Peter Island, Roadtown (return Boat) then Trellis Bay - Sailing the BVI's (10 of 10)

Well this was it, it was the last day we would be on the boat.  Our plan today was pretty simple.  We were only about 45 minutes from Roadtown so our plan was to prepare breakfast, clean up and stow all the dishes (With the exception of glasses as we knew we would have some drinks) and then clean the boat and pack our stuff.

We awoke as usual to fresh coffee and juice.  We prepared a great breakfast cooking up any of the breakfast meats we had left (Bacon and Sausage).  We had a good meal, and started the clean up process.  We used the deck brush and buckets of water to clean the boat off.  Mainly the cockpit was the area that needed the most cleaning.    We went inside the boat and straighter up all of the food that we had stored putting it in boxes to be given to local's at the Marina or to other cruisers that may be heading out for the start of their trip.

We gathered everyone's stuff from around the boat and put in down on each persons bunk.  Before we actually packed our clothes and bags, we decided to sit and just chat and have a few drinks and relax. We had brought a lot of music with us, including songs from about every genera and era.  We decided that this boat full of Texans needed some old school country.  The best part of old school country is that most of us knew the words to the songs and Oday can't stand country.  Knowing Oday doesn't like country made us all want to have a sing-a-long.  

We belted out sounds from Tammy Wynette, Roger Miller, Dolly Parton and even Claude Kings 'Wolverton Mountain'.  The funny thing is we were doing this while anchored in this harbor with about 20 other boats.  I don't know if they heard us or not, but it sure was funny to all of us except for Oday.

When we finished our sing-a-long, a peace offering was made to Oday who got to choose the CD he wanted to listen to next for our sail back to Tortola and Roadtown harbor.  We lifted the dinghy on the davits and secured everything for this last leg of the trip.  We dropped our mooring ball and headed almost due north toward Roadtown.

There was only 1 thing left to do on this leg of the trip and that was to drop off our message in a bottle at the place we thought it would likely travel the furthest.  We wrote our note essentially saying that we were a group of people sailing in the British Virgin Islands and that if this were found, to please send an email and photo of the bottle where found to us (and we listed our email addresses).  We put the note in a waterproof zip-lock bag and rolled it so it would fit in the wine bottle.

OBarr tossing out our message in a bottle

The bottle already had all of the labels removed and the cork was pushed back in to keep any water out of the bottle.  We planned our drop at the place where we assumed that the wind and current would carry it West, Southwest down the Sir Francis Drake passage and south of St. John toward the open Carribean Sea.  It could wash up on Puerto Rico, The Dominican or if it starts to head south, any where in Columbia or Venezuela.     It would be really cool to hear back from someone if they find it.  I just hope if it is found we don't get a note from St. John indicating that it would not have traveled more than about 10 miles.

We arrived back at Roadtown and called Conch charters who had us pull over by the fuel dock.  They sent one of their guys out to the boat in a dinghy and he hopped up on board, took the helm and parked it behind another boat at the fuel dock.  Because it was Sunday the fuel dock was closed so they were going to just fill it up on Monday and let us know how much it took.

We found another guy that was heading out for his charter, so we gave him some of our food stores that we hadn't needed.  He was glad to get it and loaded it up into a cart and took it to their boat.  We then set everything else out on the table for the woman who cleans up the boats to take home.

We loaded all of our bags into a cart and went through all of the check out procedures.  It took about 15 minutes or so and they let us know they would dive the boat the next morning and verify that there was no damage to props or rudders and we could be on our way.  We hopped in a van and headed back over to Beef Island, Trellis Bay where we would stay in a 'hotel' for the night to catch our early morning flight back to Puerto Rico.

