18 23N 64 42W

Osprey
John Bowering
Wed 14 May 2008 23:45
We headed out from Dead Mans Bay at 0800 having had a leisurely start and a hearty breakfast in this stunning location with a beautiful white beach within 50 metres of us. There was no point in hurrying as we were back in British Territory and nothing much starts before 0900 - the VHF is silent. It was a three mile hop to Road town where we arrived just on nine and followed a cruise ship in. We were able to contact a marina a nine and got a berth from them for four hours or so. An awkward place to get into but the team work is now pretty good. Once in John headed for customs - a goodly walk in 34 degrees - warranted a taxi on the return trip. Its interesting though I guess too much of a generality that the officials in the ex British islands are a dour lot - unsmiling and obviously not happy with their lot. We then set about changing the sails for the lighter weight versions for the trip north. By the it was noon and you know what they say about mad dogs and Englishmen! It was after one by the time we finished and we were probably 5 pounds lighter. We obviously have a design problem with the snuffer on the asymmetric spinnaker as the up and downhauls seem to get crossed up. Its good to find all these things out now before we get to Florida where they have the skills to sort it before the next season. The lightweight Genoa also has a smaller foot that the 135% which gave the furling drum a heart attack. We think we have it sorted but neither the engineer or I am certain. After a quick lunch at the marina pub we pulled out of our berth where we were hemmed in by other boats, with a well organised handbrake turn and headed out of Road Town. We are now in another beautiful spot called Sopers Hole - hole because it is a hurricane hole and well protected. We were both dreaming of a swim and were in the water ten minutes after picking up a buoy for the night. Charles is now cooking dinner, Chicken. steak and new spuds! I doubt we will be late to bed as we are suffering from exhaustion and much too much sun. We will be heading out of the BVI in the morning with 500 miles of ocean in front of us before we (hopefully) find the Turks and Caicos Islands. They look very small on the chart.

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