Mar 15
We are preparing to leave St. Maarten today headed for the BVI. Given our last few passages, both of us are a little nervous about this, even though the forecast is for low wind and seas. I think our tolerance for discomfort has changed since we took off the two years, then sat all last year in a marina.
After morning radio nets and coffee, we packed up the computer and went to McDonald's to upload the website update. We had breakfast there and sent out notes to family about our plan for the passage so they would know to watch the SPOT track of our progress. We were back at the boat before noon, tidying things up and making sure everything was secure. About 13:30 I picked Mike up and we went to Customs & Immigration to check out of the country. You pay by the week to anchor on the Dutch side of Simpson Bay Lagoon. When we came in we paid for two weeks, not being sure how long we would stay, so today we paid for two more weeks and a bridge fee. Mike went first, and the lady asked him several questions, like next port of call, name of the captain, how many people aboard, and when he was leaving. When he was done, I stepped to the window and said "All my answers are exactly the same so it will save you time". Without missing a beat she said "So Mike Ratliff is the captain of your boat too?" We had a good laugh and she proceeded to do my paperwork quickly. A quick stop at the Immigration window and we were done.
Back at the boat we double checked that things were ready to go. I think we were both nervous and just needed to get on with it, but the bridge dictates the time schedule here. About 15:00 I started the engine so that it could charge the batteries some before we need to throttle up going through the bridge. When I revved it more then 1500 RPM, the belt squealed, so I sprayed some of the belt dressing that Mike got me at NAPA the other day on it. I think of belt dressing as a temporary fix that I would have used back when I was a teenager, but since I can't fix this poorly designed alternator installation without major work, it actually does help. After spaying on the dressing, I could rev up to 2500 RPM without squeal. At 16:00, we weighed anchor. The bridge doesn't open until 16:30, but just in case I have any trouble getting the anchor up (there is lots of crap on the bottom here to potentially snag an anchor) I want extra time. The anchor came up so easy that it made me doubt how well it had been set, although we hadn't moved overnight. We slowly motored over by Seabbatical who was also weighing anchor. They have been in the same spot all month, so they were even more concerned about getting the anchor up, but they also didn't have any problem. We have seen several people during the past month either haul up strange discarded junk on their anchors, or have to get a diver to go down and dislodge the anchor from under something. With us both free, we started the dance of idling around near the bridge waiting for it to open. Sailboats are not controllable unless they are moving, the sailboats waiting to leave usually drive around in circles. There was almost no wind while we were waiting, so I was able to just hang in one spot drifting, and only put the boat in gear to gain steerage a few times. I was the first boat in line to depart, and was drifting pretty close to the bridge. I was about to make the decision that I was going to have to circle back around once, when I heard the bells ringing indicating that the bridge was about to open. The bridge opened and we were off. Seabbatical was right behind us. We waved to the crowd at the Yacht Club, although I don't think anybody there knew us, and we waved to the bridge tender as we passed through the bridge.
Once out into the bay, we adjusted our course a bit to the northwest, and we were off. Our course is for the northern end of Virgin Gorda, which is pretty much the closest port of entry for the BVI. The wind was about 10 knots as forecast, and it was directly on the beam, also as forecast. What a concept - finding the weather as you expect it. You can't ever judge the offshore forecast by what you are seeing in an anchorage, especially one completely landlocked like Simpson Bay. For that matter, you can't judge the offshore forecast by what you see within a mile or two of an island sometimes. But what we found right outside was what we expected, and it stayed that way. The seas consisted of very little wind chop, but there was about a ten foot north swell, with a ten or twelve second interval that was rolling under us. That meant the boat wanted to wallow side to side as the swells passed. Even though we will probably motor all night, I wanted the main up to stabilize us in the swell. I went to pull out the main and it jammed as soon as it started to unfurl. This often happens, and usually I just pull it back in a little, and try again. Well, after five tries, I did not have any main out. So instead, I unfurled about 2/3 of our headsail. This not only steadied us in the swell, but it gave about another knot of speed over the 5.5 knots we were already motoring. The headsail on MoonSail is 135%, which translates to "big". That's why I didn't want the whole thing out until we were away from the island, just in case we found more wind out there than we currently had. Once away from the island, we still found the same conditions - wind about 10 knots and small but rolly seas. Since we were making a good speed, I decided not to mess with anything and leave the sail the same overnight. We did have the wind pick up to about 12 for a little while. Seabbatical put out full sail and turned off his motor when that happened. Of course, that made the wind go back down to about 8 knots, so he resumed motor-sailing. We were treated to a nice sunset about 18:30 (no daylight savings time here). We turned on our running lights and set the instrumentation lights to their "night" settings to make them visible but not ruin our night vision. Barb was not feeling quite right, which is very unusual for her. She has never experienced seasickness. She thought perhaps she was getting the same bug that several friends have had over the past week, but I think it was just that she was nervous about having another bad passage. She never did get sick, but was not comfortable all night.
At one point, Barb was looking over the side at the foam of water as the waves hit the side of MoonSail. You could see the sparkle of phosphorescence in the foam as it swept by. While we were watching this, we also saw another large glowing creature go by. It was perhaps a foot in diameter. I'm guessing it was some sort of jellyfish, and it was the only one we noticed. It was too early in the trip to attribute it to sleep deprivation. We also saw lots of stars. By standards of any metropolitan area in the States, we have little light pollution anywhere down here, but when you are out in the middle of the ocean there is zero and the stars are magnificent. We spotted several constellations including the Southern Cross low on the horizon. We also saw several shooting stars. We discussed the comet that is supposed to be visible, but we never paid attention to when it was or what part of the sky it is in, so we didn't see that. The moon tonight was just a sliver. Even though it had been small, it cast a path of light on the water in front of us. As the moon got lower, it got obscured by clouds. I had forgotten about it until suddenly I saw a light ahead of us. I was about to change course and was asking Barb for her opinion of what the light was. She calmly asked if it was the moon peeking from behind a cloud. That's the second time I've almost changed course for the moon.
The night went pretty boringly, which was wonderful. We had a little traffic as we left. There were three other sailboats going our way in the distance, but they disappeared after awhile. We also had two cruise ships leave St. Maarten after us, who passed us on their way back to the States, but they avoided us by a couple of miles. We had the iPod playing until it's battery went dead about 02:00. Sometime around 22:30, we saw the lights of other boats coming our way. It looked like there were four to our starboard and five to our port. But, there was a gap between these two groups of a couple miles. These nine boats were strung out in a north/south line as if they were racing. We have several friends coming this way tonight or tomorrow, but if they were in that group, we didn't see them on our AIS, which only means they may not have an AIS transponder. Once those boats were past, we didn't see any other traffic until morning. We actually had to slow down for the last hour before dawn, because we were approaching the area where the depth goes from thousands of feet deep to about 65 feet. This is where you find floats from various fishing gear which could get tangled in the prop. Seabbatical was almost a mile behind us, but they had slowed too. As the first hints of lights were coming over the eastern horizon, we were getting into the "shallow" water. Barb stood outside the cockpit on deck to have a better view to look for floats. We spotted a few, but not many. Which hopefully means we weren't just not seeing them. I called Seabbatical on the VHF to warn them about the floats.
After the conversation with Seabbatical, another voice hailed us on the radio. It was Lee on Allegro who was just leaving Virgin Gorda heading for St. Maarten. We had known from the Coconut Telegraph that they were crossing today, but I thought they were leaving from St. Thomas, not Virgin Gorda. We spoke for several minutes and told them the conditions we had experienced overnight. We have "known" Lee & Sharon on Allegro since our second summer cruising in 2006 when we were in Long Island Sound. We had literally passed each other near Woods Hole and Lee noticed our Texas flag. He hailed me on the radio and asked where we were from. He had spent a lot of his career in Houston, and Allegro came from Houston. He asked us if we knew another Texas boat named Milano Myst who were currently in Newport. We told him we did not, but that we would look them up, which we did and ended up becoming great friends. Back to Allegro, Lee has a great SSB radio, and has participated in the Coconut Telegraph since it's inception in 2007. So, we have spoken routinely, but never met face to face until 2009 when we were in Grenada. Lee & Sharon were passing through Grenada and stopped in for a burger night at the marina. We then saw them last year several times at the Antigua Classic Week activities. This year they have been in the Virgins for several months as we made our way here. Now here we are passing and waving to each other again. I reminded Lee that we have passed each other almost as often as we have been face to face, and he got a kick out of it.
