We really enjoyed the air conditioning from being on the dock so much so that we all slept in, we prepared coffee and breakfast in the air conditioning and then each went and showered on shore where we could take as long a shower as we wanted.
Sailing to Peter Island (you can see boats anchored ahead at the Indians)
Sailing to Peter Island
We had talked about wanting to spend one night in a very deserted area where we would be the only boat. There is something just picturesque about that thought, so O’Barr again came through with a recommendation on the southwest side of Peter Island. There was a small point that pointed to the south and would protect us from the swells that would come from the east. This spot would also allow us to be behind the windward shore that was only about 2 ft above sea level so it allowed all the wind to still come across the bay. We pulled in and attempted to anchor. We could see the bottom in 15-20 feet of water and dropped the hook a perfect anchoring sand, but it just wouldn’t grab. The first time, we assumed it was because there was rock below it. We pulled it up and made another attempt this time a bit closer to shore and in water that was more shallow. Again the anchor wouldn’t grab. We dove the anchor and it just didn’t look like the point of the anchor was aiming correctly. We pulled up and attempted it again and the same thing. When diving to inspect our hold we saw the same problem. We pulled up the anchor and realized that the darn thing was broken. The spade and the shaft were not aligned like they should be. We started to think about re-rigging the spare anchor but none of us really wanted to chance having an issue in the night. We started to consider how lucky we were earlier in the trip. We only anchored 2 other times. Once was just for lunch and the other was an overnight in Cane Garden Bay. We really lucked out that we didn’t drag since it seems now that the anchor likely was not set real good earlier when we used it also.
Deb Relaxing for the short time we were at Key Bay (Peter Island)
What do you do when you have a problem but it is not an emergency? You open up a beer, and think about it for a few minutes. We did just that and came to the conclusion that we would head over to the West side of Tortola to Soper’s Hole. We could pick up a mooring there as there seemed to be a good number of them in that bay. A plan was hatched and away we went. We sailed northwest toward the western side of Tortola, passing St. John on the Port side again. We went North between Little Thatch and Frenchmen’s Cay and then Eastward to Soper’s hole. By now, we have circumnavigated all of the BV Islands with the exception of Anageda which the charter companies don’t like you to take their boats too because of the shallow water and reef surrounding the island to the north of Virgin Gorda.
View into Sopers Hole from just between Thatch Island and Frenchman's Cay
We picked up a mooring and watched all the activity on a tall ship that was docked near us. The ship was called Ocean Star and was an 88 foot Schooner that weighed 75 tons. She has a staff of 4 professionals and 16 student crew that sail this boat while taking classes, and getting life lessons and certifications in diving, etc. They offer 20-90 day voyages and this particular ship works mainly in the Caribbean. While we were there, we saw the kids working on the boat and cleaning the decks, etc. We saw them getting lessons in Dinghy handling within the anchorage and as evening drew near, they were all swimming and having a great time jumping off the sides and off the bow sprit for some relaxation time. What an awesome experience for kids. I looked it up when we returned, it was pricey but still an awesome experience or opportunity for a kid. It was about $4,500 for a 20 day sail with lessons, about $10K for 40 days. I asked our Granddaughter if she would be interested in something like that and she said “I would not go to school on a ship, you would waste your money on that”. Funny how brutally honest kids can be.
Sea|Mester Boat - Ocean Star
Deb and I saw a couple of really nice looking boats moored in this well protected bay and wanted to take a dinghy ride to explore them. First Obarr and Oday took a little cruise around the anchorage to see if there was any chance that he knew of, or had met, the folks that were on board the Morgan Out Island. After they came back, Me, Deb, Oday and T loaded a couple of beers in the dinghy and slowly tooled around the anchorage. We saw 2 beautiful Hinkley’s, and several boats that you could tell were cruisers that had hunkered down in this place as a hurricane hole. We even saw one boat closest to shore that had about 5 anchors deployed, 3 forward and 2 stern anchors. It was an odd setup but it looks like they certainly didn’t want this thing moving. We decided to run up to Pussers on the waterfront for a drink. They had a great dinghy dock and it was amazing at how clear the water was here as well. Just a few feet off the shore the depth dropped from 4 feet to about 20 feet because just 20 yards from the shore was a large fishing boat that likely drafted 6 plus feet of water. We had a couple of drinks on the water front and then returned to the boat for a relaxing evening. It was an early evening so I was able to copy some photos and videos down to the computer and sift through what we didn’t want to keep. Another relaxing night hanging out with friends. Robert took this picture off the back of the boat as the sun was setting. After another great day, we were off to bed.
Sunset out of Soper's Hole (aka West End of Tortola)
We decided today that we really needed to get water. We were down to about 30 gallons or so and it just made sense that if we were going to come to a dock, we may as well top off fuel too. Since we were not able to get a mooring at Saba Rock the night before we would have to pay for water and fuel. Methods was not a huge problem but we were a bit concerned about maneuvering up to the fuel dock with the direction of the wind. This was going to be the first time we take the catamaran to a dock and just didn't want to increase our odds of hitting the dock or not being able to get close enough to tie off. We did a little checking and found out that we would get some free water (100 gallons) with a mooring at Leverick Bay and based on the guidebook and so e Ariel photos, it appeared that it was going to be a better spot to fill up.
This would be our shortest travel day of the entire trip, so we decided to take advantage of it and do some sight seeing.
