Estate Rust Op Twist

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In the early days of sugar cane cultivation, when the Island was first colonized by the European settlers, each of these estates possessed it's own crude equipment for processing the sugar cane being grown throughout the Island. On the rise behind this Estate Rust Op Twist plantation house can be seen the remnants of the windmill that was once used to extract the juice of the sugar cane stalks.
A large spindle which was turned by the sails of the wind mill, was attached to two large cylindrical milling stones, positioned vertically side by side, so as to almost touch each other. When in-use through the adaptation of an array of gears, the two stones were sent to twirling in opposite directions in unison on a vertical axis. I use the term twirling, as if they were batons, but these stones weigh-in at two or three tons each.
The thick green and fresh sugar cane stalks were then fed through the gap between these two monstorous rocks, spinning in opposite directions as they were powered at times by the seemingly unstoppable force of raw wind power. The juice that was squeezed from the raw plant was collected in caldrons, set to boiling by fires stoked with, what else, dry sugar cane stalks! Molasses was the spoil from this process, however this thick brown liquid made a perfectly fine grog when fermented,distilled and aged; we know this product as rum. Most of the Caribbean Islands were used for the cultivation of sugarcane and processing into sugar.
The ancient windmills, smoke stacks and other sugar cane harvesting and processing buildings and implements are scattered throughout the Island. At one time there were more than 300 estates, compared to the 140 estates extant on St. Croix today. The remaining ruins have been either incorporated into the design of homes, or are awaiting restoration, hidden from view by years of overgrowth.
A visit to the Estate Whim Plantation in Fredricksted, it's on the Centerline Road; also known as Queen Mary Highway. The curators can demonstate how the different equipment was incorporated into the art of making sugar, molasses and rum from the sweet drippings of the mill stones of the sugarmill.

