Thursday: Ilana had a ton of work to do so she settled into that while Aidan got into his schoolwork. Michael set about some boat maintenance tasks – defrosting the fridge, switching the fuel tanks in the dinghy, fixing a few things. Nothing much else – the day flew by. We watched as the beach suddenly filled up with cruise ship passengers (brought in by taxis from Road Town), for a few hours then suddenly they were all gone. Another glorious sunset and it was off to bed. No interesting pictures today, so here’s one of Michael writing this blog!

We’ve got three full days left of our sailing adventure – how will we choose to spend the time?

Wednesday: This morning we moved the boat over to Cane Garden Bay on Tortola’s North shore. We really should have sailed the five miles or so, but Michael’s alter-ego, “The Great Lethargo”, made a guest appearance and announced that it was just too much work first thing in the morning. So, we fired up the Iron Sail and dieseled our way across the water.

Picture a sweeping Caribbean bay, fringed with palm trees and small bars, restaurants and stores on the beach. Steep hillsides rise over five hundred feet and are dotted with the colourfully painted houses of those fortunate enough to call this place their home. Behind its protective reef, the sparkling flat water in the bay plays host to visiting yachts from around the world, while out to sea, other islands laze on the horizon… Well, that’s where we are! Here’s a short video to try to give you a taste:

We spent the afternoon cleaning and organizing, and taking stock of our food provisions and – to be honest – napping! A quick trip ashore for some minor provisions (and cookies), and then dinner on board and early to bed. We were treated to a wonderful sunset, of which our pics don’t do justice:

Tuesday: Today we moved the boat over to White Bay, only a 20 minute motor away from Great Harbour. White Bay has one of the world’s most perfect beaches and is protected behind a shallow reef. The entrance in is narrow and the draft is shallow on the inside – this is true catamaran territory, as you’ll see from the pics/videos. However, we reckoned we knew of a good spot where we could slip in Bojangles and her 6+ foot draft into an 8-10 foot deep part of the bay. We made it through and hooked on to a mooring ball. Michael dove down to check the depth and could see around three feet of water below the keel, so we knew we were okay for a while. Here’s a video of White Bay:

The Soggy Dollar Bar is situated on the beach and so named for the wet dollar bills that they would hang up to dry, after their customers swam ashore from their boats. This is also the birthplace of the Painkiller – so it would have been an insult not to have sampled one or two, right?!

After a quick lunchbreak ashore, we headed back out and returned to Great Harbour again for the afternoon to catch up on work/schoolwork and settle in for the evening.

Sunday evening: Once settled in Little Harbour, we spent the afternoon relaxing though Michael got into some boat maintenance. We thought our water usage was reasonable but Michael thought it was still higher than it should be, considering our conservation efforts. On a boat, pressurized water to the taps and shower is supplied by a pump from the water tank. When a tap is opened and the water pressure drops, the pump senses this and kicks in to maintain water flow. We knew we had some kind of a leak in the water system because the pump would intermittently kick in when nobody was using water – especially evident overnight. It started out being every 30 minutes or so, but the interval began decreasing. So, with this in mind, Michael went to hunt for the leak. After half an hour or so, he found a pinhole leak in the engine room from the hot water supply pipe. It looked small but it was leaking a surprisingly large amount of water. After searching the boat for repair materials, he felt the best solution was to cut out the leaking section and patch it with some spare hose. Job done, no more leak and a quiet water pump all night long!

We had dinner ashore which was nice, but we all got badly bug-bitten by no-see-ums in the sand. Very itchy and uncomfortable.

Monday: After an itchy and scratchy night, we had breakfast then Ilana settled in to some real work while Michael and Aidan got down to some home-schooling. Aidan also began work on his final report for school, titled “Sailboat Electrical Systems”. Around 1:00pm, we headed out to the next bay along – Great Harbour – only about a 30 minute motor away. We grabbed a mooring ball, then Ilana finished her work and we headed ashore for snacks at the famous Foxy’s, and to check out the ‘town’. The town of Great Harbour is just a stretch of beach with a variety of bars, stores and other establishments, as well as a government office and a police station. Nice place! Dinner aboard, then a game of Wizard before bed.

Tuesday: A restless night, especially for Ilana due to the itchy bug bites from the day before and the heat (the cooling breeze died down again overnight). We noticed the water pump cycling again on its own, so Michael went to check it out. Weirdly, he found another pinhole leak in a different water pipe – what are the chances of that? This time, it was deeper inside the engine room, but we found some self-sealing repair tape and this made the job fairly easy. Hopefully this is the end of our water leaks!

The plan today is to dinghy over to the grocery store to get some Benadryl for the bug-bites,the only thing that seems to help. Then, depending in the time, we’ll head over to White Bay to visit the Soggy Dollar Bar and end up in Cane Garden Bay for the night. More on this later!

