05/01/2010 January 2010

12/31/2009 Last day for 2009. My plans were to head over to Trellis Bay for New Years Eve. This is to be a special night there as first it is New Years Eve and also there is a full moon tonight. Trellis Bay holds a full moon party every month on, you guess it, the night of the full moon. This will not happen for another 18 years. You can find more info about the full moon parties on Trellis Bay at http://www.aragornsstudio.com/events.htm. The weather did not cooperate though. I had rains all day on the 30th and heavy winds from the east today. I decided to drop anchor in Christmas Cove for the night and celebrate New Years Eve on the boat. I made it to 11:15 and out the lights went.
01/01/2010 Happy New Years!!!!! I was just enjoying the day with a quiet sail to Francis Bay. I set out for another cross island hike today to Coral Harbor. There is a cruisers bar there known as Skinny Legs. The burgers are fantastic and the beer is real cold after a hike like that. It was even better than the one with Harold because it was shorter and there is cold beer.
01/02/2010 I have made it back into the BVIs again. My goal is to start checking out some lesser known anchorages and enjoying the peace and quiet. After clearing in I anchored off of Guana Cay again. I stayed here with Titus, Cliff and Julie one night. It has a beautiful beach. The island is a private island with a resort that can be rented out by the room or the whole resort, but they allow the public on the beach up to the high water line.
01/03/2010 Today I sailed over to Virgin Gorda Sound. I had spotted an area past the cut from Bitter End Yacht Club that I wanted to try out. There is a large Sound there known as Eustatia Sound. There is a fringing reef that protects the whole are. There are many shallow spots, but I figure I could work my way in there. This reminds me of the anchorage at Tobago Cays in the Grenadines. It is wide open and the reef is submerged, but it protects you from the waves of the open sea and allows the wind. I did snorkel it, but the reef is in really bad shape. There is nothing to see. At night time though, I did see bioluminescence jelly fish.
01/04/2010 I had to spend another evening at Saba Rock. This is by far my favorite bar in the Caribbean. You just can’t beat the $2.50 Pain Killers from 4-6PM and the wonderful company. What more can I say!?
01/05/2010 The winds are blowing real good and in a favorable direction today. I sailed to Great Harbor on Peter Island. This is a great anchorage, but I need to anchor close to the shore as the bay is quite deep. I was anchored in 30’ of water, which is about as deep as I want to anchor in with only 150’ of chain for my anchor rode.
The next morning I was watching a large personal yacht try to raise its anchor. It was having a hard time and I kept an eye on it. There was a crew of four on the boat, plus the guests. Eventually they were able to raise the anchor out of the water and it was hooked to another anchor, probably off an old sailing ship. I watched them try to release the anchor. I decided they would need to release the anchor the same way I had to release a cable I caught in Charlotte Amalie Harbor the year before. That is to loop a line from the deck, through the caught anchor and back to the deck. You can then lower your anchor to clear away from the “garbage”. When your anchor is clear or stowed, then you can release one end of the line to the deck and the anchor will fall. I still have nightmares about getting my anchor stuck, like when Titus, Cliff and Julie were on the boat. This anchor would have done the same thing to me since my windlass is not that powerful.
01/06/2010 I sailed to Sandy Cay today. I was trying to decide where to anchor. It was either here or Green Cay. The weather did not look good for Green Cay so I took the chance on Sandy Cay. Sandy Cay is a beautiful little island that is a donated National Park from the Rockefellers. When Carolyn and I brought the kids down here, this was our favorite spot. Tonight did not enhance the situation. I had swam to the beach and walked around. I believe, why I was there, that I picked up some no see-ums. If I have not talked about these little buggers in the past, let me tell you, there is no worse torture that these. I had to eventually crawl into the nets with a sheet to sleep, because the bugs got into my bunk for the night.
01/07/2010 After a lousy night of sleep, I bummed around the anchorage for a little. While I was sitting there a large personal mega-yacht came by. It is Le Grand Bleu. It is a 370 foot yacht and if you look closely you will see a large power fishing boat on one side of the deck and there is a 60’ sailboat on the other side. These are lowered by a crane. I then sailed back over to West End to clear out. On my way in I saw a film crew filming a large catamaran outside the entrance. I was hanging around West End when I heard all of the boat horns going off and watched as the catamaran had tied up to the dock right in front of me. The boat looked very familiar. I thought I had seen it in one of the sailing magazines a couple of years ago. It was designed by the owner that needed to use a wheelchair to get around. I had just witnessed history as it was Geoff Holt and he crossed the Atlantic Ocean. You can read more about him and his journey at http://geoffholt.com/.