Safe Portage

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Here it is, our shipping container on our property, all passengers and freight in excellent condition (just kidding about the passengers, although I had my suspicions about a certain friend whom I thought might be within). This was no simple task getting this steel albatross to our property, settled down on it's own space for safekeeping; or until we have a need for the remainder of it's contents.
If you recall, the last time we saw this hairless behemoth was when it was being backed out of our driveway in Harwich, on October 29th. We were in the container port ourselves, in the Port of Palm Beach, just a few days later, on Halloween morning. We looked around for our container, which had to be there somewhere, but what are the chances we could glimpse the sight of our own? Somewhere between very, very slim and wicked unlikely come to mind...
So, here we are in St. Croix, awaiting the arrival of our container and our Ford Econline cargo van, the van the subject of an earlier posting; now in our possession.. ...and it's off to the races - in Crucian slow motion - to take ownership of the container. It's Friday morning, and our first stop is the Tropical Shipping building, to prove that the container is ours and it's transfer to St. Croix had been prepaid before ever leaving Harwich! Due to a printer glitch and some minor employee incompetence, this consumed most of the day Friday.
Meanwhile, I am trying to arrange transport for our (by this time) burdensome shipping container, through a local trucking company, their office conveniently located next to Tropical Shipping. The container was off-loaded from the container ship and mounted on a chassis with wheels, and made ready for a semi-tractor to haul away. I arranged for transport that afternoon, even though I still have to clear customs, because we had to move the BOX out of Tropical Shipping's confines ASAP! Or so we were told.
Looming in front of us the whole time we are going through this crucible was the possibility that we would have to unload every item we had packed away in the box for safe travel. Haul it all out right there at the container port; in front of the U.S. Customs Service agents! Looking back at length of the time it took me to load the beast, add in the expended energy I expended; this was not a pleasant or enjoyable prospect to ponder.
Walking up to the Customs Desk, I heard those fateful words from the inspectors mouth, "Mr. Harrison, your container has been tagged for inspection." Argghh! He handed me a form, said that the container was released - pending an on-site (on our property) inspection. This was good news and it was bad news, or maybe bad news and good news, but either way it was a pain on the one hand - and a blessing on the other. Obviously if we had to unpack the contents of the container it was easier in this manner, in that we wouldn't have to repack everything back into the boxes from whence they came, and repack the container! This time we could unpack anything U.S. Customs wanted to see, and what was unloaded was coming to our rental house anyway! All of my woodworking and electrical power and hand tools would be among the valuable items being kept at our rental house. The windows and the kitchen cabinets and the lumber and other things for construction could be left in the container, without much of a problem, again we are hopeful.
I should mention here that U.S. Customs, besides looking for contraband, weaponry and any possible terrorist activity, are also looking out for merchandise that was manufactured, in whole or in part, outside the United States borders. For example, our Ford Econoline E150 was manufactured entirely in the U.S., but our Chrysler Sebring in Harwich was manufactured and assembled in Japan, by Mitsubishi! A 6% tarriff is imposed on all parts or whole vehicles. Every other manufactured item that comes through the U.S. Customs, at seaports or airports in St. Croix and elsewhere in the territories, is treated in the same way. Items mailed via the United States Postal Service (USPS) are exempt from these taxes, but the USPS has it's limitations in regard to the size and weight of any parcel being posted.
Finally, late in the day, we are told we are cleared by Tropical Shipping (they found our payment) and may take possession of that big sucker again; with everything we brought to the Island with us, but still haven't seen.
From here begins another odyssey, made possible by our local U.S. Customs Inspectors; past whom this big steel box must travel, with the possibility that they would want to take a look at the contents, which of course is their right to do. It is too late in the day for our trucker to bring our container to us in Estate Concordia, all bets are off until Monday morning, when they can attempt this feat again.
Early Monday morning arrives and we are at the doorstep of our trucker when they open (actually ten minutes before an employee showed up, and ten minutes after the office was to open) to ensure prompt service (tongue in cheek) from the company whose charge it is to get this wicked heavy gray thing onto our building lot. I am told to report to the U.S. Customs and ask for a release form for the container, to show the gate person (on the way out presumably) that it is OK to move this monster. Upon reporting to the U.S. Customs desk, I am told that our container has been released and that an inspection wasn't necessary afterall and what, all that concern for nothing? And still we are not done with these people, I was to writhe in knotted apprehension for a little while longer. Was I to get a signature from anybody - another form to fill out - am I really done I asked? Can I take the container and turn it upside down (not likely I would do this, but I had to know if I could) grind and shake it's contents, and like pepper from a peppermill, dump it's contents onto the pavement if I felt like it? The response from our U.S. Customs officer? Nope, you're all set. Part of me wasn't buying this claim.
I was elated, to say the least, although still suspicious of the whole idea. The trucking company says someone will be up to our site (we assumed with container) later in the morning. We wait.. and wait.. and wait a little longer - I call the trucker - he's on his way now, from the bottom of the hill. We wait and wait and wait. I call the driver's cell phone, he is on his way up, be there in two minutes, we wait, ten, fifteen, no-show yet. I decide to drive down and direct the driver. I do not see anybody with our container on the way down the hill to the Northshore Rd. - I drive back up - a pickup truck waves me down, this is our driver? He doesn't have our container? Whazzup? This man just came to look at the site where I am to sit this container down, make sure it's level and accessible, that's all! He takes a look and says no-way he can lift that container, it weighs 35,000 lbs! He says we have to lighten the load. I finally get him to move the container to a spot on another man's (a friend of a friend) property where Debbie and I can off-load some of the heavier stuff to accomodate this. He delivers on his promise and has our container dropped off at Marcus' business location. By now it is 2:00 in the afternoon, I ask the driver to back the truck up against the building so as to block anyone from opening the doors. We decide to start the transefer of materials and tools in the morning.
The next morning we are there bright and early. We break the seal on the container, pull the padlocks off and, for the first time in two three weeks we gaze in on the contents and see no visible damage to anything. Yes! We gather our composure once again and take one load of stuff to our rental house with the Ford E150 Econoline van. We return to the scene of the crime for a second load of stuff, only to find two inspectors from U.S. Customs Service, looking at some paperwork in their car.
I inquire if there is a problem, he says no, we are just trying to ascertain who released this container. I mention that we had already made one trip to our property with some of the contents, and this doesn't seem to bother them. They are standing ten feet behind the container, with the doors wide open and they didn't want to look at a single item in front of them. It occurred to me that these two guys were just covering their butts with their boss, who allegedly gave the release order, but hadn't, or something like that. They asked that we return to the container port and find the release form, apparently for them. I was livid at the idea that we had to do their job for them.
Debbie complied and made the last necessary trip to the Container Port From Hell. She found the document, walked it from the gate keeper at Tropical Shipping, who was not inclined to give this sacred paper up, to the U.S. Customs Office, where the guy looked at it as if he had never seen this instrument before in his life, but eventually grunted his O.K. and handed it back to her. She didn't keep the promise she made to the gatekeeper, because she was told to bring it somewhere else, to be filed away forever, presumably never to be seen or read again, by anyone, ever!
So, now we have a much lighter container, and they can transfer it from it's chassis to a flat, tilt-bed truck, for transport up the hill to our building site, 465 feet above sea level, more or less. At last, our plans are gelling right before our eyes - so far that is.

Grapetree Bay

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The Christiansted Waterfront

