Apr 15–Apr 30 We were back on our own again with a little more time to spend in the Virgin Islands. The first day was a rest day at Nanny Cay. What a splurge to spend a night at a nice marina with electricity, nice showers, reasonably priced laundry and good internet. We got the most out of our time there and moved on. The next stop was Red Hook in St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. The whole purpose of this stop was to shop at K-Mart. It may sound crazy, but you don't know how hard it is to find basic reasonably priced clothes for a growing kid or find things like contact solution. We should have enough on board now to get us back to the States next spring.
While sailing to Red Hook with Frank Wilson (we flew his spinnaker) we caught a good sized king mackeral. This was the first decent fish we have caught in quite a while. We catch more than our share of barracuda but they are'n really safe to eat. It sure was a nice change from chicken and canned food.
While in Red Hook we got an email telling us some friends from the NSA, our sailing club back home, were chartering a boat in the BVI's. Jim took a guess at where they might be and Voila! we found them. Chuck & Sharon and Bill & Sue were at The Bight at Norman Island. Chuck spotted us coming in and the waving and shouting began. They treated us to dinner at Willy T's that night. Thanks guys - pretty nice to have someone take you out on your wedding anniversary (17 years).
We worked our way back to Leverick Bay on Virgin Gorda and waited there for a light wind day to head east to St Maarten again. That's the last long stretch for awhile. From St Maarten there will be shorter day sails heading south. The second time around, St Maarten felt like home. We knew where to find things and still knew a lot of cruisers here. And, the best part was we cught up to Sim and Rosie from Alianna again. It's a lot quieter now that the Heineken Regatta is over and high tourist season is almost over. We'll settle back in here for awhile, rest and reprovision and make any repairs that need to be done before heading south.
Apr 5–Apr 15 Cruising the BVI's with Jim and Rose At last, the day we'd been waiting for. Our friends Jim & Rose, our very first visitors from home, arrived today. We were anchored outside Nanny Cay waiting for them. Jim Gay spotted a Fast Ferry from St Thomas around 10am and within a minute we heard, "Opus, Opus, Opus, this is Chatham County Boy", on the VHF radio. It was Jim Woodward on his hand held radio from the ferry. It was real, they were really here.
Within the hour Jim & Rose were at Nanny Cay. If you think only women get excited and emotional, you should have seen and heard Jim & Jim - quite a reunion. We helped them get their bags and provisions on "Island Beat", the 37' Bavaria they were chartering. Besides their own things, they were laden down with stuff for Opus that we'd had sent to Jim's address: new T-shirts for Jim, swim suits for Linda and Jennifer, new seals for the pressure cooker, a new computer and a lot of misc. stuff that's much easier to find in the US than here. After the boat was loaded and all the formalities with the charter company were out of the way, we were off for a sail. First stop, The Bight on Normal Island. Rose needed access to a bar with a TV to watch the final game of the NCAA basketball championship. Close game, but Duke won.
There was a lot of good food and drink consumed while they were here with lots of shared meals on the boats. Ribs, steaks, pork tenderloins, chicken and spagetti were all on the menu. With new seals for the pressure cooker, Jim precooked the ribs to the point where they fell off the bone before he could get them to the grill. No problem, he just let it all fall off and chopped it up like North carolina BBQ. Yummy! Rose thought to bring a cake mix and frosting and she and Jennifer made a fun-fetti birthday cake for all the March birthday girls. Opus has no oven, so the smell of that cake baking on "Island Beat" was almost as good as the cake itself. At the end of 10 days, there was still food left over, so Opus graciously accepted all the extra food, drink and supplies.
