Day 9: Little Harbor<br><br>Woke up to a beautiful morning in White Bay. We rolled and swung on our anchor a tad during the night, but nothing excessive. All in all it was a great nights sleep. Lori, Jeff, Teri and Marrissa headed over to the Soggy Dollar for breakfast while I stayed aboard for some frosted flakes. I gave the deck a wash down and then lounged in the cockpit for some serious limin. When the crew returned from breakfast, they pretty much did the same thing, with a couple heading to the beach.<br><br>Had a quick lunch (leftover burgers for Jeff and myself) and then departed the anchorage. The wind was already blowing pretty well in the anchorage so we unfurled the headsail and left the main tucked away in the mast.<br><br>We rounded Pull & Be Damn Point and the wind really picked up. We had 30 knots and hit 35 a few times. We hauled the headsail in tight for some serious beating. It was pretty exhilarating as we pounded upwind doing 7 knots on just the headsail. After about 15 minutes we tacked to port and set the sail for a reach to Great Harbor. We were now doing 8.5 knots on our lone headsail…it was really fun. <br><br>As we neared the harbor entrance we started to furl the headsail. I was at the helm and also was responsible to keep some tension on the sheets as the crew furled the sail. I headed up to make the task easier and luffed the headsail. I should have kept a wrap around the winch on the working sheet because she quickly ripped away from my hands, walked up my sailing gloves and gave me a nice (ouch!) burn on the tip of my index finger.<br><br>We got the sail put to bed and then motored into the channel. We turned to starboard between the second and third buoys and dropped the hook in about 30 feet of water. The anchor was set easily and we soon found ourselves in the dingy heading to Foxy’s jetty. Foxy’s was slow (heck, its Sunday) but we all had a few drinks and picked up some tee shirts. We then did a quick walk up the road to the church and back, and had another round of drinks. At this point, I decided that I liked White Bay much better than Great Harbor. Going back was not a good option because it was late in the day and the anchorage was likely full. After a short discussion, the crew unanimously voted to head east and check out Little Harbor. <br><br>We pulled up anchor with Lori at the helm and headed East to Little Harbor. We instantly fell in love with the anchorage. We decided to try and drop the hook, but were unsuccessful getting it set in about 30 feet of water. There were other boats anchored and they had the preferred spots. After three attempts, we decided to take an open ball and then dinked in to Sidney’s Peace and Love.<br><br>We loved the atmosphere at Sidney’s. The people were very friendly and accommodating. My wife and I purchased about 200.00 dollars in shirts and other items, as well as some jewelry from Nippy. We also met up with a nice crew from Canada and had a great discussion that ranged from sailing to hockey.<br>We had some appetizers at Sidney’s and then headed back to the boat for a pasta dinner. Everyone was in their berths by 9:45. <br><br>Day 10: Benures Bay<br><br>We departed the anchorage at Little Harbor at 8:00 and set course for the western end of Tortola. The plan was to have a brief stopover at Sopers Hole for some light provisioning, then head over to Norman Island. I had my sights set on a night in Benures Bay. This was a ‘can’t miss’ anchorage as far as I was concerned. It offered an extremely well protected anchorage, seclusion, and pristine snorkeling.<br><br>Upon exiting Little Harbor we again unfurled the headsail, leaving the main furled inside the mast. It was a nice reach over to the western end of Tortola, with the winds peaking at about 18 knots.<br><br>We picked up a mooring ball at Sopers hole by 9:00 and dinked in to the warf. The crew started to spread out and hit the shops while I dumped the garbage and visited with Voyage Yacht Charters. I really liked their cats, and wanted a first hand look. I wasn’t disappointed. We plan on getting a cat next year and BVI Yacht Charters has a limited selection. Regardless, we are going to make every effort to stay with the same company.<br><br>We browsed the shops and picked up a few provisions at the Ample Hamper in Sopers Hole. At 11:30 skipper and crew dinked back to Arcadia and made ready for the sail over to Norman Island. We dropped the ball and motored out, again raising just the headsail. It was a good call as the wind was now blowing hard in the mid 20’s. <br><br>There were quite a few boats out in the Sir Francis Drake Channel, and several appeared to struggle. We were sailing close-hauled and making 6 knots, occasionally 7 knots. We were also blowing by several other vessels as they had both sails out and were obviously overpowered, rounding up quite a bit. I was in my element, as these were San Francisco Bay conditions that are encountered when you are in ‘The Slot’. The slot is an area between Angel Island and the city of San Francisco where high winds are prevalent on summer afternoons. All in all, it was a quite enjoyable sail over to Norman Island.