the remains of a windmill and horse mill, the sugar boiling room and the distillery where anything left over was made into rum. Interesting, and a nice short walk from our anchorage.

We're on our way round to Coral Harbor, at the east end of St John, to stay there for a few days before moving on to Tortola and preparing for the Christmas rush! We met some nice people who run stores in Coral Harbor, and they have kids of similar ages so we'll go see them again and sit still for a few days before we move on. It's hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner, and so nice not to have been bombarded by carols, lights and commercial messages of the season for the last few weeks. We occasionally have pangs for Christmas past, and today something triggered a moment of longing for well wrapped up walking in snowy hills followed by pints of beer in the snug of a local pub but we know that's nostalgia and don't miss the cold grey days that surrounded it all. We'll have cold grey days aplenty once in Canada, I'm sure.

All's well. N.

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