A long long time ago, on an island called St. Croix, some people got together to go swimming…..

They were just ordinary folk, realtors, poets, attorneys, boat builders, teachers, business owners, etc. They decided that it would be nice to get together on Saturday mornings and swim at a different beach each week. Well, there are a lot of beaches on St. Croix, but they wouldn’t be able to do a DIFFERENT one each time. So they experimented and came up with about a dozen different swims which they rotate on the “Official Finfolk Schedule” which is now typed out and e-mailed by the “Secretary” every few months.

Their idea was great. Pick a beach to swim from, and a beach a mile or two away to swim to. And they’d swim WITH THE CURRENT so it would be enjoyable. They meet at the end point, and one or two people (depending on the size of the group) drive the group to the beginning point. This had already been going on for 10-15 years before I started swimming with them.

I was never a great swimmer. In RI, where I come from, the ocean water is cold year round and you can’t see the bottom. I loved the sea though, and went to the beach whenever I could. I’d go in to cool off and come back to my blanket. In the summer the beaches were so crowded with blankets that it seemed there was a sea of people leading to the sea of blue. At one point, I decided it would be better to buy a boat since it would be more peaceful than going to the beach.

Anyway, back to the “Finfolk”. When they first got together, they thought they’d call themselves the “Fin Men”, but someone decided that that might be a little sexist. And at certain times, there were more females, so the poet thought “The Swimmin’ Women” might work. (It was cute anyway!) Eventually, “The Finfolk” became the name of this group. And over ten years ago, when I returned from massage school in Berkeley, CA, a friend of mine asked me if I’d like to join her to participate in the “Coral Reef Swim”. Well, I had done a few running and bicycling races, so I said, “sure!” So we’d meet a couple of times a week to swim a certain distance. We wore masks, snorkels and fins, because there was a category for masked and finned swimmers in this race, and we like to see what’s under the water. She also introduced me to the “Finfolk”. And the first swim I did with them was from Cane Bay to the Carambola Beach Resort. What a fabulous swim!

Over the course of that year, I swam with them a lot. There were some good swims and some that I would not go on again because of shallow reefs at the beginning, end, or both. I almost drowned one time because I panicked when the waves continuously crashed us back to the rocky shoreline and I couldn’t see what was beneath me nor could I catch my breath.

So now I pick and choose my preferred swims. This week, we went from the beach at Duggan’s Restaurant to the beach at the Coakley Bay Condos. They have estimated the swim to be about 2.3 miles long. We swim straight out from the Reef beach over sea grass until we get to a rocky point, where we stop and wait for any stragglers. Then we cross the light blue expanse as a group until we get to the barrier reef (in case of boat traffic). There are numerous white sea urchins scattered among the grass and a few sea stars. A couple of hundred yards out, a spotted eagle ray passed in front of me. I tried to get Michael’s attention, but it was soon out of sight in the murky water before he could catch a glimpse of it.

At the point, the water was rough. It was, as I often say, “like swimming in a washing machine”. It had been windy and the currents were strong. But we zoomed across the sandy-bottomed deeper waters which, in areas remind me of an underwater snowscape. There are small sea weed plants that poke up through the sand like pine trees on a christmas card. It’s magical!

The water didn’t seem as rough on the other side, and as soon as we got there, there were two more spotted eagle rays! The entire group got to see them and they swam around us in graceful magnificence. The rest of the swim went quickly because the current carried us even when we stopped to look at something or to chat. But we got to see a nurse shark, a submerged sailboat, two more eagle rays and a small southern stingray.

I think we need to start taking the camera on these swims, now that the water is warm enough for us to go in again!

Uh oh, things are not looking up for Paul Golden. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his bid to stop CZM from reviewing his permit. Roger Morgan got the scoop Wednesday afternoon and Andy Simpson confirmed it on Free Speech Thursday morning. Don’t take my word for it. Here’s an excerpt:

You can get the full program here. The discussion about Golden starts around one hour ten minutes into it. Andy comes on at about 13 minutes after the hour.

Just a few weeks ago Paul Golden held a press conference announcing Wyndham Resorts as his “brand” partner for the proposed resort on St. Croix’s south shore, in the environmentally sensitive Great Pond wetlands. He spoke as if the project was a done deal - $150 million in equity - CZM permit fully in compliance - $32.5 million of the publics money back in his hands for the convention center - breaking ground next month - Blah Blah Blah. Reporters asked about the pending lawsuits and he shushed it away, “I’m not going to talk about those”. Like they were trifling inconveniences. How about the “default” CZM permit? “No, its not default. We have the permit and we’re fully in compliance.”

Except, he didn’t mention one of the pending legal issues was his own appeal of the Third Circuit Court’s order to send his permit back to CZM for “finding of fact”, to determine if it is actually “compliant”. If he’s so sure its compliant, why would he worry about CZM reviewing it?

Well it doesn’t matter now. He’s lost this battle and is back to square one. You can read more about it in the Daily News article 3rd Circuit denies Golden Resorts appeal; permit must go back to CZM for review.

We were heading west this morning to begin our long day of errands, research and work. As we drove by the South Shore Cafe, we saw a guy on horseback herding Senepol cattle. Up ahead were two women doing the same thing! I turned to Michael and said, ” How cool is that! Do you have the camera?” And, alas, he did not. So you’ll just have to believe that there were cowfolk hard at work wrangling those unruly beasts on the south shore this morning.

