White Bay to The Bight, Norman Island

We breakfast at White Bay, before heading to Soper’s Hole for some provisioning.

Photo:  Reid in the dinghy at Soper’s Hole  

Mike enjoys himself on the way over to Norman Island, as the wind is not conducive to us sailing a straight path and we have to tack all the way there.  We have lunch on the way - the pork was of such good quality last night that it didn’t shrink so there is lots left over to eat in baguettes with more pineapple relish and mango mayonnaise.

The guests go snorkelling at The Caves, their enjoyment only slightly marred by the fact that everyone except Gina is stung by small jellyfish.  Out comes the vinegar!

Photo:  The Caves at Norman Island

After that, it’s round to The Bight.  On the way, Reid catches another tuna but it’s smaller than the one he caught before so it is carefully removed from the line and put back.

Photo:  Pirates Bight at The Bight, Norman Island 

We moor just up from Pirates Bight, and after a rum punch on board, the guests depart for the floating bar, the Willy T, for a quick drink before dinner, where Gina and Lauren get tattoos (I am preserving their modesty by not showing the photos!!) and Lauren gets into pirate mode.

Photo:  Lauren, the prettiest pirate, ever!

Little Harbour to White Bay, JVD

Today is the 25th wedding anniversary for our guests Gina and Mike.  They have planned this trip with amazing thought and care and do not want to spend the evening in a high price restaurant, but instead, somewhere romantic with a beautiful sunset and have chosen White Bay as the setting.

Upon waking, there is a thick blanket of cloud over Tortola.  Not a good beginning.  We suggest heading straight to White Bay and having breakfast there so off we go.

White Bay, when devoid of the usual cruise ship crowds, is stunningly beautiful and I just hope that the weather can do it’s thing today.

Photo:  Jeannius at White Bay

Breakfast starts with Bucks Fizz and soft scrambled eggs and toast.

Photo:  Reid, Gina, Mike and Lauren enjoying Bucks Fizz on the bow 

The guests, Gina, Mike, Lauren and Reid go to the beach for the day, leaving Mike and I to do our respective chores.  I have more food prep and Mike has some rope splicing to do to make a new anchor bridle.

During the morning we see someone waving from the beach – Kim and Rick are there doing some filming with Michael Beans.  We go over in the dinghy to say hello but Michael is anxious to get off so we just spend a few minutes with them before they have to leave.

For some reason, there are flies everywhere.  They drive me absolutely crackers.  Mike eventually has to take the dinghy round to Great Harbour to find a shop to buy some spray.  Whether it’s due to the recent rain I don’t know.  I can’t remember it ever having been like this before.

The weather clears up during the day, thankfully and is beautiful for Gina and Mike’s big day.  The evening cannot produce a sunset in White Bay as the sun actually sets behind the mountain, but during the early evening, produces enough pale pinky/blue clouds to be a good photographic backdrop.

Photo:  Mike and Gina – 25 years on enjoying an ‘ahh’ moment 

Photo:  Mike, Gina, myself and Mike … and good champagne 

Dinner consists of Spicy Tiger Prawns with Fried Plantain and Mango Mayonnaise, followed by Jerk Pork Fillet with Pineapple Relish, and Roast Sweet Potatoes with Red Onions and Garlic.  Three bottles of Veuve Clicquot help dinner go down very nicely.

Cane Garden Bay to Little Harbour, JVD

We leave Cane Garden Bay for a leisurely sail to Jost Van Dyke.  We moor up at Diamond Key and I lead the guests to the bubbling pool.  Last time I went we got lost 3 times so I hope for a better result this time.  Actually, last time was not my fault.  From a distance, it’s clear where you have to go, but closer in, you get three opportunities for choosing the wrong fork in the ‘clearly marked paths’.  Clearly marked obviously has a different meaning here.  Each time, the obvious direction is actually the wrong one.

  Photo:  Mangroves on the way to the bubbling pool

By some miracle, I recognise the right way this time and we end up in the right place with no interesting detours.