As the sun came up we found our way between Virgin Gorda and Necker Island, Sir Richard Branson's private retreat. The main house on the island was hit by lightening and destroyed by the subsequent fire in August 2011. But, there is activity currently going on rebuilding. We made our way to the entrance channel to North Sound and turned in. Coming from this side, it's easy to see where a mariner not paying attention could easily end up on a reef thinking it was the entrance to North Sound. Within North Sound you have your choice of several places to anchor or take a mooring. The Bitter End Yacht Club is on the eastern end of the bay, along with Saba Rock resort, and Biras Creek. On the western side is Leverick Bay, where we picked up a mooring. All in all the passage had been ok. Other than the mainsail being jammed, nothing broke. There was no significant water intake, and no water in the galley. The auto pilot worked all night with no issues, and the GPS fix only disappeared twice briefly.
GPS N 18-29.986 W 064-23.216 Nautical miles traveled today 80 Total miles 10336.
Mar 16
We were on a mooring in front of the Leverick Bay Marina at 07:00. The mooring field has lots of boats, but there were a number of open moorings to choose from. I took the one closest to the marina in hopes of picking up wi-fi. We decided that since Customs & Immigration probably doesn't open until 09:00, we would nap. We went below and tried to sleep, but even being exhausted, it wasn't happening much. There was lots of small boat traffic making wakes to disturb us, and of course it was bright and sunny. I dozed, but awoke at 08:00 and checked in on the Coconut Telegraph. I went back to bed and dozed a bit more before getting up about 09:00. Barb made coffee, and then we set about the task of launching the dinghy. I picked Mike up about 09:30 and we headed to Gun Creek to check in. Gun Creek is on the south side of North Sound, and only opened as a port of entry last year. We have heard numerous reports from cruisers that it is the best place in the BVI to check in or out because it is small and never busy, and the officers there are not in the mold of cranky BVI officials that are found in other places. We found the dock and nice building that houses the ferry terminal and Customs & Immigration. The Customs man and Immigration man were sitting outside on a bench as we walked up, and they greeted us and led us inside. We have also heard recently about new fees in the BVI, so we didn't know what to expect to pay. We filled out our forms and were pleased to pay $14.50 for a month's stay. The officers were both pleasant and courteous, and the only pain in the process was pushing hard enough on the pen to make it go through to all five copies of the form. The desk that the officers work from is built with recesses in the counter top to house a computer monitor. As the Immigration officer was manually filling out our receipt, I pointed out that "That would be an excellent place for them to give you a computer". His response was, "Tell me." Change comes slowly in the Islands.
We went back to the boats and Mike & Lynn went about the task of launching their dinghy. They carry their dinghy on deck, not on davits, so it is a bigger deal to stow and launch. About noon we went to shore to Jumbies, the restaurant at Leverick Bay Marina. Our first culture shock was looking at the price of beer on the menu. Welcome back to the land of ripping off the charter boat guests who are only here a week. Beer was $5 each. We have been paying $3-$4 in St. Maarten (outside happy hour) and thought that was high. In Antigua we paid $5 EC dollars, which was less than $2 USD. The food was priced no better. Guess we'll be getting used to eating on the boat more often, as we should anyway.
We were back on the boat around 14:00, and the exhaustion was setting in. Barb went below and went to sleep and I tried to sleep in the cockpit. Even though my eyes burned and I felt exhausted, I only dozed for the next couple of hours. About 17:00, we had some cheese and crackers for dinner, along with a tall rum beverage. Two of those did the trick and about 20:00 we went to bed. We did have a nice rain shower just before bed, that rinsed the salt off the boat. That's how it should work after every passage.
GPS N 18-29.986 W 064-23.216 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10336.
Mar 17
I was up around 06:30 as usual, and at 07:00 turned on the SSB radio to listen to Chris Parker's weather forecast. He never starts on time, but by 07:15 when I still hadn't heard him, I was starting to wonder. At 07:20, it finally occurred to me that it was Sunday and he doesn't do his broadcasts on Sunday. I could have slept in.
It is quite windy as forecast today. The wind generator is spinning nicely, despite the fact that a bearing seems to be bad and it takes a lot of wind to get it going. The bay is quite empty today, as it is a turnover day for charter boats I guess. I think the majority of charter guests who get a boat for a week, come and go on Saturday or Sunday, so they aren't up here yet. There are probably less than ten boats on moorings, leaving about twenty empty, and none of those boats are charter boats.
In the afternoon, we went over to Seabbatical to listen to the NASCAR race on their Sirius radio. They had been extremely bummed in St. Maarten when they thought their Sirius radio had bit the dust, but since leaving the radio interference hell of the lagoon in St. Maarten, it has worked fine. While we were aboard Seabbatical, we saw L'Esprit du Nord coming into the bay. They had left St. Maarten in the wee hours of the morning and were just arriving. Mike hailed them on the radio and welcomed them to the BVI. They mentioned getting together later, but that never happened, as I'm sure they were tired. We listened to the race and then went back to MoonSail for a quiet evening.
GPS N 18-29.986 W 064-23.216 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10336.
Mar 18
The wind continued all night and is still blowing, so the wind generator has been getting a workout. Hopefully it will help replenish some of the amps we gobble up keeping the beer cold and the ice frozen. Jim on L'Esprit du Nord asked Mike and I if we would come over and help him get his dinghy off his foredeck this morning. In this wind, once you hoist the dinghy from the deck to put it over the side, it becomes a big sail in high winds. We went over and as Ali used the winch and a halyard to raise the nose of the dinghy high in the air, the three of us held on to it and other parts of the boat to keep it under control. We almost had it fly away on us, but we got it back under control, over the side, and lowered right side up in the water. I'm very glad we don't put our dinghy on the foredeck except to store it for the summer.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing and then we joined Mike & Lynn, and Jim & Ali aboard L'Esprit du Nord for a pre-happy hour drink. We plan to just have one with them and then go to shore for the Michael Beans Happy Arrrr. It has been rainy off and on all day, as while we were at L'Esprit du Nord, another shower came through. About 16:30, with the show about half an hour away, we made the executive decision to postpone Beans until tomorrow night, since it is on the beach with no cover from rain. We migrated to below decks on L'Esprit du Nord and had several more drinks with them and enjoyed hearing Jim tell us about riding out Hurricane Lenny in the lagoon at St. Maarten in 1999. Lenny had been a very unusual storm in that it went "the wrong way" across the Caribbean. It traveled west to east catching many people off guard in their preparations.
GPS N 18-29.986 W 064-23.216 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10336.
Mar 19
Happy Birthday to me! And it's a big one. Who'd have thought I'd actually be a sixty-year-old some day? As if the thought of turning sixty wasn't shock enough to my body, I decided to take a hike with Mike & Lynn, and Gary & Laura from Lucille. There is absolutely nowhere to go but up in Leverick Bay. I suppose this is true all the time when you live at sea-level, but here it is pronounced. We started climbing the road out of Leverick Bay with the goal of finding "the national park". Of course none of us knew exactly where this alleged park was, nor what attractions it might hold for us. We climbed and climbed, until we were at an intersection where the road went over the hill and down to the south side of the island, or a different road went even steeper up the mountain. There was a primary school at this intersection, and a dad waiting in his car for his small child. We asked him where the national park was. He told us the steep road was shorter, and the easier road looped around but was longer. Either way he said, it was a pretty long walk, and he left us with a look like we were crazy people. We opted for the short steep road, and kept climbing. Near the top of the next ridge, we thought we were being rewarded with the signs of a couple of bars on top of the hill. Unfortunately, the bars didn't seem to think being open at 10:00 was appropriate. On the other side of this cluster of homes, bars, and a couple restaurants, we found a sign that said "Welcome to North Sound". Looking further up the road, we saw no indication of a national park, nor any compelling reason to continue. So we took pictures by the welcome sign, as if that had been our goal in the first place, and started back down. We all agreed that downhill is easier on the cardio, but tougher on the old knees. We did successfully make it back to the marina complex at Leverick Bay, where we treated ourselves to a couple of cold beers from the grocery store. (They are only $2/can at the grocery instead of $5 at the bar.)