Actually, the Senepol breed is supposedly very docile. Even so, when we come upon a bull while walking in the area, we try to stay as far away as possible. While driving this week, on two separate occasions, we saw cows escaped from the pasture walking and eating grass on the side of the road. Concerned for their welfare and that of motorists, we alerted the people who used to own the herd (it now belongs to the university) so they could call the appropriate person to put the animals back where they belonged.

They are very large animals. Their moovement back to safety is best left to the experts!

We had dinner at the Palms Restaurant on Saturday night. We didn’t want to go to a restaurant on Easter because we thought they might be too busy, and we had been invited by Deb to dine with friends at Dominique’s house on Sunday. So we went after doing a couple of “islandy” things on Saturday (like watering plants, working on the “pumpkin”, swimming at Great Pond, and doing massages - we may have even gone to the hardware store). I love the spot. The beach is beautiful with its mature palms and fresh breezes. And the new owners of The Palms at Pelican Cove Resort are very conscientious about the fact that the beach is used by nesting sea turtles. They plan to expand their hotel, but they are openly consulting with the local environmental and heritage organizations to do it right.

We called for reservations and they had a table for us at our selected time. So we packed Biggie up, I put a dress and some make-up on, and off we went. In the red car, since the pumpkin needed still more work. (Michael would work on it Sunday).

There were a lot of cars in the parking lot because there was a wedding reception going on in the indoor dining area. Great! Because I wanted to sit outside anyway. The two waiters took turns treating us like royalty all evening. Maybe because Chef Frank Pugliese, formerly of Bacchus is working with Chef Brian Wisbauer to serve up a nice piece of paradise. The menu was neither extensive nor expensive. There were eight or so entrees to select from. One soup, one cooked appetizer and a few salads. I think the most expensive entree was $29.

We chose a bottle of Stephen Vincent Merlot to go with our dinner. We shared the crab cake appetizer; mixed greens salad with carmelized granny smith apples, candied pecans, goat cheese and bacon (which I asked them to hold, but they didn’t); and falafel-encrusted sea bass. When the waiter brought the “honey-cinnamon” butter to go with the home-baked bread, I cringed. He spotted my disdain and offered “regular” butter, which I gladly accepted. Michael tried and enjoyed the special butter while I gave some to Goliath and waited for the good stuff.

Everything was delicious and our bill came to under $80. I thought it was a great deal and we would definitely recommend the restaurant at The Palms at Pelican Cove for a cozy, affordable dinner.

We went for a walk on the beach afterward taking in the dramatic scenery. I love the silhouettes of the palm trees with the almost full moon behind them and the various cloud shapes over the sparkling sea. We sat on a hammock in front of the Hibiscus Beach Resort and took pictures. The lights of Christiansted in the background didn’t detract from our photos either…..Lovely!

Wreggie (of course, who else?), just introduced us to this site. It is great! I always thought I was so “not-white” from living here so long. But, apparently, I’m pretty white. But not totally. And it’s fun to laugh at our goofiness.

But wait a minute! My father is white and he’s nothing like me, what gives? Is it just “white baby-boomers and people born in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s”, then?

We swam in the Great Pond Bay again yesterday. The weather forecast said it would be the better of the two week-end days that we weren’t working. So we decided to go, in between projects. But this time, we didn’t do it by boat or kayak. We drove down to the area where the East End Marine Park has it’s administrative offices, walked down the steep, dusty hill to the beach, donned our snorkeling gear and set out right from shore.

The entrance can be squishy with quick-sand-like muck, and the sea grass comes up to the surface when the water is low. I hadn’t swum out from this area in a few years and wasn’t sure about the presence of sea urchins. So I chose an area where terns and pelicans were fishing. There had to be some clearance there, otherwise the pelicans would get stuck in the sandy or muddy bottom. It was about a foot and a half deep. Plenty of room to see ahead and know that there were no urchins waiting to puncture my wet suit or Michael’s skin. Lots of small bait fish zoomed by and we were reminded of the time out at Buck Island with Llewellyn when we came very close to a feeding shark on the north side of the island. But there was no shark this time.

Off we went, out of the sea grass beds and into the clear turquoise water. The current was strong and Michael wanted to head east rather than west, so we’d be going against the current first, then with it on the way back. We swam, not quite knowing where we were going, but were in search of one of the numerous patch reefs teeming with life. In between the reefs there is little for the untrained eye to see. But our experienced sea peepers spotted quite a few large and small living conchs. What a thrill to see their beady little eyes just barely sticking out from under those complex shells! I even saw one digging in the sand. Very cute! There was also an occasional star fish and sea cucumber. Funny creatures!

Finally, I could see a dark patch up ahead and we found a mound of coral with nooks and crannies harboring juvenile fishes, sea urchins, lobsters and puffer fish. There were lots of beautiful damsels, blue-head wrasses and spanish hog fish. We traveled on, discovering a few more reefs until we started getting cold and decided to head back. We came into shore at a different angle, and the water was only about 4 inches deep as we very horizontally approached the beach.

We started walking back up the hill when I heard a splash behind me. It struck me as funny and I could imagine someone (like a little kid or something) unfamiliar with pelicans thinking that a bird had just fallen from the sky into the water. “Look, Mommy! That bird just fell right into the water! Is he okay? Do you think he’ll drown?” So….. I can be a little peculiar. I’m still giggling about it today….