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The Floor Plans

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The lower level layout under the master bedroom suite only seems a separate structure, but the note reads: below master suite. Although it has no access stairs inside the house, we eventually will build a set of stairs down from the gallery, on the outside of the house, against the East wall of master bedroom. For now the lower room will serve as our safe room, for use when a hurricane is passing through and eating the main house bit by bit as it proceeds to jettison everything we own into the swimming pool. In the plan this space is set aside for use as an efficiency apartment with a small kitchen and full bathroom, the notion here is that we could rent out the apartment to a caretaker, with free or lower rent in exchange for the added peace of mind. But that is the apartment - for now a great place to store our valuables - out of sight - for additional security when we are off-Island.
Throughout the process the design for the house was a product of our own ideas and an extensive collective wish-list was developed from what I will term numerous discussions. We wanted two things in this house - first and foremost was the concept of everything on one level, no stairs anywhere. This meant no sunken living room, no roof walks, or porticos, or spiral stairs, not even a full step above grade; luckily ramps are OK as long as they aren't too steep!
The second request, once we'd picked out and purchased the lot, was that the house be aligned to the north and south, with our gallery facing due east, out over the approach to Christiansted Harbor to Buck Island, some seven miles distant.
For good reason the house in Harwich, which Debbie and I designed and built ten years ago, is aligned in the same manner, although for an altogether different reason. In Harwich, Massachusetts, in the northern hemisphere, where the winters are long as the December shadows; the solar radiation streaming in those south-facing windows and doors add up to passive solar / supplemental home heating method. In Harwich, the window size and placement had more to do with function as opposed to design considerations.
In St. Croix we don't have a heating system of any kind, and we may or may not have air conditioning, therefore aligning the house in any manner to take advantage of the sun and it's effects are not a priority. Shade from what the locals refer to as the "relentless sunshine" however, is a consideration. Again window size and placement came into play when we considered the type of window, the size and placement. Plot 71 in Estate Concordia, Queen's Quarter, Northside "B" forced a new set of priorities upon the design. Sunlight in the morning, streaming across the great room floor, from stem to stern thirty six feet of house, was OK, but only for a short while. That is until the flaming orb was high enough in the sky for the gallery roof to proffer some shade and cast the room with cool shadows.
Coupled with the trade winds from the north east, this will be an extremely comfortable room. Notice the three out-swing french doors, exiting the Great Room onto the Gallery, these will be open all day; protected, even if it rains it will be dry under the cast-concrete Gallery roof.
Windows on the south-facing facade (see south elevation plan) are few, to keep the solar gain down and thereby keep the rooms themselves cooler. Windows facing north are many, as are the glass in the east wall of the Great Room, there is also a full-size single french door in the east exterior wall of the north guest bedroom, which is a separate entrance for the guests who occupy that room. We haven't yet chosen rates for the rooms (just kidding, guests will pay in other ways) but this is the best of the two, make your resevations early. One friend mentioned that she would use the outside shower and bathroom entrance from the patio, rather than walking all the way around through the hall, inside the house! Whatever!

The Elevation Plans

An elevation plan is an architectural representation of the building as it would appear in all it's resplendency, if you viewed it in two dimensions, height and width, without the distinguishing quantity of perspective. There are four or more sides to any building, therefore each of the facades would be displayed in this manner. That is two-dimensional drawing, whereas perspective is the art of representing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to convey the impression of height, width, depth, and relative distance.
I loaded the elevation plans for our house onto the site for you to see; beginning with the view from the North I continue in a counter-clockwise direction.
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The North elevation is the facade of our house which will face due North; and I say due North for a reason; the length of the house runs precisely East and West. With views out over the Caribbean Sea to the United States Islands of, St. Thomas and St. John. On the clearest of days, the British West Indies (BWI) is visible with Tortola, just East and North of St. John and Virgin Gorda further to the East. Pretty important this view, notice the windows on that facade, and the specific placement of them. The finished floor of our house will be at 465 feet above sea level, roughly the same as the present grade.

The West elevation faces back into the hillside and toward the neighbors above and beside us; although there aren't any lots with houses actually abutting our property presently, we know the inevitability of the prospect. The South elevation also faces back into the hillside behind us, where there are onknown landowners at this juncture.
The East elevation is also an important view situation, where you see the three outswing double french doors, which exit the house onto the porch, known around these parts as a gallery. We plan to spend a lot of time on the gallery, looking East, with Buck Island in the viewfinder.

The grade, which represents the ground, is demarked on these drawings by the line running horizontally across and under the building, from left to right and leaves a drop-off from the porch of over three feet. The architect drew in a railing for that front gallery, where there is a problem with the grade, on both the East and South facing arched openings.

One of the items on Debbie's punch list is no stairs anywhere, of any kind, OK, maybe those three steps in the swimming pool, but that's it! No stairs, no railings period! we will bring the grade up to meet that gallery floor and away goes the need for the railing, right?