As I was leaving the harbor, at anchor was the Sea Cloud. This is a four masted tall ship being used in service throughout the Caribbean.
I decided to try a new cove on St Johns after clearing out. That is Hawksnest Bay. The problem is that is has a total open entrance to the north and the seas were really rolling in. I was able to get on a mooring, but I was rolling so much, and I was afraid that if the mooring let go, I would go ashore. As the sun was setting, I let go of the mooring and headed over to the nice calm and safe Francis Bay.
01/12/2010 Today I started Captains School. This is a two week class that assists me in getting my USCG Captains License. It is packed with information that will take 12 evenings and 4 weekend days all day. Through the other courses I have taken through the Coast Guard Auxillary, most of this is review. The regulations are the toughest part as I don’t live those, but I breeze through navigation.
01/24/2010. Today I passed my exam for my Masters License. I need to review my ocean time, but should have enough to earn my 50 Ton Masters Near Shore license. This would allow me to captain any Coast Guard registered vessel to a gross tonnage of 50 tons with unlimited passengers. On Monday I passed my exam for a sailing addendum that allows me to captain a sailboat and on Tuesday I passed my exam for Towing. I can charge to tow another boat.
I had been thinking about doing this and not much else was going on. The instructors are very knowledgeable, especially for the local conditions. If you want to get your license and be in an area that is beautiful and warm, this is the way to do it. If any of you need a captain for your boat, I could be your man. This was a great way to wrap up January. I have been sitting and bouncing back and forth between St Thomas and the BVIs and I needed something new to do. It was well worth my time and energy.

02/08/2010 USVIs with the Harold at Christmas

12/24/2009 Christmas Eve. A good friend of mine, Harold Fritts, is visiting for Christmas week and looking forward to some good relaxation. Mine and Harold’s relationship goes way back. When I was working at Motorola, Harold was a contractor for US West, the local phone company. The project I worked on allowed me to make my way into becoming a Sales Engineer. We then worked together at Cisco for many years and have stayed in contact after he left. I was able to spend time with him and his wife Teresa when I was in St martin last year.
I have been getting ready for Christmas on the boat. Last year I was in the Florida Keys the beginning of December and experience my first Christmas season in a tropical environment. It was a little strange for me to get use to Christmas decorations on green grass and palm trees. I have spent my whole life in areas that are typically cold, and if we are lucky enough, snowy. I was looking forward to Christmas on the boat and have been working to enjoy the Christmas season. It has been a little different. I do have about 250 Christmas songs on my iPod, so that was enjoyable. I strung a set of lights around the salon and it gave it a Christmas feel in the evening with the music.
I also got a Christmas tree for the boat. It was a little 18” tall tree that had a few lights on it. I bought a package of Christmas bulbs and I hung some sea shells that I had collected last year from Vieques on the tree. I must digress though to a story about the tree. This tree has a plastic stand. After the first week of having the tree standing behind the salon, the socket where the tree attached to the base started to crack and the tree wobbled and would using fall over if I was in any waves. I decided how to fix the problem. I would use plaster of paris to fill the base. This would lock in the socket and lower the center of gravity on the tree and keep it from falling over. Nothing ever seems to be easy though. I mixed up the plaster of paris and poured it into the base. I then stood the tree upside down to allow the plaster of paris to set. I then looked down at my hands and they were wet and white. The plaster of paris was leaking through the base where the socket was cracking from the base. As I said, it is not usually easy to fix things on the boat. I then had to take the string of lights off of the tree and wash the tree down before the plaster set. How I am going to deal with this crack. Super glue of course. If you can’t fix it with duct tape or super glue, it can’t be fixed. It worked. The glue sealed up the crack. I was able to pour in the second batch of plaster and it did not drain down the trunk of the tree. The tree also never fell over again through the rest of Christmas.
