Forecast: ENE winds 14-19 knts. Seas 5-7’ in NNW swells. Numerous showers and isolated thunderstorms
Yep, it’s really settled in now that our second week has started. We’re on Island Time.
We had a pretty restless night with very high winds and a bouncy ride until about 4am when things settled down a bit. Glad to be able to get some good sleep after that. No matter how confident you feel about the set of the anchor (I snorkelled it and it was well dug-in) and the fact that you haven’t budged an inch before dark, when darkness falls in the anchorage it all feels completely different with the wind whistling in the rigging and the waves bouncing you around.
Once daylight arrived we motored around to Great Harbour to have a look at the new fuel dock and pick up some wi-fi courtesy of Foxy’s.
That’s where the postings for the last few days went up as we sat at the bar, watched the rain and were regaled with stories and rhymes by Foxy himself. He asked where we were from and when we said Canada his spoken word covered places from Tofino and ‘Hongcouver’ to Hamilton and Toronto and then up to the Tulip (two-lip) Festival in Ottawa; all delivered with tongue-in-cheek innuendo and a political slant. He also took us on a personal tour to see photos of his MBE presentation by Princess Anne and then the 32’ sloop that is being built by JVD high-school students which is quite a sight to see. Here’s their link. Foxy’s new personal mission is to try to slow the pace of development on JVD by having part of the island declared a National Park. Having seen the road-work going on across the island we thought he was right on the mark.
The new fuel dock (part of that development I guess) is very easy to access so we made a quick stop to top up our tanks (water, diesel and fuel for the dinghy) and dispose of our bag of garbage. We figure we can do two weeks out on full tanks but this takes all the worry away for the last couple of days.
Just an hour away on the north shore of Tortola lies Cane Garden Bay. When we stopped here with Jim a year and a half ago we thought it very pretty but much too touristy with the beautiful beach covered with beach-chairs. I think that’s still the case but we went ashore anyway and were delighted with the little narrow front street fringed with restaurants, bars and guest houses. Every colour of the Caribbean has been used in the paint selection and yet it all works together.
We walked on up to Bobby’s market to stock up on some food needs as well. For those wondering, the shopping is just like at home only the establishments are smaller and the prices higher (except for alcohol of course). There is a Costco-type place on St. Thomas but once in the other islands food is available through much smaller venues. None-the-less we find that we can get just about all that we need. This morning on Jost the grocery shelves were a little bare because the boat had not arrived yet with supplies, but timed right, you can pick up the necessities as you go along.
