Mon. 28th --- Slept late. Dingied in by 8:30 to ARH gift shop where we had a nice chat with Sue Wheatley. She is still undecided about staying on Anegada. Bought T-shirts, Some kalua and checked the weather on Sue's computer. Caribwx.com. More perfect weather, 20 knots of wind out of the east, some scattered showers. Back to midori, left our mooring about 10:00 am. seems all 5 boats were waiting for us to leave cause they all tossed their moorings after us and followed us out of the channel. We headed 180* south back to North Sound. 20 to 22 knots wind fromthe east gave us a beam reach all the way -- 7-7.5 knots SOG. Motored thru the channel, then anchored off Drake's Anchorage in 20 ft. of water. Lunch here, then we packed up our snorkle gear, dingied to Drake's dock, hiked along their trail to Rocky Beach. Stopped here to snorkle awhile and to snap a few pictures of the Colquhoun Reef. The snorkling here was good but not great, so we packed up again and headed to honeymoon Beach. This was a pretty good hike up the hill, over then down the rocky path, but the views were incredible. The snorkeling here was outstanding. A huge ball of bait fish 60 yds. long and 20 yds. wide lay just off the beach. We swam thru it, so thick with anchovies you could not see anything else. When I came out of the other side, suddenly a 4-5 ft. tarpon came right up on my left side 6-10 ft. qway. I know they are seldom alone so I looked around and sure enough on my right was another one. They circled me for awhile. I yelled to the others to come so they could see them.<br>Back to Midori by 3:30 PM. We motored across the sound to Saba Rock, picked upone of their moorings ( $25 ), which come with one bag of ice and up to 250 gallons of free water. Dingied in to pay mooring, then dingied over to Bitter End Yacht Club for some shopping and some liquor and ice provisions. Dinner on board. T-bone steaks on the Grill, cheese bisquits, rice and pork and beans. Bushwhackers, rum margaritas and pina colladas for pre- dinner cocktails.<br>Tues.29th --- After charging the reefer and batteries, we dropped our mooring and motored to Saba Rock's dock for free water and business in their spotless restrooms. Left the dock about 9:00 AM, motored thru the moorings, then raised the main and motorsailed thru the channel and headed NW on a broad reach with jib out. We had 18-22 knots of wind with gusts to 26, so Phil and Willie wanted to try a dead downwind run wing and wing, so I rigged a preventor for the main running a dockline from the port bow cleat to the boom, then backto the midship cleat. We winged out the jib to starboard, then with another line tied a rolling hitch to the windward sheet at the clew, then cleated that line right to the starboard foward cleat. That held the clew out like a pole. We got 7-8 knots dead downwind. Just past Guana Island we turned to port and pulled in to Monkey Point just about lunch time. Two boats there on the only moorings, so we anchored right between them. Swam the anchor and saw we were hooked on a big rock, but were holding firm. The pelicans were putting on an aerial diving show because of all the bait fish here. We snorkeled over to the shore and the bait fish were so thick you could hardly get a glimpse of the bottom and the coral. Saw the usual reef fish -- tangs,snappers, grunts, butterflys, parrots, grouper, wrasse and file fish. Also there were at least a dozen tarpon constantly swimming around us and thru the bait ball. We lunched, then weighed anchor for more downwind sailing heading for Cane Garden Bay. We motored thru the buoys looking for a mooring ball. All taken. WE picked up a day mooring but were swinging so close to the boat behind we dropped it and headed out for Jost Van Dyke. On the way we stopped at Sandy Cay, anchored between 2 sunsail crewed charters. I swam the anchor and we were set so good I decided to stay here for the night. All boats left except us. Dinner was cheese burgers and corn on the cobb and too many bushwhackers. I set my anchor alarm and slept with my GPS. Cool night , but a little rolly. Didn't sleep very well.