It’s all in How you View it…

Note: when I first published this on Monday (yesterday), I had a mistake thanks to ‘research ‘ I did on Wikipedia.  (Thanks, Dave!) So this is the new and corrected version!

I’ve talked about this before, but we named our house here on St. Croix ‘Pirate’s Perch’ because the house is built on a carved-out flat spot in the middle of a hill.  We are about a mile inland and GPS says we are 214 feet above the sea.  We have a terrific view of  a pretty big chunk of the western coast of the island.  The view is what attracted us to the house initially and it remains probably our favorite part of it.

I look outside dozens of times every day.  The scene is always changing.  Sometimes, the sea is so calm I can see where the channels and currents are running.  Sometimes the water is grey and wrinkly or covered in white caps.  On rainy mornings,  because the sun is rising above the hill behind us, we get lots of rainbows. On clear days we can see Puerto Rico’s mountains 93 miles away.  We watch hawks wheeling over the valley below and listen to their haunting cries echo across the valley. (It isn’t all bucolic, though.  Dogs barking and roosters crowing at all times of the day and night can also echo across… not so pleasant after a while.)

Through a friend, I discovered a website that tells me the names and information about ships that I can see passing by. (www.marinetraffic.com- you can see ships throughout the whole world – it’s pretty cool!)   Maybe it takes me a long time to clean, or weed, or do laundry, or pretty much any job I have because, A. I look out at the sea dozens of times a day, remember? and B. when I see a ship, I then have to stop, open the website on my kindle and see what ship it is, then maybe do some google research about the ship and/or C. get out the spotting scope we got from Sam and Allison for Christmas and look at it close up.   We’ve seen tankers and cargo ships routinely, but we’ve also seen million-dollar ‘Super Yachts’ and  fine sail boats. I’m becoming familiar with ships that commonly ply these waters, including the cruise ships that dock at our pier two or three times a month.

Yesterday, we got a treat.  A Danish tall ship rounded the point and came into view about three o’clock. Sailing vessels are so regal and classy. This one is a three masted tall ship built in 1932 and among its many functions, during the Second World War, it stayed in US waters and was used to train US Coast Guard cadets.  Now it is a training ship for Danish (and three Brazilian) cadets.    It is here to help the Virgin Islands celebrate Transfer Day (one hundred years ago on March 31, the US bought the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million in gold). Of course, I got out the scope and my Kindle, then, also of course, we jumped in the car and drove down to the pier to get a closer view.  Sadly, they had the pier closed off, so we couldn’t get really close, but according to the paper we can go tour the shop today or tomorrow!  Can’t wait.

P.S. It was definitely wortht the second trip down on Tuesday for a tour.  If you’d like to see what it looks like – finish reading my blog then follow this link to a video!  🙂  http://viconsortium.com/featured/watch-we-toured-the-tall-ship-danmark/

The tall ship Danmark arriving at Frederiksted, USVI

Getting ready to dock at the Pier.

This morning, the Danmark was joined at the pier by a cruise ship. Now, both of them sit side by side.  It’s fun to think of the old and the new. I’m sure there’s a lesson in that contrast somewhere, but for the time being, I’m satisfied just to take in the view and relish it.

The Danmark and The Jewel of the Seas docked together at Fredericksted Pier.