Monday, March 23, 2015 We left Saba early to Sail to Anegada. It was another beautiful day and the sail over was great. There were many boats doing the same thing as we were but there were lots of mooring balls in the area toward the back of the field where our monohull would fit. We even had three feet to spare according to our depth sounder. Once we got squared away on our mooring we saw a gentleman motoring over to us. His name was Eugene and he was a great salesman. Our original plans for the day went completely by the wayside and we decided to take him up on his offer of a free drive to the Anegada Beach Club. We met him about an hour later. We got in the back of his truck and ten minutes later we were enjoying very good frosty cold drinks and ordering some lunch.



After lunch Jenny and I wanted to go snorkeling so we left the guys to fend for themselves at the beach bar and we went to the beach. Once there we saw a couple of people cleaning conch that they just caught in the sand. After removing the slimy membrane in the sand then they would go out to the water to clean the sand off of the conch. It was very interesting. This is a picture of the conch once cleaned.


The snorkeling was nice. There were lots of small fish and some soft curly white corals and the water stayed quite shallow over the reefs. Jenny and I went out almost to the edge of the reefs but turned back before we got to open ocean. There were a lot of live conch along the way as well so we could tell why they were diving for them here.


Jenny and I went for a walk to the end of the beach and saw another development, cottages perhaps that had giant sand bags holding back the water from creeping up to their buildings.


We later joined Andy and Curtis and their bartender Mary and had a couple of cold drinks. Mary showed us the really neat new safari style tents that they were using as hotel rooms. They were amazing and the price was right too. $300 a night, right on the beach. They were stunning.


Once we decided to head back to the boat, yes it did have to end unfortunately, Mary called Eugene and he was there waiting to take us back. True to his word it was a free trip. But he made our day so we had to tip him!


Our day wasn't quite over yet though. We had heard about a great new restaurant option from the folks on TTOL and had to try it out. The Wonky Dog was as advertised. A completely different restaurant option for Anegada. We went for it all. We had Desne’s pre-dinner concoctions. They were good and they were strong. She asked us our preferences and made suggestions for us. We had pre-ordered so our appetizers came out soon after. They were stunning. Everyone was pleased. Desne was a great host. She told us about the clearing of her family land and not realizing what a beautiful site it was until it was all cleared. We loved listening to her stories and loved eating Peter’s great cooking. We could not have been more pleased with the evening. Some real stand outs from the menu for our group were the Wonky Dog Lobster, the Beef Carpaccio, Wonky Dog lobster pizza and the Bacon and Sweet Corn Ice-cream. This place will have us coming back for more. Anegada is always a treat, but this just made it even better. I cannot recommend it enough.

The Wonky Dog from the mooring field.

Tuesday March 24, 2015: We got away from Anegada a little later than usual after all of that great food and drink from the night before. Today we were headed to the Diamond Cay area of Jost van Dyke. Another TTOL must do was the new B-Line Beach Bar so that is where we were headed. We had a great sail for most of the way. The winds did drop near the end so we motor sailed the rest of the way. We arrived to find we were too late for a mooring ball so we decided to anchor in Manchioneel Bay. There we would be just an easy dinghy ride to the B-Line and there looked like some decent snorkeling near the shoreline of Little Jost van Dyke.
We arrived at the B-Line soon after and found it a nice open air beach bar. The bartender was great and he made some really good Dark and Stormies.


There were a couple of boats anchored in front and we met most of the people who were there. It was small enough for everyone to get to know each other. A really fun atmosphere. The beach games were fun too. We played Jenga and Bean bag horse shoe. We met a cruiser who had retired to the BVI who had stories of what the BVI was like 30 and 40 years ago. He said he liked the B-Line for that old time feeling.


After spending a nice afternoon there we got back in out dinghy and headed to the boat. Jenny and I snorkeled for a while the guys hung out. We had a great meal and later did some flashlight fishing off of the transom which is always fun.

Wednesday March 25: The next morning we were heading to Great Harbour to clear out of the BVI to start our USVI portion of the trip. There were lots of yachts around jost along the way. Even a smallish cruse ship was anchored outside of Great Harbour.

[img]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7643/16882898829_d3895624d8_b.jpg[/img] Infinity boat
[img]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8692/16881582760_b3653716cf_b.jpg[/img]

We walked our garbage down Bun Road as directed by a young guy at the dinghy wharf. Along the way was Christine’s Bakery. Jenny and I stopped there, ordered us all some breakfast sandwiches and when the guys got back from the garbage disposal we had breakfast. The breakfast sandwiches were great and we noticed a few locals stopping for them as well so we figured we picked a good spot. The next stop was Customs.
This was the first time we had ever cleared out of the BVI’s to head to the USVI and we probably would not have done it if it wasn't for the direction of the good folks on TTOL. I was armed with our boats papers, which we had checked were in order with Giles at Horizon as well as all of our passports. We were sent inside to fill out a form, then sent to another room to pay $1 for that form, then sent back to the first room where I handed them the receipt and voila we were cleared out. Reading this makes it sound super fast, but it did take about half an hour before it was complete. Anyhow, it was relatively painless and almost free so we were now officially able to head to the USVI!
Again, we had a beautiful sail to Salomon Bay, where we found a mooring ball. By now we had sailed Patriche in most conditions and we had realized it took quite a bit to get her moving but once the wind was over 15 knots everyone was happy.
[img]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7708/16882913479_124e2bfef2_b.jpg[/img]
Next up, Cruz Bay and the North Shore of St. John, USVI