Log 43S BVIs with Michael and Sarah

Anse de Columbier, St. Barts. June 15, 2007

Before picking Michael and Sarah up, we used the jeep to go to a large shopping plaza for supplies. They drive on the left hand side in St. Thomas, even thought 95% of the vehicles are North American left hand drive. A bit confusing, although I made only one goof, when trying to make a left turn at a stop light across four lanes rather than turning left from my left hand lane immediately, I went across the first two lanes to try to make the left turn, and realizing my mistake, had to go straight on, and then turn around to come back to the intersection and now had to make a right hand turn from the left lane. Lots of fun!

Whenever we rent a car, Judy's job in addition to navigating is to keep saying, "Stay left! Stay left!"

In driving out to the airport to pick up Michael and Sarah we explored the shoreline near the airport, to discover that Lindburgh Bay had a sandy beach 150 yards from the Departures/Arrivals check-in area, a location we will use for Veleda when taking the kids back to the airport, rather than renting a car or using a taxi. Michael and Sarah arrived on time, but Sarah was a bit put out by the extra bureaucracy the airlines insisted on for an unaccompanied 11 year old (as Michael, only 15, was not considered old enough to serve as her guardian). She felt she was being treated like a piece of baggage, having to wait until everyone was off the plane, then being accompanied by a clerk to the check in desk to complete formalities, with Judy as the designated adult to sign for her in St. Thomas.

We had an interesting drive back to Red Hook, taking the mountain road along the central spine of the island, giving us a spectacular view over the north coast and over Charlotte Amalie on the south side. Having had a pre-dawn wake-up, Michael and Sarah were tired when we arrived and dinghied out to Veleda. After a brief swim, we left our anchorage in Muller Bay, as I thought they would find it too rolly for their first night aboard, and went across to Caneel Bay, St. John, to pick up mooring buoy #165 (18 20.68N, 064 47.48W) for a more comfortable anchorage.

In the morning Judy dinghied over to Cruz Bay with the kids to visit the interpretation and information centre for the St. John Island National Park, and pay the $15.00 park mooring fee. Upon their return we slipped the mooring and motorsailed the 6.6 miles across to Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke, to check into the B.V.I. After dropping into Foxy's bar/restaurant we weighed anchor and went another 3.2 miles to anchor off our favourite location in the B.V.I., off Sandy Spit and Green Island (18 26.00N, 064 42.59W) just east of Little Jost Van Dyke.

I wanted, next day, to have a pleasant day snorkeling around Sandy Spit, and a picnic on the sandy beach. The snorkeling was good, with a gentle beach that allowed Sarah to get her water "legs" and be comfortable with her snorkeling gear. Michael and I first snorkeled along the rocky link to Garden Island, then out to the coral on the outer side of the spit. We have had very few picnics ashore, but this time I wanted to do it right. I had my collapsible canvas chair so I could sit in it with a beer in the arm rest and read a book. We had a plastic tablecloth (with a Christmas motif) to spread on the ground beneath a palm tree, and a picnic spread of various salads, pickles, breads, and juices. However, Murphy's Law was at work, and not only were we deluged with sand flies, but it started to RAIN! So much for the idyllic picnic on the beach!


In the afternoon we weighed anchor and motored 10 miles over to the well sheltered and quiet Lee Bay on Great Camanoe Island. Both Michael and Sarah enjoyed taking turns steering, and when coming to anchor took the helm, and helped or did the anchoring. Michael grasped the programming of the Raymarine self-steering mechanism and the GPS quite readily, and Sarah, as well as hand steering, enjoyed manipulating the anchor windlass to raise and lower the anchor. We were concerned that her long hair might get caught in the gypsy, but she was careful to keep it clear. They were definitely helpful while under way. Lee Bay is one of our favourite B.V.I. anchorages, as it has good holding, is well sheltered, has a sandy beach strip with paths going across the isthmus past a shallow salt pond, a couple of houses visible on the hilltops, and only two or three other boats at anchor. Michael and Sarah had a good time beachcombing and snorkeling before we left.


Next day, May 25, we took a buoy at the Baths of Virgin Gorda (18 25.77N, 064 26.83W), and snorkeled in to the beach. This first beach was only O.K. and so I swam back to Veleda, brought Wave Dancer in to pick the others up, and went around to the main beach location. There I could secure Wave Dancer to a buoy and we swam in to the more populated beach and went along the "Trail" which meandered for 200 yards among the large rounded granite rocks, though cavernous passages, across tidal streams gently surging between the rocks, and down to Devil's Cove on the southern tip of the Baths. The trail had steps and ropes to help travel this water soaked trek. Swimming back to Wave Dancer on the buoy was exhausting, but we had a pleasant but rolly lunch on board Veleda before slipping and proceeding up to anchor at Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda (18 27.31N, 064 26.44W). This was a quiet enough anchorage for us to send Sarah up the mast in the bosun's chair, to be swung aft so she could adjust the wind generator regulator for us. Michael also climbed up, in his case just to check out the view from aloft.

