S/V ORION Part 8

*** This repost describes how our last charter went from beautiful sunny blue skies to an official "State of Emergency" in the blink of an eye. One valuable thing JWorld Annapolis taught me during my many classes and during the ARC Bahamas as well as several blue water passages up and down the east coast and the Caribbean is to routinely check, often multiple times in a day, to check the weather on various sites, I solicited for local knowledge this day as well......all I can say is when you least expect it THE SH*T WILL HIT THE FAN! Looking back on this experience...it was a drizzle compared to what was to come to these beloved islands just one month later, IRMA.




BVI July 31 - August 9, 2017 (Part 8)

Restful night on another $26 ball. Sydney made it up top again rubbing her eyes. Great looking skies today! Upon boat inspection this morning I discovered the top locking nut on the mains head shackle was missing, boats! I spoke with the owner of the ketch in front of us, knowing he was a live aboard he must have spare parts! he kindly provided a couple locking nuts to try. They were standard and just didn't fit right, must be metric. Oh well, duct tape to the rescue! Actually it didn't matter today because we were going to motor to Sopers Hole to clear back in. My plan was to find a nut there. Back to the morning glow.



















The skies were too clear not to visit Annaberg Sugar Plantation. Took the dinghy to the colorful flats near Mary's Point and the National Parks parking lot. In the past I have tied the dinghy to the mangroves in a section of sand, but for the life of me I couldn't find my way in this time. Sydney and Craig hopped out there and Donna and I headed back to the beach at Leinster. I complained all the way because I'd have to walk 20 minutes, Donna only shook her head and said "get over it!" I had one Presidente in my dry bag and cracked that baby along the hike, I liked it. Unfortunately my negative vibes resulted in me losing my new bottle opener in the shape of a shark, dangIT! We eventually caught up to the crew by the old sugar mill and enjoyed the panoramic view.





































The walk back to the beach actually felt nice in my new flip flops! Sydney and Craig harvested some ripe Genips at the plantation, we enjoy these along the narrow path. There were quite a few people in the area this day, there's really no such thing as off season on St John as far as I could tell. Back in the day we used to drive our jeep halfway down this trail to a spot that fit maybe 4 jeeps, but that avenue doesn't exist anymore and the jungle has reclaimed the area, that's a good thing I think.












Back on Orion the crew took one last snorkel to Waterlemon Cay. The sea life is abundant here. It was probably noon or so before we started motoring the 20 minutes to Sopers Hole under clear blue skies. Plan was to clear in, provision, water and on to Norman.













Upon arrival we grabbed a ball closest to the market, dropped the crew off to shop and I headed to C&I. As I mentioned earlier the friendly Jost C&I officer filled out our return papers for us, I should have checked it because...well let the fun begin! A fairly nice but sarcastic Customs officer asked if I knew where I was...uh yes..Sopers Hole! He replied "West End, you are checking into West End!"..uh yes! He said the paperwork showed Jost, oops I should have checked it. He then asked "do you know where your boat is?...I said West End!...he grinned. He scribbled some math on the white copy of my 3 page document adding up to $10 and sent me to Immigrations to pay. I turned the documents to the white page with scribble and handed it to the clerk through the little window, she started twisting in her chair with head waggling and raises her voice saying "DO NOT FOLD IT LIKE THAT!" people around us cringed. I said like what? "LIKE THAT!" she replied...I said "sorry about that, just wanted to try....". "DO NOT FOLD IT LIKE THAT!" She put the paperwork down shaking her head, looking around at nothing for an eternity, probably was just a minute but with people around me it felt like an eternity. She pulled out her staple remover, slowly and carefully removed staple, carefully placed spent staple in small spent staple container and proceeded to painfully review documents. She slid the properly folded pink copy to me, thinking this was my copy I folded it to fit in my small clear plastic document holder, her eyes lit up...oh [censored]. She stood and yelled "I TOLD YOU, DO NOT FOLD IT LIKE THAT!" this caused another C&I employee to come out of an office, I looked at him and red faced I simply shrugged my shoulders. She asked for the pink copy back mumbling something with a crazy head waggle. She refolded and pressed it flat out on her table. She slid it back to me and I wisely just held it exactly the way she handed it to me. She asked for the $10 and played around with the remaining 2 copies. I stood there wanting to speak but I dare not for fear of prosecution, ha!. What seemed liked minutes waiting with another officer standing off my right shoulder, I spoke..."what is the problem?" she stood again...oh [censored]....she simply pointed at the door. I looked at the other officer and said "are we done?" he nodded yes and in front of her I squoooooshed the pink copy slowly in my holder like an accordion and walked out. When I walked 10 feet back over to Customs again the officer unfolded my pink copy smiled and said, "are you all set?" I said is her glass window for her or for us? he smiled again, I liked him.