We went back over to Saba Rock in the dinghy and walked the island. It is a beautiful resort. We walked the docks, around to the grassy lawns overlooking the Caribean. As we walked along this area we saw a small headstone that read "Ganja the cat" and it looked like Ganja was good to him because based on the dates he lived 18 years.
We continued our walk toward the sandy area and back again into the docks where the underwater lighting attracts the Tarpon at night.
We all loaded up in the dinghy and crossed the channel to walk around the Bitter End Yacht Club. This place is really interesting and very well appointed. The dinghy docks were in great shape and were right in front of the hotel. We were amazed at the wood carvings in the lobby.
View from the Hotel entrance toward the Dinghy dock
This is a typical island resort layout with all open walls but this one had really nice wooden floors and walls. The all appeared to be hand sawn. We walked through the lobby and certainly had to take some pictures of the wood carvings and a group photo of us all standing right behind the Bitter End Yacht Club and logo.
We walked down the water front and looked at some of the boats that the Hokin Family had bought over the years. The story behind the Bitter End Yacht Club is a bit interesting.
In the mid 60's they family brought their boat to this area for recreational fishing off this remote island. In the late 60's and early 70's the land where the Bitter End Yacht Club (BEYC) is now was just a fishing camp with no running water and no electricity.
there was a Bakery with fresh baguettes for sale
They loved it there and thought it would be a great place to live. The attempted to lease an acre of land to build themselves a house there, but the owner "Basil" at the time didn't want to lease them an acre, but instead offered to see the whole place to them.
In 1973, the Hokins bought the property. The family didn't know anything about running a hotel or "camp" as it were then, but they were enthusiastic about their new property. Each year the family would all come to this area and they discovered the great sailing, diving, fishing and snorkeling from Anageda to Tortola. They had a desire to share their love of this area with others, and had the building designed and built. Today the Resort creates it's own electricity, collects and distills it's own water and uses treated gray water for irrigation.
View from the upstairs lobby of hotel toward Prickly Pear Island
Today is a premium stop for anyone going to the area. Beatifully appointed, and well maintained, it is the kind of perfect trees and flowers that you expect to see on a Hawaiian resort or Disney land, but the people are all laid back islanders.
We took a walk all along the water front and shops at the Bitter End. I did end up buying a great portable cooler. It is a neoprene cooler that you wear on your shoulder (Soft sided) that will hold a 12 pack of beer or a 6 pack and 4 bottles of wine. It is a great bag and I look forward to using it at sundowners and events at other people's boats when we are back home.
We filmed some of the water front buildings, including a Bakery, Movie Theater (outdoor of course) marina office, fuel dock, hotel, gift shops, restaurants, pubs and what not. See the video at the end of this blog for some more views of this including a great little bench that was built under a stone arch for shade.
View from slip back toward the shore
We loaded up into the Dinghy and headed back to the boat to pack up for the very short trip to Leverick bay. We dropped the mooring and headed across the North Virgin Sound and circled the fuel dock finding our best place to pull up to it. We waited for another boat to pull out and worked our way right onto the dock between 2 other boats side tied. O'day did a great job and the guys on the fuel dock were really helpful with guiding us to the right spot and making fast the lines as we came in.
While we fueled up, Deb inquired about the Mooring versus a slip in the Marina. We were shocked to find out that if we took a slip, we would get al the water we needed for free. So a slip, with electricity, was only $25 more for the night than the mooring ball. It had been 5 nights and we all thought that we would take advantage of the power and air conditioning while we were here. After fueling up and filling with Water, we moved into our assigned slip. Again Oday made it look like he had been Captain of a Catamaran for many years. Once tied up, we connected power and flipped on the Air Conditioning units in the boat. No water flow coming out, so we started to investigate what happened. Turns out that with all of the sailing and beating, we just lost the prime to the pumps. After reprising the pumps for each air conditioner, we were pumping cold air into all of the staterooms and salon.
Lunch time visitor
We emptied the trash, cleaned up the boat (Taking advantage of the water) and walked up to the restaurant for lunch and some Pain Killers and Caribe beer. I love Island restaurant, it is not uncommon to see a dog wandering through looking for a handout. In this particular one, we had a chicken come through looking for some food.
After a really good lunch including drinks, Conch fritters and cheeseburgers in paradise, we decided to go for a swim in the pool on shore that was included with a slip rental. The water was warm, but it was very relaxing to just chill in the pool for an hour or so. Right next to the pool was one of those great outdoor tiki style bars, so we had to swing on over and have a drink or 3.
Yep, Texas Flag is us
One of the other cool things about hanging out in these water front bars and restaurants is the characters you meet. We met a guy that was there and he was full of rich stories. Really nice guy, and he was sailing "down island" on his "french cat" that was anchored out in the bay. In the hour or so we sat there he shared all kinds of interesting stories. If I were to sum it up quickly, he was a cowboy from Wyoming or something like that. He told stories of doing work for Nasa and rockets. He also talked about doing some kind of work for the Russian space program. He discussed national security type work he had done, He supposedly did delivery of private Boeing aircraft including delivering the 777 to Sir Richard Branson. He suggested that he was going to stop by Richards Island, but the wind was just too good, he didn't want to stop sailing. He is a test pilot and, oh yeah, he is a kite surfer that flies to all locations when there is a hurricane so he can kite surf in those. I personally think 85% of it was BS, but it was all interesting.
