Thursday & Friday 12^th & 13^th April

Most of Thursday was spent doing jobs and catching up on the washing etc. and so it was not until the early afternoon that we combined with Scott-Free and used their dinghy to visit first Saba Rock and then Bitter End Yacht Club/resort.

Saba Rock is an impressive use of a small island which has been extended to provide a bar, restaurant, shop and  a few other facilities, which of course includes a field of mooring buoys, imaginatively priced at $25 a day! However we ascertained that we could dine in the restaurant in the evening and still select from the bar menu. (Trust me you do not dine at these restaurants at full price unless you have no alternative.) We also found out that they had a happy hour from 4pm to 6pm and sensible prices to make this worthwhile.

We then pottered over to investigate Bitter End which was pretty smart but we did have Sarah twittering on still about how things were in ‘her day’.  Not much to get our attention as it turned out and with the time fast approaching 4pm, we nipped back to the boats and got washed and changed and headed back out to Saba Rock for the happy hour(s).   We watched the daily display of the kitchen scraps being fed to the local  large Tarpon, some of which sported Ramona fish on their backs.  We also met up with four other boat crews who had just come along the same route as S-F from Dominican Republic and were likewise heading on to St Maarten on Friday, so we all chatted until the very strong ‘painkillers’ worked their magic and we eased our way into the restaurant for a very nice and reasonably priced meal.

Friday was a pretty fraught day all round, although it started very well with a tiny hummingbird visiting the boat. But more importantly I had remembered that we were supposed to have gone to immigration on the 8^th to get an extension on our immigration permits (all very confusing and I will explain to boats following us all about this in more detail in our yachting resources section of the website). Steve had to check S-F out as they were heading out to St Maarten, so together we went over to Gun Creek in Doris, our dinghy and visited Customs and Immigration. Steve was dealt with quickly and very efficiently but when it came to me it all started to go horribly wrong. Yes we needed an extension, but no, they could not do this at this customs post. It seems that I needed to go to Spanish Town and get it sorted there – and quickly as we were strictly speaking now illegal. The officer was however very helpful and having failed to summon a taxi using his phone, he went outside and found us another taxi to do the round trip immediately. All went well as Steve and I settled into our seats, but before setting off the driver wisely chose to inform us that the fare was….US$60. This to go from a point slightly below the top of the island, to a town just halfway down the island – and the island in question is just 6 miles long! So we thanked him for his time and got out and rushed back to the yachts where Sarah and I decided that the best bet was to take Serafina round to Spanish Town and for me to go ashore in the dinghy and get this all sorted ASAP. However Sarah had promised to cook a big brunch for S-F to say goodbye so she went ahead and treated us all to a slap up breakfast which we then packed away and by 12.30 we had said our rather tearful goodbyes to Steve and Chris (goodness knows when our paths will cross again as we are heading north to the USA now and they are headed south to Panama, via Grenada and beyond in 2013).

On arrival at Spanish Town, Sarah simply pottered around offshore in Serafina whilst I nipped in, in the dinghy. I walked round to the customs and ferry port and presented myself and my sorry case. They heard me out and agreed that we were in trouble and then informed me that this was not the right office as they too were unable to issue an extension. So off I went on foot into the town to find the huge government offices (very impressive for such a small island) where having logged into reception, I took the lift up to Immigration. Here they played a very extended game of make the Englishman wait and even when I was finally given forms to fill in and handed them back I was told that I would now have to wait for an interview! This finally took place and another wait ensued whilst the two officers with absolutely nothing else to do, simply sat and chatted and ignored my paperwork until their watches said that they had made me wait long enough. The frustrating thing is that when you check into the BVI the whole thing is messy but simple. Suddenly when you want an extension they have real concerns about your suitability.   And nowhere can you find out how the system is supposed to work.

Finally I was released back into the wild and once back on Serafina we motored back to Bitter End (nil wind today).   As we entered the Sound, Sarah saw a huge ray leap out of the water – it’s really quite surprising that there are 4’ +  examples of sea life lurking in such busy areas. When we turned the corner we found S-F getting ready to set off. We had tea together and then again said our goodbyes and they motored off on their 85 mile overnight trip.

We sat back and started planning for the next 10 days which starts off with a load of bad weather complete with strong winds due here tomorrow.