Thursday 22nd December
Nowcrew
Sat 24 Dec 2005 12:37
Nanny Cay
Marina - Tortola, BVI's
Last night was a lot
of fun for all anchored up in Pirates Bay. When we had eaten dinner the kids
noticed that a couple of very large fish about 5' long were circling under the
boat, their shadows reflecting from the mast mooring light. They could not wait
to get into the water the next morning to have a look.
At dawn the Rory was
running around with his trunks on and mask in hand, swimming time, swimming time
he shouted. As Ron cooked up skinheads on a raft for all who wanted it (he got
none himself in the end!), the kids were in the water looking for the fish. They
were soon joined by Jason, Sophie and Sarah who all swam to the beach. The fish
however had gone.
The first job of the
day was to head for West End and the BVI customs and immigration. This was a
short 45 minute sail from where we were and we made it for about 11.00am. Ian
and Andy set of for the customs office expecting similar trials to the previous
islands but were surprised with the pleasant attitude of the officials. I guess
starting with a Merry Christmas helped break the ice. This did not take away any
of the form filling as in addition Andy had to temporarily import the boat as
well. Now3 will be staying here until the end of April 2006.
The customs official
dealing with us was pleased to see the name Cheetham on some passports as
it reminded her of an old college friend she had not seen for a long time who
had the same surname. After this everything got faster and she said goodbye to
us apologising for taking up so much of our time. Oh what a
difference!
We stayed in Soper's
Hole marina for lunch and to fill up with fuel. It was then off to Nanny Cay and
our berth we had booked. Getting into Nanny Cay was a little tricky as the
entrance is tight and shallow in the extremities of the channel. Skipper took us
in smoothly as usual and once tied up we set about cleaning out the boat from
several days at sea. The Nickson Family vacated the boat and checked into the
marina hotel 2 minutes walk from the boat.
Nanny Cay is the
perfect marina to be based from if you are on a sail holiday in the BVI's. The
marina has great facilities, swimming pool, beach, shops and a good restaurant
along with a shower block to die for. It is fantastic to stand in a solid land
based shower with warm running water when you have been on a boat with 12 people
for four days!
The kids were
swimming in the pool before long and Ron took Ian and Andy to the pegglegs bar
to introduce them to some old familiar faces, except they had all moved on since
his last visit! It didn't stop us having a beer though. We were at our final
destination from this epic adventure almost 5,000 miles from Palma de Mallorca
and Andy was getting a little emotional. We still had a weeks day sailing to do
and there are lot of islands in the BVI's to explore but no more countries to
visit.
We stayed in
Pegleggs for dinner, joined again by The Nickson, and were surprised to see that
the menu was so extensive. A piece of luck since we were undoubtedly going to be
spending a few nights in there.
Ma Cheetham and
Gillian were chatted up by a couple of American chaps on the next table but were
soon put off by their chaperone, Rory. Good lad!
We were all very
pleased with our new base for the next 9 days
Nowcrew
out.