I also went Christmas shopping. I had been picking up some gifts along the way, but I still needed to do some shopping. It is not like running down to the mall of several malls in the area here. There are no malls. But I am in the middle of a tax free shopping zone and it is what most of the people on cruise ships do when they come into port here, just like about every other port. I cannot figure out why people feel the need to shop so much when they go on vacation. They can by this same stuff at home or on-line, usually for the same price or less. But I digress. I did feel like I was under the pinch to get my shopping done just like I was home because I needed to get it done in time to mail it home in time. It typical fashion I did it with no time to spare. So I had a lot of the same feelings about Christmas here as if I was back home. I have also got use to the idea of Christmas in a tropical environment. You can adapt if you want to.
12/25/2009 Merry Christmas!! We are having wonderful weather here, with light winds. Today we motored from Red Hook across the sound to St. John and made a stop at Trunk Bay for some beach walking and snorkeling. We are being real laid back with no time tables at all. I was surprised at the number of people on the beach today, so we are not the only ones enjoying a different style of Christmas.
Later that day we motored down to Francis Bay. Harold had stayed at the campground in Maho Bay. This is right next to Francis Bay. We were told that the cafeteria puts on a good dinner for Christmas so we decided to check into it.
That night we went for a delicious dinner that included roasted turkey, fresh made mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, baked ham, sweet yams, fresh vegetables, salad, rolls and butter. My plate was filled and my stomach was filled when the plate was empty, just like being at home. The food was very good and there were a lot of campers there this week. The dining hall was full.
Side note – another mile stone has just been hit. I have now typed over 100,000 words into this blog.
12/26/2009 Today we came up with the brilliant idea of “let’s go for a hike”. Most of St. John is a US National Park. There are many hiking trails through the forests of the island. On a map at the campground there is a trail drawn in that is not shown on the typical public maps from the park. We were told that this trail is not maintained. It would jump us to another trail I had wanted to do when I was here last Spring. It would allow us to hike across the island from the north side to the south side into Reef Bay.
We took off a little later in the morning and Harold told me with total confidence that we would find a bar at the far end and we would enjoy a cold beer when we arrived. Just in case I packed a couple liters of water with us along with our cameras into my pack.
The unmarked trail was a hike straight up the side of the mountain to a road that runs through the island. We guess it was between 2-3 miles and all up hill. The road ran along the ridge. Just down from where the path came out to the road was the maintained trail that took us down to Reef Bay. This path was all downhill. It was a wide path and had stairs cut in. Now I understand the difference between a maintained trail and a non-maintained trail. There were several interesting items to see along the way including this tree that we took pictures in front of and an old plantation. We also saw a Key Deer. These are small deer that I have also seen on Pine Key in the Florida Keys. At the end of the trail was a steam run cane mill. It was out of commission, but it shows that sugar was still being processed here at the turn of the century at least. We made it all the way to the bay and there was no bar for a cold beer. We decided we would have a cold beer at the campground when we made it back.
We started back up the trail. Since it was all downhill coming, it was all uphill going back. We were drinking the water I brought, but my pack still felt quite heavy. I wasn’t sure what was causing that. We were hoofing it pretty good and were feeling the burn when we made it back to the road. There was a family sitting there that we passed on our way down. They asked if we had made it all the way to the bay. We indicated that we did and they told us that we were moving pretty quick as they had just made it back up. We were impressed by that and then knew why we were so tired as we were moving pretty fast. We then worked our way downhill on the non-maintained path and looking forward to the cold beer at the end of the path. When we made it to the campground, the tiki hut that served the beer was closed. We were meant to drink our beer on the boat. We figured we did between 10-12 miles that day with two climbs over the pass. Later on I was looking through my pack to figure out why it was so heavy. I had found a marine store annual catalog that I forgot I put in there when shopping the last time.
12/27/2009 I thought I would be feeling real sore today after yesterdays hike, but I actually felt the best I have in a long time. The exercise really helped. We hung around the bay for the morning and took the dinghy over to Cinnamon Bay for awhile. There was some surf there and we swam in the water.
Later that day we went west to Cruz Bay. This is the “large” population center on St. John. There are many bars and restaurants here. I know of a jazz group that plays every Sunday here. Harold I went there to have a couple of beers and listen to the great music. During one of the sets, the group let sit in three younger players. These guys were fantastic. It is probably some of the best music I have heard in the islands.
12/28/2009 Finally some winds. We sailed today over to Leinster Bay. I have been wanting to go there to do some snorkeling and check it out as an anchorage. It is in the National Park so we did need to pick up a mooring. The history of this bay was that this is where the ships would come into the collect the unprocessed sugar for shipment back to Europe.