View of the restaurant, stores, bar and pool from up on the hillside
While we sat at the bar, Obarr took a little walk up the hill and around this part of the island. He used his amazing zoom on his camera to get pictures of the boat, the marina and even zoomed in on us sitting at the bar from a 1/4 mile away.
We slowly worked our way back to the boat and enjoyed the nice cool air that was in the boat. We were able to connect to the Leverick Bay restaurant's wifi connection so we all posted a few pictures on Facebook and I must confess I did download my work email so that I could sift through it to find the important stuff. We slept really good at the dock and planned to sleep as late as everyone wanted to.
We have a small video from our walk around Saba Rock and also Bitter End, It you are reading this anywhere other than the blog online, you will need to click on this link for the Saba Rock, BEYC Video.
(Editorial Note - You will notice that the chapter count is now x of 10, I had to increase the # of chapters with the content we had from the trip) It is amazing how great we all slept every night on this trip. This was another night where we slept at anchor, breeze blowing in nicely and while a bit warm, always comfortable with that breeze. We were really worried about not having air conditioning on the boat thinking it would be a too hot at night. O’barr was adamant that it wouldn’t be needed and he was right. Each bunk on the boat had a small fan that had both a high and low speed. They drew very little amperage and just having it on low speed was enough to just keep the air moving.
We did find that it was cooler if we slept with the stateroom doors open. The wind would come from the bow (where our stateroom was) and blow through the hallway to the aft stateroom where Obarr was sleeping. He had his windows and hatches open as well so they ended up being a wind tunnel. It was the same setup on the other hull sleeping configuration with Wild Mary and Robert up front and Oday and T in the back stateroom. You just had to be a little cautious when you got up early or in the middle of then night to use the restroom. I would do a bit of a peek around the corner to see if Obarr was sleeping before moving around in the stateroom. And I guess in the end, you had to just be ok that if someone saw something, oh well. The risk was worth the reward of a good breeze every night through the boat.
By this time it was becoming very routine that whomever was up first would put on the coffee and everyone would just enjoy it as they came up from their bunks. Another morning of a well cooked breakfast. Today we had fresh fruit and some yogurt with our breakfast. We had oranges, apples, grapefruit and some mango that we had fresh from one of the markets so it was quite a treat. We started to rinse out the coffee grinds on the aft deck rather than in the sink as it was much faster to get the grounds out of the percolator. The process was pretty simple.
Look at the Teeth on this guy up close
We had a bucket tied to a short line and we would drop it off the back of the boat and then use that to rinse the parts and dump it overboard. Today we happened to notice a fairly large fish swimming off the back of the boat. We figured he was used to hanging out in an anchorage and looking for food scraps to be tossed overboard. So we didn’t disappoint. We took a bit of some left over steak we had on board and cut a few pieces and dropped them in while holding the camera down below. He was a 3-4 foot barracuda and had a pretty amazing set of teeth. It was really cool seeing him up so close.
We planned a trip over to Myett’s gift shop and the Callwood Distillery so we needed to get going as we had a pretty good long sail today to get to Saba Rock in the North Sound. We all piled into the dinghy and headed for shore. We walked back to Myett’s and the girls all went a little crazy with souvenirs. We saw these cool black and white shirts there that filled in with color when they were in the sun. Deb picked one up for our GrandKiddo and T wanted one as well. The good news is that she was able to fit into one of the kids shirts they had there so she got a pretty cool one for herself as well.
We walked down the street toward the distillery, passing the grocery store, an art studio and the postoffice, churches and the school with all of the children in their uniforms there. Pretty amazing view these kids have from their school which was a great view through a few trees of the beautiful Cane Garden Bay. We made the left hand turn onto the Distillery road and as we walked the block toward it we could already see smoke rising from the still.
This place is really amazing, it is the Callwood Distillery and has been in operation here in Cane Garden Bay, Tortola for over 400 years. They are one of the oldest operating pot distilleries in the world. We met the one employee working that day who was outside stoking the fire to heat the mash. From that outside still the pipe comes in through a wall and into a small bucket (about 4 gallons) on the floor inside. As it fills up, it is poured from there the bucket into the storing vessels. These vary depending on the type of rum they are making. For white rum, it is poured into glass vessels of about 4-10 gallons (they just had a variety there). If they are going to be making spiced or aged rum, they would put it in the wood barrels and store them. They get their barrels from Kentucky (old Whisky barrels) but I forgot to ask what they did prior to that.
The gentleman working there was really generous and provided samples of any of the variety they had there. Mary had some fun with him when we were selecting what we would buy and after him counting out the bottles, Mary asked "So what do you own me" and he was stumped for a minute. It was pretty funny and I think he had a clever retort like, if we had this discussion at 4pm, that may have gone more in your favor. We ended up buying quite a few bottles based on what we would drink on the rest of the trip as well as what we could take home. Deb and I picked up a bottle that was really good, lightly wood barrel aged, but had a large stick of sugar cane in the bottle to sweeten the drink.
The entrance and sign for the Distillery The stock to be purchased (note TX flag)
After the distillery, we were walking back to the dinghy dock and saw that glass blowing studio. This is the Green VI Glass Blowing Studio and it was founded as a way to have a more sustainable way of living on the BVI's. The studio uses all glass that the find on the beaches and in town. When we were there, they were telling us that they are about to convert their furnaces to use old cooking oil as a way to further enable their sustainability. See their beautiful work on their Facebook photo album. It was really cool and they were making starfish and turtles out of molten glass they found on the beach. We watched them doing this for a while and got some pretty cool video of them doing it.
