JIM AND KIM ARRIVE

1530 February 4, 2015, St. Thomas Island, USVI: Landed at on St. Thomas Island Airport on an American Airline flight direct from Boston. We had taken off from Boston at 1030 after arriving on a red eye connecting flight from Los Angles three hours earlier. We had luckily caught a window between two winter storms both, of which grounded planes in Boston. As we lifted off we could see 3 ft of snow piled everywhere, on roof, in roads, in fields and on the beaches around the inlets under the flight pattern. The sky and sea below were both shades of dark gray. The only activity we could see was the movement of a few trucks and cars on partially cleared streets. The temperature was 15 degrees.  As we were landing on St. Thomas Island we could see a cove with aqua green water, a white sand beach with green hills behind, and several anchored sail boats. The sky was light blue and sunny. We could see several people laying on the sand and swimming just off the beach. The temperature was 86 degrees. What a difference four hours in the right direction can make (St Thomas is on Atlantic Time).  We had clearly landed in the the right place. 

Jim and Kim, both retired Navy Captains, had arrived on a non stop an hour earlier from DC.  Jim is Beth's brother and Kim his wife. This would be their fourth adventure with us on Catalina Sunshine. We arranged a cab to take us to Mo's Market in Red Hook to provision and then to Sapphire Bay Marina, the next cove to the north.  We found Mo's to have a good selection of vegetables and other groceries.  As we reached the end of the dock where our boat was located, we found the boat cleaning crew, which the Harbor Master Niles Pearsall had arranged for us. They were just finishing their work. The boat looked great. 

We had dinner on board as we further readied Catalina Sunshine for cruising.