Wednesday, January 4, 2017
After wandering around the beachfront establishments of Cane Garden Bay, and having lunch and wifi at Rhymer's, we headed back to the boat. Once again, someone had anchored their boat directly in front of us and way too close. Grrrr. Carey had had enough of people and boats, so we headed back to Brewer's Bay for the night, where it is a lot quieter and only two boats in the whole bay. Perfect!
When we got back to Brewers, I checked our total nautical miles travelled and we have gone 3000 nautical miles, exactly, since we left Sarnia in September. That equals 5556 kilometres. Wow, that's a long way!
Thursday, January 5, 2017
After breakfast we left to go around the west end of Tortola and back to Road Town on the south side of the island. We arrived in Road Harbour at 12:45. The plan was to have some lunch at Pussers and then pick up a package at the post office. Best laid plans.
We anchored near the ferry dock, thinking we were very clever to have scored such a great spot close to shore. Poor fools. First, we had a struggle to get the dinghy motor onto the dinghy safely with no injuries, damage, or loss of equipment. The wave action from the ferries and the ocean swells created an unsafe situation between the bouncing dinghy and the boat stern that was slamming down on the waves. To prepare the dinghy, I hand Carey the Torqeedo engine parts (prop, battery, handle) and he puts it together ready for use. However, we had to be careful that the stern didn't slam down onto the dinghy while I was pulling it close to hand parts over. We survived that part, then had to find a dinghy dock. Unfortunately, the only one was around the other side of the very long cruise ship pier and into the marina on the other side. We were salt-sprayed and a little damp by the time we made it into Village Cay Marina. We tied up to their dinghy dock and walked across the street to the BVI Tourism office. Boy, that was handy! The lovely tourism woman gave us instructions to get to the post office and a recommendation for a good restaurant for lunch. We walked a couple of blocks to the Post Office to see if they had received our package (a part for our dinghy that had been sent at the end of November). Nope, no package. (We had been warned that the prospect of receiving anything through the BVI mail was a 50-50 proposition, so we weren't too surprised, but still a little disappointed.).
Needing sustenance, we headed out to the Virgin Queen Restaurant. Rusting sign, crumbling concrete, and a climb upstairs to a second storey establishment. Hmmmmm. I didn't think I'd get Carey up there, but I was glad he did. It was lovely, and the food was delicious.
Our dinghy ride back to the boat was almost as long, but we ducked under the cruise ship pier that was bridged at the far end, which cut off about a quarter mile. We reversed the previous act with Carey handing me parts from the bouncing dinghy and then readied the boat for another sail. We sailed across Sir Francis Drake Channel to Benures Bay on Norman Island, one of our favourite anchorages. We arrived at dusk, saw a beautiful sunset, and enjoyed the night sky while relaxing in the cockpit.
Friday, January 6, 2017
Happy birthday, Carey and Craig! Wow, this is ALMOST a big birthday.
Carey chose oatmeal and toast for his birthday breakfast. Then, the work began. We had a long list of chores for today. Woohoo, Happy Birthday! Well, at least we got a lot accomplished.
I did some laundry with golf balls in my handy dry bag, cleaned all six of the fans with ear swabs (a tedious, but rewarding job), inventoried and rearranged the food stores, and found the navigation charts for our future trips to St. Martin and to the Bahamas.
Carey cleaned the bilge pump (yucky job), checked the water in the batteries, added fuel cleaner to the fuel tank, vacuumed, and researched methods of using a stern anchor.
By the time we were finished, it was time for dinner. Nothing exciting today, but we felt good by the time we dropped into bed.
Saturday, January 7, 2017
A few more chores accomplished this morning, and then we were off to The Bight, on the west side of Norman Island.
We ran the engine at 2200 RPMs while we ate lunch so we could recharge the dinghy Torqeedo 916 battery. It takes a long time to recharge using a 12 Volt charger, as opposed to 110 Volt on a dock.. In two hours, it only charged from 12 to 24 percent.
