British Virgin Islands
Swiftwing
Thu 19 Feb 2009 16:59
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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.
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