Photo:  Mike and Lauren on the ‘clearly marked path’

There are already about 10 people in the pool when we arrive, so our guests climb the rocks and wait, gazing out over the Atlantic Ocean, for the pool to empty a little, and I make my way back to the dinghy dock.

Photo:  Lauren, Reid and Gina in the bubbling pool

Eventually Mike picks me up so that I can prepare lunch – Garlic Chicken Caesar Salad.

When our guests get back to the boat we motor just a short distance to anchor off Green Cay but everyone is too sleepy and full to bother going ashore on the sandy beach and the weather turns cloudy, so we just laze there for a couple of hours before heading round the island to Little Harbour.

Our guests enjoy a drink at Sidney’s Peace and Love then eat at Harris’ Place, entertained by Cynthia and the lobsters, enjoying a good meal.

Road Town to Cane Garden Bay

I start the day badly.  I wake up with a stinker of a headache – surely this cannot be the result of two glasses of wine!?  Good wine at that.  Even worse, I wake at 2.30am and can’t get back to sleep.  At 3.30, the cockerels start their morning racket.  At 5.30, loud music starts up and I cannot work out where it is coming from.  Inexplicably, it stops half an hour later.  Weird.  I finally fall asleep and minutes later it seems that it is time to get up.

The start of the day with every charter is always a hard for me - I can only have one cup of tea in bed before having to get myself going.

I take the guests to buy a few things in Road Town, and being Sunday, nearly everything is shut, but we find a few provisions we need, then head off to The Indians for some snorkelling.  Mike spots a mooring ball, and another boat heading for it, so we race them, not even bothering to take the main sail down.  Of course, we get it.

After lunch, we head to Cane Garden Bay.  In the evening, the guests go ashore to The Elm for the barbeque and Mike and I stay behind, as we are only going to join them for a drink.  In the end, still suffering from the headache I stay onboard and Mike goes ashore alone.  I use the opportunity to get ahead with my food prep for tomorrow in the peace and quiet.

When everyone returns, it’s obvious that The Elm is a success, despite a rather persistent admirer of Gina and Lauren’s.

Road Town

I wake up in a complete panic because I know how long the list of chores is that I have to complete before our guests arrive.  This doesn’t, however, stop me from procrastinating in bed waiting for my first, then second, cup of tea.  I do make a concession to diligence though, by getting up and getting my breakfast!  Big deal, but an impressive first step.  That’s chore number one accomplished!

We move the boat into the marina at Inner Harbour, park her safely, hook up to mains power, switch the air-conditioning on full blast and I am ready to go.  Mike thinks that he has a slight reprieve as the water is off and he can’t scrub the decks (and boy, do they need scrubbing!).  Unfortunately for him, he then remembers that he fixed the deck pump on Jeannius (ie hit it with a stick – I kid you not) and the can get the worst off with salt water and just rinse the salt off when the water comes back on.

In the middle of all this industry, Ocho, from Bobby’s supermarket arrives with the provisioning.  Everything is bought out of the boxes in the cockpit, and we start the tedious task of ticking everything off.  I find this really difficult.  Nothing seems to match.  There are things missing and lots of things that the guests didn’t order according to the list.  After much head scratching, Ocho realises that he has given us the wrong list.  What an unbelievable coincidence – the other charter has also ordered four bottles of Veuve Clicquot.

Checking it all off is actually the easy part; getting it all into the fridge is the hard bit, but with a lot of reorganising, it all goes in (well, nearly all).

We don’t have time for lunch so when Mike goes in search of some cake for one of the guests who has a birthday tomorrow, he also buys crisps and peanut treats to give us energy – a great excuse in my book.

By 4pm we have finished the boat and start our own wash and brush up.

The guests arrive later than expected, at nearly 6pm (see, I could have waiting for breakfast in bed!), having had to wait for quite some time for a ferry to Road Town.  After settling in, we all go out for a meal to Spaghetti Junction, literally just behind the boat, and I allow myself two glasses of Coopers Creek as a reward for a hard day’s work.

