Road Town BVI's Position 18:25.420N 064:37.012W
SeaTrek
Bill and Judy Stellin
Wed 30 Apr 2008 22:03
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Time is getting short here for us. We are in Village
Cay Marina in Road Town making final preparations for our
departure.
Friday or Sat. we will shove off for Bermuda, provided the
winds cooperate. Weather looks ok but the winds favor a passage more to
the west and the Bahamas and then up the Florida coast and the Gulf Stream
north. I hope we can still go directly to Bermuda. We shall
see.
Yesterday the Dutch Mafia from West Michigan paid a
call. Ed Nieuwenhuis, John Nieuwenhuis, Neil Versluis and Ken
TerMolen. These guys were on a charter for the week and having a
ball. Ed and Neil are retired from Meijer Stores where they worked for
John Stephenson. I am sure some of you readers recognize their
names.
As it happens, the Atlantic Rally starts from here to
Bermuda on Saturday. These are some of the boats that came down here on
the Caribbean 1500. One of the boats has given me their radio schedule for
check-ins and weather which could be helpful. We are not part of the rally
but we will shadow them. I guess there are about 21 boats heading to
Bermuda and some to the Chesapeake directly from here.
Today we spent an awful lot of money for very little
groceries. Prices are terrible here. The same amount of food in
Spain would have been half the price even after the euro exchange.
Diesel fuel is $5.50 a gallon. Some of these guys expect to motor the
entire way and the guy next to us has seventeen five gallon jerry cans on deck,
in addition to the fuel in his on board tanks. Most of the boats also have
a crew of at least 4 and some have 6. The average length for these yachts
is about 49 feet.
The BVI's have restored my enjoyment for the
Caribbean. The anchorages are fine, some a little rolly, but on the whole
a pleasant place to spend a week or two. The snorkeling has been better
here than most of the places we've been.
We spent a few nights in the Bight on Norman Island which
was probably the best anchorage. Pretty calm water at night, and a
great floating bar in the bay where folk gather for a sundowner or
two.
We were joined in the anchorage by Dave and Kay on Segue
II, their brand new Nordhaven 47 motor yacht. We spent a winter with
them in Barcelona, so it was nice to catch up on their travels over the past
year.
I plan on doing daily updates on this blog during our
passage so watch for whatever news there is.
We are a little nervous about this passage because the
winds are not as predictable as the trades across the Atlantic. Plus there
is the Gulf Stream to contend with if we have to follow the US coast. It
seems a lot of motoring is quite common. This boat sails extremely well in
light air so with luck we won't have to use much fuel. We have 70 gallons
in our main two tanks and will carry 3 jerry cans of 5 gallon each. That should
be enough for 450 miles of motoring. The other 450 miles we had better be
able to sail, or there will be a lot of drifting around.
More later.
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