<br><br>We easily picked out Benures Bay. I was disappointed in that I sighted four boats in the anchorage, one of them occupying the exact spot I was hoping to anchor on the North Eastern shore of the anchorage. Luck was with us however, as this vessel raised sail and departed while we were still a mile out. We furled our headsail and motored directly to the anchorage to take advantage of the situation. Upon arriving inside the anchorage, I was instantly struck by the overall beauty of Benures Bay, as well as how protected this area is. There was a light breeze and the water was absolutely flat.<br><br>While motoring up to the point where we planned to drop anchor, we noticed that the boat closest to us was a cruiser, and that the skipper was buck-naked. I think he made a point to show himself on the deck in attempt to scare us from the anchorage. This bothered some of our crew, but I didn’t really care. Hey, were in the BVI…to each his own. One ‘nekid man’ was not forcing me out of Benures Bay.<br><br>Our first attempt to anchor failed. I think I got too close to shore and the anchor was in a grassy area. We motored in on our second attempt and dropped the hook in 25 feet of water and let the wind push the boat back on the rode. We then slowly increased engine rpm and the anchor set. We then set 2000 rpm for 2 minutes for good measure. After setting the anchor, I decided to set a stern anchor as well. I had read that you do get back winded in Benures, and I wanted to avoid that. We dropped and set our stern anchor using the dingy, and then tied it off to an aft cleat. After diving both anchors, we knew we would get great nights sleep. <br><br>Shortly after anchoring we loaded the crew and pool toys aboard the dingy and dropped the girls on a small stretch of sandy beach. Jeff and I then took the dingy over to the western end to snorkel. The snorkeling was fantastic! We were swimming with hundreds of fish of varying species. Just an incredible snorkel is all I can say. <br><br>After snorkeling and swimming, we all headed back to Arcadia for some drinks and snacks. I then prepared and cooked us a dinner of jerked / bbq’d porkchops. The dinner was great (I have to admit). After dinner, we used flashlights to attract fish. The women (and yes, the boys too) were pretty excited as we attracted all types of fish. This kept up for several hours. After awhile I took my sport-a-seat to the foredeck for some serious limin. Lori finally woke me up and got me to go below to hit the rack.<br><br>Everyone slept all night. I got up once to check the anchor (actually, I had to pee, and checked the anchor while I was at it). This was by far the most comfortable night we spent on the boat. No surge, no rolling, no spinning. We just felt so at ease here. <br><br>I’ll be back to Benures Bay, no doubt. It’s my #2, second only to Anegada.<br><br>Day 11: To Sprat Bay<br><br>We awoke early in Benures Bay, although I’m not sure exactly what time it was when I crawled out of the rack. Up on the deck on surveyed the bay. It was still just us and the naked guys boat here. <br><br>I had planned the night before on cooking us a big breakfast, and that’s just what I did. We had bacon, eggs, potatoes and muffins. It was one of those breakfasts that can carry you through the day. Once that was done I decided to take a snorkel of the eastern end of Benures Bay. I was amazed that there was also coral on the eastern and southeastern side of the bay with huge amounts of sea life all around. Jeff joined me and we really explored the sea bed. We found a turtle, but he quickly escaped our sight. We also found a manta ray, smaller than the one we saw at the Baths, but nonetheless impressive.<br><br>After our morning snorkel, we started to ready the boat for the next destination. Last night I had no idea where we would go. I wanted an anchorage that would offer us an easy passage to Road Town. I decided on Sprat Bay, a place I knew nothing about. Deadmans Bay also seemed like a good destination, but did not appear to offer much protection from the wind and currents. I also wanted to get one more good sail in, so I informed the crew that we would be heading to Sprat Bay taking an indirect route around the Atlantic side of Norman and Peter Islands. We would then cut between Deadmans Chest and Peter Island and find ourselves at the entrance to Sprat Bay.