Marina Cay to Road Town

Head out quite early towards Road Town as we have lots of things to get through.  Of course, just as the anchor needs to come up, down comes the rain.  Called out to Rick and Kim on the way past but only Rick seems to be around.  I’ve no doubt Kim is galley-slaving somewhere!

 Photo:  Rick Moore on Sophisticated Lady

Mike spots some salvage treasure on the way – a nice blue fender floating and homeless – and heads over to take possession, only to find that it is in far worse condition than any of ours, so we leave it.

We anchor in Road Town, just by the cruise ship dock.  It can be quite rolly here and although when we arrive it is almost flat calm, within half an hour, it is rolling merrily.  I really feel for some of the monohulls as I watch them pitch from side to side.  No wonder their stoves need to be gimballed!

I am meeting Sayula for lunch and once again, the heavens are in perfect harmony with my plans.  Just as we start to lower the dinghy, it absolutely throws it down and all the islands in the distance disappear.  We wait it out and now I am late for Sayula and I know that I will arrive to meet her with a wet bum from the dinghy ride over to TMM.  C’est la vie!

Mike is not invited to this girly lunch, so leaving him behind to fend for himself, Sayula and I go to Nanny Cay, where I also manage to pick up the anchor light and some thimbles for the bridle.  The chandlery relieves me of $234, and I wonder whether I can now afford lunch, but my stomach wins and I eat an enormous roti.

 Photo:  Sayula and myself - ladies who lunch!

Mike picks me up and we go into Road Town to buy some fresh provisions for our next charter.  In the evening, I sit and panic about all the things I have to get done before our guests arrive tomorrow – and don’t start any of them.  Tomorrow’s another day.  I’ll get up early … yeah, right!

Leverick Bay to Marina Cay

Yes, unbelievably, today we move.  Initially, we decide we are going to sail around the other side of Necker Island and see Eustatia Island but when we get out outside of North Sound, the weather, although not bad, does not look particularly enticing, especially for taking photographs, so we decide to do that another time.  We motor down to Spanish Town, the ‘capital’ of Virgin Gorda and anchor just outside the harbour for lunch.

We slow down a little to pick out our anchor spot and I pick up the fishing line to start to reel it in - immediately the line shoots out and I get very excited – for nothing.  Apparently I knocked a little gizmo when I picked the reel out of the holder.  You live and learn.

We are still eating up food left by the previous charter guests and today I decide it’s time to brave … the beef burgers.  I cannot tell you how bad the ready made burgers are from the local supermarkets (and I think they all get them from the same supplier so shopping around doesn’t make any difference).  Suffice it to say that when they are cooked, there is more fat and water left in the pan than there is burger on the plate!  But something miraculous happens when you put them in a gooey bun with mustard, lettuce and thick slices of onion and tomato.  As long as you can ignore the thought of what’s left waiting for you in the pan, these greyish, fat dripping excuses for meat, taste disgustingly and embarrassingly good.

Once lunch has gone down, Mike takes the dinghy into Spanish Town to go to a cash machine and buy a few things.  I stay on the boat and catch up with some work.

We motor down to Marina Cay, passing close to the resort development at Scrub Island.  There has been much controversy about this, and for, I assume, economic reasons, work is constantly stopping then starting again.  We notice that quite a lot of work has been done since we were last here (roofs on now and that sort of thing) and, like it or not, it is starting to take shape.  Time will tell.

 Photo:  Scrub Island resort development 

 Photo:  The beach bar at Marina Cay

We anchor in our favourite spot just outside the mooring field and have a very short nap before it’s time to get ready and go ashore for the last Michael Beans’ show of the season.  This show is apparently one of the must see things on the islands.  Michael himself is heavily involved in charity work for the children of Haiti.  He sings mainly sea shanties in his show, encouraging lots of audience participation, rewarding it with shots of rum.  There are lots of willing participants!

Photo:  Michael Beans in action 

After the show, Mike and I head back to the boat – we have a rendezvous with something more exciting than supermarket burgers – garlic chicken with black truffle pasta – yum – the opposite end of the culinary scale.

Photo:  The galley slave about to slave away