<br>Wed 30th --- Weighed anchor from Sandy Cay about 8:00 AM, sailed under jib only north to Sandy Spit and Green Cay. We circled along the south shore of Little JVD under power and headed toward the gap between Little and Jost Van Dyke. Ten new mooring balls are positioned here just of shore of what I think is Foxy's new bar/ eatery. It appeares to be still under construction, although cruising guide says open nov. 2002. We motored past Little and Great Harbors and headed for White Bay. We entered the western cut, turned to starboard and anchored in about 8-10 ft. We needed ice and the set screw holding the port engine throttle handle had backed out causing the handle to come off at each use. We dingied ashore to borrow a wrench. Nice Lady at White Castle found us one, we got 6 bags of ice at a little market and headed back to the boat for repairs and the dailey icing down of the Carib and coke coolers. Snorkeling and limin was the ticket for the next couple of hours. We all agreed this is one of the prettiest anchorages in the BVIs. Got some great shots of a green sea turtle that kept swimming around our boat. Only about 4 boats here for awhile but as the noon hour approached more and more came including a ferry full and a huge cat with about 30 -35 day trippers from St. Thomas, I think. We decided to motor around to Great Harbor, anchor and check out Foxy's and the beach there. I wanted to anchor close to the reef on the eastern side so I dropped the hook in about 18 ft. of water and backed down. We wound up too close to a red day ball ( mooring ) so we took up some chain about a boat length. Reset the anchor and suddenly we next to the red mooring ball again. It was following us. Decided to move again, we started motoring up and suddenly the starboard engine failed. I looked around and sure enough , no red ball ( soon to known as the red devil ball from hell ). Phil jumped in with mask and fins and sure enough the penent was wrapped around the prop. I couldn't remember if we were backing or going forward when the engine quit. So we tried bumping forward and then reverse as Phil held off and watched under water. No luck. I had about 1000 lbs. of air left in my scuba tank, so I geared up and went to work. 30 minutesof hard labor finally paid off and we were finally free of the RDBFH. Motored to a more central area, dropped the hook in 20 ft., drifted back and started backing. We were dragging. Let out 50 more ft. of chain and backed again. Still dragging. Pulled up anchor moved again, dropped , fell back, backed down to 2000 RPM's and held fast. I dove the anchor with scuba just to be sure but the anchor was buried deep in sand. Good!! I warned one other boat that came in and tried the drag area to back down hard. He did and also started dragging, so he moved. The next boat in cameright in front of us , dropped pretty close to our anchor and backed down to about 2-3 boat lengths in front of us. I warned him about our anchor, but he said he was holding well and would swim the anchor. I watched him do this and first of all I don't think he could even find it and if he did, the most he stayed down was 5 seconds. Everyone dingied ashore except me. I was too tired from the anchoring experience, so I stayed behind, took a shower and straightened up some. Everyone came back with shore stories. Then cocktails of strawberry daiqueries and bushwhackers. Dinner was oven baked fried chicken, half mashed potatoes, green peas and buttered toast. Willis and Phil bathed each other on the transom for our entertainment.<br>Thurs 31st --- Our plan today was to circumnavigate Jost Van Dyke clockwise from Great Harbor but first we needed ice. Went ashore in Great Harbor but could find nothing open. We motored over to White Bay, dingied in for ice, then raised sails and headed for Great Tobago. The wind was good at 20 knots. When we cleared the western part of JVD and turned west of north, we hit the open ocean swells of 6-8 ft. with 25-30 knots of wind. The wind was north of east, so it was beating and tacking. Too rough for the girls with full sails so after the first tack we headed back toward Great Thach, then tacked back to Green Cay and Sandy Spit for lunch and snorkeling. Egg salad sandwiches and smoked oysters with ice cold Caribs. The snorkeling here was not good. We've been spoiled by Monkey Point and Honeymoon Beach. Our evening anchorage was Cane Garden Bay so we headed there early to get a mooring. A squall was hitting CGB as we were approaching so we turned around and sailed back out but it caught us and really gave the boat a good soaking. Finally arrived, CGB picked up a mooring kind of far out to get some air. Very hot in this anchorage. Dingied in and had a painkiller at Myets. But decided to have dinner at the Big Banana cause the waitress flirted with Willie and was quite nice. Bought more ice, then back to Midori to ice down the remaining caribs and cokes. Out of amaretta and coco lopez, so tried to make bushwhackers without them. Yuk. Just not the same. Heard Michael Ford broadcasting for TTOL on channel 69 at 5:00 PM, so I answered his call and found out he was a 100 yds. away. Jan and I dingied over to introduce ourselves to Michael, his wife,Loonie White, son,Ian and daughter Alyx whose birthday is today. 