This is a trip report for our fantastic bareboat sailing vacation on a Sunsail 36i in the BVI’s from December 13-20, 2014. There were three of us on this trip—myself, Fred, and Danny. Both Fred and Danny had been sailing with me before, both on my boat and on bareboat vacations.
No issues on Delta from JFK to STT on Saturday morning. Taxi dispatch at STT was a bit chaotic, but we made it to the ferry terminal in time for the 1430 Native Son ferry to West End and Road Town. Native Son ferry is loud and old, but the 1430 schedule worked for us, so we arrived in Road Town around 1600, quick taxi to Sunsail.
Boat wasn’t ready yet, so we had a quick lunch by the pool. Boat was ready by around 1730, so we stowed our gear on the boat and then walked to Riteway for provisioning. We had ordered water and drinks from Sunsail and all that was on the boat when we boarded. Carried groceries back to boat and had everything stowed in time for 1900 chart briefing. Boat seemed to be in decent shape. A bit old and tired looking, faded gelcoat, lots of dings and marks on the hull, obviously well used interior. However, it was clean and seemed to be in good working order. The one odd thing was the boat’s name, Lorelai. Apparently, ‘Lorelei’ (with an ‘e’) is the name of a German siren whose beauty and song lures boats onto the rocks of the Rhine River. Didn’t seem like a great omen to me, despite the spelling.
[img]
[image]http://i44.photobucket.com/a...019_cffb7bf14b_z-2_zps3195bd10.jpg[/img][/image]
The chart briefing at 1900 was pretty basic, no information that we didn’t already know. Slept on the boat in marina, despite the loud, obnoxious music blaring from a nearby nightclub until the early morning hours.
Sunday morning started with coffee and breakfast on the boat, then a boat briefing at 0915. Boat briefing was thorough and complete. We were off the dock at 1030. Raised the sails just outside the harbor, had nice steady winds from the south (?!?) at around 15 knots. Sun felt great, boat felt great, sailed over smooth seas on a beam reach to Fallen Jerusalem for lunch. Took on of the two moorings at Fallen Jerusalem. The other was empty. Jumped in the water and swam for a bit, then fixed lunch. We were going to dinghy onto the beach to explore the island, but the dinghy engine was acting a bit wonky, so we elected to skip that and sail on to our overnight destination of Lee Bay on Great Camanoe. More fantastic sailing on a beam reach, enjoying the gorgeous views and the wind and sun. We dropped the sails heading past Trellis Bay and motored through the cut between Little Camanoe and Great Camanoe. Once we got to Lee Bay, we discovered that two boats had already anchored there. Even though the bay looked beautiful and quiet and pristine, I didn’t want to crowd the boats that had gotten there first, so we headed back to Marina Cay for the night. We were on the mooring by 1530. Jumped in the water, swam, kicked back for a bit. We decided to eat on shore rather than cooking on board, so we dinghied in—took a bit of coaxing and finessing to get the dinghy engine running and keep it running. Wouldn’t idle at all, and would only run at partial throttle. Still, we made it to Pusser’s for a nice meal. There were maybe two other parties at the restaurant, not busy at all. Back to the boat to listen to music and hit the sack early.
[img]
[image]http://i44.photobucket.com/a...4/2014-12-14173223_zpsc8af5e74.jpg[/img][/image]
The plan for Monday morning was a first-light departure for the Baths to beat the crowds, and then on to the North Sound in the afternoon. I set my alarm for 0530 to get the coffee going, and we were off the mooring as soon as it was light, maybe by 0620 or so. No wind, so we motored all the way over smooth seas. There were maybe two or three boats on the moorings at the Baths. We dinghied over to the swim area by the beach, tied the dinghy off and swam in. Turns out that all three of us are getting older and in worse shape, but we all made it. Exploring the Baths was great early in the morning. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. We hiked over to Devil’s Bay and then kept on following the path and climbing on the rocks to the south of Devil’s Bay. We ended up at the restaurant at the top of the Baths, and had a nice breakfast there. It looked like the swim from Devil’s Bay was easier than the way we had come in, so I swam out to the dinghy and brought it over to Devil’s Bay to pick up Fred and Danny. I remembered to make a loop in the dinghy painter to use as a foothold to make boarding the dinghy easier, and that worked out fine.
I called Sunsail about the dinghy engine, which was still hard to start, hard to keep running, and refused to idle. They said to call on VHF when we got to Saba Rock and their guy would check it out. We ended up motoring the whole way because the winds were fairly light and variable—maybe 4-6 knots or so, which wouldn’t do much for that boat. Still it was a nice day and we had a scenic ‘sail’ to the North Sound. Picked up a mooring at Saba Rock around 1500. There were a few empty moorings, but it seemed more crowded than I expected. The Sunsail tech came out right away, and bled the water out of the fuel in the dinghy tank/engine. After that we took the dinghy around to the north side of Prickly Pear for some snorkeling. We saw a lone boat anchored in the cove on the north side of Prickly Pear, which seemed like a pretty nice, albeit rather unprotected, spot. Dinner that night was at Saba Rock, which was much more expensive than I remembered with mediocre food. It was also pretty loud, which gets more and more annoying the older I get. Still we loved watching the tarpon in the lights.
