Comming home

We finished our one week bareboat charter and are headed home tomorrow. This was a great trip and one that we would do again in a heartbeat. We had a great crew with us and even though a couple were green around the gills in any kind of rough seas I believe everyone had a great time. There are more places to explore the next time as we did not make it out to Jost Van Dyke and Foxy's or Diamond Key or Anagada Island. All of those are definite future places to visit as the reports from those that did visit them were all very positive. Our agenda was Norman Island the first night after leaving Road Town on Tortolla. It spoiled the rest of the trip because we were always looking for better snorkling spots and never found one. The absolute best snorkling was along the rocky shoreline in the inner harbor of the Bight on Norman Island. We checked out the Caves just outside of the bight and they paled by comparison. Day two found us on Coooper Island after a brisk day of sailing and learning how to sail up wind in a catamaran. Cooper is a nice place but we did not do much in the way of snorkling there. Rumor has it that it was ok at the rock pilars just south of the anchorage.
Day three we visited the Baths but the Red flags were flying and the surf prevented us from landing from the boat. We pulled into Spanish town and rented a taxi to take us down there. We hiked the short trail and wandered through the Caves and that was a fun excursion. Too bad it was too rough to snorkle through the rocks.
We stayed that night at Marina Cay and tried snorkling across from the anchorage but the current was quite strong and tried to pull us out to sea through the gap between Guana Island and Scrub Island.

Day four found us at the Bitter End and Saba rock after a great day of sailing. We got the boat up to 8.1 knots so we were excited about that. Saba Rock and the Bitter end is a Very nice place and well worth visiting but the reports on the snorkling were less than favorable.

Next day we opted out of going out to Anegada in case the weather changed and change it did. the run out there for the others was good but that night the wind came up and it was not only an exciting night in the anchorage but it was a wild ride back in heavy seas.

We cruised back to Monkey point to try snorkling there as it was reportedly one of the best spots but the surf was so big the visibility was poor and there was not much to see. The best part was all the yellow jack fish that swarmed around us at the boat waiting to be fed. hundreds of them swam around us as we floated in the water and it was a spectacular show.
We stayed the night in Trellis Bay and watched as two other sail boats ran aground on the same rock within an hour of our arrival. We watched as one captain tried to run over his wive and nearly succeded. She was in the water checking the damage when he decided to try to power off and he nearly backed over her with the prop. She was one very lucky lady.
Trellis bay is much like our Eagle harbor, a lot of local boats anchored there and not much tourist activity. The loose Mongoose bar was quiet as was the last resort while we were there. Apparently that is not the case during the full moon parties.

We left Trellis bay for Great Harbor on Peter island under heavy winds and big seas and were unable to sail comfortably so motored down quickly to get out of the weather and get Lisa and Buck looking a normal color again as Green did not suit them.
Great Harbor was another good spot and comes in a close second for snorkling. It is strange that none of the guide books or suggested itinerary's even mention snorkling at Peter or Norman islands in the main anchorages. These two places had the most variety of fish and best coral and bottom contours of all the places we went swimming.
We hiked up and over the island to White beach for some exercise the next day and visited Peter Island Resort and Deadmans beach. The snorkling at White beach was actually quite good along the rocky end of the sand beach. The hike was a couple miles up a very steep road but the resort has built rest benches and water stations.
From there we wandered down to the Bight again and snorkled along the cliffs at the NE side of the entrance to the Bight and found it to be a fun and different place with a wide variety of fish, not too much coral but lots of canyons and contours to swim around. We ended up grabbing a mooring buoy in the Bight next to Glen and Liz's boat and Steve and Michelles. During the late evening hours we mounted a raid on Steve's boat and stole his dingy. Unfortunately Michelle woke up shortly after our theft and found the boat missing and did not sleep again that night as she fretted over what happened. Of cours the next morning it was obvious who stole it and steve swam over to recover it and would have wire tied our rope to the buoy if I had not been awake at the time. all good fun and taken as intended.

Took our time motoring over to Road Town to turn in the boat. docking was a piece of cake and after getting the boat secured the Mooring's dock master offered me a job any time I wanted it.