While we were ashore, Lynn and I went to the office at the fuel dock to pay for our moorings. In most of the BVI bays, somebody will come out to your boat in the evening to collect the mooring fee. We have been here three nights and will be staying one more, and we have not been approached to pay yet. The guy from the fuel dock had come by L'Esprit du Nord the night we were there, and collected from them, but I guess he thought we were charter guests of theirs, since he never asked if we had boats too. Many boaters will take the opportunity to skip out on paying the mooring fee if they got missed in the evening, but I wasn't going to do that. So, when I told the fuel dock guy (same one who collected from L'Esprit du Nord) that I wanted to pay for four nights, he was shocked. He was surprised that he had missed us three nights in a row, and that I was upfront about it. He made sure that I knew we were entitled to 100 gallons of water and a bag of ice for each night. I told him we would get some of each in the morning when we leave.
The wind has laid down quite a bit from the past few days, and the sky is nice and clear today. So, we went to the Michael Beans show this evening. We were joined by Mike & Lynn, Jim & Ali, and Gary & Laura. Barb also brought a birthday cake for us to share, which she had baked while we were away on our hike this morning. If you have ever seen Michael Beans' show, then you've seen his show. It hasn't changed a lot over the years, but it is still fun to see. It is a pirate themed show, and any word that as the letter R in it will be drawn out to ARRRR. As in Happy Arrrr. And Happy Barrrthday. Of course there is a part of the show where he gets any birthday people up front to embarrass them, and I obliged. Michael is also very passionate about work he does with a school in Ile a Vache, Haiti. We spoke to him a little before the show about that and the fact that there is a new school of thought regarding how to cruise from the US to the Caribbean via the south coast of Haiti (specifically Ile a Vache), and the Dominican Republic instead of via the north coast of the Dominican Republic as has been espoused for years by the alleged expert on the subject. He is always looking for cruisers who might be willing to carry supplies gathered in the States to the school.
After the show was over, we cut the cake and had a little birthday party. Since the show is 17:00 to 19:00, we were back to the boat fairly early for a good night's sleep.
GPS N 18-29.986 W 064-23.216 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10336.
Mar 20
We are moving today, so as soon as I saw an opening at the fuel dock, I called the dockmaster to see if we could come in to top up our water tanks. He said to proceed, so we dropped the mooring lines. As we were headed in, I heard another boat call him inquiring about fuel and water. Since we only need water, he directed us to go in a regular slip instead of on the fuel dock. The slips here are all nice long finger piers, so it didn't matter to us. He took our lines and tied us up, and brought a hose to us. We topped up our tank, which was only about thirty gallons, and I got two bags of ice. We could have four, but we have no room to keep them. It's painful to turn down free ice.
We left the dock as Seabbatical was dropping their mooring. We motored together about eleven miles over to Trellis Bay on the far east end of Beef Island, which is just off the east end of Tortola. Beef Island is where the BVI's main airport is. As we left North Sound, Virgin Gorda, we saw several large sailboats sailing west with their huge spinnakers flying. These are boats that will be racing in a day or two to St. Barths to participate in the St. Barths Bucket Regatta, and then moving on to Antigua for Classic Week and Sailing Week. We are talking sailboats that are between 100 and 200 feet long. They were a bit north of us and went north of Scrub Island as we went south of it. They are apparently just practicing today. As we proceeded along the south side of Scrub Island, here came four of the five big sailboats turning around the west end of Scrub Island and heading our way. I changed course and moved far enough south to be clearly out of their way, but still close enough to get a few good pictures of them underway. They are amazing boats.
As we entered Trellis Bay, we were greeted by two turtles swimming around. They pay little heed to a passing boat unless you are bearing right down on them, and we passed one within about ten feet. We found several moorings to choose from and picked one up. In hindsight we should have gotten one closer in as we were bounced around by ferry wakes where we were. We launched the dinghy and took care of our first order of business, which was to hit the small grocery store here. We are out of beer and a few other staples. We have a plan with Seabbatical to go to Da Loose Mongoose for happy hour tonight, so while we were ashore, we stopped there to find out when happy hour was. Turns out it is 15:00 - 19:00, and was going on 15:00 then. We weren't ready to start yet though, so we passed the news along to Mike & Lynn and then joined them later about 17:00. Da Loose Mongoose has undergone a change in management/ownership since we were last here. From what we understand, the new people are leasing it with an option to buy if business is good after a year or two. It is a mainstay of Trellis Bay, so I hope it works out. While there we saw Ron, from Island Siren, who came south with us back in 2007. There were several cats laying around the deck, some who liked being pet, and some who didn't. There was also a very cute puppy, who belonged to a guy at the bar who turned out to be a chef from another Trellis Bay landmark, The Last Resort. The puppy was only eight weeks old, and quite timid. There were two little kids who insisted on petting him, and he wasn't really sure about all the attention. He would rather have just stayed at Dad's feet quietly. Also while we were at Da Loose Mongoose, we were approached by a guy who asked if we were on boats. We said yes, and he then explained he was Dan, the mooring collection guy. He has a smart way of doing things. He tours the mooring field late in the afternoon, and makes a list of boats that he doesn't catch aboard and collect from. Then he checks the bars, starting with Da Loose Mongoose. We paid him and chatted a bit. He had noticed our boat was from Kemah, TX, and told us his daughter had lived there awhile until she took off with a guy on a boat to Panama.
Back at the boat, we decided that our choice of moorings had been flawed by just taking the first one we came to. Not only do we have continuing ferry wakes, which I assume will stop overnight, but we are next to a boat that we were next to for a day up at Leverick Bay. This boat has the loudest Air Marine wind generator I have ever heard. Air Marine wind generators used to be known for their annoying noise, and they have improved them significantly over the years. This one must have been the prototype, because it is not only the loudest I've ever heard, but it is primer gray instead of white. Of course they are perfectly aligned off to our stern a bit such that we hear the generator great when we are in the aft cabin trying to sleep.
GPS N 18-26.894 W 064-31.839 Nautical miles traveled today 11 Total miles 10347.
Mar 21
I considered moving to a different mooring closer in the bay this morning. This would probably alleviate the ferry wakes because of the island that The Last Resort sits on, and it would get us away from the noisy wind generator. But, before I could put that plan in motion, the boat with the noisy wind generator left. With one of my two reasons for moving eliminated, I reverted to lazy mode and decided we could deal with the wakes. Besides, we plan to be off the boat for a good portion of the day today.
There is a beach called Long Bay Beach that is just about a half mile away from us as the seagull flies. Unfortunately, the seagull can fly over the airport. Since it is frowned upon, even outside the US, to run across an airport runway, we will have to walk around the airport. We have plans to meet other friends of Seabbatical's who are anchored at Fat Hog Bay, which is a couple miles from us. Long Bay Beach is about a halfway point between us. As far as we know, there are no facilities, like a bar or restaurant at Long Bay Beach, so we loaded a cooler with beer and some of that free ice we scored yesterday and headed off on a hike. We stopped at the airport to raid the ATM machine, as there is none at any of the businesses right in Trellis Bay. Our ATM experience in St. Maarten was that they all gave a combination of $100 and $50 bills. This meant we were constantly dealing with big bills and trying to make change. This ATM gave me $500 all in $20 bills. Sweet.
