Hey all!

We just got back the end of last week. Our trip pics are at:

Our Trip Pics

I'm also going to be posting pics from our friends as they get them to me.

Yacht shots also caught us crossing the channel on our last day. The photos are here:

Our Yacht Shots

I'm not much for descriptive writing, but for those interested, here's a quick run down of our trip...

Day 1
We (8 of us, friends and family from Texas and Florida) arrived on Tortola on Wednesday, Nov 7th and stayed at the Mariner Inn on the Moorings property. As usual the rooms were utilitarian.

Day 2
The next morning, after the chart and boat briefings, we got underway on "A Stray Shower", a Moorings 4000. No major issues and the few minor things noted were addressed in good time. We pushed off around 1pm. We sailed over to Cooper Island for our first night. After some snorkeling in the bay (a few rays and some barracuda were the only noteworthy sights) we cleaned up and went ashore for dinner at the Beach Club. Not bad, but it would prove to be one of the least favorite meals of our crew.

Day 3
Leaving one of our couples on the beach at Cooper, the rest of us motored around to the Rhone and four of us dove while the other two stayed on board. This was our first time on the Rhone, so we ended up mooring a bit further out than was best. We surface swam over to the stern (about 100 yards against the current) and then descended onto the screw. Great dive...in addition to the stern with the huge bronze screw and famous "columns", we saw some huge lobsters. I also found a porthole with the glass still in it. Once all divers were recovered, we motored back to Cooper, picked up our stray couple and headed for the Dogs. The wind was only about 6 knots and variable, so after flopping around for awhile, we took in our sail and motored on to Great Dog. We took a mooring at The Chimney and spent about an hour snorkeling. From there we tacked over to North Sound (once again, uninspired sailing weather) and took a mooring at BEYC. Here we met up with a buddy of mine that brought a Moorings 4000 up from St. Martin with a crew of 8 friends. Dinner was the Friday night Seafood Buffet. I know some here are not fond of BEYC or buffets in general, but this is just a killer meal. It was great last year, and even better this year. They had a steel drum band playing and a few of us even drifted off to sleep on the beach afterward.

Day 4
This is our Virgin Gorda day. We took the water taxi over to Gun Creek where our rental company picked us up and carried us to Spanish Town and our rental from Leon. We spent the morning having a nice breakfast at Little Dix Bay, then over to the Baths. I led our group on a quick tour through the rocks, then snorkeled a bit before heading up to The Top of the Baths for my usual cheeseburger and fries with Pina Colada and dip in the freshwater pool. Once everyone had their fill of the Baths, we stopped off at the Harbor so they could shop for gifts and souvenirs. Then over the mountain, stopping for photo ops before returning to Gun Creek. Dinner that night was Saba Rock, topped off with a swing in the hammocks.

Day 5
After topping off the fresh water tanks at Saba Rock, we departed for Anegada. Winds were about 12 knots on the beam and we averaged 7 or 8 knots. We arrived at Anegada in time for some lunch aboard. My friend sailed all the way up to his mooring ball at Anegada, which was fun to watch...I'm more the drop sails and motor in when it comes to Anegada. While the crew put some sandwiches together, I donned a harness and had one of the guys haul me up the mast on the spare halyard. This made for some decent photos and video footage. I could see clear across Anegada! After lunch, we went ashore and got a rental from the ARH. We went straight to Loblolly and snorkeled and slept on the beach for a couple hours. Then down to Cow Wreck Beach where some snorkeled and others read and nursed Caribs. I got caught up with my friend and his crew...a crew I was a part of last year. As nice as sunset can be from Cow Wreck, we jumped in the rental and headed back to the ARH just in time to catch the sunset. I like to see it setting over our boat, and it usually makes for a nice photo. Back to the boat to clean up and then ashore for dinner at the ARH. We all had lobster. We pushed our trip back a few weeks this year to make sure we could get lobster on Anegada. But after this year I think we'll move the trip back up to October and just skip the lobster.