We stayed at the Moorings and had a very nice newly renovated room on the second floor overlooking the marina. Glen and Liz, Jim and Cheryl and Gary and Lenore Timm all stayed there as well so we had dinner with them before retiring for the night.

Next day Glen, Liz and Chris and I rented a taxi and took a three hour tour of the island. It was well worth the time.

Tonight were back in St Thomas at the Emerald Bay Resort hotel. It is very nice and we have a great view. The Sunset tonight was the best weve seen yet.

We catch a plane first thing in the morning and head for home.

BVI journey

Since we have no internet I am posting this after the fact.
Day -1
We left St Thomas by Fast Ferry and headed to Tortolla with our crew and half of Glen’s crew. That was a 45 minute run through the islands that we would be sailing through during the week. Arrived at Tortolla and found Moorings after a short taxi ride. By the way, Taxi’s were a bit pricey in St Thomas, government fixed rates but it is per person and per bag. You don’t save anything by cramming more people into the rig. All of them are pickups with converted beds into rows of seats. Pretty crazy narrow and steep roads.
Mixed reviews on Moorings. They are all nice folks but they work on island time and your emergency is not theirs. We got most everything on the boat we ordered with a couple exceptions. Our boat was almost new so except for trying three different coffee pots to find one that worked we had a functioning boat. Can’t say the same for our dink. The dink engine ran for about 30 minutes and stopped never to run again. The good thing is that Moorings is responsive and came out with a new engine the next day. Several others had more significant problems with their boats that took hours to resolve stranding them dockside in Tortolla. One boat’s engine refused to start but finally did but when they went to grab a mooring buoy for the night in the Bight on Norman Island where we were the engine would not go in forward and they backed into another sail boat on the next buoy. Luckily no damage except for nerves and pride. No screw-up award for that one thought, the cable broke on the controller and so their was no way to go forward. Moorings came out and fixed it that night.
Other boats are well worn and have an amazing strong odor about them. The holding tanks are small and have been stuffed full many a time as they are only about 12 gallons each and those are for 2 heads. You dump every day out in the open water but if someone uses them without understanding that it is quite possible to overfill. Most of the older boats had that nagging odor in the beginning but it got better with use or so I was told.
Day 1
We stayed at the Bight on Norman Island after completing our training with our friendly captain learning how to sail. Lou was a bit energetic and obviously had a colorful life prior to this occupation. Stories of drug running from south America are most believable and the adage if you can’t do the time don’t do the crime fit. He was a good teacher and after an hour of sailing around in the harbor (sort of) we were off on our own. We chose to motor to our destination and arrived in time to find plenty of mooring balls to grab. Lou had advised us to grab a mooring ball right off the rocks half way between the pirates bar and the Willy Thornton Floating scow. We did and discovered that we could snorkel from the boat into a wonderland of underwater wildlife. Pelicans entertained us constantly by diving into the water for fish from the rocks. The abundance of fish life below was amazing. Spotted stingrays, large and do mean large groupers, millions of small blue fish in schools that allowed you to swim right in them, parting slightly as you and the groupers glided through, occasionally a pelican would dive right next to you grabbing up a few for their meal. The variety of fish and coral was amazing and colorful and the visibility was amazing, nothing like up here in Puget Sound. And the water was warm.
We snorkeled for hours and then headed over to the William Thompson just to say we had done it. The Willy T’s reputation is sketchy and it lives up to its name. Highly over rated, the Willy T is a floating scow with a bar and sleazy restaurant that draws from all the anchored tourist boats. The drinks were bad, the kitchen would not meet health standards in a forth world nation and there is no such thing as sanitation concerns in the bathroom, yes bathroom, a single toilet plumbed to the bay.
We sampled the drink while watching the porno show on their TV of past times when women ran around half naked in the bar and earned free drinks by jumping naked from the top of the ship. After several fatal jumps, it’s not that high but when you jump onto someone else the results are not favorable to either one, the government stepped in and curtailed some of the frivolity.
We were going to eat on the boat but Chris demanded some food after her bad drink on the Willy T and so we motored over to Pirates on the opposite side of the bay. What a difference, this place is a definite winner with really good food, a clean establishment and a surly staff. We met up with Gina and Byron and his crew which included Dave and Andrea and Doug and his wife.
Steve and Michelle were also in the bight and had said we needed to snorkel at the caves, which are just outside of the bight so we dingy’d over to them and swam for a while there but were a bit disappointed. The rocks next to our mooring ball were far better and had much more to see than the caves did so we appreciated the local knowledge that led us to them in the first place. The Caves are one of those must see spots in the BVI according to all the guide books.
Day 2
We motored out with destination unknown. The wind was blowing about 12 to 15 so we decided to attempt to sail. After some frustration with the main which we could not do anything with. It simple pulled us around head into the wind no matter how much rudder we had over. Finally we hauled out the Gyb Sail and we were sailing. We got it up to 7.2 knots which is the same speed we get underway by engine. It was a hoot, but we could not sail into the wind very well, a broad reach was no problem but anything we did to try to get more than 60 degrees to the wind we lost power and lost speed. More practice is needed. Hopefully by the end of the week we will have it down. We sailed most of the way to Cooper Island where we grabbed the last available mooring Buoy. The Bar at Cooper is beautiful. A perfect setting on a sand beach with palm trees and big soft cushy seats and big tables. The Pain killers were superb. After happy hour we were feeling no pain and returned to the boat for burgers and hot dogs. Actually it was a great tasting meal. Meals down here run 60 bucks for two at a minimum so eating out will damage your budget real quick. But it’s hard to pass up the great food and let someone else do the cooking while on vacation. So plan accordingly and don’t let the cost bother you too much because you get what you pay for in most cases.
By the way I caught a cold somewhere before departing and I have not been feeling the greatest but I can think of worse places to be feeling under the weather.