We continued on our walk, which meant walking the full length of the runway and then around it's western end. Just past the end of the runway, we found a sign that pointed us down a dirt road to Long Bay Beach. We had walked about a mile and a half at this point and were hoping that we were going to be rewarded with a beach that was worth it. We indeed were. Long Bay Beach is probably at least a mile long, crescent shaped beach. The beach was all sand, not mixed with shells or rocks to step on. In the water, the bottom was also all sand and smooth, with a nice gradual entrance. Many beaches have steep drop-offs, or shelly areas just a little into the surf. This had none of that and barely any surf. It was the perfect beach to be able to stand in the water with your beer and chat and not be getting beaten around by waves. Onshore sand was about fifty feet wide, and then there were sea grapes all along the shore providing ample shade space to spread a towel and sit. Gary & Laura from Lucille, and Muddy and Kate from Mud Cat, and Jacque from Unleaded joined us from the other bay. We spent the whole afternoon here enjoying the beach and the water and the company.
About 16:00 we started the hike back from Long Bay Beach. As when you were a kid, the trip back didn't seem to take as long as the trip to a new place. When we got past the airport we had a choice to make - left to the dinghy, or right to Da Loose Mongoose? I went to get the dinghy and the others went to happy hour. I brought the dinghy down to Da Loose Mongoose's dinghy dock to save the walk for everybody later. We had several drinks here and chatted more with Ron from Island Siren. Eventually it was back to the boats, where Barb made us pizza for dinner.
GPS N 18-26.894 W 064-31.839 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10347.
Mar 22
Today started as a lazy day. A little after lunch we decided to stretch our legs and go ashore. We landed the dinghy at the dock by the grocery, which is at the north end of the Trellis Bay beach. Da Loose Mongoose is the last business on the south end of the beach. We walked along checking out a couple shops and went as far as the Aragorn Gallery. Aragorn Gallery has a lot of very nice, and fairly pricey arts and crafts all locally made. Very nice stuff, but were weren't tempted to buy any. On our way back along the beach we decided to stop at the Trellis Kitchen. It is a patio restaurant with an attractive bar in the middle. We sat at the bar and ordered a beer. After being there only a few minutes, Mike & Lynn came walking up. One of the few times in the past few months we have not coordinated our plans with them, and they show up on their own. We joked about what the odds were of running into each other at a bar.
We have reservations tonight for dinner at The Last Resort. Apparently, it too has changed ownership and/or management since our last visit. The current management and menu got high praise from Dan, the guy who collects mooring fees, so we are confident it will be good. We met aboard Seabbatical for happy hour before going to dinner. Our reservation is for 18:30, which is pretty much the earliest you can get. The Last Resort sits on an island in Trellis Bay. You can get there via a free ferry from the beach, or you can dinghy in. While the island is only a few hundred feet off our stern, to get there by dinghy you have to go almost all the way to the beach and then come around the end of a long shoal that comes off the western end of the island. In our previous visits here, we have not only seen big boats, but also numerous dinghies, including yours truly, try to cut this shoal too close and end up aground on it. I have learned that lesson and give it a wide berth now. We tied up at the Last Resort's dock and went inside. We were only the second table to be seated, being fairly early. I had seen a copy of the menu on the beach earlier in the day, and thought I already knew what I was going to have, but of course there was a special that changed my mind. I had a very nice grilled salmon dish. I eat salmon a lot in the States, and don't normally order it in the Caribbean since it obviously isn't locally caught, but I made an exception.
GPS N 18-26.894 W 064-31.839 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10347.
Mar 23
We are moving today, but before hoisting the dinghy, I took our garbage ashore. I don't recall speaking about garbage much in my logs, and perhaps you readers wonder what we do with it. Well, like where to get water, where to dispose of garbage is a common cruiser topic. The options are many. Some places there just is no garbage disposal option and you have to take it with you. Some places, have a marina or other business with a dumpster, where you can leave garbage for a pre-bag fee of a couple of bucks. Some places have an entrepreneur in a boat who comes around the anchorage daily who will take your garbage for a small fee. And some places, just have a public dumpster you may use for nothing. Trellis Bay falls among the last of the options, with public dumpsters not far from the dinghy dock by the grocery store. When that is the available option, obviously we want to take advantage of it. So a quick dinghy ride in with our garbage was in order. Back at the boat we raised the dinghy and outboard for our next passage. It's fun calling the little five or ten mile trips between islands in the Virgins "passages". We like passages like these.
Our destination today is The Bight at Norman's Island. The distance is about twelve miles, of which two are getting around Beef Island, and ten are northeast to southwest across the Sir Francis Drake Channel. The Sir Francis Drake Channel is the main body of water between Tortola and Norman's, Peter, Cooper, and Ginger Islands which parallel the south coast of Tortola. So, on any given day, it is the super-highway of boat traffic of people, mostly charter boats, moving between these islands, or just out for a day sail. Once we were around the end of Beef Island, we unfurled our foresail. We were going downwind, in about ten knots of wind, and we kept the motor running also. I had forgotten what it is like to sail in busy waters, not unlike what I learned on in Galveston Bay, and San Francisco Bay (thanks Doug). You actually see more than one or two boats and may have to dodge them. For non-boaters reading this, there are strict rules of the road that apply to boating. But, those rules go out the windows when 75% or more of the boats you are dealing with are bareboat charters. You simply make early and obvious course changes to make sure you don't have to count on them knowing who has the right of way. I only cut it close when the boat in question is obviously captained by a professional who may know and care about the rules of the road. And then it works out fine.
When we got to The Bight, we found the place almost empty. The Bight is home to two attractions. The William Thornton, a.k.a The Willy T, is a old steel boat that has been converted to a bar and restaurant. It is anchored in the southwest corner of the bay. It is well known amongst boaters for it's loud music and wild partying, including the practice of jumping naked off the upper deck into the water. The other business on the island is Pirates Bight restaurant and bar in the southeast corner. As we approached the almost empty mooring field we chose to pick up a mooring near the Pirate's side using the logic that we wouldn't be bothered should the Willy T crowd party late into the night. Our plans were soon foiled when two large powerboats chartered from Virgin Traders pulled in and took moorings near us. Each of these boats had four or five couples onboard who were obviously just starting their week's vacation. There was loud music and topless dancing which provided entertainment for us. This was very early in the afternoon. I commented to Barb that we could only hope that these youngster didn't know how to pace themselves, and that they would quit early.
When we had taken our mooring, we had noticed Tussen Taak II on a mooring ahead of us. We first met Chuck & Barb on Tussen Taak II in Wrightsville Beach, NC back in 2006. We got to know them much better in 2007 when we all spent the hurricane season in Grenada. We have seen them a few times since then, and spoken on the radio, but I think the last we saw them face to face was in 2009. We had plans to meet Mike & Lynn at Pirates for happy hour at 16:00, and we left a bit early so we could stop by Tussen Taak II. We stopped and said hi to Chuck & Barb and chatted for a few minutes. They were going to be coming to shore soon to refill their dive tanks, and said they would meet us at the bar. They came in a bit later and we caught up on what we've been doing for the past couple of years since we saw them last. After about an hour, they left to pick up their tanks, and Mike & Lynn came in. We enjoyed several more drinks, although any chance of being over-served were negated because the service was quite slow. Our after-16:00 bartender was Romeo, who was a great bartender, in that he remembered our names and our drinks, but he was woefully over-worked. By 18:00 we were back on the boat where Barb fixed one of her famous Tupperware-surprise dinners.
GPS N 18-19.104 W 064-37.009 Nautical miles traveled today 12 Total miles 10359.
Mar 24
We had a lazy morning aboard. For whatever reason, it occurred to me to get the handheld GPS from our ditch box and make sure it works. (The ditch box is a waterproof box with just a few very important things in it that gets grabbed on the way out if we ever had to abandon ship.) I suppose I should have done this before we ever left the dock in Antigua, but I didn't. I took the GPS out and tried to turn it on. Nothing. So, I checked the batteries. No batteries. That would have done us a lot of good in the ditch box without batteries. I put new batteries in the GPS and tried again. Nothing. My first conclusion was that it had bit the dust. For whatever reason, I decided to check the brand-new batteries I just put in. One was good, one was dead as a doornail. I got another battery and the GPS came alive. I had to get the manual to remember how to use it, but if I am using it after abandoning ship, all I need to know is the coordinates we are at, which is on the main screen.
