Traversing the BVI

Sure enough as planned we pushed off the CYOA dock before lunch on Wednesday morning and after many goodbyes we set our sights on the BVI. I'd like to say that we set our sails as well but as is usual the winds were straight out of the east and in order to be able to check in before customs closed we took a direct rhumb line through the islands and motored up to Jost van Dyke.

The new CYOA boat "Days Like This" taking the lumpy seas in stride.

The winds were in the low 20-knot range and the seas rather lumpy so it was a hobby-horse ride pretty much all the way. Especially as we passed the Durloe Cays on the north shore of St. John we seemed to be pointing skyward only to plunge down over a wave ready to do it all again. Once we were able to turn the corner towards our final destination it all calmed down a bit and we made the customs office with plenty of time to spare.

The welcoming committee at the JVD customs dock.

As we checked in we recognized the custom officer and his writing appears on a number of clearance stamps in our passports. We didn't know though that our paths would cross again later...

Rather than staying in Great Harbour we headed round to the eastern end of the island and anchored just off Little Jost Van Dyke, amid a little contingent of Canadian boats. We hadn't settled for long when a dinghy arrived from Calypso Rose next door inviting us to join them for drinks at Taboo at Diamond Cay. Well, drinks turned into a delicious dinner of coconut cream shrimp with Laurie and Marcel from Vernon, B.C. and three guys off the other Canadian boat who had literally just sailed in from Fort Lauderdale. Laurie and Marcel had already befriended the staff at Taboo. As our dinner was brought to us, Laurie began to introduce us to the manager, whereupon he quipped, "I know, they're here until Saturday!" Henry had pegged him correctly and we were subsequently introduced to Mark, the daytime customs agent / nighttime restaurant manager. The one thing we have really noted down here is that those people who work, work hard and usually at more than one job!

Calypso Rose raising anchor with a wave goodbye.

The Pirate Bar - reminiscent of the Bomba Shack, but this was just an ironic collection of junk.

Thursday morning we said a quick goodbye to Calypso Rose and then put our watermaker to its first real water making test. After a few hiccups to get started and a little extra documentation added to the procedure sheets, we delighted in topping up our water tanks and all for the cost of about a fifth of a gallon of gas to make 30 gallons of water! That little test completed we pulled up the anchor and headed up the north shore of Tortola until about 3:30 in the afternoon when we tucked into Lee Bay on Great Camanoe Island at the east end of Tortola.

Downwind sailors disappearing in the swells north of Tortola.

The day had turned grey and squally (is that a word?) so we decided to leave the last couple of hours to Friday morning when we will hit North Sound for a top-up on fuel and as our launch-point to St. Martin.

Steele-grey skies and water.

A room with a view, but this one has bars - the BVI prison.

Japanese style architecture on the north shore.

Days Like These

It's funny, the new 41' Lipari in the CYOA fleet is to be called "Days Like These", as a nod to Van Morrison. Now, all I can think of to describe the last couple of days, is this monicker. Days full of sunshine and relaxation, time spent together just the two of us and a quietness that we seem to only have achieved on the water or out in the woods camping.

The only real activity we challenged ourselves with was Monday morning when we popped into Foxy's Boutique to spend our winning gift certificate. I found a nice little sundress and a great book on Caribbean Flowers. Henry claims he is happy with these purchases - what a keeper!

Monday morning, main street of Jost Van Dyke - looking east

... And west

We then untied ourselves from our mooring ball home of three days and headed southeast around the end of Tortola, across the Drake Passage, to Benures Bay on the north shore of Norman Island where we dropped the anchor. There were two catamarans stern tied to the shore with anchors set out in front of them and we quickly learned of the shiftiness of the wind and current in the bay. We seem to have chosen a good spot for the first night but on the second evening when the winds shifted more to the east we adjusted our position out into the bay a bit and by morning we were very happy to have been prudent in moving. I for one did not want my wake-up call in the morning to be the sound of our keels grating across the underwater rocks and coral near shore. Much better to view this underwater landscape on a snorkel!

At this time of year there are still relatively few boats out in the BVI as the various fleets are in their prep phase for the November ramp-up to the holiday season. Looking out on the Drake Passage and only seeing a small handful of boats about is a far cry from when there are hundreds traversing the passage like a highway. We have certainly enjoyed the solitude on this visit.

The trade winds have not yet arrived in the protected waters of the Drake Passage, looking across to Tortola.

