Trip report Jan 29 Feb 7 - PART 3 –

It is now Saturday - overnighted at Marina Key, a little “rolly” and the motion of the boat during the night did not allow us to sleep as well as we normally do. It only rained once during the night, if was a brief rain shower but long enough to make us run the hatch drill. After breakfast we cast off and set sail for the Dogs, and from Marina Key it is a fairly short trip. We take a NPT mooring on the western side of Great Dog, I believe there are about 3 or 4 moorings there. Only one other boat around. This is a perfect snorkeling spot, and a very beautiful lunch stop. The water in this little cove was perfectly calm and we were out of the wind, the winds seemed to be out of the E SE this morning. Since no other boats showed up we did not see any problem with hanging out here for awhile, the weather was bright and sunny, not a cloud and the water just perfect. Lunch was very nice, with good cold drinks to go along with it. More underwater video, and we took a lot of pictures this day. I think by the end of the trip we had about 750 pics and maybe 20 short videos.

By about 2:30 we were off, destination is North Sound. Once clear of the Dogs, only one tack required. It was fun heading out into more open water, not touching a thing on the boat once the sails were trimmed. Waves were rolling a little, so we had some spray coming up onto the first half of the top deck, with occasional salt spray hitting the dodger on starboard side. GPS speed showed about 8 to 8.5 mph, knot meter on the boat instrumentation was inop.

So, after a good long starboard tack, we turned back toward the entrance of North Sound. Furled all sails about ½ mile out, motored on through the main entrance to North Sound, hang a right around the southeastern end of Colquhoun Reef and motor on over to Leverick Bay Marina.

On our two prior trips, for some reason we never considered stopping here, always straight to Saba Rock/Bitter End, sometimes spending two days of our vacation there. After reading the many posts here over the last several months I decided that we had to check out Leverick Bay. Actually, I had called on the phone while we were back on Marina Key, and reserved a slip…. This was really good because we did not feel at all rushed to get there early, we knew we would have a great place to overnight. Because of this, we arrived much later than we normally do, I think we arrived right around 5:00 because the Marina “closes” around that time. We contact them on the VHF, they are expecting us and give directions to the slip. David at the dock helps catch the boat and helps us tie up for the evening. For the record, fenders did not come out until about 2 minutes prior to docking, and they were deployed on starboard side as directed during our initial contact on the VHF. I cant remember the knot I used to hang the fenders, but it was probably not the right knot, <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Probably the best dinner of the trip upstairs at Leverick, I had the scallops/rice/veggies and admiral had the prime rib/mash potatoes. Admiral really enjoyed her meal, the mashed potatoes so good she asked about them, turns out they were combination of Idaho / sweet potatoes with very small amount of truffle oil mixed in to the recipe. It is hard to get excited about mashed potatoes but these were really tasty (she insisted I have a bite of hers). We were not sure what to expect here, but the facilities were much more upscale than we expected, and the restaurant was so very nice. Service was as good as we get anywhere.

Back to the boat, I normally don’t think of staying in a slip at the marina as being that great, especially considering the options we have to anchor out in a fantastic spot or even taking a mooring next to Prickly Pear near Saba Rock (always a great and continuous breeze there). But--- we did have a little breeze blowing through there all night, and the boat was sitting absolutely stationary the entire time, not rolling around and weaving around all night. We slept like rocks and had best night’s rest so far. Marina was very quiet. We briefly got to meet some people in the slips near us, the “wheat farmer” and his wife from Montana, and another nice couple from New York (there are nice people in New York??? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Laugh.gif" alt="" /> just joking!). I learned the farmer was also a pilot, flys his Cessna right off his farm, so we enjoyed talking flying for a few minutes that night. Another bonus of a slip, the admiral can come and go as she desires-- “hey, I’m going over to that little shop for a few minutes, OK?” “OK”….

