BVI July 31 - August 9, 2017 (Part 6)

Another great night sleep was had with the help of a fine running generator. This morning included another engine check and I was surprised that we picked up very little weed in the filters, cool. The sargassum certainly was noticeable during our last sail, long lines of weed here and there, great hiding spot for the fish! The only place we saw a few feet worth gathered on a beach was at Trellis. This is one of our favorite bays to wake up in with Jost, Little Jost, Sandy Spit, Diamond Cay surrounding us. This area is a bird sanctuary and the pelicans and boobies didn't disappoint, well boobies never really disappoint now do they. Overnight a small Gemini snuggled in next to us, don't see many of these down here? Plenty of them in the Chesapeake Bay.
















After breakfast we decided to stretch our legs. We knew the Bubbly Pool would be less than bubbly, but what the heck it's a nice walk. I'm not sure if the "J" marker on the rocks was new or not, but I researched the last 3 recent fatalities that occurred here and found one name starting with J, 34 year old Jonathan Wheeler attempted to help a friend who was washed out through the cut, friend survived but sadly Jonathan did not, rest in peace. Strange coincidence, I read that his death came one year to the day from when a young woman was swept out and suffered the same fate. Respect this beautifully tranquil place.

















The Taboo bar and shop opened up when we returned from our hike, the store is looking nice. My 5 year old flip flops were literally falling apart, unfortunately they didn't have my size. Some of the crew were really feeling well balanced at Taboo!













Release the ball!! It's time to swim and play at Sandy Spit! It was probably 0930hr when we approached, I should have had the camera ready to capture it with nobody around, but boy do the day trippers come in fast and early! Down anchor!





















We had a busy day ahead of us, Sydney always wants to visit Sydney's or Sidney's depending on where you read it. Sidney once told us that his name was misspelled on the bar and on t-shirts and he was ok with that! RIP Sidney. We have a lot of great memories here through the years. Strawberry was on duty and she was as nice as ever. We noticed that a couple barges in Little Harbour had a little issue to tend to, "Dream Mover" should temporarily be named "Nightmare Mover!".




















Release the ball!! we're off to check out of C&I in Great Harbour. Donna and I went into the Police Station to check out and the others headed to Foxy's. The C&I officers on duty were the most friendly we dealt with on this trip. One officer courteously completed our paperwork for our return and charged $10 to depart. Foxy's was rather quiet this time of the morning. Unfortunately they didn't have any flip flops I liked, but they had a bunch! They placed a large sign at the front of the place that Donna and Sydney said was a little creepy to them because it said "Foxy's Freak Show" haha, I like it!!











Everybody was excited to be sailing to St John, USVI! We had topped off water at Leverick the day prior, but when I checked the gauge in the morning I noticed we only had a half tank?? We found a sink in the head just trickling away, duh! Note to self, make sure you completely turn off the dang faucet next time!! No problem, North Latitude Marina is right there. I tried to hail them twice on the radio but no response? are they open? I motored over and hovered for a minute and a gentleman came walking down the dock, cool. He said he heard me but was waiting for the 3rd call which never came, ha! The small store actually has quite a few provisions, ICE CREAM! Craig walked some trash to the dumpster while we filled Orions tanks, again. In no time we were on a beam reach heading straight towards Peter Bay, St John.












We enjoyed a wonderful sail and took in the sails well off the North Shore. We proceeded to motor to Caneel Bay and grabbed a ball. The dinghy ride to the customs dock was calm and quick. A Customs officer saw us and said it was ok to drop the crew off to start the paperwork, but we needed to move to the National Parks dinghy dock unless we wanted to pay $20 to tie up there, we relocated. Our timing was perfect because a ferry dropped off about 100 people while I was walking from the dinghy, ha! I walked through the large crowd saying, scuse me, scuse me, pardon me, receiving the occasional hard look, whaaatever, make a hole people Captain coming through, ha!! When I entered Donna handed me the boat paperwork and passports and I was called up. The Customs officer asked if I was the captain and where was my crew, that's it! Stamp, stamp, stamp, stamp and we were in! No fees and out of there. No photos for fear of prosecution!

St John, where do I start.... my first visit was in 1982 when I was 19 and the love affair between us continued yearly after that. The first few years I camped with buddies at Cinnamon Bay and Maho. When I met Donna I brought her down to see if she would like it, she did, I proposed. We stayed at Gallows Point Resort that year and the next for our honeymoon, 25 years ago. I joke by saying she changed me! I used to dip a plastic cup into a trash can full of "jungle juice" and now I drink from a glass! "Jungle Juice" One bottle $1 Rum, 2 large cans of whatever juice they had at the Cinnamon Bay commissary, mixed ever so carefully in a small "clean" plastic trash can, priceless really! We should have been married at the Catholic church here, "Our Lady of Love City" aka Our Lady of Mt Carmel.



















After some brief shopping at Wharfside Village and a cold beer at the Beach Bar it was time to head back to S/V Orion. Experienced a little chop dinging back, I could be heard saying "sorry" over and over as the ladies got splashed, ha! We motored up to Maho Bay on the North Shore, what a beautiful ride with the hills so green. Overcome with memories of walking down the pitch black North Shore roads after many cocktails with Victor at the Kite RIP, before she changed me. We found only a few boats between Maho and Francis Bays, my guess is that there are now well over 50 mooring balls in these two bays. It was a beautiful evening and the moon was one day away from being full.






















To be continued...Cheers!

Great Report! - as usual!
As for flip flops, spend a few extra $$$ for Crocs. Mine have lasted forever (almost)

Consider Reef Fanning flip flops
They have a bottle opener in the sole
As always, thanks for writing the best
trip reports

Mike

Great report!

Thanks guys!

Updated the pics.