“18.24N 064:38W”

The crew, Dick and Ken, joined us on Thursday 25th April. We walked to the beach for sundowners, then dinner in the Crows Nest restaurant.  The next day did some last minute shopping then after checking out of Antigua sailed along the coast to Deep Bay, anchored for lunch then sailed back to the anchorage just outside Jolly Harbour so we can set off early the next morning to Nevis.

Saturday we left the anchorage at 07.15 and had a pleasant sail across to Nevis. Picked up a buoy for the night.

Next morning, Sunday, we left at 06.55 for the 140 nm trip to Tortola, BVI. Were visited by a pod of dolphins who swam with us for a while.  Unfortunately, we were sailing too fast as we didn’t want to get to the BVI in the dark, so we firstly reefed the genoa, and then fully furled it to slow us down.  By 05.00 Monday, we were very close to the southern BVI islands so hove-too for 40 minutes to wait for the beginning of daylight – sunrise was at 05.50.  We sailed into the Drake Channel and then down to the western end of Tortola to check in at Sopers Hole.  The devastation from the 2017 hurricane was still very apparent. This anchorage used to have restaurants and shops and a nice supermarket, but all got wrecked and were still closed. Lots of work is going on rebuilding the boardwalk, and the marina there is open.

Chris and Penny walked to customs and immigration to check in whilst Dick and Ken went and found the only bar that was open.

After check in we all returned to the boat and had a good sail up Drakes Channel to Nanny Cay Marina.  We were allocated a berth and in we went.  After tying up we checked into the marina office and then to the ARC Rally office to collect all the rally information.  Then had a late lunch at the beach bar.