Dear TTOLers, Our dream was a week sailing the BVI with our grown daughters and their husbands.We arrived to reports of a northern swell and rain unusual for the time of year. From the Moorings we boarded our 4600 cat and headed just to Cooper to get our sealegs despite our original plan to go to JVD. Since we had scuba divers aboard, or next stop was Peter so the kids could dive the Rhone via the BVI dive boat that picked them up from our mooring. The waves were up but they had a great experience. On to VG and then Anegada for 2 days and then JVD before our trip home. It was so great sharing some of the highlights of BVI with our kids but the sailing conditions were disappointing- that swell produced 6-10 ft waves most days, rainy days the beginning of the week. It was great to have the sun for our Anegada days. The water wasn't as warm as expected probably due to the churned up seas. People we met said they have always come at this time and never had such conditions. Anyway we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and were able to do what we planned. The worst situation came when we were dropping anchor at JVD and the gears locked! Thankfully the anchor held. We put out a secondary anchor and called the Moorings. The next day they came but could not fix the transmission and we had one of their men coast us back to Tortola with one engine. It was the end of our trip anyway. I must report that our top line cat which we paid extra so mechanical troubles would not happen, had no wind indicator, had cockroaches, and engine trouble. We had 2 mechanics out during the trip to fix things (but couldn't) who said that the consolidation of the big charter companies has hurt the industry with pretty definite comments. I wish this wasn't the case, and I hope that the situation can improve. Despite all of this we did have a dream trip to share with our kids.