Tuesday was planned as haul-out day at Nanny Cay on Tortola. We have engaged a surveyor to comb over Mowzer and give us a full condition report on her both above and below the waterline, hence one reason for the haul-out. Two other reasons included installation of a through-hull (hole) in the bottom of the boat for our new watermaker, and after a summer of sitting in the warm, murky water of the harbour at Charlotte Amalie she is in dire need of a bottom cleaning which can be easily accomplished with a pressure washer.

Late Monday we received word that the lift at Nanny Cay had broken down and we'd be unable to do the lunchtime lift, so we opted to head back to CYOA on Tuesday to start getting our shipments sorted out and get on with our boat job list. Nanny Cay, we'll be back.

For anyone who sails in or out of West End, these houses are a landmark. They look like they're hanging on with Velcro.

We popped into Cruz Bay on St. John to check back into the USA and while sitting in Woody's this fellow came in to pick up his lunch. I guess the rules say he must wear a hard-hat and not have any loose hair - he is certainly following the letter of the law, and in the process may be better protected than most, but I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight...

Finally, we wrapped up our Tuesday return to St. Thomas with a trip around to Crown Bay to pick up our paperwork on our latest shipment. As we bounced across the bay, we stopped to snap a picture of the boat that had brought our personal effects down from Miami: the AHS Hamburg was busy being unloaded and again, somewhere in there are the rest of our worldly possessions.

Unfortunately, this evening Henry has been stricken with something nasty of the tummy variety. No fever so we don't think its Chikungunya, and is most likely food related, but for his sake I hope it passes quickly.

Racers, We Are Not

Best t-shirt design for the event!

Catfight Weekend and a small, but well represented contingent of catamarans (and two monohulls) set out for a series of two races.

• Race 1: head east around Sandy Spit and back to the finish line at Great Harbour.
• Race 2: again head east around Sandy Spit and then head south around Great Thatch Island just off the coast of St. John and then back to finish off at Great Harbour.

The day dawned bright and beautiful but despite all protestations, the winds settled into a light 8-10 knots. By the time we reached Sandy Spit we were down to about 5 knots attempting to get past a 3 knot current to stay clear of the reefs and at that point we were so far back, in the nature of sanity we called the race, turned on the engines and made our way back. We either need a bottom cleaning or some sailing lessons but racing is probably not going to feature a lot in our future.

Nothing daunted, the racers carried on, but we who know in our hearts are true cruisers headed for less frustrating activities on the beach at White Bay and watched from a distance. We all had fun in our own way, although as Greg in Azurra (the other Mahe) said, we made a wise choice. We rejoined the party at Foxy's for the awards handout and in spelling out the nature of the importance of fun for the event, we came in third in our class! Really? We didn't even finish the first race! Oh well, who are we to look a gift certificate to Foxy's Boutique in the mouth?

The evening festivities carried on with a Halloween theme. We joined the crew from De Life for dinner at Corsairs and then made our way back to Foxy's for much dancing and merriment.

Some of the costumes were amazing. There was the whole crew from the S.S.Minnow, an army of Greek warriors, a 6' drag queen, satyrs, bats and cats in multitude. Hats off to all who put in so much effort and now we know the level of competition for next year (or next week when it really is Halloween!)

For my friends in Texas we noticed you were well represented on the ceiling of Foxy's. Of course so is every other school, country, ministry of transportation (license plates) and bra manufacturer.

Mini Vacation

Yeah right, you say, they don't need a vacation! And you're probably right but that's pretty much what we're doing this weekend.

The docks at CYOA are super busy as they get ready for their first charter weekend of the season and we're still waiting our shipments to both come in, which they won't do until mid-next week. We need to do a haul-out and survey for insurance which can only be done on Tortola, and to top it off this is Foxy's Catfight weekend! All these factors combined to convince us to take off up to the BVI and the added benefit is that we are out of the U.S. so our count of days doesn't keep increasing which will impact us next year as we transit north.

Thursday afternoon we pulled off the dock and motored along the south shore of St. Thomas direct into the wind. It was only as we passed through the mightily confused waters of Pillsbury Sound and turned north toward Jost Van Dyke that we decided to pull out the genoa with the wind on a close reach. Shortly thereafter the starboard engine decided we should really pull out the main as well as the overheating alarm went off. That's what we love about a catamaran - redundancy of two engines, so we weren't too concerned since we still had the port engine to help us manoever in the anchorage to pick up a mooring. We had a lovely sail up to Jost and made it in time to do half our clearance paperwork, only to return in the morning to complete the other half.

The little village at Great Harbour nestles up against the ocean to catch the cool breezes.

