Sugar Plantation ruins

We had a leisurely start to the day with the good news that we’ve finally got a few offers on PolePole, we’ve reduced the price, hoping for a quick sale! We decided it was way too noisy and busy here, so without good phone signal there was not a lot to keep us here.

We continued clockwise around St John. There is a bit of a weather front and we have another cloudy day with bursts of rain. We’re not complaining but wish it would cool things a bit as it is swelteringly hot. The wind was howling at our first stop and the swell so bad we decided to move on further around. There are not a lot of spare mooring balls at the moment as it is so crowded. We finally settled in Francis bay around lunch time, which is nicely protected. With intermittent signal, Rowan managed to find our that there is nowhere doing PCR tests on St John so we will have to go to ST Thomas to get them done there, which is a bore. We’re hoping to get into the BVI on Saturday when they start accepting fully vaccinated people. We just have to confirm our skipper, who has gone very quiet on Rowan.

Sugar plantation mill ruins everywhere, such a past history of a booming trade.

In the afternoon we went ashore for a good walk. Starting on a board walk through a swampy area with a few mangroves. We walked across to Leinster Bay to the ruins of the old Annaberg Sugar Mill. All very topical as it was built on the back of slavery. Amazing to think that all the wild bush around here was terraced sugar cane. The ruins were enormous with a huge round construction where the donkeys and horses would turn the mill stone to crush the sugar cane and just the liquid was collected. The fibrous by products were used to make rum. The whole operation was hugely profitable which you can tell by the enormous buildings. The wind mills finally took over from the animals. It is rather a beautiful construction, what’s left over of it. Loads of big pieces of coral cut for the lintels and door surrounds. It was good to stretch our legs, we followed a trail along the beach to Watermelon Bay. We were amazed at all the people on the beaches, who can get there by car from the resorts.

Surprised to find deer on the island.

Cut coral in the building construction.

More ruins

Watermelon Bay.

Rowan made us delicious freshly squeezed grapefruit rum cocktails on our return. What started off looking like a very disappointing sunset grew into a magnificent intense display, just a shame about the gin palaces blotting the landscape!