The next morning at Leverick, we again do something we would have never done without the benefit of reading information others have posted on this board ---we rent a car for the day. The very nice lady working the hotel desk called one of the car companies, and for about $55 we have what looks to be a new suzuki grand vitara at our disposal for 24 hours. They deliver the car to the marina around 9:30 am, we sign the papers and pay, and away we go. First we head up the hill and around the Nail Bay road, stopping at hog heaven restaurant to take some photos. This is the place where you will want to put your iphone camera into “panaroma” mode! Funny thing, we see two other couples there (it is still only about 10 am) taking pictures…. So we begin to talk and they are from Lexington KY, only about 75 miles from where we live… small world. One of the couples run some kind of a special shoe shop where they sell all kinds of running/walking shoes, and then the admiral advises me that that is where my Mom always buys her shoes. I thought that was kind of funny ---- anyway we enjoyed talking to our friends, fellow members of the Big Blue Nation, while we were so far from home. Turns out these people come down annually and stay at or near Nail Bay, land based.

Next, onto Spanish Town and on over to the copper mine. I always wanted to check out the copper mine, so we drove over and were the only people there. We walked around, read the information boards, and looked over all the ruins, spending a total of 30 to 45 minutes. Next drive over the the Baths, but by now we are hungry. We brought some snacks in the backpack, but an appetizer or something from Top of the Baths sounds so good, how can we resist that? We go over, get the best table near the edge and under umbrella for shade, it is hot. Admiral had a greek salad, I have the coconut crusted shrimp and green banana salad. Green banana salad? I was not sure about that, but the waiter says—if you don’t like it, I bring you something else, no charge. Green banana salad is GOOD, sounds weird but it is good, and I normally stick with the “tried and true” when it comes to eats. The view out over the Drake --- everyone knows how fantastic it is, not a cloud in the sky now.

Next, we hike on down to the beach, get a locker key. Change into our snorkel garb, wrap a couple of water bottles into our beach towels, and get on over to the water. We just left our towels on the beach up near the tree line, took our cameras with us. I found that if we just tie the lanyard of the camera to the long zipper pull on the wetsuit, it works perfect. Just let the camera dangle around and grab it when you want to make a picture or video. Two cameras we had and I can recommend are Kodak Playsport and the Nikon cool pix AW100 - these were our kids cameras they had picked out some time back for Christmas/birthday, etc… but we “borrowed them”…. We probably snorkeled for an hour and a half, then back to the beach for drinks, then we just waded around and sat in the water near the beach for awhile. Later, we go back to the locker area, rinse off, change back into our dry clothes and head up the hill. We didn’t to the trail to devils bay, done that a few times already and were in take-it-easy mode after the long swim.

Back in the car, proceed to North Road, since we had already been on the Nail Bay side. Pretty steep and curvy, even by Kentucky standards. We now decide that we must go back to Hog Heaven, just for a little snack and drinks. At the restaurant we order up one pulled pork BBQ sandwich/fries and drinks. We grab bar stools on the north side of the restaurant, with the little shelf to eat on, looking out with a perfect view of Anegada. This is like bliss to us. Just a little cooler up here due to the altitude, perfect dry weather, no stress. At home we are always so busy, that just having some time without anything to do or anywhere we have to be next, what a special time. Our responsibilities and the demands on our time back home don’t allow this to happen often, so when it does, it is really good, and is to be savored. Kind of strange to have one of these moments at a place called Hog Heaven, <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />

Back down to the marina at Leverick by 6pm, drinks on the boat, then over to the Jumbies Bar for the Super Bowl Party. We ran into the “wheat farmer” and his wife again there, we enjoyed talking with them for a few minutes and watching the game. Seemed a little strange to us to be watching the super bowl in the tropics, under the stars with a nice warm breeze when normally we watch in the snow or at least really cold weather back home. We are pretty sure that we also saw some familiar faces from this TTOL forum, there were a lot of people there that night….. after the game, we are done for the day - - -

To be continued,