Basically they take a molten hot glob of this class, and spinning it get it to the shape they want. They then take other molten glob of glass and touch it to the body and shape it with pliers to make the fins and head. They were willing to custom make one any colors that we wanted so Deb picked out what she wanted. We were running out of time and had to start heading to the North Sound so we asked them if we could pick it up on Friday when we come back to this spot for the Full Moon Party. Arrangements were made and off we went back to the boat stopping to refill the ice in the coolers since this was a cheap place to get 20lb bags of ice.
We sailed North of Tortola and had planned a few course changes to keep the wind moving us at a good pace. We happened to notice the depth on the charts showed that just a little ways beyond where we intended to change course the depth would go from 150 feet deep to 1400 and we thought it would be cool to sail out into that really deep water. We extended one of our lay lines and were excitedly watching the depth sounder. It went to 200, 220 and then up to about 75 feet which we expected, and we were anxiously waiting for the drop with cameras ready to capture the view on the depth sounder. It started to drop, 90, 110, 160, 190, 200, 240, 270, 320 and then the depth sounder just went to three dashes when the depth sounder could not longer read depths more than that. It was really disappointing because I was really looking forward to that.
We sailed into the north sound by heading directly toward Sir Richard Branson’s island (small light colored island on the top right of the map enclosed) and then turning to the south around the shallow reefs. We went into this great area of North Virgin Gorda Sound with Virgin Gorda in front of us to the south. We nagivated in with Prickly Pear Island to our port, and as we rounded Prickly pear, we could see the Bitter End Yacht Club and Saba Rock. Our intent was to grab a mooring at Saba rock because if you paid for a mooring there, you could get 200 gallons of water and a bag of ice for free. We got there a little late and there were no moorings left at Saba Rock.
We actually thought there were a few but as we got close we noticed they were labeled as "private". We decided that we would grab a mooring at the World famous Bitter End Yacht Club. I had the helm and found that it really is pretty nice to have the dual engines for maneuverability. We picked up the mooring and decided to just take a swim for a little while after our long sail. We were moored just outside of a channel that was used for boats taking workers to resorts on some of the outer islands, so we had to swim fairly close to the boat at all times. Each time we swam, we typically just jumped off the very low stern entrance and into the water, but today we decided to jump from the sides of the boat. I was amazed at how wimpy I was about it. I thought it would be no big deal, but I had to think about it for a 3-4 second period of time before doing it. Geez.
With the current coming in from between the islands in front of us, we decided to tie the life ring to a line and let it flow behind the boat. That way if we were swimming or relaxing on a float, we could just hold onto the line and relax. We did this for a couple of hours before grilling a nice dinner of marinated Mahi. It was such a nice and relaxing evening. We sat in the cockpit after dinner and just had a few drinks. After dinner we decided that we should head over to the bar at Saba Rock and maybe grab a drink. Saba rock has a great dinghy dock with underwater lights as you get close to it. From the lights, you could see a bunch of 3-5 foot tarpon. They feed them at certain times during the day, and we heard someone at the bar talking about them doing that at 9am in the mornings. We made a mental note to head back in the morning to check that out.
Another case of "it's a small world", we sat at the bar and ordered some drinks. We started talking to some folks at the bar who were sailing for the first time without the kids. Sounds like their kids usually come with them but not this time.
Turns out they are from the same town that several from our party are from and Deb lived for many years. Contact info was swapped and we received a nice invite to come to their house for a party near the end of July. Really cool to meet people so nice and close to home. We did count the number of boats in the mooring field flying the Texas Flag and we counted 5 boats including ours. We met at least 2 other people from Texas that were not flying the flag, so Texas was again very well represented.
We headed back to the boat from Saba rock and just relaxed before calling it a night.
Below is a video that summarizes the days activities. If you are reading this blog from email or a print out, you will not see the video embedded below and will need to click on the following link to our Youtube Chanel. Please click here to see the video of Callwood Distillery, Cane Garden Bay and Sailing to Saba Rock.
With our last land adventure last night being a good time at Corsairs for a few more drinks than good judgement would have allowed, we slept soundly and late into the next morning.
"I don't know, can you tell if it is on"
We awoke once again to the smell of coffee, which was a welcome start to this morning. WildMary had woke up early and had it perking in two pots. (Editorial note. I mentioned having some absinthe shots and hanging out at a waterfront beach bar last night, but when looking for photos for this blog post, I ran across a video of Deb and T working very hard to try to take a selfie sometime late last night. I don't think they realized that the camera was recording video the whole time. Bonus ! )
Sandy Cay (Photo taken by Oday from bow of boat at anchor)
This trip has been a series of good meals and today was another day of a well cooked breakfast. The plan for today was to sail from Jost Van Dyke to a small island called Sandy Cay and then on to Cane Garden Bay. It was going to be a couple of short sails for the day, so we took our time leaving Jost. We packed up our trash and made one last run to the dock where you could drop trash for free. We decided to just motor over to Sandy Cay, a short distance to the East from where we were. Sandy Cay is an uninhabited island between Jost Van Dyke and Tortola and was owned by the Rockefeller Family and donated in 2008 to the National Park Trust of the Virgin Islands. The island is very small (just about 13 acres) but has several great attributes. There is a great sand beach, wooded trails, rocky ledges as well as a large salt pond in the center of the island.
