Lazy day at Leverick Bay

Laze around for most of the morning reading and using Skype.  It is a good connection so I manage to have a long chat with Victoria then Johanne.  Then, when it gets really hot, to the point that the air conditioning is struggling to keep the temperature inside the boat to the low 80s, I decide to cook the plantain and the shrimp to take to Nick and Monica’s.  Duh, should have done it first thing!

The day is hot and unfortunately the humidity is back and we almost regret walking up the hill, having turned down the offer of a lift, but our little legs don’t get much exercise these days so it probably does us good.

It’s a smaller gathering today;  Nick and Monica (obviously) and their friend Kathy who is staying for them for a while, us, Mike from BVI Watersports, Soren from Dive BVI, and Rick and Kim.

When I have been to the ‘treehouse’ on previous occasions, there has been a breeze because the house is half way up the hill, but not today.  Eventually I give in, get changed into a costume, and get into the not-so-hot tub.  At least it stops me from getting bitten.  Although I have liberally sprayed myself with noxious chemicals and should be OK, I am taking no chances.

Photo:  Monica and myself – we turned the bubbles off as they were too noisy!

Photo:  Not to be left out, Mike and Monica 

Photo:  The rose between three thorns!?  Rick, Mike, me and Nick

Photo:  Mike and his harem – Kim, Monica and myself

Photo:  The cuddle before the headache 

Around five, and now supporting headaches (no, not hangovers – just too much sun and not enough water) we wander back down the hill and luxuriate in bed with the air conditioning on, which is now faring better than when we left it.  Tea is really exciting – cups of tea and marmite on toast.  Sometimes the simple things in life hit the spot!

Peter Island to Leverick Bay

After another good night’s sleep, two cups of tea and a cheese and ham stuffed croissant, I feel ready to heave myself out of bed, but it’s not until late morning that we actually leave Great Harbour.

It’s another beautiful day – a little more cloudy than yesterday but just as fresh.  I could get used to this.  We start off motoring but once out of the anchorage it’s obvious that we will be able to sail most, if not all of the way to Leverick Bay.

I sunbathe for just a little while, one of the first times I have actually bothered doing so and there is enough breeze to keep me comfortable.  I am so enamoured with my new blender that I make asparagus soup for lunch which is lovely, albeit a tad cold after the time it takes me to sieve out all the stringy bits.  These stringy bits are there as a result of not wanting to waste the ends of each spear that I have snapped off and frozen.  Then, for desert, (something I don’t normally bother with) I blend yogurt with vanilla yogurt.  Now, if the blender would just clean itself I would be a very happy bunny!

We get to Leverick Bay around 2pm and decide to keep going as it’s been such a lovely sail.  While I was cooking and blending, Mike did all the tacking by himself, his enjoyment obvious by the grin all over his face.  We continue past the entrance to North Sound and approach Necker Island, tacking until we are quite close.  We then go around the north side of it and turn back when we get near to the large reef.  We get the sails down because we want to get as close to Necker as we can for a good old nosey!

Photo:  Necker Island from a distance

Photo:  Some of the fabulous looking accommodation on Necker Island

As I watch, a helicopter arrives and lands just behind the beach.  Some lucky guests arriving?  Or maybe Mr Branson himself?

  Photo:  Guests arriving at Necker Island by helicopter 

We motor all around the south side of Necker.  The accommodation looks beautiful, as it should do for the price!  There is a sandy spit to the south that Mr Branson had plastic palm trees planted on for someone’s wedding.  The palm trees are still there.  I don’t realise at first that they are plastic – that’s why their branches don’t seem to move very well in the sea breeze!

Photo:  Plastic palm trees?

From Necker, we go around Eustacia Island, through brilliant turquoise waters, manoeuvring between the rocks and through the channel, entering North Sound between Saba Rock and Bitter End Yacht Club.

Photo:  Saba Rock Resort, a hotel on …… a rock!

Photo:  Bitter End Yacht Club – the bit round the corner

Photo:  Beach at Bitter End Yacht Club  

As we motor into Leverick Bay, Mike realises that he still has the fishing line out and rushes to wind it in but it is too late and the lure gets caught on a mooring ball as I steer through the mooring field.  That’s three lost in just over a week!  At least we keep the line!