I swam around Waterlemon Cay. I had been told about this place and that it was a good snorkeling area. I was a little disappointed as there wasn’t much in the way of fish, structure or coral, but there was a nice group of turtles swimming around.
12/29/2009 This morning I went for another snorkel along the shore line of the bay. The shore line is a little interesting. There is a drop off along the ledge and coral clumps through the area. The interesting thing for me was that I had an octopus swimming towards me. I was glad I had the camera with me this time. I was taking pictures of it when it suddenly stopped and started to flair its tentacles. I wasn’t sure what was going since I was looking through the camera viewer. When I looked up there was a barracuda sitting there watching the octopus and me. The octopus settles to the floor of the bay and I had a hard time seeing it. The barracuda decided to follow me around. I figure the barracuda was interested in the octopus, but was afraid I would attack him if he attacked the octopus.
After that little excursion we took No Rush back into Charlotte Amalie. Harold was getting off of the boat for the night to make sure he got a good night rest before he began flying all the next day to get home. We had a great time together and it was a real relaxing trip for the both of us.

02/04/2010 BVIs with the Titus, Cliff and Julie

12/03/2009 Cliff flew in today. This is his fourth visit on this adventure. Titus and Julie are flying tomorrow for a week and a half visit. While waiting tomorrow for them to fly in we catch up on our grocery shopping and get everything ready for some sailing. I hope we have better winds this week than last.
12/05/2009 Today we sailed over to Christmas Cove. This is a great way to start a sail trip down here. It is an easy sail and a great place to snorkel. I made my first night snorkel. Titus and I took our underwater flashlights and swam over to the rock island and looked for fish in the dark. I was kind of surprised at the lack of fish. I guess they must sleep also.
12/06/2009 From Christmas Cove we sailed over to Trunk Bay. There we snorkeled on the reef and hung out on the beach. After hanging out here we then motored to Francis Bay. I am sure this is starting to sound like a broken record as this is the same trip I keep making, but it is an enjoyable trip and beautiful places to see for everyone that comes down and visits.
12/07/2009 This morning we hiked over to the Annaberg Sugar Mill Ruins. This time there, there were two woman that answered questions for people visiting. They gave us a personal tour and provided a lot of insight into the history of the mill how the sugar was processed, or as in the case of St John, not fully processed. The final processing was done by the Danish in Europe as to control the product.
After the hike, we headed over to the BVIs. We went to West End to clear into customs and made a visit to Pusser’s as a welcome to the islands. That evening we stayed in Cane Garden Bay.
12/08/2009 Today we made an early start. We have a lot of sailing and snorkeling ahead of us. We sailed back around West End and headed for the Caves. After the Caves we stopped at The Indians. As always, we had a great time snorkeling these two sights. I am attaching a couple of videos that I shot while with the Allen’s last trip here.
After that we tacked our way up the Sir Francis Drake Channel we dropped the anchor at Marina Cay. When sailing in the BVIs, I typically leave a dock line attached at each bow. These are used when we are on mooring buoys for day use or over-nighting. Titus and I had just been talking about how the lines are short enough if they slip through the bow nets, they doo not get fouled in the engines. Famous last words. When we were trying to set the anchor the first time, I lost power in my port engine. I could get it started, but as soon as I put it in gear, the engine stalled. I learned that sound years ago when my daughter Sara and I were doing our trip down the Keys. We fouled the props with an anchor line as we were dragging and anchor off of Boot Key. The good news is I now have two engines and I was able to maneuver the boat into another area and get the anchor set.
12/09/2009 Today we headed off for one of Cliff’s favorite places. It was his single request when coming back down. It was to go back to The Baths. We sailed over early in the morning and we were able to get a mooring for the morning. I have been here several times and I see something new every time I come here. This time I took off with Cliff and went further north on the beach and we did some exploring in the rocks up there. There are some neat little hide-away places in the rocks there. It is quiet with a little water rolling in.
I came back to the boat early this morning. As we started swimming south towards the areas I am used to snorkeling and hiking, it started to rain. I swam back to the boat to close all of the hatches. Of course it wasn’t a little rain, but a nice squall. So much for trusting the weather.