Oday and T decided to stay on the boat
and relax in a Hammock on the bow.
We moored on the Western side of the island in about 15 feet of water over a gorgeous sandy bottom. The white sand and crystal clear water form that amazing shade of blue you see in just certain places in the world. Here the blue was so brilliant that when the seagulls would fly a few feet over the water it reflected up onto their bellies and made them look like they were a light shade of blue instead of white. We looked through all of our pictures and just couldn't find a great way to show that, but it was truly amazing and not something we saw in any other places we went while on this trip. We took the dinghy to shore, beached it and walked up the beach to a small sign with a map of the island and trail entrance. Most of us didn't bring shoes, so we stayed on the trail for the most part. We walked about a third of the way around the island and saw many birds and lizards or chameleons. There was something pretty interesting on many of the trees but we are not 100% sure what it was.
Walking the trails on Sandy Cay
Our best guess was termites. There would be these small mud like tubes that would go from the ground up the tree trunks and out most of the major branches. We were interested to know what it was, but not so interested to knock the mud tubes down to see what may come out. We continued to walk down the trails and stop and observe all of the amazing sites. The chameleons where pretty neat, you would typically hear them before seeing them. They would scurry along the ground and as the leaves would russell we would see them moving along. A few of them would perch on a tree branch, but if we got close enough to get a picture they would scurry around to the other side and block the photo. We saw beautiful cactus in bloom as well which surprised me to see Coconut Palm trees and cactus all sharing the same bit of ground. We also kept hearing what sounded like doves, but never did see any. I am assuming they were just up in the trees and would fly off as we would get close but they made that very distinctive dove sound. Robert found a great tree that was growing an an angle and looked like a great place for a picture, or to just relax. We continued along the path until it came to the edge of the shore again but this time it was all rocky and with our bare feet we decided not to tip toe around them. As we turned around to head back, we kept looking through the woods to see where we could come out of the woods and onto the beach.
Deb and I on the beach after coming from trail
We found a spot, walked carefully from the path to the beach watching out we didn't step on any cactus. As we stepped out onto the beach, it was a really neat site. Behind us was where the sandy beach started to turn to rock and at the edge of the water you could see the different colors of the water from the contrast between sandy bottom and rock bottom. The shades of blue were all dependent on how large the rocks were and therefore how much water was on top of them. Ahead of us was something from a magazine.
Robert waked behind all of us to catch a quick photo of just how pristine the beach, sand, water and anchorage were. You can see a few of the boats anchored just off the beach ahead of us. To our left in this photo is Tortola about 15 miles away. We decided to walk along the water all the way back to where we beached the dinghy. This was the first time we had taken the dinghy ashore and beached it. Getting off the beach was not too hard, after getting a great hint from Obarr. I was getting ready to drag it back down the beach (Stern first) and Obarr quickly said, turn it around, it will be a lot easier. And it was !!!. Thank you. We pushed the dinghy into a foot of water and got Mary to load first since she typically sits on the bow seat.
The rest of us loaded in as Obarr held the dinghy. As more of us loaded up, we had to push further from shore. Obarr jumped in last and we headed slowly back to the boat, where Oday was there to take a line as we pulled along side the boat. We relaxed at this beautiful spot for a while longer. Sandwiches were made and devoured in the cockpit for lunch while we contemplated our very short trip over to Cane Garden Bay. With the short trip, we decided to just tow the dinghy rather than hoist it up onto the davits for this short trip. Below in this picture you can see where we started on the left and worked our way to the right at Cane Garden Bay with our stop at Sandy Cay. So as we sailed into Cane Garden Bay, we played Jimmy Buffett's Mañana on the radio. The lyrics were very appropriate for the trip as he sang out:
I hear it gets better, that's what they say
As soon as we sail on to Cane Garden Bay.
Please don't say mañana if you don't mean it
I have heard your lines for so very long
Don't try to describe the scenery if you've never seen it
Don't ever forget that you just may wind up in my song...
Obarr had been here before, on Charters but also when he and Kerri cruised on their boat some 10 years ago, they spent some time here in Cane Garden Bay. When they did, they got to know the owners of "Myetts" which is a wonderful beach front restaurant, bar, hotel, gift shop, etc. We walked up to Myetts to see if they were there. Unfortunately they were not there today.
We still decided to sit at a beach side table, enjoy some wonderful pain killers and Conch Fritters and Cracked Conch. The view from this place was just amazing, you could see right out over the beach to the boats anchored right out front. It was always pretty cool to see our Texas Flag waiving out there on our boat as well. After our Conch and Pain Killers, we took a walk through town. We walked down to the Callwood Distillery but it was closed for a local holiday so we found out what time they opened in the morning so we could come back for a tour. We found a place where we could drop trash here in town for free as well. We didn't need to do so on this trip, but we planned on coming back to Cane Garden Bay on Friday when there was a full moon for the "Full Moon Party" at the BombaShack so we planned a trash drop for that day.