17 I think. Very nice people. Told them we would try to hook up later at the Gazebo. Our dinner at the Big Banana was terrific. Jan had sauteed shrimp, Cherie had coconut shrimp, Willie had snapper, Phil had tuna, Gail had garlic shrimp and I had Mai Mai with rice and peas and veggies. Stopped by the Gazebo to introduce our crew to Michael and Loonie and to sing Happy Birthday to Alyx. Hope we didn't embarass you too much Alyx.<br><br>Early to bed, noone wanted to stay to hear Quito sing.<br>Frid. August 1st --- Last day on Midori. Breakfast of English muffins and Jam, cheese sandwich, coffee and OJ. Dropped the mooring after quick trip ashore for facilities. Downwind sail to Soper's Hole. Picked up mooring closest to Pusser's. Girls shopped whiole guys drooled over the 44 and 50 ft. Capetown cats. Went aboard one with the charter escort. Very nice, but only a few more amenities rhan Midori ( microwave, electric halyard winch and one sheet dingy davit operated from jib sheet winch and vinyl mesh tramps.) Cost $700/ day. We paid $380/day for Midori for 10 days. Lunch at Pusser's. Mai grilled sandwich, slaw and french fries. Others had cheese burgers in paradise. Finished buying gifts for family and friends, thendropped the mooring and headed for Great Harbor on Peter Island. We wanted one last snorkle/dive site. Had to motor the whole way since it was dead to the wind andf tacking would have taken forever.Picked up the dive mooring in the western most part of GH. directly over a very long nice wall starting at 25 ft. and sloping to 50 ft. All healthy soft and hard corals and the gamut of reef fish including turtles and tarpon. My dive 53ft. for 54 minutes. Nice beam reach back to TMM. Had called Penny to let her know we were coming back in to spend the night at dock and to get a slip assignment. She had left us a space right on the bulkhead in front of the office where we could catch the wind coming across the road from the channel. Stopped at the fuel dock. The port side filler cap had a broken chain so as soon as I opened it plop right into the water it went. Mask on and into the water I went to retrieve it. Then as soon as I got out, rinsed off with fresh water and soap, toweled off, I bent over and plop right off my face fell my reading glasses into the water. I carry 3 pair so I'm down to one pair. Docked at the bulkheadwith help on the dock lines from Sam and Meesha. They related to us about 2 accidents this week. One with one of their employees, a local who was snorkeling the pointjust south of TMM and was hit by a powerboat. Cut up pretty bad. Took 6 pints of blood, multiple sutures to sew him up. The other accident was a charterer who jumped out of his dingy when a youngster fell overboard. He didn't cut the engine on the dingy, it started circlingand he tried to pull himself back in it while it was moving. He slid off and the prop caught him right across his face. Sam and Meesha stayed til almost 6PM talking with us. Meesha got us frsh clean towels to take showers with and some ice.I gave her some of my canned smoked oysters cause she said she loved them so much. We showered at TMM, then dressed for dinner. Nobody wanted to go out so we just ate up all the remaining food. Finished off our last beers and chilled. WE turned in early for our last night.<br>Sat.Aug.2nd --- Up at 7:30. Last night brought some very hard rain. Left our unopened provisions with Joyce and a note for Walker and Davide with the short case of carib that I promised him. Phil and Wills tried to sleep on the tramps but got rained on and run in.We settled up with TMM, did the checkout with Meesha, then taxied to WE for ferry to St. Thomas. Be careful at ferry dock cause competition between ferry's is stiff and hawkers will try to get you to go with their ferry. We wanted Smith's because they had a 9:30 direct to Downtown St. Thomas and did not stop at St. John's. Fast trip and we left our bags with Smith's in their storage room. Cost-donation and our promise to use their taxi to airport when we came back. WE walked to a nearby McDonald's for brunch, then to a nearby shopping mall. Taxi to airport, check bags, then reclaim them and walk thru a long line to customs and more security checks. Finally to gate and uneventful flight to Atlanta. Two and a half hours drive to Birmingham completed a long 13 hour trip.<br>Trip pictures posted at http://community.webshots.com/user/rskinner104<br><br>