We just get the anchor down when David, the Harbour Master, arrives in his dinghy and berates us for not mooring in a slip, so we up anchor and toddle over to the marina.  How wonderful, I will be able to have the air conditioning on all night which might be a blessing – I feel a little warm.  Maybe a little too much sun?

Sophisticated Lady is parked a couple of slips away so I go over to inspect her new paint job and say hello.  No one is there, but someone whistles at me and for a moment I think my luck has changed, until I realise that it is just Rick’s parrot, Lucky.  Oh well!

I bump into Ali, the lovely barman and check that I am getting the recipe right for the BBC and he confirms that I am.  I get back to Jeannius, and strip off ready for a shower.  No sooner am I naked than there is a knocking on the boat.  Yes, it’s Rick and Kim and there I am, proving to them once again that I never have any clothes on.

After making BBCs for Mike and I, I send Mike up to the shop to buy some mayonnaise and he comes back with ice cream too.  Good boy.

Backwards and forwards!

What a difference a day makes!  This morning, we awake after a fabulous night’s sleep to a beautiful day.  Blue sky, white fluffy clouds and no rain.  Still incredibly hot, even before 8 o’clock.  And there are cheese and ham croissants, hot from the oven!  Bliss.

 Photo:  A dry cockpit and blue skies – in stark contrast to yesterday’s view – you can even see Tortola in the background!

We are moored next to the 58-foot Privilege yacht, ‘Sabore’.  She was being made in the factory in France at the same time as Jeannius and we see her around these islands all the time.  She is beautifully distinctive with her shiny dark blue hulls.  We both wish we had the time, energy and, let’s not deny it, money to have dark hulls on Jeannius, but they are expensive to have done and time consuming to maintain – lots of gentle scrubbing and back-breaking polishing required.

 Photo:  Sabore moored in Great Harbour, Peter Island

Towards the end of the morning we motor back over to Road Town and anchor in what is now a much calmer bay, and make our way over to the inner harbour as I have the dreaded appointment with the dentist.  An hour and two injections later and $231 poorer, we leave, and go off to buy a new blender to replace the once which liberally covered our galley with what was going to be a frozen daiquiri.  $125 later we head back to the boat with our purchase, having also stopped at Bobby’s to buy the ingredients required to experiment with it.

The weather today continues to be glorious, one of the best for ages.  It’s hot, that goes without saying, but without any humidity and a lovely breeze.  Motoring back to Peter Island is a delight.

Immediately we are anchored, I start to experiment with the blender.  Within minutes, Mike and I are drinking a BBC (Baileys, banana and coconut, or more accurately, Coco Lopez).  It is yummy and with two whole bananas in the drink, I can kid myself that it is almost healthy.  Maybe not!

Photo:  Mike with his evening cuppa

Later on, I sit on the bow seat of the boat with my cup of tea and watch another sunset, noticing how the hues change almost with every passing minute.  It’s at times like these that I wonder why I was ever worried about coming out here then I decide to quit while I’m ahead before I start to remember!

Photo:  Sunset over Tortola, taken from Peter Island

Friday night means it’s curry night, and we sit and watch the final of The Apprentice, and another two episodes of Cold Feet.  A late night for us!  Just as we head off the bed, we notice that the wind has started to howl, and we wonder what’s in store for us tonight!

Road Town to Peter Island

You know the expression ‘there’s nothing like a good night’s sleep’?  Well last night was nothing like a good night’s sleep!  I have never rolled so much at anchor and the rain came down in torrents, making the most incredible din on the roof of the yacht, carrying on well into the early morning.  When I first look out of the window, I can barely make out the cruise ship dock, the cloud is so low.

Gradually, it stops, although the clouds still look ominous.  Mike heads off to buy some more rigging stuff and I put together the provisioning list for the next charter.  Just before noon we motor around to Nanny Cay for my hair appointment.

Just entering the marina, the wind drops and the temperature, already sweltering under what looks like storm clouds, notches up another ten degrees.  I can’t wait to be in the air-conditioned salon.

Immediately I arrive, I start to scratch around my ankles.  Either I have been bitten by the little flying ants that seem to be all over the marina or by mosquitoes in the salon itself.  Oh well, at least it’s cool.

