British Virgin Islands

Swiftwing
Thu 19 Feb 2009 16:59
 Virgin Gorda  N18.18:23   W65.17:83
 
 
The passage between  Anguilla and British Virgin Islands (BVI's) is about 78 miles, so as we planned an early start we settled down for the night at 8pm. The very loud music started ashore about 8.15pm! The tug boat decided to leave at 10pm with two lots of three very loud hoots as it was going astern. Eventually the music stopped at 2am and the alarm went at 4am! Not the best start to a long passage. However, all went well and we had moderate winds with full rig and averaged 6.5 knots, arriving in Virgin Gorda at 4.30pm. Necker island, which belongs to Richard Branson is situated just at the entrance to the North Sound and can be yours for a mere $10,000 a day, but does look absolutely gorgeous.
Our first overnight stop behind Prickly Pear Island was quiet, flat and very beautiful. The yacht charter industry must be suffering badly, out of twelve moorings laid for them only two were occupied. As usual we lay to our own anchor with two other cruising yachts close by
 
 
 The following morning, well rested, we headed to Spanish Town for Immigration and Customs. We were followed out of the narrow entrance to  North Sound by a squadron of charter catamarans, sails askew and engines going flat out. We had a lovely sail again with just jib and mizzen along the coast to Spanish Town, This is a pretty area and the islands are so close together that it was described to us by friends as "Bubble bath cruising". Customs and Immigration:  took ages and was very expensive, as we  also had to buy a 'marine pass' to let us cruise in the area of the National Marine Park. No "Hi guys, welcome to paradise' here.
 
 After reading the pilot book we decided that the thing that we had to do was to go to a place called the 'baths' which is a collection of large granite boulders with large pools of breaking water between them just south of Spanish Town.  After reading up on all the regulations such as: you can't anchor,  stay over night or take your dinghy to the beach I was really not that enthused about going, but Duggie the eternal optimist said we should take a look, so we went anyway and had a fun few hours snorkelling and swimming in the baths, after picking up a 'Marine Park' mooring. They also have  moorings about a hundred yards off the beach that you can attach your dinghy to so we tied up 'Doodie' and then we snorkelled in to the shore. The first thing that happened was that I was accosted by a man who wanted to know if the snorkelling was any good, maybe he wanted a loan of my mask and snorkel!  We played in the waves and pools and took lots of photos, trying to keep as many of the other people who where their out of them, it was great fun and if any of you go there on holiday in the future it is worth a visit.
 
When we where thoroughly waterlogged we returned to Swiftwing and  had a gentle sail down to Cooper Island for the night. I mention the names because I know a lot of our friends have been here on holiday and will know these places. The great thing about this area is that everywhere is very close and you just hop from one island to the next.  Cooper Island has lots of moorings (38) but at $25 a night we did our usual  and anchored clear of everybody else.  It was then amazing to watch other boats racing to pick up the last moorings or even heading off when they couldn't get one, or motoring about for hours waiting for one to become free.  We had a visit from the couple we first met in Saint Kitts inviting us over, so we had a very pleasant evening with them. I had just made bread so we took a loaf of bread with us. They were delighted to see us as their holiday was coming to a close and they wanted to give us all their food that was left over.  Duggie must be looking as though he is fading away! Well it was a lovely night with a full moon and the brightly coloured shore lights. We went ashore the next morning to see our friends and have a swim but it was very disappointing as everywhere had the ubiquitous sign  'private' so we couldn't go for a walk and explore. By the time we got back to the boat the wind had picked up to a steady 30 knots and gusting around the corner to 35 knots; time to have a coffee day!  It was so windy that we couldn't get the dinghy on deck and Duggie tried various methods to stop it from flipping over . We eventually hung the dinghy off the back of Swiftwing by the stern to stop the wind getting under her and flipping her over. Unfortunately that was exactly what happened to the American next to us. He then did the same as us but not before the his outboard engine had had a  severe ducking.
 
We had a fairly  uncomfortable night and about 2 a.m Duggie went up on deck to check that we weren't dragging. Every  boat in the bay  had their cabin lights on so we presume most had a sleepless night.  The next day there was still a lot of wind but it was going our way, from behind, so we set off with just our little  stay sail up and we were still managing  6 knots. It must've been change-over day for some of the charter boats as some people where going the other way and that didn't look like any fun at all with boats pitching and smashing their watery way upwind.
 
Next stop, Soper's Hole on Tortola, again a lovely bay with lots of boats and nice, and flat, and  sheltered in the current spell of strong winds. It was really only a checking out and WiFi stop. I don't think that we really did the BVI's justice with our whistle-stop tour but although very pretty and nice easy sailing there did seem to be a sameness about the places that we visited. We would recommend it as a  charter holiday though, but it would work out very expensive if you picked up a mooring every night, as all the charter boats do.
 
On to the American Virgin Island which are conveniently placed just next door . We were heading for Saint Thomas but we passed close to  Saint Johns on the way. Lots to see as there are  islands all over the place so a very interesting passage and it only took 3 hours with just head sail and mizzen up,  maybe we are getting lazy.
 
Saint Thomas is busy and American and full of proper cruisers in their Colin Archers and Wyllos (designs of boats) in fact we didn't see any charter boats at all. We met up again with Roma and Martin in 'Apple', they have been friends for ten years and we last met up with them in Antigua last year. Also, the boat we sailed in at Antigua Classic week  'Heart's Desire' is at anchor and up for sale and  looking a little sad. Well we had great fun catching up and swapping information. We are both heading for the same place via different routes; they are going along the South coast of Cuba and along the Florida Cays to America and we are going to The Turks and Cacaos and the Bahamas.
 
Customs this time was a breeze, dealing with an ex Marine from the US navy and cost us nothing (hurrah), He was very polite and friendly and  even gave us a list of places to visit in Puerto Rico. Martin and Roma then showed us around town, the important things like the laundry, supermarket, and yes they have a K.Mart.