Sunday July 13<br><br>Today’s original plan was to get to Marina Cay and possibly use it for a jumping off point for a trip to Anegada. However with the mechanical difficulties of the prior day and the fact that to go to Anegada means signing a waiver with The Moorings that said they didn’t have to come fix us if we broke down up there, made me start to have second thoughts.<br><br>Moorings runs flotillas from North Sound on Tuesday mornings so I figured we’d go to Marina Cay early, have a nice day there, then head to North sound on Monday and see if we wanted to go to Anegada.<br><br>The day was incredibly hazy. We couldn’t even see Virgin Gorda until we were almost to Beef Island. As we later found out, the Montserrat volcano had another ash eruption, which along with the tropical wave, and dumped it all over the upstream islands. In spite of the lousy views, the sail to Marina Cay was wonderful.<br><br>Had a bit of difficulty picking up a mooring ball but got it secured and went ashore for a swim. Diana ran into something that stung her (mild welts), which seemed to be a trend for her at most of the places where we swam. Brought her back to the boat for some first aid and then went and picked up the rest of the family. Decided to eat at Marina Cay that night. <br><br>When we made our reservations they said things were slow so 7pm was their latest seating. However when we arrived the place was packed. It turns out the volcanic eruption had shut down the airports so folks stranded at Beef Island had come across for dinner and a room at Marina Cay. Our return on our last trip two years ago was delayed by a similar situation (volcanic eruption and tropical wave blowing ash over San Juan) so we were beginning to think it was us!<br><br>Had another good meal at Marina Cay and then went back to the boat for the night.<br><br>Monday July 14<br><br>One theme of the trip had been “this isn’t a vacation, it’s an adventure”. Little did I know how true this was becoming.<br><br>Ate breakfast and buttoned up the boat for what would be a fairly long beat to get to North Sound. Elise and Diana went forward to release the mooring pennant. I gave it my usual short burst of power to get the tension off the line, moved the gear shift to neutral, and waited for them to say we were clear. After they released and pointed to where the ball was, I realized we were in the process of going over the top of it.<br><br>I wasn’t particularly worried since I was in neutral (or so I thought) and I have drifted over balls a couple of times during the several dozen mooring releases I had done over the years in the BVI. However when the ball came out, it was obvious it had caught on something. The gear shift was balky so as best I can figure, I wasn’t completely in neutral and it was giving me a few forward revs. I punched in the transmission disengage button to make sure but the line still wasn’t coming free, so I turned off the engine. I quickly went overboard to check out the problem and discovered the loop in the mooring pennant was over two blades of the prop.<br><br>Deciding that this was something I needed quick help with, I headed for shore to try and find someone in the dive shop to help. First I stopped at the fuel dock and the person there said no big deal, just tie a line to the ball to get the tension off of the pennant, then go under the boat and take it off. He came back out with me and did the tie off part and got the tension off of the line. Somehow in this process I managed to do the old “dinghy goes one way, sailboat goes the other” split and ended up in the water.<br><br>It was then up to me to try and get the pennant off the prop. Not being the strongest swimmer in the world, I was reluctant but decided to give it a shot. Went under the boat and got the loop off of one blade, but in the process got bounced pretty hard against the underside of the boat. Coming out of the water I was bleeding from scrapes on my hands, shins, and feet, and still hadn’t cleared the problem. At this point the Marina Cay fuel dock person called for a diver and went and picked him up while I tended to my wounds.<br><br>The diver (lonestar is his handle on Traveltalk) came back and quickly freed us. He used his scuba tank because he said it is tough to stay off the boat without a BCD or to stay under long enough to free the line without air. Now they tell me!<br><br>By this time I was sore, exhausted and just wanted to find a place to park the boat and go home. In lieu of that, we decided to motor to North Sound and spend a couple of days at the Bitter End.<br><br>Ate dinner that night at Saba Rock. Their buffet works out well for both us and the kids. Dropped Diana off at BEYC to go listen to the band at the pub. This was one of those perfect situations for the FRS radios we had brought. When she was ready to come back to the boat she just called us up on the radio.<br><br>Tuesday July 15<br><br>Still sore from the encounter with the bottom of the boat on the previous day so we decided to forgo the trip to Anegada and spend another day off the Bitter End. Went ashore with all of our snorkeling and floating stuff and camped out under a cabana on the north shore. Not a particularly great place for either swimming or snorkeling, but you can get in the water and keep cool. For folks like me where salt water wasn’t feeling particularly good on my cuts, I could stay out of the water in the shade.<br><br>Ate some cuban sandwiches from the carvery which is probably our favorite part of a visit to BEYC. Ate dinner that night on the boat. All in all, a good day for the skipper to recover.<br><br>Wednesday July 16<br><br>Decided to head back down the channel to Cooper Island. We were due into The Moorings for a midweek stop the next day so this would put us in a good location. Winds were very light and shifty so we motored about half way down Virgin Gorda where they began to fill in. Had a nice couple of hour reach to Cooper where we had no problem getting a mooring ball. There were vacant balls at sunset. Feeling rather lazy we decided to do a swim off of the boat and then go in for dinner that evening.<br><br>In the process of sitting on the boat transom and getting into the dinghy, I managed to slip and fall into the water once again, this time whacking the back of my head. In 10 previous charters I’ve never once fallen accidently into the water, but this was my second fall already on this trip.<br><br>Having hurt nothing more than my pride, I climbed back onto the boat and we went ashore for a nice dinner at the restaurant.<br>