<br><br>We slowly made the boat ready for the sail (nobody was moving quick today). The wind was blowing a lazy 15 knots so I had the crew unfurl the head and mainsails. We then busted out of Benures on a broad reach, jybed just off of Pelican Island and then ran down toward the caves. We rounded the Western end of Norman and took a long tack out to sea on the Atlantic side. It was fun as we hit 4 to 5 foot seas with 15 knots of winds in the sail. We were sailing close hauled and I had the auto-pilot on. I was pretty much limin and sailing, as was the rest of the crew. We tacked two times on the back side of Norman and Peter Islands and headed for the gap between Peter and Deadman Island.<br><br>One thing that surprised me during this sail was the amount of fishing nets we encountered. We really had to stay on our toes as we dodged at least 10 nets.<br><br>We dropped sail and motored into Sprat Bay. It was another lovely anchorage except for the resort atmosphere. We slowly motored up to the mooring balls (there are 5 here) and picked one out. As I continued to slowly motor, I decided to pick my way between a cat and mono hull. The anchorage was pretty tight, and I wanted to get behind the cat and then turn to the mooring ball right next to this boat. Nothing doing, we touched bottom. I backed the boat down and we took another mooring in deeper (7’) water.<br><br>The crew packed up for a quick shore excursion. We paid 35.00 for the mooring ball. This included use of the dockside showers as well as the resort taxi’s and beach area. We had a delicious (expensive, 140.00) lunch and two rounds of drinks among the four of us. I had the pizza, while two of the crew had the Cuban sandwich and another the tuna salad. <br><br>We then returned by taxi to our dingy and headed back to Arcadia. Jeff and Teri then dinked back in for a shower while Lori and I remained aboard and relaxed. After everyone was back aboard, we decided to skip dinner as we were still full from our lunch. We had planned on eating some ribeye steaks we had picked up in Sopers Hole. Instead, we would have steak and eggs for our last meal aboard.<br><br>After a few painkillers and corona’s, we turned in for the night at 10 pm. This is a small anchorage, and there was a Beneteau 47 right next to us running their engine making it difficult to sleep. Finally, when it became apparent that the engine was not going to be shutdown, I dinked over and hailed the crew. Finally someone came on deck. I asked if they could please shut their engine off as it was quite loud. The response was that they needed it for the air-conditioning. I grumbled away in the dinghy unhappy that they would run their engine so close to other boats this late at night. However, by the time I returned to Arcadia, the engine was shutdown. Now the stage was set for a peaceful sleep, our last night on the boat. I was wrong.<br><br>This paragraph explains what is now known as the ‘Incident At Sprat Bay’. At about 3:50 am I had the urge to use the bathroom. While in the head I felt the boat slightly bump. I also heard a strange scraping sound. Could we have run aground? I popped my head out of the forward hatch and sure enough, we were nowhere near the spot where we secured Arcadia to a mooring ball. Instead, we were on the western shore of Sprat Bay, about 100 yards from our mooring area. Our keel was definitely touching bottom but it appeared we were not ‘hard aground’. I woke my wife and she responded with an ‘Oh [censored]’! We made our way to the cockpit and Jeff and Teri soon followed. After quickly surveying the situation I decided to have Jeff take the dingy and try to pull Arcadia off of the bottom. I attached a line to the starboard aft cleat and Jeff tied off the other end to the stern of the dingy. Jeff then slowly motored toward deeper water, taking the slack out of the line. Once the slack was removed, I asked Jeff to set full power on the dingy. As he set full power the dingy was pulled to port as it tried to make headway. It appeared that we might need to use other means to yank Arcadia to deeper water when suddenly her stern turned. <br><br>At this point I was confident that we could safely turn on the engine. I did, and with a small quick burst of throttle in reverse, Arcadia was floating again. We motored back to our mooring and could see that the mooring tether had indeed failed. Jeff rigged a new line to the mooring and we slowly motored in the dark to the ball. At this point, the skipper from another vessel in the anchorage dinked over and offered his assistance. We were able to get Arcadia back on the ball and finally settled back in for the remainder of our sleep. That concludes the ‘Incident At Sprat Bay’.