We then sailed into North Sound of Virgin Gorda. We picked up a mooring at Saba Rock. I figured I would give them a try. For $25.00 you get the mooring for the night, up to 250 gallons of water and a bag of ice. What a perfect match for cruising with a group in the BVIs. All of the basics. I do try and time our trip to arrive here mid-week because both water and ice will be running low by now.
Cliff, Titus and Julie took off for Bitter End Yacht Club to walk around and they dropped me off at Saba Rock to get on-line and start happy hour. This may well be my favorite bar in the Caribbean now. After all of the benefits of getting a mooring here, the happy hour is $2.50 painkillers. You will not find a better deal in the BVIs. The barmaids are friendly and the bar is a really cool looking. It is all carved hard woods with dark stain. The three of them joined me in about an hour and we all had a great time hanging out at the bar.
12/10/2009 This morning we headed up the sound and anchored at Mosquito island. When I usually come into the sound, I take the cut between Virgin Gorda and Mosquito Island. It is about eight feet deep and on both sides of the cut there are good looking waves that break. It turns out that when Titus was starting out in his career he was sent to Mosquito Island to work on a power system there. Of the last two trips he has been with me we have come across islands that he had to visit to work on their power systems. The other was Stocking Island. This was across the bay from Georgetown, Exumas in The Bahamas. He and Julie went exploring to find out what is going on there. The island has since been bought from previous owners and the current owners are implementing a green resort.
We then sailed over to Guana Island. This is where Cliff and I have seen the large schools of silver fish. This time there was also a large school of Tarpon. Cliff estimated the school to be between 50-70 fish. That is a lot of Tarpon.
We then anchored just north of there for the night. It is a good anchorage that is protected and quiet.
12/11/2009 After lazing around this morning we took off for Sandy Cay. It was a nice light sail over. Titus and Julie took the dinghy in while Cliff and I swam in. There is a nice trail around the island with different flora and animals to see. Titus was in his element here. One thing I have learned about traveling with Titus and Cliff is that Titus is a land guy that loves to hike and Cliff is a fish. It is good to hang out with both of them to get the best of both worlds. Julie is more like me, she likes the water and the land also.
We then sailed over to Great Harbor on Jost van Dyke. I have been trying to get there on a Thursday or Friday night when Foxy’s is suppose to have live music. I hate to say it, but this is one of those days that just goes downhill. I always have a hard time trying to find good holding ground in this harbor. After dragging we finally got the hook to catch. It was tight in the harbor with all of the boats in there. We had dinner on the boat and then went ashore to have a couple of drinks and listen to the live music. I was also scoping out the area for New Years Eve. We walked the length of Main Street and I found a couple of different bars that I had not been to. The people seemed really nice. They were also very quiet with none or hardly any customers. We made our way back to Foxy’s. They had the biggest group of people. The band was playing and some dancing going on. I will have to say I was very disappointed with the music. In the BVIs, the reggae appears to me to be a cross between Bob Marley and rap. That was strike one with me. The next is you cannot get a drink for less than seven dollars there and most are eight. Strike two. The third strike is that the people running the bar really seemed to be bothered when you try to order a drink. To me, it just isn’t a friendly place. When I talk to locals and charter boats, most try to avoid Foxy’s anymore. I did find out that Foxy has sold off the business.
When we got back to the boat, the winds picked up. When I attached the dinghy to No Rush, we started to drift on the anchor. I am thankful it happened when we made it back to the boat. We reset the anchor and I also set the anchor alarm on the chart plotter. About 1:00am the alarm started to go off. We were drifting again. I got up and set the anchor one more time. This time I stayed on the deck for the night and we did not move again.
12/12/2009 We went back ashore in the morning to explore a little when it was light. I saw my first octopus. Right across from the dinghy dock on the shore there was a small octopus trying to catch a crab that was going ashore. The octopus looked like it was trying to go ashore also, but never left the water. We watched it for awhile and then we spooked the crab back intot he water. The crab now knew what it was like to be between a rock and a hard place. The crab decided to go for the hard space back in the water. As soon as the crab hit the water, the octopus reached out, grabbed it and pulled it into itself and we never saw the crab again.
We then found some coffee for Titus and Julie and looked around the t-shirt shops. We then cleared out of customs to head back to St Thomas.
