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Here are some pictures.
Fri, Dec 6th - leave Road Harbor, Tortola at 1230, spend 1st night anchored at The Bight on Norman Island. Snorkel that afternoon in The Caves near Treasure Pt. Cook makes broiled fish dinner.
Sat, Dec 7th - leave around 0930 and sail 'round the south-east corner of Norman Island, getting into some mild swells as we sail the south ends of Norman and Peter Islands. We pass Carrot Rk (yes, it looks like a carrot on it's side), and sail up the far east side of Peter Island. We anchor at Dead Man's Bay for lunch and some swimming.
Around 1530 we depart for Cooper Island where we spend the night double-anchored. Skipper donned scuba gear to check integrity of both anchors. Crew dined at Cooper Island Beach Club that night.
Sun, Dec 8th This morning we motor to two dive spots - The Rhone and the Inganess Bay located off Salt Island. Crew members have an opportunity to demonstrate mooring skills from the helm. There are three other boats moored at The Rhone, a popular spot. We also fed the fish with stale bread from the aft deck of our boat. We had sandwiches after the dive, then sailed into Sir Francis Drake Channel and into Virgin Gorda Yacht Club where we docked for the night at Spanish Town.
Have dinner at The Bath & Turtle restaurant that night and dance to the music of a local band - great vocalists!!
Mon, Dec 9th The morning is spent with housekeeping chores ... laundry , showers, bard shopping and filling our water tanks. All 3 were empty, Probably because one of us was a water hog. At 1030 we took a cab with crew members from "My Be Sea" to The Baths where we snorkled. Fabulous coral and fish. Our open air taxi then took us to Copper Mine Pt. where we saw the remnants of an 1860's copper mine.
We left Spanish Town at 1600 and sailed to Marina Cay between Beef and Scrub Islands. We anchored there for the night and dined on board OPALLY (our boat). Our skipper and a crew member enjoyed some Painkillers at the Pussers Rum Landing before dinner. The seas that night were a bit rocky ... no swells ... just a constant rocking back and forth.
Tues, Dec 10th We sailed out of the harbor this morning headed for The Dogs to do some snorkeling and diving. Around 1030 we caught a mooring buoy at West Dog where just about everyone jumped in the water. We had hot dogs on board for lunch.
After leaving the mooring we sailed around the north end of The Dogs toward our destination Gorda Sound. The 2.5 hour sail included riding out a small storm ... no rain that I can remember but we got a great ride from the increased winds. I think the top speed we clocked was 8.5 kts. We pulled into Gorda Sound around 1730, moored, showered and attended the group dinner at the Bitter End Yacht Club dining room. Great buffet!
Wed, Dec 11th Again we did chores this morning, grocery shopping and filling up with fresh water. Notice -- a big storm had moved in, which made seas rough and cut out our planned trip to Anegada.
Around 1100 we left our dingy tied to the mooring buoy and spent the next several hours doing maneuvers and drills in Gorda Sound (MOB, docking and backing up). Our skipper donned his wet suit and hopped into the water for a real MOB drill. We notice he took the horseshoe with him to fend off boats.
With drills completed at 1400, we picked up our dingy and sailed out of Gorda Sound bound for that nights' destination Marina Cay. We anchored at Marina Cay at sunset and bar-b-qued our dinner.
Thurs, Dec 12th We pulled up anchor this morning and headed for Jost Van Dyke. Our initial plan to sail through a small passage on the south -west side of Great Camanoe Island. This was scrubbed when we encountered 10 foot waves. So we alerted other Spinnaker Sailing boats and proceed to sail around the east side of this island headed north. Rounding the northern most point, we headed west for Jost Van Dyke. The seas were still turbulent from the storm so we dealt with 15-20 foot swells during our run westward. The extra wind and following seas made the trip a short one.
We rounded Sandy Cay on the approach to Jost Van Dyke, and then motored into Little Harbor where we moored on the west side of the bay around 1400. We quickly hopped in the dingy and motored over to Abe's for a lunch of bar-b-qued ribs and cole slaw, washed down by a couple Carib and Red River beers. A local man motored to our boat with hand- crafted jewelry for sale. Crew spent the afternoon puttering around the boat, then 'dressed' for dinner. The plan was to eat dinner at Sidney's Peace & Love (of T-shirt fame) but it was closed for the night. Instead we had lobster salad at Harris' on the west side of the harbor.
Fri, Dec 13th This morning after a cereal breakfast we sailed over to Sandy Cay for a look at this 'picture postcard island.' Since the First Mate (Fran) didn't want to snorkel onto the beach we took our dingy. What a mistake! As we tried to land the waves came across the port side throwing a crew member out of the boat, while Joel busied himself looking for one of his thongs. No one was hurt and we ended up pulling the dingy up on the sand and securing it for brief visit. The island is uninhabited and the size of a city block. Certainly was beautiful!
As we pulled up anchor to leave Sandy Cay a crew member sustained an injury to their left hand. So we motored over to Sopers Hole on Tortola (a 40-minute ride) to seek medical help. That afternoon several crew members stayed on Tortola and the others sailed OPALLY over to the Indians near Norman Island for some diving with the crew of My Be Sea. We spent the night moored at Sopers Hole and dined at the Pussers Rum Landing where crew members 'howled' at the band from the boat. The crew member with the injured hand was, thereafter, known as "the injured sailor" and was required to drink heavily.
Sat, Dec 14th We sailed out of Sopers Hole, Tortola around 1100 and headed for Little Harbor on Peter Island. We anchored here around 1400, careful to keep our anchor and rode off the beautiful coral formations. The crew dove around the boat for several hours, then enjoyed a couple beers on the aft deck. Our cook bar-b-qued hamburgers for dinner and we went to sleep with the sounds of rustling leaves from the nearby shore. This area seemed to have a lot of brown pelicans that were diving night and day for their dinner.
Sun, Dec 15th We took our time getting up today, the last day on the water. We left Little Harbor around 1030 and sailed on jib alone across the channel to Road Harbor and The Moorings Marina. We pulled into Dock B at the Moorings around 1130. After unloading our gear we brought out the bottle of chilled Dom Perion for a celebration. Bob Diamond joined us for this drink.
