“Incredible” is the word I’ve been using to answer the question, “So, how was your vacation?”
Our party consisted of 3 couples – friends from church, ages ranging from 43 to 53. My husband is the only real sailor of the bunch, having sailed in Puget Sound and Sitka, AK. All of us had been day sailing together several times, so knew how to take orders from the skipper. My job was to mind the dinghy painter; no problems to report, happily enough.
We took a red-eye from Seattle, slept on the airport floor at DFW, experienced an aborted landing due to heavy rains in SJU, and arrived about 4:30 pm, a little worse for the wear, in Beef Island. Luggage made it safely. Made the decision to check most of the luggage due to the number of airports we’d have to lug it around.
Excellent open air taxi ride to Moorings base. Met other Moorings customers that we would see throughout the week at various anchorages. Occasionally mentioned TTOL, but was met with blank looks. I had diligently written down the TTOLers who would be sailing the same time, but didn’t recognize any of them the entire week.
Walked to Spaghetti Junction for dinner. Excellent. Bought “Drinking Man’s Guide”, even though none of us were big drinkers. Swam in pool at Mariner Inn to cool off and enjoyed the air conditioning at the Inn.
We were on “It’s About Time”, a Moorings 3800 cat. Very spacious. Did not feel crowded or cramped. Provisioned with Bobby’s. Everything arrived within a half-hour of appointed time.
July 3 - Didn’t get underway until about 1:00 pm. Had intended to go to Trellis Bay for full-moon party, but due to late start and TTOL advice about getting there by noon to catch a mooring ball, decided to head to Norman instead. Spent a pleasant afternoon swimming around the boat and swinging on porch swings and hammocks at Pirates. Had my first Painkiller…took a bit of grief from bar tender for asking for half the rum. Two of us snorkeled the shore at the Pirates end of the Bight and reported seeing lots of colorful fish. Ate sautéed shrimp on the boat.
July 4 – Dinked over to caves where we snorkeled and GEMs logged his first BVI geocache. Saw several jellyfish, but were able to avoid them. It was the first snorkeling experience for one of our group. The “Sea Step” we purchased from sailonline.com worked great for getting back in the dinghy. Headed out for Marina Cay about noon. Winds were heavy and swells were about 6-8 feet. The girls started the trip up on the trampoline, enjoying the spray and the ride…but after a couple of big waves decided the prudent thing would be to get back to the cockpit. We were under sail until Beef Island when it looked like heavy weather was approaching, so we lowered the sails and motored to Marina Cay. Picked up a mooring ball about 20 minutes before a squall with 38 mph winds and rain hit. We were thankful to be safely moored. Enjoyed exploring Marina Cay. Our snorkelers saw a good sized stingray in the shallow water off the beach. Used my Drinking Man’s Guide for the first time. 2 for 1 painkillers at Pussers. Dinner was BBQ’d chicken on the boat. Verizon cell phone was working – got in touch with the teenagers at home.
July 5 – Dinked across to Great Camanoe for some great snorkeling. Left Marina Cay for North Sound after lunch. Made several long tacks due to cat not sailing any closer than 60 degrees to the wind. Tacked past Seal Dog out into the Atlantic. It’s a mind game, not seeing any land ahead of you. Lots of flying fish. Picked up a mooring ball at Leverick Bay. Enjoyed sunset at the beach bar. Dinner on board – blackened Mahi Mahi. – We had lit some “lumina sticks” to help find our boat after dark. After dinner, the guys rigged a line with the lumina sticks and a weight and dropped them in the water. A large (4-5 ft) fish came to investigate. It bumped against the sticks and then swam around the outskirts of the lighted area for the rest of the evening. One of our party, who has done some shark hunting, swears it was a shark. It certainly dissuaded us from night snorkeling! More to come…
July 6 - Sent an investigative party ashore to check out the taxi/rental car situation. Ended up renting a Montero from Speedy’s. Drove to the Baths, with stops at several scenic overlooks along the way. The Baths were incredible. There was a group from Holland-America there, but it didn’t interfere with our enjoyment. It was fun to people watch. We loved swimming in Devil’s Bay. What beautiful water! After we turned into prunes and our stomachs were complaining, we hiked back up to the “Top of the Baths” for lunch. Had our first conch fritters there, as well as cheeseburgers in paradise. It was a blast to order our food and then jump into the pool for a swim. After investigating all the gift shops, we drove to Spring Bay for some snorkeling. Seeing the huge underwater boulders was the highlight for some of our group. It was a bit overwhelming for the less experienced snorkelers, so we splashed around the gorgeous beach. Stopped at Spanish Town for re-provisioning and shopping. Stopped at Savannah Bay on the way home for more snorkeling. Our goal was to be off the roads before dark. Back at Leverick Bay, we took advantage of the free showers. Since we weren’t going to be eating at the restaurant, I loaned my “Drinking Man’s Guide” to a woman we met in the shower line – its good for a free entree at the restaurant. (When she brought the book back the next morning, turns out she is a TTOLer. Couldn’t quite hear the name…Frozen Anne, maybe?) As we dinked back to the boat after dark, the same big fish came swimming through the light of our headlamps. Very exciting.