The work week for some, ended on Wednesday this week. Because then, there was “Holy Thursday” or “Maundy (sp?) Thursday”, the day when they supposedly washed Jesus’ feet before he was to be crucified (just the skeptic in me ~ heck, I was raised Catholic, so I can make fun of the religion). After Thursday, it is, of course, “Good Friday”. (Can’t quite understand this terminology, but it has been explained to me that it is “good” because those who believe will be saved by the cruel and unnecessary death of this man). Then “Holy Saturday” (or does it have another name, like Thursday?). Then of course, Easter Sunday (I think because it wasn’t in the west???). But most importantly…..here in the VI those that “work” in a certain government, get “Easter Monday” off from work, too.

So that’s a 5 day week-end!! And what do people do with all that time off, you might ask. Many of the island folk go camping. That’s right. They pitch tents on the beaches, bring their generators and refrigerators and stereo systems and they camp. It’s just like having a floppy RV, I guess. They play loud music until the wee hours keeping the regular inhabitants of certain areas (who pay the most taxes) up all night. Well, I suppose those privileged few can afford to go to a quiet hotel for the 5 day week-end and stop complaining. But really, if Easter is such a “holy” time, what would be wrong with taking some quiet time to contemplate the sacrifice of their supposed savior, and to respect the rights of all to peaceful enjoyment of the gifts of the earth?

And here’s the funniest part of the week-end. On “Good” Friday, you are not allowed to purchase alcoholic beverages from restaurants or stores during the hours between 9am and 4 pm. Michael and I were out doing a bunch of massages at a villa overlooking Salt River (where we saw lots of campers). We would finish at 2pm and may have wanted to have lunch at Columbus Landing Restaurant (Well…. we didn’t really have time, since I had another appointment not much later in the afternoon). But if we’d had time, we would not have been able to have a glass of wine or a beer with lunch. Even a roadside store would not sell Michael an O’Douls (non-alcoholic beer) when I asked him to get one for me. So all the stores owned and operated by Muslims in this territory (and there are a BUNCH of them) are forced to suspend a certain amount of their business due to a law based upon a story in Christianity.

And that brings me to another HUGE pet-peeve of mine….”Separation of church and state”. If we have that, why are so many of our national holidays the same as Christian ones? Why not Jewish or Muslim or Buddhist “holy” days, too. Why doesn’t such a diverse nation observe a religious holiday each month for a different religion? Or just do away with the religious ones altogether?

Holy Week-end Batman! What a country!!

We just finally got to read/listen to Barack’s words of a few days ago (last week?)

I have not been following the campaign goings-on at all.

First, we don’t have TV.

Second, the radio is set to Roger Morgan’s station because I like to hear the community talk and it would be a real hassle to tune it to something newsy (I think it involves standing on my head in the far corner of the room with my right hand on the remote and my left on the “selector” button or something, and I don’t even know if we have “newsy” radio in these parts).

Third, sit down and read the paper…what’s that about? When I sit down, it means I’m too weak to think about or do anything but watch a movie or eat.

Fourth, my computer time is about catching up on e-mail and family blogging.

But we heard great things about this great speech and, rather than watching a movie tonight, Michael pulled it up and we listened to and read the words. The man is obviously brilliant and should be king of the world. Period.

It arrived this week. I had been telling people that I’d be “too busy to remember my own name” for a couple of months. But it finally came to be this week.

I had to get to the computer and start to write so I could put this post under “Terry Talk”. That’s how I can remember. But will I remember what I came here to say? Maybe next time!

Last Thursday night, we made our usual journey into Christiansted to meet the gang at Luncheria.
I have always loved their frozen margaritas. A lime margarita and a bean tostada is a perfect meal for me.

We were in town a little early to distribute some of our brochures, so we decided to go up to “Parrot’s Cove” where “Zizzlers” fizzled very recently. We went to the bar at the far end overlooking the roof of the Pan Am Pavillion. It seemed less busy than the bar at the top of the stairs. And the view would be better. There were a couple of seats at the end of the bar and we sat and ordered drinks. Michael had his usual Dark and Coke and I ordered a frozen margarita, since I knew I’d have another at Luncheria. The bartender was new to STX and came with the new owner of the new restaurant. So he poured Michael a Blackstrap and Coke. It was good, but not what Michael expected. So the guy gave him what he expected after receiving Michael’s diplomatic tutoring in Cruzan rum terminology. My margarita took a long time. He had to go somewhere to get the mix or something. But it was worth the wait. It was creamy and delicious. Actually the best frozen margarita I had ever had.

Lenny BS’s Kim

We slurped our beverages, paid the bartender and headed up to Luncheria. Jeff and Kim were there at the old usual table. Tom and Jennifer where at another table. We had seen them there last week, too, but didn’t have a chance to talk for some reason. Anyway, we ordered and sat with Kim and Jeff. And talked about many islandy things. The subject of dogs dominated the conversation, since Biggie was with us and they just adopted a puppy. The rest of the gang never showed, but that is not totally unheard of. We therefore finished earlier and Michael and I headed back to Parrot’s Cove for another of those margaritas (for me) for dessert.

