Sea Vagrants
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Thu 26 Apr 2012 13:14
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THURSDAY 26th Aprill
2006
When we finished clearing into the BVI,s on the
18th, we sailed over to " Jost Van Dyke"
A lovely small Island with " Fox,s" famous pub and
restaurant, There we met " Jeannius" a catamaran
owned by Mike & Jean from Liverpool who did the
trip around the world with us, However this time they
were not on board as the boat was chartered out
bareback,
We had a Thai Chicken Curry for dinner again,
Thursday 19th :- We sailed a few miles north
to Sandy Cay, a tiny sandy Island where we did some swimming,and
snorkling, skipper did a tour of the Island on foot
, the Island was presented to the national Park by
Laurance S Rockefellor in 2001, It has a great
collection of birds, lizards, thermite nests, crabs, etc.
Later that day we sailed a few more miles across to
" Cane Garden Bay " where we were collected in " Myetts"
Pub & Restaurant / hotel by Graeme Mc Callum
and taken to his house for dinner, ( arranged after the regatta. )
More chicken curry, but slightly different to our
ones, we met other sailors and generally had a great night,
We returned to " A Lady" around
midnight.
Friday 20th :- 07.00hrs The noise from
the little " terns " ( Sea Gulls ) outside was awsome, skipper went for
a look and bloody hell, there was a meeting of the
clan taking place in the dingy, all trying to outbid the next
for volume,
Shooooooo , shoooooooo, went skipper and sure
enough , off they went, but BUT, that but again, they
left a layer of stinking bird poo all over the
dingy, which took skipper 1 hour hard work to clean up,
The beggers, and only yesterday, we were admiring
these gulls as we dont see too many of them
anywhere these days,
13.00 hrs we left the mooring in Cane Garden Bay
and sailed over to " Little Jost Van Dyke" and anchored off
SANDY SPIT , this had great snorkling with shoals
of vivid blue fish , plenty of Corals, and underwater
forests of sea plants, just magic,
Around 17.00hrs we motored a short distance to "
Diamond Cay " and set about dropping the anchor
among other boats, but with plenty of room, the
water dept was 9m under the boat, so add 2.5m for her draft
and another 1.5m for her topsides giving a total
dept of 13m, multiply by 4 for scope equalls 52m of chain
required,
There was a 50 foot cat on our inside with everyone
on board watching our every move, Aileen felt they were
concerned that we were too close to them but we
went through the routine of dropping the hook in any case,
We drifed across the wind towards the Cat as the
winch opened and suddenly skipper ( who was holding onto the
snubber with his hands ) was suddenly being pulled
over the bow by the sheer weight of the anchor chain, WOW !
A few sharp instructioins and Aileen locked off the
windlass and saved skipper from a nasty incident
or even loosing the snubber over the side,
A snubber is a heavy rope which is hooked onto the
anchor chain , tied around a cleat thus removing the pressure
from the chain and windlass on the deck of the
boat, and also stops it rattling all night,
We returned to the cockpit, whacked after the
incedent and still had an audience on board the Cat, next door,
Then the radio sprang into life,,, our Cat.
neighbours were calling us on Ch.16 ohhhhh shit !!!!!! they
are going
to ask us to move we said to ourselves, But,
BUT, but NO . They invited us to their boat for drinks and
complemented us on how calm and collected we looked
dropping the anchor, Nice one
...............
Later we went to " Fox's Taboo " for dinner,
expensive enough and never as good as the boat,
SATURDAY 21st :- We went for a walk
across the point to what is known as the " Bubbly Pool" passing
ducks
and other birds we have not seem around here
before, We had a dip in the pool
before returning to the boat and sailing in a light
breeze back over to Nanny Cay in Tortolla,
No sooner had we berthed on the
marina when this lovely girl came on board, Her name was
"Clair Burke "
from Bishopstown in Cork and has been here with Earnest & Young for
about 12 years,
She saw the Irish flag as we arrived and came to
say hello,
18.00hrs, We met our friends Tom & Josh Hollway
fron " Pelecan " are laying up their boat
in Nanny Cay for the summer and returning to the
UK,
We had a few scoops in th beach bar and then
returned to " A Lady" for meat balls, rice and Spaggetti,
very tasty , especially after all the fire water.
.......... a good night.
SUNDAY :- 07.00hrs Up bright and early
and off in a taxi to " Road Town " for Mass,
We had a Mass also said for Alan cahill & Elmer
Morrissey from Cork who died tragically in a sailing accident
a week ago in San Fransisco, The Lord have
mercy on their souls,
Later we had breckfast at the marina and then set
sail for Norman Island,
This area is where " The Pirates of the Caribbean "
was made and is full of Pirate History,
We stopped at Pelican Island & The
Indians on the way, great place for snorkling.
Later in the "Bight" on Norman Island, we had
a visit from more Irish , Brian & Loretto Lenihan from Howth
sailing their 20.7m ketch plus 2 of their
kids, the boats name is " Asteroid "
A light snack before retiring to the scratchers for
the night.
MONDAY 23rd :- We sailed in a nice
breeze over to "Sopers Hole" and took on board diesel ,
We were joined there later by Denis O'Sullivan
& Vera Herlihy , who had flown out from Cork
to join us for the trip home,
We had rack of Lamb for dinner and enjoyed our new
gusets on board for the evening,
an early night,
TUESDAY 24th :-
We set off to Norman Island again, lovely weather ,
stopping at the Pelican and Indian Islands for some snorkling
and relaxing before going to the Bith again and
picking up a mooring,
Everyone went ashore for some swimming before
heading over to the " William T " , an old converted steel sailing
ship.
now being used as a pub and restaurant, the bar man
was from Dublin, so we had a great few scoops there
at reasonable prices, Connections are everything,
WEDNESDAY 25th :-
We sailed north to " Deadmans Bay" on Peters
Island, all went ashore for some swimming while skipper
went snorkling out the bay,
Again the history here is fantastic,
There is a tiny Island off the north of the bay
were were anchored,
History says that " Black Beard " put 16 of his
crew on this tiny place with just a bottle of Rum,
just to teach the rest a lesson,
They all died, hence the song from
" Treasure Island " by Robert Louis Stevenson, " Yo,
Ho, Ho, and a bottle of Rum, "
The anchorage was a bit rolly , but tolerable so we
had a Crab Salad dinner, no Drink,
Thats it for now,
Signed :- Stephen Hyde (
Skipper )
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