Bitter End Yacht Club to Trellis Bay on Tortola. 18:26.77N, 64:31.94W

AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Sun 3 May 2009 18:15
Having sat out some evil gusts of wind overnight with torrential rain during the squalls we sat and had breakfast in the cockpit at which time another big squall hit us, only this time the anchor gave up its tenuous hold on the sea bed and we started to drag slowly but surely towards other moored boats. We horridly gathered up the breakfast we were eating and threw it below, stowed the cockpit table and hauled the naughty anchor up. We did however count our blessings that it had held all night as that would have been a very different story. We picked up a vacant mooring mooring close by and finished breakfast before leaving for Trellis Bay a well sheltered anchorage at the eastern end of Tortola's small airport (we always seem to be anchored at the end of airport runways!) where we intended to make an early start the following day to head over to the BVI's most visited location - The Baths on Virgin Gorda. Arriving at Trellis we found no room to safely anchor especially as the wind was still gusting from the nights unsettled weather so we picked up one of the few vacant moorings and headed ashore to the Loose Mongoose Bar & Restaurant to pay our $25 mooring fee. There we bumped into some other cruisers. There was a singsong going on outside (even when the next rain squall hit they continued to sing and play guitars). A few rum punches later and we weaved an unsteady course back to the boat and decided to cancel the Baths trip due to weather and probable sore heads. The next morning we invited ourselves onboard one of the previous evenings couple's boats - a Gulfstar 51 for coffee and met up again that evening in The Last Resort - a restaurant/bar set on a tiny island in the middle of Trellis Bay. We got to bed at 0200am but with the weather settling down we decided to head for the Baths 5 hours later where we would have to grab the first available mooring as anchoring was not permitted there. We had been advised to go into Spanish Town and take a cab due to the shortage of moorings but just didn't fancy that option so duly headed back to Virgin Gorda where the baths are at the western end of the island.