Blueprint Boilerplate

The Site Profile Plan
This profile view depicts the elevation slices taken from the plot plan, each horizontal line separates each slice of the hill, in 36" increments, indicating the house's location in relation to the existing grade. This aids the Environmental Potection Agency (a.k.a.: EPA) by providing what are know as cuts, or excavations, and fills, or backfilling. The EPA must agree with your intentions and plans when it comes to disturbing and redistributing the soil. Much of the coast line properties are under the auspices of CZM, or Coastal Zone Management, the government watch-dog agency overseeing the protection of our natural resources. Founded in 1972, the agency celebrates 33 years of service in 2005:
"The National Coastal Management Program is a federal-state partnership dedicated to comprehensive management of the nation’s coastal resources, ensuring their protection for future generations while balancing competing national economic, cultural and environmental interests.
The Coastal Zone Management Program (CZMP) is authorized by the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 and administered at the federal level by the Coastal Programs Division (CPD) within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM). The CPD is responsible for advancing national coastal management objectives and maintaining and strengthening state and territorial coastal management capabilities. It supports states through financial assistance, mediation, technical services and information, and participation in priority state, regional, and local forums.
The CZMP's leaves day-to-day management decisions at the state level in the 34 states and territories with federally approved coastal management programs. Currently, 95,376 national shoreline miles (99.9%) are managed by the Program. State and federal coastal zone management efforts are guided by the CZMP's Strategic Framework, which is organized around three major themes: Sustain Coastal Communities, Sustain Coastal Ecosystems, and Improve Government Efficiency."
The Latter excerpted from the Coastal Zone Management's website; for more information go to: http://coastalmanagement.noaa.gov/czm/

Boiler Plate Data
The construction information is a portion of what is known as "boiler plate data", (read: information repeatedly-printed on each succeeding model of boiler) necessary for the Department of Planning and Natural Resources (DPNR) to assess the needs and the intended use for the building.
The size of the lot is mentioned, as is the coverage calculation, misrepresented in this instance (shhh.. ..don't say anything). The laws governing lot coverage (lot square footage vs. house square footage) are different in every Town, City, State, Island Chain, or Country for that matter. On St. Croix the lot coverage for our house is not 2,430 sq. feet, it is 2030 sq. ft., since the basement room is under the master bedroom suite, not a separate structure.
The type of zoning is also mentioned, in this case wrong again, honey, we are actually in R-2 zoning, not R-1. Againg, different rules, different places. R-2 zoning allows a second dwelling on the property, can you imagine another house on a 3/4 acre parcel?
Now you see the word cistern required and cistern provided, this is no joke. The Islands in the Caribbean all get their water from the same source, the oceans that surround us (desalinization) the clouds that are over us (rainfall) and in rare cases, ground water (driven wells). All of the houses built on the United States Virgin Islands must be equipped with a mandatory rainwater collection system. It's the law. What to do with this water to save it for future use? Collect it in cisterns, or storage tanks; also required as a part of your house, much like mandatory heating systems in New England, where I am from.
The houses are equipped with a gutter system and downspouts, all of which lead into the cistern itself. Depending on the type of construction, and the materials used, in some cases the gutters are added to a building afterward, as an add on, much like we do gutters up North, except theses downspouts lead into the cistern for storage until it is needed by the household.
In the same manner that a well pump is used to fill a water tank from a dug or driven well, a water pump is used to extract the water from the cistern and store it under pressure for household use in a water tank. The pump runs only to fill and pressurize the water tank and this is how the water pressure is manitained in the cistern system.
When someone runs the water by taking a shower for example, the pressure in the piping system drops and this triggers an automatic control, called a pressure-trol, to make a connection from the power source to the pump motor. This pressure-trol maintains the constant pressure of up 40 or 45 pounds per square inch (psi) and it does this 24 / 7 / 365, or as long as there is power to the unit.

The Legend

The map legend is similar to a roadmap legend, the key to the various icons represented on the drawing.

Plot Plan Schedule

The Plot Plan

The Plot
As you can see from the Plot Plan of our parcel, there is a lot of information on this sheet of paper. The location of the house on the property, the septic system, the driveway and walk locations, with elevation information for each of the components. Note along all the property lines there are numbers, i.e.: which read: N 4º (degrees) 09' (minutes) 14" (seconds) E. That means that particular property line runs from the South-South-West to the North-North-East; only 4 degrees, 9 minutes, 14 seconds from true North, whereas true North would be 00 degrees, 00 minutes, 00 seconds. In this context, North is at the Top of the Page. Our house is aligned on a West - East Meridian and, due to this, we have Buck Island in the crosshairs looking due East through the Great Room; the Gallery, Buck Island, and finally to infinity, and beyond! Why does that sound familiar, Buzz?
To the North, St. Thomas, St. John, of the U.S. Territories; Tortola and Virgin Gorda of the British Virgin Islands. They are all called all Virgin Islands in the area here, named by Chris Columbus as he passed by St. John, Tortola and The Fat Virgin, Gorda, and landed on St.Croix in 1493. It was obvious to everyone what influenced the Italian dude on this decision to name these islands, after how many months at sea? Jeez, ya think?

Estate Shoys Residence

A good friend built this house in Estate Shoys, it can be seen far and wide, but not up close, it is best viewed from the 11th green on the Bucaneer Resort's Golf Course.

