Arrived at the Voyage base pretty chilled after 4 days at Apple Bay, did a bit of paperwork at the office, Galeaux was on the dock and ready to go, sparkling clean and nice and cool inside with the AC running on shore power. Did some unpacking and had a few cocktails at and a light lunch at Pussers, had a message that Direchlet (Colin and Jen) had a cancelled flight and will not be on the afternoon ferry, rather a late night arrival at EIS, bummer. The Flotilla kick off dinner at The Clubhouse was fantastic, much of the TTOL gang there, very enjoyable evening. Quite a party going on aboard one Love, loaned them a bottle of rum, geez, their booze order arrived just hours earlier, who was beverage Control Officer? They were all taking about this new Kitty drink Branson came up with the language was deploreable, had to go to bed! Colin and Jen arrived close to midnight, got up for a greeting then back to bed!
Sailing day 1: Off the dock by around 10:30 AM, short motor sail between Tortola and JVD to get an improved sailing angle to Kingfish Banks, unfurled and started sailing about Apple Bay, spirited close reach with 18-22knots of wind…a bit of wave action once out of protected waters…got Colin tuned into the helm and all the trolling lines out, took a pass across the Banks, no bites, the surface was pretty choppy. Called a lay line to clear the tip of great Camanoe in route to Scrub Island, between the current set and wave action it became obvious that it would be much easier to just fall off a tad for boatspeed and sail down the coast of Great Camanoe and go through the cut to Scrub. A great first sail, a bit rough outside, we were the only boat in sight that was sailing. Got backed into B Dock on the second attempt, too many on the dock shouting throttle orders, screwed me all up…turned off my hearing the second pass and got her backed in, less than a foot per side to spare on the dock. Great day hitting the pool and swim up bar and GREAT night with our International Food court on the dock, blue Moon won best theme and best dinner item, Osprey won best theme drink, home made Bailey’s type concoction that was quit potent! The entire Srcub island crew was fantastic and Martin and his Chef were judges for the night!!
Martin and Dawg aboard Galeaux:

chilling in the pool:

Had a bit of a panic waking up at 1:15 AM and the girls were missing, found them in the Jacuzzi with 2 young men from Puerto Rico..back to the boat Girls, NOW!

Aboard day 2: Motored up to The Baths and were able to grab a mooring, fun taking the tour again, it has been years. Had a Bloody Mary at Poor Man’s Bar, really good, back to Galeaux for lunch and sail up to North Sound.


Set the main and peeled off into a reach, marking the hazard bouy near Van Ryan’s Rock on the GPS, unfurled the headsail and yeeaa, Tiger by the tail sailing!! Saw boat speeds of 12 knots several times, nice flat water and throwing some nice wakes!!
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/saildoggie/BVI612/?action=view&current=GOPR0750.mp4
Great sail, did a couple tacks to lay the entrance markers into North Sound and sailed all the way to furl by Leverick Bay, salty, wet and smiles all around!!
Nice greeting at Leverick Bay, got docked up and settled, dock parties continued…

Day 3: Dinghy Poker Run! Batch of Bloody Mary’s aboard then off to Jumbies Bar with pirate gear on, got a couple hands and breakfast wrist bands, whoa, this is gonna be a fun day!!!

What a run it was, best yet, great attendance, great costumes and pirate sneers, water fights were over the top! Our host establishments all did a great job, really nice prizes and raised over $3,700 for Animal rescue on Virgin Gorda. Nick and Monica and the entire Leverick bay Staff did a fantastic job as always!
Special thanks to The Moorings for supplying dinghies at a very low rate and also passing all the proceeds to the charity!
I think the top winner was Catatonic with a real Doubloon necklace donated by Saba Rock.
Gonna be tough to top this one in 2013 but we will certainly do our best!!
Los of great pics from YachtshotsBVI here:
http://www.yachtshotsbvi.com/
BVI Beacon Article here;
BVI Beacon Dinghy Poker Run


