Wednesday – Virgin Gorda

Forecast: ENE Winds 11-16 knts, seas 5-7’ in NE swells, scattered showers.

I realized that I have been posting the marine forecast each day but it does not include the temperature.  So, for those of you that want to know, the forecast temperature is provided for sea level and then for higher elevations and comfort is completely dependent on whether you are in the blazing sun or the ocean breeze.  So, the forecast for today was 30C (85F) and we had both, sun and breezes, but no rain whatsoever; another glorious day in paradise.

We got up to this view this morning.  There is no cruise-ship dock at Spanish Town so they get to anchor out with the rest of us.

Today was a ‘stay-at-home’ day in that Mowzer didn’t leave the anchorage.  We started off early this morning, this time to explore the southern end of Virgin Gorda.  We definitely got to see both sides of this part of the island, from the back road tip/excavation pit in the east overlooking the airport to the beautiful palm-tree lined beaches and estates of the getaway homes on the west side of the island.  No matter where you look though, giant boulders – some the size of apartment buildings – are scattered all over The Valley (the southern end of VG), and in this case I guess the boulder just couldn’t be removed.

We walked all the way out to Copper Mine Point which was originally excavated for (surprise, surprise) copper by the local natives in the 1400s and then by English (Welsh & Cornish) miners in the 1830s.  It is now a preserved ruin but offers stunning views of the much unseen east side of Virgin Gorda.

Walking up to the mine we passed the ‘Home of the world famous sunset’ bar & grill and mini-put.  Given the view we certainly understood the bar & grill part, but with the state of the fairways we decided the mini-putt wasn’t going far.

The Baths offered up the usual stunning scenery but was full of two cruise-ships’ worth of French and German passengers which is just too much for this small space. 

We made our way on down to the next bay still surrounded by the giant boulders but amazingly there was no-one on the beach there.  Just glorious!

Back in Spanish Town we found The Mermaid where we were super-ready for lunch and had the added bonus of watching the water-taxis from the cruise-ships loading up folks to return to the mother-ship.  From the guy with the sparkly gold aviators and lace-up Speedo, to various forms of artificial enhancement on the women, to lots of folks just enjoying themselves we quite enjoyed the people-watching while we quietly relaxed on our own schedule at the bar. 

Back at Mowzer this evening, we enjoyed our sundowners and waved goodbye to our neighbours.  I have a new favourite concoction for just this occasion:  Cruzan coconut rum (not Malibu) mixed with half diet coke and half mango-peach juice – yum!

All told today we covered over 10 miles and I can officially say that I am looking forward to a day on the boat tomorrow, with no walking!

With that in mind, the plan is to head up to Anegada tomorrow so we most likely won’t be able to post to the blog until we’re back down this way again.  There was no wi-fi when we were there previously but who knows what is there now since both Earl and Irene have been through and I’m sure there has been some rebuilding.

Tuesday: Coral Bay to Spanish Town

Forecast: ENE winds 11-16 knts, seas 6-8 feet in NE swells, scattered showers. (Drake Passage seas were a comfortable 2-4 feet with no showers to be seen.)

Where did your morning workout take you today?  I know, we’re only really into day 3 of our new habit, but we were up at 6am again and headed down the road (on foot of course) out of Coral Bay towards East End.  At Hurricane Hole we turned off the road and headed up over the ridge on the Brown Bay trail that took us up to the Johnny Horn trail.  This was the view at the top.

Carrying the GPS on our hike keeps us on the right track of course but also lets us see how far we went and just what we climbed (how techie!)

    

Coral Bay is a funky little place at the east end of St. John that prides itself on being the haven for true cruisers and not tourists.  However, the first thing you encounter when you step off the dinghy dock (after the requisite number of derelict boats and cars) is a souvenir shop.  Why is it that in the land of the ‘free pour’ there are more shot-glasses for sale than just about anything else?

In all reality though and to be fair to Coral Bay, it has a completely different atmosphere and is probably more redolent of what we all think the Caribbean is like.  Here was the greeting committee this morning.

 

At Skinny Legs (the local bar) there is a bumper sticker on the wall that proclaims, “St. John, the open-air asylum”.  The one I really resonated with was the one on the back of this jeep just above his window – check out what he’s carrying in his golf-bag.

 

Coral Bay, for all it’s eccentric delights is not a harbour to swim in.  It is all silted up and from the sunken boats that have been there a few years, who knows what is leaking.  We were back onboard from our walk just as the sun was truly starting to heat up (about 10am) so we make our way over to Round Bay for a cooling off dunk in the crystal-clear turquoise waters before we headed off up the Sir Francis Drake Channel and into the British Islands.

Once upon a time, Spanish Town was the capital of the BVI’s.  Today it is a port of entry, ferry terminal from Tortola and home to the yacht club that hosts Sunsail and Barefoot charter boats.  We hadn’t been here before so we anchored off to the side (a free night, yay) and then headed into customs and immigration to do our paperwork to enter Her Majesty’s territory.