While I am getting my locks chopped, Mike gets a yacht painter to look at and quote for painting the aluminium mast and crossbeam.  The man says he can’t paint the mast while it is up – it will need to be taken down – and he sends a rigger in to quote for this - $4000 just to get it down and put it back, and the paint job is on top!  That might have to wait for a bit.

We leave the marina, aware that the clouds are getting darker by the minute, and sure enough, another tropical storm hits us.  The rain comes drives into the cockpit from the side, and we have no time to fasten the side screens into position, so the cockpit is soaked in seconds.

 Photo:  A soggy cockpit

Photo:  That’s Tortola in the background – or is it England?

Typically, it continues to rain until after I have put the anchor down then gradually peters out.  Great Harbour turns out to be a lovely, calm spot for the evening.

Road Town, once more …

We awake after a miserable night’s sleep – it started to get quite rocky and rolly in the early hours, and today, it is a hot one, just perfect for doing … the laundry and changing the oil filter in the generator.  At least we both have grotty jobs today.

I get the two huge bags of laundry together and Mike takes me over to the shore, carrying the bags to Freemans for me, before heading back to begin his work.

I am quite a fixture at Freemans Laundromat, and the ladies know me well enough to chat, but only one of them ever bothers.  I load the machines and stand back and sweat.  At least I remembered to put the mosquito repellent on today!  Daytime TV is playing and I watch a couple of cockroaches scuttling in and out from under one of the machines, glad that I put my bags on top of the machines rather than on the floor.  I don’t want to bring those unwelcome guests back to the boat!

I watch fascinated as the lady organises the service washes.  Nothing seems to have any labels and there seems to be stuff everywhere, but the place is so busy with yacht charter washing every time I go that they must get it right.  When the washing machines get too full, the staff just beat the clothes into submission with big wooden sticks.  That’s why I stand (no chairs) in this grotty sweat box week after week – I don’t want my things attacked with a stick!

When I begin to fold my bed linen, the lady tries to give me instruction on how to fold my fitted sheets so that they look nice.  After two goes she gives up and I carry on in my own clumsy way.

I phone Mike to come and pick me and head back to the dinghy dock to wait for him.  It is sweltering, even in the shade offered by a palm tree.  When he arrives, we put the washing in the dinghy, and I go off to do a bit of food shopping for us.  I think we deserve some chocolate, but as I head back from Bobby’s supermarket, I realise I have forgotten to buy any, so I opt for the next best thing – a takeaway from Simply Delicious.  Being lunchtime it is packed to bursting with customers, mostly schoolchildren, and the din is astounding although the queue is orderly.  I am being asked what I want by a young Chinese girl but I can’t see her over the top of the counter – in fact I can’t see any of them, or work out what I am being asked.  We have a definite communication problem today as my meal and Mike’s comes mixed together in the same carton and it takes a few minutes before this is sorted out.  I leave with something, anything.  I’m sure we’ll eat it – whatever it is!

Back on the boat I discover that what I have ordered from Simply Delicious is simply disgusting.  Bad choice, so I just eat the noodles.  Mike is happy with his choice but he has the same thing every time.

The rocking in the bay gets even worse during the evening.  I feel another bad night’s sleep coming on!

The Bight to Road Town

We leave Norman Island quite early and motor to West End where Nikki and Brett will get the ferry to St Thomas.  Once there, we all to ashore so that they can do some shopping and I can look at the Havaianas (Brazilian rubber flip-flops) to determine which size I am as two different websites give different US to European conversions.

I see two pairs, one a 7/8, the other an 8/9 – they are exactly the same size, so I don’t hold out much hope for the ones I am about to order actually fitting.

We get back on Jeannius to collect Nikki and Brett’s luggage and go over with them to get their ferry.  As usual, it is organised chaos, although as there are fewer people getting the ferry today, it is less chaotic than usual.  We are told that the advertised 12 o’clock ferry is leaving at 12.30 today so we go down to the Jolly Roger for a drink to wile away some time.

Eventually it is time for Nikki and Brett to leave and we get back to Jeannius ready to wave goodbye to them.  I can see them sitting inside as the ferry leaves and we both wave but I don’t think they see us and the ferry shoots past.