When we were at Pirates yesterday, we saw they had a large TV by the bar with ESPN Sports Center on it, and nobody watching. So, about 15:00 Mike and I went in to see if they would put NASCAR on for us. The place was crowded, and the TV wasn't even off. We were hopeful that at least we wouldn't have to compete for the TV with some other type of sports fan, but we soon found out that the manager, who had control of the DISH Network receiver in the office, wouldn't be here until 16:00. So, we nursed a couple of beers while we waited. During this hour of waiting, we watched again as service sucked due to a lack of personnel. We also witnessed a fine example of the ugly American in the group of six right next to us. While the one and only bartender was swamped, one of the girls in the group was yelling drink orders to her. When they were thankfully ready to leave, of course they were in a hurry, because they had docked their powerboat where they shouldn't have and it needed to be moved. About 16:00, the obnoxious neighbors were gone, and the new shift of workers arrived on the ferry from Tortola. Our new bartender was Romeo from yesterday, and he remembered us. We immediately asked if he could get the manager to get the TV on, and he did. We had missed the first quarter of the race, but saw the rest. Unfortunately, we were watching it without sound, which probably was our own fault as I doubt anybody would have said anything if we turned it up.
Since the race ended with some controversy, we were curious about the details. Not to worry though, because we have plans to have dinner on Seabbatical when we return. While Lynn prepared us a spaghetti dinner, Mike & I listened to the post-race talk shows on Sirius and got the lowdown on what happened.
GPS N 18-19.104 W 064-37.009 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10359.
Mar 25
Our plan today is to have a quiet morning and then meet Mike & Lynn for lunch at Pirates. We got to shore at about 12:30 and got a table for four right up front looking out at the beach. The place was busy but not packed. A waitress acknowledged us as we sat down, but didn't come back to take an order for almost thirty minutes. We ordered our drinks and food together. The beers came soon after, and the time for the food wasn't too bad. But, when the food came, of course we needed more beer, and a couple of condiments. It took forever for her to return with those, so the choice was to eat the food with the condiments you like, or eat it cold. I should mention that Pirates is under new ownership and/or management, and it has been totally renovated. The renovation is so extensive, that I'm not sure they didn't just level the old place and start from scratch. It all looks very upscale now, but they apparently have cut corners in staffing and staff training to pay for the renovation. I would not recommend a stop there unless I hear other reports that they improve in time.
We went back to the boats after lunch for a couple hours, then went over to the Willy T for drinks. The Willy T is known for it's patron's wild behavior, but today was pretty quiet. There was one group of six there at the main bar who were playing loud, mostly obnoxious music from their iPhone through the bar's PA, and they were partying hard, but we sat on the upper deck where the volume was tolerable and just had a few drinks. The drink they call a Painkiller is not a Painkiller at all. It's more like a rum punch. It was ok, but not what I was looking for. We just had a couple of drinks and went back to the boats.
GPS N 18-19.104 W 064-37.009 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10359.
Mar 26
We dropped the mooring at Norman's about 09:00 and headed for Cane Garden Bay. Our original plan was to go to Jost Van Dyke today and then Cane Garden Bay a few days later, but there is another north swell predicted in a couple days, and Cane Garden Bay is not the place to be in a north swell. So we reversed our plan and will head there today. We're only talking about a few miles between all these destinations, so this isn't a big deal. What little wind there was today was directly behind us as we headed north out of Norman's towards the west end of Tortola, so we just motored. As we were approaching the west end of Tortola, the traffic increased as this is where any boat coming to or from Jost Van Dyke or Cane Garden Bay will pass, and in addition, Soper's Hole is the town right at the west end which is a port of entry for boats checking in or out from the USVI. We negotiated the cut between Tortola, Little Thatch Island, and Great Thatch Island and turned northeast around the point towards Cane Garden Bay. Once we made that turn, the wind was pretty much right on the beam. Perfect for sailing, except that we only have three miles to go. Those who have followed our logs long know that I don't go through the effort of unfurling and refurling a sail for only half an hour of sailing.
At Cane Garden Bay, we found lots of moorings available and picked one up. The moorings here are pink, because they are administered by Rhymer's Hotel, which is the pink building ashore. We did have a little trouble picking up our mooring today, which is very unusual for us. For whatever reason, (I'm blaming current) after I thought I stopped the boat and Barb had the first mooring line through the pennant, the ball was way back alongside the boat aft of mid-ship. Since the pennants are long, she still had the eye of the pennant at the bow. I went forward as usual and put the second mooring line through the pennant and attached it. We then sat and waited for us to drift back to where the ball was in front of us where it belonged. We turned sideways to the wind though, and just sat there. I think what happened was that now the keel was hung up on the line from the ball to the bottom, and we were being held there by the wind. So, I undid one of the mooring lines entirely, and that allowed us to turn around and it all popped free. We reattached the second mooring line and all was well. That was the first time that happened.
We launched our dinghy and picked Mike & Lynn up at Seabbatical to go ashore. Since we are only spending one day here, we made a deal that we would play taxi, but it cost them a beer. We landed at the dinghy dock and went ashore. That's the part of Cane Garden Bay that is untenable in a large north swell. Stories abound of charter people trying to land their dinghies here during a swell. We had brought our garbage with us, as there is a free public dumpster on the road. We walked down the road to the dumpster, and then continued to Callwood's Distillery. Barb and I have been to Callwood's several times, but Mike & Lynn had not. We found nothing changed since last time we were here, except I think they have replaced the bridge over the stagnant creek. We paid $2/person for the guided tour, which takes about five minutes and doesn't really tell you anything you don't know if you have ever been to a distillery before, but it is still cool. It allows you to take all the pictures you want then without being hassled. After the tour, I purchased a bottle of rum. I have had it before, but don't recall if it was very good or not. Despite what they tell you, I don't think they really make any rum here anymore.
We walked back into the main area of town and stopped at Myett's for beers. The local ATM is at Myett's, so I took the opportunity to get some cash. Last time I got cash I was pleased that it was all $20 bills. This time I got $500 in $10 bills! I won't have to worry about making change anywhere, but that's a fat wad to manage. Even though it was mid-afternoon, the place was busy with people eating lunch still. We sat at the bar and had a couple of beers watching the world go by. While we were there, an old guy was loading in music equipment. Looking at him and looking at the flyers on the entertainment bulletin board, we concluded that this must be Kap Eye, and that his picture on his flyer was from some time ago. We were thinking about taking bets if he was going to survive the load-in and be able to play a show, but we declined. We left before he started to perform, so we'll have to just wonder about his entertainment value.
We moved down the beach a bit to Tony's Welcome Bar. This was Stanley's Welcome Bar until this year. Another change in the BVI. We were assured though that nothing but the name changed. Same staff, same food, same happy hour deal. Indeed if you looked around you could still see some things that said Stanley's on them, like the beach umbrellas. There is a bar on the beach here, and a seating area in the main building for dining. We sat at the bar, which is very uneven, probably due to settling or erosion of the beach under it. They did know how to make a proper Painkiller here and we enjoyed several. After several happy hour drinks, we moved inside and had dinner. I had a good seafood pasta and Barb had ribs. The ribs were excellent and large, so I got to enjoy some of those along with my pasta.
We spent the rest of the evening aboard, with the sounds of music coming from the shore. Last time we were here there was loud music playing very late, but this time it was decent music and it wrapped up at a reasonable hour.
GPS N 18-25.670 W 064-39.563 Nautical miles traveled today 12 Total miles 10371.
Mar 27
We are moving to Jost Van Dyke today. There are three harbors on Jost Van Dyke. Great Harbor is where Foxy's Tamarind Bar is. Great Harbor never used to have any moorings in it, and it is a terrible place to anchor. Why this was one of the most popular places in the BVI, yet it had no moorings is a mystery to me. But, we had heard that there now were moorings in Great Harbor, although we heard there wasn't many. So we got an early start so we hopefully get one, and our backup plan is to go to Little Harbor instead if Great Harbor is full. The third harbor is White Bay. There are moorings in White Bay also, but they are usually full during the day because it is a popular day stop, but it is a bad place to spend the night. From Cane Garden Bay to Great Harbor is a whopping six miles, so we motored over in a little over an hour. We found that there are lots of mooring in Great Harbor, not just a few as we had heard, and lots of them were available. We picked one up about in the middle of the pack.
