Friday 23rd February

Laverick Bay, Virgin Gorda
British Virgin Islands

18 29.943 N
64 23.246 W

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAN, WE LOVE YOU – SOME TIMES! HOPE YOU HAVE A GOOD ONE.

We began the day by paying the mooring fee for last night, having done that it was time to leave so Gerry dropped the mooring line whilst I steered us. We cleared the harbour and hoisted the jib then proceeded to motor sail to Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda. We had to clear out of the British Virgin Islands as our trip is now going to take us further south. We arrived at the harbour in Spanish Town and picked up a mooring then everyone climbed into the dink with passports and boat documents in hand to head into the customs and immigration office. We had to haul the dink up onto the beach as there was a very high dock which we wouldn’t have been able to climb out onto. Then we trekked into the office where we then had to wait in line to check out. It took at least half an hour before anyone appeared at the window to deal with the ever growing queue but once they did appear we were check out, with the appropriate documents stamped and fees paid, then it was back to the dink and out to the boat. On the way back to the boat we saw a couple of turtles sunning themselves but they dove under water as soon as we approached. Once back on board we quickly hoisted the dink back onto the davits and dropped the mooring lines then we were back out of the harbour with the jib up again heading towards Laverick Bay. We arrived at Laverick Bay at lunchtime, tied up to the fuel dock and filled both our fuel and water tanks. We were tied up behind a very large luxury motor yacht and the poor people that were onboard it were gracious enough to speak to us – I think it was just to make sure that we didn’t hit their boat! Having completed the re fueling we motored off the fuel dock and picked up a mooring in the harbour. After eating a gourmet lunch onboard Rose and I stripped the sheets off the beds, collected all the dirty laundry and sorted it into 4 piles – it’s amazing how much washing we’d managed to generate. Gerry, Rose and Mark then dinked into the Bay so that they could go to the grocery store and Gerry was to return and collect the laundry and me. As it happened Lorie also had laundry to do so she picked me up and together we headed into the dock where Gerry carried our laundry bags to the laundry. Between us we used every washing machine and drier in the place for the next 2 hours or so. Whilst we were waiting for the machines to complete their cycles we visited the Pussers rum shop and made a couple of purchases and then we hit the bar where we had to try the painkillers to make sure they were up to standard. Once the washing was finished it was time to return to the boat, stash it all away, make the beds, stow the dink ready for the morning and cook dinner. We plan an early start tomorrow so now it’s time to go to bed – if only the music coming from the shore would just quiet down a fraction!

Thursday 22nd February

Trellis bay, Tortola Island
British Virgin Islands

18 26.860 N
64 31.897 W

A slow start to the day, we hung around doing very little until mid morning when it was time to help Dale keep his boat in place whilst he took his dink out to retrieve his stern anchor. Whilst we watched he wobbled and we thought there was a chance he might just fall in we got the camera ready and that ended any chance of him actually falling in. Once his anchor was back on board he and Lorie hauled their bow anchor and began to motor slowly out of the harbour whilst we retrieved our stern line from the dock and then hauled up our bow anchor. With Rose nervously at the wheel we began to follow Dale and Lorie out of the harbour. Once we got to the entrance Gerry decided to hoist the main sail closely followed by the jib, I took over the steering and turned the engine off – peace! The wind was 8 – 12 knots and on the quarter so we were able to sail along quite nicely, heeled over enough to give our guests a real taste of sailing rather than motoring. We made the trip in 3 tacks and were just outside the Trellis bay harbour when Dale and Lorie caught up with us – they’d taken the scenic route according to them! We took a mooring ball and in no time we were getting the dink back down off the davits and going ashore to visit the local art and craft stores. Lorie and I were a bit disappointed with the craft stuff as last time we were here it was full moon and there were loads of visiting artists and craft people selling stuff at the full moon party. Still we wandered along the shops, the men stopped for a beer whilst the girls found somewhere that sold ice cream and had one of those fabulous treats – a chocolate coated ice cream. As the men were still nowhere in sight we wandered back to the bar where they were on their second beer so we ordered drinks and joined them. The owners of the bar seemed a bit distracted and we eventually learnt that the kitchen of the place burnt down 2 days ago and they were having repairs done as we sat drinking, I think I might have been distracted under the circumstances too. Dale had never heard of the widgets in Boddingtons beer so Gerry did the boy thing and using Dale’s Swiss army knife, cut open the empty can to retrieve the widget. We all discussed recycling ideas for the used widgets so watch out for those homemade Christmas ornaments and earrings! With one more stop at the grocery store for a few essentials (rum) we returned to our boat in time for a quick shower and then we dinked into The Last Resort restaurant where we were told that the WIFI was free if you were there for dinner. Both Lorie and I had computers with us so we could up load our blog sites, Lorie managed to get on to the internet on hers but I just couldn’t connect, Gerry tried to get me a connection but even he couldn’t manage so in the end I gave up as the computer battery was running down. We then had dinner which was good and a few more drinks, actually we had a few more than we ordered as the waitress messed up the order the first time around and then bought us complimentary drinks – who are we to refuse? We had told Mark that there was a donkey at the restaurant the last time we were here but it turned out that it has died since then. We were a bit suspicious about it as there had been curry on the menu up until last night and they had just run out - I wonder if Donkey makes a decent curry?! Just as we were about to pay and leave the band arrived for the evening and began their set, they were funny and very entertaining, getting the audience involved by giving away shots of tequila for things like “guess that tune”, the best whistler, guest singing with the band. If you called out an answer without buzzing in first you were made to drink 5 shots as punishment (there were no buzzers you had to make the buzzer sound yourself) Dale had to drink 3 shots in a row as he broke the rules, the rest of us stayed very quiet. As most of the audience was around our age (young and silly) we all knew the music, words and actions to the songs so we all joined in, even to the point of everyone dancing when the band demanded it. By about 22.30hrs we were ready to hit the night clubs but we couldn’t find one so we went back to the boat instead and hit the sack. Rose and Mark think that this life is very hard.

