After our somewhat stressful check-in experience was over, we found ourselves in St John’s Harbor with two boat-loads of friends only a day or two behind us. So we spent a little while walking around town, marveling at the sight of a city looking more-or-less normal. We found vegetable markets very much alive, though it seemed almost every vendor also had a selection of face masks. A number of new sinks had also apparently cropped up recently.
Heh heh 
Jazz requests special mention for “the highlight of her visit” 
So of course we bought a bunch of masks, and proceeded to do yet another load of bucket laundry.
… and watch the sunset.
The new normal here also seems to include sporadic downpours of rain, and we found ourselves coming back to a dinghy with about an inch of water flooding the bottom – note the floating footwear.
Though the city has its charm, and despite its offering us up a nice sunrise..
… the anchorage at St John’s is not very pretty, so having gathered the friends, we headed around the point to Deep Bay. Which is a bit of an odd name, as it’s mostly only about fifteen feet. It sports a nice beach, and the remains of a fort up a short hill hike, so we got off the boats and had another nice little explore. And then a nice swim on the beach!
There’s also a wreck, which almost breaks the surface in the center of the anchorage. Denied entry to the port with their cargo of pitch on fire, the Andes burned and sank in 1905, and is now the support structure for a little reef. Unfortunately we don’t have the best photos as the day had gotten overcast by the time we got in the water.
We continued down the coast to Jolly Harbor, where we’d heard there were open restaurants and a Budget Marine. We found both: a cafe with excellent breakfast and coffee, a restaurant where our party of nine was the only table, and some most welcoming signage in the chandlery.
Bug repellent: necessary emergency gear 
Also there was this tree with its big, creepy, and surprisingly heavy seed pods.
On the second evening, we split by gender, and I’m not sure what the ladies did, but the guys drank some delicious beers from St Croix (Thanks Topher!), and invented a new game we’re calling “chesskers”. [Jazz’s NB: the chicks drank way too much wine, ate snacks, and ignored a movie.]
Any piece with a checker under it can move using the rules from either game.