Day 6
We took our time Monday morning. There was a nice double rainbow over Anegada and the anchorage. We had breakfast at Neptunes Treasure (I met Kelly at the Moorings and it got me to thinking we should try it) before departing for Sandy Cay. The wind was light and variable, transitioning between running and a broad reach. We didn't want to take the time to jibe our way over (hey...I'm all for sailing casually, but in light variable winds it's just aggravating). So we motored on in. We rounded Sandy Cay and dropped anchor. I stayed aboard while everyone else snorkeled. The snorkeling (around the southeast side) was a hit, but the few moments spent on the beach were a bit comical to watch from the boat. There was much swatting and waving of arms and rapid donning of snorkeling gear. So much for hiking the island. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" /> From Sandy Cay we motored in to Little Harbour. Dinner at Sydneys while Sydney Jr. turned some conch shells into horns for us (what note would you like?). A heavy shower came through during dinner, giving us a glimpse of the night we had in store. I woke up about 2:30 AM when I caught a gust full in the face inside my cabin. I (along with a couple other crew members) jumped up and started closing hatches and yanking clothes off the lifeline just in time to save them from the rain. I suppose it rained for an hour and the winds were sustained around 22 knots. We only lost a single cushion (but man what a fee for a lost cushion!).

Day 7
The rain continued. But in the islands even a rainy day is better than just about any day at home. We motored over to White Bay, but couldn't find a spot to drop the hook. We only messed with it for a few minutes, because a nasty shower was headed our way, so lounging on the beach wasn't going to be an option anyway. The storm was more than your casual island shower. We were headed for Cane Garden Bay, but when CGB and Sandy Cay completely disappeared in the storm, we changed course for Sopers to sit it out. It blew through in a little over an hour, so we rounded the West End and headed over to CGB. A lazy afternoon aboard in occasional showers. Some of the crew went ashore and walked the beach. Then dinner at Quitos. We had some great Pina Coladas the meal was one of our favorites that week. Unfortunately, Quito wasn't playing.

Day 8
Depart Cane Garden en route to the Indians. The crew dove and snorkeled the Indians. This was a nice dive. We saw a turtle and a small shark (3 feet or so). I can't ID the shark. It was very active...I caught glimpses several times during the dive before it swam in closer to us. It circled us once and then followed us for a bit before turning back. There were no markings except the trailing edge of the tail was dark, almost black. The rest of the shark was a consistent gray. Anyway...fun dive. TONS of tropical fish and the coral never disappoints at the Indians. As we dropped the mooring and headed out into the channel, there were whitecaps. The winds were holding pretty well around 18 knots, so we set the sails at the number 1 reef on a beam reach and were making better than 9 knots en route to Road Town. Before we got half-way there the Yacht Shots guy intercepted us and took some pictures. We called the Moorings as we motored through the last markers into Wickham's Cay and were told Dock A, North Side, #17. This was my first year as skipper, so even with a cat I was minding my Ps and Qs as we came in. I was expecting an easy entry into slip on the south side of Dock A, so the call for a slip on the north side had me a bit curious to see where they were putting me. I moved up between A and B and found slip 17, but there were already two monos in the slip. I didn't see anyone on the dock either, so I started to back out to the end of A and call for clarification. About that time a dock hand came out and motioned for me to back into #17. I pointed out that the slip was full and earned a "no problem, mon!" for my trouble. So I spun it around and began to back in. Once we were a few feet into the slip we were about to make contact with one of the monos (on our starboard, dock to port) so I slipped into neutral, but the hand quickly told me to keep the power on. He had me carefully use my cat to nudge the mono out of the way until the mono could give no more. He tied us off about a third of the way into the slip and we slipped a fender between the two boats. Not long after we off loaded they moved our boat to the end of A dock and rafted it to a boat already on the end of A dock. There wasn't an empty slip in the place. The combination of Sunsail with Moorings and Footloose fleets definitely has them full. We cleared no problem (and even avoided paying for the cushion since they couldn't find our inventory! This despite my confession that we lost one.) We crashed at the Mariner Inn.

Day 9
After breakfast poolside we droped our bags early at the a/p (about 10am, so I'm sure I just missed meeting Manpot). Then we skipped over to Trellis for some casual browsing at Aragorn's and a roti at the Cyber Cafe. Eventually, we had to get on the plane and depart. Other than the usual fiasco at SJU (which is actually a slightly different fiasco every time I go through there), we had a decent return trip to Dallas.

We had a great week of sailing and sun and food and snorkeling and Caribs and painkillers and pina coladas and Caribs and even of rain, and although I'd never say "I've had enough", it will have to do until next year. We introduced four more people to the islands and they loved it as much as we do, and that always feels good.

Counting down to our next trip...maybe Oct 22?

Matt

(sorry...this was longer than I expected!)