Mid-afternoon, we dinghied in and met Mike & Lynn for beer at Foxy's. We had a couple of drinks there and the ladies perused the large gift shop next door. We then walked down the dirt street past several other places and stopped at Corsair's. I had forgotten that Corsair's closes in the afternoon between lunch and dinner, but they leave a pad of paper on the bar for you to make dinner reservations. Mike & Lynn are going to eat aboard, but I put us down for dinner at 18:30, their earliest seating.
Mike and I strolled back towards Foxy's and stopped for a beer at Ali Baba's, about mid-way between them. The ladies took a walk up a side street to check out other shops. Eventually they joined us and had a beer also. We moved back to Foxy's where it was now officially happy hour and got another round. Mike & Lynn departed after that and Barb and I went back to Corsair's to await our dinner time.
When we got to Corsair's it was about 17:45, and they were just getting started opening up. The bar wasn't all setup yet, but a kitchen employee made us two Painkillers. A few minutes after we got there, Vinnie, the owner showed up in his old Army jeep. I first met Vinnie two years ago when we were here on our crewed charter. I had noticed a sign hanging that was stolen from Mohonk, a famous resort near where I grew up. I had inquired about the sign, and that led me to learn that Vinnie is from Gardiner, NY, which is the next town north of Wallkill, NY where I grew up. Mohonk is near New Paltz, the next town north of Gardiner. We had chatted briefly two years ago, and realized we knew several people in common. I re-introduced myself to Vinnie and reminded him of our connection. It took him a minute, but he recalled the conversation two years ago. Vinnie was somewhat preoccupied with getting the bar set up, and he looked like he might have had a rough night, so our conversation wasn't in depth. He also mentioned he was going back to the States tomorrow, to Denver, and it wasn't a happy trip, so his thoughts were apparently elsewhere. We also met Debbie, who we learned is Vinnie's ex-wife, but they are still partners in the business. At 18:30, we took a seat in the restaurant area, on the front row looking out at the street and the bay. It was just like we were important people who had reserved the best table in the house. Of course, we were also the only 18:30 reservation. A friend had recommended the tuna steak dinner to us, so that was what we both had. It was very good with a spicy mango sauce on it.
While I was chatting with Vinnie, I asked him about the moorings. Two years ago, he was adamant that he didn't want moorings here, but I didn't recall why. When I asked him about them tonight, he grumbled, "They ain't my moorings". His logic is that now that there are moorings, if they are full people go elsewhere. When everybody anchored, they would squeeze in tighter than they should, but the result was more boats in the anchorage on any given night. I declined to try to explain to him the logic of it all from a boater's point of view. He sees it as lost customers, and not being a boater, he doesn't care that the anchorage is deep and holding is poor and boats too close together in a lousy anchorage makes for problems.
GPS N 18-26.542 W 064-45.113 Nautical miles traveled today 6 Total miles 10377.
Mar 28
We had a lazy morning aboard. Mid-morning, two Virgin Traders powerboats came in and picked up moorings. We are not certain if they are the same two that we encountered a few days ago at Norman's, but if they are, they seem to have worn themselves out. There was still partying going on, but not nearly as loud and wild as a few days ago.
At noon, we got in our dinghies and headed around the point to White Bay to the Soggy Dollar Bar. The wind is down and the seas are pretty flat, so going the mile or so out in the open water in the dinghies shouldn't be a problem. We saw other folks doing it also, so we felt good about it. As we made the turn around the point and were headed towards the break in the reef that protects White Bay, we saw a couple dolphins a few hundred feet from us. We had just been talking a couple days ago about the fact that we had not seen any dolphins this year. Now we have. There is a very large swell coming into White Bay today. As we were entering the break in the reef, the waves were breaking over the reef at least five feet high. I had never seen it this rough in here. Of course, that didn't stop the charter boats and the day-charter cattle boats from coming in. There are lots of moorings in White Bay now and they were all taken. In addition, lots of powerboats come close to shore and anchor and let their guest swim in to the beach. We landed the dinghies by carefully timing the swell and then riding a wave onto the beach. This is all choreographed with the dinghy passenger(s) jumping out at just the right time to grab the dinghy and keep it from turning sideways and flipping, while the dinghy driver simultaneously take the motor out of gear, tips it up out of the water, shuts it off, and then jumps out hopefully before the next wave comes and washed over the stern of the dinghy. We actually pulled this all off pretty well this time with just the two of us in the dinghy. As we quickly started to drag the dinghy up the beach, a couple of strangers walking by grabbed on and helped us. Sweet. We helped Mike & Lynn get theirs up and we headed to The Soggy Dollar.
The Soggy Dollar was packed when we got there. We immediately went and got in the queue at the end of the bar to try and get some Painkillers. The Soggy Dollar is reputed to be the home of the Painkiller. It took probably fifteen minutes to make our way to the bar and place our order. Once there, we found that at least two of the stools at the end of the bar were not occupied, so as we got our drinks, the girls took the end two stools. Mike and I stood behind them and tried to get a little shade from the overhang of the roof. I walked out towards the beach a bit and used my cell phone to post on Facebook that we were here, so that friends could check us out on the webcam. Mike joined me, and while we were standing there a group at a table got up and asked if we wanted the table. Of course we took it, and Mike went to get the ladies. Now we were sitting right in line with the webcam, in the shade. What more could you want? I made contact with my kids and a few friends who saw us on the webcam and thought that was pretty cool. By 13:30, the crowd was already starting to thin out. Many of the people here are on day-charter boats who make a lunch stop here and then move on to the next attraction. Mic, the bartender, had been working his butt off the entire time, and does an amazing job. He waits on many people at once, keeps the tabs perfect, and puts on a good show to boot. Even with the crowd thinning, it still took about ten minutes to get a round of drinks, but we took turns getting them. Our food came out relatively quickly, and it was pretty good. Barb and I both had fish and chips, and the fish could have spent another minute in the fryer, but it was ok. We stayed there until about 15:00, watching the show, especially the boats surging in the swell, and the day charters trying to get their anchors up and leave. One in particular put on quite a show, and somehow didn't hit anybody, although it was quite close.
When we left, we got the dinghy launched without incident and headed back to Great Harbor. We relaxed for the evening, with just a cheese & cracker dinner since we ate lunch so late.
GPS N 18-26.542 W 064-45.113 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10377.
Mar 29
Today is a milestone day. We are leaving the BVI, and MoonSail will re-enter US waters for the first time since 2007. Mike & I took one dinghy and went ashore about 09:00 to check out of the BVI. The Customs & Immigration office at Jost Van Dyke has always been more friendly than some other BVI offices, and we found this still to be true. We presented our paperwork to the officer, who scribbled on it and dated the departure box, then paid $5 to the next officer, then saw the Immigration guy who explained that if we returned to the BVI within the balance of our original thirty days, we didn't have to visit Immigration again, but if it was after our original thirty days, we had to start over. They all wished us a pleasant journey and hoped we came back soon.
Our big journey today is about seven miles. But, for the first time in several months, MoonSail and Seabbatical will diverge from one another. Our real destination today is to be Francis Bay on St. John, USVI. Mike & Lynn have what's called Local Boater's Option Cards, which allows them to call US Customs and Immigration and check-in by phone. We don't have that, so we have to check-in in person. So about halfway across the channel between Jost Van Dyke and St. John, Seabbatical made a turn towards Francis Bay while we continued towards Cruz Bay on the western end of St. John. Cruz Bay has lots of permanently moored boats, and lots of ferry traffic, and not much place to anchor, even short term. It can be done, but in OK weather, you can instead take a mooring at Caneel Bay, right around the corner, and then dinghy in to Cruz Bay to check-in. That was our plan. The weather today is as forecast, which is crappy. As we approached St. John, we could see a heavy rain shower that appeared to be over Cruz Bay, and it didn't seem to be moving. As we approached what is known as the Windward Passage, between St. John, and Lovango Cay, we hit the rain. All I can say is thank the technology gods for GPS and chartplotters. We were just motoring, so I slowed down and let another boat who was really sailing pass us before we got in the narrows between the islands, but as we passed between the islands and turned south towards Caneel bay, I couldn't see more than about a hundred feet around us because of the downpour. We were about a half mile from the mooring field at Caneel Bay, so we slowly proceeded. Eventually, we started to make out boats on the moorings. Once we were right at the mooring field, I turned directly into the wind and idled into it so we were protected from the downpour by our enclosure. We were both already pretty wet, but at least the rain wasn't pelting on us. We spent about half an hour going back and forth, either directly into the wind, or directly off the wind, waiting for the rain to slacken. I was trying to be a nice guy and not send Barb out on the foredeck in the downpour to grab the mooring line. Finally, the rain let up a bit, although it was still pouring, and Barb got her foul weather jacket one (which has not been worn since new, two years ago) and went out on deck. She snagged the mooring and secured us with just one line since we only plan to be here an hour or two.
