Road Harbour, Tortola, BVI
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Tue 11 Dec 2007 20:04
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18:25.451N 64:36.735W
On Thursday (12/6), we made the quick four
mile trip across the Sir Francis Drake Channel from Benures Bay on Norman Island
to Road Harbour on Tortola. Our main mission in Road Town was to have our
mostly non-working depth meter looked at. We had an appointment
with an electronics guy from Cay Electronics at 10am Friday morning
(12/7).
We knew based on the chart that the anchoring space
in Road Harbour is limited due to boat traffic, marinas, moorings and cruise
ships, but we figured we could find a spot for the one night we needed to be
there and avoid paying big bucks for a marina. As we rounded the two
cruise ships that were docked in the harbor, the tiny, triangle shaped anchoring
area came into view. Hmmmmm. Four boats were already there. As
we edged in closer, paying lots attention to the water depths marked on the
chart since the depth meter was still on strike, the guy on the closest anchored
boat stood up in his cockpit to be sure he could give us the full brunt of his
'don't you dare anchor so close to me and my boat' evil eye stare. We
anchored close to him anyway and sat back to watch how our boat settled
in. The boat settled in fine and was a respectable distance away from evil
eye guy. However, as we sat there, we realized just how rough the water
was in this area. 'Must be all the boat traffic', we said, 'it'll calm
down later'. Several hours later, after three more boats squeezed
themselves into our little anchoring community - one of which was a giant
catamaran from France with about 20 people on board (lots of speedo-wearing men,
not that there is anything wrong with that) - it was still really rough.
Not the up and down kind of bouncing action, but more the really annoying
side-to-side rolling action. We ate dinner hanging on to our
plates and drinks, and thought, 'it'll calm down'. It didn't.
Sleeping in this rolling atmosphere was almost as bad as the night of the flying
pears. Every few minutes, just when we had drifted off to sleep, the boat
would roll to one side, then the other, and repeat, one side, then the other,
over and over. Don and I would do the same in the bed - both rolling first
to one side, then the other, and repeat, both rolling to one side, then the
other, over and over. All in all, a whole lot of rolling and not a
whole lot of sleeping went on.
Never fear though, we got up in plenty of time to
be ready for the electronics guy. The plan was for Don to pick him up from
shore and dinghy him back to the boat as soon as the guy called. Ten
o'clock approached and passed. We busied ourselves doing this and that,
waiting for the phone to ring. Nothing. By 10:30 we decided the
guy must be running on Caribbean time - which runs anywhere from 30
minutes to several hours behind what the rest of us would consider to
be normal time. Not too much longer after that, the phone did indeed
ring. The electronics guy was very nice (an ex-pat from the UK, been in
the islands for 23 years), determined that our problem was the transducer (Don
had kind of figured that, but wasn't sure), just happened to have brought along
a new transducer, popped it in (no small feat given that when you take the old
one out you essentially have a gaping hole in the bottom of your boat - never
fear, the switch was done smoothly and only a couple of gallons of water made
it's way into the boat in the process), tested it, and proclaimed success.
We were reminded that no boat fix is cheap as Don paid the $397 it cost
us, and took the guy back to shore.
After that, Don picked me up in the dinghy and we
went to a real grocery store where they had a nice selection of produce (more
than just onions and bananas). Once back on the boat, we headed
out across the Sir Francis Drake Channel again to Great Harbour on Peter Island
(northeast of Norman Island), leaving Road Harbour and its rolly waters
behind.
Anne
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