Thursday: Because we had been unable to visit The Baths on Wednesday, we rented a vehicle and went by road instead. This worked out for the best anyway as it was a dull and rainy day – perfect for a road trip! The vehicle was crazy – a pickup truck with seats and a canopy in the flatbed. At least all 8 of us could fit in it together. Lots of fun driving there in the ‘wrong’ side of the road… The Baths were great – a series of caves formed by piles of massive boulders around the sea shore. We trekked into the caves just like Indiana Jones and had a great time exploring and swimming in underground tide pools. We spent the afternoon at Leverick Bay Resort, then took an evening ferry over to Saba Rock, about 20 minutes, to watch the Tarpon – huge prehistoric fish – being fed, and we also got a nice dinner ourselves, with multiple Painkillers of course!

Friday: We left Leverick Bay and Virgin Gorda and had an amazing sail back to Trellis bay, we hit 7.5 knots on the way! We spent the afternoon relaxing, then dinner at the very good but expensive “The Last Resort”. We got back to the boat after dinner just in time – the skies opened up and we were treated to a spectacular rainstorm, with thunder and lightning all around. We also saw collision between two boats – one moored and another trying to moor in the dark, during a fierce thunderstorm. Nobody was hurt, but the two boats stayed tangled together until the next morning. That’s one of the reasons that nobody sails at night around here.

Saturday: Our last breakfast together with our friends, and also Hayden’s 7th birthday! Ilana made a yummy pancake breakfast, then it was time to ferry them over to the airport and say our goodbyes… Sad to see them go, it’s been great fun… We spent the rest of the day cleaning and tidying, getting laundry done and readying for our next adventures. Got Roti for lunch, lasted until dinner – best value in the BVIs! Saturday night, we had an even heavier rainstorm than the previous day. Michael braved it and took a full deck shower complete with soap!

Sunday: Left Trellis early and docked at, Marina Cay. This time we got it perfect the first time, and with just the two of us! We topped off the water tank (we’d used 170 gallons, for 8 people over 7 days), then headed North and West toward Jost Van Dyke. The strange weather continued – virtually no wind and glassy seas. We had to motor the whole way. Stopped at Sandy Cay, a real desert island! Then on to Little Harbour for the night…

Note: We’ve added text now, pics and videos to come over the next while – so check back soon!

Sunday night:  We met our friends Andy and Shelagh and their three kids at Beef Island Airport.  The airport is amazingly situated – a whole 3 minute walk from the Trellis Bay anchorage where we were moored.  It is great to have them with us…. It is like having an instant party wherever we go – they are great fun!! It is a bit of a tight fit in the boat with 8 of us now and we have had to make some adjustments…. Like not walking around in our undies (or less) in the heat of the day.  And boy has it been HOT! Hotter than it had been thus far…  I am sure you feel sorry for us now!!

Monday:  We all had breakfast aboard, then we had most of our provisioning order delivered to the dock while the kiddies and some of the grownups played on the beach.  Back at the boat, we slipped our mooring and headed across the bay to Marina Cay to dock and take on diesel and water for the boat.   After the third attempt, Ilana succeeded in docking the 50 foot boat on the 55 foot dock.  All topped up, we headed out to our first destination – The Bight on Norman Island.  The Bight has a lovely beach and a beach bar with pails of Piña Colada…. Or as Andy called them “Pail O’Colada”..

Tuesday:  Right after breakfast, we moved the boat only about a quarter mile around a headland to Treasure Point – a collection of caves in sheer cliff faces which offer superb snorkeling.  Real pirate booty was discovered here years ago!  After snorkeling for ages, we got back on board and sailed over to our next stop, Cooper Island, where we moored up for the night.  More great snorkeling here too!  The night was finally a bit cooler but being in the boat was like riding a roller coaster (okay a mini one) in the rolly anchorage.  Ilana remembered that it was a rolly anchorage from years before but figured that it was likely an anomaly because none of the guidebooks mentioned it.  Guess it is not just an anomaly.  Michael raised the mizzen sail around 3:30am and this helped a lot with the rolling.

Wednesday:  Awoke before dawn to make a dash across the Sir Francis Drake Channel to The Baths – a formation of giant volcanic boulders at the southern end of Virgin Gorda.  We had to get there early because there are only limited mooring balls and they are usually all taken early in the morning.  We thought we were in luck when we arrived and no boats were there yet, but the warning flags on the beach and the heavy swell told us that it was not safe to moor the boat, let alone attempt a landing by dinghy.  Not a problem, but a nuisance as we had to be up at 5:30am to get there!  We set sail instead for Leverick Bay, in Gorda Sound.  We had a great sail there and moored in time for an early lunch.