The Perspiration

Sweat & Toil

Travelling South

So, off went the container, closing a chapter in our lives, that being the shifting of our thinking to the materials and household goods now enroute to St. Croix. The movement had begun, since, for a month or so that container sat in our driveway, in varying stages of the packaging process, with both short and long-term goals in mind. The kitchen cabinets arrived, and they need a place to stay until I had the lower deck system of the container, and the loading of the Atlantic White cedar planking, had taken place.
I had milled this wood for shipment over the course of the Summer of 2005, our lament, the "Summer from Hell". We had already made final orders for the kitchen cabinets and the exterior doors and windows, so, once the container arrived, we hoped that everything else would arrive on-time to be packed away for the sea voyage from The Port of West Palm Beach to the container port on the South side of St. Croix.
First came the kitchen cabinets we had chosen from Home Depot, these were off-loaded and put into our barn for temporary storage. Then, little by painstaking little, I loaded the AW cedar, then the 4 X 8 foot sheets of homosote, 3/4" birch veneer cabinet-grade plywood, 1/2" pressure-treated plywood underlayment for the storm shutters, 2,500 feet of various sizes of PVC conduit for the electrical work, as well as all of my woodworking and electrician's tools, half of Debbie's kitchen implements, and on and on and on.... Until that fateful morning, and now the container was gone, in someone else's charge, until our arrival on St. Croix, November 1st! Well, in actuality we were out of touch with that 20 foot little gray puppy until we finally had it out of the Tropical Shipping / U.S. Customs clutches on November 15th!
Oursleves, we left for West Palm Beach and Miami bright and early the next morning, the 29th of October. We drove, with Pocket, our cat, for 12 hours that first day, reaching all the way to North Carolina by 6:00 PM. The next day we spent driving to Orlando, Florida; some would say a bit off-course, Orlando occupies Central Florida, what are we doing so far West? Remember here that Hurricane Wilma had just crossed over the area, fromWest to East, it came ashore in Naples, on the Western shore of Florida and, as it churned across the state, it flattened parts of Fort Lauderdale and Miami, Miami Airport had been hit by the storm, but remained open somehow. The residents of the area were not so lucky, power was out all over both cities, and the outlook was grim for their future.
We called ahead of our arrival to ascertain the condition of our Amerisuite Hotel and to ascertain if they were open for business. They were not; not by a long shot. We asked Amerisuites for and received confirmation for a stay in Orlando, away from the storm-ravaged area to the East and South.
The next morning we arrived at West Palm Beach and got rid of the Ford Van we drove down, as we were sending the car along to the Island, Tropical Shipping once again. This Ford Econoline van was once one of our own company trucks; actually it belonged Old Harbor Electric, Inc. We couldn't sell it in time for our trip so we took it with us!
From Tropical, we had to rent a car to complete the drive to Miami for our hotel, but was it open yet, or did we have to drive back to Orlando to get a motel room up there for the night (it was a 3 hour ride)? Debbie called ahead and they told her that they would definitely be open by early afternoon, or at least by 3:00 O'Clock, check-in time. We drove to the hotel, and we waited in the lobby, with chamber maids and other workers all dressed in Halloween costumes, afterall, it was October 31st, scurrying here and there. We both wondered how the employee's must have faced in the Hurricane's aftermath, but were still at work and ready to please.
With all the power outages in the area from West Palm beach through Ft. Lauderdale to Miami, the traffic lights were nonfunctional. If you heard about it, or saw it on the news, it was true. At every single traffic light we came to, the other drivers were all behaving with the utmost respect for one and other, allowing a flank of cars cross the intersection in a counter-clockwise manner, at roughly the same intervals as the timing of the traffic lights themselves when operational. I didn't see a single driver deviate from this behavior, and it was a truly amazing thing to be a part of and watch.
We stayed the night there in Miami and left the next day at noon. This flight was nonstop; lucky for the cat, who naturally hated the travel thing. On the drive down from Massachusetts he spent most of his time firmly wedged under the driver's seat in that van, barely room enough for his fluffy little body. He survived. with little harm done, we think, but who ever really knows for sure with cats?
On Island again, we rented a car until our van arrived, which we hoped would be soon. We got the van on the 10th of November, safe and sound but not without fanfare. We had a checklist of items which we needed to perform, before the van would ours again. Tropical Shipping has this laundry list of items, which I won't give you here, but it's a nine step process, all of them painstaking, boring and seemingly without relation to one another. I actually saw a person using carbon paper for the first time in years! I didn't know they still made it.
If I can remember the order in which we did this, you will have a concept of what we went through. First we went to Tropical Shipping, at the Container Port again, to get the "Bill of Lading" for our vehicle. From the BOL we had to pay what is called Excise Tax, more accurately a "Road Tax", of more or less $0.16 a pound, levied on every vehicle that comes ashore from anywhere else, other than the U.S. Territories of St. Thomas, St. John or Puerto Rico. This office, the Internal Revenue Bureau, was behind K-Mart, in the Sunny Isle Shopping Center, back to Sunny Isle!
We also needed auto insurance, compulsory, for the van; back to Gallows Bay and Marshall - Sterling Insurance - where Debbie'd had enough waiting and being ignored, and we stormed out. Back to Golden Rock and St. Croix Insurance, got that done. Then we had to get a permit, Department of Publc Safety (back home we call this the cop shop, around here , who knows?) just to move the vehicle. This moving permit was good for that one day only. This basically allowed you to drive your vehicle to a destination, which you must divulge to them, where it must sit until it is properly registered.
Back to Tropical Shipping where it took them 1-1/2 hours to process the deal, because they couldn't get the printer to work! We pay the freight for the ocean passage and it is off to the US Customs Service building.....
...where it would be determined where your vehicle and it's multitude of parts are / were manufactured. A 3.5% tarriff is assessed against the value of the vehicle, which you must pay if any part of your vehicle is manufactured outside the United States' borders. Our 2001 Ford E-150 van was made in Detroit,in the good ol' USA, in it's entirety! We were free, sort of.............. But, if there were any tarriffs to pay, they must be paid by personal check, cash, certified check, or money order. I don't think they would take IOU's, but to be honest I didn't ask. U.S. Customs had to stamp all of our documents to be released to us by Tropical Shipping. They stamped what needed to be stamped, released the vehicle and, finally, we drove the van to our new home in Estate St. John, where we parked it, still wearing it's Massachusetts license plates......
The next day, starting around ten in the morning; in an effort to make permanent the van's registration, we made trips to Christiansted, Sunny Isle, the Container Port, US Customs, Gallows Bay and traipsing all over tarnation, these activities ate most of that second day!
I arrive at the registry window which reads "Registration" at the Cop Shop Annex, I hand the nice lady my ream of papers, she does a few things, hands it to me and tells me we need to get a new title, which was next door at the Police Department. I walked over to the other building, and was given the new title in about three minutes, a new world's record? Back to the registration window and another line. I finish up there, again, and the lady says I must get a vehicle inspection and have this form stamped; I thought to myself, another line to wait in? However, the vehicle inspection department was very unintimidating, I presented the nice gentleman my registration form, which he took from me, hammered it with some kind of official stamp (presumably) ripped off a quick signature and handed it back to me. A complete inspection? I thought to myself, perhaps the reason I see so many cars and trucks on the road with broken tailight lenses and countless burnt-out brake light lamps? Back to the registration window, where she makes some notes, and hands the whole package back to me, including my new license plates! Just one more window and cashier and one more waiting line and I am free of this madness! It was three in the afternoon!

