Well we get everything during the night except much sleep. It’s noisy as the boat crashes through squalls and we both get woken up when not on watch.
There are yachts, quite a few container ships and tankers and more cruise ships than you can shake a stick at. They are very confusing as they go round and round in circles, wasting time at sea, waiting for early morning when they can go into port. Of course, we should have expected lots of these because it is prime cruise ship time and one of them is the P&O Aurora on its way from Tortola to St Martin and further down the Caribbean chain of islands.
We can see the haze of light as we pass St Croix, 30 miles to our west, then through the gloom of the grey early morning light, I can see rocky outcrops of land, the British Virgin Islands, starting to appear.
We pass between Ginger Island and Round Rock, noting that the wreck of a ship which took a short cut between Round Rock and Fallen Jerusalem is still there, acting as a grim reminder of why you should need navigational charts!
Of course, once we are into the Sir Francis Drake Channel, the sky turns a nastier shade of grey and as we approach the anchorage outside of Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda, the heavens open. Mike slows the boat down to put off the evil moment when I will have to step out into the elements.
Stripping off my clothes down to my knickers I retrieve my waterproof jacket from Mike (which just covers my bum) and venture out to put the anchor down while Mike sits in the relative dry of the cockpit. Luckily it sets first time.
Poor Mike then has to get in the dinghy and go off to customs and immigration to check in. $78 dollars it costs to do this (and we later find out that someone else was only charged $46). For what?
We motor round to Leverick Bay and as we approach the marina I can see that our welcome committee is there – Monica and Angie are standing on the dock with a red carpet for us – well a red towel actually but who’s splitting hairs! We get tied up with help from David who gives me a big hug, then I walk up the ‘carpet’ and get a huge huge hug from them both.
They both have to rush back to work, Angie to Necker Belle, Richard Branson’s huge catamaran, and Monica to run the office, but no sooner have they gone than Crazy Horse arrive and we are there to take their lines.
They come on to our boat for a drink and I make rather strong Dark and Stormies for Mike, Bill and Matt while Rosemary and I share a bottle of SB, before Matt and I head off to the Jumbies Bar. There we meet the lovely Marta, a young writer/photographer from Spain who is now living in Puerto Rico but who comes regularly to the BVIs to engage in one of her hobbies, kite sailing.
Suddenly it seems a good idea to get in the dinghy and go and watch her friends engaged in this sport. Well it seems a good idea to Matt although Marta and I have second thoughts once we are a couple of hundred yards out into the bay. The sea is choppy and we are going into the waves and the wind, flying up and landing with bumps every few seconds. I end up sitting very uncomfortably on the gas tank, having slithered off the side of the dinghy. However, watching her friends skip across the waves and fly into the air on their kites is exciting although with my non-affinity with the water, it’s not something that I would ever do. After half an hour or so, the sky turns an ominous black colour and the wind starts to pick up. Being less adventurous than Matt I start indicating that we should go. The ride back is slightly less wet although we do get rained on just as we approach the marina.
The evening is spent with Rosemary and Bill, sharing pizza. Matt stays at the bar for the evening with Marta – I don’t know how he has the stamina to continue. All I know is that my neck is killing me from the bouncing around on the dinghy, and I want my bed having only had three hours of sleep last night.
Our position is: 18 deg 29 min N, 64 deg 23 min W
Distance so far: 25048 nautical miles
Welcome home!!!
ReplyDeleteMelissa & Doug