This was the view from the front steps of where we stayed our last night

The place only had 4 bedrooms and a shared living room and no air conditioning.  But, they did have a nice little beach front bar that we had a few drinks in and lunch.    The hotel was called "The Loose Mongoose"  It was rustic for sure.  They didn't have air, but did have a fan in each room.  They also were to have Wifi and since most of us had been without it most of the time, we all wanted to check in and check out what was going on.  We couldn't get it to connect.   I finally saw the owner and asked if he was ok with me taking a look at it to see if I could get it going.  He was, but he couldn't recall his admin password for his service.  Luckily, routers in the BVI's just like the US tend to have some fairly generic user name from the factory so I was able to hack in within about 10 minutes.     The good news is that I fixed his connection and we were able to get on-line.

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This area is known as Trellis bay and there were quite a few boats anchored or moored just off the beach.  This is also where they throw the other full moon party on the island.  This one is on the East side of Tortola as opposed to BombaShack on the far west side of the island.  Aragorn Art Studio makes the large decorative fire balls used for the full moon party and their studio is right on the beach.  They have some really cool stuff such as smaller fire balls for home, tons of carvings and art made of the wood that drifts up onto the beach.  The owner of the studio came out to our boat on our first night to see if we were interesting in coming by the studio the next day or picking up some t-shirts.  You can check out their site here - Aragorn Art Studio.

We walked down the beach and found this really large starfish on our hike.  It was the largest start fish I have every seen up this close.  It was only in about 8 inches of water just a few feet from the shore.  Deb picked it up so we could show just how large the thing was.  We put him gently back where he was after the photo.  We also found a section of the beach that was just littered with old dinghies.  There must have been at least 8 of them that were flat and tossed up on the beach just beyond the sand line.  It was an odd site, we joked that it was the island where Dinghies went to die.

We went back to the Loose Mongoose and relaxed on the benches that were water side.  It was a great location right on the beach.  What we didn't think about was the fact that the house we were staying in was 20 feet from that great little beach side bar we had lunch in.  The live band setup and people started hanging out in the front yard with us.  It was not too bad, but not something i had planned for. We went to bed at a decent hour since we had a very early morning flight.

Up in the morning, loaded our bags into a van and headed over to the airport less than a mile from where we were.  We boarded our small plan and flew back to Puerto Rico to catch out flights back to the US.  All in all this was one of the best trips I have had.  We spent it doing what we love to do, sailing and cruising, we got to spend it with great friends that are all sailors and easy to get along with.  There were no incidents of someone getting on someone else's nerves, just a great time with friends that I can't wait to do again.  We are already starting to talk about the next trip.  Monohull maybe, and we are thinking a one way sail starting or ending in the Grenadines.

See below for the last video installment from this Blog series.  Remember, if you are looking at this from any site or method that doesn't have an embedded video below, please click the link here to see the video - Sailing BVI's - Last day, Peter Island, Roadtown, Trellis Bay

Sailing in the Dream like Waters of the British Virgin Islands (Chapter 1 of 8)

Since we got our boat five years ago, we had talked about chartering a boat with our dock mates at Pier 121.  Typically these discussions would happen late at night when anchored out/rafted up In some small cove on the lake.  It would typically be after many drinks and we would forget the discussion the next morning.

These discussions ebbed and flowed like the gentle tide and it never seemed that anyone, including us, would commit to a date and just do it.  Years went by, Deb and I moved but stayed in contact with our friends there and would all get together a few times a year and these discussions continued over drinks.

Then all of a sudden it happened, the charter discussion came up, someone threw out a date and we all went and made the appropriate plans for taking off of work, budgeting, etc.  With that the plans were finalized.  Seven of us in early June on a catamaran in the British Virgin Islands.  Done.  Flights made, provisions ordered, booze planned, lists of things to bring, deposits made and then it was just counting down the time until it came time to depart.

So Thursday we all met in PuertoRico at the airport and then all took the same flight to Beef Island, Tortola.  We arrived about 8pm and the charter company had arranged for a van to pick us up at the airport.  Even with a delayed flight the driver was patient and waited for us.  Upon arrival at the charter base, the office was closed but there was a note on the door telling is which boat was ours.  We loaded our stuff in the boat, popped open a few beers and relaxed on the back deck of the boat.  We had made arrangements to spend the night before our charter on the boat rather than a hotel.  