We motor back to Road Town and anchor by the cruise ship dock, looking forlorn and lonely with no cruise ships or queues of taxis beside it, the season now well and truly over.  We are amazed that we are the only yacht anchored here – what does the rest of the sailing fraternity know that we don’t?

The rest of the day passes in a sleepy haze and suddenly it’s evening and we can hear someone knocking on the side of the boat.  We scramble to get some clothes on and find that it’s Rick and Kim, heading back with their laundry to the boat yard where ‘Sophisticated Lady’ is currently hauled out.  I wonder aloud why they always call when we have no clothes on, and Rick says it’s because we are in a permanent state of undress!  He could be right, but only when we’re alone!

Cane Garden Bay to The Bight, Norman Island

Today is Nikki and Brett’s last day on board so to give them a full last day we up anchor before they are even up.  However, the sound of all that anchor chain dropping into the locker by the side of their heads soon rouses them!

The day is very hazy but we have good winds, albeit not necessarily in the right direction, and after a slow start along the north side of Tortola, we round West End and Soper’s Hole we really get going and have a lovely sail tacking all the way to The Indians.

Mike is fishing and suddenly the line starts running out but it stops after a few seconds.  He gets hold of the line and gives it a tug to see if there is anything there – there is – and it doesn’t like being tugged and heads off at great speed in the opposite direction to the boat, the line running out so fast that it burns Mike’s fingers.  It keeps going until the reel is empty and the line snaps.  The line is 50lb breaking strain so whatever it was must have been enormous.  Maybe it’s better we didn’t catch it!  Mike now has deep cuts in his thumb and forefinger, for his efforts but they don’t bleed – the line actually burned and therefore cauterised the wounds.

When we arrive at The Indians for our snorkelling stop, it seems that everyone else has had the same idea, and there are lots of yachts moored, with yachts waiting behind them, vying for first shot at the mooring buoys as they are vacated.  Mike does not do queuing.  I learned this sitting beside him in a car, so we sail past and head for the caves instead.

There is one mooring ball left there and we to straight for it as we can see another yacht coming up behind.  Nikki and Brett go snorkelling while I prepare lunch.  I am determined to get Nikki to eat sweet potato, so I prepare them with red onion, whole cloves of garlic, olive oil, herbs and spices and pop them in the oven to roast.  By the time they come back, having seen lots of fish, the delicious aroma of caramelised onions and garlic is wafting out from Jeannius but the inside of the boat is like a sauna as the oven has been on for an hour at least.  The temperature must be about 95 degrees!

Mike suddenly notices that all the boats around The Indians have disappeared so we up anchor, motor over, attach ourselves to a ball and have lunch.

Nikki looks at the potatoes suspiciously but tries one – and likes it.  I am vindicated.

After lunch, Nikki is game for some more snorkelling but Brett looks decidedly sleepy.  It looks like she is going to have to go alone, but with some gentle persuasion and prodding, he goes with her, although it has now clouded over considerably and the visibility is not so good.

When they return we motor over and anchor near to the Willy T as they have decided to eat there tonight.

Mike needs to get the genoa down so that we can get the model number for the ridiculously expensive piece of plastic and ball bearings that sits on the top.  $1000 worth to be precise.  Don’t get me started on the price of marine spare parts again!!!  We get the genoa down, he checks the number and just as we start to haul it back up, the heavens open – and stay open for some while.  Eventually it stops and we haul it up, spewing water from its folds all over us, but at least it’s fresh water.

Last night at The  Elm, Jim told our honeymoon couple stories about goings on at the Willy T – things involving naked girls, whipped cream and licking bodily parts.  Now they are in the vicinity, they look decidedly unsure about going but Pirates is a long dinghy ride away and the weather is still bad so Mike persuades them to go although Brett looks more unsure than Nikki.

When they return I look Brett over (for signs of whipped cream on the nose and chin area) but he looks as innocent as when he left, so they must have just eaten their meals!  They disappear to pack.  Tomorrow they are going to St Thomas for the last part of their honeymoon.

As I get ready for bed, I can hear the party continuing over at the Willy T, but the noise of the wind drowns it out and I am able to drift off to sleep.