Moving Day

The Shipping Container

I was determined to bring a shipping container to the Island with us, posing to Debbie that we could pack it full to the brim with anything we wanted, one box to fill up, one box to empty out. Debbie was thinking of mailing down the materials, our small kitchen appliances, my power tools; both electrical and woodworking. I was thinking of trips to the Post Office, packing and unpacking the items on both ends of this journey, and thrift! I won the battle, but Debbie soon realized that of course we should fill a container, pack it to the timbers, send it down to Florida for shipment to this Island, are we crazy? Don't ask!
Then we went to work on the logistics of accomplishing this feat, afterall I thought, what do I know about shipping containers? Answer, Not Much! So began the research for the 20' X 8' X 8.5' foot box that looks just like a commercial trailer you see on the interstates every day, but ours was without the chassis and the wheels.
Picture, if you can, a wicked heavy corrugated steel box, with plywood decking on the interior floor, and not much else, O.K. it was painted grey, just like a U.S. Navy Ship. I think it weighed 4,800 pounds empty and I learned later that it weighed 35,000 pounds, 17.5 tons, when we had it filled. From the photos you can see the albatross as we set it on a chassis, with a 40 ton crane; bound for Tropical Shipping's main offices, in the Port of West Palm Beach, Florida.
What size container, how do I purchase one and have it delivered to Harwich, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and these were the easy questions. I went to the world wide web (where else?) for answers. First off, according to the helpful (I hold tongue in cheek) folks at Tropical Shipping the container must be seaworthy. Seaworthy, does that mean it has to float? I started to think about how one could seal a shipping container, despite it's weight and minimal weather stripping; never mind lacking a door seal like a submarine has on it's own main hatch, and make it FLOAT? I do not know with any certainty the formula for gross tonnage vs surface area of the floating but I was pretty certain that it couldn't be done.
Anyway, as I deduced from several phone conversations, we needed a container which had a recent inspection and certification for shipping by ocean going vessel, like a container ship. There actually are companies in the shipping industry whose only job it performs are inspections for certifying these containers for sea duty! Now, where to purchase one of these steel brutes, inspected - or at worst - inspect-able!
I tried eBay and found several companies that could bring one to me, including one in Eastham, a small village to the North of Harwich, on the Lower Cape. Looking all over the East coast for a big steel box and I end up finding what I need practically next door. The 20 foot container was inspected for sea, in the Port of Newark, New Jersey, and the inspecting company put a sticker on the back door of the container for all to see. The sticker, which was punched out, almost like the old car battery warranty stickers and affixed to the battery itself, and, in both instances designating how long the covered period extended by the month and year punched therein.
I din't mention that Tropical Shipping could have sent a 20 foot container, on a chassis, to Harwich, let us fill it up and they would return to West Palm Beach with our container, one shot, no muss no fuss. I thought it sounded great! Problem was, Tropical Shipping allowed us an hour and a half to fill the container, with all of our stuff, so that the driver could turn right around and head South. The other option was a six hour holdover for an additional $800.00, no relief there! We pay them close to $6,000.00 to get our stuff to St. Croix, and, when it arrives, we have to empty it, in front of Customs Agents, practically at the Container Port Dock! Then transfer the items to some place for storage, until we needed them, storage space isn't cheap, so this wasn't a very good option for us.
We made the decision to purchase, since we could have the box in the driveway in Harwich for 2 or 3 weeks, to load up and secure for the trip. When it gets to St. Croix, I contacted a company that would deliver it to our property for $175.00, from the customs man, without unloading it and reloading it (we hoped) in St. Croix. Once on our property, we could unload it as we saw the need for the items within.
Meanwhile, in Harwich, to fill this big grey corrugated steel box without wheels, we made the decision to purchase the kitchen cabinets from Home Depot, and the exterior doors and windows from Willmington Builders Supply, in, where else, Willmington, Massachusetts. These two building components along with all of my woodworking tools, new and used items from the Cape Cod home we own, plus tool manuals, cookbooks, clothing, sheets, lawn furniture, file cabinet, PC, PC desk, and the list goes on.
It took me all of three weeks, packing up my tools, milling some lumber I got from a friend, for use in making our hurricane storm shutters, mil, mill, mill....packing, packing, packing. Debbie and I worked nonstop for most of that period, into the container, out of the container, work, work, work.
Packed and ready for pick up, we get a call from Tropical Shipping, they are sending up the container, are we ready, and can I give them directions......... Oh boy, somebody got it wrong, what do you mean you don't need the container, we don't have chassis after chassis laying around down here you know! After several hours, and an admittance on my part that they could take an extra day and get the chassis here, without the steel box, on the 28th and not the 27th of October, as originally planned. Debbie, you see, in her infinite wisdom, scheduled the pick up, purposely giving us an extra day, just in the event that.......
As scheduled, or rather rescheduled, the lifting crane arrived and set up their equipment, and amazingly enough, the driver, chassis in-tow, called from his cell phone that he was nearby and would arrive immediately. He pulled in with the tractor and chassis and the crane operator already had our container off the ground and ready to transfer. The driver spoke with the operator of the crane, who then threw me the halyard, connected to the container for me to assist in persuading this brute into position for touch-down on chassis. All went perfectly as the container left Harwich, heading off-Cape and South to the Sunshine State and transport to our Island and, eventually, our building site.... More later............

