Cruising the Caribbean
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Mon 30 May 2011 14:23
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FRIDAY 27th MAY 2011
06.00hrs Aileen got out og the scratchen,
very early for the girl.
It was a beautifull morning, with clear blue skies
, clear blue water as we sat on the anchor outside " Bitter End Y.C.
"
Skipper went for an early swim, boy, the water is
noticably cooler here, but very refreshing ,
We hauled the anchor and notor sailed the 7 miles
or so south to Gorda Yacht Marina, but dropped anchor in 8m
of water in the bay outside the marina, We then
went ashore and cleared in and out of the BVI's at the port authority bldg.
planning to leave next Sunday
sometime,
Aileen remained ashore with her NBF,, ( her Laptop
) while skipper returned to the boat and dropped the mainsail on
deck.
The mainsail has a tear, or rather the stitching on
the seams above the 2nd batton are comming undone, so they need
to be hand stitched before the whole seam comes
apart. Luckily, there is very little wind,
other wise, skipper and sail could have very easily
ended with a free trip into the sea.
We were surrounded with flags from Canada, the
U.S., France, Norway, many of them having sailed here from their
own countries,
but very many chartered yachts around as well, and
the place is wall to wall with Americans,
repairing the mainsail took the guts of 2 hours,
and then another 20 minutes to winch it up the mast again, but
it all looked good when it set in the light breeze,
Happy as a pig in s...... skipper helped himself to a beer
before going ashore again to collect the first
mate, dodging all the coral reefs and coral heads
on the way,
Skipper cooked roast beef , actually it looked more
like a gigantic T bone , about 2" thick, so it was fried in
a big pot ( To stop the splattering around the
galley) and it tasted just great, that with creamed potatoes, carrots, and
horse raddish sauce , yum, yum,
A couple of more beers and then watched a
DVD, yes, we could be at home with our feet in the
fire listning to doom and gloom,
Thats all for today,
SATURDAY 28th MAY 2011
This was another beautifull morning and skipper was
into the water for a refreshing swim as soon as he woke up.
We decided to go to " Tortola" by fast ferry at
10.00hrs, a 35 minute trip acdross the bay to " Road Harbour "
Its great around here, all the Islands are so close
together, nothing more than 10 or 20 miles
We did some early emails in a wifi place before
discovering this fantastic Pub / Store / restaurant, A
real old timer place, but
in immaculate condition, with polished mahogony
counters and chairs, plus gleaming brass rails, and of course
the walls were covered in old photos of wrecked
ships, Pirates, sailing ships, Cricket players , etc, etc,
but no sign of Munster, They dont really know what
they are missing, by the way, the match of the year is today in
Thomond Park, with Munster V Leinster in the
deciding winner take all match.
Skipper had a Pub special called " Painkiller" made
of 4 shots of rum and lots of coconut cream plus some other
invisable medicines, all in all, it not only
killed the pain, but nearly killed skipper as well, real powerfull stuff.
After a light lunch, we walked the length of the
town to the Botanical Gardens ( started by an Irishman " Neill " )
but
Murphs law, The place was flippin well closed, Gawd
! after walking in all that heat, It would be enough to
keep
the Shepards dog skinny ,
Later, on our way back, we stopped at a book shop
and bought a few items, including a book on the history
of Pirates, These book shops are a
treasure chest, one could spend all day in such a place just browsing, and you
all
know that skipper is not into reading, but they
will always have something historical that
will attract attention, even for skipper.
16,30hrs we caught the return ferry to Virgin Gorda
, Aileen went to Mass, and prayed for skipper while he returned to the
boat and tried to recover from the " painkiller"
and the walking,
Later , skipper returned to the marina to collect
the first mate again , dodging all the reefs and coral heads on the way in and
of course it was more difficult in the dark on the
way out,
Aileen got the news on her laptop that Munster won
the match,, yipeee, thats a gloating point for us........ well done
Munster,
we have the flag flying from the Yard arm in
celebration,
We had a light snack before retiring to the
scratcher.....
Thats it for now,
Signed :- Stephen
hyde ( Skipper )
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