Programs Blog

Monday, February 23, 2026

Anchored off Frederiksted

Sunny and 83º with Steady East Winds, Force 3

As many of our readers may know, we left the dock in Christiansted on Saturday to move over to the west side of St. Croix to continue work with our local partners on the island. Sunday morning, we went ashore at a local beach not far from our anchorage near the cruise ship pier at Frederiksted. Our experienced professional crew made this a fun, wet, but very convenient way to save about a mile of walking to our destination: The Feather Leaf Inn.

Corina Marks, a coral reef restoration expert, and her partner Ryan Flegal, who operate the inn and coral research center, welcomed us to their beautiful property and into a conference space for an introduction to the work that Corina does here in St. Croix with the Thriving Islands project. Corina and her technician, Lindsay Metz, then spent time talking about their career paths and answered plenty of questions from our students. As always, it was a pleasure to have our long-time partners, Corina and Ryan, host us and take time to provide details on coral restoration work on St. Croix. We are so grateful!

The rest of the day was spent conducting snorkel survey training in Butler Bay and then additional orientation and watch activities in the evening.

Monday’s main event was a morning walking tour of Frederiksted with the Crucian Heritage and Nature Tourism (CHANT) guide, Robin Jones. Robin provided the students with a fantastic local view of St. Croix from both a historical and modern perspective. Many of the themes highlighted on our walk around town and in the Danish-built fort resonated with student projects for Marine Environmental History, including the self-emancipation actions of enslaved workers in 1848, the push for better conditions for workers in 1878, and the transition to reliance on tourism in the era of US territorial control. Many thanks to Robin for her time and valuable insights!

As we move back into student blogs, please stay tuned for discussions of other elements of these two days as well as the reef survey work that they will do as we wrap up our time here in St. Croix.

Hoping everyone is staying safe and warm back in the Northeast! Students are all happy and super busy and want to pass on their good wishes for everyone at home, snowbound or otherwise.

Best Wishes!

Craig Marin, MEH Sailing Faculty