This time the bar at the back of the restaurant was packed and they were getting set up for a band. The guy at the door wanted to charge us a cover, but we told him we were only staying for one drink, so he let us go up. The band would start late anyway. This bar had a different bartender. Phil made me a slushy-looking drink with the ingredients one would put into a frozen margarita. It was terrible! The sour mix was old or something. It tasted like rotten limes. I told him so and he complained that the sour mix was watery. So he made me a next. And he’s a hoot! Really quick-witted and entertaining. But, the only thing better about this next drink was that he poured Grand Marnier over the top. It sucked, too. We paid him and left quickly so I could pour my drink out in the street. I didn’t even like having it in my hand, never mind drinking it. I’d give him another chance some other time.

Friday night I worked until 6:30 or so, and we’d discussed going down to the deck bar for sushi with Maggie. So down to the deck bar we went. It was pretty slow for a Friday night, but Mags always has people ordering beers to sip while watching the tarpon feeding. We had an awesome tuna sashimi, a spicy shrimp and avocado roll, and a wakame salad with Benziger Merlot. We polished off a whole bottle while catching up on the happenings with our friend, Maggie. Ian showed up at some point, so we talked with him for a while, too. Then we headed to the Brew Pub to check on Nikki and found her upstairs with Marlo and some other friends. We each had a yummy home-brew (I could have had more) and came home to the puppers.

Saturday was a blur. But Sunday, we spent the day getting the carport organized so we can soon finish the dismantling of the blue rover. It now looks great and everything is organized into plastic bins and labeled! We were so proud of our accomplishment (and neither of us felt like cooking) that we decided to go back to Parrot’s cove to try their food (and give Phil another chance to make a decent margarita).

I wanted to try their lobster bisque (and wanted it to be very full of lobster chunks for $11 a bowl). But they were out of it. I also wanted to try the crab-stuffed mushrooms, but they were out of that, too. They had Kendall-Jackson wine, though, so I ordered a pinot noir while deciding on something else to eat. Michael knew ahead of time that he’d be having the small bucket of “sliders”, six mini cheeseburgers with pickles and onions, on top of fries. Okay, I’d go with the spinach and artichoke dip and the crab cakes. Everything was delicious. Michael loved the dichotomy of his side of the table versus mine. He had a bucket of burgers and a rum and coke in a plastic cup, while I had nicely arranged platters of food and a lovely glass of red wine.

The only thing I was not happy with was our choice of tables. I wanted to sit with a good view of the harbor, but we were again overlooking the roof of the pavillion, and there were puddles of dirty water with cigarette butts and cat turds strewn about. Yuck! We should have sat at a table overlooking Queen Cross St. Next time we will. We paid the waitress and went to the bar where Phil was working. He said, “I’m going to make you a nice frozen margarita, aren’t I?” And I said, “It’s your last chance to redeem yourself”. And he did. It was good. So I can now highly recommend Parrot’s Cove for excellent service, good food and tasty frozen margaritas.

If we didn’t have enough reasons to want to go back to St. Vincent, we have one, now.

We were contacted by someone who links to other blogs around the world and ours got put onto the Caribbean list. The page we went to first was Countries of the World - Virgin Islands. Then we saw that there was a St. Vincent blog. The blogger is a retired nuclear physicist and has at least one book on line for all to read. We started reading it. It is amazing!

I really love what he has to say. People who are entrenched in “The American Way” will not want to hear it, but it makes SO much sense! He describes himself as a retired nuclear physicist, environmental scientist, and amateur theologian and he’s writing blogs on multiple thoughts and topics, many of which overlap and intertwine. The guy is brilliant! I hope we get to meet him someday soon!

Some of his other blogs are: Universal Basis For Science and Religion and Tomorrow’s God, about religious and social evolution and what the future might hold for science and religion, and Karlek’s Blog with notes and thoughts still being developed before going into one of the other blogs.

Besides the above-mentioned St. Vincent blog, he has a web-book about St. Vincent.

If that’s simply not enough for you, here’s an index to more of Karl Eklund’s writings.

I’d love to! Today we swam with the “Fin Folk”, a group who has gotten together every Saturday morning for 25 years or so to swim at a selected beach on St. Croix. The swim was from the Tamarind Reef Hotel beach to Green Cay (a small federally protected island 1/4-1/2 mile or so off the beach), around the island and back to the little beach next to the Deep End Bar and Grill.

It was a great day for a swim! The winds and waters have finally calmed down (now it feels REALLY hot in the afternoon - but that’s okay, I’d rather be hot than cold…) so the visibility was good, and even though it’s been getting warmer, I thought it would be prudent to wear my new “wet suit” to keep me toasty. I’m glad I did, too, because I even felt chilly a couple of times while moving and wearing the suit. And when we were finished swimming (it took about an hour), we had breakfast with a few of the group members at the Deep End and it was overcast and slightly drizzly. I was not cold, but not comfortably warm, either.

During the first part of the swim, before reaching Green Cay, the bottom is sandy with intermittent patches of scraggly sea grass. We often see large starfish and occasionally a stingray in the 15-20 foot deep water. But this is also where the Green Cay Marina outlet is, so there isn’t too much life in the area. Once we get closer to the cay, the water becomes shallower with coral reef. There are hundreds of fish darting in and out of nooks and crannies in the rock and reef. There are spiny sea urchins everywhere in between the old dead coral and the vibrant new growth. And the sea fans! Fantastic specimens of swaying purple, gold and lime colored fans, gently moving with the current and the waves. The western (leeward) side of the cay has an abundance of life, and then there is a very large conch graveyard where fisherman have discarded the intricate shells for many years. The current is not overwhelming and the swimming today was easy as we approached the rocky northern tip, where it became a bit more difficult until we got around the point. This is where the group traditionally stops to chat and wait for the slower swimmers to catch up. There are also nesting areas on the island for brown pelicans and magnificent frigate birds.