<br><br>We awoke about 6:30. By 7:15 Jeff had the steaks on the grill and was busy frying eggs up. We all sat down to an awesome breakfast. We will be departing Sprat Bay for Road Town between 9 and 9:30 this morning. Its with much regret that I embark on this last sail for I have truly enjoyed every minute of our journey and its about to come to an end.<br><br>Day 12: Return to Road Harbor<br><br>Sitting here in Sprat Bay I’m pretty sad. I know that we will soon be embarking on the last sail of the trip. I’m in no hurry to leave. Lori and I would love to just stay and continue on.<br><br>After our great breakfast we sadly packed everything up and did some general cleanup. At 9 am I dinked in to speak with the Sprat Bay Harbor Master about our incident the night prior. He was very apologetic and returned 25 of the 35 dollars we had paid for the mooring ball.<br><br>Returned to the boat and secured the dingy in anticipation of our departure. After we had the boat squared away we raised the mainsail while attached to the ball. We then dropped the mooring and used the motor to maneuver towards the entrance to the anchorage. The wind picked up and we cut the motor and I had the crew unfurl the headsail. We were off to Road Town.<br><br>This last sail was pretty short, but the BVI’s famous winds did not let me down on the last day. We had a steady 18 knots as we gunned across the Sir Francis Drake Channel on a broad reach. We arrived much to quickly to my liking at Road Harbor (I almost gybed and headed back to sea). We fueled up Arcadia and then eased her into her slip at Inner Harbor Marina. <br><br>Checking back in with BVI Yacht Charters was a breeze. Although I’m sure they were not happy about the loss of the boats removable seat, they were very nice about it. I took a look at one of their cats and a 50 foot Benneteau before the taxi arrived to take us to the Mongoose.<br><br>We were at the Mongoose by 1 pm. It was great to see the owners, Chris and Maryann. Their 15-year-old son, Jason, now joined them. Jason was back in the States when we arrived 12 days ago. We quickly stowed our gear and pretty much relaxed on the beach all day. I did run down to the Cyber Café and had a quick check of my email and did a little web browsing.<br><br>We took a brief visit out to the last resort. We wanted to get some final signatures in our Drinking Man’s Guide to the BVI. After a couple of drinks it was back to the Mongoose for dinner. Our final dinner in the BVI was fantastic. Rosa, the chef at the Mongoose really knows her stuff and prepares her meals with great pride. Jeff and Teri ordered a goat roti, my wife the swordfish while I had the chicken roti. We also had some conch fritters and they were the absolute best we had. The dinner drew raves from the entire crew. Later, while Rosa was cleaning up the kitchen, I dropped by and gave her an extra tip. I really appreciated her humor and kindness. She even allowed me into the kitchen while she was cooking to snap a few photos.<br><br>Everyone was in bed between 9:30 and 10:00. I hung out with Chris for a bit and showed him all of the photos I had taken. Chris has many talents, one of them being an outstanding photographer. Finally, I set the alarm for 6 am and turned in about 11 pm.<br><br>Day 13: Returning Home<br><br>The alarm went off at 6 am and I jumped into the shower first, followed by my wife. After my shower, I then went and woke Jeff and Teri, who were still sleeping. My wife and Teri then told me it was 4:20 am. Ouch! My wife and I had gotten up way to early. Seems the alarm clock in my room was off by two hours. We went back to sleep and finally got up at the proper time. <br><br>After we got up the second time, we pretty much just hung out and chatted with Chris and Maryann. Jason never appeared, but there are not too many 15 year olds that get up this early unless they have to.<br><br>We squared our bill away and then waited for our taxi to the airport. Took a final snapshot and it was time to go.<br><br>We used Deadmans taxi to get us back to the airport. We used Deadmans the entire trip and I really like the service they offer. Got to the airport at 7:30.<br><br>Everything went smoothly at the airport. We got all of our boarding passes and departed on time for San Juan. Had a four hour layover and then we departed for San Francisco via St Louis. <br><br>Now that its all said and done, I’d have to say this was the best vacation I’ve ever taken. We are already planning our next bareboat to the BVI. Next time we will be taking our teenagers. <br><br>Note: Pictures of our charter should be posted within the next week.<br><br><br><br><br>