When we went to lift the anchor, we found out why we did not move again. The anchor was stuck had in about fifty feet of water. There was no way for me to dive it and I was not going to let loose my anchor and 150’ of chain. Cliff and I went back ashore to talk with the local dive shop. Unfortunately they were closed. We then called a dive shop on Tortola and they sent over a diver to rescue our anchor. It took two dives as the anchor chain had wrapped amongst some large rocks. This cost us about $300. It was money well spent as the anchor and chain are worth more than $1,000, but not how you really want to spend money.
Now we were running late to get back to St Thomas. We need to clear in as Titus and Julie are leaving first thing in the morning. The winds were blowing hard. I had full main and jib out. We were seeing apparent winds of 30+ knots. This is the highest winds I have ever seen with full main. No Rush handled it well, but I did notice that we were sailing slower than expected for these winds. I figure it is because I was pinching to make sure I did not over power the boat. In the future I will reef (and I have and seen better speeds.)
We then made it into Charlotte Amalie at 4:00pm. I thought Customs and Immigration closed at 5:00pm. I was wrong, it was 4:30. We made it to the city office at 4:15, but the door was locked. We knocked and no one answered. I checked with the ferry desks and they indicated someone should be in there. While I was checking at the ferry desks, Cliff found a back way in. He found some people and they told him they were closed for the day. Cliff was not going to put up with that. It was 4:20. He demanded and finally talked with a supervisor that instructed the agents to help us. What a way to finish the trip. We did have a good dinner at The Green House.

01/19/2010 BVIs with the Allens

11/23/2009 Richard, Leslie and Taylor flew in last night and stayed at a local hotel. This is a good thing to do when you have had to travel all day and a good night’s rest and hot shower in the morning is called for. We met up this morning and prepared for a week on the boat. We made the trip to Pueblo grocery store and stocked up. We had so much that we needed to push the shopping cart to the dock with all of the food. This is a first for me. It took several trips from the dinghy dock to the boat to load the groceries and bring everyone out the boat. After all was put away, we took off for an afternoon sail. We had some choppy water on the south side of St Thomas. Not always a good way to start out the trip, but we all did good.
We anchored in Christmas Cove for the night. I decided this is a good place to start each trip as it is a good anchorage and a place for everyone to get acclimated to the water and snorkeling. As I have written in the past, it is a great anchorage with a couple of good reefs with plenty of fish and the water depth is less than 15 feet throughout most of the cove.
11/24/2009 This morning Richard went to the top of the mast for me. The anchor light went out again after I just replaced it when I was in St Martin. It appears that it was not fitting properly within the plastic cover. Richard was able to fix it and we have a proper working anchor light.
Afterwards we then set off for Trunk Bay and Beach. Trunk bay is a popular beach on St John. We took the snorkel gear and swam a couple of the reefs. The brochures push an underwater snorkel trail here. I decided to try the trail. They have put stone markers on the bottom and they point out different reef structures and fish. This area is where most of the tourists snorkel and is very busy there. The park service is working to bring back living reef, but there is a way to go. After walking the beach they snorkeled the west end of the bay. I like this area much more and recommend it. I have seen a Hawks Bill Turtle here. It is the only time I have seen one of them.
Afterwards we motored down to Francis Bay. This is in my top five anchorages in the Caribbean. It is a quiet area due to the hills that protect you from just about any weather in this area.
11/25/2009 Happy 15th birthday to Taylor. This has been her second birthday on No Rush. We took off for West End on Tortola today. This is my first time checking in at West End. I usually go out to Jost Van Dyke. This is a lot easier. You can pick up any open mooring for the afternoon at no charge. We then went in and visited with Customs and Immigration.
Afterwards we walked around the boardwalk. There are many shops here for the needs of visitors including a full grocery store, many clothing shops, a place to pick up ice, drop off garbage, get fuel and of course, a Pusser’s Store, restaurant and bar. We stopped there for lunch and a couple of drinks. For dessert we had their famous coconut shell filled with ice cream.
We then loaded back into the boat and had a great sail over to Norman’s Island. The weather brought in some choppy seas so we by-passed the Indians for the time being and snorkeled the caves. I started to play with the video option on my underwater camera here. There are three caves you can swim into along with a good reef that runs along the wall between the caves.
Afterwards we took a mooring for the night in The Bight. Richard took Leslie and Taylor ashore and cruised the shoreline with the dinghy. Happy birthday Taylor!!