Part of the normal routine of hoisting the dinghy onto the davits is removing the plug from it just before I get out and we raise it out of the water. This lets any water in the dinghy drain out, as well as lets any rain water drain while underway. Well, when we hoisted the dinghy this morning at Jost Van Dyke, it didn't look all that threatening. I made a conscious decision not to pull the plug, because that would save me the step of leaning into the dinghy at launch time to replace it. It didn't occur to us until we were waiting for the rain to stop so we could moor, that the dinghy was now a big bathtub hanging off the davits, adding weight with every minute. So, as soon as we got secure on the mooring, I dropped the stern of the dinghy enough to reach in and pull the plug. It was over half full of water when I did this and took several minutes to drain. It was a testament again to how strong our davits are.
Once secure on the mooring, we sat and relaxed as the rain continued. We sat in the cockpit wet and trying to decide how long to wait for this to stop before biting the bullet and going around the corner in the rain. After about thirty more minutes, the rain had stopped and sun actually came out. I was fairly dry by then, so I didn't change clothes, expecting that I still might get wet again in the journey. I got all of our paperwork together, in it's normal Zip-Loc bag and then also put it in a real diver's dry bag for the trip. I started off for the mile long ride to Cruz bay. I wasn't halfway there when I saw a small boat with a stripe on it that looked like a Coast Guard boat, which had a dinghy full of people alongside. My first thought was that I was in trouble, because we are in US waters now, I didn't have any life jackets in the dinghy, nor are it's registration numbers visible anymore. The boat turned out to be a National Park Service boat, not the Coast Guard, and it had two divers, inspecting a day mooring at a snorkeling sight. I proceeded on into Cruz Bay and tied up at the Nation Park Service dinghy dock. I walked around the end of the harbor to the Customs office, and arrived just as a full ferry from the BVI arrived. I just sat down on a rock and waited for the line of a hundred or so passengers to enter the building. Once the line was gone, I went inside and waited my turn. When called, I went to the window and stated that I was checking in on a private boat and I needed to fill out the forms. The officer asked how many people were on the boat, and I replied that there were two of us. He said he needed to see everybody, which is in direct contradiction to my previous experience here and the cruising guide published by the USVI Tourism Board. He then got the form I needed to fill out, and gave it to me so I could do it while I was gone to get the other crew. I was a bit miffed about this, but it does no good to argue, so I started to leave. As I passed the X-ray machine where outbound ferry passengers have to have their bags checked, another officer barked at me "Are you on the ferry?". I stopped and replied that no, I was on a private boat. He then barked "Where is your boat?". I replied that it was on a mooring around the corner at Caneel Bay. He then barked "Well how did you get here?", in an even louder and ruder tone. Somehow maintaining a bit of composure, I replied "In my dinghy". He then barked, "Well that's what I asked you. Where is your boat?". I guess by boat, he meant my dinghy. After I repeated that my boat was at Cannel Bay, he yelled "Where is your dinghy?". I replied, quite bewildered by this, "At the dinghy dock". To this he barked, "The dinghy dock here or at the National Park Service?". Well, there is no dinghy dock at the Customs office, just the large ferry dock, and when I tried to tie up there years ago to check in, I got yelled at and told to go to the dinghy dock across the way at the National Park Service dock. So, I replied to him that my dinghy was at the National Park Service dinghy dock, at which point he waved me on. Welcome back to the US of A. I kept my mouth shut and left the building. I had brought the handheld VHF radio, unsure it would make it over the hill to MoonSail, but I turned it on and hailed Barb. She heard me and I told her to get presentable because I was coming back to get her. I went back around the corner to MoonSail, passing the Park Service boat again and not even looking at them in case they wanted to check my safety equipment. The seas were choppier going this way and I was getting pretty wet again. Aboard MoonSail ,I told Barb the story while filling out the form the officer had given me. The form was designed for a cargo vessel, and I'm sure I never filled one of these out in the past. Interestingly enough, the one piece of information not asked for on the form was my Customs decal number, which I duly paid $25 a couple months ago. Guess I could have saved that money. Once the form was done, we both got in the dinghy and went back to Cruz Bay. Fortunately, this time there was no ferry, so no line. Inside, the same guy who had originally seen me and said I needed all crew inside called us over. He was very pleasant and took our passports, looked at the form, and welcomed us home. He then directed us to see the officer by the X-ray machine. This time it was a young lady who was also very pleasant. She asked if we were going on a ferry, and I replied that I was on a private vessel. She asked if our dinghy was here or at the National Park Service dock and I replied at the Park Service. She smiled and said have a nice day and off we were. I saw the jerk who quizzed me the first time sitting in a office as we went down the hall to the exit, and resisted the urge to ask him why he was such a prick.
After we had been welcomed home by the first officer, I asked him about the Local Boaters Option Card. We had heard from another cruiser, that if you had one it still would work, as we had seen with Mike & Lynn's experience, but he had said you could no longer get one. The officer explained that it was true, the Local Boaters Option Card was no longer available, but it had been replaced by an online system that gives you similar ease of check-in without physically going to the office. We will be applying for that soon.
Since it was now after 13:00, we decided that since we were both ashore, we would have lunch before moving on to join Seabbatical at Francis Bay. We walked a couple blocks to Woody's, which is a well known Cruz Bay establishment. Ironically, the only other time we have been to Woody's was two years ago, also on Good Friday, which today is. In the USVI and the BVI, on Good Friday, there are no liquor sales until 17:00. Two years ago when we learned that, we didn't stay. Today, we were already aware of the rule, but we were hungry. So the waitresses were surprised when we said we would stay and eat anyway. I had a good tuna steak sandwich and Barb got chicken fingers and fries which was enough to feed three and more than half of it came home with us. On the way back to the dinghy, we stopped at a small grocery store for a couple of things. Those few things we are almost out of included rum. Two years ago after being refused alcohol at Woody's, we had been able to buy cold beer to go at this grocery and took it back to the boat. So, I assumed the rule was about on-premise drinks, and to packaged sales. But, when I got to the counter with our few things which included a bottle of rum, I was told that the run couldn't be sold until 17:00. Bummer.
As we walked back to the dinghy, the sky was very dark, and it was starting to spit rain again. We thought we were going to get soaked going, back, but it held off as we went around the corner back to MoonSail. We decided to tow the dinghy the three miles to Francis Bay instead of hoisting it again, and within minutes we were underway. To get from Caneel bay to Francis Bay the shortest way takes you through the Durloe Channel which is between the big island of St. John to starboard and Henley Cay and Ramgoat Cay to port. Given that the wind now was blowing at least fifteen knots from the northeast, the seas built to quite a chop going through this cut. I was seriously questioning the decision to tow the dinghy, although every charter boat tows their dinghy everywhere. We made it fine and it took us a little more than half an hour to get to Francis Bay. Once there, we repeated our mooring experience from Cane Garden Bay. We got both mooring lines attached to the pennant, but then found that the mooring ball was amidships and we were sideway to the wind. Clearly the line from the ball to the ocean floor fifty feet below was hung up on our keel. I was afraid to put the boat in gear for fear of catching the line on the prop. So, we released both mooring lines, and still sat there for several minutes. Finally, the wind pushed us forward some, so now the ball was at the stern and clearly hung up on the rudder. At least there I knew it was past the prop, so I put the boat in gear and pulled the mooring off the rudder. We circled around and did it again, this time like we weren't rookies. We had just gotten the mooring straightened out and secure when it started to rain again. This squall was pretty hard, but nothing like the earlier one at Caneel Bay. I know it's hard to complain about, but the temperature was down in the mid 70's, and we actually put on our sweatshirts.