Rounding the point is very dramatic. The coral, despite being in such a vulnerable place is mostly healthy with deeper drop offs to 20 feet or so. And then the current gently moves you along. You are simply floating to where you want to go. Using outstretched arms to pull and legs to kick is effortless. You feel sleek and fast passing along another beautiful section of reef with more colorful sea fans and soft corals. I have often seen sea turtles in this area. But not today.

The beach side of Green Cay faces Chenay Bay Beach Resort and the water becomes very shallow. We can see other swimmers standing up and chatting some more. But we have work to do when we get back, so we continue, horizontal in the six-to-eight-inch deep water with coarse, rocky sand, and funnel-shaped seaweed right under our bellies. And it’s nice and warm because it’s so shallow.

As we get farther from the cay, the water becomes deeper. The other swimmers follow behind, and we hear a fast boat to the east. Michael and I stop in case we need to alert the fishermen to the fact that there are many people in the water. Fortunately, they keep their distance and we finish our swim quickly. This swim can be challenging and there have been times in past years, when I’ve felt as though I were swimming in a washing machine. But today was lovely. We did not see a turtle or stingray or spotted ray, but what we did experience was breath-taking. Aaahhh, another day in paradise!

Llewellyn signals the start of our wedding

The following is a Guest Opinion, from the Virgin Island Daily News, Thursday, March 13. Written by Todd H. Newman, an attorney who lives on St. Croix. Reprinted by request of Raki (Raquel Santiago-Silver).

On Monday, March 3, St. Croix icon Llewellyn Westerman went home. Every community has one or two persons who are so well known, and so beloved, that they are just referred to by one name. Llewellyn is just such a person.

A famous musician, recording artist and performer - having been crowned the Calypso King of St. Croix - expert chef, man of letters, and one of the best sailors in the Caribbean, Llewellyn can now also be known as Lazarus.

On Friday in the afternoon Llewellyn was doing what he loves best: sailing. As he brought his vessel Charis up to the mooring at the St. Croix Yacht (Club), a squall came up. He and his brother Inglore struggled to anchor the boat and lower the sails. Suddenly, Llewellyn collapsed. The first of many miracles on that Friday was that when he collapsed, Llewellyn became tangled in the sails and fortunately did not fall overboard. He was not breathing and there was no heartbeat.

Mike Webber - originally from the states but who has lived on St. Croix for many years - was on the dock at the Yacht Club and saw that something was wrong. He raced down the dock, got into the Yacht Club whaler, motored up to Charis and somehow was able to lift the lifeless Llewellyn into the boat. He ran the whaler straight on to the beach and immediately began mouth to mouth resuscitation and CPR. St. Croix native Stephanie Malanga came running over to help, as did Lisa Price, who has split her time between St. Croix and Jackson, Wyoming for many years.

The three of them, a white male from the states, a white Virgin Islander, and a woman who has loved St. Croix all her life, worked furiously breathing air into Llewellyn and pounding on his chest. While they were doing everything they could to keep blood flowing through the body whose heart had stopped, someone from the Yacht Club remembered that William Will, who lives in Cotton Valley, had recently purchased a defibrillator. A call was made and miraculously Will was home and raced to the Yacht Club with the defibrillator.

The exhausted lifesavers followed the instructions and placed the defibrillator on Llewellyn. No heartbeat registered. The defibrillator then did its job and Llewellyn’s heart began beating.

Ambulances arrived and the comatose Llewellyn was rushed to the hospital. There, Emergency Room doctors and nurses fought to stabilize their patient. A CAT scan was performed to see how badly Llewellyn had injured his head when he collapsed. At that time, a young Virgin Islands native, Dr. Keldall Griffith - who had graduated from Central High, gone on to the states for his medical training and returned to St. Croix several years ago as a cardiologist - was testifying in Frederiksted in front of the Legislature. Contact was made with Dr. Griffith, and he came to the hospital.

Despite it being Friday evening, he quickly assembled his expert team of specialists and by 7 p.m. he was operating on Llewellyn. By 10:30 that evening - to the grateful applause and tears that greeted him from those of the many Llewellyn well-wishers who had snuck their way into the hospital - he announced that he had repaired the blockages in Llewellyn’s heart.

Our amazement and joy at the fantastic set of circumstances that had resulted in Llewellyn still being alive were tempered by our fears as to what brain damage may have been done due to the long time that Llewellyn was without a heartbeat. The miracle became complete Saturday morning as Llewellyn was weaned off of the narcotics, and we instantly knew from the sound of his voice and the quick humor that indeed Llewellyn was back!

As Virgin lslanders we are many times too consumed with concerns of race and petty politics.

The events last weekend remind us of what a special place we live in, where a community of people worked together to breath life into one of our beloved residents, keeping him alive long enough for a son of our soil to perform his wondrous healing.

I am so happy to be a Virgin Islander and so proud of all who were involved in bringing Llewellyn back - we should all be proud. Every once in a while in the Virgin Islands it all works out.