11/26/2009 Happy Thanksgiving!! Today we took off for a long sail with a stop along the way at the Indians. It paid off by waiting until today to swim the Indians. The wind chop was down quite a bit and made for a good swim. We swam along the wall and then to the back side. It is amazing how one area can be so different from one side to the other. On the ocean side there is a wall that drops straight to about thirty feet the whole length of the Indians. There is plenty of coral growth and small fish along the wall. When you swim around the corner, due to the currents there are usually a couple large schools of fish and then the water gets shallow onto a large reef that extends all the way to a close by island. There are many different kinds of fish to be seen here. There is also a tunnel that you can swim down about ten feet, through the tunnel and back up to the other side.
We then sailed up the length of Francis Drake Channel and into Trellis Bay. This bay is located at the end of the airport runway on Beef Island. It is a good place to pick up friends when they fly into the BVIs. There are several bars and restaurants and an artist there. The artist has made sculptures out of metal that are in the shape of a large ball. He has then cut out designs in the ball. These balls are used for full moon parties every month. They are filled with wood and when light make a contained bonfire. There are several along the beach. I hope to make it there for a full moon party before I leave.
For dinner tonight we made a pork tenderloin along with baked yams and a salad. Not nearly as festive as last year’s jambalaya and key lime pie.
11/27/2009 This morning we motored over to The Baths. We had the wind directly on our nose I decided to motor and make good way instead of long slow tacks all the way over there. We had a great time swimming in amongst the rocks. I have a set way now of swimming south along and through the rocks and then take the trail back up the beach through the rocks. There is a good path and some locals have put in steps and stairs to make it around the rocks much easier. I noticed the crowds are building with the holidays coming.
During the afternoon we sailed north into Gorda Sound. We had a chance to fly the spinnaker a little bit and did some fishing. Taylor caught a Bonita and landed it.
We then went and spent a couple of hours checking out the Bitter End Yacht Club. It is a full service resort with plenty of water sports. They also have a restaurant/bar, a pub, couple of clothing stores and a small market.
From there we sailed up to Leverick Bay. When you pay for a mooring there you also receive a tank of water and a bag of ice. These are two things you want to keep an eye on when sailing on a boat this size. We went ashore and decided to have dinner there. It was a wonderful barbeque buffet with salads, pastas, fish, steak, chicken, some of the best ribs I have ever had, prime rib and ham, along with desserts. For entertainment that night they have a troop of Jumbies come down and dance for the crowd. Jumbies are people dressed up in bright clothing walking on tall stilts. They are popular at carnival throughout the islands.
11/28/2009 Now it is that time of the week to start heading west again. After tanking up the water and grabbing a bag of ice we are sailing in light winds again. I am glad we had the good winds on Thursday as it was the only really good sailing we got in the whole trip. I have been warned about the Christmas winds that are suppose to arrive in late November, but alas, light winds. It is like most of my trip with not normal weather conditions. That has been a good thing.
We sailed over to Guana Cay to swim with millions of small bait fish and the Tarpons. We were not disappointed. Leslie and Richard spotted a small shark. I have yet to see a shark since getting back on the boat in September. While sitting in the bay I watched a couple of small dolphins doing back flips off of the wake from a power boat.
We then motored towards Cane Garden Bay. On our way we spotted a small pod of dolphin and passed through them twice. We could stand on the bow and watch them swimming under our bows. There really isn’t any sight on the ocean like that. The dolphins are so inquisitive, just like us.
We then made our way into Cane Garden bay and dropped the anchor for the night. We took the dinghy ashore and hung out on the beach. It is a beautiful beach with nice gentle waves washing ashore. Being we arrived late in the afternoon it was real quiet after the cruise ship tourists left. We walked the length of the beach and then waded in the water or hung out on the beach. Cane Garden is also the area for another full moon party. I am told it is one of the wildest places for a full moon anywhere.
11/29/2009 This morning we tried sailing out of the bay and head back to St Thomas. The winds were so light that I gave up and started the motors. It amazes me how little wind there has been. We did not need to clear out of customs and immigration on this trip because the agents pre-cleared us when we arrived. We motored past St John and into Charlotte Amalie by early afternoon. We needed to clear in with US Customs and Immigration. We needed to pay an overtime fee of $35.00 for Sunday support.
We then went and had lunch just in time as it started to rain. It rained heavy for a couple of hours and we enjoyed a good lunch at a restaurant in the marina. Afterwards we brought the luggage back to the dock and we said our good-byes for this trip. It was another wonderful time together.