Earth Change Permit

So, after 14 years of marriage (15th anniversary Feb. 28, 2006) we return to the scene of the crime. This time we are here on a mission, and we feel charged and ready to go. Problem? Our draftsperson didn't do his job, and we are delayed getting the building permit, despite the lead time of 9 months we allowed.
The permitting system for building here in St. Croix, as well as St. John and St. Thomas, is a little different than a lot of other places. Being a wind swept, mountainous Island with ocean around it, erosion is a major concern, as are concerns with the proper disposal of septic waste.
Therefore, the first concern for any building being built is the excavation work. In the trade this is called site work. Site work is the work that must be done to prepare the location for construction and clean and dress the place up when the building is complete. This would also include scraping off the topsoil and storing it, either on-site or off. Digging the necessary trenches for the footings and the walls of the house, a hole for a cistern (more on this later). Digging a hole for the septic tank and the necessary trenching and other treatments for the septic system's leaching field, where the waste water from your house is drained back into the ground. Backfilling all holes, rough grading the entire building site, and, at the very end, final grading; this where the topsoil, set aside earlier, is redistributed for the seeding of a lawn and gardens.
The first permit you must apply for is an Earth Change Permit, this would be in conjunction with the building permit, for the particular house being constructed. Without an Earth Change Permit, you cannot even cut down a tree on your own property! The submitted plans must indicate the amount of dirt that is to be excavated (cut) and redistributeed (filled) during the process. This is indicated to the Island building department's engineers on the building plans and the topographical site plan.or topo. A topo is a land map, or plot plan, that is basically a schematic representation indicating the elevation contours of the land. The topographical plot plan of the property in then used, in profile, to show the amount of fill being dug up and redistributed, in order to put that particular house on that particular piece of land. All this must be done before an Earth Change Permit is issued, and only with this in hand can you modify your landscape. There are varying degrees of Earth Change provisions, which may differ with the other islands, so follow the instructions carefully. Our ECP said that we were only able to clear trees and brush, without any excavation of any kind, pending those cut and fill numbers my draftsperson failed to provide.
We had a small dilemna when we first arrived, with a 20 foot shipping container, loaded to the gills with household and building supplies, on it's way from Cape Cod, and we had to have a flat area to set it down on, without trees! We lucked out and were given the Earth Change Permit, with narrow parameters in regard to what we could and could not do with the ground under the trees.
The container arrived and was delivered to a level area, but it took a week, due to Thanksgiving and a five day weekend (Caribbean Rules), and U.S. Customs, what a ---- they were! More later..........