Wednesday 21st February

Little Harbour, Peter Island
British Virgin Islands

18 21.278 N
64 35.959 W

Gerry and I took charge of hauling the anchor up and steering the boat out of the harbour whilst Rose and Mark worked on their sun tans. We did a quick sweep past the silent Willy T so that Mark could snap off a couple of pictures of the place, it looks so much better during the daylight hours without the drunks falling all over the place. Then it was time to hoist the jib and motor sail the short distance to Little Harbour, Peter Island. The bay, as the name suggests is little and as we arrived there were about 10 boats all anchored and with stern lines tied to the trees or rocks on the shoreline, the reason for this being that the water is pretty deep for just anchoring – about 50 foot which would require us to put out 250 foot of chain – we don’t have that much chain and I doubt that many cruising boats do. Dale and Lorie anchored first and just as they got their stern anchor set a boat next to them left (must have been something they said!) – leaving a tie up point on the old dinghy dock vacant. We snuck in there and grabbed that spot, dropping our bow anchor and then running a stern line across to the dock to keep us in position. Once we were set it was time to get the snorkeling gear on and do a tour around the place. Lorie had lent Mark a “Noodle” to try and help him float whilst learning the fine arts of snorkeling, happily it seemed to make it easier for him and he was able to go with us out to the edges of the harbour and see the pretty tropical fish that were swimming around. I spotted a ray trying to dig itself into the sand and called everyone over to see it, Lorie pointed out a very large shoal of fish that were loitering in the shadow of their boat, we didn’t know what sort of fish they were but there were lots of them. After we had exhausted ourselves snorkeling it was time to have a quick shower on the transom and enjoy watching the pelicans dive bombing into the water to catch their food, they hit the water with such force that you would imagine it would hurt them but they keep doing it so I guess it doesn’t. Mark had volunteered to cook dinner for us in the evening so we really put him on the spot and invited Dale and Lorie to join us for cocktails and dinner. Just after 18.00hrs our visitors appeared and we began the evening session, sending Mark down to the galley after only one drink so that he could cook dinner before the rum set in! I have to say he did a great job of making chicken biryani for us. I made dessert and by the time we had finished eating there was only a few morsels left to feed to the fish. As I threw the last of a crepe into the water a huge fish leapt up for it – we were all surprised and tried to have a repeat performance when I tossed out the vegetable waste, I tell you these fish are picky eaters they didn’t go for the vegetable stuff at all! Before it got too dark to see (or may be it was before they got too drunk to find their boat) Dale and Lorie put putted back to their palace fro the night then it was time to turn in ready for another sun filled day tomorrow