Todd H. Newman

I was comfortable. My brain wasn’t working overtime. I had accomplished a lot during the day and I even had a glass of wine with dinner. But I still couldn’t get to sleep. We read until about 11. Usually I’m in dreamland well before this hour. But not last night.

We have been reading Bob Hoffman’s, “Annals of the Big Island ~ An Unauthorized Portrait of St. Croix”, and although I find the history intriguing, any history has been able to knock me out (ask any of my Jr. High or High School social studies teachers…). But not last night.

It was just hormonal I’m sure. I could tell early on that it would happen, since I’d had so much energy during the day. I moved furniture, re-potted plants watered other plants, wrote letters, did errands, organized rooms and made decisions about future organizational projects. Maybe I should have had some chamomile tea or a couple of beers. I haven’t been using any of the remaining tylenol pm or painkillers left from my surgeries last fall. But I really don’t want to take anything.

So I just tried my version of “counting sheep”. Then I got up to go to the bathroom and when I came back, I “counted” some more and fell asleep. I didn’t check the clock, so I have no idea how long I was awake, but Michael had tossed and turned a few times, returning to his version of sleep immediately after each move. He’s a good sleeper. I generally am, too. But not last night.

We have gotten many, many comments from concerned friends and family members all over.

The latest one is from his companion, Karen who says, “Llew has another week of recovery and then back for a stress test on Friday. He is taking it easy and getting some paper work done. plus alot of ZZZZZ!”

It’s good to hear that he’s doing well. We look forward to seeing Captain Westerman back at the helm of Charis+!

After our day at Great Pond Bay, we decided to eat at home. There were some nice scallops in the freezer, some Southgate Farm organic salad greens, baby heirloom tomatoes and basil, fresh mozzarella, and a bottle of Crossing Vineyards Sparkling Blanc de Blancs in the fridge. We could really do something with all that.

So we (I mean I) did. Well, Michael opened the bottle. He did a good job, too. It was VERY fizzy and squirted out all over the place. And it was lovely. Crisp and dry, just the way I like it. We have been fortunate enough, this year, to have met Tom and Chris Carroll who own the Crossing Vineyards and Winery in Pennsylvania. And they gave us a bottle of their fabulous sparkling wine. Tom’s words as we left were, “Don’t save it for a special occasion, just drink it”. So we did. And it was sort of a special occasion. It was Sunday and we had a day off.

I assembled a salad with the greens, mozzarella, basil and tomatoes, and whipped up a Coquilles St. Jacques over brown rice pilaf. Goliath shared a bit of it with us and gave it two paws up!

We’re playing with a new image gallery plug-in. If all goes well, you should see a slideshow of images from great pond:

We’d gone to bed pretty early Saturday night, considering the activities we’d participated in (all that caffeine and sugar…), so were up before 8 on Sunday morning. The question was: Since we got a lot of stuff done on Saturday, what would we do for fun today?

We walked/ran the road down to the Great Pond, which we do as often as possible now that we know Paul Golden is hoping to break ground on his “resort” in March. We need to work-out, so this trip kills two birds (but not Yellow Birds…) with one stone. We’ll be the ones to blow the whistle on that illegal project if he tries anything. We go with cell phone and camera so we can call the newspaper, property owner and attorney, and Planning and Natural Resources Department if anything is amiss. Michael took pictures and we talked about kayaking and snorkeling out in Great Pond Bay since it was, once again, really windy and we needed to get out on the water.

We got home after our walk, had breakfast, Michael did a little “rover-tweaking”, we loaded the kayak onto the “Great Pumpkin”, and headed down the road one more time.

The Great Pumpkin Rides Again!

The Great Pond Bay is pretty sheltered by the hills of the surrounding landscape and the large barrier reef to the south. It’s nice and shallow and the most incredibly clear turquoise blue (no Wreg, not tidy bowl blue!) with scattered patch reef and sea grass covered areas between the white sand bottom. We pedaled out in the kayak and found a bunch of East End Marine Park mooring buoys that we could tie up to. Great! We chose one in the vicinity of a couple of larger patch reefs and jumped in. It felt great to be in the water again. We went for a swim last week with the local swimming group, but the water at Ha’penny was cloudy, murky and churned up. We couldn’t see the bottom at all. But here….oh, yes, THIS is paradise!

We swam over to the closest reef and it was a little churned up, but we saw tons of juvenile fish. There were french grunts and damsels and a spanish hogfish, blue tang, etc. We swam some more and came to a tiny patch with a lobster beneath it. A few yards away was another small reef with 3 or 4 of them, and then to the east was another bug. There was also the biggest conch I have ever seen, and an octopus! We could have eaten for a week with all the goodies there. Well, Michael could have. I’m not a fan of octopus. We turned around to look toward the kayak and there were three large barracudas and one larger one! Yikes! They were not, however interested in us, so they slowly swam off. We continued exploring and as I came around the west side of a reef,I spotted a small sea turtle. As soon as he saw me he took off like a flash. I swam fast and he swam faster. He just flew! He was small and pretty far away, so I could not tell whether he was a green or a hawksbill. But he was cute!

After close to an hour in the water, I started getting cold, so we went back to the kayak and pedaled to shore. The pumpkin was still there and I got to drive her part of the way home. It felt more familiar driving on the right side of the car this time. Soon I think I’ll be ready to take her for a real spin.