Michael was serving as coxswain of Wave Dancer, and did a good job until returning from Virgin Gorda Yacht Club, when he miscalculated and rammed our swim ladder. He felt bad about it, as I had a hard time not saying "Oh shit!" I tried to explain it is always better to approach a vessel at anchor from the stern, as a windward approach is better than a downwind approach. To help his confidence, I had him take Wave Dancer out by himself, and try a few approaches, then chase a life preserver thrown in the water. He and Sarah had a good time driving Wave Dancer around the anchorage to feel more comfortable with its handling characteristics.


The following day we went up to the wide Drake's Bay, inside Mosquito Island, for a lunch anchorage (18 30.65N, 064 23.26W), though on the way we grounded on some shoals that came up suddenly. Michael was at the helm, but it was my fault for not noticing the rocks sooner. No problem in getting off, but the incident didn't help Michael's self confidence. It was a wide open anchorage, sheltered only by the shoal bank off the east end of Mosquito, and so we didn't want to stay there all night, but went 2 miles across the North Sound and anchored in Robin's Bay, for a quiet well-sheltered isolated location for the night. We were the only boat there, and no resorts, bars, or dwellings lined the rugged rock-strewn beach, even though we were less than a mile from Leverick Bay and the Bitter End, large resorts at that end of Virgin Gorda.

In the morning we motored over to the Bitter End Yacht Club fuel dock for water and gasoline for the outboard. It was a quiet one mile trip over, but upon our departure to exit the sound, we found ourselves in the middle of a large power boat race with dozens of boats in staggered starts leaving from Leverick Bay, with some bombing out the north channel between Mosquito and Prickly Pear Islands, others following us out the narrows between Mosquito and Virgin Gorda Islands. It was a bit disconcerting!


The last time Judy and I had such an experience of accidentally getting into a race was about 20 years ago when we were coming out of the Sarnia Yacht Club and heading up Lake Huron for Georgian Bay. As soon as we rounded the headland into Lake Huron we were confronted with a forest of hundreds of masts covering the horizon. We were at the start of the Port Huron to Mackinac Race! Lots of fun!


We had only two more nights before the kids had to catch their plane back to Panama City, and so we started longer passages, going 20 miles, sailing and motorsailing to anchor in Little Harbour (18 21.30N, 064 36.01W) on Peter Island for a very quiet night with no motion. We enjoyed watching a couple of boats do the "anchoring dance", especially a large catamaran which eventually had to let out so much anchor rode that we thought he might foul our anchor, but then with assistance from another boat finally took a line ashore to prevent him swinging into other boats.


We had to get back to St. Thomas, as Michael and Sarah flew out next day, so we motored down to a mooring near Cruz Bay on St. John to check in with U.S. customs, and for Michael and me to enjoy some free WiFi in the park. Michael is a whiz with computers. showing me a few tricks to use and also fixing our older laptop by opening it up and cleaning the keyboard so it is functional again. Thanks Michael.


On we went, past Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas, to look for an anchorage close to the airport. The bay off Charlotte Amalie is agitated by the open channel and all the fishing boat and dive boat traffic as well as ferry and seaplane disturbances, so we looked at a bay on the northwest side of Hassel Island. As we came in on our approach to anchor we realized, as a couple of ferries dashed up Gregerie Channel, that this location also would be too turbulent, and so we headed around the northern tip of Water Island, where I promptly grounded on some extensive shoals. Ouch! We finally anchored 200 yards further down in Ruyter Bay (18 19.79N, 064 56.91W), not the quietest of anchorages, but acceptable.


We dinghied over to Charlotte Amalie next morning to wander through the old part of town, where we bought Sarah a sarong (but Michael was not interested in a bright Caribbean shirt) before returning to Veleda and motoring another 2.3 miles to anchor in Lindburgh Bay (18 20.03N, 064 57.94W) just before lunch. I took Judy and the kids ashore to have them walk the 100 yards or so across the bit of beach, a road, and into the airport terminal building. This is an ideal location to anchor to pick up or drop off crew or visitors at the airport in St. Thomas. However the bay is subject to some surge and we left when Judy got back, motoring through a rain squall over to our favourite anchorage around St. Thomas, Christmas Cove on St. James Island. We enjoyed having Michael and Sarah with us and would welcome them for future visits.
 

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