During the 1/2 hour I was there the clouds were rolling in. Didn't look too bad, just gray and felt like a sprinkle was coming. Once at the market with the crew it began to pour and pour and pour. About an hour later it let up, Craig bailed out the 5 inches of water in the dinghy and we got the provisions on the boat. I saw the fuel dock was open so we docked to get some water and a bag of ice we forgot to get. The whole time it was dry. We departed the dock forgetting to look for a locking nut, oh well, we began motoring around the point at Sopers. It was probably nearing 1600hr and we quickly had the engines running at 2400rpms. The crew was inside putting provisions away when I rounded the point...OH MY GOD! I yelled for them to come out and see what I was seeing....a massive wall of complete blackness with an amazing lightning show to boot. I watched two boats about a mile or so ahead enter the wall of blackness and completely disappear with lightning all over them. Heck no! Quick 180 and back through the cut to modify plans to moor at Cane Garden Bay. I followed 2 other cats around until we saw CGB. CGB was quickly swallowed up by the front of the storm with heavy rain and the 2 cats were eaten up by the blackness, heck no! I noticed the skies were a little lighter to the north and not knowing how large the storm was we and 2 other boats adjusted our heading again for Jost. About half way over we were swallowed up by the storm and with it came cold air and rain coming in sideways. I saw wind gusts over 35kts. With zero visibility we turned on running lights and set the auto pilot on a course to Great Harbour. I was freezing and dripping with rain so crew brought me a long sleeve shirt, I never bring rain gear. The seas weren't too bad, just short chops caused by the wind. I saw one charter boat passing 50 feet away on port side in the wrong direction! Luckily they had running lights on or I may have missed them. I kept my eyes locked in front of us, thinking radar sure would be nice. I don't mean to sound over dramatic, but I've been in plenty of foul weather with big seas, but this was by far the worst I've experienced visibility wise and more importantly without foul weather gear! The crew was actually in good spirits watching a mono off our stern with jib out, I liked that. After about 20 minutes in this pea soup we entered Great Harbour and grabbed the first convenient ball just inside the channel markers. Visibility improved a bit, but lightning and thunder was all around. The crew did an outstanding job securing us to the ball quickly. BEER US!!

Sorry I don't have any photos from Leinster to this point of arrival, my daughters go-pro does have some great video from the stormy passage if I could ever take the time to figure out how to load it here. I was able to capture some dramatic changes in water color from the dreaded run off around the channel that are interesting.
































The downpour never let up for hours on end, the next day I would hear that up to 17 inches of rain had fallen, geesh! Craig was nice enough to expose himself to the elements and pull the plug on the dinghy as it quickly filled. I can't get over how well the crew handled themselves during this, it's like when the power goes out at home, just light a candle and have a good time! My daughter made great drinks and they pulled out the games, good times! Mark was nice enough to text a message that evening asking how we were doing in the current weather, we chatted a while, I appreciated that. One really crazy thing I saw during the evening was the amount of dinghies returning from the direction of White Bay, one young lady passed by the stern with her top off and not looking too festive. One center console dinghy had a driver looking very cold and miserable while 4 or 5 others lay flat in the dinghy...crazy people! Respect Mother Nature people! So, from beautiful clear blue skies with cotton ball clouds to this...I liked it!

























To be continued...Cheers!

Others will probably chime in but don't send people ashore until after you have cleared customs. They get very angry if they find out.
G

Funny thing George, he asked where the crew was, I told him picking up ice etc, asked if he needed to see them, he said no. How do you like the reports?

You had a way better experience than I had however it was 20 years ago. They threatened me with a 5000 dollar fine! Trip reports are great!
G

Yes, my C&I experiences have varied in many places, mostly good, but a couple uncomfortable ones like in this post. I'm certain the law is written to quarantine the crew, but my experience on dozens of day charters from St John has been the captain cleared us in after he pushed us towards Foxy's, always the norm. I shall remember this conversation for the next time, incase that crazy lady does the question asking! Thanks for reading, cheers!

I always love your trip reports!!!Thank you!

The beautiful pictures of St. John got my DIF flaring up big time! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

I was not going back until Dec however starting to think about Sep as I have a unused week.
G

Thank you harleybuffett, I enjoy writing them!

St John, can't go wrong aye Twanger! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

I'm loving all your trip reports. A big shout-out and thanks to Beerman for the beautiful photos of our property.

Thanks, and we appreciated the invite, beautiful spot you have! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

Great reports as usual. We are heading back in November. I think we should have a BEERMAN "Go Fund Me Page" so we can just keep getting reports like his.... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

Great report Beerman! That was some crazy weather! Glad to know you and the family were safe and made the best of it. I still remember your saying; "Positive is how we...." The change in the water color from Bayou Brown to Caribbean Blue was that due to the stormwater run-off?

Take care,

Tony

Morn'in Tony. The waters in the channel turned brown first when we arrived, then slowly the browness took over part of the mooring field we were in.

"Positive Is How We Live" is a slogan we saw on a STT political bumper sticker many years ago....not sure who the politician was, but we loved the slogan, so we made it our own! It was certainly said out loud the night of the rain!

He is still around. http://www.legvi.org/senators/st-croix/senator-positive-t-a-nelson/

Glad you guys made it to St John.

Jay

He sounds interesting, That bio contains "We must fill our sails, and chart for a course beyond our own time" like that. Jay, we will always return to St John.

Updated with pics