Rowing Through Paradise in USVI Squalls

Starting out in the PNW, James Lane and Dena Hankins have been slowly touring the world with the tagline “Around the World in 80 Years … Maybe” for a couple of decades. They headed south from Orcas Island, WA, over 20 years ago and spent several years living and cruising in Northern California. They’ve written a few stories like “Enjoying Life on the Hook“, and below relay an anecdote from liveaboard life in the USVI aboard their electric-powered 1984 Baba 30, Cetacea. 

Living aboard a tiny electric sailboat can be challenging at times. For example, last week my partner Dena had to row the 3/4 of a mile into the town of Red Hook, on the island of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, by herself twice because the wind was too strong for both of us to go in together. I (James) got to stay on the boat and watch her row our little 8-ft rowboat in choppy seas and heavy wind from the deck of our 1984 Baba 30, Cetacea, until she disappeared behind the point …. It was nerve-wracking to say the least, but I had the easy job. Dena is an incredibly powerful rower. She’s been doing it for years, but it gets really rough out in Red Hook Bay when it kicks up, and boy, has it been kicked-up lately.

Well, a couple of days ago the company she works for provided her with a mooring in Vessup Bay, pretty much directly across from the building she works in, cutting our row in from just under a mile to about 60 yards. Now, that’s great when the wind’s blowing snot at 40 knots and the seas are all kicked up, but we row because we love to row and it keeps us fit, not because we have to. I mean, you wouldn’t believe how many people around here have offered to give us a tow as we were rowing either in or back out to the boat.

I mean, we have gone to great lengths to get all of the infernal combustion machines out of our lives, and these folks think they’re doing us some kind of favor by offering to tow us with their evil little inflatable power boats … ew!

Anyway, this morning, after bailing out last night’s rainwater from the little boat, Dena got in, and as we were rowing in it started to rain … then it started raining harder, and right about that time we both remembered we’d left the companionway open … yeah, that’s the main entrance to the boat that is directly over the electric-motor propulsion bay!!! Ack!!!

I dropped Dena off at the public dinghy dock and started my row back when it started to come down in buckets! I’m serious, it was raining so hard that I couldn’t see more than 10 feet around me. Right about that time the wind kicked up to about 35 knots, and I was rowing directly into it, going nowhere really fast. I somehow made it back to Cetacea, closed the companionway, secured the dinghy (yes, in that order), and then made my way belowdecks to survey the damage. Yes, that’s right about the time the rain died and it became a beautiful sunny day in the US Virgin Islands.

Let me just say that SV/SN-E Cetacea is an incredible vessel! She is built to slough off the elements almost to perfection. It was a little damp over the propulsion bay, but because of the intensity of the wind, the boat righted herself into it and sloughed off the weather like she was built to do. Me, not so much! I was drenched to the skin and more than a little freaked out by the time I got a nice dry towel in my hands. I wiped down the wet things, found the freaked-out cat, Beluga Greyfinger, and the two of us cuddled and calmed each other as I finished drying my now very clean body. The end ….

You can follow James and Dena’s voyage here.