We arrived in St. Croix on New Year’s Eve exhausted by the two-day bouncy ride from Martinique. We didn’t quite make it to midnight but as luck would have it a few days later St. Croix celebrated carnival and we weren’t going to miss that.
We found a taxi bus that would take us across the island to Frederiksted for $2.50 per person and met up with a group of Danes on holiday. Turns out lots of Danes come here and to the other US Virgins because Denmark owned them until 1917 and the islands have very much retained their Danish character, architecture and place names. When Jack and I talked to locals in shops, on the street or in buses they always asked if we were Danish.
The town of Frederiksted is beautiful and well cared for. We wandered around along with the thousands of cruise ship passengers until it was time to stake out a good spot to view the parade.
It was a much smaller parade than we saw in St. Thomas or Grenada but the participants were no less enthusiastic and we even found a Steeler’s fan among the friendly crowd.
As much as we love St. Croix we’re anxious to get going because Jack’s sister Deb is going to be in Fajardo, Puerto Rico in mid January and we’re also trying to order new rigging and coordinate shipping and a rigger somewhere down the line. But the weather is not cooperating. The seas are too high, the wind is too strong. At least we’re not going against the wind now, so there’s that.