A little bit about the charter company and boat.

We chose Conch Charters.  They are what some would call a tier two charter group meaning that the boats are not brand new.  If you use someone like Moorings or SunSail you will typically get a boat less than 5 years old.  When boats are a bit older than that they often go to the tier two charter companies.  As a matter of fact we could see on this boat where it once said "Moorings 4300" on the side.  The boat we had was in great working order, it was a 2005 if I recall and we were nothing but pleased with it.

Photo taken off Sandy Cay (Yes, we were flying our Texas flag proudly)

The boat was a Leapord 43' catamaran.  She was 24' wide and had a large cockpit that easily and comfortably sat all 7 of us.  The helm station was protected from the elements and the sun.  The large cockpit led forward through a set of opening glass doors to the large salon.  Galley to port, salon to starboard, and nav station to starboard facing aft.  There were views in all directions from the galley and salon with 6 opening ports/hatches in that area not counting the two large entry doors aft.  Down and to port forward was a stateroom with a large double berth and head with shower.  Forward of that was a small crew bunk that we used for storage.  The forward stateroom had 3 opening hatches and the head had two.  Aft of the forward stateroom was another that also had a double berth, head with shower and the same number of hatches/ports.  Under the aft bunk was access to the engines, bilges and water heaters.  The starboard hull was the same as the port so there were accommodations for 8 easily without feeling cramped.

We were very pleased with the boat.  The engines started right away and ran great.  Running them for two hours each day was enough to heat water and recharge the house battery bank with enough juice to run water pumps shower sumps, fans, lights, freezer, refridge, instruments, radios, etc and only one time in 10 days did we actually trigger the low battery alarm which was easily remedied by running the engines a little longer the next day.

Now on to Conch.  They were great to work with from the initial reservations, confirmations, answering questions, etc.  they provided a simple way to get them the information and experience of all crew members including the Captain and coCaptain.  When we arrived they had the boat lights on, air conditioning had been running to keep it cool and greeted us the next morning when they opened  They left a sign near the door of their office letting us know which Boat we should go to and where it was.  

They came aboard and briefed us on all systems, operations, etc.  This took less than an hour and was very thorough.  We then had the captains briefing where they went over the charts, provided all of our park permits, 

suggested anchorages, restricted areas, showed us where some of the more challenging reef navigation and provided us a cell phone in the event we needed to reach them or use it.  We scheduled our charter at the beginning of the "low season" which is essentially the first few weeks of hurricane season.  We had weather on the VHF and weather fax if we needed to download them.  Because it was low season, the rates were cheaper and the anchorages less crowded.  There was only one place where we didn't get a mooring like we had hoped to but were able to get one close enough that our destination was still just a short dinghy ride.

Upon return, they were just as good.  They asked us for anything we found that may be in need of repair and we pointed out a few routine maintenance items that would not be out of the ordinary for any of our own boats so certainly doesn't reflect poorly on the charter company or the boat.  These were as minimal as a sticking bilge pump float switch, a slow to drain shower sump, two heads with a joker valve that is likely approaching their time to be replaced but still working.  The only maintenance item we were not happy with was the anchor appeared to be bent and because of that just did not set very well.  We had a spare on the boat to use if we chose, but made do with what we had and picked up a mooring if it was a particularly grassy or rocky bottom.  They did a quick inspection of the boat, said that they would top off the fuel when the fuel dock opened and would charge it to the credit card on file.  They were going to have a diver check the bottom of the boat to be sure there was not contact with any rocks or reef that would do any damage to keels, rudders or props.  Check out took about 30 minutes and they arranged transportation for us to our hotel.

All in all, I would highly recommend Conch Charters.  We were all very pleased.  I had heard that in the past (late 90's) their reputation for good clean working boats was not that good, but that seems to have all a been completely remedied based on our experience.