[img]
[image]http://i44.photobucket.com/a...4/2014-12-15155945_zpsf8801c80.jpg[/img][/image]
Tuesday morning the wind was whipping at around 25 knots through the gap between Virgin Gorda and Prickly Pear. Made for a bit of a challenge tying up at the water dock, but we got it done on our second try. The dock hand was rather rude and surly, but we filled up with water and got on our way to Anegada. Winds had settled down to about 17 or 18 knots from the northeast as we exited the sound. We put a reef in the main, rolled out the genoa and eyed the gray skies and squalls. Weather report was for scattered squalls, and we got a pretty good one. The winds stayed pretty steady for a while, but the rain came pelting down and the visibility went down to maybe a mile or so. After an hour and a half of we saw some lighter gray ahead of us, and then we broke out of the squall. The winds had gotten a bit fluky and shifted further northerly, so we started the engine and rolled in the genoa. Once we broke out of the squall the winds kicked up to 25 knots or so, but since we were almost there we just motor-sailed the rest of the way. The nasty gray weather was south of us now, and Anegada beckoned in the distance with the palm trees and sandy beaches. I used Walker’s GPS coordinates and finding/navigating the channel was a no-brainer. I went pretty slow, and Fred was standing watch on the bow, but it was really a non-event. I had thought about anchoring, but saw several monohulls on moorings, so we elected to pick up a mooring. My memory is a bit hazy, but I think the depth beneath the keel varied from about 1.8 to 0.8 meters from high tide to low tide.
This was our first time to Anegada, and we fell in love with the place at first sight. Barry (from one of the restaurants—can’t remember the name) came to collect our mooring fee and entice us with a song and dance routine (literally) to enjoy Anegada lobster at his establishment. We ended up taking a cab to Loblolly Beach, which was absolutely splendid. We loved the low-key, isolated island vibe. Since we had a bunch of food on the boat and none of us were super keen on lobster, we elected to cook onboard instead of trying the famous lobster. But we spent about an hour on the dock talking with Barry and a fascinating and pleasant Moorings skipper while Barry killed and cleaned the day’s catch for dinner that night. Turned out to be one of the best afternoons of the trip.
Dinner was great—grilled pork chops. The only off note of the Anegada stay was the obnoxiously loud music coming from a large catamaran near us. (Their selection included the Hustle, among other favorites.)
[img]
[image]http://i44.photobucket.com/a...43733_f72a91cd60_z_zps4131e7b9.jpg[/img][/image]
Wednesday morning brought fair weather with scattered skies and good visibility. Not much wind in the forecast though. The plan was to head to Diamond Cay. We got underway after a quick dinghy ride in to pick up ice and a few small provisions from the store. We could see JVD from Anegada, so that made the navigation pretty easy. With 4-7 knots of wind dead astern, I elected to motor rather than trying to coax the boat along on a run in light and fickle winds. We had maybe 3 foot swells from the north, so a little bit of rolling but not too bad of a ride.
The wind started to pick up just a bit about 17-18 miles into the trip. About then the engine starts to sound funny and dies. I check the oil, do a visual inspection of the engine, and dive overboard to look at the prop, but no obvious problems. Since we are in a sailboat after all, we raise the sails and turn southeast to head towards Guana Island. By now the winds were 8 knots or so, and we were pretty much on a beam reach towards Guana making 3.6-3.8 knots across the ground, maybe 4 nm north west of the island. All good. I called Sunsail and told them what was up, and they said they’d send someone out once we got to White Bay on Guana.
Luckily the mooring field in White Bay was pretty empty, so we got to practice our skills at sailing onto a mooring. Neither Danny nor Fred had ever done this before, and I had never sailed to a mooring in a boat this large. We had about 10 knots of wind from the northeast, which was about perfect. So Danny went forward with the boat hook while Fred manned the main sheet. I steered and manned the jib sheets. Had too much speed on the first try, but we were able to circle around easily for a second shot that proved to be successful. Both Danny and Fred did splendid work and the whole process was easier than I had expected. We got the sails stowed and the boat squared away in short order.
The Sunsail support crew came out in about an hour or so. At first they accused me of running out of fuel (turns out the fuel and water gauges were all broken—read full all the time) but I knew that wasn’t the case unless Sunsail dispatched me with almost empty tanks. We had motored for a total of about 7 hours for the trip. But, after a little bit more investigation, the problem turned out to be a clogged fuel pickup line in the tank. I’d figure that Sunsail would clean those periodically (maybe every year?) as a preventive maintenance program, but apparently not.