Fort Christianvaern

This fort, erected intitially by the Dutch, was completed (and named) by the Danish. Overlooking Christiansted Harbor, the fort was never the site of a battle, or challenged by an opposing force in it's 350 years as the sentinel of the city.

Buck Island

Through the trees at the front of our property, Buck Island is barely visible through the hazy afternoon sun. The Island, named an underwater National Park by President Kennedy in 1963, is a wonder of underwater trails and the most beautiful white sand beaches you can imagine. Day trips are available for scuba divers and snorklers, departing from the city boardwalk, along the harbor front, overlooking Protestant Cay.

Government House

Government House

Cruzan Awakening

I feel that I should begin this epic tale at the very beginning of time, our time that is, in St. Croix, the United States' territory which, incidentally, lies in the Caribbean Sea, some 1,800 miles from the "continent", as they know it here, AKA the United States mainland. St. Croix is the largest of the US Virgin Islands, with her "sister" isles of St. Thomas and St. John, some forty miles distant to the North.
The first major historical event (for history buffs) occurred here on the North shore of the Island, at the mouth of the Salt River, on November the 14th, 1493. The first documented site, that is, where that famous Italian, Christopher Columbus on Spain's nickel, set foot in the Western Hemisphere, of what was then the habitation of the Caribe Indians. This occurred on Chris' second voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus named the place "Cape of the Arrows" in honor of the first victims of the violent encounter with the local, highly skilled archers of the Caribe Indians, defending themselves and their village from these unknown marauders.
One first hand account by an actual participant, noted that these Indian warriors were achieved bow handlers and that they were undeniably accurate with their weapon of choice, the bow and arrow, and somehow able to administer precise targeting, even while treading water! Fierce rivals indeed!
I say documented because, that other, un-documented locale was San Salvador, the year before, in 1492, (I think it was a Tuesday) in the Bahamian Island chain to the north. The archipelago which comprise the Windward and Leeward Islands of the West Indies, or the Lesser (smaller) and Greater (larger) Antilles, begins in Cuba, the largest of the Greater Antillian Islands, and ends in Trinidad, off the coast of Venezula.
St. Croix has flown the flag of six nations from the ramparts of Fort Christianvaern, in the St. Croix capital city of Chrisitiansted. Spain, England, Holland, Spain again, France, Denmark and, in 1917, the United States. The Islands were purchased by the U.S. at the outset of the 1st whorld War, when it was thought the Germans might try to blockade the Caribbean and access to the Panama Canal. But I go on some times....
From that period in time Fast-Forward to 1991, February 28th to be exact, when Debbie and I were married, by Judge Eileen Peterson of the Territorial Court of the Virgin Islands, located on the Queen Mary Highway, Estate Kingshill, St. Croix.
We came alone, just the two of us, and stayed at the King Christian Hotel, in downtown Christiansted (we had reservations but we stayed there anyway) Just kidding..... We took a sunset cruise to nowhere during that visit, and the picturesque Christiansted waterfront which also played a major role in the reason (mine) for the curiosity and wishes to visit the St. Croix in the first place, captivated both of us.
Flashback further, to 1984 and downtown Nantucket, Massachusetts, where the popular eatery "The Atlantic Cafe" proudly sits on South Water Street. At the time, hung above the u-shaped bar, greeting all those who entered, an aerial photograph of a harbor, some high verdant hills, two, three or more two masted sailing schooners and a waterfront scene right out of Hollywood. A 1950's era tapestry of antique sailing vessels, automobiles, stake-body delivery trucks and hints of Old World Danish architecture. A true-to-life grayscale depiction of waterfront life in those days of stevedores and simplicity. All this in the capital city of Christiansted, St. Croix; then the Seat of Government of the United States Virgin Islands.
It was during that first visit that, walking along one of the shaded sidewalks of Christiansted town, that Debbie and I saw that same photograph, in a shadow box, presumably at the studio of the photographer Fritz Henle, a world-renowned artisan in the world of black & white. We later met Fritz' daughter Maria Henle and purchased a copy of that same photograph, posthumously from her dad's collection, since Fritz Henle died in 1995.
We had it enlarged to the same size as the one which has long been in the archives of The Atlantic Cafe; see John O'Connor about it, he owns and runs the place now, along with his wife and children.
It was through this snapshot that I instantly had a connection to this place, through the acts of another person. He or she who had seen the same photograph, bought it, had it enlarged and handsomely framed to fit over the bar at what would later become my favorite Nantucket watering hole.
But that was the first visit to this sub-tropical paradise, our second visit came just seven months later, when Debbie and I discussed moving to this place and starting a new life. In September we packed up and moved down here. That didn't turn out to be the best move we had ever made, but we had to find out if we could do this sub-tropical island bit. Upon our arrival and into the three months that followed I was unable to pick up any work and we were forced to move back to THAT Island, Nantucket, again!