Our stressful day was done (we thought) and Barb fixed us well deserved beverages. Off to our starboard is a small mega-yacht with an inflatable waterslide attached to the side. We have seen many mega-yacht toys before, but never this one. Hope some poor crew member didn't have to blow it up by hand. We are near the back of the mooring field, meaning farthest from the beach, and the wind was blowing pretty good. What that meant to us was we had a good chop going on, and there was some north swell making it around the corner into the bay resulting in us rolling a bit occasionally. This manifested itself in a most unwelcome way when my full drink (in a tall Turvis Tumbler) tipped over just from the boat rolling. We don't seem to have any wi-fi signal here, but we do have cell service, so I can get mail. We retired early hoping for a good night's sleep.
GPS N 18-21.926 W 064-44.908 Nautical miles traveled today 10 Total miles 10387.
Mar 30
Our hopes for a good nights sleep did not materialize. The wind howled all night, and we bounced around a lot. I shouldn't be too concerned since we are on a National Park Service mooring, but I was pretty much awake until about 03:00. We used to leave our VHF radio on channel 16 (the main hailing channel) all night in case there was a local emergency we needed to know about, like a boat dragging anchor. Since we have been near large ports lately, and there is commercial traffic on channel 16 all night, we have changed our normal routine to just monitor an off the wall channel that Seabbatical also monitors. Last night, given the high winds, I thought it would be a good idea to monitor channel 16 also. About 02:00, we heard a sailboat calling the Coast Guard. It turned out to be a Finnish sailboat that is in Maho Bay, right next to Francis Bay. They had a fifty-year-old woman onboard who had collapsed. They had called 911 already and apparently were told to call the Coast Guard since they were on a boat. Once the Coast Guard answered, they gave them a phone number to call. About half an hour later, we heard St. John Rescue trying to call the sailboat. Apparently the Coast Guard had gotten St. John Rescue to send an ambulance to the beach at Maho Bay. The people had the sick person in their dinghy and took her to shore. We never heard anymore about the outcome, but it struck me that getting the Coast Guard involved simply wasted time in getting a response to these people. It does point out a risk of this lifestyle. While there is quality medical care many places in the islands, response time in an emergency is often hours, not minutes. Obviously that can make a big difference in the outcome.
About the time the radio excitement was going on, the wind started to lay down a little bit. We finally fell asleep, but I awoke at 07:00 as usual, so I got up to listen to the weather on the SSB. The forecast for the next few days is not pretty, with high wind and squalls predicted.
Mike & Lynn came by in their dinghy and were taking garbage to shore. We gave them some to take as long as they were going. Seabbatical is on one of the moorings closest to shore, and we are several hundred yards further out in the bay. When they were by in their dinghy, they commented that it was noticeably calmer in closer where they were. After they left we saw a boat leaving it's mooring. It wasn't as close to the shore as Seabbatical, but it was closer than we were. We dropped our mooring and started that way when we saw another boat on the other side of Seabbatical, and just as close, drop their mooring. There were a couple of other new boats approaching the mooring area, so I turned and made a beeline for the front row. We picked this one up without any drama like our last time. Once we were secure, we sat and appreciated how much calmer it was, even with the wind still blowing hard.
We plan to take a taxi to Cruz Bay this afternoon. We couldn't find any taxi phone numbers in any of the guides we have though. After a bit it suddenly occurred to me that I am back in US cell phone world, and I have a smart phone. Hello Google! I called and found out the rates and arranged for a pickup at Maho Beach at 13:30. We took one dinghy to the beach and dragged it up to the tree line and tied it to a tree. The road runs right behind the beach, so we walked out there and stood. A taxi showed up for us right on time and took us to Cruz Bay. The road is a very twisty road that runs along the southern side of the island. The taxi dropped us in town near the ferry dock and we started walking around. Barb's first stop was a shop she wanted to visit two years ago, but couldn't because they were closed to paint that day. The shop was open today and she found a shirt she liked and bought it. Barb & Lynn then went to some other shops while Mike & I went to Woody's. Mike & I had a couple beers before the ladies got there, and then we all had lunch. We had timed our trip such that we were eating mid-afternoon, but just in time for Woody's famous happy hour. They have Coors Light for $1, well mixed drinks for $1, and then $1 off anything else. Definitely the best happy hour deal we have seen. About 17:30 we headed back to find a cab, with a quick stop at the grocery for a couple things. We got a taxi at the ferry dock, and he charged us a buck per person less than the guy who took us in. So much for regulated rates.
The weather is forecast to get quite nasty overnight, so we mentally prepared and hoped that we could sleep through it. While relaxing in the cockpit, I was looking at the lights of the Maho Campground. Maho Campground has been here over thirty years. Cruisers like it because they welcome cruisers at their restaurant, although there are 218 stairs from the beach to the restaurant. Unfortunately, this is the last season for the camp. The property was leased from the National Park Service back in 1982,and the lease ran out a couple years ago. The deal was the lease renewed on a year-at-a-time basis unless the property sold. Well, the property has sold, and the camp will close May 15th. How something like this happens, I don't understand. You have an established eco-friendly business leasing National Park land, and they get displaced so the land can be sold to a developer for millions? Doesn't seem right.
GPS N 18-21.926 W 064-44.908 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10387.
Mar 31
We actually had a good night's sleep, because the bad weather didn't develop. The wind was moderate all night, and there was just one light rain shower. I was annoyed by a noise I kept hearing that sounded like the flag halyard tapping the backstay. We have been taking the flag down at night so that this doesn't happen. I finally got up and went out to try and resolve it. Outside, with my ear right next to the clip that was moving on the backstay, there was absolutely no noise. But inside, this movement was making a squeaking sound. I moved the clip and tightened the line so it couldn't move and went back in to silence.
Being Sunday, there is no weather on the radio in the morning. I woke up at the usual time, but was able to go back to sleep and slept until almost 09:00. While enjoying our morning coffee in the cockpit, Barb spotted what appeared to be a momma dolphin and her baby. They surfaced right next to us for a breath, and then we watched them surface several more times.
Friends from Kemah are supposed to show up here today on a crewed charter. Walter & Beverly charter down here almost every year, as well as have their own boat in Kemah. This year they are on a crewed catamaran called Alternate Latitude. Alternate Latitude is owned and captained by Steve Schlosser, another long-time Kemah boater who has moved here. I didn't know Steve back in Kemah, but we have a number of mutual friends. About noon, Alternate Latitude came in and took a mooring behind us. After they got settled, Walter waved for us to come on over. We hopped in the dinghy and went to Alternate Latitude. We were introduced to Captain Steve, and Walter & Beverly's other friends, Chris & Mary and Floyd & Billie. We spent all afternoon with them catching up on stories. Late in the afternoon we called Mike & Lynn to come over and join us. Walter grilled burgers for everybody at dinner time. He tried to get me to do the grilling, given my Grenada burger night expertise, but I declined. After dark, Steve hooked up several underwater lights that were hung off the back of the boat to attract fish. Within minutes, there were several tarpon circling around the lights. As time went by there were more and more. Walter spent quite a bit of time laying on the aft deck dangling his fingers in the water trying to touch one of them. It took quite awhile, but he finally touched one as it swam by. About 20:00 we bid farewell to the gang and went back to MoonSail. It was great to see Walter & Beverly, and we sure appreciated them making a stop to coincide with our location and share their charter food and drink with us.
The weather that was supposed to come through last night, has been here all day today. There has been a heavy overcast, strong wind, and off and on squalls passing through. Even though it wasn't a pleasant start for Walter & Beverly's charter, I'd rather have the bad weather during the day.
GPS N 18-21.926 W 064-44.908 Nautical miles traveled today 0 Total miles 10387.