White Bay was lovely. Fred and I anchored the dinghy off the small beach on the southeast side of the bay and snorkeled around. We saw some coral and fish, but not a whole lot. We also swam onto the beach, which took us all of two minutes to explore. We had dinner on the boat and a kicked back evening. There were maybe a half dozen boats in the bay, with a huge super-yacht anchored behind us.
[img]
[image]http://i44.photobucket.com/a...4/2014-12-18065041_zps6a2adf7f.jpg[/img][/image]
Thursday morning started with a beautiful sunrise and a rainbow to the west. There was a nice wind from the northeast, maybe 12 knots or so, and we had a lovely sail to Sopers Hole on a broad run. Picked up a mooring and had lunch at Pussers, then hit the Riteway for some more provisions. Some rain showers swept through while we were eating, but the weather cleared up nicely for us to leave.
We sailed on a nice close reach towards Diamond Cay. Again perfect wind, nice seas, scattered clouds with a warm sun peaking through… Hard to find anything to complain about! Looked like all the moorings were full when we got to Diamond Cay (early afternoon-ish if I remember correctly.) Was going to anchor when we saw a cat vacating a mooring ball. The bubbly pool was as fun as ever. When we firs got there I thought the swell/bubbles was a bit lame, but every so often the larger ones would roll in and it was a blast. I also love climbing up on the rocks to enjoy the view to the north. Swordfish steaks on the grill that night.
[img]
[image]http://i44.photobucket.com/a...92184_3060d4a23a_z_zpsd96b64fb.jpg[/img][/image]
Friday was another beautiful day. After a leisurely morning, we got underway for the Indians. Wind was gusting to about 20 knots from ENE once we were through Thatch Cut, and we played with reefing the mainsail as we tacked toward Normal Island and the Indians. I had never been to the Indians before, and the snorkeling was lots of fun. All sorts of fish and coral, and the water was calmer with better visibility than I had expected. Lunch on the boat on the mooring, and then we headed towards Peter Island. In the afternoon the winds were about 16 or 17 straight down the Sir Francis Drake Channel, so we tacked towards Tortola first until we had a pretty good mark on Great Harbor at Peter Island. There were all sorts of open mooring balls, although I considered anchoring just for fun. We ended up picking up a ball tucked into the east corner of the bay. Lots of pelicans. I never tire of watching them dive bomb for fish. I had read about the walk up to Sunset Loop in the NY Post, so we set off for that. Walked across to Sprat Bay and asked some of the workers which way to Sunset Loop. They cheerfully pointed out the way and off we set. I was wondering if we would get hassled not being guests on the island, but everyone was seemed friendly with smiles and waves all around. I was itching to make it to Sunset Loop by, well, sunset, so I set a brisk pace. We walked and walked and walked, mostly uphill. As it was getting later, we discovered that one of us only had (prescription) sunglasses, so the whole seeing bit was looking to be problematic after sunset. Also a few vans full of wealthy looking island guests passed us, and I wasn’t too hip on crashing their party at the lookout. So, we turned back before making Sunset Loop, but we had some pretty great vistas, and it was fantastic to stretch the legs. Lots of no-see-ems and mosquitoes on land. We made it back to the beach and our dinghy as it was getting dark, so all was well. Our last night’s dinner was grilled pork chops plus everything else leftover.
[img]
[image]http://i44.photobucket.com/a...4/2014-12-19161208_zps8d1a61f2.jpg[/img][/image]
Saturday morning was another beautiful day. We motored back to Road Town, even though we had about 16-18 knots across the beam. There was still a little bit of packing and trash collecting and cleaning and organizing to do whilst underway, so I elected to motor rather than what would have been a delightful 45 minutes of sailing. Arrival back to Sunsail was uneventful, except for a head-up-my-[censored] near miss with a barge (ok, that’s an exaggeration, and I’m sure the horn-blowing was for the cat in front of us which was way closer to the barge than we were.) The check in was a bit chaotic as always, but the crew at Sunsail is quick and eager to get the arrivals out of there.
Ferry terminal was the usual mad house, and the airport in St Thomas was the usual mad house also. That was all sort of jarring after a week of serenity and chilling. All in all it was a fantastic vacation. The only real issues with the boat, other than that little engine issue and the water in the dinghy gas, were that the 12VDC outlets in the cabins were inop, and one other, slight more significant and unpleasant anomaly. The valve isolating the holding tank had been installed so that it didn’t close fully. The valve handle was physically too big to allow the valve to completely shut. So, essentially, the holding tank was unavailable because all of the waste ended up pumped overboard. I didn’t notice this until after we were underway, and then I naively hoped that it was shut ‘enough’ to function. No dice. I know there are no rules about this in the BVI, but I personally feel it is pretty rotten form to be pumping poop overboard in an anchorage. I pointed this out to Sunsail, but I know that they don’t give a $&*t. I mean, they installed the valve (I’ve seen a new 36i and it is not the factory installed valve, or at least the factory installed valve handle.)
But, like I said, we had great weather, great company, great sailing, great exploring, and just more fun than should be legal in a week. Can’t wait until next time.