Tuesday 20th February

Norman Island
British Virgin Islands

18 18.981 N
64 37.035 W

We woke to the rain clouds and wind. Our plan for the day was to go to Normans Bay and introduce Rose and Mark to the famous Willy T’s (William Thornton), a boat which was turned into a floating bar many years ago and became famous when guests began leaping naked from the top deck into the water below for the reward of a tee shirt with “ I jumped naked from the Willy T” printed on it. We dropped our mooring and motored out of Lameshure Bay, Rose and Mark were both quite surprised by the very cloudy sky – that’s just not meant to happen in the Islands! Once clear of the bay we put the jib out and managed to motor sail for a while until it began to rain then we had to furl it away and motored for the rest of the trip, arriving at Norman Island around lunchtime. The bay was only half full and there were plenty of moorings available so we picked one and tied up then got ready to go ashore for a late lunch. I expect by now you will be wondering why we seem to be going backwards and forwards between the US and the British Virgin Islands, the simple answer is that the spots we want to visit mean that you have to go backwards and forwards all the time to make logical progress. It also means that we are supposed to check in and out of each as you go, in reality most boats go between the 2 lots of islands checking in once and out once and changing the flags each time they arrive at one or the other. We took the dink ashore and tied up at a dock we hadn’t used before, the Pirates Bight bar and grill was right next to the dock so we went there and ordered lunch and the obligatory drinks, this time Rose, Lorie and I tried Bushwhackers a cocktail which has rum, Baileys and Kahlua as its base, they were delicious! Once we’d finished with lunch it was time for a sleep before we made our way over to the Willy T’s for dinner. Having been there before we knew that the place was just a drinking hole for the drunks on boats but Rose and Mark seemed to fit in as well as we did. We found to our surprise that they have stopped people from jumping off the top deck by fencing off the area where the jumps took place, I have to say I think it’s a wise decision – it always seemed a dangerous thing to me, especially as the jumpers were always a bit worse for drink and there is a very large barracuda that lives just under the boat! I guess those that jumped deserved the tee shirt! The food we had there was pretty good, even if a lot of it was fried. After we had finished our drinks we found our way in the dark back to our boat and once onboard we cracked open a bottle of wine, had some cheese and crackers whilst watching Gattaca on DVD – a good movie for a very windy night on board.

Sunday 18th February

Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke
British Virgin Islands

18 26.10 N
64 45.00 W

The group decision was to go to Jost Van Dyke, one of the British Virgin Islands today. Mark had heard about the famous Foxy’s bar and wanted to visit it for himself. Dale, Lorie, Gerry and myself had been there before and we certainly weren’t against a repeat visit – maybe this time we would even remember it! However before we set forth for our international voyage of discovery we had to take Rose and Mark ashore to see the view from the ruins of the Annaberg sugar mill and pay our mooring fee for last night. Dale and Lorie went snorkeling whilst the four of us dinked ashore and then set off along the coast pathway to the mill ruins. The path was fairly flat and easy to walk along in single file, but it was a fair distance. There were signs posted that it was a turtle breeding beach, but we guess it’s not breeding season as there were no turtles to be seen. We knew from our previous visit that there were wild donkeys on the island which bray at night to keep you awake and we had mentioned this to Mark. We didn’t see a single donkey but Mark managed to photograph the evidence that they had been along this same path and fairly recently by the looks of the scat! Once we reached the end of the coast path we were onto the bitumen and we made the decision to walk up the hill rather than take the steps which meander through the vegetation, it was a good decision – we had walked the steps last time and the hill was much easier and quicker. The walk is definitely worth it if only for the view of the islands out across the bay. The sugar mill ruins date back to the late 1800s, early 1900s and there are information boards around the site detailing how the mill ran. It must have taken quite a few slaves to tend the cane which grew on the very steep slopes around the mill. After taking a few pictures we headed back down the hill along the coast and once in the dink, back out to our boat. Then it was all hands on deck to drop the mooring line and head off towards Jost Van Dyke. The wind was just on the beam and we put up both the jib and the main, with the first reefing point in. We flew along doing an average speed of 5 knots until we arrived at the entrance to the harbour at which time we furled away the sails, motored in and found a spot to drop our anchor. In no time at all we had the dink in the water and were on our way into the dock so that we could check into the British Virgin Islands. We had all our documentation with us and set off for the customs and immigration office, only to find that it was closed until 14.00hrs – well what can one do? We headed straight to Foxy’s bar a large open air wooden shack place which is open to the beach and ordered a round of painkillers, the local “must have” rum drink, well they didn’t take very long to finish so we had to have another. At this point Dale spotted Foxy himself just around the corner of the bar and went to ask him if he would mind coming over and having a photo opportunity with us, he graciously obliged and then made us all laugh with a few of his famous rhymes, although he is getting on in years his mind is as sharp as a tack and he is quite up on current happenings in the world. It was a real coup for Rose and Mark to have met the man on their first visit to Foxy’s establishment. When we finished the second drink Gerry and Dale (being the self anointed captains) had to go along to the customs and immigration office to clear us all in whilst us girls and Mark ordered another round of painkillers and some lunch. Mark got carried away with the painkillers – I think he really liked them! Our lunches arrived and we had finished them before Dale and Gerry returned, so their meals were a bit on the cool side plus they were a drink behind the rest of us. Once they had caught up we had a hard decision to make – either to stay and keep drinking until dinner or to return to our boats, have a short sleep and then return to continue with our drink session into the evening. A quick vote had us all heading back to the boats and sleeping for a couple of hours. The couple of hours vanished very quickly and it seemed like no time at all until we were back in the dink and tying up again at the dock next to Foxy’s. We passed a very pleasant evening drinking even more painkillers and having dinner whilst listening to live music dating back to our era. Once were had had our fill it was time to negotiate the dock, where Gerry managed to drop the boat keys into the water luckily they are on a floating key ring so were easily retrieved, climb in the dink and find our boat amongst the flotilla in the harbour, we were all ready for a good night sleep.