18:21.51N 64:34.97W

Monday 26^th March

Very, very still night – ie extremely steamy for all the wrong reasons!   But lots of lovely rain so when we woke up in the morning part of the morning’s work had already been very much helped along.   Before we had to leave the marina at midday we wanted to make full use of all the incredibly expensive facilities!   So having topped up the batteries to bursting, Rob went off to find the sail maker and I started on a really good wash down and polish of the boat, inevitably soaking me and our neighbours in the process – I still don’t seem to handle a hose too brilliantly.   Anyway very good end result, can’t remember when Serafina looked quite so shiny – and except for a very few little patches, the stainless steel is still holding up very well from its treatment.

Rob had had to hang around waiting for the sail maker to arrive back from a weekend’s racing in St Thomas and had got chatting to a Canadian couple who had lots of suggestions about where to go to sit out being sail-less for a week.   Although the sail maker was offering to get the repair done today, we opted to have a full check of the sail with our passage north to the US in mind, so it should be ready for Friday.   (Hopefully he won’t be snowed under with work from the racing fraternity with the BVI Spring regatta starting today – with our present wind conditions it seems unlikely!)   Rob then very fortuitously overheard a young man on the pontoon talking to our neighbours about canal boat building.   It turned out that he had worked for the New Boat Co in Droitwich and obviously knew all about Viking Afloat;  but of much more interest was that he was the Manager of the marina here and went on to offer that he would be able to fit us in with a quick dash in and out to a hammerhead to collect our sail while all the racing boats were out sailing.   We are learning the hard way that marina berths are like gold-dust and appear to cost as if they were coated in the stuff! Still Brendan looks like a very good contact to have made.

Rob was very impressed that when he went in to pay for the berth he pointed out that the electric supply had been a bit hit and miss, and in fact we had had the supply for the boat next door as our neighbour had failed to manage to use it as he had a far bigger draw, running his air-conditioning on board.   The office administrator immediately contacted Brendan and by the time Rob had returned to the boat, there was an electrician sorting out the problem!

We left at the appointed hour and motored over to Great Harbour on Peter Island.   We can’t really sail anywhere without the main, so we are picking bays where it is possible to anchor (rather than be obliged to pick up an extortionate buoy) and be in relative seclusion and shelter.   This bay was indicated in the pilot as having anchoring possibilities with good snorkelling, but you have to creep around the edges of the huge bay trying to find somewhere not too deep.   We are anchored in 15m which just about allows for the fact that we can swing in towards the shore without going aground!   The wind has completely disappeared today, together with the view of most of the islands.   The BVIs is an amazing cruising ground with dozens of little islands all within a few miles of each other, many around the Sir Frances Drake Channel, which looks extremely like the Solent on a sunny weekend with everyone out sailing!   But today there was a really odd haziness with visibility down to less than a couple of miles.

So after an afternoon of jobs we had a quick swim, where I went stone hunting on the narrow beach and Rob met a shark and found more fish than he has ever seen before out here!   And then in the evening we feasted on more tuna as a curry.   Rob would like me to point out just how many (easy) meals one fish produces – at least two more to go.   I’m not sure why as this just gives me more ammunition for comment when we are in a fishless state……..