What would a visit to one of these beautiful islands be without a hike to the top? We've been to the top of Jost before from Diamond Cay at the east end, but hadn't found the trail from Great Harbour. At the western end of the main road (read sand track) there is a little sign pointing up for "hiking trail". Sporadic concrete indicates plans to build the equivalent of a super-highway across this tiny island, but most of the trail is steep rubble and grass at angles that quickly have me puffing in the heat. The views from the top are reward enough as we can see the faint shadow of Anegada in the north-east all the way around to St. Thomas to the west. The islands in between are scattered like beads from a broken necklace and to the north is mind-blowing depths of blue that run all the way to Bermuda.

These are not the tree-shaded hikes of St. John!

I need to learn the names of the birds down here. These guys hopped along the fence line to keep pace with us.

This hawk rode the thermals up high above us with not a single flap of his wings.

The afternoon spent hanging out in the anchorage became progressively more social as various boats arrived on which we know some or all of the crew. The competition for Saturday's races are amassing. In all honesty this is totally a fun regatta. By the end of the evening I think we were registered as boat #3, in a class of two boats (the other Mahe from CYOA and us), one monohull and one larger cat. Hopefully more boats come in and register in the morning. An evening at Foxy's is always great fun; the BBQ buffet at $30 is pricey but the mahi and ribs were excellent and the salads much better than expected. We got the lo-down from the other crews, read over the race instructions and we're stoked for what tomorrow will bring.

The Calm & The Crazy

Today was a day of two extremes. We awoke to calm, still waters like we've encountered rarely down here in the winter months. The breeze barely picked up all day so were happy to stay put at Diamond Cay and not try to sail anywhere.

Calm: First order of the morning was a snorkel along the edge of the bay. Of course because I didn't take my camera we encountered more varied fish than before as well as a large turtle feeding on the grass and accompanied by two large fish that alternated between making the turtle look formidably large as it swam along and then went to work on cleaning its shell whenever it stopped to eat. We had snorkeled quite away around the bay when we were encircled by a huge school of small silvery fish. Every way you looked, all you could see was the flow of the fish surrounding us, like a river.

Crazy: Suddenly though, the fish started churning back and forth more frantically and looking through the movement I spied a good sized shark. It was dark and menacing and needless to say that was the end of the snorkeling for me so we made our way back to Mowzer, with another view of our friendly turtle on the return trip. Apparently Cane Garden Bay had a number of sharks in it last week. This was the first time I've seen one in the water and while it scared the crap out of me (well almost) and it appeared huge when I saw it in the haze of the water, I'll try to be very realistic and say it was most likely about 4' long.


No picture of the shark but when we got back to Mowzer, this guy was hanging out - the biggest barracuda I've ever seen.

Calm: We moved Mowzer over a bit in the anchorage to a nice quiet spot with a good view to the reef that protects this bay from the swell that roles in from the north. I guess this makes it a good fishing spot and we watched this fellow playing out his line.

Crazy: Well, apparently it is Yacht Week. This is an event that basically creates a huge flotilla of captained party boats that are rented out by the "room" and then move en masse to the various party and hangout spots around the islands for the week. We hadn't run into any of them yet but our first encounter was at The Bubbly Pool on Jost this morning. In hind-sight, this was a break-away group on their own who were actually very nice, a group of guys mostly in the U.S. services and some of the girls were nurses. Their captain said the best part was that they all knew how to listen to him, guess that goes with the training. Needless to say, the party was the goal and I can't be more thankful that CYOA doesn't participate in the rental of the boats.

I think the birds were enjoying the human antics.

More Crazy: Sitting calmly at anchor about 5:15 in the afternoon we noticed a large 50' catamaran motoring very quickly towards the sand bar that runs across the back of the mooring ball area in the bay. Waiting for him to throw the engines hideously into reverse or to quickly try to turn at the back of the bay we held our breath as he ran the boat solidly aground. Luckily he went aground in sand and not the coral fringing the bay and the powerful engines reversed him off the bar, but we can only imagine the damage done to the sea grass that we had watched the turtles munching on earlier in the day. As I said above, glad that our boat is not rented out to these guys. Within about 15 minutes, at least 20 boats had pulled up to the concrete pier, rafted up or anchored close, all with at least 10 people on board partying hard. Obviously our quiet little sojourn was over.

Diamond Cay anchorage - moments before there had been just a handful of boats in the bay.

Back to Calm: Just round the corner with the sunlight starting to fade over the hills of Jost, we resettled our anchor in the lee of Sandy Spit. Along with four other boats we will enjoy the light winds, starry sky and the knowledge that the party boats are safely tied up to the dock at Foxy's Taboo for the night.

Ahhhhh, breathe in The Calm.

By the way, tomorrow we are heading back to St. John and we most likely will be off the grid for the remainder of the week. I'll post updates once we're back online.