“It’ll be something different”, I said to Michael when we heard about the Yellow Bird coffee tasting. Not that he needed convincing. This would be a coffee and dessert pairing. Michael can be a coffee-and-dessert-a-holic (when he’s not too busy with projects, anyway). So we went out to Starfish Patisserie, Dennis Gribbons’ new pastry shop and bakery on Saturday evening and had a wonderful time. Yellow Bird Virgin Islands Coffee is the creation of Kangja and Roger Morgan.

I met Roger and Kangja shortly after they relocated to St. Croix a few years ago. It was at a rum tasting at the former Cafe Madeleine. That night, the rum was Cruzan Single Barrel, the island’s premier sipping rum. We chatted for a long time and shared stories about how we’d gotten to St. Croix, and life on our island, in general.

Anyway, we talked to Jenna and Tori about it and they were very interested. And when Meredith found out about it she wanted to come, too, even after her long week preparing for the Villa Madeleine Condo Association’s annual meeting. We didn’t have advance tickets, so Michael and I went early to get tickets and seats for the gang. We were REALLY early. Jerome and Viviana weren’t even in their official Yellow Bird uniforms yet when we arrived.

At a little after seven, shortly after Roger started giving us a history of Kangja’s dream to start a coffee company, the rest of our crew got there. Our first taste was of the Crucian Rainforest Blend. It was paired with a mini almond Danish topped with orange butter. Yummmm! The coffee is great. Some of the smoothest and richest-tasting I’ve ever had. Not being a caffeine user, I thought I’d be in BIG trouble later, but I persevered, drinking cup after cup of this delectable dark nectar.

The next round consisted of the Coral Bay Frangelico flavored coffee, paired with a fresh fruit tartlet and chocolate covered strawberry with strawberry coulis. Fantastic!

But I still liked the Cruzan coffee better. The last one would be the Frenchtown Roast. I love my coffee strong and thought this would be my favorite. It was paired with a chocolate and peanut butter mousse cake. Very good, but the desserts were starting to get to me. It was heavy for the last course and, while I enjoyed it, I could feel the sugar and caffeine coursing through my body and I felt heavy with the quantity of the last dessert. I was getting wired and tired at the same time. But I ate it all….

And then they had a raffle. Each of the prizes was a gift bag with a “thank you” card from Kangja and a package of Rainforest blend coffee! We’d put our names on our ticket stubs and Michael crunched them up before Meredith put them in the basket. The first name picked was…..mine! Then Michael’s, then Jenna’s! Crunching up the tickets had worked! We left with some major loot! Cool!

Afterward, we congratulated Roger and Kangja on their new venture (and on winning the battle against the “senators” wanting to shut down their radio station) and went outside to decide on our next step. We thought it would be fun to play miniature golf and Jenna wanted to come, but the others declined. So we set off in the rain to the east end where it had stopped raining, but the place was closed. The others all decided to go home, but we’d just heard that Danny Morris was playing at Chicken Charlie’s so we checked it out and it was true.

We saw Marg and Jim and Ethan and Robin, Millie and Tom, and a bunch of others. After all that caffeine and sugar, we needed something starchy and calming, so we drank a beer or two and had potato skins with cheese and sour cream (Michael ate all the bacon, and there was a LOT of it!). At the break, we paid Whitney , put a few bucks in Danny’s bucket, and headed home. Believe it or not, after all those stimulants, we were able to go right to sleep. I guess it was a burn and crash situation, or maybe the hops in the beer worked really well. But it was a fun and different evening. We’re going to stick with our regular Dean’s Beans organic fair-trade coffee (it not only tastes good, but it’s good for the planet and the people in the coffee-producing villages) but we’ll definitely be buying more Yellow Bird coffee occasionally.

But first more sad news. Yet another friend has passed. We knew him through Peter and listened to him play at the Galleon on many occasions. Ben Miele was not in great shape. He needed regular dialysis treatments. But he was never without a cocktail and a smile. His hearty laughter filled the air whenever he was around people. He died on Tuesday and we just heard about it Friday. We will miss “Big Ben”.

On a happier note, the art show at the atrium in Gallows Bay was a big hit. Bonnie Luria’s paintings of island people are so stirring. You can really feel the energy of her subjects. Way to go, Bonnie!

This painting is entitled “Crucian July” and I love how you can see the juices dripping all over from the ripe mango. Mango season is very messy!
Too bad we are clean out of wall space…. .

Some of Don Scafidi’s, Ross Meuer’s and Madeleine Meehan’s works were displayed as well. The place was packed. I liked the idea of having it in the atrium, but couldn’t figure out where they’d put the paintings. They had them on portable wall systems with special directional lighting. It was a nice thought, but there wasn’t really enough room to back up and see the paintings from the proper distance. And there were always people in the way because of the narrow passages. Despite these minor deficiencies, it went well from what I saw.

After schmoozing with Lorine and Michael and Deb and Asha and a dozen other friends, we headed out, in Jenna’s car to Savant for dinner with her and Tori, who has been visiting for the first time.
Michael and I were there a couple of weeks ago and have not had a chance to blog about it. So here goes….It was great! Both times!

We could hardly wait to dig in!

The funny thing is, the bartender came over to talk to us remembering that we’d been there recently, and for some reason, thinking that we’d had a bad time. We told him that we had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves the other week and knew we’d have a great time again. We always start off with the grilled baby calamari. Both times it was cooked just right and even though the pieces were large, they were not too rubbery. Last time we had a lobster dinner with ginger mango sauce and a cumin encrusted mahi. Both were fabulous. This time we chose the mahi stuffed with shrimp mousse and wrapped in a chinese cabbage leaf over soba noodles and the mahi ceviche.

