BVIs - Days 3 to 6
Kirofbrixham
Sun 2 May 2010 14:04
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Gorda Sound and Charge Controller
Spanish Town was missed from the itinery - jet lag
and excess pizza had their undesirable effect (which seems to have affected Ian
as well) and the crew faded long before any respectable party animal would or
should. The marina was at least flat calm overnight so some resetting of
body clocks was achieved. The pizza's were amazing and we were warned;
nevertheless we each ordered our choice and each managed to eat about half - the
rest was taken back to the boat for lunch the following day. The next day
dawned, predictably hot and sunny with a good SE breeze so we had a cracking
sail north.
The sail took us to Necker Island, Sir Richard
Branson's British Virgin Isles retreat, three quarters surrounded by a reef to
deter unwanted visitors. We counted six houses. As we sailed by a
ferry and a supply vessel approached the private jetty, perhaps picking up
guests and providing the food and drink. At a reputed $56,000 dollars a
day, I would expect a helicopter rather than a ferry, but I wouldn't care how
the wine arrived!
After viewing Necker Island from a distance we
turned south again and entered Gorda Sound. This is water sports paradise
with a virtually enclosed stretch of water 2 miles wide by a mile. Water
skiing, dinghy sailing and wakeboarding were all on show but perhaps most
spectacular were the superyachts. One yacht was easily in excess of 150 ft
in length and a mast perhaps 200 ft tall. Other motor yachts were nearly
as long and stank of money.
Whilst in Gorda Sound we took the opportunity to
fit the Charge Controller we had brought out for Ian from the UK. This
whizzy bit of electronics controls the wind generator, the solar panels and the
charge into two sets of batteries. All went well until Ian connected the
cables and despite the cables being disconnected at the batteries the unit came
live. Lots of head scratching ensued. The cables were all checked
and re-checked to ensure that were secure and correctly fitted. Worst of
all, the unit did not recognise the second bank
of batteries - strange. Graeme eventually re-checked to wiring and
established that Ian had disconnected the negative rather than the positive on
the main batteries thereby creating a circuit through the common earth.
Once the problem was established, a quick switching of cables and a unit reset
got everything working correctly. None of the troubleshooting was in the
instructions so it was skill and knowledge ( at least that's what Greame says)
that saved the day.
Trellis Bay Full Moon Party, Dick and
Lizzy
The next day we undertook our longest sail to date,
traversing the 13nm in a little over 3 hours. Along the way we tried out
Ian's storm drogue. After half an hour setting it up we dropped it over
the side in full view of Sir Richard's guests, to the west of Necker
Island. Once in the water and 'inflated' it looked like a giant jelly
fish, 8 feet across. But it stopped the boat almost completely - very
effective. Having completed the test, we
headed back to Trellis Bay from whence we started, this time to party.
Each full moon the shops and restaurants of Trellis Bay put on a full moon
party, with stilt walkers, fire eaters and culminating in the firing up of
braziers and the burning of effigies. Here we met up with Dick and Lizzie
who did the ARC with Ian in 2008 and with whom he has managed to stay in touch
with in the intervening years. They're heading south soon whilst we head
north.
The evening was magical. It is hard to
describe what it was like looking out into a bay packed with boats at
midnight but, if you've read the Harry Potter books, it looked like Hogwarts
with the floating candles - some 200 boats each with a white anchor light moving
softly on the residual swell that penetrated the bay.
Cooper Island and Painkillers
An early start followed the full moon party, not
out of any passage making necessity but to miss the rush of other departing
boats. Another 'line of sight' sail in fantastic conditions to Cooper
Island. We arrived around lunctime to a largely empty bay and chose the
mooring at the furthest end close to some rocks, which according to Ian, offered
some of the best diving in the BVI's. Cooper Island has an
exclusive resort hotel which was surprisingly open to yachty
types. As you might imagine we availed ourselves of the facilities,
including happy hour. Unfortunately happy hour was limited to Painkillers
and Bud Lights. Well we knew what a Bud Light was so we had to try the
Painkillers - a conconction not unlike a Pina Colada but with orange juice and
even more rum. Ian and Grame managed 3 in the hour so were a little the
worse for wear by the time we all got back to the boat. Patti, who doesn't
drink alcohol satisfied herself with Virgin ( No rum) Pina Colada's, keeping up
with the boys.
While in Copper Island we saw Baracuda, Sting Rays,
small sharks and some other large fish as yet unidentified. A super place
we plan to revisit when Jim arrives (Ian's third crew member for the trip to
Bermuda in ARC Europe 2010) - this time to eat in the resort hotel's
restaurant.
Village Cay, Road Town, New Batteries and
Norman Island
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