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| Full Moon Sail, St. Maarten |
Our last time at a dock was in St. Lucia, almost 2
months ago. Since then, we have either
been on a mooring ball, or at anchor. In
that time, we moved up island from St. Lucia to Dominica to Martinique to
Guadeloupe, past Monserrat, to Antigua.
Whew! Then from Antigua to Nevis to St. Kitts, to St. Maarten. In St. Maarten, we had a well deserved rest,
enjoyed chatting with some friends we'd made on our last visit, and even ran
into a friend from the West Coast who happened to be on a cruise ship visiting
the island! Small world. The West Coast
was well represented, as we also had some friends from CA fly in to join us on
the boat for week or so, precipitating another series of island hops: We left
St. Maarten at 1800 hrs, for a beautiful, if somewhat "rolly", almost
full moon sail to BVI. Destination? Spanishtown, Virgin Gorda, for clearing in,
and a quick sail over to Trellis Bay, Tortola to secure a mooring ball for the
Full Moon Party, only to discover that there were none to be had :( so we set
off across the channel to Marina Cay, where we were able to pull up a nice
spot in the back of the pack....we
visited the world famous Pusser's for Painkillers while there, waiting
for evening to arrive. We also had some
inspirational moments (induced by Painkillers, perhaps?) and created no less
than three signature cocktails to enjoy:
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The Shallow Water
so-called because it matched the waters
of the shallow reef near us
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Laurie, with The Latitude Adjustment
As soon as you see water this color, it's
hard not feel pretty happy!
Barbara has the Shallow Water
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Unfortunately, I failed epically in getting a picture of The Mangrove Swamp. If you have ever seen water near one,
you'll know why we chose the name. Suffice to say, it was lovely dark purple that from a distance looked a tad, well, swampy....
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| Sky Dancers at Full Moon Party, Trellis Bay, Tortola |
Evening arrived, and so did the Full Moon
Party! A fun time was had by all, and
our late night dinghy ride back across the channel was most enjoyable, a nice
surprise after our somewhat damp crossing earlier in the evening. But we had places to go & things to see,
so we were up and out early, on our way to The Baths at Virgin Gorda. The Baths are amazingly beautiful, and I not
only jumped into deep water for the swim in and out, but I actually went
through the caves....two of my more anxiety producing activities! *patting self on back* That may not seem much to you, but I was
proud :)
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| The Baths, Virgin Gorda |
Norman Island and Willie T's were calling, though, so off we
went! Another lovely sail (did I mention
how nice it is to be sailing downwind??
Such a pleasure after a year of beating upwind!) Willie T's is quite the
entertaining place, and if you haven't been there, I don't want to ruin the fun
by telling you what it is like. I would,
however, strongly recommend not bringing your children (or young teens)
there. I might even go so far as to say
you may want to avoid that bay altogether.
Just saying.
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| Willie T's, Norman Island, BVI |
After a not so relaxing day at Willie T's, we sailed off
across the sound to Jost Van Dyke and the world famous Soggy Dollar Bar. Bill spent many a day checking out the webcam
there, in anticipation of our first visit! Soggy Dollar lived up to the hype, and it was
great to introduce another set of friends to the fun. (You can view the webcam here: http://www.soggydollar.com/webcam.aspx)
Eager to show our guests more of
BVI, we sailed off to Sandy Cay and spent an hour or so hiking around the
little island. A diverse little
paradise, Sandy Cay was a nice surprise.
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| Top of Sandy Cay |
Our next stop was Soper's Hole,
where we provisioned, and cleared out of BVI, so that we could move on to
Christmas Cove, USVI. We flew our
Spinnaker for the first time ever on the way over, something we have been
wanting to do since our adventure began!
The conditions were right, so we gave it a go...what an awesome sight
:)
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| First Time Using the Asymmetric Spinnaker |
This was our first visit to
Christmas Cove, and it didn't disappoint: the snorkeling was good, but I admit
to a rather hasty hop back into the dinghy after a bit of a scare: I could handle (sort of) the three foot
Barracuda following us about (though I was basically attached to Bill's hip
underwater) but when the large Ray came up from underneath me for a closer
look, I just about walked on water :)
Laugh all you want, but when something that big wants to get close to
me, I am not feeling the love....I did however, manage not to have hysterics
underwater, and to not make my exit so frantic that I attracted everything else
in the cove that may have wanted a look-see, so there!
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| Laurie's Ray, photographed by Bill! |
Alas, all good things must come to an end, at least for some
us, so off we went: St. Thomas was calling, and our guests needed to prepare
for their departure. We are now sitting at the dock at Crown Bay Marina, waiting for (what else?) a repair. While here, I get to enjoy unlimited power and water (for a fee), which means I can take a longer shower, blow dry my hair, and step off the boat to provision.....a luxury! Off to enjoy...
More soon!
