Part 3 the last 5 sailing days

Sidebar - During our stay at Leverick Bay, we had experienced the “attack of the teenagers” in the form of Action Quest with several boatloads of teenagers aboard. I must say that I observed that all of the kids were respectful of everyone at Leverick Bay and seemed to be having a great time. It seems like a wonderful program for teens.

7/14 The Admiral and daughter did some laundry at Leverick Bay while the guys topped off the water and fuel and got more ice and food for the next few days. We departed Leverick Bay and powered out of North Sound where we put up the Genoa only (thanks Capt Guy) and were making about 7 kts. We took the northern route above the Dogs and Scrub Island to make the passage between Scrub Island and Great Camanoe. We took a ball for the afternoon at Marina Cay to get our pictures at the Red Phone Booth (one of my required stops) and have lunch at the beach bar. It is a very pretty scene and has a nice breeze to keep the heat down a bit. After a late lunch and some requisite retail therapy in the Pussers shop, we motored over to Scrub Island Resort and Marina (thanks to Joe, Karen and staff for the TTOL rate and facilities). What a beautiful resort! The restrooms and showers alone are worth the stay (travertine tile and individual shower rooms) but the infinity edge pool and swim-up bar are not to be missed. Again we powered up the A/C for the night and enjoyed the pool until almost dark. Since we had the food, we had dinner aboard Caribbean Spirit on the dock with some great bo-at drinks by first mate Brian.
7/15 More pool time and some relaxing on the veranda near the pool for all of us before we departed about 12:00noon. A short motor down to Monkey Point for some snorkeling was the next part of our trip. We had great visibility and saw a lot of fish plus one large flounder and of course a barracuda. We ate a light lunch (tuna fish sammies) and sailed over to Cane Garden Bay for the next overnight stop with only the Genoa up.
OK, it was our fault here as we left a few of the top hatches open when we went ashore and some of the bunks got wet during a real gully-washer of a rainstorm. It made for a damp night and little sleep.
We had some (?lots?) drinks at a few of the local places and even got some more supplies (do you see a pattern here?) at Bobby’s market. The rain kept us on the boat that night but we had a great shrimp alfredo dish and salad prepared by the Admiral and staff plus bo-at drinks(spelling per the first mate).
7/16 It dawned clear and bright with the overnight rain gone. We had a near beam reach over to Sandy Spit and things got exciting there. First, the anchor dragged but we got that set in short order. Next, the “Dinghy Captain” accidentally knocked the fuel line off the motor and he was stranded as he returned from the shore to pick me up from the cat. He was drifting off towards Little JVD and I did not think I could swim over to him and drag the dinghy back to the boat so I asked a nearby captain to use his dinghy to “save” our “dingy dinghy captain”, then I reconnected the fuel line and all was OK. Finally, after a while the Admiral and I were headed back to the boat from shore when a neighboring boat shouted something about dolphins and there were three dolphins right at the back of our boat. The Admiral hustled aboard the boat and managed to get 1 picture of the dolphins near our boat. That was one of the highlights of our trip!
We continued our day to Great Harbor, got a mooring ball and went ashore for…yep, more supplies plus drinks and conch fritters at Foxy’s. The place has grown since 1993 when I was last there aboard the S/V Flying Cloud(God, she was beautiful back then). Another rain shower and we returned to the Caribbean Spirit for bimini diving and late dinner.
About 1:30am, the storm of the week hit us with 40+ kts winds and some rain. The mooring ball was fine but just at dark a sailboat (Sunsail 36?) had arrived in the harbor looking for some place to park for the night. The mooring field was full and there were many boats anchored already so this captain went to the outside end of the mooring field and dropped anchor in maybe 35 – 40 ft of water(we were moored in 33 feet). About 2:00am when the defecation hit the rotary oscillator, his boat dragged anchor and it went bobbing across the harbor. He/they managed to get the motor running and maintain enough control to not hit anything but it was exciting for a few minutes. So much for sleep the rest of that night. Whew!
7/17 We wanted to go over to White Bay but needed water again so we docked at Sherman’s dock to get water plus some more drinking water. He is a real delight to talk to and I spent about an hour gabbing with him. We motored over to White Bay and anchored in front of the Soggy Dollar. Later a real gust of wind was sending all of the boats around so we moved after dragging a little and were OK afterwards. We came close to a Voyage 58’ but no contact, no foul.
Lunch at the SG was the best burgers and fries of the whole trip. Really reasonably priced and the painkillers were of course perfect. The first mate consumed several and could still walk, I was amazed. We played some games and lounged in the sand and water. We eventually moved the boat down to Ivan’s to get a mooring ball. The water was very rolly when we wanted to return to the boat and we all got soaked in the dinghy but made it back safely to the boat. It was a little rolly overnite but no storm and not as bad as at Great Harbor.
7/18 We motorsailed to West End early to have breakfast at De Best Cup. OMG, it was fabulous. We had a mooring ball for the day and spent it lounging around. West End was my idea of what a nautical community should look like, beautiful boats, great people and lots of places to enjoy the view. The “Dinghy Captain” had graduated to motoring his sister around the harbor and they were having a good time. We had lunch aboard the boat(turkey sammies) and planned to sail to Road Town but another strong weather front went through about 1:30pm and I decided we would just motor to Road Town into a 28 kt breeze with 6 ft seas. The ladies wanted to get to the charter dock so we had A/C for the last night and plenty of time to pack for departure the next day(when the admiral is happy, everyone is happy). We left West End at 3:00pm, following Secret Oasis, a crewed 58 ft Voyage Cat, out of West End and arrived at Road Town about 5:00pm, filled the fuel at the Delta dock and pulled into the slip at 5:30pm.

Part 4 will be the check out and return home