We stopped at a market and picked up a couple of items we wanted. On the way back to the boat, we stopped at Rhymers Beach Hotel and Store to pick up some ice. They were one of the cheapest places we found ice on this trip and picked up a 20 lb bag for about $6.50. When we got back to the boat, we swam for a while in the anchorage and again continued to be completely intrigued with the clarity of the water. Here is a photo of our anchor chain in 25 feet of water and you can clearly see it go all the way to the bottom and head off in the distance. We also got a chance to take some photos through our Floor Hatch in the boat. We figure it is a safety issue if something were to go horribly bad and you happened to have the boat upside down, it allowed a place where you could still get out of the boat. With that said, it was still very odd to see a hatch in the floor. Someone captured a cool picture of Oday under the boat, with T taking a picture of him from inside the boat. We put our plans together for the next day. We were going to get up in the morning, have breakfast and then head over to the Callwood Distillery for a tour of an old school distillery still doing things much the same way they did 400 years ago when they started brewing rum there. More in the next chapter of the blog !! Here is a link for Callwood's Facebook Page, I would encourage you to Check it out. Below is a bit of a video capture of the days activities. If you are reading this in any other way than online, you may not see the video below. If not, click on this link to play the video.
After a few drinks last night at the WillyT and then back at the boat, we slept soundly until we had an awakening from a bit of drizzle. It was almost a mist, but enough that when coming into the hatches and on me while I slept, it was enough to wake me up. I removed the breeze booster and closed the hatch, then it stopped. That was the way it went on this trip, we never really got any "rain" but just a few little misting. Sadly we were all hoping for a bit of rain to rinse the salt off the boat and we all wanted to experience a fresh and natural shower on the back deck or trampoline up front. O'Barr affectionately referred to this amount of rain as "Fairy piss" and that was all we got several times on the trip. To be clear I am not complaining, when you book a charter in week two of hurricane season, this was a really good scenario that played out.
I mentioned a breeze booster above. I have not seen one of this style but I will be getting some for our boat for sure. The goal of these is to capture or scoop more air than you would get from just an open hatch. I have seen these that look like a big upside down V and connect to a halyard and attach inside the hatch like this one that Amazon sells. This one however was free standing. It had a v that was stiffened by something like sail battens and two angled legs that go to the hinged side of the hatch. They sit on the deck and the a string and a stick goes down through the hatch and it makes the upside down V look like a big huge scoop. Here is a link to them at West Marine for anyone interested. They would more than triple the amount of air flow coming into a hatch. When at anchor your bow always points to the wind so these take advantage of a knot or two of breeze and still work wonders to cool you down. We were in the tropics and most nights I would turn off the fan and sleep comfortably in 85 degrees which shocked me given we keep our thermostat at the dock down at 72.
Another morning of coffee as I got up, relaxing on deck and all discussing what we wanted to do that day and the rough details of the route and plan for the trip. We decided on some snorkeling stops today pretty close to where we had started our day then a nice sail planned in the afternoon to head to Jost Van Dyke and dinner and drinks ashore at Foxy's. After a breakfast of pancakes and pineapple we cleaned up the dishes while Mike went to go visit a boat in the anchorage he thought he recognized from his cruising days. It was an "Oceans 60" (if I have that name right). He dinghied over and talked to the folks on board. It turned out not to be the people he met years earlier cruising but they did know of the boat and those people so they visited for a little while.
We dropped our mooring ball and motored out of the anchorage at The Bight and just went around the point to "The Caves" which is on the northwest side of Norman Island.
The bay on the left is "The Bight", boats are ached in front of the Caves
Norman islands is said to be the inspiration for the book "treasure Island" based on the following history of pirate booty being stored there. In 1750 a Spanish treasure galleon named Nuestra Seniora de Guadalupe was caught in a storm off the coast of North Carolina. During that storm while waiting out the storm the crew mutined and the treasure was split up and taken on two different bilanders (smaller European two masted ships). There was said to have been 55 chests of silver coins on the galleon that was taken by the crews. One of the ships perished but the other was manned by Owen Lloyd who escaped with the ship to St. Croix. After disposing of so e of the money, story has it that he went to Norman Island and buried the treasure. Lloyd and his crew were eventually arrested bit word of the treasure spread to Tortola where people came in search of it. Interestingly enough part of the treasure was recovered by Gilbert Flemming who was the Luitenant General for the Leeward islands and convinvpced the Luitenant Governor of the BVI to issue a law where the treasure would be returned and the people that dug it up would retain one third of it. There are additional interesting stories of a local fisherman taking refuge In The cave from a storm and having found gold doubloons. There is no official record of this treasure being found but his family all moved off of Tortola at that same time and opened businesses in St. thomas. Read more online with a search for Norman island and treasure.
You can see the caves along the shoreline
Back to our trip. We picked up a mooring in front of the caves and were really close to shore. The stern of the boat was only about 50 feet from the rock cliffs. The wind was light and funky and a few times the boats on moorings swung in different directions. We never made contact with any boats around us but a few times the crew that stayed on board manned fenders in the event they may.
We hopped off the stern of the boat with fins, snorkels and masks and swam along the shoreline toward the cave entrance. This was really a cool place because near shore it was 5-10 feet deep and then about 30 yards from shore there was a pretty good 10-20 foot drop off. We snorkeled along the wall and saw great collections of coral and fish. At the
You can get a sense of the drop off
bottom of this blog post will be a link to a video of the snorkeling. Some of the photos contained in this blog post came from those videos.
At first it was really interesting we swam through a hole bunch of little jelly fish. Theese were not stinging kinds but the little quarter to half dollar sized translucent circular shaped ones. It took me a few minutes to figure out what it was.