After a picture perfect mooring ball pickup (woohoo!), we wandered around the Bight and took a short hike.
We checked out the menus (and exorbitant prices) of the two restaurants there and found out their Happy Hour was at four o'clock when their Painkillers and Margaritas were on for half price. Sounded good until we checked out the regular prices of their cocktails--$13-16 each. Suddenly, half price didn't sound like that good a deal. We headed back to the boat, slipped our mooring, and motored back to Benures Bay where we could have a home cooked meal and drinks for free. Plus, we saved the $30 mooring fee. Now, that's a Happy Hour!
When we got settled in Benures, I went snorkelling by myself. Carey's toe is healing nicely, but he needs a couple more days before going into the water, I think. We had anchored near the north east end of the bay, near the rocky point, so this was an area of the bay we hadn't snorkelled before. While out there, I saw my first starfish! Very exciting. This was a great place to snorkel. Lots of colourful fish and coral.
Sunday, January 8, 2017
We lifted anchor at 9:45 and sailed to Soper's Hole on the west end of Tortola. There is a Customs office there, plus laundry and wifi. All things we need.
We arrived at 11:25 and picked up a mooring. After dropping off our laundry, we stopped at Pussers for lunch and to access their wifi. The wifi was the big draw and we connected our devices immediately and downloaded a few emails. A few minutes later, we ordered and it was like a magic switch had turned off the wifi. It was 'down' for the next two hours. Aaaarrrrrggggghhhhh! Can you imagine my frustration? Probably not. I've been saving up all of the things I need the wifi for--reading and responding to email, updating the blog, downloading ebooks, downloading a new cruising guide I purchased for Puerto Rico, sending arrival info to Norma, and researching a few items. None of that got done. Grrrrrr. I don't mind paying Pussers expensive prices for lunch as long as I can connect to their wifi, but without wifi it's just not worth it. Did I say 'Grrrrrrrrr'?
We picked up our laundry, dinghied back to the boat, and decided to blow this pop stand. We cleared out of the BVI, dumped our trash, slipped our mooring, and motored to St. John Island, in the US Virgin Islands. Protocol says that we have to check in with Customs and Immigration before we can leave our boat. Unfortunately, we arrived in Cruz Bay at 5:15 and the Customs office closes at 5:30, so we didn't have time to get the dinghy ready and over to their office before they closed. Also, the sign at their Customs anchoring area said there was no overnight anchoring there. Unfortunately, that had been our plan. That meant either picking up and paying for a mooring ball there (where it's very crowded and ferries roar in and out constantly), or finding another spot for the night. In an effort to save the coral, St. John has almost no areas where they allow anchoring. They have mooring balls set up in almost every bay, and they all charge a fee. So, tonight, we are on a mooring ball just around the point from Cruz Bay in Hawksnest Bay. When the ferries and boats go by, we start rocking, so it may be a rough night.
We are flying our yellow Q flag. Q is for quarantine. It shows that we have not cleared in to Customs yet and therefore we are not allowed to leave the boat. Once we have cleared in, in the morning, we will switch the Q flag for a USVI courtesy flag. Every time we go to a new country, we switch to that country's courtesy flag. Q flags and courtesy flags are always flown on the starboard side, up near the spreader. We proudly fly a bigger Canadian flag off our stern, of course.
Monday, January 9, 2017
The rolling and rocking started at 6:00 am, because that's when the motor boats start moving. Not bad, because we had a pretty peaceful night up to then. During breakfast, we listened to the donkeys braying in the hills. We've heard the goats bleating before, but this is the first time for donkeys.
On the way to Cruz Bay to clear in, we passed Quetzal, and shortly after that, we passed John Kretschmer in his dinghy on his way to Cruz Bay. Funny how we keep bumping into familiar faces and boats.
We cleared in at Customs and then went for lunch at the Sun Dog Cafe where we enjoyed delicious, authentic Mexican food. Now, we are off to the Starfish market for provisions.
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