Now back to our trip.  On the day of our charter we had preordered food for provisioning and the market would deliver right to the boat.  The first delivery was food and it came in boxes on a few hand trucks.  With a line of us handing boxes from dock to boat to salon we quickly loaded it all on board and the girls stocked the freezer, fridge and all of the dry goods.  Next came our booze/drink delivery.  This was embarrassing.  There seemed to be more of this than groceries.  The first load came down the dock and contained 3 cases of coke, 2 cases of Ting, 1 case of seven up, 2 cases of diet coke, 2 cases of bud light, 10 bottles of wine, 6 or so bottles of rum and 6 gallons of water.  Then the next load came down the dock and it was somewhere around 14 or 16 cases of Coors light. Conch provided us two coolers so we had cold water, soft drinks and beer.  We stores al the bottles of liquor in the salon seats and the cases of beer and soda in the aft end of the amas with plenty of room to spare.

We had planned on heading to Norman Island and anchoring in "The Bight" for our first leg of the trip.  The good news is that all of us on this trip have our own boats and most of us have or still live aboard, so we all "go with the flow" and on day one we needed to practice that.  During our flight to Tortola, one of our crew members arrived but their bag didn't.  We had confirmation in the morning. That it was on a flight and what time it would arrive.  It could be delivered to Conch but it would be a couple of hours after the flight arrived, so we decided that we would sail toward the east side of Tortola and stay in Trellis Bay right by the airport.  This meant day one was dead into the wind and as we got close to Trellis bay, we saw all the boats in the anchorage and chose to anchor inside the reef on Marina Cay instead.  It would be about a two mile dingy ride to get to the airport to pick up the delayed luggage.

The reef was nicely marked and we slid right in parallel to the reef and picked up our first mooring ball.  It was like we all knew what we were doing :)

             View to our right (See Reef)                                            View to forward, small waterside Cafe and Bar

Mike, ODay, and T took the dinghy to the airport.  Going between Beef Island and Marina Cay waves and wind conspired to make it a wet dinghy ride.  There were a few waves that broke over the dinghy and swamped it pretty good.  Running fast and opening the drain plug removed most of the water.  At the dinghy dock, there was a small store so trash bags could be bought to cover the duffle on its way back to the boat.  Those of us that stayed on the boat were oblivious to how wet the ride was until three soaking wet passengers unloaded from the dinghy and told us what they faced.  It was not dangerous, so just added to the stories that will be part of what has come out of this trip.

Oday and T took a swim over to the reef for a bit of snorkeling while the rest of us just relaxed in the sun and started to prepare for dinner.

We ate really well on this trip and just took turns making meals.  The first night Oday and T cooked and we had burgers cooked on the grill (mounted on the stern rail of the boat). For some reason food prepared on a boat just plain tastes better.  These had all the fixing including tomato, lettuce, cheese and onion.  We had a great fresh salad to go with it and chips to snack on.  The galley was fully stocked so we ate on china plates every day.  Someone other than the person that prepared the meal would clean up and it just sort of fell into a very well working routine on day 1.

The first evening we spent commenting on just how clear the water is, the weather being beautiful, the boat and how nice it was and just enjoyed being with good friends having a sundowner in the British Virgin Islands.  One of my favorite island type drinks is a rum and ting over ice.  I prefer spiced rum and I must say that Arundel Rum made in Came Garden Bay is pretty darn good.  Fill a glass with ice, add 1 part Rum to 4 parts Ting.  It is cool and refreshing. After a few hours of story and drinks, people were starting to get tired.  It is amazing how the fresh air, sun and water make you ready for an early bedtime.  With that, we each started to retire to our staterooms for bed.

What a great ending to our first night out on the water as opposed to at the dock.  There will be more blog entries related to this trip over the next few weeks.

We were playing a little bit with a little movie trailer for the trip.  This was based on little clips from the first day.  If you are reading this via email, you will have to click this link to see it.