Call it a gamble, a bit of daring do, or whatever, but planning a wedding on the water when your future wife has limited sailing experience can be a bit of a tricky business. I have sailed all my life, and we’d sailed together in the Whitsunday’s for a week with her daughter and daughter’s boyfriend last October but that was it and the daughter and boyfriend had done the work. To overcome this minor flaw in the plan we engaged an ASA Instructor to get Mary Jane up to speed. The idea was that our instructor would be with us from noon Thursday until noon Sunday. We would return to Road Town on Saturday evening to pick up John and Katherine (Mary Jane's son and girlfriend) and would drop the Instructor off at Trellis Bay on Sunday and continue to the North Sound.

We spent the first night at the Bight. Our instructor took us right up to the beach on the south side where we anchored in about 12 feet. We went to Pirates for the buffet which was good but didn’t stay late, as we were both tired from a long day. (This became a recurring theme). I couldn’t help feeling that Pirates, like the bagpipes, sound better from the far end of the glen, and I think I would have enjoyed it more from further away (like Toronto).

Friday March 12
We had breakfast and escaped the Bight early, motoring over to the Indians for a quick snorkel. From there we set sail for Cane Garden Bay. We needed to phone John to bring a few forgotten items with him on Saturday. We had lunch aboard and then headed off downwind to White Bay on JVD. Where we took the second entrance and anchored in behind the reef. MJ took the opportunity to try out her new prescription mask and snorkel from the beach; we had a delicious dinner at Sand Castles and experienced our first painkiller. The Soggy Dollar Painkiller became the standard by which we measured all others, and held top honours throughout the trip. Once again we faded early after a great day of sailing and wonderful dinner. It had been relatively calm when we arrived but became very rolly overnight as the wind held us with our beam to the oncoming seas. In the morning our instructor rigged a bridle to the anchor that held us heading into the seas, but to my mind, increased the windage too much to be used as an overnight solution. Fortunately, MJ and I sleep through almost anything and we did not badly all things considered.

Saturday March 13
Today we return to Road Town to pick up John and Katherine. We enjoyed an early breakfast on the boat riding the swells on the bridled anchor. Our instructor ran through the engine check with me and by 9:30 we were underway motoring upwind. The plan for the day was to sail close enough to Sandy Cay that our instructor could point out the anchorages for that, Sandy Spit, Diamond Cay and other points of interest. This changed abruptly when the engine alarm started screaming and the cabin filled with diesel smoke. TMM we have a problem! Fortunately we were clear of the anchorage so were able to stop the engine and make sail. We tracked the problem down to a melted plastic part in the exhaust system that caused the diesel to exhaust into the engine room and the water-cooling to pump into the boat instead of over the side. After a brief discussion between the Instructor and TMM we started the windward beat through the Thatch cut to Road Town under reefed main and jib. The winds were up and the spray flying and Mary Jane was surprisingly cheerful despite experiencing her first inconvenience at sea. By 2:30 we were alongside at TMM having used the engine for the last few minutes just to power us in to the dock. Within minutes the TMM mechanics were at work and yet another bottle of Champagne arrived at the boat courtesy of TMM. By 4:30 the engine had been repaired. Our Instructor headed home to St. Thomas for the night and we crossed our fingers that John and Katherine would make the connection to the last ferry from St. Thomas. We didn’t worry for to long. They caught the Fast ferry, and as luck would have it, ran into the TMM taxi, which was collecting other passengers, at the ferry dock so got a free ride right to the boat!! – Thank you Sam!

John and Katherine stowed their gear and we all headed down to the Pub for dinner, which, as we had come to expect, was delicious.

Sunday March 14
Our instructor was due to return at 9:30 AM. We had topped off the tanks, cleared everything and were ready to go when we got a message that he had missed the ferry and wouldn’t be in until 10:30. This was a bit of a concern as we had a long haul to the North Sound planned. John and Katherine had booked a dive for the next morning from Leverick Bay and, having hauled the dive gear down there I wasn’t going to see it go unused!!

Right on 10:30 our instructor arrived and at 10:31 we were on our way out of the harbour heading for the Trellis Bay drop off point. By noon Katherine was looking a little pale and had gone silent. There was a steady breeze of about 22 knts and seas to match so when the usual focusing on the horizon didn’t help our instructor suggested that she should have a swim!! I was surprised that Katherine agreed and we hove to while she bobbed up and down holding the dinghy painter in the middle of the Sir Francis Drake Channel. Miracle of miracles she felt much revived after her dip. We dried her off, stuck a trisaderm patch behind her ear and never had another problem the rest of the trip. We decided, however, to motor the remaining distance to Trellis bay where we would drop off the Instructor and re-evaluate Katherine’s condition before deciding whether to proceed to the North Sound.

By 2:00 the Instructor was ashore, Katherine revived, and time running short if we wanted to continue. We slipped our mooring and headed west under power. Two hours later we were swinging on a mooring and sipping cocktails at Leverick Bay. We enjoyed yet another great dinner at Leverick and another not so late night. It had been a busy day but the adventure was just getting started!!

... Part 3 - Pre Nuptial Cruising