Day 4 aboard Galeaux:
De Anegada Lobsta Regatta in memory of Walt Bohren.
Skippers meeting, safety briefing at Leverick Bay, start time assigments…
We had staggered start times based on handicaps set by Mike Beswick of Jeannius.
The race started off with decent winds in in the 14-19 knot range put those gray clouds off in the distance made things very interesting very quickly.
The first breakdown was Jeannius, she ripped the cringle out of her main and down it came...Parrot Play got some heavy squall gusts and dropped out after dropping their main, I think Serena retired around the same time. Osprey had some issues from the start but all made it out safely!!
Those of us that stiffed it out were in for wild, wet ride, the monos were off and nowhere to be seen, Blue Moon, One Love and Catatonic were dueling it out in the distance seeming somewhat high of course as they were all vying for clear air.

We sailed a bit high then started peeling off, the Race Committe power cat became visible in the binoc's and the drag race to the finish was on...some strong puffs helped Galeaux sprint out, Cap'n (Doc) McLaughlin had taken the helm and The Dawg was trimming and calling course...we passed the pack in last mile or so and the race was on, a drag race to finish and a nail biter at that..One Love and the rest would make ground when the winds got light, they were dicing like the 'ol Slice O'matic back there...I was just telling Colin steady as she goes, hold course..
The Cat finishes were tight, here are the scores and start and finish times:

1.Galeaux 11:39.15 Finish, Start was 10:19
2.One love 11:39.31 Finish, Start was 10:14
3.Catatonic 11:40.25 Finish, Start was 10:14
4.Blue Moon 11:40.55 Finish, Start was 10:13
Close race guys, good sailing!
Galeaux crew;

Martin on the RC is searching for the mono finishes, a classic 35' sloop, local guys from North Sound took the win..Fill in the blanks from there guys, this is what I have..

We all got anchored up and moored, some boat parties began, a few shots aboard Galeaux:




Whistling Pines put on an awesome awards party and dinner, had even decorated the awards table for us:

Awards by Last Mango, bottles of wine courtesy Whistling Pines, TTOL coozies, shirts and beach bag thank you Eric and Carol!


Many thanks to the Race Committee, please coin in here, excellent job on both the start and finish power cats!!!

I think everyone had a really great time, thank you to all that participated, those that toughed it out and finished and especially those that did drop out for issues as well as safety with little ones aboard.

Please add pictures and videos, the awards, dancing, the conga lines, bring them on!!

Thanks again to our Host and Sponsors for helping make this a really fun event!!



Dining Highlights:
The Clubhouse: Excellent dining, the Rib Eye was unreal as was The Admiral’s Lobster dish and Sailpuppy LOVED the special salad, even the Basalmic dressing which normally does not care for. Ambience and service was also second to none.
Corsairs: Great service, the seared Scallops over Linguine with sauce was unreal, licked the bowl! The Admiral’s steak was outstanding and the younger Ladies loved the pizza. The newly added seating is some second hand fast food seating from someplace, welded steel, uncomfortable and really cheezy looking, not something one would expect in the BVI’s.

Whistling Pines: Was pleased with the quality of the food for the Awards Buffet, was a large group for them and they did a good job. Daniel Vanterpool really did a great job decorating and organizing the event, the cake he made was quite good as well!
Myett’s: Kitchen down for renovation but incredible pizza, really good, Sailpuppy had a Caesar Salad that was huge, I helped finish it and it was the best Caesar I had ever tasted. Val and Kareem were visiting with everyone, fun night!!

D Best Cup: Soper’s Hole: Awesome Eggs Benedict, pretty quick service considering how busy they were.

Potters by The Sea: Nice meal, just The Admiral and I, my Lobster was good, The Admiral raved about the Lobster Fettucini. Potter was on his game that night, visiting each table and chatting, making a real effort to be sure everyone was taken care of.

Part III, R&R chilling portion of report soon come.

Trip pics here:
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/saildoggie/BVI612/?start=all