just returned from a week + in the bvi. the crew was composed of griz, ruth , and jon (capt jolly mon) and trudy, owners of the westline inn in northern pa. see their website at www. westlineinn
Preparation-- i spent a month or two on the web, primarily on ttol getting refamiliar with the bvi. the cruising guide and accompanying book on anchorages were indispensable. the information provided by ttol was accurate, helpful and largely responsible for the success of the trip.
The Boat--- "the thermo fossicle" is reputed to be named after a mythical dragon created by the owners children. a 36 foot moorings club boat, the thermo f was a good sailing vessel, although very poorly maintained. we used the precharter list from this site but still had many problems with the vessel. both the fore and aft cabins leaked onto the berths in heavy rains. the vhf did not work and the staff at moorings told us they were aware of that. the gas guage didnt work but worse, the windlass for the anchor was so corroded that it failed early in the trip requiring us to get a ball rather than anchoring for several nites. i would not charter this boat again. nevertheless, we had a great trip.
27 mar
after making all connections including the last ferry from ca we left roadtown late morning on monday and motored to norman island due to lack of breeze. we checked the indians out and got a ball at the bight. had lunch off the willie t and had our first rum of the trip.( we did have painkillers the nite before at the moorings, but that was really pre trip)the day was cloudy and rainy with little breeze. we anchored in benares bay for rum and snorkleing. great reef and snorkling. i lost my brand new mask in 30 feet of water but recovered it the next day with a fishing rod, thanks to capt jolly mon.
28 mar
headed south around norman and motored out to the drop off looking for yellowfin and mahi. very little wind. we got off to a late start due to the great snorkling at benares. caught a good breeze rounding ginger and made way under sail to the baths. a motor boat had beached near fallen jerusalem. we had hoped to reach north sound today but after the baths decided the weather was too bad to head north. heavy rains and fog caused us to head back to cooper to get a ball. at machioneel bay every ball was taken (we knew to get their early but we were on islon time) so we headed over to peter and threw out and anchor in deadmans bay. there was a lot of seaweed but we finally got the anchor to hold.the sail from ginger to the baths was a nice beam reach. we had joked about the rain on ttol but here it was wednesday and we still hadnt seen much sun.
29 mar
we decidied to head to vg and shortly after setting sail capt jolly mon announced we were out of gas. we returned to peter and took on only five gallons. we discovered the gas guage was broken.undeterred by the misfeasance of the thermo f we sailed under fair wind to north sound. took anchorage off mosquita i. at drakes anchorage and did some nice snorkeling on the reef.we dinked in to leverick in the rain, it still hadnt stopped, for conch fritters, lobster quesidilla and wahoo. excellent. we had a great sunset at drakes.
30 mar
it rained all nite and the berths were soaked in the am. woke up to brisk trade winds and clouds. we all read in the am, the latest carl hiassen, flush, going very quickly. it got sunnier and at 11:15 when we tried to weigh anchor we found the windlass was hopelessly corroded. called the moorings but got no response from bitter end.called moorings on the cell phone and "capt bradford " told us to call back in 15. called back in 15 and they couldnt find capt b. told us to call back in 10. the moorings at bitter end wasnt open. called in 10 and they told us to call back in 10.tried raising the moorings on 12 and 16 tio no avail. couldnt get the phone number for moorings bitter end. found the vhf radio didnt work. finally we see a dingy crossing to drakes and ron from the moorings arrived. ron and his wife left nova scotia in 1991 and he was not only a great mechanic but had a beautiful ketch with a wooden mast anchored off prickly pear. in 5 minutes he told us the windlass was hopelessly fried and the radio didnt work. told us to take a ball the rest of the trip. a true gentleman and very serious sailor. give him our regards if you see his beautiful boat off prickly pear. we motored in to biras and took a ball across from the fat virgin. great moorage. had lunch at the fat virgin. great roti and conch fritters and grouper. had drinks on the boat passed out and loiiked forward to another great day.
31 mar
sunris on biras saw a bunch of turltes.had a great sail from vg past tortola on a really good beat. cirlcled tortola heading for jost and caught what i thought were hogh winds and rough sea, but capt jolly mon assured me was just sailing.we missed a tack just off whites and motored in from thers. took a ball at white bay and shortly therafter were approached by robert ( with an accent ague) a french sailor who sold us some very nice watercolor originals of the islons. very good work and very reasonable. if you meet robert dont miss his beautiful works.robert suggested we snorkle outside of the ree which proved to be very good advice.swam into ivans which for my money had the best painkillers in the ilsons. the 10 year old pouring drinks obviously had no idea of proportions.we later took the ding in and jimmy saved us from capsizing but only after capt jooy mon took a bath. if you meet jimmy buy him a drink. he is a good man.white bay is beautiful and the starboard side of the bay is less busy and has less yuppy cruise shippers.
1 april
a great day at whites.slummed with the yups at the soggy dollar and had great flying fish sandwhiches. their painkillers didnt compare to ivans.walked down the beach to ivans and caught a great duo. (ivan and one of the musicians from foxys ??) took the dink to great harbor for pks at foxys and a really great lobster and mahi dinner at ali baba. we were served quickly and could hardly finish the meal. the lobster was great. thanks to the ttoleers who recommended ali baba. took the ding back under full moon and our glow sticks hadnt worked but since we were the only mono hull in the bay it was easy to fine.i was challenged with finishing the rum and cognac but couldnt do either.
2 april
the last sailing day of the trip. on the passage from jost to norman wrote "i hope i read this later". high seas and a high wind scared the bejeesus out of me. capt jolly mon did a tremendous job and i was the only one with white knuckles.(and i thought i was a son of a sailor) i wateched the ocean through the cabin window most of the way and once we cleared sopers capt jolly man had the boat so well trimmed he was sailing with no hands.waves were at least 6 feet when capt jolly man decided we needed more sail and put up the jenny. it was thrilling with the waves breaking over the bow.---- we ende up in benures where we started and had a great 2 hour snorkle. all kinds of corral, parrotfich, squid, baracuda, needlefish and a great full moon. we jury rigged the anchor and had a great meal on board. capt jolly man is also a french chef.cubans, cognac and rum finished us off.
3 april
the final voyage of the thermo f. left norman at 6:30 islon time . great day. had a good sail back to roadtown and had champaign at the dock. tried to catch the ferry in road town but ther was no ferry mon. the cabby said he would get us to west end and assured us the ferry would wait since the capt was his son. ferried from west end to st j, to red hook to ca.had bloody marys for lunch and the tsa stole a dozen cigars from my luggage at stt. made all of our connecting flights back to turkeyfoot and arrived at 2 am. more on that later.
provisioning--- we provisioned at bobbys, mostly fruit , vegetables and fish. and rum. we were happy with the service and had no problems.
connections--we made most of our local connections through moorings and the cabbies and were quite satisfied
the moral of the story-- got back to turkeyfoot to snow squalls and 20 degree temps. took the dog out and shot a pheasant over him and he was happy. had to put wristbands on the last two days to keep the land from rocking. no really. back on irish coffe to take the chill away. listening to bela fleck, mark knopfler and emmy lou instead of buffet, marley and leon russel ( cant you understand i just have to go back to the islons) thanks to all of you great people who made planning this trip so easy and who really made this a flawless( except for the thermo f) vacation. may the wind always fill your sails and the creatures of the deep eat all of you detractors. griz mon! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/pirate.gif" alt="" />