July 7 – Two of the guys were up early in search of a geocache. The car was still ours for a couple of hours. They ended up on top of Gorda peak where the mountaineer “bagged” the peak and the geocacher logged a couple of caches. They report hundreds of hermit crabs and large bees at the peak. Motored over to Bitter End Yacht Club for a couple of hours. Another geocache logged, some souvenirs purchased, and a working internet connection, finally. A large iguana was sighted on the trail to Biras Creek. Nice downwind sail to Guana Island where we snorkeled off Monkey Point. (Verizon cell service again) We intended to go on to Cane Garden Bay, but it was getting late, so we used Walker Mangum’s waypoints through the Beef Island Passage. It was a white knuckle passage, but the waypoints were true and we didn’t hit anything. Immeasurable thanks, Walker. Moored again at Marina Cay. Taco dinner on board.
July 8 – Up early to motor to Cane Garden Bay. Not wanting to tempt fate and the coral heads in the Beef Island passage, we went the long way around, arriving at CGB about the time stores were opening up. Enjoyed walks along the deserted beach, bought some food at Bobby’s and an awesome nativity set at Myetts, and headed off for Sandy Spit. Dropped anchor, skipper stayed on board due to number of boats around and not being sure of the anchor’s holding power. GEMs logged another geocache. Snorkeled and saw an octopus eating a large lobster tail. Headed for White Bay, but couldn’t sight navigational buoys, so went back to Little Harbor and grabbed a mooring ball. Rented Montero from Abes and drove to White Bay. Parked at Ivan’s stress free bar and walked trail to Soggy Dollar and Gertrudes. (Forgot to bring my Drinking Man’s Guide) Logged another geocache along the way. Drove to Great Harbor and walked the main street. Spent a little time at Foxy’s and went back to boat. BBQ’d hamburgers. Later we heard there were sea turtles near Ivan’s stress free bar, so would snorkel there if we had it to do over again. Good Verizon reception at JVD. Haven’t got bill yet, so don’t know the cost.
July 9 - Guys drove to top of JVD where they bagged another peak and logged a final geocache. Large fish came by in am when we drained our breakfast dish water. Looked shark like, but we hear its called a Lenora, or some such thing. Could be what we saw earlier. Motored to Sandy Cay. Enjoyed watching the birds hovering over the cliffs and the pelicans dive bombing. Motored to Soper’s Hole, which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Our plan was to spend the night at Cooper Island for our last night out and have a nice birthday dinner at CIBC. It was slow going upwind in pretty heavy chop, but we pulled into Cooper Island just before dark. It appeared that all the mooring balls were taken except a private mooring. As we pulled in, a boat w/ two CIBC employees directed us to the private ball and took our $25. They couldn’t give us a receipt, but assured us we were OK there for the night. Poor planning on our part. Could have turned out badly if there were no moorings left. Had nice dinner at CIBC.
July 10 – Off early to snorkel the Rhone. We really enjoyed it and were surprised at the amount we could see. Had to dodge several jellyfish. Headed back to Road Town. Saw several sea turtles swimming mid-channel. Dinner at C&F. Night at the Mariner Inn before heading back to Seattle.
All in all, a really great trip; good group dynamics, no serious injuries, and boat was returned in one piece.
