British Virgin Islands
Blue Sky's Voyage
George & Michael
Wed 18 Mar 2009 21:54
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Hello Friends
"18:30.0N
64:23.2W"
So we finally get to post another blog. We
get far more feedback through doing nothing than posting regular blogs. Maybe
I'll leave a blog gap for a couple of weeks on our trans Pacific just to see
who's paying attention?
Well, we spoke too soon about Guadeloupe
last time... seems things kicked off big after I'd assumed it had all settled
down. You probably know the latest better than we do as there's not much WiFi
here in The BVIs (- actually that's not entirely true, but the pay-WiFi is $285
a month - you have to be kidding?)
Anyway, where did we leave you last
time - Antigua I think. We enjoyed a pleasant overnight sail to Sint Maarten in
fresh-ish winds and decided to check into the lagoon for shelter as it's well
protected and a northerly swell was forecast. We managed virtually all our
shopping chores...
- the batteries were replaced and we
discovered that Island Water World had invoiced us for deep cycle batteries and
actually supplied dual purpose starting/cycling batteries, with the deep-cycle
reference number on the invoice. You may well think that we'd counsel against
anyone shopping at Island Water World - at least unless you're totally clear on
what the transaction is... George wanted me to be ruder about IWW, but this is a
family show so let's just say that Budget Marine is a great,
professionally-run chandlery and that if IWW is the only chandlery left on the
planet, we'll give up sailing!
- we purchased loads more spares (from
Budget of course) and our lockers must be OK until Australia we reckon.
Doubtless more spares will be acquired in Panama anyway.
- Michael purchased a new laptop - with the
dreaded Vista - AAAaaarrrgghhhhhh!!!!!
Naturally, most of our software won't work
on this computer and despite trying to disable as much auto-updating as
possible, it's not possible to use the new computer on the satellite system as
it's busy swapping data with microsoft and sundry other fraudsters and using up
our expensive bandwidth. Talk about 'progress'. Ideally I'd remove the loathsome
vista and install XP but that may not be possible - the alternative of saying
bye bye to microsoft and using Linux is quite attractive though, so watch this
space.
So Sint Maarten was functional if not
entirely satisfactory - and we caught up with 'Blue Star' and 'Imagine' which
was good, of course.
But stories about spare parts don't make for
a pictorial blog!
Our voyage to the BVIs was uneventful in
light winds overnight, so we only managed about 4.5 knots but with a knot of
current, we reached the BVIs and sailed past Branson Island (aka Necker) just as
dawn was breaking. The voyage was distinguished by a successful landing of a
tuna just as night was falling off Sint Maarten - the first fish in 5 months
!!
The Golden Girls arrived on schedule on the
4th and we anchored in Trellis Bay to meet them at the airport - only 200 metres
from the dinghy dock - most convenient. The weather has been a teensy bit patchy
if I'm honest with you, but here you see us on a good day, sailing from Peter
Island to Soper's Hole.
 We've done a tour of the BVIs - Peter
Island, Norman Island, Jost van Dyke, Virgin Gorda etc though not Anegada.
The Maltese Falcon was in Gorda Sound when
we visited and as she departed, she motored out of the channel and we thought
that was the last we'd see of her. BUT some minutes later the quite magnificent
sight of the Falcon is full flight greeted us as she swept downwind under full
sail. Mere photographs cannot convey the awe of watching this huge (nearly 300
feet long) and fantastic modern yacht under full sail, but here's a photo anyway
(taken through the binoculars actually) ...
 I suppose that for a hundred and seventy
million dollars you'd expect your boat to look a bit special
though?
Another unexpected entertainment in Vigin
Gorda was this flamingo, we think the first wild one we've seen, on the beach at
Prickly Pear Island. I know you've seen flamingoes before, but we saw this one
real close up on the beach, so ...
 We dropped the girls at the airport this
morning and their plane took off above us on time, so we hope their return trip
to London is not too tedious. We'll be in the BVIs for another week or so,
then off to the Dominican Republic to rendezvous with George's cousin John and
his wife Trisha, who we plan to take to Cuba.
So hopefully some new and interesting
territory for future blogs.
That's all for now Folks.
Best Wishes
George, Michael. Pom and
Barbara
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