Cooper Island to Trellis Bay

The weather picks up a little.  When we wake up there is more blue sky than cloud, so after breakfast we head out to The Baths at Virgin Gorda.  Our guests look forlornly for turtles but there are none to be seen.  I can’t believe that for the third day running they are hiding.

Mike pulls the main sail up so that it feeds through the lazy jacks then hands over to Brett for him to have a go.  We also manage to have the gennaker out today and have a good sail over although it is quite gusty at times (up to 27 knots at one point) and all the white horses suddenly appear.

The weather stays clear for Nikki and Brett to have a good time exploring The Baths and Devils Bay, but starts to cloud over again towards the end of the afternoon, during our sail over to Trellis Bay.

Turtles are just like buses – you wait for ages then loads of them come at the same time!  Well two in this case, but they hang around the boat for quite a while, although they never give Brett the photo opportunity he wants.

They get ready to go ashore, and the heavens open just as they are about to go in the dinghy.

Photo:  Tortola, the airport terminal building and the watch tower have all disappeared in the torrential rain

This happens a couple of times, but eventually, having watched the satellite weather thing on the computer, Mike thinks there is enough time to get them to shore, so off they all go.  No sooner is Mike back on board than he gets a call saying everything is closed and he goes back for them and takes them to the Last Resort for an early meal instead.

Photo:  Storm clouds and sunset at Trellis Bay

I start to prepare the marinade for tomorrow’s shrimp, and cannot believe it when the mini-chopper goes on the blink!  First the blender, now it’s little sister.  I get to and chop spring onions by hand but Mike is not be be outdone by a mere machine and takes it to pieces, having discovered that the cause of the problem is a broken off bit of plastic which acts to poke the motor into action.  He takes it apart, removes the safety mechanism and hey presto, it works (although as usual there are two screws left over after putting it back together).  Too late for tonight though as now, having finished the onions my eyes are streaming.  Still a result though.

When Nikki and Brett return, Brett plays us a recording of an American comedian, Rodney Carrington.  They are in fits of laughter but neither Mike nor I can understand a word of it as he is from some red neck area of the South.  So we pay them back and force them to watch an episode of Blackadder.