Hooray

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Wed 16 Apr 2014 13:01

Sun, Mon & Tues – 13th, 14th & 15th April

 

Sunday was a day of mixed fortunes as is the way of things.  We made a fairly early start to the day as we had plenty to do and first off was to take the dinghy ashore and walk for 25 mins to the Customs and Immigration office near to Crown Bay. The first set-back was that on arrival we found that they did not open for another hour so we found a café overlooking the harbour and enjoyed a lazy coffee. We then returned at 1000 hours and the very nice – possibly the nicest customs officer we have ever met anywhere – helpfully explained that if we really wanted to go ahead and check out on a Sunday, he, on behalf of ‘Uncle Sam’ would have to charge us $35. So  Sarah quizzed him about the carnival coming up next month instead and we left without checking out.  I will not bore you here with the way it works between the USVI and BVI so trust me when I say that our modified plan meant that we did not have to do this now!

 

So we returned to Serafina lifted the anchor and sailed round the southern end of St Thomas and then on to Francis Bay on St Johns.  Here we picked up a buoy in a lovely bay and ran the watermaker to top up our tanks. All went well until we came to turn off the watermaker which it steadfastly refused to do. An unusual problem for sure and neither Google nor the manual were able to help much!  But the free wifi courtesy of an unsuspecting nearby guesthouse was lightning fast by our standards.

 

So on Monday morning there were a few phone calls to make, the first of which was to the shipping agents as we have become a bit concerned about the lack of good information and the fact that we keep meeting other yachts that are booked to do the self-same trip as Serafina, but a week earlier!  We came away from this call hugely relieved and much happier and are very much more relaxed about what happens next. We then called the local Spectra watermaker agent and had a huge slice of luck. Their technician lives on a yacht moored in Christmas Cove which was only a few miles away from where we were and he was happy to come out in the afternoon on his way home to take a look. So instead of having to go into an expensive marina, we were able to pick up a free buoy and wait for him to come by.  Chuck duly arrived and with help from Spectra in California (by phone) he diagnosed the fault to be a small component that they would get shipped immediately from California. Happy days.

 

But we needed to be in Virgin Gorda the next afternoon, so once Chuck had left us, we dropped our lines and headed back over to Francis Bay where we arrived after sunset but under the light of a huge full moon.

 

We were then up at 0630 hours on Tuesday for the motor/sail up to Virgin Gorda and this went well so that we arrived just after midday, but we needed water as we had only one tank full and no watermaker now.  We called Leverick Bay marina and they were happy for us to come and tie to the fuel dock and take on water ($0.15 per gallon). However we were over-heard on the radio and by sheer chance the catamaran immediately behind us as we entered North Sound was being chartered by friends from Worcester.

 

We anchored up as near to Saba Rock as we could, to take full advantage of their free wifi and in the evening we were invited on board Balvenie to join Amanda and Mark for drinks.  Customs and Immigration went smoothly and they seemed happy to give us as much time in the BVI’s as we wanted despite the fact that we had already used up most of our annual allowance.

 

But the really hot news concerned something completely different. Some 5 years ago we purchased a couple of very special LED lights (from Fiji), one for the cockpit and one to be used as an anchor light. For four years we have been periodically searching for the anchor light which one of us (me) packed away.  For one full year we knew we had lost something but could not actually remember what it was we were looking for, but on Monday whilst killing time waiting for Chuck to come over, we started the process of listing everything to be included and excluded from the sale of the yacht and in the bottom of the last box that day we found the missing light.  Too bloody late of course, but exciting in its way all the same.