January 15, 2026

The kids picked the Virgin Islands for our Christmas cruise this year, which had us moving north and west from Antigua in early December. En route, we spent a few days in St. Barts with our good friends Dawn and Stephen (SV Pilar). It was early in the season so finding a decent anchor spot wasn’t too bad and it wasn’t over-crowded. We rented a car so we could fully explore the island. We (well actually Stephen) drove to all the major beaches and vistas. We had an amazing lunch at Nikki Beach which is famous for loud music and fancy patrons dancing on the tables. While we didn’t dance on the tables, we had a great time.

Next was a quick stop in St. Martin to wait for the right weather window to make the 90 mile passage west to the Virgin Islands. That coincided with my birthday and we picked a local sushi bar and night club to go out to dinner. We went on the (very) early side which meant we were the ONLY ones there – it definitely felt like the blue light special and made us feel a tad old, but we got exceptional service.

We had a good forecast so we chose to leave Simpson Bay the next morning as soon as the lagoon bridge opened at 8 am. With the wind behind us we were able to finally fly our new asymmetrical spinnaker. It was a bit of a trick with just the two of us – but the winds were light (7 knots) and with the sail up we made good speed (7 knots) with no engines. We arrived to Norman Island in the BVI around 10 pm (14 hours).

Willy was the first to arrive for the Christmas holidays and we made our way over to St. Thomas and anchored in Charlotte Amalie for an easy pick up at the dingy dock. The next morning we headed east to St. John where we were due to meet the rest of the crew (Trevor, Sarah, Ryan and Bridget) who had flown into STT, taxied to Red Hook and then ferried to St. John. We quickly stored their luggage on the boat and took a taxi up to the Windmill Bar which has amazing sunset views and great service. It was the perfect way to kick off our holiday celebrations!

The crew wanted to spend some time in the BVIs so we sailed up to Jost Van Dyke where we cleared customs, hit Foxy’s for lunch and the Soggy Dollar for painkillers in the afternoon. Willie Ts (floating bar) at Norman Island was a big hit – definitely a Jones family favorite. We were only there for one day, but Willy made it over 3 times – one of which was a solo trip on the paddle board for a painkiller which he did not spill!

We returned to the USVI and Maho Bay for Christmas Eve and Day. Everyone enjoyed Maho Crossroads where they have a beach bar and a restaurant in container trailers that they open just during the daytime. We had a nice relaxing Christmas Eve on board. Christmas morning we had breakfast and coffee while we opened our secret Santa gifts. This year we each picked one “secret” person to give gifts to. Lovely gifts given and received by all.

I had found a local church service over in Coral Bay so I reached out to our taxi driver to come pick us up from Maho and drive us over. We arrived at what is the “future” home of St. Theresas Catholic Church. The drawings of the future church are amazing but it’s currently only a dream. The service was actually held in a small tent on a platform on the lot where they hope to build the church. It was a nice mix of locals and visitors. It was a lovely mass and on our way out they gave us gifts of rosary beads and a beautiful Christmas ornament. Trooper the Taxi man had waited for us during the whole service and took us back up and over to Maho – not an inexpensive ride, but well worth it!

Elaine and Richard Spenceley arrived on Lady Ginger with their good friends Deb and Curt. We enjoyed Christmas cocktails in their cockpit and got the Spenceley’s to join us for Christmas dinner! It was a simple “boat appropriate” meal with grilled tenderloin brought from home (thank you Beth!), mashed potatoes and peas and lots of great stories! We had a very merry and blessed Christmas!

For our last few days we sailed to the southern side of St. John. Highlights included Coral Bay harbor (the town is small and low key) and a late lunch (to avoid the crowds) at Lime Out – which is a floating restaurant where you sit in inflatable seats while the wait staff floats drinks and tacos your way! Our waiter was from New England, had played ice hockey at Cushing Academy and knew the Macario’s and Cushman’s. The world gets smaller every day! We had our fill of amazing tacos and very large margaritas (which wiped me out!). This was among everyone’s favorite stops. We hiked up to Rams head, snorkeled at Booby Rock where we saw an amazing Eagle Ray (of course we didn’t have the go pro with us – story of our lives) and then an evening at Lameshur Bay where sea turtles surrounded us and dove under our paddle boards. Just amazing.

We circled back to Cruz Bay to put the kids on the ferry to go home. We had one more round of tacos. We all agreed in the end we were ‘taco’d out”! While I am usually very sad (and exhausted) when they leave, with our friends Mather and Abby getting married back in New York in early January – we knew we would see them in just a few days!

Lot’s more to come on our New Years Eve and the cold but super fun return to the states in my next installment……

Post Script: Ryan is a terrific photographer and loves to bring his camera along on our trips. He took some super shots during this cruise. Many of the photo creds above belong to him – but here’s a sampling of some of his nature shots