The afternoon was spent quite happily at the Leverick Bay Resort, watching the kids swim in the freshwater pool and drinking Painkillers (a lethal combination of dark rum, pineapple, coconut and orange juice with a sprinkle of nutmeg).  Then we all watched the Happy Arrrr pirate show before heading back to the boat for the night – more on this to come…

Hi everyone – sorry no posts for a couple of days. Everything is great, just no internet access to speak of for the last 48 hours or so. Big post coming up, hopefully tonight…

On Saturday morning, we decided to leave Biras Creek and head back to Trellis Bay. We’re meeting friends at the airport – just steps from the beach at Trellis – on Sunday evening. We headed out of Gorda Sound, carefully through the reef, and into open ocean. We had a great sail for a couple of hours, in fact it was a perfect sailing day. Imagine moving the best part of 20 tons of boat through the water at 5-6 knots under wind power alone!

As we neared our destination the skies turned dark and the wind picked up. We thought we were in for a big storm but it mostly passed away from us. Still, we reefed the mainsail and jib and eventually dropped all sail as we decided to take a shortcut through a narrow pass between Scrub Island and Great Camanoe, directly past Marina Cay and into Trellis Bay. Ultimately it was an uneventful trip but we were worried for a while.

Later in the evening, a short heavy rain passed over – always a good opportunity for a deck shower! Michael sneaked ashore and bought himself another (amazingly good) chicken roti…

It was a hot night and difficult to sleep. Usually the trade wind blows fairly consistently 12-15 knots at this time of year, day and night. The last few days have been weird, with times of no wind and flat calm seas, especially in the anchorages. Most boats down here have their deck hatches opening forward to scoop in the wind and usually this works very well, keeping the interior cool and dry. On Saturday night there was almost no wind so it was really hot inside.
Sunday morning we woke late, and got to work cleaning the boat in preparation for our guests. Then Aidan and Michael took a load of laundry over to Marina Cay by dinghy…

So far it has been very sunny and the solar panel has been doing its finest. A bit of breeze too, so the wind generator is also operating. For much of the day we were actually gaining power!

Oh, and the observant among you will notice that the sail covers aren’t on in the picture above – Michael did that right after taking this shot!

Friday was a day of catching up on some things that needed attention. The engine repairs seem to be holding up fine, and an odd day for these parts – almost no wind and lots sun. Nice for play, but not so good for our wind generator. The solar panel is doing its thing but we needed to run the engine to charge the batteries before dinner.

Michael and Aidan installed a new cabin light in the v-berth as part of Aidan’s school work (electricity), and Ilana put in a few hours of real work. Then we all took a quick dip in the sea to cool off. Michael snorkelled over to the mangroves at the edge of the bay and saw some nice coral, thousands of tiny fish and a sea cucumber! Forgot the camera though, so no pics but the picture below shows the shoreline.

On the way back, Michael lost his snorkel to the deep. Who makes a snorkel that doesn’t float?

In the evening we went ashore and ordered dinner to go from Fat Virgin Cafe – Mmmmm, Roti! Brought the food back to the boat and had dinner-and-a-movie, our feature presentation “The Three Amigos”. During the movie, we were visited by a huge bug. The thing was enormous – a monstrous flying beetle thing about 3 inches long with antennae about the same length again! We finally caught it in a glass and set it free. Did I mention that it was huge? Easily a foot long. We were happy it was gone but worried that it might come back and steal the dinghy. It must have been the size of a Volkswagen. At least. Here’s the pic we took – I’m telling you, it was the size of a house:

Yesterday was fairly relaxed and peaceful to begin with. We moved the boat a short distance from Leverick Bay to Biras Creek, a small bay adjacent to Bitter End Yacht Club and Saba Rock, at the East end of Virgin Gorda’s North Sound. We’d heard about a fabulous place where we could get the best roti in the BVIs. We dinghied over to the lovely Fat Virgin Café and had an amazing roti lunch! After eating we dinghied directly over to Saba Rock to enjoy a swift Piña Colada and check out their aquarium, complete with sea cucumber (or as Aidan calls it, nature’s super soaker – don’t ask why or how he knows this!).

We headed back to the boat to make an early dinner and when we got back aboard, we noticed the batteries were a little low. Normally we find that we get enough power for our needs from the wind generator and the solar panel, but today was cloudy and almost windless. That’s no problem though, as all we need to do is run the engine for about an hour to top up the batteries. We started up, and Aidan said he thought he heard an odd noise. We checked it out and that’s when we discovered…..

…a new water feature in the engine room! We shut down immediately to check it out and the gusher died down to a steady trickle. Turns out that a hose clamp had snapped just behind the raw water pump and the engine was diverting a large quantity of its cooling water and spraying it all over the engine room. It was hard to reach but not too difficult to replace the clamp and the leak stopped immediately.

But wait, there’s more…! We also noticed a slight burning rubbery smell in the engine room. We checked everything and it seems to have been related to a frayed and about-to-fail alternator belt. Fortunately, there was a spare belt onboard and easy enough to replace.

So, it’s now Friday morning and all seems to be well. We’re running the engine again to charge up as there’s almost no wind but plenty of sunshine for the solar panel, and no more leaks!

Here are a few pictures:

And here’s a short video of wild Tarpon who gather off the dock at Saba Rock each afternoon for feeding time. They are around 4-5 feet long…