The first big sail was to Leverick Bay on Virgin Gorda. The guys enjoyed the sail, the girls enjoyed the destination. You can't beat this place. There's a nice beach bar with live entertainment some nights and all boaters are welcome to use the pool, showers, laundry and internet. We'd checked the place out last week and decided it was worth coming back. While at Leverick Bay we took a taxi to "The Baths" near Spanish Town. It's hard to describe this place so be sure to check out the pictures. There are huge boulders along the shore that form pools, caves and crevases that you have to walk through to get to the beach. Another highlight of Virgin Gorda was the Mocko Jumbie show on Friday night. We'd seen one of these guys on stilts before, but this was a whole troop of them. They catered to the crowd and had people parading through their legs (stilts). They danced around on their stilts for almost an hour with only a few rests against some roofs for photos with the crowd.
Another night we anchored at Diamond Cay and hiked to the Bubbly Pool where the surf crashes through a break in the rocks and creates some good bubbles in an otherwise quiet shallow pool. We were joined at the pool by a charter boat full of Minnesotans who all sang in the National Lutheran Choir. Linda had a good time visiting with them and getting a fix of Minnesota humor. They said they sang on the boat every day and sure enough we heard them in the anchorage that night - good too! On the hike back from the pool, Jim, Rose and Jennifer saw a mongoose. Remember "Rikki Tikki Tavi"? These guys are for real.
We had to hit some of the famous beach bars on Jost Van Dyke. At Foxy's we found the NSA burgee that Chip and Mike left there last year. We all signed the back side of it and left it for the next NSA folks that come through. Another stop was the Soggy Dollar Bar where we had drinks and relaxed in the hammocks on the beach. Two other pretty anchorages were Cane Garden Bay and Great Harbor on Peter Island. Check out the picture of the inflatable iceberg in Great Harbor. We took time to snorkel in most of the anchogages. Besides the normal corol and fish, Jim & Jim saw a porcupine fish that was pretty interesting. Jennifer made sure Rose saw some Flamingo Tongues on the purple sea fans, one of her favorite things. Jim W. was pretty intent on having a fresh coconut, so Jennifer climbed a tree and helped him get a young one down. Then she beat it on a rock until she got it open for him. She's getting to be a real island girl.
Hey Jim and Rose. thanks for coming out and playing with us. We had a great time.
Apr 1–Apr 4 We left Leverick Bay with a light wind just right for the spinnikar. The next thing we knew there were dozens of large spinnikars behind us. We were in the middle of a race again and hey, there's "Hotel California Too" and the boat with the guys we met at the beach bar last night. It wasn't long before the race boats had passed us and were out of sight. '
"Whales!" shouted Jim. Linda and Jennifer were in the cockpit in a flash hoping they would be able to see the whales too. No problem, they were still visible. In fact we watched them for about 45 minutes - a mother and a young one. This time we got brave, hove to, and motored over closer to them to get a better look. We don't know what kind they were, just that they were huge ane looked like they might have white bellies. Only their backs and tails came out of the water while we watched.
We made a one night stop at Trellis Bay on Tortolla. Linda and Jennifer went to see Tony Snell perform. He's the BVI's version of Benny Hill. At 90 some years old, he's been entertaining people here for over 40 years with his songs and stories. He takes familiar tunes and writes his own crazy lirics that have to do with sailing. Pretty funny guy!
The next day we were in Road Town, Tortolla. Look, there's "Hotel California Too" again. There was another race in the BVI Spring Regatta that day and they invited us to join them for the race social at Nanny Cay that night. There was no avoiding the BVI Spring Regatta, so we might as well join in. We moved Opus and anchored just outside of Nanny Cay Marina, just a short dinghy ride away from all the nightly festivities. We could watch all the race boats come and go each morning and afternoon and feel a part of the regatta.
Easter Sunday we attended a sunrise service on the beach at Nanny Cay. It was the final day of the Spring Regatta. We spend the evening on shore enjoying the music, food and festivities. We said good bye to Captain Steve and his race crew. Tomorrow our first visitors in 1 1/2 years arrive at Nanny Cay. Jim and Rose will be chartering a boat and sailing with us for 10 days.