 

Another Fine Sailing Day

... But not before we consumed a delicious brunch selection from Da Loose Mongoose at the edge of the bay to the sounds of a lovely tin pan oddly paired with a background track of Hotel California and others similar. Definitely catering to the older cruising crowd but we still couldn't complain about the setting, the view or the food. Lobster benedict for me and a 3-egg omelet for Henry.

Mowzer on a mooring ball in front of The Last Resort, the restaurant on Bellamy Cay.

We could almost dabble our toes in the water from our breakfast seats.

Our companion may have had a little too much of the rum punch last night - this was her sleeping position and not just a stretch.

Aragorn's Studio is an arty hangout and interesting to browse through but definitely not for the faint of wallet if you wish to purchase. We wandered through and admired some of the works, but kept our wallets safely tucked away.

It is nice to see all the locally produced artwork and the entrance is very alluring.

Some of the artwork is created right on the beach in the shade of the Manchioneel trees.

Our lazy Sunday morning had now ticked away and it was time to push onto the next destination. We had Jost Van Dyke in our sights, but weren't sure that Mother Nature was in agreement with us. Such a pleasant afternoon but with winds under 10 knots it was going to be a slow downwind sail to our evening stop. Nothing daunted (it was so tough!) we carried on and surprisingly made our destination about 14 miles away by late afternoon. We'd had no wave action, minimal swell and an assisting current to help us along with the 10 knot winds so we pulled into Diamond Cay at the east end of Jost in time to fire up the BBQ and prepare a wonderful feast of ribs for dinner.

Spinnakers set, if you have one. We kept pretty good pace with our genoa/main combination.

Wilson?? Just happened to capture the popular spot of Sandy Spit looking relatively deserted.

Along the way we had a brief visit by a dolphin, saw our first flying fish of this trip, were greeted by a huge sea turtle in the anchorage and watched the antics of the pelicans in the bay. However, the only picture I managed to get of any of the wildlife today was this unnamed bird on a guana covered rock.

 

Monday: Island Time

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.

 

Sunday: Jost Van Dyke

Forecast:  Winds ENE 12-17 knts, seas 4-6’, scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms, temp 84F

Cloudy skies and light showers were the markers for today but given that we planned an ashore day, this was actually quite pleasant.  We weren’t quite as good as we had been about getting up really early but given that it rained all night, and was still very cloudy the temperature was nice and mild this morning.  The kicker was the humidity which was probably at about 98%.

We started our JVD hike setting out towards Little Harbour.  We looked down at it but rather than march down the hill just to have to come on back up, we opted to carry on up the side of the mountain towards the Mountain Trail which was very clearly marked on our little tourist map. 

Our plan was to take a little bit of the Mountain Trail and then find our way back down to Diamond Cay and the bubbly pool.  We clambered on, passing numerous herds of goats on the way (this should have been a warning) but no sign of the road back down to the bay.  By the time we had climbed up over 800’ we were cluing into the fact that there was no easy loop road that was going to take us back.  In places the ‘trail’ was a two-lane concrete affair that had probably never seen the tires of a car because at other times it was a mud and grass track.  One can only assume that the lovely patches of concrete will eventually join up and be accessible from the bottom of the mountain.  After about 3 hours of road/trail that really only goats should climb, we arrived at the base of the radio towers on Majohnny Hill at an elevation of 1050’.  Needless to say the views from the top were spectacular!

Given that none of the other roads marked on the map ever materialized we decided the most prudent course was to retrace our steps – so much faster going down than up, but oh so hard on the knees.  Lunchtime found us back at Taboo enjoying a cold Presidente and a heaping fresh Greek salad.

For Caitlin and Jim – do you remember when we visited Great Harbour and walked over the road to White Bay?  Take a careful look at this picture and you can see the road heading up over the peninsula – remember how steep it was??

Our final trek on this island today was to head out to the north-east corner to the bubbly pool.  This is where there is a narrow cut in the rock and when the northern swell is up, the waves crash in and create a bit of a washing-machine effect on anyone who is up to playing in the pool.  Most of the waves today produced a gentle-cycle action but there were one or two that poured in that got everyone pretty excited.

Here’s our trek across the island – I’ve marked on it in orange the two roads we searched for that just didn’t exist.  When we showed the map to the bartender at Taboo he and his pal studied it with great concentration and then proclaimed that it might be a track but as far as they were concerned it was just a gut.  A gut is a creek bed.

There’s a low pressure sitting just NE of the islands now that is causing all these showers.  It may send us some pretty blustery weather overnight and tomorrow but will hopefully clear out after another 24 hours.