We saw schools of dark tangs with light tails. They swam in groups of fifty or so and were just a few feet below us. We saw amazing trigger fish, and what looked like either a clown
T and Oday Snorkeling
trigger or some type of spotted grouper. We saw a lot of these silver fish with yellow tails.
Then as everyone was diving down a bit along the wall to get a closer look at the urchins in all the rock crevices we saw hundreds of zebra damsels swimming all around us.
The Urchins had some of the longest splines I have ever seen. We saw quite a bit of coral as well but I did not see any anenomies.
Hundreds of Zebra Damsels in schools
We made our way to the cave entrance and only went in the first edge of it and came back out and worked our way back toward the boat. I wish I would have gone in further. It got very shallow by the mouth of the cave so we didn't cross it for fear of touching the coral and damaging it. I later found out that you only have to cross that one shallow spot and it gets deep again in the cave.
We were on a national park mooring which you are only supposed to be on for 90 minutes so got under way and headed a
I attempted to capture just how many there were above
short distance to the north to an area called the pelican and Indians. For the record I do t know where these islands and Rock Archipalegos get their names, I can only assume that someone thought they looked like a pelican or an Indian. The wind had picked up quite a bit and we actually struggled for the first time to pick up our mooring. Wind and waves fought us and made snagging the pendant ( which didn't have a float) difficult. Third time is a charm and we were moored.
At this location (The Indians), it was a bit
The Indians (just Rocks and a reef)
like The Baths in that you had to dinghy to a dinghy mooring. And jump off to snorkel. Here the snorkeling may have been a little better than the caves and the water a bit clearer. While snorkeling there was a lot of fish and coral spotted as well as a decent sized barracuda swimming g just off in the deeper water. There was a school of blue tangs and several parrot fish. There was fan coral and leather coral all around.
See the bottom of the Blog post for my photos from Snorkeling at the Indians.
Black and Blue Tang
Upon returning to the Dinghy, they found Oday just relaxing in the bow waiting on folks to finish snorkeling. Robert and Oday came back in the dinghy but Deb and T decided to swim back to the boat to see what they could see over the deeper water.
Once everyone was on board, salt water rinsed from great and people, we raised the main while still on our mooring and prepared for a sail to Jost. All of us on this trip have boats that range for 23 to 43 feet, all mono hulls and used to lifting sail. That said, the sail on the catamaran is so big and fully battened with heavy duty sail car tracks for each batten, this sail is not easy to raise. On my boat I get the sail about a foot from the top of the mast and use the winch to
raise it the last foot and tighten. On the Cat, any one of us would get it about 80% of the way up and then have to use the winch to raise it the rest of the way. The main halyard has a 2 to 1 purchase to make this easier but it means you are pulling twice the height of the mast in line. So after a bit of panting and catching my breath the sail was raised.
Below is a video put together from the snorkeling at The Caves and The Indians. Just click the video below, however if you are reading this blog post from an email subscription or other means, you will have to click on this link to see the video (Snorkeling Video Link)
We dropped the mooring and then headed northwest toward Tortola and unrolled the jib.
Saint John just behind us on the Port Side
The boat sailed nicely and we had the wind just aft of the beam. When we got close to Tortola we gybed to the east to plan our next lay line to make it thought the cut near the west end of Tortola. As we were on this tack we were headed directly toward St John in the US Virgin Islands. There are very heavy penalties for going ashore in the USVI without first checking out of BVI, including a $5,000 fine per person and automatic confiscation of the boat. ( I am not sure our deposit would cover this ). We had no intention of going to St John on this trip but most people on the boat did take advantage if the fact that we were close enough for US cell service without roaming charges. A few people checked on pets at home, family members and to provide a quick update that we were all doing fine and having a safe sail through the islands. We beared northwest again and set up a layline to pass right between the west end of Tortola and Little Thatch island. We passed beautiful homes that just appeared to be stuck on the sides of the cliffs in the west end rope Tortola. We passed a few small ferries in this area as they headed into Sopers Hole on the West End. As we passed Tortola, we had a nice open water sail up into Great Harbor on Jost Van Dyke.
Robert and I setting up our Mooring Bridal
We found a mooring out a ways from land to take advantage of the wind given the height of the island. Upon anchoring we jumped in for a nice swim, we cleaned up and headed to shore for some ice and some provisions we needed. We found out we were missing mustard and steaks from our provisioning list. We tied up to the government dock right in the center of Great Harbor.m when you get off the dock there is a great sign welcoming you to Jost. The police station and immigration Is the first building up the dock. Mary, Deb and I went to the store, O'Barr and Oday made a trip to the ferry dock to drop off our trash and went on a hunt for ice.
One of the things you have to really think about on a boat is how much trash you create. We did find that in some of the anchorages, a boat would come by and offer to take your trash for a fee. We typically took ours to shore ourselves and most places it is free. We did find one place on shore that charged $2.50 per bag. We all met back up after getting what we all needed and headed to the boat. The market had just about everything we wanted and needed. Plantains, bananas, steaks (they were not delivered with our provision list and they substituted something else, but we wanted steaks), Propane for the grill and chips. Obarr and Oday had picked up the ice and met us at the dock closer to the market to save us the walk around the cove.
