Brirish Virgin Islands N18:25.94 W64:42.43
Tioram 4
Tina & Tony
Wed 24 Mar 2010 20:23
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The British Virgin Islands----------BVI's.
15th-- 24th March
We left St Maarten on the 15th March and travelled
overnight to the BVI's. We met a lovely German couple and their friends in
St Maarten and decided to travel together. The wind completely died and we
motored for most of the 13 hours. However we were rewarded with an
amazing starry night in the black, light pollution free sky. The
disadvantage is of course lack of sleep, Tony got 40 mins, I had 50 mins. We
could choose to go to bed properly but we still like to be around for one
another on night sails.
We decided to try to catch a fish first light and managed
to hook a fair size fish. We thought it was a kingfish, so we landed it and
ended it's day humanely with alcohol rather than the base ball bat. Sadly
once the deed was done and we identified it from our book we found it was a
Barracuda and sadly inedible in this area because of------------
poisoning.
The Barracuda is preditorial and is towards the top
of the food chain---therefore the poison levels make them unsafe to eat if above
a certain size. We were sorry to have killed it but put it back into the
sea.
We arrived an hour later in Virgin Gorda. The name being
'Fat Virgin' , given to the island by Columbus as he said the island
from the sea resembled a lady lying on her back with a large stomach. Bless him
he'd run out of saints names by the time he'd reached these Islands
!! He named them the Virgin islands in honour of St
Ursula and the 11,000 virgins who sacrificed their lives in Cologne in 4th
century rather than face a fate worse than death, threatened by the marauding
Huns.
We checked into immigration in Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda.
The immigration experience was bureaucratic, lots of form filling and not a Mrs
Doubtfire or Beverley Hills Chiwawa in sight !
We were then invited by the German couple Jocken and
Claudia to their boat 'Dreamcatcher' to share Jocken's 36th
birthday breakfast celebration. We had a lovely time.
We stayed overnight in the bay but didn't sleep well as we
had a northerly swell kick around midnight and rolled around. This was on top of
very little sleep the night before so we were quite tired.
We moved to Marina Cay a wonderful dot of an island
between Great Camanoe island and Scrub Island. It is really just a dot with a
beautiful reef. The great thing about the BVI's is everything is so close
together like the Solent only in 28- 30 c. The best clear water we have seen
since the Grenadines and then on an evening there are restaurants and bars
ashore. There is a big charter boat scene here and less travellers, so the
islands are geared for tourism. This has pros and cons, good restaurants and
although small shops some good provisions but there are more boats here and in
some bays it is difficult to get anchor space amongst the bouyed areas. We are
on a buoy at the moment which is fine but when travelling and anchoring
for free we don't want to spend 25 dollars a night.
We met up with our friends Amanda and Patryck from
'Circus' at Marina Cay and sailed with them to the island of Anegada. The
island has a stunning beach and reef and is only 28ft at its highest
point. We followed the marked channel to the anchorage between the reef but
in very shallow water we 00'ed out on the depth-----2.3m draft/ 8ft ish. The
water was aquamarine in the shallows but maneuvering a yacht in shallows with a
strong wind and fair swell was a little hair raising. We didn't want to do
a 'po go stick' jump on the keel.
We eventually anchored in about half metre under the keel
dropping to 0.2 at worst and eventually 0.7-0.9 at best. The wind subsided and
the swell flattened so we decided to stay.
That evening we ate the famous Anegada lobster ashore and
had a great evening catching up with 'Circus' and all their stories of their
travels since St Lucia.
The next day we taxied across the island to Loblolly Bay
beach---spectacular snorkeling---we saw a stingray---great--- but I quickly
headed in the other direction whilst Tony went off to find it !!. Our friends
saw turtles again and we all saw amazing coral and purple and ultramarine
fish----no teeth thankfully.
We had a great 25nm sail to Great Harbour on Jost Van
Dyke island. The beam reach sail was one of our best, especially racing with
'Circus' . Amanda and Patryck kindly took some excellent photos of us sailing
which we will put on this blog.
