A Boat Day

Yesterday brought a real mix of weather with winds as high as 25 knots, a couple of rain squalls, sunshine and cloud.

We started the day at Haulovers where I baked raisin tea biscuits for breakfast. The little gas oven on Mowzer took a little while to get hot but once there, did an excellent job.

This boat arrived just as we left Haulover Bay

One of the other boats in the anchorage managed to wrap not one but two anchor chains around rocks on the bottom and needed the assistance of a diver off another boat to help them get free. Once all that excitement passed, we also headed out and made our way around to South Bay on Ginger Island. It took a little bit to get the anchor to settle but once there we were the only ones in the anchorage for lunch. The toll however was winds and swell running at opposite angles to each other. Wind wins so we ended up sitting abeam to the swells which was not overly pleasant.

The stunning south shore of Ginger Island

We had arrived at Ginger in a squall so it was fitting that another arrived as we were hauling up the anchor. Rounding the westerly point and entering the Drake Channel it was just like someone turned back on the pleasure sail; the high seas and rain instantly disappeared and we headed up to Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda. We were happy that we had reefed the mainsail as the winds climbed up over 20 knots and with genny reefed as well, Mowzer happily skipped along at 7-8 knots! We were enjoying it so much and making such good way we carried on up to Long Bay where we tucked into the anchorage just off a lovely isolated white sand beach fringed by reef and turquoise waters. Just five other cruisers in the anchorage - no mooring balls and a beautiful westerly view over the island of Tortola - I anticipate another good sunset tonight.

Squalls heading over to Tortola

Long Bay anchorage

A couple of other boat jobs awaited as we lazed around for the afternoon. The trampoline benefitted from a little rework to fill in a few holes and I managed to splice an eye in the dinghy painter. My first splice!

The Digicel Quest

This post is somewhat about our search for a wifi solution, which of course is a hot topic if you are trying to post a blog; then I'll get to some more interesting updates.

A couple of years ago we purchased a Ubiquity Bullet that we used on Mowzer with varying degrees of success and very much dependent on the good will or naïveté of folks to allow us access their wifi network. Sometimes it cost a drink to get the wifi code from a bar, but even that adds up at tourist hangouts where drinks can get quite expensive (which is surprising given the previous post's picture on the cost of rum). Unfortunately when we were taking down our antenna last November, something came disconnected and I am not sure how repairable, and cost effective, it is. This time we decided to try the more commercial route since data SIM cards are becoming much more affordable and with the prevalence of cellular networks in this part of the Caribbean we wanted to give it a try. Thus began the quest for a Digicel outlet that could sell us such a beast.

I did a little research before leaving home and found out that there was a Digicel store somewhere just east of West End (Soper's Hole). We asked at one of the shops and the fellow advised us that it was a half hour walk, but knowing how little the locals like to walk (but they love to drive very fast on the windy roads) we thought, "How far can it be, we can walk that." Well walk it we did, at 1pm, in the hot sun, for a half hour - this guy knew his distances! Just past the Big Ben Grocery, there it was. However, this small outlet didn't carry the data card for an iPad. So, we headed into the grocery to find a cold drink and on our return walk, a very nice fellow in a brand new SUV gave us a ride back to West End. Funny how, even knowing how far we'd walked, it still seemed far on the road! Thank you to the local who took pity on the crazy cruisers in the mid-day sun.

Digicel Quest - part 2, Road Town. We landed in the store in Road Town where they got us all sorted out with a data SIM card and we are now connected. We picked out a nice 1GB prepaid card, good for 30 days for $27 with a $10 credit that covers the cost of the $10 card (funny how that works). We can now connect from just about anywhere in the BVI, with the curious exception of Norman Island (what happens at Willie T's or Pirates apparently stays there). Of course we're not continuously online since we now have some serious relaxing to do now that we have completed the Digicel Quest. Sum total covers about the cost of two drinks for each of us at bars for their local wifi so we figure we're well ahead at this point.

Ok, now for the fun stuff. We stopped off at The Indians for snorkeling in the morning and it was pretty good. Not the most abundant fish population but the reef structure was pretty interesting to swim over. After finishing up there we had a most perfect sail over to Road Town; 10-15 knots of wind, flat seas and a close reach at 5-7 knots. After we finished up our errands in town we headed out again and had another similar great sail over to Haulovers on Cooper Island. The Beach Club was packed with boats and we sailed right on by, accompanied by two dolphins (where was my camera!) and we settled down the anchor in the same place that we stopped here last year. As we went out to snorkel the anchor the dolphins gave us another swim-by making this a perfect stopping place for the night. The evening games ensued watching a few other boats trying to find a spot in the swirly winds up against the cliff face and when all was done there were about five boats settled in for the night.

Just a few photos from The Indians. I am experimenting with the GoPro underwater.

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

BVI refreshments

Sitting at West End in a beautiful warm breeze and the best tropical cocktail, a Painkiller sitting on the table in front of me. Ahhhhh, the true cost of wifi, only $15.00!  Yikes.

We spent the night at Maho Bay on the north shore of St. John and once the sun came up it warmed up considerably from the last couple of days. We looked off the back of Mowzer and there above us were some ruins sitting high atop a hill. We said to ourselves, lets hike up there! The ruins are the remains of an old guest house or a rum runners headquarters, or maybe both. We made it up to the top and were treated to fabulous views (pictures of which I will have to post later since I don't have our camera with me right now) right across Mary Point, up to Jost and Tortola and the Drake Channel.

Back to Mowzer for a light lunch and then over to Soper's to check in to the BVI. After a long hot trek up to the Digicel outlet to discover that we have to go into Road Town if we want a data card for the iPad or Blackberry, we've come back for a cold drink.

Ironically as we checked up on the latest news, we note that Zerotocruising, who we hoped we might meet up with, must have passed right by us yesterday and they are now on the east end of St. Thomas. As they say, "ships in the night".

Cloudy Arrival

We're back and Mowzer looks great as usual. As Jan said in the office, "Welcome home!"

This is our trip of no plans. No big excursion or itinerary set, just two and a half weeks of relaxation and island hopping, most likely up over to St. John and then up into the BVI. With the time that we have and provided the winds co-operate we might make it up to Anegada and we're also quite interested to return to North Sound which we have missed the last few times we've been up that way. We've read of some interesting hikes up above Gun Creek or Biras Creek so we'll see what we can discover.

Surprisingly it is overcast and quite cool here today. I think they knew on the plane cause they froze us out on the flight down; no need to prepare us for the blast of hot air as we exited to the runway. Of course it's all relative and we still appreciate that there is no snow on the ground and no frost to scrape off a windshield.

Henry getting us all shipshape