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Looking in any direction from our boat the horizon was blocked from view by little islands, each with their own personal charm.	Lars & Mary Beth over one of the shallow reefs. These reefs being shallow were filled with color. Green sea grasses, red, blue, purple, orange, & yellow fish. It was fantastic.
I mentioned a few times on this site that at one time I wanted to circumnavigate. Well, after selling my boat, I decided to buy another and after reading about the how the Moorings, C. Y. O. A. and other organizations in the U. S. & British Virgin Islands and elsewhere allow you to put a down payment on a sailboat & have it paid off for you over a period of  time by chartering it, I just had to check it out. So I asked a friend of mine and her two daughters if they would like to join me for a 10 day charter cruise in the B. V. I. How could they refuse?
Anyway when the time came 11 year old Tiffany, 9 year old Melanie, Mary Beth and myself flew from Philadelphia to San Juan & on to St. Thomas.
This was the girls first time on a plane, and though the Jet from Philly was exciting, The hop from Puerto Rico to the  Virgin Islands on a small, twin prop' plane absolutely Blew them away. I don't think they stopped talking (About the  flight) till after we landed:
"Tiffany! look you can see the waves!" "Is that a boat or a whale?" "We're above the clouds." and on and on and on.
After landing we headed to our little inn. (Our charter wasn't for two days.) We ended up at a place that was built on a hill over looking Charlotte Amalie (The capital of Saint Thomas. U. S. V. I.)
The Admiral's Inn ended up being a quaint little inn. The swimming pool, where we spent a lot of our time, sat a little

	lower on the hill then our room & the patio
	where they  served breakfast was just
	below the pool. It was within walking
	distance of the city but far enough away to
	be peaceful and quite at night.
	When we first arrived the girls found two
	dogs and I don't know how many cats but
	enough to make them very happy. Every
	time I take these kids anywhere they adopt
	all the local animals. I think they found and

held every cat that lived in the Hemmingway House in Key West, Fla. and there are a lot of them. Anyway the inn turned out to be a fantastic place to spend the time we had, before we could take possession of the sailboat. In fact before we left for our cruise, I made reservations. (A thing I very rarely do. When traveling, I like to sample different places.) for the time we would have to spend on the island after our cruise & before our flight home.

Charlotte Amalie is a great little town, when the cruise ships aren't in harbor. Without the crowds, when the restaurants and other tourist attractions aren't packed, & the streets aren't mobbed, it is a very romantic place, with a great many things to see & do. Click here to visit their web site.  More about the Admiral's Inn & Charlotte Amalie later.

We started our cruise on a happy note. After getting the paperwork out of the way, we went down to the slip to see  the boat before fitting it out for our trip. We weren't even on the docks when Tiffany (11) came running up all excited.  "Mom, you have to see him, you just have to! He's gorgeous." She was talking about our captain Lars (Lars & his wife Nancy with their dog Osita charter their own sailboat (Delphina). When He doesn't have a charter he works as a captain for the C. Y. O. A.. Anyway with his tan, blond hair and Danish accent he makes a pretty impressive figure, especially to an 11 year old girl.

Well we fitted out and after some problems (The tide was out & our keel was in mud.) we finally got under sail.

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