Well, ' in all the towns in all the world', there are
'the' bars to visit and in Great Harbour it is Foxy's. Foxy's is renowned for
its beach dancing and BBQ, but not on Sundays our day of arrival and bad
planning.
The bar is looking a bit jaded but the many t shirts on
the ceiling tell the story of the crews who have passed through it. The 3 boats,
Tioram , Circus and Dreamcatcher all met up and with 10 people made our own
party in the nearly empty bar.
There was a really good guitar player who kindly played
some Bob Marley for us. Needless to say a few beers and rum punches later and we
were jamming, dancing and attempting to play the drums !!!
We had a fab night, lots of laughs, lots of fun and a
memorable evening. We had hysterics taking self timer photos of the group
standing and leaning over the table---see photo---mad !!
There was a guy on u tube who did video clips of himself
dancing in odd places on a world trip. We didn't set out to do anything like
that but it seems we now have a collection of self timer shots of us and
friends jumping off the back of the boat together---hysterical---- and the
others are groups looking into the bottom of the dinghy or floor or
table.
The things you do ????
We left Jost Van Dyke for Sandy Cay , an uninhabited dot
of sand, palm trees and great reef. It's just a day anchorage as unprotected,
but our best anchorage yet since the glorious Tobago Cays. We took the dinghy to
the shore and walked around the island path--- about 20 mins--- seeing cacti,
hermit crabs scurrying around etc. The beach is as white as snow with lots of
white coral washed onto the shore.
We snorkeled over the reef, Tony saw 2 sting ray swimming
together---fortunately I missed them! I haven't learned to walk on water yet but
I still believe it's possible!! As we swam to the shore I saw a large Barracuda
just on the edge of the deep water drop off----Tony missed it but said I nearly
drowned him pointing at it !!!
We sailed to Cane Garden on Tortola and took a buoy as we
couldn't squeeze between the buoys to anchor. Its like Dartmouth but in 30c
--magic. A steep hill backdrop, with Caribbean houses and a lovely beach.
However the cruise ships bring many tourists each day to this lovely venue. The
atmosphere is too busy on the beach but from the boat we can enjoy the energy
and reggae music from our sleepy home.
Yesterday we sadly said goodbye to Amanda and Patryck on
'Circus'. We first met them in July last year in Mazarron, Spain when they
and ourselves were travelling in the Med. We met again in Gran Canaria, did the
ARC together, St Lucia, Grenadines, St Lucia and BVI's. On this trip you
find that people are all travelling with the wind on the same journey and bump
into one another along the way. We have met several boats on our travels and on
many occasions.
Circus are now heading north to USBVI's, Puerto Rico,
Turks and Caicos, Cuba, Florida, Bermuda , Bahamas and hope to see our friend
Alisdair in the Bahamas. The world is a small place really.
This is as far north as we go, so we hope to see them
again somewhere in the Med or Uk in the future.
Dreamcatcher is heading south to St Maarten and we said
goodbye to them for a while too.
We are heading to another anchorage today and then perhaps
Norman island, Peter, Island, other bays on Tortola before heading back south to
St Maarten or St Kitts and back to Antigua.
So this is the most northerly turning point of
the Caribbean trip to head back across the Atlantic, Azores and back to the
Med.
I know you probably think it's a life of sailing
,snorkeling all day and partying all night, but the chores are the same
everywhere, Tony is under the boat as we speak, with diving
tank scrubbing the weed and barnacles off the bottom, the generator
oil was changed yesterday and of course the usual clothes washing and
'pants' are drying on the guard rail !!!!!
See photos of---- Leaving St Maarten, Marina Cay, Anegada
Island-beach and lobster, Sailing with Circus, Jost Van Dyke
Island-- Foxy's Bar with 3 boat crews, Sandy Cay--dot of an Island,
underwater photos, sailing again. Our thanks to Claudia and Jocken on Dream
catcher for photos of us on Sandy Island, Foxys and their stunning under water
photos taken at Pelican Island.
Love to all
Tina and Tony x x x
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