(This seems to get longer as I go along...)<br><br>Friday July 11<br><br>Up early to take the car back to the Renaissance hotel. A pretty impressive facility but I still prefer the on the beach layout at Secret Harbour. Finished our packing and took a taxi to the Red Hook ferry. We had originally told The Moorings that we would be arriving on the early ferry but decided there wasn’t much reason to push it, so we took the midday Native Son instead.<br><br>Elise went to buy the tickets while I kept track of the luggage. She purchased round trip tickets which wasn’t my plan but it looked like their return ferry would work out fine for us.<br><br>Road on top to West End Tortola and had a spectacular view and ride. Arrived at customs, drug our way too heavy luggage through customs and went to look for our ride to Moorings. Their driver wasn’t there so we called and found out they were looking for us on the earlier ferry. No problem, we could wait for him. About 15 minutes later he arrived all apologetic for the foul-up which was actually our fault.<br><br>Arrived at Mariner Inn and went to say high to the restaurant staff which have been almost like family to us on previous trips. Got our rooms, ate a late lunch, had some Caribs and felt the stress drain away. Stopped by the Renport facility and got a cell modem installed in my computer (being self-employed means vacations are never completely vacations). Tried to get a portable cell phone a day early from Customer Service, but that just seemed to be too much a variation from Moorings’ SOP, so gave up trying. Since we planned to eat at Mariner Inn that evening, I could do without the cell until the next day.<br><br>Ate a great dinner that night. The spaciousness of their new facility, the quality of the food, friendliness of the personnel, and most importantly, the chill on their Caribs, make this one of my favorite places to eat.<br><br>Saturday July 12<br><br>This was get the boat day. Went to the chart briefing because it was Diana’s first time and the kids always like to see the movie about where they will be going. We were on a Moorings 473, Wishing Star III, which was the only one going out that day, so we got a quick personal boat checkout. When you’ve been on as many Moorings’ Beneteau monohulls as I have, you are quite familiar with the systems. Shore A/C was wonderful. Moorings personnel came on board to help Elise and Diana stow all of the food and drink.<br><br>Both Elise and I noticed that the Moorings personnel seemed to be going out of their way to be helpful on this trip. On some of our previous trips it seemed that as they got bigger, they also became more impersonal. This trend seems to be reversed this time perhaps because of the slow economy and increased competition. Our other theory was they were so attentive because we had an attractive young female with our group, but I won’t be that cynical!<br><br>I was a bit concerned about trying to undo the 3 lines that were on pilings in our slip without scraping the boat too much. When it came time to leave, without even asking for help, someone hopped on board, got the lines off the pilings and hopped off. It was still a bit tough to maneuver the boat in the tight quarters of their inner slips (all those monster cats!), but we did and got underway around 2pm, which is early for us.<br><br>Decided to head for The Bight, which is an easy reach from Road Town. Winds were in the 10-15 knot range and the boat seemed to be doing well. When we arrived at Norman Island I reached down to start the engine and NOTHING!. Not much more than a click. Called Moorings on the cell phone who suggested I look for loose battery cables (none found but lots of water in compartment), or loose wires around the starter (none seen). After 10-15 minutes on the cell with no luck, and all the while sailing past Norman because I couldn’t easily tack and talk at the same time, they finally said they would send the chase boat and a mechanic.<br><br>Trying to sail a boat as big as this one to a buoy, even in The Bight, was not something I wanted to do, so I made sure they were sending someone to get to us before dark. I then decided to furl the jib and just do some slow mainsheet sailing outside Norman. When I took the jib down I discovered the boat just flat did not sail under main only with as little wind as we had at that time (probably around 10 knots, maybe 15). Trying to tack just put us in irons, so back out came the jib.<br><br>Made several sails back and forth in front of The Bight, calling Moorings about every 15 minutes for an update, trying to start the engine without luck, before the chase boat came on the scene. They tied up along side to take us under tow into The Bight and the mechanic tried to start the engine. Of course it cranked immediately for him. I asked him to check things out because if we had this problem once, we would have it again. He tried to start it again and it didn’t, so he went in search of the problem. Came back up a few minutes later claiming to have tightened a starter wire and fixed several other “things”. Not real sure what he did, but the boat cranked immediately and we never had any further problems.<br><br>I asked about all of the water in the engine and battery compartment. He didn’t feel that was the problem but bailed it out. I asked him about the source of the water and he felt it was rainwater that came from the boat being left open on the dock. I was pretty doubtful but figured I would keep an eye on it.<br><br>We motored into a buoy and said our thanks and goodbyes to the chase boat, feeling somewhat stupid that I hadn’t been able to spot and fix the problem myself.<br><br>That night a tropical wave moved through with more lightning than I’ve ever seen in the BVI.