The stuffed fish was excellent, but I was not thrilled with the ceviche. Michael enjoyed both, though and ate all of the ceviche and half of the mahi. Jenna opted for lambchops and Tori had the stuffed mahi, too. We quickly went through a bottle of Bodega Dolium Petit Malbec, so Michael and I each had an other glass to get us through to dessert.

There were nine dessert items to chose from. Three frozen pies, three cakes and three other things (I forget, now, duh….). Michael wanted the hazelnut mousse pie and Jenna wanted the chocolate coconut rum cake. Tori and I wanted forks and decaf. It all was delicious and we were stuffed!

Frequently, when I’m driving down the road, I am awestruck at the beauty of this place. Is it my Maui Jim extremely polarized shades that make the colors so vivid? I often tilt them down to make sure it’s really that gorgeous. It really is.

The sharp lines between the verdant hills and the sugar mills against the blue of the sky are stunning. The varying degrees of the colors of the sea, between light turquoise and deep royal blue take my breath away.

Yesterday it was overcast and rainy, but today was one of those sunny clear days that act as yet another reminder of how fortunate I am to be here.

It was because we didn’t have half-and-half for our morning coffee.

We had gone out two or three times on Saturday to do errands in Gallows Bay, but forgot to stop at Schooner Bay Market (who, by the way, has jumbo eggs in the “large egg” cartons now!) on the way home to get coffee additive. I’m not an addict, but Michael insists that anything else is inferior and unacceptable.

Besides, we hadn’t been out to breakfast in a looong time, so we decided on the Golden Rail since it was close to the hardware store. It would be our umpteenth trip to GBH (aka Gannet) in two days. Plumbing issues, land rover issues, and general household issues cause us to make frequent treks to see Phil, Mary and the gang. It would normally bother my environmentalist conscience to start the car that often, but with the “veggie mobile“, I am saved from sleepless nights.

Anyway, the place was packed! Only one person said Goliath was not welcome until I whipped out his card, and then we were no longer harassed. Patrick even mentioned that he was better behaved than most kids that come in there. (We knew that).

Breakfast was HUGE! Michael had the seafood omelet (too fishy tasting for me, especially in the morning), and I had the spinach and salmon benedict on a croissant. Only a little too fishy because there was sooo much salmon. But it’s easy to not eat too much of the fish and I wrapped up a lot of it to take home. It was yummy but large.

We were so full that we didn’t have to eat anything until dinnertime. The Golden Rail rocks!

Saturday night we went to see the musical, “Chicago”, performed by our local Caribbean Community Theater. It was amazing! We had seen it a few weeks back. My daughter was in it and had a great time on stage and behind stage with her new acting friends.

We had enjoyed it so much we wanted to share the love with our friend, Beth. We picked her up in the orange rover and headed for Tutto Bene for a quick snack before the show. We always love the “taste of Tutto Bene” appetizer platter, which could easily be a meal in itself (for two!), so we got one of those, a plate of mussels and one of peel-and-eat shrimp. Some lovely red wine (I had a merlot and Michael an Italian red) rounded out our mini meal.

We arrived at the theater and, even though we had pre-paid tickets, had to wait in a long line. The theater folks were smart, though and had us come in the back way so we could wait in line right next to the bar. Everyone took advantage of the opportunity to imbibe. We were almost inside when it started pouring. We got a little wet, just enough to mess up our hair (oh, woe!) but finally made it to some seats in the second-to-last row. The show started with Leslie Highfield and the cast singing “All that Jazz”. It was great, but when they got to the scene where Roxy’s husband, Amos, takes the rap for her, the power went out. They finished the scene, but decided to stop the show until the WAPA gods decided to go back to work. Then they re-started the show. It was 9pm, and hour later than normal. But everything went smoothly from there. A standing ovation at the end gave the saddened cast members (it was the final performance) something to remember.

Everyone went to Tutto Bene after that to dance at Tutto’s Saturday night disco party (it happens the first Saturday of each month). The place was packed. It took forever to get a drink. I got a little miffed at one point and we went outside, then we went home. It was way past our bedtime anyway.

Friday night we dined at Cafe Kaleidoscope with our friends Jim and Marg from NJ. We brought our wine, as the selection there has historically been quite limited. Michael and I shared the cream of mushroom soup and house mandarin salad as our starters. Our friends shared an appetizer of crab cakes. Yummy! Michael chose the coquilles St. Jacques for his entree (my usual favorite) and I had the flounder meuniere. Jim opted for the chicken dijonnaise and Marg the Asian style salmon (Michael’s usual favorite). All plates went back empty. Goliath had a bit of my fish and rice with some bread and butter. Sasha, the bartender/host got him his own chair, too.

We enjoyed lively conversation about the goings on in the neighborhood. And we had dessert, too!
The tiramisu is awesome. Pat (the chef) makes a great one. This one was purchased but still delicious. Jim had cheesecake and Marg the home-made key lime pie. More empty plates went back. It was a fun night combining great food and excellent company.

After his successful angioplasty last night, Llewellyn woke up this morning and spoke those words!

I just called the YC and spoke to Krista, one of the sailing teachers. This is encouraging news! We will post updates as we receive them…..