This time out we’re really trying to explore parts of the islands that we haven’t seen before.  Some of the anchorages we’ve been to and some we haven’t, but we’re trying to get out on foot to explore a little further.  Our goal now is to get up to Anegada and with the winds shifting to the east by Thursday we should be good to make the little jump.  It will be a much more pleasant sail since the northerly swells created by the depression that was moving out to the Atlantic earlier this week will be abating and with the wind shifting around off the nose we should be able to make it in one tack.  Before that however, we have a day to explore the south end of Virgin Gorda.

Monday: East End St. John

Forecast: Winds NNE 15-17 kn, seas NE swells 6-8', scattered showers.

Well that was the forecast but to be honest all we saw of it today was the scattered showers.  Working on maintaining the good habit, we were up at 6am.  This sounds terribly early for vacation, but when you go to bed at 9:30 it still makes for a good night's sleep.  Taking the Lameshur Bay trail to the west we climbed over the ridge and down to the Reef Estate Great House (in ruins), the Par Force Estate (very gloomy and in ruins) and the Reef Sugar Factory (well maintained but still in ruins).

We ended our hike at the Petroglyphs carved into the rocks of a magical fresh-water glade complete with a 40' waterfall.

The morning's hike took us about 5 miles (we're in the U.S.) and over a ridge at 460'.  The trails are very well maintained by the State Park and we never begrudge the $15 mooring fee. It seems like a steal really to have a safe mooring for the night and good hiking trails that network all over the island. Given that it was Monday morning, this shot is for all the folks back at GB -oh where your back-pack can travel.

We were quite happy to beat the heat with the early morning hike and be back to Mowzer by 11am.  The snorkeling around the edge of the bay was fun but nothing really special other than a great way to spend the heat of the day. By mid afternoon we dropped the mooring ball and motored into the wind and waves to head into Coral Bay.  We took a little excursion around Round Bay and this is definitely somewhere we will come back to anchor.  We'd decided on another hike for the tomorrow morning though and Coral Bay is a better starting point so we dropped anchor at the back of the pack and enjoyed a very calm evening.

As of this evening we are sitting in Coral Bay picking up the best wi-fi signal we've had to date - thanks to Seven Seams!!

Sunday, St. Thomas to St. John

Forecast: Winds NNE 16-19 kn, gusting to 25 kn, seas NE swells 5-7', small craft advisory

As we arrived at CYOA on Saturday afternoon it was great to see all the familiar faces: Nancy, Jay, Jan and we got to meet Debbie for the first time.  Debbie & Jay post on the Livin da Life blog that we follow to keep up with what is happening on the island so it was fun to put a face to the woman behind much of the writing.

Having a car rental is totally the way to go.  We ate a quick dinner, got our provisioning done and headed back to the boat with absolutely no hassle.  We realized that this is  our fifth trip to the island now so it definitely feels like coming back to our second home.

Jan made the offer that if I cared to get up nice and early, I could join her on her early morning walk.  Sure enough, I was up and ready to go when she appeared at 6 am.  This may be vacation, but if you want to get in a good walk this is definitely the time of day to do it.  The humidity takes a lot of getting adjusted to, especially away from the ocean breeze.  Jan has a great workout walk into town from the marina that includes the famous 99 steps and another run of steps that I'm sure had more.  We walked up to Bluebeard's castle, back down and then Jan walked back up again (I was definitely huffing at that point) before making our way back around the harbour to CYOA.  Now if only I can keep up on this great intention to get out on a regular basis - I'll be a very happy camper.

After a few more errands and returning the car we were on our way.  A weather advisory with high winds and a strong swell were forecast so to stay out of the swells we sailed the south shore of St. Thomas and St. John, picking Little Lameshur Bay as our destination.  We came the whole way on one tack, passing through 4-5 squalls with winds and spray that made us very happy that we had prepared with a double reef in the sails. The double rainbows against the shore of St. John were spectacular and made the dodgy weather all worth it.

Given the wave action that was probably hitting the north shore beaches, there was lots of activity on the beach here until about 4pm, but then poof, everyone disappeared, including the only other boat in the bay.  Once again, coming to the south side has treated us to a lovely secluded anchorage for the night.

Just Two More Sleeps

I should probably be packing but instead I've been browsing the web and tweaking the blog - all part of getting my head away from work and into vacation mode.

This summer didn't see nearly enough time on the boat up here in Ottawa so the next two weeks on Mowzer are going to be fabulous.  We're still not completely decided on where we'll head and in reality it will probably be Sunday or Monday morning before we finally decide, but the likelihood is that we'll try to get back up to Anegada.  Lobster dinner on the beach as a belated birthday celebration for both of us is in the works.

Meanwhile back in Ottawa this past summer, I decided to tackle a 'canvas' project on the home-front.  Our gazebo cover gave out the year before last and we missed the shade by the pool last summer.  I picked up a roll of beautiful yellow/gold striped Sunbrella and fashioned a new cover.  It certainly felt incredibly decadent to set up space on the pool table for the sewing project - there definitely won't be this sort of space aboard!

Under construction ...

Like a crazy ballerina ...

It turned out pretty well although I never did get a picture of the final product up on the gazebo.  I love working with Sunbrella but it pushed the limits of my Janome machine - oh for a Sailrite!  Got lots of ideas though for how to handle boat projects down the road.