Hiding Out

Over the last couple of days the trade winds intensified and so we decided to sit tight at The Bight on Norman Island on the BVI.

We pulled in on Sunday morning and quickly discovered that the eastern corner just off the beach had become the "Canadian Corner" with three of us anchored, each in front of the other just begging to get to know each other and share a few sundowners. On top of this, we were sitting in one of the most popular locations in the BVI with not one, but two bars: Pirates and The Willie T.

As we weathered through the 25-knot squalls, occasionally hitting 30 knots of blowing wind and rain, we were quite content in our cozy little spot and very happy not to be out sailing.

Another bullet blows through the anchorage.

The rain is so intense it bounces off the water, making it look like fog rising.

Sunday morning saw Rick and Christina from Da Life arrive to complete the handover of our old / new to them dinghy. Treated to Mimosas and swapping a few good stories, we then handed over the "key" and waved goodbye.

Handing over the keys to the new car.

And away she goes, thankfully between squalls.

Once that order of business was concluded we set about meeting our neighbours. The Gulfstar 36 just behind us is sailed by Gerry and Dawn from Alberta, and just behind them is Cat Tales, a Tobago 35 sailed by Laurie and Dawn from New Brunswick. The Tobago is the predecessor to our Mahe in the Fountaine-Pajot line of catamarans with theirs dating from the mid 90s, and so we were each quite curious to see each other's boats to note the changes. There are definitely some design improvements in the Mahe, but the Tobago is a great boat that definitely feels more than 35', and Laurie and Dawn had some great tips for making the boat both more secure and more comfortable.

On Monday we had everyone over for sundowners and I cooked up the St. Feliciene cheese that Alex had recommended we buy in St. Martin. Now I am definitely wishing we'd bought more than one and will be looking for this on the cheese counter of any French island we visit. So yummy as a hot dip with crackers.

Tuesday saw a little reduction in the wind and amount of rain so we worked on, and completed the move of our solar panels to the middle of the bimini. Wires all rerun we are now cranking up to 13 or 14 amps into the batteries with full sun on all four panels. Work done for the day we set off on a hike along the western arm of Norman Island which afforded us some wonderful views, most noticeably back down into The Bight.

The Canadian Corner with Mowzer at the front and the others on the left.

Windswept and dry on the south coast, but just over the hill it was steamy and tropical after the rain shower.

The Bight: Pirates with the blue roof, Willie T in the foreground and Mowzer too right.

Stunning views over to Tortola, Jost Van Dyke in the far background and St. John on the left.

Finally had to clamber down from that hill with the wonderful views.

Today we are heading back into the USVI where we will return to the CYOA dock to swap out our batteries and then we will be picking up and heading west. Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic lie on that horizon.

Thanks for a Special Day

Mom says it always snows on my birthday, but if I'm not there I can't really take credit, can I? Sorry for everyone back home who had snow today, but the 10cm of white sand under my feet felt glorious!

You may think we're a little odd, but before we went off for my birthday treat, we really wanted to get a few things done on the boat. You can't have too much fun, can you?? Of course not, but it felt really good to make progress on a few of the items on our boat project list. First order of the day was to get some laundry done, those sheets were getting really funky again after only a few days.

Bucket laundry was done and dry by 9am.

Next order of business was a bit more work on the water maker, we now have the main components mounted and the wood cut and varnished to hold the control panel. 11:00am rolled around pretty quickly which was our personal time-limit on work for the day and then the fun began.

We'd checked out Google Maps of Norman Island and it appeared that there was a road/trail leading from Benures Bay on the north shore over to The Bight on the west. The Bight is home to not one but two of the best known bars in the BVI: Pirates and The Willie T. Going without a dinghy put the party barge (Willie T) out of reach but we were super curious to see what the new Pirates was like after a fire burned them down a couple of years ago.

Firstly though, the hike. We knew that there was a trail we could pick up and from the map is appeared to be at the north end of the bay. We preferred the more southerly area for beaching the dinghy and weren't we completely surprised when we picked up a path which immediately turned into the main trail up the hill. Score one for the day! I was expecting a prickly, rubbly hike but this stroll over Norman turned into one of the most pleasant we have ever done down here. Moderate grassy slopes, cooling breezes and fabulous views before the final descent to arrive at the back of Pirates.

Mowzer sitting happily below in Benures Bay with Peter Island in the background.

There's a helipad on top of Normans?? Who knew?

With direct line of sight to St. John, trying to pick up 3G on the iPad (with no luck).

... but the views are still stunning!

Lunch at the new Pirates sitting at the edge of the beach was delicious. I have to say though that the new restaurant has lost the character of the old and now looks much like other resort restaurants in the area such as Cooper Island and Marina Cay. Sorry, guess they lost more than just the building in the fire. Nothing daunted though we enjoyed our lunch with a supreme 'people-watching' view and what's better than watching people on a beach, the coming and going of dinghies and the general activity around the bar.

Lunch-time view.

The shade and beach-chairs await.

By mid afternoon we shifted our locale slightly to settle on a beach chair in the shade of a palm tree. You see it, just a few steps to the right of our table?

By 4pm it was happy hour and the painkillers had dropped to half-price (which at a regular ding of $9 was definitely the act of a Pirate) so it was time for final libations before heading home back over the hill.

Cheers!

Sure I'm ready to hike, just as soon as I finish this painkiller - oh hey, can I get another?

Thanks Henry for making this a super-special day and thanks to everyone who sent wishes! We definitely wished everyone could have shared with us.

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.

