Leverick Bay, Key Bay Peter Island, Sopers Hole - Sailing the BVI's (7 of 10)

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)

See below for a very short video clip from this day of the trip. If you are reading this in an email or PDF, you may not see the embedded video below.  If not, please go to the following link to see it - Click here for Sailing the BVI’s Chapter 7 of 10 - Leverick Bay to Key Bay to Soper’s Hole