Day 3
Left cooper early and headed for the Baths. The surf was up and the red flag was up warning people not to attempt to swim or boat to the beach as 5 foot rollers were breaking on the beach and between the rocks.
We opted to head up to Spanish Town where we entered the tricky harbor. It is a narrow entrance that makes a 90 degree right angle turn 50 feet from the shorline with breaking waves over a reef to your right. Fun! We made it and picked up a slip for about three hours. We rented a cab and drove to the Baths and hiked to the beach. Its a great place and the hike through the "cave" is a fun experience. don't miss the opportunity to go there even if the surf is up.

Hopefully we can get back later in the week when the surf is down.

We left there and headed over to Marina Cay and caught the next to last bouy. Met up with Jim and Cheryl and Steve and Michelle there as well ad Jane and Roger. more painkillers and some more snorkling were in store for some of us and some beach exploring for others. Another perfect day. tomorrow were off to the Bitter End were were supposed to meet up with all of our group of 9 boats. Should be entertaining.

British virgin Islands

Were off on another adventure this time to the tropics. We have rented a 46 foot catamaran sail boat in Tortolla BVI for 7 days. Were picking it up today after spending the last two days here in St Thomas in the American Virgin Islands at a beautiful little B&B. the Bellavista is a great little spot on the hillside overlooking the harbor. this is a very nice veranda style home, open to the outdoors with a fabulous hostess and nice amenities. Wendy is the proprieter and takes good care of her customers. Buck and Lisa are staying here with us and we have had a good time roaming the very narrow and very busy streets. Of course the town is filled with real tourists (we don't consider ourselves one of them) from the multiple large cruise ships that come in to port every day. Just watched the second one dock this morning from my veranda. So far it is everything we expected and more. We have sampled various Rum drinks with the resulting affects. Painkillers live up to their reputation. We are meeting Sherm and Nancy and Dave and Connie at the boat today. We met Glen and Liz last night. Saw them walking in town from our veranda and they wandered up the numerous steep steps to join us for the afternoon and dinner last night. We ended up at a local restaurant and the waitress was a hoot but the meal left a bit to be desired. Not that it was not good food it just did not fit our tastes.

Probably will not be able to do daily blogs on this trip since the
internet options are limited in the BVI but will post when I can

wish us luck, no one on my boat has ever sailed before for real. A couple short sails in commencement bay with Fran and jeff is all we have ever done. An adventure it will be.