Cap'n Blowhard

Privateer Bay, Norman Island

Another morning dawns after a calm night of good sleep - it feels so natural to awake at 6:30 with the sunrise and not the alarm clock. We've had light winds the last few days so the nights have been stress-free and comfortable.

We decided that it has been a couple of years since we've snorkelled at The Caves on Norman Island so this morning, given that we were right next door we picked up a vacant day-mooring to take in the fishy wildlife. The Caves are carved into a cliff-wall on the western end of Norman Island and legend tells that pirate gold was buried in the most southerly cave within a treasure chest made most famous by Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. We may no longer find a golden treasure, but the snorkeling is pretty darned good with a great variety of aquatic life. We found them to be the most bold little fishies we have encountered and later discovered that it is most likely due to the tour operators who feed them to bring them close for the paying customers. We were quite happy to have had our snorkel and were ready to pull out as the hordes arrived. Note for later - pick up a mooring in Privateer's Bay the night before and enjoy an early morning snorkel at The Caves as a great way to start the day.

Curious fishies.

It looks dark in there.

You betcha - it's dark!

Atmosphere in abundance - imagine this as a Pirate Treasure Cove.

Mowzer in the Middle

We next headed over to Road Town to top up our Digicel data plan - hence the continuance of our blog posts. Once that last errand was completed we headed back across the Drake Channel to Peter Island and found our anchorage in Great Harbour.

Road Town - one cruise ship in today.

The sailing doesn't get much better than this!

Great Harbour is a deep harbour - averaging about 50-60'. We tried a number of times but either felt the anchor was dragging or weren't happy with our position among other boats or the rocky shoreline. The prudent mariner doesn't rest until the anchor is well set and the danger of dragging onto another boat or lee shore is eliminated. This is where the story picks up that incited the title of this post ... we finally settled on our anchor position with the anchor well set in sand and loads of chain laid out across the sandy bottom. With the winds slated to pick up a bit tonight we were happy that we are in a safe position and not at risk of blowing back onto anyone else. Despite our prudence, "George & Myrtle" of s/v "Pretencious" (my apologies to all the Georges and Myrtles out there) felt it was their duty to come over and instruct us on the minimum scope required to anchor in the Caribbean - namely a 7:1 scope. I can't tell you how irritating I found this man who initiated the conversation by spouting his 25 years of experience in all things nautical and while he may well have had a good message it would have been so much nicer if he'd taken a moment to understand why we were unhappy with our first attemps to settle the anchor and find a good position for the night. Needless to say, I doubt that Cap'n Blowhard will be reading my blog, but for anyone else reading out there who might be tempted to instruct another in the anchorage - DON'T (unless asked first).

Ok, now that I have that out of my system, back to regular programming - here was our sunset view looking out over Tortola this evening.

... and to top it all off we had the most beautiful (almost) full moon rise.

Moving On

Privateer Bay, Norman Island, BVI

We'd been in Leinster Bay which is known for it's good snorkeling for a couple of days now and had yet to don mask and flippers so we decided to remedy that this morning. Watermelon Cay has beautiful clear waters but the currents are strong so it's a good work-out too. The coral was a little damaged from idiots who think the marked area doesn't apply to them and they drive their dinghies through breaking off the elk horn coral, but we did see a good number of colourful fish and one ray.

Lurking under the big boat were about 18 good size tuna - guess they know that fishing is out of the question within the marine park. This little jack eyed me up and decided I was less of a threat than the big fish below. They don't look very big but they were hanging out in the water at about 15' deep and probably measured about 2' in length. That's a lot of sashimi!

Dave and Alex decided to take advantage of the calm conditions and slightly northerly winds and make the jump back to St. Martin tonight so we joined them for a final hike up to the Annaberg ruins on St. John. A park volunteer was very informative and filled in some more gaps about the history of the islands and the building of this extensive estate. We rambled among the well-preserved and signed remains of the horse-mill, the base of the old wind-mill, the summer kitchen of a later owner and the boiling room which still has one copper intact.

The shoreline path was a stroll in the park compared to the hike yesterday.

Looking out over the coral reef at the west end of Leinster Bay.

Windows are all framed with coral blocks.

Nature is trying to reclaim these walls - the Park Service is fighting back.

We eventually bid our farewells and wished Dave and Alex a safe trip back to the east. I'm sure our paths will cross again in the future and by then we'll all have tucked new adventures under our belts.

We headed up to Soper's Hole (West End) on Tortola to check into the BVI and then made our way over to Privateer Bay on the west side of Norman Island for the night. Our most challenging issue of the afternoon was trying to get our Digicel data card reactivated so that we can have internet in the BVI. Although the card we bought at this time last year was supposed to be good for a full year and I'd been told that the expirey date wasn't until the end of March, we were unsuccessful in getting it reactivated. We'll now need to head into Road Town and back to the Digicel office if we want to try to get data access other than just the free wifi offered by some of the bars (with very expensive drinks.)

Oh well, that's a challenge for another day.

Sunset tonight over the east end of St. John.

The Early Bird Gets the Worm

In our case it's an Indian, The Indians to be exact.

Sunrise over The Indians

Whenever we've been down here before we've cruised past the Indians looking to pick up a mooring but never a spare was to be found. We spent the night on the north shore of Norman Island and then bright and early just after 6:30 we made the short hop over to a prime day mooring on the much sought-after real-estate.

Just to catch you up on the last few days, here's a little pictorial history.

Henry and his man-size rum

Just to make all at home sick at the price

Morning walk down Maho Beach

Yep, we're hiking up to the top of that hill

The steep start to Cinnamon Bay Trail

View from America Hill, Mowzer bottom left

What an amazing place to build a house

Sunrise - Sunset - another perfect day