The Dinghy Dock at Foxy's
Tonight we planned on going to Foxy's. I thought I would include a few photos of how you actually get somewhere from your anchored boat. Some places have a "Dinghy Dock" you can tie up to, other places you just beach the dinghy. Foxy's does have a nice dinghy dock but as you can imagine, all of those dinghy's look a lot alike in the dark after a few too many PainKillers or Dark&Stormy's.
You just can't go to the Jost Van Dyke and not go to Foxy's.
He is an icon in this part of the world and his beach front bar/restaurant is famous in all sailing and boating and vacation magazines. There is part of the place that has a wooden floor, but no walls. The largest section of the restaurant has a roof but no floor. Sit on benches like a picnic table, feet in the sand and just relax to the sounds of music (maybe a live band but not the night we were there). You can go into the gift shop and purchase items if you want.
The food is pretty good (not great but again, you have to go there and get Conch Fritters for sure). But, What Foxy is famous for is his PainKillers. It is a sweet drink made with Cream of Coconut, Rum Pineapple juice, Orange Juice and some fresh ground nutmeg. (No wonder my blood sugar was high). They will, as their name implies have you feel no pain.
We were lucky, Foxy himself was there and was doing what Foxy does, walking around talking to guest. I don't recall this from last time I was there a few years ago, but this time he was drinking straight rum from a glass and it hadn't been his first nip when we got there.
He was telling jokes and making small talk. He is a nice guy but one thing struck me kind of sad actually. Some of the jokes he was telling were a bit racial and it dawned on me that his perception is that white folks want to hear that. Maybe I read too much into it or had one too many PainKillers already, but I hope he realizes that most people that come to visit him see him as a fellow human and not a color.
I had the camera going on the table to try to record some of the stories he was telling but they were just too quiet to hear them. He was really nice though and posed for a picture with all of us. OBarr and I went in search of the things that we have left tacked or tucked into the ceiling as a memento. I can't remember where the heck I had put my business card when I was there on a company trip and Obarr couldn't find the flag he thought he had left there. (Then again, there is likely 1000's of items that people put on the ceiling every year.)
Here is a little tip, if you go there (or anywhere in the islands) and are having dinner at dusk, the NoSeeUm's will get you pretty good so bring some skin so soft or off. If you ask, quite a few places will have some they will let you use or some will put those small coils you burn in the sand beneath your table. For those that don't know, NoSeeUm's are just that, you don't see them and they bite like hell. They seem to stay close to the ground and only bite for about an hour or so as the sun goes down. From the lower shin down needs to be sprayed. If there is any wind at all, they are not usually a problem but along the ground under a table, they were active.
We did the touristy thing and went to Foxy's but you MUST, MUST, MUST go to Corsairs. Corsairs is just down the road from foxy's past the government building. The owners is an Expat named Vinny who sailed to the islands and never left. The food at Corsairs is rated the best on the island and next time I will absolutely be going there instead of a meal. Everyone was raving about it and after our trip, I even saw a write up in a magazine about how good the cooking was.
First round of Absinthe
Deb, T, Oday and I went to Corsairs because we had read somewhere that they served absinthe (The little green fairy) and thought it would be interesting to try. So we bellied up to the bar and told Vinny what we wanted. He asked "Shot or some other way". Hmm, I had heard that Absinthe, should be dripped slowly over a sugar cube on the back of a spoon into a cup with distilled water in it, So we asked him what the difference is. His answer was classic, "Either way is going to f&%k you up, so not sure why it matters". From that moment, I liked Vinny. He did ask if we liked the taste of licorice, two of our party did not so his response was "Do a shot, it won't be in your mouth long enough for the taste to linger"
T and Oday at Corsairs
We sat a chatted with Vinny for a couple of hours. Really good guy, he had just gotten a GoPro camera so we were talking about that and I helped him download the app he needs and I was letting him connect to my GoPro and show him how he can control it and what not. The place is laid back, if he was busy, someone else would get us a drink. They wrote down most of them but not all of them and at the end of the night, he asked how many we had so we could settle up. I love that there is still a level of trust like that and that people are not all jaded into thinking
Vinny and the Girls. That thing around his neck is actually a
monocle. I don't think I have ever seen that before. It was very piratey
someone is going to rip them off. Deb and T tried to get Vinny to do a shot of Absinthe with them and he said he will drink with them, "just to that shit" which again just cracked me up. Deb and T were having a good ole' time and trying to ring the bigger dinner bell above the bar. As I was going through photos for the blog, I found pictures of the girls with Vinny, behind the Bar. I don't even remember who took those pictures and don't remember them being behind the bar. Obarr came back to meet us after taking Robert and Mary back to the boat and hanging out for a while. We left corsairs and wandered on back to the Dinghy dock. As we were walking down the street, Deb seemed to find someone that you would think was her long lost best friend.
Deb on Swing, T as the Pusher
They said hi, Deb asked how she was, then they gave each other a hug like they had not seen each other in many years. It turns out Deb had talked to her in Corsairs earlier, but I found it humorous that they seemed so close now. Oh, and on the walk home, Debs British accent came out. She is not from there, never been there but for her it seems to be some kind of a Blood Alcohol Content measurement for her. And before we could get all the way to the Dinghy dock, someone spotted a tire swing. So a detour was required and all I kept thinking is that we are a long way from the emergency room :)
So a nice peaceful slow dinghy ride back to the boat and as you can imagine, we all slept pretty well this night.
